An engaged community

[jamescfm]

Following from some conversations with players, I thought it might be useful to share some broader thoughts on the state of the community especially now that we have a new Moderation team in place. I appreciate that nobody asked for this and some will instinctively roll their eyes but I think there are few things that would benefit from being clearly and publicly articulated.

Over the past four years, the community and the game have undergone substantial change. When I joined the game in 2016, there was an active player base of a couple of hundred players and around thirty or forty players active throughout the forum. Both of those numbers have basically been halved since then, for a variety of reasons. I don't want to delve into the reasons why necessarily but the creation of Particracy Alpha has played a role. My primary interest is the effect this has had on engagement within the community.

Prior to these changes, it was very common for players to express openly their views about how the game should be run and how the Moderation team were doing. Players often disagreed openly with the decisions of Moderators and this was not perceived as something threatening. In reality this is a good thing. Players who question the decisions of the Moderation team are not usually motivated by hostility towards individuals but a desire to improve the game. Moderators who are able to articulate their views and justify their decisions are better than those who hide behind dismissive responses.

Over an extended period of time and with the support of various Moderatiors, active engagement from the community has been discouraged and (sometimes) actually punished. Even reading the terms in which some members of previous Moderation teams refer to players who question or challenge their decisions makes me uncomfortable. I don't want to get too bogged down in that here though. At this point it is immaterial who the individuals involved were, my point is that this should end.

For my own part, I did try to encourage players to speak out if they had views on anything while I was part of the Moderation team (and I almost always ended posts with some variation of "please share your thoughts") but this was largely unsuccessful. While previous Moderators arguably contributed to the problem, the current team cannot fix it on their own. Players (particularly new players) are quite obviously reluctant to speak out when they have an opinion. Not only do they fear that they will be sanctioned by Moderation but they fear they will be labelled "toxic" by other players.

In summary then my request is two-fold. For the new Moderation team, please be willing to engage with player concerns and avoid the dismissive and punitive approach of the past. Recognise that this is in your self-interest and that Moderators who are willing and able to justify their decisions to players are always better Moderators, who make better decisions. For the community of players, be willing to discuss how the game operates and demand that Moderation is responsible to the community. Don't accept Moderators who dismiss player concerns and recognise this behaviour for what it is: evading accountability.

[Aquinas]

I share all of the concerns James has expressed above. The rise in the role of Discord communication in our community and the decline in forum discussions has, I sense, had a significant impact on our community, and has been a factor in the changes, although certainly not the only factor. An aggressive culture of “shouting down” has developed amongst us which simply was not there before in anything like its current form.

I feel I would like to discuss the recent response I received to my posts on the Moderation Queries and Feedback thread, where I had taken the time and care to provide feedback on issues related to RP retconning and second accounts:

Let me just start by saying: i missed the nostalgia. Yes. The nostalgia. In contrast to others in the community i cant pretend to know the thoughts of most players. Nor do i want to pretend i know. What i do know is how i personally view the attitude of certain players, and ive made myself clear on my opinion regarding this in the past. From my observation, not speaking for them but speaking out of my own experience and observations, i think the vast majority of PT classic players want to just play. Not endlessly bicker and complain about every single thing there is to complain about. Idk about others but i am getting tired of the endless tirades about absolutely nothing. The fact is that it is the same group of people that drive these "crusades" whether it be against the moderation team or specific players.

The people currently playing PT classic are dedicated and just want to do one thing: play. Objections and queries should always be raised but not in the manner that they have been on occasions. Be constructive and have a actual damn complaint instead of talking about floaty things like "transparancy". Dont talk for other players in the community if you only get your information from a select group of people. PT Classic should be a enjoyable gaming experience and from what i can gather, a vast majority of players currently enjoy playing the game with their heart. Thats all.

As you can see, the statement here does not engage with any of the points raised, and is essentially a “Shut the f**k up” post. It is not about challenging anything specific the writer wrote; it is about wanting to deny the writer the right to have written it in the first place.

Shortly afterwards, the same user posted this on the official Discord server:



“Drama squad”, the poop emoji, “lmao” used twice... Again, what you see here is someone who is not engaging in any constructive way with the views he disagrees with, but who is simply shouting down the person who expressed them and encouraging others like himself to do likewise.

I wish I could say this incident was a one-off, but regrettably it is not an untypical experience.

[Drax]

The thing I like least about discord discussion is you can only go so far back and likely jumping in will only be slightly informed. Forum discussion can be reviewed so at best it can be much better reasoned and informed.

[Wu Han]

The thing I like least about discord discussion is you can only go so far back and likely jumping in will only be slightly informed. Forum discussion can be reviewed so at best it can be much better reasoned and informed.

Agree completely. For OOC discussions about changes/reforms to the game, etc., the forum should be the primary way of communicating.