Hey! We appreciate the critique and thank you for taking the time to respond to us. However, we disagree that members of Team Rocket "constantly get away with things" or suffer no IC consequences for their actions. During this past round of Rocket missions, several Rockets suffered IC consequences in direct result to the plans they presented us; several failed to earn a promotion because their plans went awry, and one attempt at a stealthy mission turned into a large-scale production that caused three Rockets to be positively identified. Had their plans failed outright, those Rockets would have been caught. However, the choices they made enabled them to escape. Furthermore, the three Rockets on the Goldenrod mission specifically opened themselves up to IC plotting here, and received a small handful of takers on that. There is also always the option for players to plot with Rockets individually to craft their own scenarios with consequences, and we highly encourage people to participate in that variety of player plots as well!
As moderators, it's our job to create opportunities for our players. For the Rockets, this comes in the form of Rocket Missions, for which the reward is occasionally a promotion. These missions are one of the built-in perks of playing a Rocket, just as breeders and trainers have their own class perks included in other facets of gameplay. We explicitly told the Rockets during their previous round of missions that, in the event their plans failed or caused mass damage that would warrant the attention of other player characters, they would be required to accept as consequences the fact that we would provide the player characters the chance to stop them. The Rockets all presented us with plans that justified their ability to escape and mitigate some of the consequences they could have potentially suffered.
There have been times in the game's history when we have required the Rockets to fail at their missions; in fact, this was one of the critiques that originally led to the creation of the Rocket community in the first place, because the Rockets felt it was unfair for player characters to be used effectively as plot devices without standing any meaningful chance of success. More recently, during our Pokemon Prom event, we outright required that any Rocket plots conducted during that time must fail; the fact that no Rockets suffered consequences for breaking that rule was due entirely to the fact that none of them chose to conduct such a plot and fail at it.
It is not our place as moderators to require Rocket player characters to suffer consequences for their actions unless the players of those characters consent to it or those consequences are the reasonable outcomes of their actions. When a Rocket signs up for a mission with us, they are doing so with the knowledge and consent that failing and accepting the consequences of that failure are a possible aspect of the mission. Likewise, if a Rocket presents us with a player plot they wish to run and the actions taken in that plot would logically lead to negative consequences, then we will impose them. However, that is an exchange between the moderators and the player; it is no more our place to require a Rocket to plot with another player character than it would be for us to mandate any character to forge CR with another character.
However, that position extends only to player characters; if the PGC, any group of players, or an individual player comes to us with a request to run a plot in which they would succeed at stopping Rockets, we would be just as happy to accommodate them as we are to accommodate the PC Rockets in their nefarious ventures. The player character Rockets are far from the only Rockets present in Route, and we would be happy to arrange acts of villany for heroic characters to defeat if requested to do so. We will not, however, require player character Rockets to lose to player character heroes unless their IC choices explicitly warrant it.
With regard to the Rocket community, we would also like to dispel the notion that this gives the Rocket characters a "direct line of communication" to us. The Rocket community is no more a direct line of communication than are any of the other ways of contacting us (the FAQ page, PMs, private plurks, IMs, etc). The Rocket community is used for plotting Rocket missions, much as the breeding community is used for arranging egg hatchings and sales. It is an organizational community; it is not a moderator hotline. Outside of specific events where we are using a single post for plotting purposes — the same way we would use a general plot post in the public OOC community for plotting purposes among the general playerbase — the Rockets utilize the same venues for moderator contact that all other player characters do.
We do acknowledge that we need to improve our response times for questions, and appreciate the critique with respect to that. However, we hope this sets the record straight with regard to the rest of your feedback.
no subject
As moderators, it's our job to create opportunities for our players. For the Rockets, this comes in the form of Rocket Missions, for which the reward is occasionally a promotion. These missions are one of the built-in perks of playing a Rocket, just as breeders and trainers have their own class perks included in other facets of gameplay. We explicitly told the Rockets during their previous round of missions that, in the event their plans failed or caused mass damage that would warrant the attention of other player characters, they would be required to accept as consequences the fact that we would provide the player characters the chance to stop them. The Rockets all presented us with plans that justified their ability to escape and mitigate some of the consequences they could have potentially suffered.
There have been times in the game's history when we have required the Rockets to fail at their missions; in fact, this was one of the critiques that originally led to the creation of the Rocket community in the first place, because the Rockets felt it was unfair for player characters to be used effectively as plot devices without standing any meaningful chance of success. More recently, during our Pokemon Prom event, we outright required that any Rocket plots conducted during that time must fail; the fact that no Rockets suffered consequences for breaking that rule was due entirely to the fact that none of them chose to conduct such a plot and fail at it.
It is not our place as moderators to require Rocket player characters to suffer consequences for their actions unless the players of those characters consent to it or those consequences are the reasonable outcomes of their actions. When a Rocket signs up for a mission with us, they are doing so with the knowledge and consent that failing and accepting the consequences of that failure are a possible aspect of the mission. Likewise, if a Rocket presents us with a player plot they wish to run and the actions taken in that plot would logically lead to negative consequences, then we will impose them. However, that is an exchange between the moderators and the player; it is no more our place to require a Rocket to plot with another player character than it would be for us to mandate any character to forge CR with another character.
However, that position extends only to player characters; if the PGC, any group of players, or an individual player comes to us with a request to run a plot in which they would succeed at stopping Rockets, we would be just as happy to accommodate them as we are to accommodate the PC Rockets in their nefarious ventures. The player character Rockets are far from the only Rockets present in Route, and we would be happy to arrange acts of villany for heroic characters to defeat if requested to do so. We will not, however, require player character Rockets to lose to player character heroes unless their IC choices explicitly warrant it.
With regard to the Rocket community, we would also like to dispel the notion that this gives the Rocket characters a "direct line of communication" to us. The Rocket community is no more a direct line of communication than are any of the other ways of contacting us (the FAQ page, PMs, private plurks, IMs, etc). The Rocket community is used for plotting Rocket missions, much as the breeding community is used for arranging egg hatchings and sales. It is an organizational community; it is not a moderator hotline. Outside of specific events where we are using a single post for plotting purposes — the same way we would use a general plot post in the public OOC community for plotting purposes among the general playerbase — the Rockets utilize the same venues for moderator contact that all other player characters do.
We do acknowledge that we need to improve our response times for questions, and appreciate the critique with respect to that. However, we hope this sets the record straight with regard to the rest of your feedback.