Complaint #764, East Island, "Threatening/Harassment"

[Indirik]

Titan's Case Summary
East Island
Complaint #764
Date: June 22, 2014
Title: "Threatening/Harassment"
About: Atanamir of Umbar

A case was reported to the Titans regarding harassment by the player of the "of Umbar" family. The behavior reported was that of accusing other players of abusing bugs, without providing proof.

Specifically, the player of Atanamir sent a hostile OOC message to both the general's channel and the ruler's channel of the island. The message included the following excerpt:

"I am sure you noticed as well, but obviously you have decided to abuse this bug."

The purported bug was that a single unit of Eponllyn arrived in a region but was not skirmished by overwhelming Perdan/Westmoor defenders, and no evasion report was generated. The generals/rulers of the realms involved were accused of knowingly invoking a bug and using it to their advantage.

The game mechanics behavior in question was, in fact, not a bug. Rather it was a result of the neutral relations between Westmoor, the region owner/defender, and Eponllyn, the realm to which the single intruding unit belonged. It should be noted, however, that whether or the noted behavior was actually bug is immaterial to the case. The behavior of the player involved is the issue, and not their knowledge of game mechanics.

The Titans judged that the message, and the ensuing exchange of additional messages, constituted harassment and a violation of the Social Contract. Specifically:

§2 Fair Play
Do not publicly accuse anyone of cheating, abuses or violations of this contract without proof or evidence.

When considering the appropriate punishment to apply in the case, the Titans evaluated the player's prior history. In particular, the following cases were considered:

Magistrates case: 'Use of Rumour and personal information on irc, in forums, ingame and other places like skype and fac'
Applied: July 19, 2013
Judgment: Removal from all positions in Perdan, 1 month lockout on holding positions, 3 day account lock


Titan's Complaint #742: 'IC and OOC bad practice'
Applied May 02, 2014
Judgment: Public warning to realm of Perdan


Titan's Complaint #744: 'Accusations of Cheating Randomly'
Applied May 07, 2014
Judgment: Private warning to player


Titan's Complaint #746: 'Banning for OOC'
Applied May 08, 2014
Judgment: 3-day lock and removal from ruler position, forbidden to hold ruler position for 14 days.


A private warning letter was sent to the player on May 12th, 2014 stating, in part: "This is your final warning."


Consideration was also given to a series of 7 Titan's complaints filed by the player over the past two months against a large number of other players accusing them of clanning and/or multi-accounting. Investigations revealed that the majority of these accusations had no supporting evidence, and several were filed against other players with whom the accused had recently had an IC or OOC conflict.

Some additional consideration was given to several anecdotal cases of minor incidents involving the accused that were not officially reported.

It was the opinion of the Titans that the player's continued behavior was creating an atmosphere that was harmful to the game. The player's actions had been repeatedly cited as reason for players being driven away from the game. The player was unwilling, or unable, to modify their behavior, despite the private warnings that further incidents would require stronger actions to be taken.

Given the prior case histories and severity of those events, it was determined that the player's account would be permanently locked.

Note that this judgment does not specify that the player may not return to the game, nor has any official decision been made on this aspect. If the player decides to return to the game, they may address the issue with Tom or Tim (Anaris).