Goonhub
06-10-2025, 04:48 AM
I see metatrust/distrust as the current biggest cultural issue on RP servers. While it's unavoidable to have friends and remembering various individuals habits and skills, it should not influence your decisions or knowledge if it did not happen in that very round. I see this crop up especially in regards to antags and security/command. Captains, HoPs and to an extend HoS' that people are unfamiliar with are mistrusted at best and ignored at worst.
I've had rounds where disguised antags where revealed by their actual name simply by players recalling a previously used agent card name and citing previous rounds as to what their next move would be. This has been done (frustratignly) succesfully and (comedically but still iritating) wrongly. Not only is it an unreliable way to determine what is happening, it is also blatant metagaming to make calls merely on what name you hear on the radio.
In the same vein, metatrust in regards to whitelisted names is absurd. For antags, it is nearly impossible to disguise themselves as a HoS without somebody almost verbatim invoking "I don't recall you getting that promotion" which is thinly disgusied code for "i didn't see you get approved on the forums". Using a fake name and an agent card to the same end is met equally with a total shutout based solely on OOC knowledge, which is then justified by miniscule things out of place. I've heard plenty of stories of HoS players random naming and being met with similar treatment while actually rolling the position.
On the flip side, if you are a known face among security, people will trust you IMMENSELY, real security or not. A few rounds ago as antag, a play to disguise as HoS to get close to the captain to assassinate them was foiled early the second i set foot onto station, the entire security department was called and i got escorted to security. Following this total brick wall of an RP response, i was left with the only choice but to go loud FAR sooner than i wanted, but it ended with me and another traitor killing all of sec almost twice over. Officers were dead and unclonable, their equipment and armory looted, a massive hole in sec and general mayhem. But by merely putting on a red uniform and being recognized by my usual character name, people not only let me be, i was even helped and approached to solve said mayhem that i caused. All while being covered head to toe in stolen, mismatched gear and the blood of my victims.
My point being, it is hard to purposefully forget and ignore things you know. But RP is pretend play where your character is not you, so they can make choices that fit the round. I'm worried that people are too focused on "winning" and doing things "right" rather than actually roleplay. I'd much rather see people make choices based on what role a person is, rather than their name and character appearance. I hope this trend can be course corrected by both ahelping when observed and self correcting. Or mayhaps we should all random name :P
I've had rounds where disguised antags where revealed by their actual name simply by players recalling a previously used agent card name and citing previous rounds as to what their next move would be. This has been done (frustratignly) succesfully and (comedically but still iritating) wrongly. Not only is it an unreliable way to determine what is happening, it is also blatant metagaming to make calls merely on what name you hear on the radio.
In the same vein, metatrust in regards to whitelisted names is absurd. For antags, it is nearly impossible to disguise themselves as a HoS without somebody almost verbatim invoking "I don't recall you getting that promotion" which is thinly disgusied code for "i didn't see you get approved on the forums". Using a fake name and an agent card to the same end is met equally with a total shutout based solely on OOC knowledge, which is then justified by miniscule things out of place. I've heard plenty of stories of HoS players random naming and being met with similar treatment while actually rolling the position.
On the flip side, if you are a known face among security, people will trust you IMMENSELY, real security or not. A few rounds ago as antag, a play to disguise as HoS to get close to the captain to assassinate them was foiled early the second i set foot onto station, the entire security department was called and i got escorted to security. Following this total brick wall of an RP response, i was left with the only choice but to go loud FAR sooner than i wanted, but it ended with me and another traitor killing all of sec almost twice over. Officers were dead and unclonable, their equipment and armory looted, a massive hole in sec and general mayhem. But by merely putting on a red uniform and being recognized by my usual character name, people not only let me be, i was even helped and approached to solve said mayhem that i caused. All while being covered head to toe in stolen, mismatched gear and the blood of my victims.
My point being, it is hard to purposefully forget and ignore things you know. But RP is pretend play where your character is not you, so they can make choices that fit the round. I'm worried that people are too focused on "winning" and doing things "right" rather than actually roleplay. I'd much rather see people make choices based on what role a person is, rather than their name and character appearance. I hope this trend can be course corrected by both ahelping when observed and self correcting. Or mayhaps we should all random name :P