Lab
Radio Bob Approved
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2021
- Messages
- 283
- Thread Author
- #1
This is a personal complaint about what I've experienced the past day, and the implications that follow. This may or may not apply broadly. Whether it has or not, I think the 'complaints' section is still the appropriate place for me to write this.
As a disclaimer, I decided to investigate this OOC'ly by looking through logs as well as a datapad file OOC'ly. I'm aware this might be a 'rule break' as I'm 'metagaming', but this has purely been done in the interest of concern about occurrences OOC'ly, not IC'ly. Nothing viewed OOC'ly will be taken IC'ly by my character.
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I adhere to the strong personal principle of not complaining, and taking everything that happens to my character however unfair, IC (within reason). I've stretched out the threshold of 'reason' to its maximum. I believe I've consistently been good faith about withholding gripes and swallowing my pride, as it's, at the end of the day, a good opportunity to create story arcs and develop!
But I believe what happened today was a bridge too far, and has begun to spill into the realm of being OOC'ly unacceptable.
My character (Edward Urey) experienced a drop in 45 Social Credits today, dropping him below 0 SC.
On its own this is not a big deal to me, for the aforementioned reasons.
Figure 1: 1st of November Charges
Figure 2: (Depicted) 0 Social Credits
My character has subsequently been arrested (again...) had all his belongings taken, and cuffed, collared, garbed in inmate's attire, and is slated to be (presumably) executed.
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So WHAT is the actual problem here? What am I complaining about? This seems like fair game IC'ly. Repeated crimes dropping my points further and further till eventually I hit 0.
Well, not exactly...
This complaint will discuss the frankly, extremely unfair charges levied against my character that are either completely unsubstantiated, bloated beyond what is even acceptable according to the handbook, or outright given due to (what I believe) is poor reading comprehension on the charger's part.
Again, this is only now a problem because my character is going to be KILLED for it. I do not endorse complaining about unfair charges if they are granted in good-faith and serve an IC narrative purpose. However in this case, I do not believe this what is happening.
Let's begin.
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1. The Doozy
Let's start off with the biggest charge(s).
Figure 3: The Doozy Charges
Figure 4: Corresponding Title Violations
The first thing to note is that these citations were given on YELLOW sociostatus, which means they should NOT be up-tiered to -15 points. The regular amount of -5 to -10 should have been administered.
Figure 5 & 6: Civil Protection Index
Anyways.
With that aside, the V186 charge (failure to wear proper uniform) is correct, considering Urey is now an underclass and was not wearing a black armband.
But the V415 charge is completely unsubstantiated. It comes from 2 completely unsubstantiated claims.
1. That he was aggressive to citizens in the workshift that had occurred just prior.
2. That he was intoxicated.
Both of these claims are not only incorrect, but unsubstantiated.
The first claim was made to the officers by a random passer-by who attended the workshift, who attended for 5-10 minutes. I suppose the character didn't like the attitude Edward took during the workshift (who was lazing and complaining). But the fact that all this character had to say was 'yeah he cussed out people in the workshift' (Not even true) and the officers to believe him without further investigation is problematic on its own.
The second point, arises from, perhaps, the weirdest misinterpretation and conjecture I've ever witnessed.
Which is, that my character was drunk because he was walking slowly. (alt walking)
Figure 7: Slow-walk = drunk
Strange claim on its own. I even specified through the /me that there was no evidence that my character was drunk (I had drank 0 alcohol prior to this moment, my inebriation level was therefore at 0).
Not sure if this is a reading comprehension issue, or I was simply ignored by all 3 characters, but there was no further roleplay done to investigate this claim further. No sobriety test (which my character suggested), no roleplay, nothing. Except for...
...inference that came after...
Figure 8: Alcohol on person = drunk
Stunning detective-work here. My character had alcohol on his person, and thus, there is no room for doubt that he must have been drunk! The charge went through for this reason, and this reason alone. -15 SC which was up-tiered incorrectly. So a doubly-fail.
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CONCLUSION:
All-in-all, I was given 2 charges (both up-tiered without warrant) for a grand total of -30 SC.
The reason? Walking too slowly, and having alcohol on my person (which I don't believe is illegal??)
When in reality, I should have only been charged with the V186 for -5 or -10 SC. Which is ≥ 20 SC deducted more than it should have been, in 1 interaction.
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2. "You're being rude!!"
I always found the 'being rude' charge to be... odd and rather petty. I've always disagreed that it should be a charge in the handbook. But that aside, let's assume the charge has a good reason to be there.
Figure 10: Index V507
In this case, yes, my character was given the charge for 'having attitude' to a cop.
Let's investigate this a bit further. Maybe the cop has a point?
Figure 10: Charge
Figure 11: Corresponding Title Violation
I snooped around in the logs (again) and have found the officer's conclusion. Let's look at it.
Figure 12: First Interaction
The best claim you could make is the /me where I used the word 'disdainfully'. Thereafter, my character CLEARLY backed down, and I clarified his change in tone. Regardless, the officer decided to smash his head into a wall.
Again.. I'm not sure if this is a reading comprehension issue? Or if the character is just being ignored and punished for IC reasons. I'm not sure.
Anyways, from that point there were no problems, I was okay with playing ball with that despite feeling like I'd been ignored. But it's fine.
What came next though, was when my character went to the clinic to be treated for it.
Figure 13: Second Interaction
It is at this point where my character was arrested, and the charge delivered. Presumably for saying 'mmhmm...' Which is... crazy. Like I didn't even intend to display a poor attitude here (maybe I should've made it clearer), but jumping to that conclusion without even ATTEMPTING a /me for interpreting the tone, is... crazy. And a tad unfair.
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CONCLUSION:
Charge shouldn't really have been delivered in the first place.
Deducted points: -10 SC
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3. Suicide
My character was charged for 'attempted suicide'. Despite this not occurring whatsoever.
Figure 14: V099 Charge
Figure 14: Corresponding Title Violation
Now I... don't actually have any logs for this. I've forgotten to get them, so you're just going to have to take my word for it or investigate the scene yourself with logs in room 301 of the Terminal, but I'll give the run-down.
My character asked another character (I will leave them unnamed) to unlock his apartment on level 3 of the Terminal. The plan IC'ly was to scout a place for my character to MAYBE commit suicide through a window IN FUTURE, but there was NOTHING to indicate that this was going to happen, nor did my character ATTEMPT suicide. The window was poked by the other character, mine then had a fit of rage and kicked a wall, then went into the bathroom and was locked in there by the other character, to which I was arrested and charged for an attempt that was not made.
Again no logs to back this up yet. Sorry!
CONCLUSION:
Charge shouldn't really have been delivered in the first place, as it was unsubstantiated.
Deducted points: -5 SC
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4. Erstwhile Double-Charge
This is for something that happened ages ago. My character was charged for the same things twice (3 charges, doubled into 6) by two different characters, accidentally. Doubling the SC deduction.
Figure 15: Corresponding Title Violation
Now you can see that the charges aren't exactly mirrored, but I am pretty sure they were both applied for the same reasons (the V507s, and V096 and V33). I can't substantiate this because it was so long ago and there's no real way of me to do so, but I'm pretty sure this is partially a mistake on the cops part.
I remember this happening on the day, but decided not to broach it because of... you know, OOC complaining being annoying. IC is IC, etc.
CONCLUSION:
Some charges on the 7th of November were double-charged when they shouldn't have been.
Deducted points: Not sure
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BROADER CONCLUSION:
In summary I'll restate what I did in the introduction, which is that I am only disputing these charges because they are unfair AND they will lead to my character's death. If it was simply one or the other, it would be fair game and there would be no grounds for complaint.
Frankly, the interpretation by the officer's today was astounding. I felt ignored, like I wasn't at all being listened to despite spoonfeeding them the answers they were looking for. Very little roleplay was done to further investigate anything, the charges were flippantly applied and were overcharged in some cases. I feel like, since my character is slated for death because of these, there should be some OOC reconsideration into whether these have been diligently and fairly applied.
Would love to hear your thoughts. Please correct anything if wrong.
Thanks.
-Lab
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