Aunty Alianore's Corner, Volume I, Issue 5: Kidding Around

Fun and games often can lead to misinterpretation, which
can cause anger and other conflict.

A while back, I found myself needing to deal with a situation between a few players where an "inside joke" that was being bandied around in the game took a really bad turn.  What had started as playing around a long-standing joke led to anger and hurt feelings.  Through much discussion and investigation, the problems and animosity between the players was resolved, however, as usual, it inspired me write a little bit about player relations.

After developing player friendships, we sometimes create among ourselves little jokes and expressions that have meaning to us and become a "code" so that when we see each other in game, it becomes another game we play with each other.  This is seen in real life as much as in game playing, expressions and teasing that binds us together and functions as a reminder of a previously memorable time that adds another layer exclusivity on our relationships.  These things we have with our friends are important and special!  However, even if, say, referring to our special friends using certain name-calling or saying a certain phrase is understood between you, others that are in your area, or who are not "in on the joke," may lead to some serious misunderstanding.


So Aunty A has a few things to keep in mind when you and your friends get together in game and start teasing each other:

• Bad words:  Be aware that some names you might call each other are potentially offensive and that could put you in violation of the game rules regarding language usage.
• Know who your audience is:  Where you and your friends think that a certain type of joking is funny, there are others who may be viewing your discussion and may take offense because those types of discussions violate their personal views.
• Respect the diversity:  We have players from all around the world, and certain name-calling might be an ethnic or racial slur in another's country.
• Understand diversity:  In certain cultures, some topics and statements are extremely taboo...whereas a "your mama..." joke is funny in some places, in other places this will cause incredible offense.
• Know when to stop:  If your conversation appears to be turning from fun teasing to ugly statements back and forth, try to be sensitive to the changing mood.  If you sense that another person is getting angry or taking offense, you might want to stop and offer your apologies.  
• Rule breaking:  Disrespecting other players is a ban-able offense, be aware if someone lets you know that they think you are offending them or being disrespectful you can potentially be reported.