The barberang is upsetting

[WyrdDoe]

So up top, this is genuinely not a fun post for me to make and I'd appreciate if everyone could leave jokes at the door for a sec.

I, WyrdDoe the player, really fucking hate the barberang and wish it would be just removed from the game. I get the joke, bald meme etc, but this jabs really deep into an actual trigger in the therapeutic sense for me personally. I could go further into describing just how bad but I'm not interested in cry bullying with just how woe is me, lets leave it at "I have to actually take medication". I don't want to fight about this, just pleading my case for myself.

1. But horrific shit happens in farty space game all the time, what about (x horrible shit)
That's not the point. I revel in strychnine poisoning and dismemberment as enthusiastically as the next spessman, if not more so, I like to get graphic and gross and in general the horror of ss13 suits me just fine and I'm right at home. It's just this one thing.

2. But hairgrownium, it's not like it's permanent
That's not the point. It makes me tense in a completely unfun way to hear it's in the round at all, actually getting hit with the thing is a nasty shock and I have to drop everything I'm doing to go fix, and then probably go cryo to do something else and calm down.

3. Well it's supposed to be upsetting, it's an antag item
That's not the point. I know I'm not alone in this feeling based on conversations in the discord, but stripping a character of their visual identity like this feels bad in a totally different category than the other mean shit you can do to other players.

4. If it's this upsetting to you, maybe you're not in a headspace to play ss13
That's not the point. A lot of work goes into making this game and its community feel safe, and it's thanks to those efforts that that an acronym salad suffergirl like me can feel at home here. This is me putting up my personal red card.

In conclusion, I don't know that there's a solution to this other than just taking it out of the game because it super a million upsets this one player, or me just quitting my favorite game because some dumb shit has started giving me nightmares for real. I dunno. Love you all, hope nobody's mad.

[kyle2143]

Does it not just drop your hair as a wig that you can then put back on at the cost of your hat slot?

[Solenoid]

Could you please elaborate more on what the barberang does? I've never seen it in action, though can assume it cuts off the hair of anyone it hits, as kyle described.

[Waffleloffle]

I'm in a weird place where I see both sides of this (anti-barberang and pro-barberang) as completely valid in their views. let me explain:

I'm transgender. I've squeezed a lot of gender euphoria out of this game, through having a guy who I could make look Masculine in the way I wanted, and have act Masculine in the way that appeals to me -- living vicariously through a safer medium of experimentation than real life provides. this is a fairly common experience with trans people and MMOs, I think. having the freedom to self-determine, even if it's through a silly space game, can genuinely be a lifeline.

at the same time, this is explicitly a game about cartoonishly bad things happening to people. this is explicitly a game where your character can get all their organs sucked out by a The Thing, touch a weird alien artifact and immediately be electrocuted to death, have a wizard explode your butt off, et cetera. there is, to me at least, an informal acknowledgement going in that you shouldn't be too precious about the safety of your character, no matter how much you love them, because bad things Will happen to them on a regular basis. this, too, is somewhat cathartic for me, weirdly enough. when the guy I'd like to be is put through the horrors, I get to practice picking the pieces up and putting them back together again. through roleplay, I get to figure out alternatives to the prospect of being Doomed Forever Now after one particularly bad day

and sometimes those crises involve having self-determination taken from my character. even before the barberang, there was still a component of an antag's kit that was explicitly for this: the changeling dna sting. it's pretty uncomfortable, I agree, especially when I have to experience the Pure Unadulterated Dysphoria of having my dude forcibly turned into a lady. I think this, too, is a sentiment shared by a lot of other trans players. but ultimately, what gets me through it is remembering that it won't last. the world will reset next round, my character will be back as I like him, and I don't have to treat it as meaningful that this happened to him. water off a duck's back. it's a learned skill, it feels like it's going against your best interests, but ultimately I think it's healthy to be able to separate the game from the ideal. these things happen. water off a duck's back

ultimately I doubt there'll be a solution that'll make everyone happy. with every personal thing, it's difficult to know how much one is Allowed to ask for accommodation before they are perceived as wanting things to warp around their comfort. if someone is repeatedly using the game to subject you to something that they KNOW sets you off, ahelp it and explain what's going on to the admins, and they'll probably take your side. but if it's just a general anxiety about what could happen... that becomes something you need to decide your own path forward on, I suppose. I wish I had more advice in how to handle it, but the answer will be different for everyone. that's just what it is to be human

[Emimiyu]

Does it not just drop your hair as a wig that you can then put back on at the cost of your hat slot?

Yes, I think? Unless it was changed because of the other haircut pr.

Coming from someone with anxiety disorder and psychomatic illness, an online multiplayer video game isn't much of a "safe space". It is more of a "public space". A lot of video game try to make their game "safe", but you can't force it to be "safe" for everyone, because what will you do, it will censor horror games, war games, anything that delve in heavy topic, and even small joke things. Anything will trigger everyone because that's how phobias and traumas work. It could be as small as mushroom, it could be loud noise, it could be anything. You can't make all things 100% accessible at all and caters to everyone's phobia and trauma. It something that you should handle yourself and a mental health professional. And if you have to pull the plug off the game, so be it. I would rather skip games that gives me phobias than destroying my body with my own psychomatic illness.

Though, certains phobias and trauma can be common enough, that a lot of things are designed with common phobias in mind. If a lot of players find "baldness joke" triggering, it might need to be put on a shelf. I am guilty of making bald jokes, but i find the barberang a bit insensitive to people appearance (cause joke item what not) and many of fear of "baldness" exist because beauty standard have the idea that being bald equals bad. I don't know if player base want it to be removed more, because this is not I do not have this phobia or uncomfiness about the item. I do see how a lot of the playerbase are trans, especially transfem, but I am unsure how sharing the same queer umbrella mean sharing the same phobias in cartoony joke form.

[Lefinch]

Not going to comment on the post itself as honestly, I don't feel qualified to beyond saying it sucks you feel like that.

But to clarify how the barberang currently works for the thread: It does remove the hair as a wig when used/thrown. It also puts that wig in the empty hand of the thrower/user (if empty, otherwise it drops it at their feet) this can be worn in the space of the helmet slot.

[Lord_earthfire]

The effect of the barbarang is fixable. You can get some hairgrowium and grow back your hair or get your wig back.

Now, and i know that may sound insensitive, but there is one thing i need to point out: this is a multiplayer game. You dont have full agency or control over your character. Other people can and will have effect on your character and their appearance.

[Kotlol]

Okay this is a hard topic and becomes the line of:
Do we remove it so people won't feel traumatized or uncomfortable due to life expirences?
or
Do we keep it since it's an antag item that's silly and doesn't kill?

And thus we come to the conclusion of where we draw this line.

We can debate a lot.. but...I think we can just replace the item with something else.
Bald cap launcher for example. That puts a cursed bald cap on someone helmet slot forcefully.
Way more battle effective and just as silly. Just someone else has to remove the bald cap.
Similiar to things like Hotdog bombs and such.

But.... that's me doing my "Here's another idea to find a nice middle ground."

In the end we have to decide if this is going too far or we just need to change something.
And that answer is not easily explained.

[Silent Majority]

My primary problem with thr barbarang is it doesn't have any mechanical benefit. It exists just to shame people. Its equivalent of filling a syringe gun with piss and shooting peeps.

I like Koltols suggestion of having it put a cursed baldcap on. Maybe one that cant be removed without hairgrowiun being splashed on it? Like acid disolves a hat.

Idk. Its a weird one. I'm a transgender woman. Being forcibly made bald is a phobia but also this is s videogame

[freedo5]

My primary problem with thr barbarang is it doesn't have any mechanical benefit.  It exists just to shame people. Its equivalent of filling a syringe gun with piss and shooting peeps.

I like Koltols suggestion of having it put a cursed baldcap on. Maybe one that cant be removed without hairgrowiun being splashed on it? Like acid disolves a hat.

Idk. Its a weird one. I'm a transgender woman. Being forcibly made bald is a phobia but also this is s videogame

I don't want to be dismissive about other people phobias, but the item does have mechanical benefits. It's similar to the kitchen knife except it can't stun someone again until they regrow hair. I don't believe it's meant to shame people, it seems more like a looney toons gag. Again, i don't want to dismiss people's feelings, but maybe if the item was looked at from a different perspective it could help?

[crunchwarp]

Maybe something optional could be added, so that content doesn't have to be outright removed, but also players have a way to not be balded?

New trait: "My Hair is Invincible". Scissors that try to cut your hair come back dented. Even if your body and possessions get vaporized by the PTL, your hair is left behind unscathed. Even the syndicate's advanced Barberang can't steal your hair, but it does do extra damage to you and (insert funny alternative effect? Like a silly voiceline, or an explosion?)

[ZodiaDecius]

You dont have full agency or control over your character. Other people can and will have effect on your character and their appearance.

I agree, and while I think 99.9% of us aren't out here trying to traumatize people, and are more than open minded given how accepting of the accepting this community is. 

This is extremely poignant, and leads me to remind everyone of the very first warning we get when we log into Goonstation. The one about being killed and farted on. Being balded is in the middle of that somewhere.

[Frank_Stein]

Is it the loss of hair that's the issue? Would giving a randomized, kinda screwed up looking hair be any better?

---

Maybe something optional could be added, so that content doesn't have to be outright removed, but also players have a way to not be balded?

New trait: "My Hair is Invincible". Scissors that try to cut your hair come back dented. Even if your body and possessions get vaporized by the PTL, your hair is left behind unscathed. Even the syndicate's advanced Barberang can't steal your hair, but it does do extra damage to you and (insert funny alternative effect? Like a silly voiceline, or an explosion?)

Helmet hair. Makes a loud bonk noise and does some extra stunning from the blunt force trauma

[Emimiyu]

Maybe something optional could be added, so that content doesn't have to be outright removed, but also players have a way to not be balded?

New trait: "My Hair is Invincible". Scissors that try to cut your hair come back dented. Even if your body and possessions get vaporized by the PTL, your hair is left behind unscathed. Even the syndicate's advanced Barberang can't steal your hair, but it does do extra damage to you and (insert funny alternative effect? Like a silly voiceline, or an explosion?)

Ngl, that sounds like a funny trait. Just make sure it is a trait that won't conflict with wizard game mechanic for an obvious reason

[Kotlol]

Sounds like Johnny Bravo's hair... A funny trait.. Let's go with that