'A Night at Netrunner', or 'That One Guy'

Netrunner General
41

What I would do in that situation is probably:

“Calm down, hoss. This is Netrunner, not Lonely Hearts night.”

And if someone is, like, I dunno, gettin’ real lascivious with the off-color implications about his in-universe relationship with Kati Jones something like:

“Can we confine the KJ erotica to your tear-soaked journal, please? I’m getting distracted.”

My strategy being to one, avoid explicit reference to anyone’s gender and two, avoid setting myself up as an authority figure taking him to task for being naughty.

This way, you take attention away from the person who feels uncomfortable, and you don’t push the person whose behavior you’re trying to correct to challenge your assertion of authority. Which I think are the two most important things to keep in mind when trying to defuse this sort of drama.

5 Likes
42

BULLSHIT. Stimhack is not just a place for strategy discussion but also community building. We are official sponsors of the ANRPC, and as event hosters, the ANRPC is responsible for what goes on at our events and how we handle things like this. This discussion is 100% necessary.

This is stressed in the ANRPC Code of Conduct, which I wrote recently and somehow forgot to post. It’s going up now.

You never know. I know that I am sometimes unintentionally misogynistic and when this stuff gets talked about it brings it to the forefront of our minds and helps us become better people. We all live in a male-centric culture and its only obvious to some people that they’re being fucked up when they first get it pointed out to them.

31 Likes
43

Here’s what I had so far. It’s largely borrowed from a document recommended to me by @kim but I tried to cover all my bases. Please let me know if I should add anything before publishing it.

ANRPC Code of Conduct

All persons attending an ANRPC event are expected to act in a respectful matter towards all other persons attending the event. The following is a code outlining proper and improper behavior, and how improper behavior should be handled. It is of the utmost important to the ANRPC that all players feel respected, welcome, and have a great time, and this code will be strictly enforced to ensure that.

The ANRPC is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity, age, sexual orientation, disability, appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, or religion. Harassment will not be tolerated. Sexual language and imagery is never appropriate. Attendees violating these rules may be barred from the event they are attending and any future events. If any violations take place at an ANRPC event, the attendee in question may be ejected from the event without refund.

In order to maintain a safe environment, the ANRPC will operate on a “see something, say something” policy. Any player who witnesses a violation of the Code of Conduct is compelled to report the incident to the tournament organizers or the president of their ANRPC circuit so that we can take the necessary actions to protect the safety of individuals who attend our events. While we believe that the Netrunner community is one of the most upstanding in all of gaming and that we may never need to sanction any players for violating this code, if an incident does occur, it is imperative that we are informed as soon as possible to prevent further incidents and maintain the sanctity of the environment.

Harrasment includes, but is not limited to:

  • Offensive verbal comments related to gender, gender identity, age, sexual orientation, disability, appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, or religion.
  • Intimidation, stalking, inappropriate contact, or video recording or photography without consent.
  • Repeated instances of small-scale discrimination including but not limited to, staring, gawking, and suggestive comments.
  • Sexual advances.
  • The use of sleeves, playmats, other gaming materials, or apparel depicting pornographic or otherwise inappropriate images.

The TOs will use their discretion when handling each issue to decide whether a warning or an ejection is more appropriate. While we recognize that what constitutes offensive speech or microaggressions may be subjective and/or unintentional, any infraction that causes another player to feel their safety is in any way compromised will be met with immediate ejection. In the event of mild, unintentional infractions, a TO may find that a warning and education might be more appropriate. However, unreceptive behaviour after a warning will never be tolerated.

Reporters of violations of the Code of Conduct will always remain anonymous to protect the identities of individuals who help us to maintain the safety of our events and stem further harassment. This is something that we take very seriously as organizers, and it is imperative that any person who attends our events takes it seriously as well.

Thank you,
The ANRPC Organizers

39 Likes
44

Thank you for this! It’s above and beyond even FFG’s official efforts and super impressive from a fan run circuit.

I’m more a fan on ANRPC every day.

6 Likes
45

I would ax “microaggressions”; it’s a piece of jargon you have to be pretty active in certain circles to even have seen before.

Like, I get that this document is in part intended to reassure people active in those circles that ANRPC takes their concerns seriously. And using their jargon accomplishes that. But as far as informing the people most likely to violate the Code of Conduct what kinds of behaviors are verboten, I think it’s pretty useless.

7 Likes
46

Maybe add a parenthetical explaining? It’s not a super complicated concept.

2 Likes
47

Something that I think should be added here is that the Code should cover a case where a TO is acting inappropriately. The Code currently makes many references to “players” and “All persons attending an ANRPC event”; the former doesn’t include TOs of ANRPC events and the latter might be read as not including TOs. I think it should be made clear that if a TO or organiser violates this Code, they can and should be reported, too.

I’d personally change “Harrasment includes:” to “Harassment includes (but is not limited to):”, just to be clear, but I’m not sure how obvious it is to everyone.

Other than that, it looks good! I can’t think of much else I’d add. Things like these are extremely important, and it’s a fantastic, extremely welcome addition to the circuit. Thank you for creating this.

6 Likes
48

Did you see the new ways to show that fandom?

http://www.redbubble.com/people/anrpc

6 Likes
49

This is why I said that incidents should be reported to either the TO or the regional president. I don’t think it’s necessary that we say that TOs are not exempt; obviously no one is.

Continuously making edits to the document above, btw. Thanks for the help.

1 Like
50

Looks like @spags is gonna need a new playmat

5 Likes
51

Wow. My game store is still working on getting people to shower.

13 Likes
52

thank you for putting that together, @mediohxcore (and @kim for helping). makes me even more proud to assist with organizing anrpc events, knowing there’s a commitment by the leaders to create the kind of environments i want to play in.

5 Likes
53

Can I get it grandfathered in?

(Literally, I’m old)

4 Likes
54

[quote=“higgs_bozo, post:41, topic:4557”]
“Can we confine the KJ erotica to your tear-soaked journal, please? I’m getting distracted.”[/quote]

Love this. I’m very strongly non-confrontational – that Canadian upbringing – and I’ve never really been sure how I’d handle this kind of situation. The closest thing I’ve experienced was some discussion of the Jennifer Lawrence photo leak at a local store, where I wanted to say something about the conversation, but ultimately didn’t. Someone else did, and in kind of a similar manner to what you did above. I’d forgotten about it until just now, so hopefully this reminder will help me in the future.

2 Likes
55

I know you’re joking, but that’s literally the excuse some people give for these behaviors. So…yeah…no!

8 Likes
56

Really, really glad to see a distinct lack of apathy around this issue here. So often, people just let it go, let it slide, don’t take action, and that behaviour needs to change. Especially with the wider focus these days on “gamer culture” and the role of sexism within it.

I seem to remember seeing a list of guidelines attached to one of Quinns’ London tournaments, but I can’t for the life of me find it. This episode of Run Last Click features both Quinns and Leigh Alexander, and at some point in it they do briefly discuss some tips for avoiding such microaggressions.

4 Likes
57

If Macho Man dropping an elbow on Jesus, IN HEAVEN, is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

15 Likes
58

Honestly, the worst thing is I can see the above happening. My fiancee isn’t into card games (I remember her ripping up yugioh cards of mine a long time ago, prob the right call) but she tolerates the fact that I play them. But with netrunner it looked like she might give it a go, if for my sake. Only, whilst netrunner players are fairly polite, I’d actually be worried about bringing her to the local game store, because I’d expect her to get dodgy remarks from people, including the shop owner, who thinks he’s quick witted and a god with sarcasm, which is fine with me, but would most definitely offend newer people, and definitely scare away people who already feel hesitant about going. Which is a shame.

To be fair, maybe not all the netrunner players would be great for her to interact with, but there are plenty of people with questionable social skills that are interacted with on a regular basis. But yeah. Seeing as it hasn’t happened, I don’t want to be pre-emptive and ask the store owner and some others to be respectful if I were to bring my significant other in, but then I also don’t feel it worth the risk to take her to my local gs. And she’s not super keen to go

59

I’m so glad we don’t deal with this crap. Stay classy Philly.

6 Likes
60

Dan, you blasting this to every outlet?