*stomps on creativity with great effort*

[mousme]

Bah. I'm annoyed.

Got this from the reparo Mods today:

Dear Phnee,

This email is in regard to your playing of Charlie Weasley. We as the Reparo Mods need to know where you are planning to go with Charlie's death, as it affects the website and the community. We would also like to advise you of a change in our rules, regarding such major plot points. In the future, players wishing to do something major to their characters are going to be required to clear that plotline with the mods first.

This will be for technical reasons as well as making sure the RPG runs as smoothly as possible. Could you please email us back and let us know where you are planning to go with Charlie's death? We would like, if possible, to bring Charlie back to life. If you hadn't planned on that, we would like to discuss possible ways to make that happen, because we would like Charlie to be available to other players if you ever decided to leave the RPG.

Thanks,
Reparo Mods

I mean, Jesus Christ on a flaming pogo stick! So much for creative license. I try to do something interesting with my character and figure that people will trust me to work with it properly as I have ever since joining this RPG. But no. Instead I get a smack on the knuckles. Bad Phnee! Don't be creative OR surprising. This was meant to be free-form roleplaying, but not anymore.

So while no one flinched at romance, marriage, pregnancy, alcoholism, self-injury, implied incest (in case anyone's wondering I had no objection it at all, I'm just listing it as "doing something major to characters), and homosexuality. Not to mention all the new magic people come up with, and PCs performing Unforgivable Curses. All these things are "major things" concerning the characters. So what now? We have to run everything we do by the moderators?

Or maybe it's just a special Phnee-only rule.

Can you picture it? Nothing would ever get done. Aisy, can I let Bill leave the country? Gem, do you think it would be okay if Percy and Lavender got married? Can I allow Neville to be kidnapped? Dennis to disappear?

Where do you draw the line?

Dammit, I like this RPG! But right now I'm about ready to toss in the towel if any major plot twist on my part is going to get me this kind of reaction. I understand if people are shocked. I understand if people don't *like* what I did. I'll even understand if people are upset and angry with me or otherwise harbour feelings of resentment. But I resent censorship in a community that up until now has let us have free reign with our creativity as long as it could be considered "in character."

Especially because it means they couldn't trust me to do something *good* with this. Like I'd ever just kill off a major PC with no more explanation than that. God dammit.

*kicks the wall in frustration*

Comments

Jumpy Mods

[caersidi.livejournal.com]

I have been a moderator in a Potter pbem for last couple of years, so will give the 'mod' perspective. We were free form as well for a time and then about six months into the life of the thing, there was a shift into a more rule orientated RPG with major plot lines having to be 'cleared'. I am (happily) not a mod concerned with this aspect of the game but I have had players come to me to get pre-reactions to certain things before presenting to the group owner.

So wasn't surprised really to see this group has been around about that length of time.

I doubt it is a Phnee-only rule though it might be canon 'character death' that was the flag that pushed their buttons and got them to revise their group rules. Death does tend to be perceived as a way of removing a character completely or of changing to ghost status.

However, fully understand that getting such a email is bound to effect you and your sense of relationship to the game. I have had my knuckles smacked (even as a mod) for certain storylines and there have been times when I have been ready to throw in the towel over it. Ditto for when the owner has decided on 'new rule' which seems to threaten creative expression.

I would hope that there is also a forum for some kind of OOC discussions of points like this about where the lines are drawn etc. and what kind of things are subject to clearance. It certainly is not fair to go *splat* without explanation or forum for discussion.

Re: Jumpy Mods

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there is a forum for OOC discussion, but somehow I don't see myself going there to bitch about this.

I don't know. I guess it's because I put so much effort into making this plotline into something interesting and dynamic and long-term that I'm so upset.

It's not like I was just planning to drop this bombshell and then leave the group or something.

Not to mention that these people are supposed to be my friends, and they didn't even bother to send me a friendly email. They went right away into "moderator" mode, whereas a more informal approach would probably have been better received.

Re: Jumpy Mods

[caersidi.livejournal.com]

I agree and as your friend below has stated, it probably was something they had been thinking about and only now acted upon. However, an informal email would have been courteous even if they were pointing out that from now on such major plot developments needed clearance. I don't think anyone is every comfortable in these situations though and sometimes people make the wrong call.

I know well the situation of a friend pulling 'mod mode' over a more casual approach. There is one person on my friends list whom I have hardly exchanged a word with since the last blow-up we had on our list about the validity of certain posting styles and characters. It will all be 'water under the bridge' no doubt at some point but it can be hurtful.

Role play of all kinds is tremendously intense despite being 'only a game'.

I did pop over and view the community as well. Your move did seem to generate a great deal of activity.

Re: Jumpy Mods

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I'd really like to believe that this was something they were planning all along, but it seems vaguely implausible to me.

There wasn't even the vaguest hint of a whisper about it on the OOC list, not to mention that at least ONE of the mods IM'd me privately (before the email) to tell me how great the plot point was.

I think someone somwhere freaked out and I just happened to be the catalyst.

My move *was* calculated to create a disturbance. I was beginning to feel that people were getting a little bit complacent and thinking that their characters were god-like and indestructible (not everyone, of course).Angst-ridden sure, but otherwise invulnerable. Casting wandless magic, Unforgivable Curses, what have you.

I didn't want to just get up on a soap box and preach at them not to be power gamers. So I took an NPC death plot I had lurking in the back of my mind and expanded it. I wanted to remind people that death *does* exist in Harry Potter and that characters are not always all-powerful.

At the same time, I in return got to do some really interesting character and plot development (no, I'm not abandoning Charlie in Hades with no hope of escape).

So while I am fully able to see the reasoning behind the mods' email, I found their methods and even their reaction highly distasteful.

[kitten759.livejournal.com]

What kind of BS is that? I mean I can kind of under stand where the mods are coming from, but it is your character and you should be able to do with it what you like.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much where I stand right now. I understand where they're coming from, but to switch from laissez-faire to "you must run all plotlines by us first" is irksome at best.

*grr*

[mina-laury.livejournal.com]

Well, I can see that getting emails saying 'we'd like to be able to do this or that if you leave the RPG' when you had no intention of leaving the RPG is enough to make anyone feel unloved. Particularly since you didn't do anything to violate the rules as they stood at the time when you posted the Charlie's death plotline. The mods were probably mulling the 'inform us of any major plotlines' rule over for months and it was just shitty timing that it popped up in the wake of the Charlie shebang (which I really enjoyed reading, by the way) but I can still see how it looked like a rap over the knuckles. *hug*. You have every right to feel angry and hurt.

I have no idea how much experience running RPs the mods have - for all I know they have a damn sight more than I do - but I think this is the first major canon character death in the history of this particular RP, so maybe it's not so surprising if they were somewhat spooked by it. Running something that's blossomed in the way Reparo has must be a tough learning process. Also, there are good players and bad players everywhere, and they might have thought 'Well, Phnee wouldn't kill off one of her characters because she can't manage two, but some less experienced roleplayer might. Better close that loophole'.

If it was me I'd probably write back to them explaining your good reasons for killing off Charlie - look at all the RP it's generated. A world can't remain static. I also think that it's in the spirit of the Potter books, if one can define such a thing, that people die, are mourned, and frequently inspire people to go clobber the Death Eaters in their memory. Nicolas Flamel didn't find a spare stash of eternity-juice in the panelling and Cedric Diggory didn't get up again saying 'Just a flesh wound!'.

But then it's not my RP. It's theirs, and yours, and the other players'. From all I've seen of them the mods are reasonable people. So are you. Really, I would be inclined to talk to them about it and see whether you can reassure them that you weren't just killing Charlie off for no good reason. Besides, in a world that includes ghosts, it's not as if he has to be gone for good ;)

*hugs, if wanted*

Stevy

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

*hugs back*

[caersidi.livejournal.com]

We as the Reparo Mods need to know where you are planning to go with Charlie's death.

Just re-reading email you received.

Perhaps an assurance, without giving details of what you had specifically planned, that you are not about to abandon the game or character and that you are working on 'something' but would prefer not to give details would give them what they need without compromising your creativity.

I just recalled an instance where my character's son appeared to have committed suicide and I got a little freaked out as it impacted so strongly on my character and the writing we were doing. The assurance by the person writing him which was very brief in terms of 'don't panic, trust us, all will be sorted out' helped very much.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

See, a question formulated like that would have been fine for me.

But basically coming out and indirectly telling me that I *will* be leaving the RPG (they didn't see fit to ask me about it at all, they just assumed) and going on in an accusatory tone that leads one to think they're just under the impression that I'm trying to sabotage the RPG or something, is just damned aggravating.

Bah. Humbug. Will cease ranting now. I'll get over it sooner or later. Right now I'm still pissed off.

[mhw.livejournal.com]

I trust you. I still feel like I've been punched in the guts, but I trust you. I always have.

I don't know what you, or I, or anyone else can do to heal the Charlie-shaped hole in me, but I trust you.

I can't speak from the mod POV, because I'm not a mod. All I can do is talk about how I feel. I don't think if you'd warned us it was going to happen it would have made things any easier for me. I've had the Fred/Seamus/Draco complex hanging over me pretty much since I joined, and knowing it was going to happen hasn't made it, I think, perceptibly less painful for me. But I trust you. You wouldn't have done this if it weren't right.

But there *are* players there I don't trust so well. I'm not going to name names, 'cause that would be invidious, but it's true. If one of them had done this - announced or not - well, in a way they couldn't because they don't play anyone I care about so much - well hell, I wouldn't have known that whatever the reasons it would have been for good ones. If the new rule holds them in check, then I'm happier for it. I don't see it as anything to restrain you.