Goonhub
06-09-2025, 07:49 AM
Hi all. I wanted to create a space to discuss issues relating to the metatrust issues we've seen on RP, especially as more faces become "trusted", or "untrusted" with recent pop increases. I've had some good discussions on the Discord about it, and figured it may be nice to have a space to talk about it here too.
Metatrust is, in my opinion, the new form of metacliquing. Yes, it's good that our server culture has(generally) moved away from groups of players physically isolating themselves to avoid other players, but I still think that there is a lot of bias in terms of static characters vs. random names, new faces vs. old timers, etc. This makes it difficult to get experience as a new player, makes getting recognized as a new character difficult, and leads to situations where people will just ignore you at times because they don't want you to do the work. It is the more mechanical version of metacliquing to me. Where instead of avoiding new/unfamiliar players while RPing, it's more focused on avoiding new/unfamiliar players to do mechanical things(surgeries, construction, etc).
On one hand, it's hard to ask people to just "trust" people more as players, but on the other- that's literally the whole point of Rules 1&3 of our RP servers! Your character should realistically trust a doctor to be a doctor, an engineer to be an engineer, and a chef to be a chef, regardless of the player of those jobs' OOC understanding of the mechanics, unless proven otherwise. If there's an engineer you've never seen in round before, I feel like it should be assumed ICly that they can do all the same things as that long time engineering character you've known for 2 years, but I really do not feel like this is the case when I play random name characters, and I sometimes do not feel as trusted by the station when playing someone that most players don't know.
I know this behavior falls under metagaming rules, and I know ahelping these incidents can help to address the situation, but I also feel like people should be able to discuss this in a constructive way and share their experiences that may help to open up dialogue, just like how we had a discussion on metacliquing. I also want to say I almost exclusively play "low-pop" RP and that I am only one person, which may bias my observations. If you don't feel like this behavior is something you've seen, or don't believe it to be as much of an issue as I'm saying it is, also feel free to contribute and make yourself heard.
So, to foster a discussion, I want to ask some guiding questions inspired by the original post on metacliques:
How can can you behave in ways which avoid metatrust? Have you ever been ignored or excluded from something for not having a "trustworthy enough" character? How can you try to correct this behavior in others through promoting more healthy RP norms and avoid being bystanders when others are excluded? Does being considered to not be "trustworthy" make you feel any certain way? Ultimately, what is metatrust to you and how has it affected your time as a player?
Metatrust is, in my opinion, the new form of metacliquing. Yes, it's good that our server culture has(generally) moved away from groups of players physically isolating themselves to avoid other players, but I still think that there is a lot of bias in terms of static characters vs. random names, new faces vs. old timers, etc. This makes it difficult to get experience as a new player, makes getting recognized as a new character difficult, and leads to situations where people will just ignore you at times because they don't want you to do the work. It is the more mechanical version of metacliquing to me. Where instead of avoiding new/unfamiliar players while RPing, it's more focused on avoiding new/unfamiliar players to do mechanical things(surgeries, construction, etc).
On one hand, it's hard to ask people to just "trust" people more as players, but on the other- that's literally the whole point of Rules 1&3 of our RP servers! Your character should realistically trust a doctor to be a doctor, an engineer to be an engineer, and a chef to be a chef, regardless of the player of those jobs' OOC understanding of the mechanics, unless proven otherwise. If there's an engineer you've never seen in round before, I feel like it should be assumed ICly that they can do all the same things as that long time engineering character you've known for 2 years, but I really do not feel like this is the case when I play random name characters, and I sometimes do not feel as trusted by the station when playing someone that most players don't know.
I know this behavior falls under metagaming rules, and I know ahelping these incidents can help to address the situation, but I also feel like people should be able to discuss this in a constructive way and share their experiences that may help to open up dialogue, just like how we had a discussion on metacliquing. I also want to say I almost exclusively play "low-pop" RP and that I am only one person, which may bias my observations. If you don't feel like this behavior is something you've seen, or don't believe it to be as much of an issue as I'm saying it is, also feel free to contribute and make yourself heard.
So, to foster a discussion, I want to ask some guiding questions inspired by the original post on metacliques:
How can can you behave in ways which avoid metatrust? Have you ever been ignored or excluded from something for not having a "trustworthy enough" character? How can you try to correct this behavior in others through promoting more healthy RP norms and avoid being bystanders when others are excluded? Does being considered to not be "trustworthy" make you feel any certain way? Ultimately, what is metatrust to you and how has it affected your time as a player?