Hello,
Lets start with reminding you all about the following points from the Ryzom Code of Conduct (CoC):
"A. Disagreement with another player
In the case of a disagreement with another player, you are expected to try to find to an amicable settlement yourselves. A ticket should be a recourse of last resort; it should only be sent if you are not able to resolve the situation and a third party needs to become involved.
If you have to resort to sending the above-mentioned ticket, it is important to take screenshot(s), depending on the situation, for further reference. It is essential that the screenshot(s) show(s) the entire in-game screen and has not been changed in any way (censorship or anything else) in order to be considered acceptable. It has to show clearly the violation that you want to point out. Note that a screenshot showing the open map allows us to see the Atysian date, which is easily transposable to a real date. We also accept videos. For any other questions, you can contact us directly in game through a /tell if a CSR is online, through Rocket Chat, or through an e-mail sent to support@ryzom.com.
N.B. Any abuse of the ticket system will be documented and sanctioned."
and
"The Support Team
......
Members of Support are in charge of solving the various problem related to the game (technical, disciplinary, etc.). They must behave with politeness and courtesy at all times. If you have a disagreement with a member, you can address a complaint, duly documented, to support@ryzom.com which will be forwarded to the head of Support. Any unfair complaint against a member of Support may be subject to a sanction.
...
The Support Team is subject to strict rules that prohibit them from teaming, exchanging with, dueling with any player, or resurrecting them. These rules also forbid them from using their powers for any purpose other than those defined within the context of their function, under risk of removal of their CSR account, or even their player account. In addition, CSRs are not allowed to process tickets involving their own player guilds or characters.
In accordance with these rules, control tools record all critical commands used by CSRs (as well as members of other teams) and display them internally for real-time control by all. Each connection of a member of Support (and of other teams) is also visible so that everyone can verify that no one has usurped their account."
___________
Now lets get back to the point of this thread: Public shaming
According to the CoC, this is not how we like to solve problems between players. It can be reported as harassment and this would be counterproductive to the aim of posting public shaming messages in public channels and on forums. Violence against the CoC should be documented as much as possible and reported. I know it is rather difficult to take good screenshots while running for your life chased by five Vorax and a Jugula, but in order to have proof of the violation, we do need this. As for the impression that some players constantly reports other players for violence against the CoC, this is clearly not based on facts. At least not facts that are easily verified by looking at the tickets we receive.
I do agree that the CoC is not easy to uphold as long as the game mechanics are not designed to work with it on a more automatic approach. We have tried to rectify some of it by changing the game mechanics, but we are limited to work within a very old game code and our options are not as good as we would wish in this respect. So this leaves us with the current newly revised CoC and the necessity of players reporting offences against it.
The history of our CoC is long and it has been revised a number of times. It is an intrinsic part of the history of Ryzom and it is for good and bad a reason we have the community we do and why Ryzom is known as a game with a lets call it softer side than pure PvP games. I see some of you are calling for a free for all use of game mechanics, full PvP etc, but this would not be Ryzom for most of our players.
Some have also raised a question about the impartiality of CSRs in this thread and implies that our powers are abused. I would like to ask you to report any abuse you come across according to the rule posted in the beginning of my reply. I would also like to ask you not to spread rumors and hearsay without facts in public channels, but again, contact support via email instead. Support also have a long history starting before the game went retail and it has changed with different owners, leaders, varying number of servers and languages. Currently we are better organised than ever before and have better tools. We are running according to strict rules and any abuse of powers are dealt with accordingly. Any sanction involving suspensions are discussed and evidence thoroughly examined before they are put into effect and minor sanctions are monitored. Based on my own experience with Support from the start, I can safely say we have never run a tighter ship than we do now.
Lets start with reminding you all about the following points from the Ryzom Code of Conduct (CoC):
"A. Disagreement with another player
In the case of a disagreement with another player, you are expected to try to find to an amicable settlement yourselves. A ticket should be a recourse of last resort; it should only be sent if you are not able to resolve the situation and a third party needs to become involved.
If you have to resort to sending the above-mentioned ticket, it is important to take screenshot(s), depending on the situation, for further reference. It is essential that the screenshot(s) show(s) the entire in-game screen and has not been changed in any way (censorship or anything else) in order to be considered acceptable. It has to show clearly the violation that you want to point out. Note that a screenshot showing the open map allows us to see the Atysian date, which is easily transposable to a real date. We also accept videos. For any other questions, you can contact us directly in game through a /tell if a CSR is online, through Rocket Chat, or through an e-mail sent to support@ryzom.com.
N.B. Any abuse of the ticket system will be documented and sanctioned."
and
"The Support Team
......
Members of Support are in charge of solving the various problem related to the game (technical, disciplinary, etc.). They must behave with politeness and courtesy at all times. If you have a disagreement with a member, you can address a complaint, duly documented, to support@ryzom.com which will be forwarded to the head of Support. Any unfair complaint against a member of Support may be subject to a sanction.
...
The Support Team is subject to strict rules that prohibit them from teaming, exchanging with, dueling with any player, or resurrecting them. These rules also forbid them from using their powers for any purpose other than those defined within the context of their function, under risk of removal of their CSR account, or even their player account. In addition, CSRs are not allowed to process tickets involving their own player guilds or characters.
In accordance with these rules, control tools record all critical commands used by CSRs (as well as members of other teams) and display them internally for real-time control by all. Each connection of a member of Support (and of other teams) is also visible so that everyone can verify that no one has usurped their account."
___________
Now lets get back to the point of this thread: Public shaming
According to the CoC, this is not how we like to solve problems between players. It can be reported as harassment and this would be counterproductive to the aim of posting public shaming messages in public channels and on forums. Violence against the CoC should be documented as much as possible and reported. I know it is rather difficult to take good screenshots while running for your life chased by five Vorax and a Jugula, but in order to have proof of the violation, we do need this. As for the impression that some players constantly reports other players for violence against the CoC, this is clearly not based on facts. At least not facts that are easily verified by looking at the tickets we receive.
I do agree that the CoC is not easy to uphold as long as the game mechanics are not designed to work with it on a more automatic approach. We have tried to rectify some of it by changing the game mechanics, but we are limited to work within a very old game code and our options are not as good as we would wish in this respect. So this leaves us with the current newly revised CoC and the necessity of players reporting offences against it.
The history of our CoC is long and it has been revised a number of times. It is an intrinsic part of the history of Ryzom and it is for good and bad a reason we have the community we do and why Ryzom is known as a game with a lets call it softer side than pure PvP games. I see some of you are calling for a free for all use of game mechanics, full PvP etc, but this would not be Ryzom for most of our players.
Some have also raised a question about the impartiality of CSRs in this thread and implies that our powers are abused. I would like to ask you to report any abuse you come across according to the rule posted in the beginning of my reply. I would also like to ask you not to spread rumors and hearsay without facts in public channels, but again, contact support via email instead. Support also have a long history starting before the game went retail and it has changed with different owners, leaders, varying number of servers and languages. Currently we are better organised than ever before and have better tools. We are running according to strict rules and any abuse of powers are dealt with accordingly. Any sanction involving suspensions are discussed and evidence thoroughly examined before they are put into effect and minor sanctions are monitored. Based on my own experience with Support from the start, I can safely say we have never run a tighter ship than we do now.
---
TiximeiSenior Game Master
Ryzom Support Team