Conflict

Over the course of any game, there is bound to be conflict. This is true anywhere a group of people with a variety of backgrounds and personalities meet and interact. So, this is where we come back to the whole 'everyone on the game is considered an adult' thing.

We, as a staff, really don't want to be playing referee all the time. We'd rather rely on the maturity and common sense of our players to sort out their own difficulties in an amicable manner.

But, we're not so foolish as to think there won't be times when even the best players forget, or choose to ignore, the rules of consent or common courtesy, and get their shorts in a knot about something or other. And if there is a situation that goes beyond the ability of the players involved to work out among themselves, staff may be called upon to intervene. We don't want to see it happen too often, but we know it may.

So, here's how we intend to deal with such situations:

There are a couple of ways to request dispute mediation. The first, and easiest way, is to page an on-duty staffer and request their assistance. At that point, the staffer will step in and listen to both sides of the dispute, examine any supporting material, listen to any supporting statements and attempt to come to a fair decision on the matter.

If that doesn't work, you can file a formal complaint by @mail'ing staff with the nature of the dispute, the names of the people involved, and the staff will look into it as soon as we can.

Once we've spoken with everyone involved and looked at the related logs and other material, the staff will come to a decision as to what action should be taken and will take that action as appropriate. Any appeals to this decision should be taken directly to Bahamut, the chief admin.

Whatever happens, remember this:

We believe staff intervention in the form of mediation or arbitration should only be requested when all other avenues of conflict resolution have been exhausted. This includes an 'agreement to disagree'. Staffers really don't want to spend all their time separating people that simply don't know how to play nicely together. Everyone on the game should be a mature, reasonable adult with the ability to work out whatever common problems come up. Thus, the staff sees itself as a last resort in these matters (excepting in matters of harassment, which should be dealt with immediately).

Therefore, don't abuse the right to arbitration or mediation.

Please note and refer back to the age guidelines:

Acting as an adult means you will be adult about handling things in the game, be it ICly or OOCly. Yes, you will be interacting with other adults and as such you should be able to fix instances on your own without staff assistance. If we are called in to handle the problems or occurrences there will be little leniency because we would like to enjoy the game as well and not be spending it hand-holding other adults in poor situations.

If you come to us be it in pages or @mail complaining about another player, tread carefully, we can and likely will handle it as a formal +complaint and something that could have been easily handled as adults between each other will be handled a bit more harshly and with repercussions neither party will like.

Again, we are not here to babysit, coddle, handhold, or act as parental units or authorities. We are here to provide you a game you and we enjoy, so let's keep it that way!


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