So, Hi, short introduction, this will be my one post in this thread, this will be long, basically a short story at this point, I encourage you to read it all, as I will not get involved in protracted arguments on these forums as it has been the bane of my enjoyment of the game many times before. It will contain advice on how to deal with most complaints I've seen thus far. I have attempted to inject levity into it, but ultimately it is a 4 page rant. And you have been warned.
Onwards to the meat.
First off, if you are OOCly upset or offended by something that happens here, in a game that literally and in almost every aspect, embraces murder, homicide, loss, torture, control, consequences, death, dark, evil, shit, and yes, sometimes sex... You might want to seek to distance yourself from that a bit. As that is a textbook definition of bleed.
There's a few arguments that have no teeth in this thread.
1. An explanation of how we have features to deal with when SIC gets overwhelming, and how you should use them.
Can't use CI chat because of the profession you're in.
use a CI chat filter, BOOMSHAKALAKA. For 90% of the situations where this matters, you can make do...
For gangers, filter for Back
For Medics, filter for Doctor, or medic.
For Fixers, filter for Fixer
For Runners, filter for Runner.
For people with work encryption, the encryption name I think works
Handy list there made it just for you folks who might be on this list, for everyone else, put your proggy number in your tag with a warning that you've CI'd and to Private SIC or call.
2. A blunt ramble about the nature of RPing abhorrent people who do abhorrent things, and how Sin is not supposed to look pretty.
There's a really weird complaint here, and that's that it's not "Themely," to have these discussions, constantly...
You entered into a city, stripped naked, where upon entry into the city proper you face a club directly referencing sexual wants, and along the same street, called Sinn, you have a brothel, a park that will kill you, a strip club literally named after people's holes and a shop full of one brand of outlet clothes. You are constantly harassed by nudity, naked men and women are everywhere in the corners of the mix. Honestly it would not be the same game without the fucking nudity, and yes blatant sex.
Sex is as much a part of the theme as violence is. As drugs are. Does anyone complain about the 2 hours of drug talk that often occurs on SIC? Drugs mildly disturb me OOCly, I have a family history of addiction? Should I be allowed to call for a discussion to stop when I'm oocly disturbed because I've legitimately *SEEN* people inject chemicals into their tearducts IRL? And it's left me a bit scarred? Fuck no.
2.5 Let's talk about Sin, it's in the name of the game.
As a person who grew up as a world of darkness player who liked nWoD, I tend to define my characters in terms of virtue and vice, namely of the seven heavenly virtues, and of the seven deadly sins.
For instance, my first character, who I played some two years ago now, was a person with a LARGE degree of Gratitude, and Charity, and at the same time, an extreme tendency towards Sloth, and Envy. She gave and she gave, was very thankful for anyone who gave her the time of day, but lacked the will to make it back, and envy'd the aspects of other people she saw that she didn't have.
So, let's talk about how to express Sins...
For one expressing sin, is not supposed to be comfortable for other people. It's a deviant behavior, something that goes beyond the norm. All the Seven Deadly sins are meant to do is codify a grouping of behaviors that were and still are in the large degree deviant when taken to their extremes.
For two, it's supposed to come off as slightly abhorrent. And if you're discomforted by it, OOCly or ICly, then congrats, mission fucking accomplished by the person on the other side of the screen. Lust just happens to be the Sin that IRL we least consider a Sin these days.
Someone snorting a line of marcy off a joy bartenders pierced nippled breasts, is not supposed to come off as purely enticing, and clean, it's supposed to come off as ultimately unhealthy and slightly debased, but innocuous, and tempting enough that it could lure you in. If you are prone to the sin of lust.
Someone ICly talking about fetishes on SIC, generally, and using the assumption of best intent that slither normally encourages. Isn't seeking to get their OOC jolly's off, and that claim honestly feels like a bit of an over-assumption, and a MASSIVE predication of intent. For all you know they could be doing it to show how demented their character is becoming as they are slowly swallowed into this world of sin. While they are trapped like a rat in a space that is dark,, dirt, cramped and crowded, and most of all, SEETHING with boredom and beyond all of anything, powerlessness. So that it's possible that their only aspect of control is to LASH out on SIC, with grotesque statements and knowledge.
Finally for this one, in reference to some of the xooc chatter that happened throughout this thread.
Fuck people who make assumptions and attempt to tell people what the right RP is. Or to tell people they are playing the game "wrong."
The only wrong way to play the fucking game is if you're actively breaking the rules. Or cheating.
There are certainly ways to play that are more INTERESTING ways to play the game. But the amount some people vehemently attempt to justify their own successes in this game with arguments basically predicated on the elitist view of "Clearly -I've- done it the *Right* way..." Makes me fucking sick.
3. Lines OOC and IC, and how to avoid meta.
If you find something OOCly grotesque, it's quite likely your character would too, they'd just be more desensitized too it.
There's a certain degree and classification of morals that are pretty definite. Cannibalism is typically something amoral that people will resort too, but only in dire straits, however, once it becomes the norm for a locality, it can become deeply entrenched rapidly, either for religious, or sociological reasons. In those societies that embrace cannibalism. Or which have no flesh bias. There was a Soviet gulag on an island, called Cannibal Island nowadays which rapidly descended into overcrowding, the guards got overthrown and cannibalism soon followed, it's a spooky thing to read about ,because of the otherwise normal people that became rampant, torturing cannibals in the course of a 2 month winter in Siberia. These kinds of things are normal. There's a reason why being in bloody clothing or dirty on Gold can get you fined for "Inciting a Riot." And it's exactly situations like these. Another fun thing to research regarding cannibalism is headhunter societies.
The reason I mention all of that, is that, YOU! Yes YOU! NO NO NO, Not YOU you!... YOUR CHARACTER! Is a -RAT- ... they are A FUCKING -RAT-! And they are trapped in a cage with 60,000,000+ other rats, JUST LIKE THEM! AND JUST LIKE RATS... They need a release of some sort, whether that's fitness, fucking, or MURDER...
Should you judge anyone for their vices? Sure, but just think of what you, yes, you, no no no, not you, your characters, have as vices. Because really, if you're playing a character without vices, you're not playing a character at all, you're playing a Stu or Sue, of the Mary or Marty variety.
So draw your lines ICly, not OOCly, however make them lines you can cope with being in place OOCly. Don't stomp your feet about it oocly and whine. Because that's going to get you nowhere.
Sex is the oldest form of relief on the planet. And people have been bashing each other open with rocks about it since about the same time it was invented. So go beat that bitch mixer, but don't beat them off if you don't want too.
4. No one is perfect, but that's the Mafia.
If you're looking for ways to curb this, it has to be done ICly. Because OOCly, having definitively set rules that allow someone's OOC wants or disgusts to trump someone's character, is a stage for inequality and massive amounts of grief to take root RP wise. There's sensible limits, and then there's limits that impose onto freedom of expression.
So you know what you do?
You smack that bitch mixer till their behavior is in line with how you want that bitch mixers behavior to be. Whether that's judges smacking down with actual fines, or that's players putting out bounties on the worst offenders.
And if you can't ICly find a reason to fucking do so, then fuck off with the complaints, you're having a bleed moment, where your OOCly limits aren't congruous with your IC limits and it's irritating you.
tl:DR?
1. Learn your tools, CI chat, ci filters, breathing exercises IRL.
2. Learn how to properly characterize and not make assumptions about other peoples characters, and players feelings.
3. Don't fucking stomp your feet and cry. Enforce it ICly, or not at all. If you made your characters lines beyond what you're willing to cross OOCly? Then you've made a character that will make you have bleed, accept that it's your problem, and that the offense here is taken not given.
4. You can't have SIC remain functional and be from an OOC level moderated by anything other than the OOC rules.
Thya-thya-thyat's ahll fyolks.