[Vekter] maskenary - The Ban

[maskenary]

BYOND account: maskenary
Character name: Reider Maidza
Ban type: Server
Ban length: Permanent
Ban reason:

Time ban was placed: 2023-05-15
Server you were playing on when banned: Sybil
Round ID in which ban was placed: 205737
Why you think you should be unbanned:

Has shown a willing refusal to interact with the game in any context other than as a combat simulator.

This is false, I do not only view the game in this way. I verbally interact with other players if the opportunity arises, and many other players can attest to this.

repeated and constant violations of rules 1, 10, and 12 over the last few years

I have improved over time. I started out as a full validhunting, maximum powergaming, silent HOS. Over time, I have greatly reduced my validhunting, stopped powergaming, and I do often interact with other players verbally. I have shown consistent improvement in my play.

What little RP they engage in is sufficiently low-quality to be questioned as actual RP.

The way I say things may not be elaborate professional speak, but that is just my way of communication.

Many rounds where I do not say much are often from barely anyone interacting with me. There are a decent amount of shifts where I walk around the halls where nothing happens, there's zero conflict, and the antags are all silent. This also applies to morning shifts usually on the weekend.

Before I got banned, I asked in the ahelp for the details or results from this investigation. You said to do it in an appeal, so I would like to see the reasoning you have gathered so I can more accurately see why you placed this ban.

References of good conduct:
Examples of good roleplay rounds in the past few days:

https://scrubby.melonmesa.com/round/205 ... e=game.txt
Suspicious maints medbay gimmick with others - 191 say logs

https://scrubby.melonmesa.com/round/205 ... e=game.txt
Lawyer overflow, roleplaying - 94 say logs (died)

[Vekter]

Alright, here we go. See, the benefit of me knowing I was going to do this is that I got to do my homework before actually placing the ban. So, why don't we all sit down and take a look at a week in the life of Reider Meza.

DISCLAIMER: While nobody is trying to say that /tg/ is a HRP bastion of roleplaying integrity, Maskenary has shown time and time again that they intend to interface with the game as if it's something more akin to a combat simulator. We don't want to try and force a specific playstyle on players, but SS13 is, first and foremost, a role-playing game. Even if our standards for role-playing are low, they are still there, and Maskenary has not met those standards.

General findings: Maskenary's RP (when there is any) is generally very low quality and reads more like someone chatting in a deathmatch game than it does actual RP. Most of their messages are 2-3 words and rarely, if ever, complete thoughts beyond stuff like "thanks" or saying the name of something they want as they point at it. They also use a lot of OOC memes, things like saying "arr pee" or "it's just a prank bro". This seems to match their general attitiude of refusing to interact with the game under any context that isn't "them vs. antags". What little player interaction they have usually involves breaking into places and stealing things instead of asking for them, then whatever conflict arises from that.

Stats: Maskenary's character says about 47 lines per round on average, with 39 rounds considered. 42 are listed here but 1 was removed as they observed and 2 were removed for being nuke ops rounds (Since we don't generally expect nuke ops to RP, I didn't think it fair to factor those in). While I didn't do the math, their average line appears to be anywhere from 2-3 words.

Methodology: Using Scrubby, I pulled Maskenary's rounds between midnight on 5/6 and the time of the report (around 10 PM CDT on 5/13), so roughly a week. I sorted out all non-SAY logs in game.txt and copied all lines, then pasted them into a blank notepad to get a line count. The following lines were redacted:

- All deadchat lines.
- Anything the game forced them to say through a game action (ie Cult or Heretic spells)
- Anything the game forced them to say through RNG actions (ie diseases like Pierrot's Throat)

Roundtimes (where relevant) were pulled from Scrubby measuring from when Maskenary took control of a character to when they lost control of it -or- disconnected from the game, whichever came first.

FAQ that nobody asked:

"Why not just assistant ban them?" - We tried this, it kind of worked but they fell back into their old ways very quickly. I also feel like it doesn't fix the actual problem, which is lack of roleplay.
"Why not just antag ban them?" - I considered this but I don't know if it'd actually fix the issue and not just result in a ton of rounds where they suicide out of boredom.
"Isn't it important to know how long they're alive or these rounds last for context?" - Kind of but 1) I don't really have time to sit down and pull all this info along with what I already have (though I did note it for latejoin rounds since those are generally much shorter) and 2) the main issue here is a combination of quantity and quality issues. What rounds they have that they talk a lot are still full of stupid bullshit and NRP.
"This is only a week, how can that be a solid idea of how they play?" - They played 41 rounds in a week, I feel that's a pretty good sample size.
"Well, what's an average LRP player's lines per round?" - I'm glad you asked! I took 20 rounds from what I'd consider to be an average, well-behaved LRP player and they came in around 90 lines per round on average. I want to stress again that, while the whole point of this exercise was to find out Maskenary's average, it's not the only reason for it - I also wanted to do a general "quality pass" on their rounds and RP. No, I'm not posting who I used as the example, it's not an admin and it's not relevant but they play about the same amount as Maskenary and have good note history.
"Are we mandating a certain amount of lines per round now?" - No, just... just fucking talk to people. Ask for things. Use your words. Don't go around breaking people in half because they took something you wanted. Work out your problems instead of fighting everyone who looks at you funny. The bar is so incredibly low that I'm shocked people continue to trip over it.

The actual data is under this spoiler tag including a few notes as to what you said and why it's an issue.

Spoiler:

Round 205627: 75 lines, most of which is talking to Chang and spamming about needing help or their leg being fixed.
Round 205624: 24 lines, mostly 2-3 words "asking" for things or asking "why kill chang".
Round 205619: 47 lines, first word said at 52 minutes after a fight with another player, complaining about having lost said fight.
Round 205614: 11 lines, latejoin at 51 minutes in a 1h 27m round. Same as usual, very monosyllabic.
Round 205611: 52 lines.
Round 205610: 12 lines, latejoin at 25 minutes in a 54 minute round.
Round 205602: ZERO lines, latejoin at 2h07m, went SSD at 2h24m.
Round 205578: 75 lines. This is a good example to look at for the general low quality of what little RP Maskenary gets up to, with lines like "when are you gonna finish setting up your torture arr pee", "MONEKY?", and "TOOOOOOOOOLBELTS".
Round 205573: 36 lines.
Round 205570: 42 lines.
Round 205515: 105 lines.
Round 205508: 31 lines.
Round 205507: 59 lines, nuke op round. Named their op team "BonerBoner". I'm not sure if that's relevant but it sucks so I'm noting it. I don't think we should consider this round in investigation as we don't really expect nuke ops to RP.
Round 205504: 66 lines. 85 total but I subtracted 12 which were forced by Mansus Grasp.
Round 205463: 38 lines. Says "real" or "fake" a lot, not sure if that's a meme I'm not privy to.
Round 205460: 112 lines. "i am testing new loadout...""MAGBOOT + ADVANCED INSUL" "+ BATON"
Round 205451: 48 lines.
Round 205449: 23 lines, nuke op round.
Round 205406: 114 lines. Also says "moment" a lot? Maybe I'm getting old.
Round 205391: ZERO lines, latejoin. Joined at 45m, went SSD at 59m.
Round 205341: 25 lines.
Round 205338: 20 lines. Exceptional in that literally nothing of value is said. "yee yee ass shoes", "goofy ahh", "me when"
Round 205336: 26 lines.
Round 205288: TWO lines, one of which is a meme. Roundstart and went SSD at 16 minutes.
Round 205286: TWO lines. Roundstart, died at around 12 minutes. Spent most of this mostly wordless round shoving and attacking people for little to no reason.
Round 205282: 97 lines.
Round 205279: 38 lines, minus 12 forced by cult spells.
Round 205266: 77 lines. Latejoin at 7 minutes. Went for the fire axe five minutes after arriving, "no axe?"
Round 205259: ZERO lines. Suicided as sec at 7 minutes. Oddly this was a nuke op round but I don't think they declared war.
Round 205257: 16 lines. Latejoin at 35 minutes, immediately started asking about insulated gloves. Got latejoin Heretic and survived most of the round.
Round 205255: 18 lines. "devious" which I'm guessing is a reference to "Devious lick" which was a meme about stealing shit from TikTok a few years back. Noting this for more memes IC and as an example of them stealing things early in the round instead of RPing/asking for them.
Round 205253: Rare "observed" round.
Round 205252: FOUR lines. "misplay" being one of them. Latejoin at 42 minutes, SSD at 52.
Round 205227: 87 lines. "breaking bad?" "badly breaking?" in reference to someone breaking in to cargo.
Round 205225: Nine lines, but in his defense there were only eight people actually playing. That being said, one of their more egregious OOC in IC rounds: "you bagil people use punches" "too much" "youre like a simplemob" "from genetics" "that punches" Worth noting this was indeed on Basil where they usually play on Sybil or Terry.
Round 205224: 60 lines. "prepare for axle brady torture arr pee"
Round 205222: 38 lines.
Round 205209: 43 lines. Roundstart, tech storage, asking about insuls. More greytiding.
Round 205208: 15 lines, minus 1 forced by a cult spell.
Round 205203: 37 lines.
Round 205162: 59 lines. "tider speedrun" "any %" Also they have a lot of rounds end in the brig. Just an observation.
Round 205159: 185 lines, the most I've seen so far, though this is a rare case of them making it to round end without dying or being captured and suiciding. This is the only instance I've seen of them trying to roleplay at all, saying to someone that they're lucky they're merciful over some sort of conflict.
Round 205157: 82 lines.

In closing, it was the decision of multiple admins (including two headmins) that your existence on the server is a net negative for most players involved. While you have shown that you're capable of interacting with other people, you consistently and intentionally fail to actually RP with anyone with any kind of consistency beyond things as simple as saying an object and pointing at it or insulting someone for attacking you. You also, in my opinion, violate rule 10 on the regular by ending the vast majority of your rounds in the brig - you have no concept of how to lose gracefully and either suicide or SSD as soon as you're caught, considering that to be the point where you've "lost" and no longer desire to play the game.

I'm not lifting this and I will be extremely shocked if anyone else this term does.

[maskenary]

it was the decision of multiple admins (including two headmins)

If this is true, then there is not much I can do I guess. Specifically which headmins approved this ban?

Are there any possible ways to demonstrate improvement for a reduction of the ban other than grinding another server or waiting?

[Vekter]

it was the decision of multiple admins (including two headmins)

If this is true, then there is not much I can do I guess. Specifically which headmins approved this ban?

Are there any possible ways to demonstrate improvement for a reduction of the ban other than grinding another server or waiting?

I'm not willing to reveal that information; doing so could be seen as leaking Adminbus discussions and I already got slapped for that last month. If they come forward to discuss the ban, they are more than welcome to.

I would be willing to reconsider the ban if you can play on another server for a few months while showing a distinct improvement in play style. I recommend Beestation as they are the closest to our base ruleset.

[Vekter]

Maskenary hasn't asked for a headmin review, but the headmins have asked me to leave this open as they want to comment on it.

[Timberpoes]

There were probably some crossed wires here. As far as me and Keith are aware, the headmin team as a triumvirate didn't really feel the need to comment.

Procedurally, Vekter basically gathred some info, presented it to us and asked if we'd be okay with it. A couple of us said go for it and we're here - Me and one of the other two. I'm not name hiding them to protect them, I just can't remember if it was Keith of Misdoubtful that also told Vekter he could do it and I'm too lazy to look back.

But rest assured that your ban has gone past the eyes of all three headmins and if any of us would have expressed a will to overturn it that would have happened by now.

So in the absence of any real team-vetted response, I'll leave my individual thoughts here as 1/3rd of the headmin team, but also as an admin in general since I have headmin peanut privilege for the next 4 months.

In one of the peanuts I posted what was basically the informal Maskenary Challenge; "find a shift where Maskenary says more than 5 words in one go without it being forced by brain damage (or cult or anything else)".

A lot of shifts where you latejoin seemingly to just go SSD soon after which can seem like soft antag rolling and generally seems indicative of your approach to the game. Ending too many rounds in the brig is the same vibe.

Just really the kinda stuff that's death by a thousand incredibly slow cuts. We've seen comments from Scriptis trying to reform you but we're talking over the scale of like, a whole year. Not many players get a pass to consistently ruffle feathers because they have a guardian angel admin trying desperately to unlock their potential as a good player.

I'll say something that Misdoubtful mentioned on an unrelated discussion we were having internally about naming policy. We ended up looking at how other servers did rules, and Misdoubtful has like so many fingers in the pies of so many different servers and rules we pivoted onto this one from Paradise.

https://www.paradisestation.org/wiki/in ... nced_Rules

Rule 0 Clarifications
This rule also is used to enforce “Quality Control” bans - these are for people who have taken up a lot of server staff's time with repeated minor incidents, and are also known as “high maintenance players”. These are generally people who have gotten 20+ notes.

Of course QC bans aren't written in our rules, at least not in such an admin-empowering way. But it encapsulates the thoughts and feelings of the admin team quite well at times. And I honestly think that's sort of the case here. Just dipping below our generally already lenient standards too many times that you seem high maintenance.

Looking at some of your logs and shifts I genuinely don't know why you continue to play here except out of habit, because I don't honestly think you seem to enjoy it - or if you do, what you enjoy isn't really compatible with the kind of direction the LRP servers may be trending (which is probably that certain NRP trends are entrenched which can make the servers feel less than LRP at times, and elements of the admin team are desperately fighting the headmin team to get the ability to change this without endless cock and ball torture of notes, bans, appeals and complaints).

That being said, I'm going to leave it to Vekter to set some re-appeal terms and conditions; what Vekter would want to see to overturn this in the future and how long of a gap he'd like to see. You're not evil. You're not the most irredeemable player we've ever banned. This is definitely the kind of permaban that could be overturned in the appropriate circumstances and I think it would be good for Vekter to think about that if he hasn't already,

[Vekter]

I can say that I would be willing to overturn the ban if you can show a consistent level of play on another server (Bee would be my recommendation, Fulp as well but their rules are kinda strict) over the next six months. If an admin from either of those servers can state that you've kept your nose clean and haven't dipped below their RP standards for that period, as well as have played a reasonable amount, we can revisit this. This means no "playing a round a week and doing nothing"; you need to play in earnest, though I don't expect anywhere near the amount of hours you racked up here.

tl;dr Go play elsewhere for six months and we'll revisit this with a clean vouch.