An analysis of the biggest problem with goonstation: apathy

[Technature]

Back then if we knew a rampager was about on the station we'd form a angry mob and give back up to any Security Officer there was. Now people can't be bothered to fight back most of the time and would rather fuck with Security then help them or stay out of the way. Which leads to barely anyone playing Security cause the player base treats them like shit and leads to players not even attempting to fight antags but fighting with Security and whining when the person they should be stopping kills them.

This is the biggest issue Security faces. Non-antag players who will commit crimes and then escalate the situation to a level where Security ends up chasing and fighting with them all round, thus ignoring the actual antagonists.

I've had Sec rounds where people jump on chairs and attack me and then get upset when I arrest or beat them for it. They then spend the rest of the round making a point of attacking me, interfering with my arrests, or eventually causing damage to the station.

I will admit to "messing" with Security on occasion as a miscreant but it only extends to breaking windows or other random acts of vandalism. Things that, if an officer chooses to ignore, will have no impact on their rounds. If they decide to focus on me, the most I will do is disarm intent and run away: never using harm intent or weapons.

I had a round recently where I had been arrested continually by an officer for unscrewing windows. I was trapped in a hallway with him and having been whacked with a stun baton, I lay there crying. An antag detective shows up and stun shoots the officer. I got up, pushed the detective over, and pulled the officer to safety. The detective gave pursuit and as he started to open fire, I jumped in front of the officer to save him. I was just a staff assistant and he was an officer, much better equipped at dealing with antagonists. So, why not take a bullet for him? I died. He lived. End of story.

I can say with confidence that I've been the officer in similar situations and it ends up where the non antag gets up and helps the traitor attack and kill me.

this. i like playing as sec, but if you arrest someone for something, they'll just whine and insult you, then they will make your round shit, interfering while you are arresting an antag, basically that's why most of the players hate sec

This is one of the big reasons, I think, that many people find sec unfun. If you screw up as sec and attempt to arrest an innocent, be prepared for a round of complaining from them.

People are utterly unforgiving of sec making mistakes, which is very easy to do considering the amount of chaos and confusion in an average round. It's not like these complaints are groundless at all, I've made some pretty terrible decisions in the heat of the moment, but no other job-role gets the level of shit sec does.  If players could see their way to being more forgiving when sec screws up, you'd have more people playing officers.

Holy shit yes.  This is why I only play security officer when there's just enough people to count on both hands, it's significantly much easier to deal with.  Last time I played sec on normal pop, the captain started harassing me and another security officer from round start and making our lives a living hell, interfering with arrests and helping prisoners get out of the brig early.  And of course, when a new officer comes on, he convinces that one to detain and demote me cause "Ya know, he's the captain" or some shit.

The absolute worst has to be being betrayed by a fellow security officer because you were trying to do your job (pretty much the BIG reason I avoid playing sec. in general).  It takes a few seconds to go on your PDA and check to see I started as an officer and wasn't promoted to it, and since Officers are the only role guaranteed to not be antagonists, it makes no sense why someone would take a single person's side over the officers, even if they're the captain.  (Of course several people complaining is a sign that the officer is just being an asshole and should be detained, but that seems to overlap with the "People hate security" problem, and it can easily be handled by accompanying the officer and yelling at him anytime he becomes a shitler, tazing when necessary anyways.)