@Rinel said in MU Peeves Thread:
I’m being very vague on purpose here, and I’m not going to elaborate.
I play on a game where someone is playing a minority character. The way they are playing that character strikes me as not quite right. It feels stereotyped and almost offensive. It does not feel natural to me.
I’m not a member of that minority. I definitely don’t have the breadth of knowledge to even guess as to whether the player is a member of that minority. I have very vague vibes that make me uncomfortable, and because I’m not directly affected by the portrayal I’m unwilling to get others involved.
“But Rinel then why are you talking about it here—” Because this is venting and it’s a situation where I feel guilty for any action I do or do not take and I want to vent about it.
There’s been a long history of people playing what comes across as ethnic caricatures in this hobby and it’s more jarring nowadays because people in the hobby aren’t really drinking from the firehose of 90s WoD sourcebooks (This is a whole topic all its own) anymore. Sometimes they’re just innocently ignorant or a pose comes off wrong, but sometimes it’s a fucking minstrel show. This is a “know it when you see it” sort of thing. Plenty of us have acted out of ignorance in the past and a reasonable person will try to do their best when calmly taken aside and told “Hey, this comes across as demeaning or stereotyping because <X>.” Some people are more reasonable than others.
So anyway, Why feel guilty? I’m not asking this in a negative way, but IMO at the end of the day, the responsibility for maintaining a game’s environment falls upon the shoulders of staff. If something bothers you, bring it up to staff and gauge their response. If they’re on top of their job, they’ll at least make some attempt to address it, whether it’s clearing up confusion or correcting someone else’s behavior.
Now, staff may not be aware of a problem. Or the bad actor in question may have a history of doing this particular thing but is tight with staff, in which case, lolllll good luck. I personally wouldn’t touch that particular poop but now I’m starting to sound like someone with an axe to grind.