Homecoming Server Update (September 12th): CoC Updates, Base Building Contest, Dev Choice

[Jimmy]

Hello everyone!

 

Several things to go over today, so let's dive in.

 

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Code of Conduct Updates
We’ve made some updates to two sections of the Code of Conduct (CoC).

 

These updates are primarily clarifications on how we already operate.

• We already moderate for heated political discussion, and this is already covered by “Anything involving controversial real-world individuals or organisations” and “Anything involving sensitive events, both current and historical”, but we thought clarifying it in the Content Guidelines would be helpful with election season heating up in the US.
• We've added a paragraph discussing wasting volunteer time. This is already taken very seriously - if you re-create a character that was reset, you will receive an account suspension. This is now clearly spelled out in the Violations & Enforcement section.
• Finally, we very frequently get asked why players never see any consequences of reports - it’s because we don’t discuss it with anyone but the player in question. You don’t see if another player is warned, or if they receive a short suspension. We've added a paragraph explaining this.

Quote

Content Guidelines
The following is considered prohibited content:

• [...]
• Controversial and adult content, including:
  • [...]
  • [New] Controversial political content
  • [...]

Quote

Violations & Enforcement
To report any violations please open a ticket in-game (with /petition) or on our support site. If it is an emergency, please DM one of the Game Masters on our Discord.

 

Any violation of this Code of Conduct may result in the following actions:

• The removal of your character’s name, costume, or description
• Deletion of your character, supergroup, or Architect mission
• Restrictions placed on your ability to communicate (eg: a chat ban)
• Temporary or permanent suspension from our servers

[New] Depending on the seriousness of the violation, you may initially just receive a warning. Repeated offences, however, will result in more serious consequences.

 

A specific point to be aware of is wasting volunteer time. If your character is reset, or you are asked to stop breaking a rule, and the behavior continues (for example, if a character is simply recreated) and we're required to spend more time resolving it, the consequences will generally be much more severe.

 

Please also be aware that if you report another player we will not discuss the actions that we take against them (if any) with you. Any actions taken are only discussed with the player in question and are considered confidential unless that player requests otherwise.

 

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Base Building Contest (Deadline: October 31st)
We’re excited to announce our first ever Base Building Contest!

 

This contest has no theme, alignment or shard requirement. All bases are welcome, and there’s tons of prizes to be won (14,000 merits in total!). The submission deadline is October 31st, and bases must be entered by the Supergroup leader.

 

Head on over to GM Miss’ post for the full details. We can’t wait to see your bases!

 

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New Dev Choice Arcs in Architect Entertainment
We’ve recently highlighted two more Dev Choice arcs in Architect Entertainment:

• Dark Deeds in Galaxy City: Part One (Arc ID 26756) by @Darmian: “Galaxy City lies in ruins. Parts still burn. So many casualties in the attack.  So many refugees.  And there in the heart of the fire, taking advantage of the situation rather than helping, Arachnos.  And now, moving through the rubble they return, seeking something.”
• Robolution (Arc ID 25870) by @Ankylosaur: "Orb Weaver Zane has left you a message. He wants to speak with you about a mission to recover stolen Arachnos technology.  It's never a good idea to ignore an Orb Weaver, is it? (This takes place after the events of the Ernesto Hess Task Force.) [SFMA] Designed to be soloed with provided allies.“

 

Check out GM Arcanum's post for the full details, as well as information about submitting your own arcs for consideration.

 

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Monthly Costume Contest: Magic (September 19th)
Come join us on Saturday September 19th at 5pm Eastern (9pm UTC) in Kallisti Wharf on all shards for the conclusion of our origin themed costume contests. This month the theme is Magic!

 

As usual, a myriad of prizes will be up for grabs - check out GM Miss' post for the full details.

 

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Smol Kickball - With a Twist! (September 19th)
GM Smol is hosting an Arena Kickball event just after the Magic Costume Contest, at 8pm Eastern (Midnight UTC).

 

Here’s a brief overview for those new to Smol Kickball:

On 9/4/2020 at 6:04 AM, GM Smol said:

If you're unfamiliar with Smol KB, it's an organized 8v8 team PvP event hosted in the arena. Along with our main focus of helping new/returning PvP'ers learn the ropes in the arena, we hold costume contests, bio contests and have several ways of opportunity to win a variety of prizes! 

Are you a new or returning PvPer? Never PvP'd before but would like to learn? Come on out to Smol KB hosted in Pocket D on Indomitable (the unofficial PvP server). The purpose of Smol Kickball is to provide a welcoming environment to casual and experienced PvPers to have fun, compete, and share knowledge in a low-stakes setting. 

Check out GM Smol’s post for the full details!

 

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Helping Homecoming
After every donation window we’re not only taken aback by the generosity of our players that contribute, but also by the number of you that tell us you weren’t able to donate before the window closed.

 

With that in mind, we wanted to remind everyone that there are other ways to help the project which are just as valuable as donating, including volunteering as a Game Master, helping out with testing (especially with Page 6 around the corner!), or boosting our Discord server.

 

Check out this post for the full details, including information on becoming a Game Master.

 

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And that’s all for today!

 

- The Homecoming Team
 

[GM Miss]

So many fun things! 😍

[@T3h Ish]

Looking forward to the base contest. I've been working for a looooong time on a project.

Page 6? Can't wait for that either, hopefully soon so that I might play-test it a bit.

Edited September 12, 2020 by @T3h Ish
Addendum

[Blackbird71]

"Controversial political content"

 

I'm not really sure how helpful of a clarification that is.  Any political content could be considered controversial; it just depends on who you ask.  It might be easier and more straightforward to ban all real-world political content to save time and headaches.

[Sovera]

No actual updates, sniff.

 

Also, dunno if it just me but:

 

[FoulVileTerror]

 

Does refreshing do you any good?  Not sure which browser you are on, but try Ctrl+F5

[Sovera]

Latest mozilla, control + F5 doesn't do a thing. Not important for me and if no one else complains then it's all good.

[GM Tock]

26 minutes ago, Sovera said:

Latest mozilla, control + F5 doesn't do a thing. Not important for me and if no one else complains then it's all good.

It's a Chrome world, I feel your pain.  (Also a Firefox user, same issue.)

Both videos are 5 sec long.

[Greycat]

48 minutes ago, Sovera said:

Latest mozilla, control + F5 doesn't do a thing. Not important for me and if no one else complains then it's all good.

Same thing, also on the newest mozilla.

[FoulVileTerror]

I mean, Ctrl+F5 was a thing back in, like IE6 or earlier, at the very least.  I had just been under the impression that most other browsers adopted the command as well based on my terrible memory.

[GM Tock]

1 hour ago, FoulVileTerror said:

I mean, Ctrl+F5 was a thing back in, like IE6 or earlier, at the very least.  I had just been under the impression that most other browsers adopted the command as well based on my terrible memory.

It's alright, we're not faulting the advice...

 

Heck, it's in the forum source:

Quote

<!-- If you're on Firefox then this is terribly broken. Blame Mozilla. -->

 

[Razmane]

I would like to ask for a clarification on "wasting volunteers time with deleting a character that was reset." 

 

Mostly about what reset means. I have a tendency to recreate characters until I get them just right and I want to make sure I don't do this. 

[Neogumbercules]

27 minutes ago, Razmane said:

I would like to ask for a clarification on "wasting volunteers time with deleting a character that was reset." 

 

Mostly about what reset means. I have a tendency to recreate characters until I get them just right and I want to make sure I don't do this. 

I believe he's referring to a character that is "generic'd" because the name is offensive or a copyright violation. 

 

If you have a character, Cycl0pz, who has a costume and powerset that looks exactly like a certain world famous comic book character, there's a chance that a GM might reset your character's name and appearance. 

 

If you then go and redo your costume and rename yourself CiKl0pz, then you are setting yourself to get moderated again, therefore wasting a GMs time because you didn't learn your lesson the first time. 

 

The fact that people were even doing this shouldn't surprise me, but here we are! 

Edited September 13, 2020 by Neogumbercules

[Rathulfr]

On 9/12/2020 at 8:13 PM, Razmane said:

I would like to ask for a clarification on "wasting volunteers time with deleting a character that was reset." 

 

Mostly about what reset means. I have a tendency to recreate characters until I get them just right and I want to make sure I don't do this. 

 

If you make a copyrighted or offensive character, and the GMs decide to reset it to a "generic" character (plain one-color costume or generic name) as part of a disciplinary action, you can't just turn around and re-make the same character by loading the saved costume file again or renaming it back again.  Apparently, some people don't understand that they're not free to keep breaking the rules a second time after being told not to break them the first time.

 

Edited September 14, 2020 by Rathulfr

[MikosKitty]

I probably should do some finishing touches to my base :)

Thank you about the CoC rules ^5

[alittlesoupy]

Again tell me why you can't keep someone from rping with a character who's sixteen? After you've been sent proof they said they were old enough to get wasted and laid? And you did nothing about it. What kind of community is this?

[Abraxus]

6 minutes ago, alittlesoupy said:

Again tell me why you can't keep someone from rping with a character who's sixteen? After you've been sent proof they said they were old enough to get wasted and laid? And you did nothing about it. What kind of community is this?

An all volunteer community that doing the best it can to do the things that a fully funded, employee-based organization would do.  Thousands of players, multiple shards to oversee, and perhaps a dozen GMs.  I can assure you, they are doing the best they can. But, nobody's perfect.  So, cut them some slack, or volunteer to join their team, and help out.  Assuming that they don't care is not helpful at all.

[FoulVileTerror]

@alittlesoupy, I recommend you bring up that particular type of concern with a GM directly in private.  Airing something like that out in public has a a poor track record.

[arcane]

On 9/12/2020 at 4:12 PM, Blackbird71 said:

"Controversial political content"

 

I'm not really sure how helpful of a clarification that is.  Any political content could be considered controversial; it just depends on who you ask.  It might be easier and more straightforward to ban all real-world political content to save time and headaches.

Absolutely agreed. I recall a lot of arguments this summer in which some players were erroneously claiming a three word political activism slogan was not political at all. The GM’s shouldn’t be leaving room here for players to get away with these discussions by making nonsensical subjective arguments to subvert the rules.

[Razmane]

On 9/13/2020 at 4:34 PM, Rathulfr said:

 

If you make a copyrighted or offensive character, and the GMs decide to reset it to a "generic" character (plain one-color costume or generic name) as part of a disciplinary action, you can't just turn around and re-make the same character by loading the saved costume file again or renaming it back again.  Apparently, some people don't understand that they're not free to keep breaking the rules a second time after being told not to break them the first 

Thank you. 

[alittlesoupy]

12 hours ago, Abraxus said:

An all volunteer community that doing the best it can to do the things that a fully funded, employee-based organization would do.  Thousands of players, multiple shards to oversee, and perhaps a dozen GMs.  I can assure you, they are doing the best they can. But, nobody's perfect.  So, cut them some slack, or volunteer to join their team, and help out.  Assuming that they don't care is not helpful at all.

Volunteering to be a GM isn't an answer to multiple tickets being made by multiple people. Just being told "deal with it or be a GM" is a cop out.

[Abraxus]

23 minutes ago, alittlesoupy said:

Volunteering to be a GM isn't an answer to multiple tickets being made by multiple people. Just being told "deal with it or be a GM" is a cop out.

Then feel free to exercise the other option, and cut them some slack from not being on duty 24x7, and on top of every issue thousands of players can manifest, immediately.  If you submitted a ticket, it will be taken care of.

[CaptainLupis]

9 hours ago, alittlesoupy said:

Volunteering to be a GM isn't an answer to multiple tickets being made by multiple people. Just being told "deal with it or be a GM" is a cop out.

If multiple tickets by multiple people aren't being dealt with as there literally aren't enough GMs to deal with them all, then volunteering to help them out seems a very valid answer to me.

[Jimmy]

On 9/15/2020 at 2:38 PM, alittlesoupy said:

Again tell me why you can't keep someone from rping with a character who's sixteen? After you've been sent proof they said they were old enough to get wasted and laid? And you did nothing about it. What kind of community is this?

Firstly, from the CoC:

Quote

Please also be aware that if you report another player we will not discuss the actions that we take against them (if any) with you. Any actions taken are only discussed with the player in question and are considered confidential unless that player requests otherwise.

So I'm not going to comment on any specific case. And beyond my comment below, I won't be discussing this any further as there isn't any more I can say without talking about a specific case.

 

What I will say is that if they were simply engaging in normal roleplaying with a character that happened to be sixteen, then that's not against the Code of Conduct. Comic books have sixteen-year-olds in them. This is a comic book game.

 

However, if they were engaging in... behaviour that actually violated the Code of Conduct? Then, yeah, they would've been smacked. We take those reports very, very seriously.

[FoulVileTerror]

I appreciate your reply here, @Jimmy, other than one seriously contentious point:

"This is a comic book game."

 

But that's not really the topic of this particular thread . . . so, mayhaps I should get around to my fourth attempt at composing my thoughts on that subject.

 

In any event; thanks for taking the time to provide your message regarding the sensitive matter brought up here!