Pride month ship cosmetics

@personalc0ffee in my country yes, but theres no harm in asking about it a week early for everyone else

@hungus5846

There already is a rainbow flag, is there not?

My opinion on this (along with other things) has shifted post captaincy

Prior to captaincy I supported the random and non-personal system. There are social benefits to this in a shared experience, especially in escapism.

With Captaincy it brings in individuality and a more personal experience.

Individuality requires support for personal expression which is what this would fall under.

Any of it should be in game as opposed to purchased as something personal imo requires access for people without the funds so they can still express themselves on this topic.

Captaincy changed the game imo, in positive ways. I think this is about serving participants of the game.

When I think about the over-the-line unkind things I have most heard in the game it is more than anything focused on this topic. When I think about the cruel personal attacks that are unfortunately currently common in and around the game they are focused on this topic. Outside of the fighting it leads to less confrontational people feeling unwelcome or like they cannot express themselves without harsh and personal social consequences. I think that under Captaincy there is room to offer support to participants in order to make it clear that expression is for all and that all are welcome to not only participate but also express themselves as Captains as long as it does not violate the rules.

@ghostfire1981 how is it political to have sails in the colours of the lgbt flags? we already have the gay flag and the merch store already has 2 gay shirts. so theses "politics" are already in the game. besides, the comparison to a countries flag is not really valid.

A flag that represents a landmass isnt the same as a flag that represents some group of people from across the globe.

@ghostfire1981 said in Pride month ship cosmetics:

Nothing wrong with pride stuff. Im all for it.

BUT maybe keep politics out of any games. This goes for ALL kinds of political statements, that is why we do not need national flags and similar. On the seas we are all just pirates, and we can customize our pirate to suit our personal needs, and that is enough.

Under Captaincy someone could sail around with a ship called The LGBT Partyboat if they wanted. Captaincy creates a situation where it's no longer a random pirate on a nameless vessel. It's now a personal experience with naming and saving and trinkets to support individuality.

The colors themselves are light and bright which is something the game can use more of no matter the cause.

This then leads to "why this? why not that or that" which I think ignores all the random things we have in the game already for cosmetics. Supporting this game or that game, this fanbase or that fanbase. We already support different players. Pretty much all of us have been catered to in one way or another through different things that exist.

It's no secret that right now there are people that are being specifically targeted with cruel social treatment online and offline and unlike many other situations we are at a current time in history where it doesn't get near the pushback that other cruel treatment would. One day it will be better but it'll be down the road, right now I think a part of serving all participants of the game is to celebrate their existence and their participation by offering cosmetics that anyone can use, even if they just like the colors or designs. No requirements, as people don't have to unlock them or use them if they have an issue with it. There are lots of cosmetics that none of us use. It's alright to skip it if someone isn't interested, it'll be there for the people that are.

As far as personal issue with how others live and/or identify that's just tough cookies. Individual freedom is there to exercise how people see fit and cruelty disguised as opinion or political debate is never justified against people living their life how they see fit.

@maximusarael020 said in Pride month ship cosmetics:

@pumpa-cat

...Yes? Did you read the OP? They said that in the first sentence. What they are asking for is additional ship cosmetics, such as a sail or ship hull.

Like, the OP is literally 2 sentences long. You couldn't manage to read all of it?

I can’t believe I missed that 😳

@maximusarael020 said in Pride month ship cosmetics:

@hungus5846

It's not political, but people like to say that so they don't feel so bad about their prejudices. "I'm not a terrible person, I just don't like all the political stuff." Same people would be in America in 1860 saying "A 'Free the Slaves' poster at my local pub? Why does everything have to be so political?"

Garbage.

Decency improves as people connect to one another. People change, examine how they communicate, how they feel, how they see things in a more positive way by tapping into the decency that many hold within themselves.

Many are not terrible people they are just a day, a post, a conversation away from embracing their potential and within that they identify things about themselves that they would like to work on and improve. Every one of us have things about ourselves we can be more consistent with.

We build what we become, it takes a while, it takes supporting each other, kindness spreads no different than harshness and cruelty.

@burnbacon said in Pride month ship cosmetics:

It all sounds great on paper, and maybe Rare will add some rainbow stuff...
But...and a big but...

This would just cause problems down the road for those who do wear them. Im saying it as a safety thing. Bullies are always looking for excuses to pick on pirates. :(

It's true, it's a concern to consider especially in escapism which also can offer shelter to people that want to escape whatever harshness they are going through

but I think under captaincy it becomes necessary to allow opportunity for people to express as a captain. Captaincy makes identity relevant if that's what a pirate decides to make relevant.

Over the last couple of years I've sat and randomly read people posting about struggling to find a crew as a transgender person specifically because of mistreatment because of how they sound or because of a variety of other things that lead them to struggle. People have the voice they have, they should be able to use it without harsh personal attack and they now should be able to express it and themselves with their access to Captaincy.

People bicker, they can argue, they can banter over pvp, it becomes unacceptable when people are harshly and personally attacked for existing as they are. I don't think the way to go is to keep people in silence over what others might do under a Captaincy system, I think it's about offering opportunity for people and holding people accountable that cross the line from random gaming beef into cruel and targeted treatment of other people.

@nex-stargaze said in Pride month ship cosmetics:

@hungus5846 said in Pride month ship cosmetics:

@ghostfire1981 how is it political to have sails in the colours of the lgbt flags? we already have the gay flag and the merch store already has 2 gay shirts. so theses "politics" are already in the game.

Let's clear the air right here, and right now:

The rainbow flag that can be equipped on your ship for free the moment you install the game, is a base, default flag that is NOT directly associated with LGBTQ+ pride. It's description talks more of Irish mythology more so than self-representation.

That being said, every, single, time this type of topic is brought up, people will say it is too political, or it is too dangerous and lead to unwanted targeting. Both, sadly, are true. One's identity shouldn't be much of an issue to represent, but the identity of a female is still mocked and harassed in everyday communication, no one wants additional chances for harassment of even more people with more unstable social norms.

A business/game showing support for a minority is good PR, it does weed out at lot of bad actors from the product, but what people don't know is that it can also cause those same bad actors to start rallying hate crimes against people that are trying to be themselves, especially in instances where in this game: one can slay other players and sink another's ship for practically any reason at the discretion of the attacker, outspoken or not.

As cool as it would be to have LGBTQ+ colored ship parts, you'll notice that since players can do whatever they want for any reason, you'll easily get targeted more because your ship is that much more colorful, and those that think anyone on the crew represents that identity, will probably try to use their anonymity to break the game's TOS, call you names, etc. Those too fragile to accept that PvP is in this game, can bait with those colors for negative interactions or put honest pirates in the hands of Rare's Support team calling them toxic, something we really don't need in this kind climate as it is.

You have to understand the risks you undergo with that kind of representation. LGBTQ+ is mainstream, but bigotry is still an ongoing issue that does not need to expand in this game about escapism.

When I think about this topic I tend to focus not on the ones that fight and bicker online back and forth I think about the quiet person. They don't make a stink about much, stay out of the fighting, just wanna live how they live, as they are.

They still see it all, they still hear it all. Crooked and reckless social media campaigns designed to crush the spirit of a person for profit. Attempts to paint someone as ill, as dangerous, as being wrong in existence.

I think keeping it random works when the design is random.

When there is a true support system for individuality and personalized immersion it then creates identity relevancy.

I don't think they are owed cosmetics, I think they are a part of the community and there is an opportunity to serve those within the community. They have holiday cosmetics, people that celebrate Christmas, Easter, etc. That is serving different members from the community in a personal way.

Make it an event for cosmetics where people have a choice to participate or not and people can talk with their activity. My guess is that plenty of people will decide to participate for the cosmetics and to support their fellow SoT players.

The great thing about supporting people is that it's not the end of the world, we serve here, we serve there, we can just keep serving and supporting each other then the sun goes down and the sun comes up and more people can be served and supported.

If people gotta be exposed to targeted harshness just for turning on a tv or logging on to the internet I think that some support in their favorite (or one of their favorite games) for their Captaincy seems like like something that might do some good.

@nex-stargaze ok, but hear me out. what if we made gay, bi, lesbian and trans sails and hulls anyway???
like. it would be heckin' [modedit] and also the whole being targeted for your sexuality thing is hilarious as it means some losers on the internet have nothing better to do other than target you. you're free to unequipped them when ever aswell incase it becomes too much. i have experienced alot of harassment like this on the gayest homophobic game on the internet. TF2 and its honestly much more hilarious if anything when you're targeted for rainbow or pride cosmetics as you know theyre just some snowflake who got offended.

we should still have them added to the game. it would suck alot if a few crews would need to change their ship cosmetics because of harassment yes, but griefers will grief regardless. Be it because of your cosmetics or not. if they're looking to be an A hole on the internet, they will be an A hole on the internet.

@hungus5846 said in Pride month ship cosmetics:

and also the whole being targeted for your sexuality thing is hilarious as it means some losers on the internet have nothing better to do other than target you.

People have their ways of dealing with what they encounter but targeting people in general and feeding into degrading treatment of people can often be quite traumatic to many people.

Here on the forums, on the seas, within my Captaincy I am authentically being and expressing myself, implementing my experiences and things that are important to me into my posts and my communication and my piracy. I think that in a post captaincy piratical experience that's the main reason to support serving people in the community.

Some have taken hints from different rare advertising and suggest at some point there will be clans or guilds, something like that. There will undoubtedly be communities that participate together focused around the topic of the thread if that happens.

I think back to when I was in high school, many years ago, a much different time.

A teacher and a few students started a club they called the Rainbow club. At the time it was far more contentious than it even is now in some areas. Even though it got some fired up, people whispered, said things, nothing really changed. They had their gatherings as they were entitled to as people and nothing really changed beyond a group of people being served in the community. I don't see that being any different here. Nothing will change other than people being offered a resource for their expression and a little qol added to their experience.

@faceyourdemon said in Pride month ship cosmetics:

@hungus5846 said in Pride month ship cosmetics:

@ghostfire1981 how is it political to have sails in the colours of the lgbt flags? we already have the gay flag and the merch store already has 2 gay shirts. so theses "politics" are already in the game. besides, the comparison to a countries flag is not really valid.

A flag that represents a landmass isnt the same as a flag that represents some group of people from across the globe.

But you dont see any other flag that represent a group here, rainbow flag sure but thats it.

Im against it, with respect I think its wrong to shove politics, you might see it as not political, because you are a pawn in the this dumb game.

Live your life how you want, flag above you dont mean jack, it dosent tells you who you love and who you should be.

as a cosmetic it's often a signal but largely not a political one

in the social context in a game like this it's almost entirely based on community.

if people from different areas were flying the flag in game it could range from people that just like the cosmetics to expressing or supporting the expression of acceptance, it's not actually telling any political beliefs it's expressing a personal support for other people. Just because people support other people doesn't mean they all agree. Plenty of people that would participate will have quite different political beliefs. If they have them at all in a substantive way. There are many people that have social views/opinions that aren't actually involved in politics nor do they have any real strong political opinions.

"I want these cosmetics because I want to show support for a friend, or family member, or significant other, myself, the community as a whole etc" isn't a political statement and that's largely what people are doing when they get involved in stuff like this.

@faceyourdemon said in Pride month ship cosmetics:

@wolfmanbush said in Pride month ship cosmetics:

@faceyourdemon said in Pride month ship cosmetics:

@hungus5846 said in Pride month ship cosmetics:

[Mod edit]

Before anyone knows anything personal about a person when they attack them verbally/with text in this game the 2 most common severe attacks are a racial slur and the #1 most common severe personal attack without personal info of any kind is a homophobic slur.

Once people detect something personal in this game then they attack female players, transgender players, based on voice or whatever details they have or think they have.

Which people are the most likely to be severely targeted specifically because of who they are around sot focused social media? Female players and Transgender players.

Which people will face the most harshness with the least pushback? Transgender players

Which posts on the forums are most likely to be deleted specifically because of the harshness of opinion about people? Posts about transgender players

Everyone in life suffers, everyone
everyone experiences loss and pain and harshness
everyone gets mistreated at some point
none of the above dismisses any of that

there are people in this community that face specific targeting before the verbal attacker has any personal details to work with.

Does that mean they are owed cosmetics? no
but just because they are not owed doesn't mean they cannot be offered

Captaincy brought in identity relevancy. We express who we are and our experiences through Captaincy. If they decide they want to start offering cosmetics that people can choose to use or not use to support players within the game I think it fits in with Captaincy.