I'm just an uninvolved player as you are, so feel free to take this with a grain of salt, but as much as I agree that grimdark or triggering characters need to be played carefully, I just can't get behind the idea that the mere presence of them being in a game, being played, is going to need to require a bunch of IC safeguards.
Just as it would be ooc for characters to ignore the post, it might also be ooc for a troubling event to be broadcast to a select few people (who might not have anything to do with the characters involved but still want to get involved themselves).
Ultimately, this post was FRIENDSLOCKED, PLACED BEHIND A CUT, AND HAD A TRIGGER-WARNING.
Even if ICly the post is being placed on a public venue, the sheer number of ooc measures taken to prevent anyone from having to look at it if they don't want to be involved should really speak for themselves. Things happen in RP every day that make people uncomfortable (myself included, some of them even in this game) and sometimes it's not always possible to 'stay IC' while still staying comfortable. Posts like this don't happen often in Route, so it's not a matter of having to constantly ignore upsetting material (if that were the case, I'd say yeah, it WOULD be a question of 'why is this character even here'), it's a rare occurrence that was planned in advance (even if it was apparently planned poorly), locked and warned for. Bad things happen in real life and in RP. The nice thing about RP is that we can have them happen but give people the ooc option to NOT LOOK, to avoid the players in question, to say that their characters were otherwise occupied or did not see it. They're not glued to their 'Gears 24/7, and because it's NOT a constant occurrence there's nothing 'stretching' about just saying the network glitched out and your character never saw the post.
Yes, word of mouth happens, but word of mouth would happen regardless of whether the post was publicized to the whole network or not and you can still just ask people to not have their characters mention it to yours. I have done this before when I found material upsetting and didn't want my character involved and the vast majority of players have always been happy to help me stay out of it, the players of said material included.
Forcing the players (who took care to make sure no one would have to look oocly if they didn't want to) to alter the events for IC reasons, imo, comes way too close to "I don't like having this in the game so you need to play it differently and make your characters ooc so that mine can stay IC" even though you as a player were not required to be involved.
I understand that you in NO way intended it to come off this way and that it's obviously a sensitive subject for you, but comparing locked, cut content that had a trigger warning on it to a REAL-LIFE situation that can't be escaped from actually very much offends me, as it comes off as dramatic and emotionally manipulative. Putting on headphones to escape an upsetting situation in real life just outside your door is nothing, NOTHING like scrolling past a hidden post on the internt that the creators have explicitly warned you about and have no desire to make you participate in or even read it.
I have triggers too and there is a very, very big difference between fearfully trying to drown them out in real life in a situation I can't actually get out of beyond going behind a door or flimsily building up a mental wall, and having someone playing something out in a game I'm in, where I am not in any way being forced to deal with it at all, even if ICly I have a character who would want to help. They don't have to see it, and neither do I.
I guess this got kind of tl;dr too, but I felt it was really important to say. I think your heart is in the right place and I know you didn't mean to upset with this, but I'm actually very uncomfortable being in a game where something I might want to play out with all the appropriate ooc warnings and safeguards would be compared to an abusive situation that cannot be escaped IRL. This doesn't sound like an environment I'd feel okay about playing in, especially with what feels like an emotionally-manipulative argument like that being made for what is essentially policing content that didn't break any rules and was warned for.
no subject
Just as it would be ooc for characters to ignore the post, it might also be ooc for a troubling event to be broadcast to a select few people (who might not have anything to do with the characters involved but still want to get involved themselves).
Ultimately, this post was FRIENDSLOCKED, PLACED BEHIND A CUT, AND HAD A TRIGGER-WARNING.
Even if ICly the post is being placed on a public venue, the sheer number of ooc measures taken to prevent anyone from having to look at it if they don't want to be involved should really speak for themselves. Things happen in RP every day that make people uncomfortable (myself included, some of them even in this game) and sometimes it's not always possible to 'stay IC' while still staying comfortable. Posts like this don't happen often in Route, so it's not a matter of having to constantly ignore upsetting material (if that were the case, I'd say yeah, it WOULD be a question of 'why is this character even here'), it's a rare occurrence that was planned in advance (even if it was apparently planned poorly), locked and warned for. Bad things happen in real life and in RP. The nice thing about RP is that we can have them happen but give people the ooc option to NOT LOOK, to avoid the players in question, to say that their characters were otherwise occupied or did not see it. They're not glued to their 'Gears 24/7, and because it's NOT a constant occurrence there's nothing 'stretching' about just saying the network glitched out and your character never saw the post.
Yes, word of mouth happens, but word of mouth would happen regardless of whether the post was publicized to the whole network or not and you can still just ask people to not have their characters mention it to yours. I have done this before when I found material upsetting and didn't want my character involved and the vast majority of players have always been happy to help me stay out of it, the players of said material included.
Forcing the players (who took care to make sure no one would have to look oocly if they didn't want to) to alter the events for IC reasons, imo, comes way too close to "I don't like having this in the game so you need to play it differently and make your characters ooc so that mine can stay IC" even though you as a player were not required to be involved.
I understand that you in NO way intended it to come off this way and that it's obviously a sensitive subject for you, but comparing locked, cut content that had a trigger warning on it to a REAL-LIFE situation that can't be escaped from actually very much offends me, as it comes off as dramatic and emotionally manipulative. Putting on headphones to escape an upsetting situation in real life just outside your door is nothing, NOTHING like scrolling past a hidden post on the internt that the creators have explicitly warned you about and have no desire to make you participate in or even read it.
I have triggers too and there is a very, very big difference between fearfully trying to drown them out in real life in a situation I can't actually get out of beyond going behind a door or flimsily building up a mental wall, and having someone playing something out in a game I'm in, where I am not in any way being forced to deal with it at all, even if ICly I have a character who would want to help. They don't have to see it, and neither do I.
I guess this got kind of tl;dr too, but I felt it was really important to say. I think your heart is in the right place and I know you didn't mean to upset with this, but I'm actually very uncomfortable being in a game where something I might want to play out with all the appropriate ooc warnings and safeguards would be compared to an abusive situation that cannot be escaped IRL. This doesn't sound like an environment I'd feel okay about playing in, especially with what feels like an emotionally-manipulative argument like that being made for what is essentially policing content that didn't break any rules and was warned for.