It’s come to my attention that some toxic gaming culture is spilling over into our state’s interactions with each other – specifically racism, misogyny, homophobia, jokes about special needs, and general aggression from behind the safety of a screen. I recognize I cannot police the actions of every person, but wish to express my disappointment in this behavior and say that I feel this is NOT acceptable.
We should soundly reject any language coming out of the mouths of our people, leaders especially, that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes hatred as something acceptable in day to day life. Reject any language that demonizes those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people who may be of a different race or different religion or that speak a different language are threats to our way of life. Such language isn’t new — it’s been at the root of most human tragedy throughout history, here in America where I live, and around the world. A friend of mine in my first alliance in this game lost his wife to a rocket attack largely due to what I am discussing above.
I realize that most often these things are not malicious in intent and not intended to directly harm, or are said in the heat of the moment when passion gets the better of judgement, but please know that people are made uncomfortable or are even directly affected but may not wish to say anything in chat. For those of you that actually do have biases towards gender, ethnicity, LGBTQ, special needs, I am disappointed in you.
So for clarity: no rape jokes. No racist statements targeting nationality. No jokes or angry messages about homosexuality, lesbians, transgendered or bisexual folx. No handicap jokes. Reign in your aggression. Think about how your statement would hurt your mother, father, sister, brother, cousin, grandparent, child etc if they were listening and identified as any of the above things.
In this leadership position, I feel it is my responsibility to not only to lead you in crushing enemies outside of the state and see them driven before us (in game), but also to help educate in the right and wrongs of society / cultural norms to create a safe container for self expression and play so there is a comfortable place for people to spend their recreational time. Thank you for making it through this wall of text, and I look forward to seeing you in game.
Your comrade in arms,
Murderbot
State 596 - Last Shelter 