For whatever reason, the last few weeks have seen a rise in some unfortunate behaviour, tempers running high, and subsequent issues filed, so we wanted to take a moment to clarify some common problems/misunderstandings.


PK in Achaea
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When someone has a reason to kill your character, they may attempt to kill your character and fail. This failure does not negate their reason to kill you. From their perspective and as part of their roleplay, you still owe them a death. Repeated attempts to ascertain the kill are not griefing or harassment (although it might reflect on their skill).

If you take issue with someone's contract reason, do not kill them back or hire back. This is circular and repeated back and forth deaths are not going to convince either party to change their minds. If you cannot resolve these differences with RP (not PK), file an issue against the person and we will look into it. This is the most common way circular PK is instigated.

As always, if you have a problem with being hunted down and killed, you can avoid this entirely by not involving yourself in combat scenarios. We have a high bar for what is considered egregious PK and in almost all circumstances, grievances and perceived injustices can be solved with some self reflection.


OOC in Achaea
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Achaea is a roleplaying game. Everyone who creates a character is agreeing to be in character in public locations. Unless someone agrees to converse in an OOC manner with you, do not go OOC with people. OOC is opt in, and this includes tells. RP "shields" like // or (( will not protect you.

It should go without saying that threatening someone OOCly is not okay, not ever. Don't do this it will not end well.

ISSUEs are OOC. Mentioning issues on city channels, in says with your enemies, in tells with people who have not agreed to go OOC with you, and any similar contexts will very likely earn you a credibility dock. At minimum, this is likely to elicit a warning and a reminder to remain IC in public-Achaea. Threatening someone with issues will not only earn you a credibility dock (for being OOC), but will almost always ensure that your subsequently filed issue is dismissed. Administrative punishment is not your bludgeon to ensure people play the way you want.

The THINK command is an IC roleplay device. Do not use it to communicate with the administration. Again, this will earn a warning or credibility dock. If you wish to communicate with the administration, file an ISSUE or send us an email.


Discriminatory language
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As this has serious repercussions for your characters, we're going to explain what this is and means in Achaea.

Achaea is a game on the internet, and the standards for behaviour across the internet, bolstered by the anonymity of the medium, have afforded a great leeway for people to be graceless, and for people to insult one another without care. Commonly we see it, even in our community, where people sink to being unkind without care for the fact that we are talking to other people. The lack of face-to-face interaction allows many Achaeans to feel as if they can say whatever they wish without consequence.

The internet has somewhat normalised terrible behaviour towards other people. It facilitates division, it encourages kneejerk reactions with minimal engagement, it enables us to often and easily be our worst selves, and with a VPN who even cares about the subsequent ban? It is even easier to roll our eyes at "woke" or "snowflake" culture (loath as I am to use these terms, we hear them used to describe the admin team semi-often), and employ some colourful discriminatory language or meme to deride and dismiss those who are trying to inject a modicum of humanity back into our social interactions.

Discriminatory language is defined by using aspects of a person that they have no choice in (I.E gender, race, disability, sexual orientation) to insult, denigrate, or use as the punchline to a joke. The common themes found in discriminatory language are often disadvantaged, overlooked, or persecuted groups - considered to be easy targets.

EXAMPLE: If you recently killed someone and they are crying about it, they are not being "a woman". This is discriminatory (misogyny) as you are using women as the punchline for your quip and implying that women are lesser.

EXAMPLE: If you are trying to explain something to a newbie and they are not getting it, they are not being "a retard". Again, this is discriminatory (ableism).

EXAMPLE: Conversely, calling someone a "piece of shit" or "an idiot" is not discriminatory, these are simply descriptive of someone's actions and behaviours and does not invoke a protected group of people in order to create an insult. Just because you do not like something does not automatically make it discriminatory content.

We do understand that for many this is going to be a learning process (for us as well!) Often we don't even realise the words we use in daily conversation. With that in mind we approach all accusations with the benefit of the doubt; we will warn first before any punishment is doled out.

If you continue to be the lowest common denominator after a warning, then we will consider your slips wilful and administrative punishment will be levied. No one is going to lose access to their character for a simple foot-in-mouth moment and often an apology will quell any report, but we will inform you when you are inappropriate so that you can do better.

With that said, the team is not perfect and we do not monitor everything entered into Achaea in a live setting. We do however keep good records and we can look back to verify and ascertain context and content when we are made aware of problem behaviour. If you believe someone is using discriminatory language, or worse, hatespeech, please file an issue.

HELP LANGUAGE RULES is clear, discriminatory language is not welcome in Achaea, and those who cannot play Achaea without expressing themselves in this way are also not welcome.

We would like to add one caveat: the above is all OOC. In character prejudice and discrimination when handled appropriately is acceptable. This is easily distinguished and our tolerance for people who cannot distinguish between the two situations is extremely low.

Our intentions here are twofold: for our PLAYERS to feel OOCly safe in Achaea and for our CHARACTERS to not. We have a very long way to go, and are aware of this, but we are working on it.

We will be updating the relevant helpfiles throughout today.



Penned by My hand on the 18th of Daedalan, in the year 865 AF.