Can’t say I’m suprised or that I’m disappointed.
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Damn man I loved aura clash but if the author is actively allowing shit like this to happen then it doesn’t matter if the game was good or not it’s disgusting. I know people say that you should separate the art from the artist but then you’re just indirectly supporting what they think and do with your money or time. It sucks that a well made game is gone but good riddance! We can’t allow bigotry to be tolerated or it will seep into the forum like cancer!
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Considering I tried Aura Clash and did enjoy what I played of it, I also did drop it because they didn’t let me be gay. Which, you know, if the author doesn’t wanna write that it’s fine, it’s their work and their choice and views and shit. I like other women so I’ll just take my attention to things that let me do that in their stories and wish him the best.
But letting that kinda hateful stuff fester in your own server is… yikes. Even if you personally don’t think the homosexual / bi / whatever things are right or that it’s unacceptable, gross, whatever. At least have the decency to keep that kinda hate private and out of your community? Especially if you are the one in charge of said place and looking forward to attempting to monetize your hard work somewhere that is accepting of it.
Not bothering to do anything about it seems like your… shooting yourself in the foot in the long run? I dunno.
Damn man.
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That last part really sucks because this could all have been avoided from the root cause like you said. I had no ideas this happened was wondering why the thread was suddenly locked and I wake up to this.
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Thanks, COG staff!!
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English isn’t my first language and i still understood what the ban was about, more than some people in this thread it seem.
While i understand the sentiment that the Mods here shouldn’t be policing off-site but the author previously link his Discord here, only removed after being told by the Mods i assumed. If he make his Discord server private and hard to access then the Mods would probably even tolerated his echo chamber to a certain extent.
However what some people here seem to not getting is that his Discord member is funneling into CoG forum and making a ruckus of the place with blatant racism and homophobic remark, which took up a huge unnecessary amount of time from the Mods and Staffs, this wouldn’t happened if the author decide to moderated his server somewhat, even if it’s still a den of racist homophobe, but he ain’t which is why this happened.
To put it simply, CoG forum is getting DDoS but instead of bots it’s a horde of people that think this is 4chan, no one want to work overtime for no good reason so please, if you have a different opinions and can’t discuss it politely, just stay in your echo chamber.
Folks, you can’t DDoS a server just because you don’t like it, you don’t tell your viewers/followers to harass another person just because you don’t like them. Granted that the author didn’t tell his discord members to flood CoG forum, however he make no attempt to stop it and as the server owner he have responsibility.
Those discord members aren’t here to discuss WIP games or any games in general, they aren’t here to have a conversation about whatever it is happening in the forum, some of them aren’t even CYOA readers, they are here to harass, annoy people and trolling which is simply a waste of time for anyone involved.
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I feel like I’m a little late here, but everyone should notice that the new ruling is specifically about links placed here by the author. If it isn’t something linked to the forum, then it doesn’t fall under this rule. I don’t see an issue with people needing to watch the type of links they place here, especially if they have control over the content in said link.
I do wonder, though, @dfabulich what would happen if someone else linked a Discord that a writer here controlled poorly? I don’t mean that they are trying to rat them out, just a fan of the work trying to help grow the Discord community that wasn’t otherwise linked by the author. How would you address this kind of scenario? Or what if it is posted for everyone to see as a means to try to get someone banned?
Whenever there is a new rule, I worry about how people could exploit it.
Your issues @NumberedEntity were somewhat already addressed. It’s about what people link to these forums.
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I don’t know Cultivator well. In my experience, he is a family man with an edgy sense of humour who uses this to manage his audience without getting into flame wars.
I have never been to Cultivator’s Discord, but I have visited the 4chan thread which discusses these games. I try to visit places that have mentioned my orc game and answer queries, and/or for a bit of self-promotion (to be clear, I talk only about my game and no other topic. Will I be hunted now?) Here, people sh*t talk and troll about absolutely everything. Every game. Every author. They also, sometimes, discuss things they like about games in critical detail, though not often. Yes, we don’t want that here in these forums.
EDIT: Correction, not every game and every author, there are certain favourites. But many games and many authors if we are being pedantic.
I can understand making a post condemning said speech as not upholding CoG’s values, but this ban and ruling sit very uncomfortably with me. This is oppressive overreach- the new expectations of authors and their responsibility for their audience’s behaviour.
EDIT: Here, it would be better phrased as ‘This could be oppressive overreach,’ as I am questioning the intent and application and not making a statement of certainty.
So, can we, effectively, have someone take a screenshot of someone saying something, and an HG/CoG author not explicitly say anything against it, then use this as a reason to cast judgment or ban? Or, if not now, when can we expect this? When culture shifts, will we apply new expectations retrospectively to account for the new wave of ‘correct language’? Are we now saying pitchfork-wielding mobs are the way to go instead of just not crossing the troll bridge? We have our own bridge here, a shiny bridge without trolls. If we find trolls, we deal with them. But if we go into troll land, what do we expect to find?
I worry where this leads. Anyone with an axe to grind, for any reason, has a new tool to bring in the stomping boots now.
EDIT: @Dvalor53 Thanks mate. I had a scroll. It is more to do with something now being present which wasn’t before and how justifications can creep. An evil overlord can say, ‘Every site is connected by virtue of being on the net’. Of course, it does not have to go this way.
EDIT @Talyrion and @eru I sent you both a message. Slow mode thread.
My concern here is author freedom and the expectation put upon authors in order to publish with HG and CoG. Alt-right, alt-left, I really don’t care, this is irrelevant to my post. To be in virtual (as opposed real life) proximity to someone stating offensive views, whether trolling or not, does not make the virtual bystander someone who agrees with those views.
Mods can act or not act. This time, they have acted. Of course, people would comment on it as Aura Clash is big news in our tiny part of the net.
Who defended a nazi? This is absolutely not what I said. This is now something imposed upon my comment, Adam, because I questioned a decision. By implication, this will have people accusing me of being a nazi.
So now, on this CoG forum thread and not on an outside Discord, we have people digging up the most egregious, hateful accusation they can find and are freely dishing it out or inferring it. Should this be actionable now?
THIS IS EXACTLY MY POINT!
I spoke about authors in general and used myself as an example as I have promoted my game in 4chan. I never engaged in political discussion there, but have posted there. Now, most folks would not know I posted there. But what if I hadn’t mention it and someone found that I did? If someone took a screenshot of my self-promotion post and then somewhere under it someone made an offensive remark, am I culpable? Btw, it is an anonymous board, but I always post under a trip code, so I can be identified. I have nothing to hide.
This demonstrates the point of my post. If we can slip a nazi or nazi-adjacent label onto someone, because they have questioned a decision in regards to its general application, then anything can be justified and you have thus made the slope slippery.
Since this thread is in slow-mode, I will also message you this as I appreciate that you played my game. I don’t want to respond to everyone but feel I had to here. At the end of the day, endless back and forth responses will only result in a lose-lose.
A facetious turn of phrase, alt-right or alt-left, as in, I don’t care, whatever they are. My post is/was not about that. My true colours are what? Shall I say alt-centre so you can get the point? What was the exact right word I should have used to express the alternative to the alt-right that satisfies you? Is this really okay here to pile on with innuendo and accusation? My behaviour in these forums has always been open and friendly. Yes @Bryce_Kaldwin , I read your post. Already, the response to mine has proven my point. If you want, you can hunt for my posts in 4chan, few and far between, and find me my true colours.
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that sound more persecution,coming from someone that dont have anything better to do,using other plataforms to mess with a man job is very wrong,spceialy if is they players fault worse yet is having it on way that make no sense point at who is getting hurt by someone talking shit on a discord,maybe im wrong because im a brasilian and we laugh at everything bad that happen, and i dont know english enough to understand things but this dont sound right to me
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… in retrospect, perhaps his pseudonym literally being cu-anon should have tipped me off.
Hmmm. Aura Clash was kind of a guilty pleasure for me, but reading through this thread, yeah, it makes sense, and definitely explain some of the weird vibes I sometimes got from it (not to mention while I never was all too active on the now locked thread, I remember a few rather distateful conversations there).
Well, I think I’ll add this to the ever-growing pile of “Cultivation in theory seems like a fun playground, but 99% of the time, it’s executed in the most toxic way possible” works.
And the day said shift occurs, we’ll worry. But I’m always… interested… by people trying to use the Als Sie Kamen reasoning… and applying to the alt-right. “First they came for the nazis and I did not speak out because I wasn’t a nazi” doesn’t quite hold the same weight than the original version.
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It amuses me how people call this overreach, tyranny, or any other suitably dramatic aspersion. Really? It’s forum drama! Get a grip! 
CoG isn’t the government; Dan and his lot are not bound by anything but what they decide to do. One can easily, I trust, imagine worse use of their power than cracking down on one that has fostered a community that acts entirely contrary to the values CoG holds; it stands to reason they would not wish to be associated with the things said and done on that server.
Good riddance, I say. Now all that remains is for people to stop acting like this means that suddenly the mods will usher in a new dark era and arbitrarily ban games/people/&c. whenever they don’t like them. They can already do that. They haven’t done so, and I doubt they will, because why on earth would they?
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There’s always been some controversy remember the relics author?. Wonder why he didn’t release his third game here?. This is not the first time
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Yeah that was so unfortunate. They even pulled the demo of their new game I think, since it hasn’t got any updates
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I have no idea how anyone can support Anon or oppose the ban, knowing that he allowed Nazis, homophobes, transphobes and all manner of filth in his space. I am not even talking about his code to prevent people from modding his game for same-sex romances or other problematic things. I applaud the moderators for this decision, better late than never.
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The reason why schliemannsghost left the forum had nothing to do with similar reasons to this, and I ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT ASSURE YOU he’d be the on the frontlines of telling pro-Nazi propagandists to go fuck themselves and die in a fire.
No, those people defend it in general, “happened on a different platform” is just the smokescreen.
(also, EIGHT HOURS of slow mode? Jesus)
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yep, it was this thread: "Vampire: The Masquerade—Sins of the Sires" is a finalist for the 2023 Nebula Game Writing Award!
people got upset that a very subpar work managed to get nominated for something it shouldn’t have
there were two sides, but our guy got banned for sitting on a fence. he took a stance after he was banned
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I’ve been coming to this forum since I was young, and the games here are a big reason I am the way I am and how I’m comfortable in my sexuality and exposing me to a variety of people in the world when my own family would prefer to treat them as if they didn’t exist. I’m very glad the mods did this. There is no place for hate here.
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Is it the actual nazis or the actual nazis? Which in a perfect world there’d not only none, but if they ever reared their ugly heads, every sane person on this planet would deal with them with the “falling hammers be upon ye” cantrip.
We know who the real nazi supporters are and y’all trying so hard "um but have you thought about this, could the nazis be the ones that have never spouted the nazi bs, be the actual nazis? le gasp rethoric doesn’t fly here nor with anyone with a working brain, but it should come to no surpise that nazi defenders, which btw still count as nazis, wouldn’t have any braincells left.
The only thing to do with nazis is to purge them from our world, take that as you will.
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Dude wrote three whole games about fighting Nazis, I have no idea why people think he’d be upset about them booting Nazi sympathizers. He’d be the first in line telling them to fuck off and get out.
This is not. Even if you discount the moral arguments entirely(you shouldn’t do this), this is still just a business saying “If you run a community that we don’t want associated with our brand we’re not going to associate with you.” That’s it. That’s all this is. This kind of stuff happens all the time. CoG markets heavily on inclusion and equality, it makes perfect sense that they wouldn’t want people who run racist and homophobic communities associated with their brand.
Honestly? I don’t care why it started. If somebody runs a community like that, I don’t fucking want them here. The proper amount of tolerance for that kind of shit is “none”.
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