vile trash

[Boudicia.Dark]

First let me say to the devs, as a player who runs more dark power characters than is probably healthy, THANK YOU for page 6, freekin' awesome yall! That out of the way, on to the real reason for my post. I'm not feeling very well so did not log into the game until around 8pm EST last night. Like everyone else, I was surprised to see all the babies but after a few minutes, I started to be amused by them (as long as I wasn't parked next to any doors, I could not bear seeing the dead babies). Since I was in Atlas Park and because I always make a particular announcement whenever I am there, I had the tab open that shows "local", "broadcast", "help" and now "general".

 

I'm no prude and irl I talk like a truck driving sailor but what I saw in that "general" channel turned my stomach. Apparently, people were using the toy bat to beat on Ms Liberty and saying the most vile, hateful, violent stuff in general chat, I was shocked. It went on and on and so many people were participating in that type of ugly speech (ALL of it focusing on raping Ms Liberty), I could not keep up with people to put on ignore (each with a note and rating so I will always know to steer clear).

 

I am a hardcore player of this game, I was back before and I am now, hell now that I am disabled and always home anyway, I am even MORE hardcore. I join and make teams, I participate in all content, I love this game. I always feel safe, feel part of things, it's just a special and personally important space for me. Last night was the first time Ive ever been in the game and felt none of those positive emotions, I felt the opposite. I tried, for a while, to divert the general into some absurdist roleplay around the babies but even that brought out people's very ugly side. Repeated threats of violence towards those silly babies.

 

The ugliness towards Ms Liberty in particular was so overwhelming and pervasive in the general chat I knew there was no point in asking for in-game support. I even know there isn't really a point to making this post except to say I found that all so disturbing and bewildering. Of course I opened a different tab so I wouldnt see that stuff and I just accept that moving forward, "general" = "garbage" and I'll just avoid it all together. I'm a 53 year old married lesbian who altogether (before and now) has played this game (and only this mmo) for 8 years and I have no idea why people would talk like that. I put a shitload of people on ignore last night, I reckon that might even impinge my teaming opportunities but if I'm going to keep being here, I'll do what I have to to be safe. I'm one woman, I'm asking you devs to help in some way.

 

Thank you for bringing the City back, I am forever grateful for every day I get to fly again.

 

 

 

 

 

[This may not be exactly the right place for this post but it felt right to me.]

[Neiska]

While i have no direct knowldge of how homecoming works, I have been involved as a staff member in other online games, so I will provide what i can -

 

If you report X person for Y activity, the common procedure was to pull logs for serious offenses, meaning they can see an entire transcript of what you observed, not just what you said or what y person said, but an entire length of dialogue from X time to Y time in Z channel.

 

Again, I have no idea if homecoming operates in the same manner, but it wouldnt suprise me if it did. So I would still urge some report action to be done, especially if it was several. While most policies are a staff wont tell you what the direct impact or results were, more often than not your report will affect more than a single instance, especially if its eregious such as this case.

 

Bare in mind thats just my opinion and is in no way affiliated with homecoming or how they run things, just how it used to go down when i was a staff member for a different game. Something would get reported, logs would be pulled, and often would persue action against many people all at once.

 

But thats logs of dialogue. I cant speak for "swatting mrs liberty with an emote" sort of action, even if such things are against the ToS. But i still urge you to report things where you see it, and you have the option to leave leave a channel if you find you dont like using it.

 

Best wishes

[MunkiLord]

What you're describing is gross. From my observations, the GMs are super quick to act(assuming one is immediately available), and I've also heard that saying something in the help or general portion of the HC Discord can get results.

[AboveTheChemist]

I don't know if I was there at the exact same time or not, but I saw the chatter about folks getting together to hit Ms. Liberty with the foam bat and came over from Ouro to see what it was about. And for the record I only observed, I did not participate, either in chat or in the activity. While I did not see the extreme type of language the OP mentioned (specifically, I saw no mention of rape, but that's not to say there was none), I will say the chatter in various channels about what was going on was a bit 'coarser' than I typically see in game. And while I don't think anything I saw in chat 'crossed the line' for me personally, I appreciate that it might have 'crossed the line' for other folks.

 

I (and several others) did notice a GM hovering over the proceedings, perhaps summoned by someone who did lodge a complaint. It's entirely possible that, by the time I got there, folks knew they were being watched and had toned down the language.

 

I don't have screenshots but I do log all chat channels if that would be of any help. This was on Everlasting, by the way, and I recall seeing someone with the same character name as the OP posting in LFG a short while later (to take down Eochai, if memory serves), so I have a feeling the OP is on Everlasting as well. If that is not the case, then please disregard.

[ZacKing]

This isn't some isolated incident thing.  It was going on for hours last night on Torchbearer as well.  Lag in AP was godawful because of it, not to mention the crap being typed in chat.  These foam bats were a really bad idea IMO.

[fitzsimmons]

You can't control how anyone behaves.  Are regular bats a bad idea?  What about skimpy outfits?  People are going to ruin everything.  This is just the latest thing.

 

Hopefully "cancel culture" doesn't fuck things up.  Just ignore it.  Remove the channel from the tab for the time being and move on.

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

Talking about rape most certainly will get someone a chat ban if you report it. Do not think oh there is no point, if you see people talking about raping an NPC in public chat that is still most certainly worth reporting.

 

While once upon a time using the word rape in phrases like we sure raped that boss was seen as acceptable that era is in the past where it belongs along with the rest of the archaic toxic terminology.

[Snarky]

I was a us navy sailor at 17. I am a truck driver irl right now.  Semi truck in heavy metro traffic.  I “talk” like a truck driver.  Really have to hang with just the rough crowd at church events lol

 

when i see vile stuff i report it.  There is a way to do that easily in WoW. I use that a lot sigh. One if the reasons i dont go there much

 

i have not seen hardly anything that rises to that on the Homecoming. Servers. If anything my off color remarks tend to be about as bad as it gets.  
 

hopefully what you saw was just an anomaly and not a trend. 

[Jaguaratron]

I couldnt care less about your age or preferences, your point should stand without you reeling off a list of "tick boxes", but the whole addition of general channel has been a disaster of biblical proportions as people seem to think it means anything goes and its unmoderated. It doesnt add anything to the game at all, they may as well have called it the 4chan channel, idiotic choice to add this to the game.

[Boudicia.Dark]

2 hours ago, AboveTheChemist said:

I don't know if I was there at the exact same time or not, but I saw the chatter about folks getting together to hit Ms. Liberty with the foam bat and came over from Ouro to see what it was about. And for the record I only observed, I did not participate, either in chat or in the activity. While I did not see the extreme type of language the OP mentioned (specifically, I saw no mention of rape, but that's not to say there was none), I will say the chatter in various channels about what was going on was a bit 'coarser' than I typically see in game. And while I don't think anything I saw in chat 'crossed the line' for me personally, I appreciate that it might have 'crossed the line' for other folks.

 

I (and several others) did notice a GM hovering over the proceedings, perhaps summoned by someone who did lodge a complaint. It's entirely possible that, by the time I got there, folks knew they were being watched and had toned down the language.

 

I don't have screenshots but I do log all chat channels if that would be of any help. This was on Everlasting, by the way, and I recall seeing someone with the same character name as the OP posting in LFG a short while later (to take down Eochai, if memory serves), so I have a feeling the OP is on Everlasting as well. If that is not the case, then please disregard.

Yes, that was me taking down Eochai (and then Jack and then BOOM, Geas of the Kind Ones!)

[Coyotedancer]

1 hour ago, Jaguaratron said:

I couldnt care less about your age or preferences, your point should stand without you reeling off a list of "tick boxes", but the whole addition of general channel has been a disaster of biblical proportions as people seem to think it means anything goes and its unmoderated. It doesnt add anything to the game at all, they may as well have called it the 4chan channel, idiotic choice to add this to the game.

 

It's too soon to tell if this is going to be "the way of things" but... yeah. From what I've seen so far? There are some definite Barrens Chat vibes going on. o_0

[Jimmy]

4 hours ago, Neiska said:

While i have no direct knowldge of how homecoming works, I have been involved as a staff member in other online games, so I will provide what i can -

 

If you report X person for Y activity, the common procedure was to pull logs for serious offenses, meaning they can see an entire transcript of what you observed, not just what you said or what y person said, but an entire length of dialogue from X time to Y time in Z channel.

 

Again, I have no idea if homecoming operates in the same manner, but it wouldnt suprise me if it did. So I would still urge some report action to be done, especially if it was several. While most policies are a staff wont tell you what the direct impact or results were, more often than not your report will affect more than a single instance, especially if its eregious such as this case.

This is exactly how it works here 🙂

We can't be everywhere at once, but will respond to reports as quickly as possible. We are very reliant on (and thankful for) the community helping us in matters like this. In future please report incidents like this as soon as you see them and we'll deal with it.

However, as @Neiska accurately described, we will not discuss disciplinary actions relating to other players unless they choose to make it a public conversation. For that reason, and others, I'm going to lock this thread before it gets out of hand. @Boudicia.Dark please feel free to PM me or submit a support ticket if you wish to discuss this further.