User:Moonridden/Sandbox/OptIn

The Opt-In Consent Systems

Explaining the Importance of Consent

Consent in gaming is crucial for ensuring player safety, comfort, and enjoyment by establishing clear boundaries regarding mature or sensitive content.

It fosters a respectful environment, preventing emotional distress by allowing players to communicate what they want to be involved with, or avoid, in games. This proactivity is essential for maintaining a fun, inclusive, and emotionally secure experience.

Core to our philosophy is the choice to decide your involvement in content offered. While Space Station 13 is still a game, we lean away from traditional values and cultures within the game. Many of our policies and programs offer choices on how you engage with the game, and how the game can impact you. We are constantly looking for ways to improve this directive. Outside of Rules, Policy and Situational based opportunities to provide or revoke consent, we also have some code solutions to assist with this.

Opts lean in two different directions: No, and 'How Much'. Part of the way this system keeps its integrity is through strict adherence to principles of respect. You may waive your No / Opt-Out depending on your actions, regardless of your current setting.

That means that you may need to turn a blind eye, let sleeping dogs lie, and not interfere to maintain the respect for yourself. It may mean you need to behave a certain way.

There are currently two major types of Opts; Antagonist and Erotic.

Antagonist Opts

The Antagonist Opt system allows you to establish the basis of how you want to be involved with violent and criminal activities, as well as establishing code level immunity to certain systems. There are many complexities to the layers of Opt that we offer.

Antag Opt-Out

The Antag Opt-Out preference comes with a number of expectations to support it's allowances. You must do one thing, to ensure that you are allowed to do another. The Station's Narrative is one of day-to-day struggle in the face of maintaining a Space Station in a dangerous area. You may choose to recluse yourself from Systemic decisions made on, from Admin interference for fun, or from violent measures taken against you. However, your preferences are not the preferences of others. Both Antagonistic Characters and yourself have individual roles of respect to play in the stage-play that is Nova Sector. Failure to follow Obligations results in the situational voiding of your Opt-Out.

Opt-Out Pref Holders cannot be selected automatically by the Antagonist System, nor maliciously targeted with events by Staff. They should not be targeted directly for Self Antagonism without narrative escalation or through following the Obligations sections.

Opt-Out Pref Holders are not immune from circumstance, situation, or the consequences from failing to disengage. This is always judged situationally by Staff.

Opt-Out only applies to the individual, not the Department. If you are in the presence of someone with a greater Opt status, and they become involved with something, you must decide to protect your Opt-Out by disengaging freely, or void it by participating.

The Antagonism Opt-Out Clause

If you are Antag Opt-Out, you may invoke a Metaprotection known a known as the 'Opt-Out Clause' through LOOC for situations that are, game wise, narratively difficult to navigate, particularly in the face of charges such as Corporate Regulation's Criminal Negligence. This Clause is used to navigate the minutiae of 'Remaining Uninvolved With the Chaos'. If you have to make decisions that could force you into a situation where your Opt-Out may be challenged, such as handling questions like 'why did you not interfere or say anything'. Some players do not want to be a part of the dramatics or Chaos. They may have plans for the shift. While the Station is not ever fully a Safe Zone, and by being on station you agree to some level of collateral effect, you may invoke this clause to remain directly untargeted.

Invoking this Clause should leave you functionally invisible for direct action by Antagonism, and is your only opportunity to fully disengage with the situation.

If you believe someone is maliciously taking advantage of the situation, you follow Core Rule 1 and report them by Admin Help with full context, so that Staff may investigate.

Opt-Out Pref Holder Obligations

When interacting with Criminals and Antagonists as someone On The Clock (having a position on the Station Manifest in a department that is not a Civilian, Tourist, or Assistant, or similar) you agree to interact in a particular way to maintain your neutrality.

Path A:

• You invoke the 'Opt Out Clause'. You completely and utterly ignore them, and they ignore you, until they leave your Department. That includes if they decide to destroy your door to gain access to your department.

Path B:

• When in a Department, you must allow access to anyone violently threatening you. If requested to perform a function of your Department, you must comply.
• You must not inform anyone about allowing this person access until they have left your department. This includes pointing to, alluding, or any subtle or subtler indication.
• You must not interfere with their goals, plans, or actions. This includes body-blocking, resource guarding, flicking the lights, or providing any mechanical hindrance to their goals.
• You must not be socially depressing or spiteful about the fact that you are having to comply on an OOC level. This is something you are choosing.

You are expected to act like a background character or an NPC, while still roleplaying, to maintain your Opt-Out status. If you do not comply with the above, you are immediately upgraded to Opt-Inconvenience or Opt-Kill for that situation.

Loudly reporting

Antagonism vs Opt-Outs Obligations

When interacting with someone that is Antag Opt-Out, whether you are doing Self Antagonism or as an actual Antagonist, you must be taking steps to ensure both of you are behaving under the Social Contract of the Opt system.

As long as you can verify someone as Opt-Out, you must follow these obligations while taking advantage of them under this policy. This is a contextual issue, as they have two choices they can make.

• You may not be excessively rude about talking down to these characters, as this is a system founded on respect.
• You may not physically harm them.
• You may not mug them. This includes copying their ID for access with an Agent Card, or anything comparable.
• You may not take unique objects from them or their department. An example of this would be stealing that person's personal affects.
• You cannot excessively rob them of resources. An example of this would be depriving the lone doctor of their med satchel.

Otherwise, using the Pref Holder Obligations section, you have the entitlement to use them and their department access to your benefit, as long as you are respectful to them as a Writer.

If you find someone that is intentionally, provably, maliciously violating their Opt Out you should immediately Admin Help.

Antag Opt-Inconvenience

This Opt allows for a moderate level of engagement with Antagonism while typically shielding you from serious repercussions. You can still be physically injured with this Opt, but it should be unlikely to result in your death.

Opt-Inconvenience exposes you to some objectives with the Antagonist System.

As with Opt-Out, failing to meet your Pref Holder Obligations will result in you being escalated to the next level, which is Opt-Kill.

Opt-Inconvenience Pref Holder Obligations

• Do not utilize lethal force. If you use a weapon which may be interpreted as lethal, such as rubber rounds in ballistics, it is your fault if lethal force is applied to you as a result.
• Do not use crowd control methods such as Super Melatonin, Flash Bangs, or anything lacking a perfect theoretical counter.

Antagonism vs Opt-Inconvenience Obligations

• Avoid introducing situations which may kill the target.
• Avoid inflicting wounds which may kill the target.
• Avoid putting the target into crit. Attempt to stabilize them if reasonable, then disengage.

Antag Opt-Kill

This Opt allows for your character's death with an OOC level of consent in active targeting. It is the 'lethal means' section, and captures many concepts exceeding just your death.

It is an indicator that you are fully mechanically engaged. Some roles have forced Opt-Kill, such as Security and Command.

Opt-Kill does not prevent you from gruesome endings, it specifically prevents you from being forced into total annihilation or estrangement by being unlocatable, such as being stripped and thrown into deep space.

Antagonism vs Opt-Kill Obligations

• Do not intentionally debrain, gib, or spacedump them.
• Do not leave them sensorless. Given opportunity, you must adjust their sensors when convenient.
  • This is only violable if you leave their body in a very public space.
• Do not intentionally desecrate their corpse by causing ridiculous levels of damage to it, such as total dismemberment and evisceration if their death did not immediately result in such. Let the dead rest.

Antag Opt-Round Remove

This Opt provides an additional layer of engagement with violent systems and experiences. This is our current 'Hurt Me' Opt.

Opt-Round Remove permits anyone to treat your character in any style of destructive manner. You may be atomized, ashed, gibbed, spaced, left face down and naked in maintenance, or disfigured beyond recognition.

No one has any obligation to provide you with any level of safety or bodily respect. Simple Mob Antagonists are not obligated to return your body. Anyone may decide the end of your shift, given opportunity and escalation or circumstance.