Best Of

There are so many cans of worms writhing in this rollercoaster of a discussion that it's almost not worth to participate but at the same time I do believe it's important to air this out because it'll otherwise fester.

I should clarify that I don't particular care about this OOC Bamathis uproar. I respect the feelings of the people that got upset by the imagery, whether it hit too close to home or not and while I personally don't agree with them, I do like that they got to exercise their right to complain to the admin and actually get a public admin response and clarification.
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Separate topic: I think the in-game ambiguity and contradictory viewpoints on either side is an intentional design to perpetuate the conflict. Which is a good thing! If the themes still bother people OOCly, you should try to remember that you have the option of not participating. Even if you're in leadership, you can always delegate the content to aides or "special task force Ministers" to deal with content not to your liking.

I've asked this before of staff/admin, and never gotten an answer, but what is the best way for players to criticize systems and elements of the game that are perceived of as harmful without irreversibly hurting the feelings of the unpaid workers who made those things?

There are various avenues to contribute to Aetolia as a whole. If it's a general concept or idea, the IDEA system exists. Although we are slower to go through those, we do try and have an 'Idea Day' every so often to go through the list, generally those widely supported (even if none of you have used polygamy yet... shakefist).

If you have constructive criticism about storylines, or a God's current RP, or anything community related and you think it's too heavy for a volunteer because it's harsh (albeit true) then e-mail Tiur. If it's constructive criticism that is healthy, then create a forum thread to open it for discussion. Or engage with the God ICly to get a deeper understanding of them. Most, if not all, of our volunteers welcome the opportunity to roleplay with the community to spread a deeper understanding of their role.

If it's downright mean, you should reflect on what exactly you're criticizing. Is it your hurt feelings, or genuinely something you think is a detriment to the game? If the latter, it loops back to e-mailing Paid Staff.

All of us, volunteers and paid staff alike all understand that criticism is part of the role. What our volunteers should not have to endure is the toxicity around their role due to emotions running opinions instead of clear logic and a genuine interest in X topic.

Due to a mixture of both this situation and an unfortunate situation within the Pools, I decided it was going to be infinitely easier for me and my enjoyment to leave.

I just want to highlight something I want to think is particularly important here, especially with what's been going on lately.

Volunteers are here giving up their /free time/ to make the game more enjoyable for you all, because they enjoy doing it. They're certainly not compensated in any other way for this (and that's a discussion far above the paygrade of both myself and Tiur unfortunately) so their enjoyment and your reactions to what they're doing is the only thing they're getting out of doing essentially free service for us.

With that in mind, I know there's complaints on both sides of the game about Gods being frequently inactive, so I just want to ask for a bit of self-reflection: would someone enjoy giving up their free time to roleplay at you? We don't expect either ourselves or volunteers to be above criticism. But, sometimes, there are far, far, FAR better ways of going about it.

We (paid staff) aren't blameless in this either, and I'm not trying to shift any blame away from us by posting this. But, in my long, over twelve years, history of being a member of this team, volunteers quitting usually comes down to one or two things: They've either stopped enjoying it, or they've had issues with other volunteers/staff. You guys obviously can't do anything about the latter, but you absolutely contribute the most to the former.

If a volunteer isn't enjoying their time volunteering, they're not going to stick around.

p.s. don't forget you can EXPRESS ESTEEM FOR POOLS, or EXPRESS ESTEEM FOR , and it doesn't require one nor use up one of daily esteem votes! Easy way to make a volunteer feel good about themselves.

Real talk. Normally I'd be fine with people holding their own ill-informed opinions. I'd roll my eyes and probably make fun of you a little, but that's it.

After you actively reinforce the notion that a group in game is analogous to Hitler and the Nazi party and players get called white supremacists, however, I find hard to accept "in my experience/perception" as an excuse.

After you cross the line into mounting a campaign against a group of players by literally calling them white supremacists, you can't hide behind the caveat of "in my perception." You've fired shots based on an admitted assumption.

Even if you're not the one who directly called people white supremacists, you still fed into the hysteria among your group of friends, and you played a big part in spreading the hysteria around so that people accept your ill-informed opinions as the gospel truth.

For my part, I responded in anger to people who had legitimate concerns about the symbolism. I'm glad it's been addressed, and I'm sorry for being insensitive. I won't change my stance on the controversy, but I do understand why people feel uncomfortable. I think it's possible to disagree with people without getting nasty, and I made my own assumptions at the start of all this that everyone of the opposing viewpoint was on the extreme end of it. I'm sorry for that.

The supremacist accusations that came from this and the people who propagated and encouraged it for the past few months, though? Grow up.

My job was to create and enhance the stories of players through direct involvement and roleplay, and I tell myself I accomplished that. . 

Time for work now. You guys be good. 

Trager/Hammar 

I'm not going to bother jumping into the overall discussion here. A lot has been said about it already and I don't have anything meaningful to add that hasn't been said. I just want to say this, directed at you, Trager; this is what you set out to do, and you damn well accomplished it. The time you spent as Bamathis has changed things for many characters and enhanced their stories in ways that wouldn't have otherwise happened, and this is most definitely a good thing.