The "No Cheating" policy
Posted by Hellfrog on 11/29/18
We want to make it clear that we do not condone player to player dishonesty. We know that, even if we caution not discussing rp OOC, it's still going to happen. So I want to lay out our metrics for what we feel is actionable and too detrimental to allow, vs what isn't. So if we say there is a rule against cheating, it will be clear what we mean.
It sucks to be lied to. But, in the case of a player lying to another player about themselves, or their rp, we don't really feel that's any of our business. That changes when either: the deception is being used to effectively end someone's story, or change the tone or structure of the game world, OR the deception damages players' ability to trust staff.
Examples - if you hear say of someone being an agent of the Abyss OOCly, and tell others ICly even though you have no IC knowledge of it, in order to get them investigated/killed/exiled, that is absolutely not permissable.
If you say that staff told you something or coded something for you that allows you to find out things IC that you have no way of knowing IC, that is not permissable.
If you claim that staff signed off on something you are doing that is unthematic or counter to setting in order to influence other players' actions (as opposed to simply not understanding something and seeking clarification), that is not permissable.
If you are lying to someone about who your char is romantically or in any way involved with, IC or OOC, that's not something we're going to get involved in.
To be clear: "cheating" does not mean testing or even exploiting coded systems, necessarily. This is a beta, and code changes are fast and furious. If someone is exploiting a system to purposefully harm another player, that is one thing, but if someone is just going in on a system and illustrating balance issues, that is not cheating by this definition. So please, don't report people for making a lot of money or resources or what have you. Have mercy upon us.
All this is a leadup to an announcement of a formalized action. This was not an easy decision and we have been discussing it for the better part of two days, because it feels mean to retroactively either change our minds about something, or to react to something we never really reached consensus on after such a delay. It's not good practice to 'grandfather' this kind of behavior, but it also feels harsh to outright ban people for things that probably seemed settled months ago. Alexis and Brianna are thus placed on a kind of Arx reduced-participation we call 'no gming'. They are not banned, but they are not permitted to hold leadership positions in staff-created orgs, or to start investigations/actions, or to be present in on screen GMing. They can assist on actions or investigations, as long as they are marked off-screen. They cannot take new roster characters.
To be VERY CLEAR, this is NOT a reaction to something these players have done recently (one has not even logged in for some time). It's not a case of anyone getting caught again, and I say that because we really don't want a renewed surge of speculation or accusation against either of them. What happened happened, we've just firmed up and specified policy.
It sucks to be lied to. But, in the case of a player lying to another player about themselves, or their rp, we don't really feel that's any of our business. That changes when either: the deception is being used to effectively end someone's story, or change the tone or structure of the game world, OR the deception damages players' ability to trust staff.
Examples - if you hear say of someone being an agent of the Abyss OOCly, and tell others ICly even though you have no IC knowledge of it, in order to get them investigated/killed/exiled, that is absolutely not permissable.
If you say that staff told you something or coded something for you that allows you to find out things IC that you have no way of knowing IC, that is not permissable.
If you claim that staff signed off on something you are doing that is unthematic or counter to setting in order to influence other players' actions (as opposed to simply not understanding something and seeking clarification), that is not permissable.
If you are lying to someone about who your char is romantically or in any way involved with, IC or OOC, that's not something we're going to get involved in.
To be clear: "cheating" does not mean testing or even exploiting coded systems, necessarily. This is a beta, and code changes are fast and furious. If someone is exploiting a system to purposefully harm another player, that is one thing, but if someone is just going in on a system and illustrating balance issues, that is not cheating by this definition. So please, don't report people for making a lot of money or resources or what have you. Have mercy upon us.
All this is a leadup to an announcement of a formalized action. This was not an easy decision and we have been discussing it for the better part of two days, because it feels mean to retroactively either change our minds about something, or to react to something we never really reached consensus on after such a delay. It's not good practice to 'grandfather' this kind of behavior, but it also feels harsh to outright ban people for things that probably seemed settled months ago. Alexis and Brianna are thus placed on a kind of Arx reduced-participation we call 'no gming'. They are not banned, but they are not permitted to hold leadership positions in staff-created orgs, or to start investigations/actions, or to be present in on screen GMing. They can assist on actions or investigations, as long as they are marked off-screen. They cannot take new roster characters.
To be VERY CLEAR, this is NOT a reaction to something these players have done recently (one has not even logged in for some time). It's not a case of anyone getting caught again, and I say that because we really don't want a renewed surge of speculation or accusation against either of them. What happened happened, we've just firmed up and specified policy.