Apparently I became mortal enemies with VirtualAce some time ago, probably for making fun of his threats in chat to add people to his KoS list. At the time I simply went about my life and forgot all about the encounter, which is the appropriate response.
However after recently returning from a 6 month break, I ran into his stooge ScaredPotato a few weeks ago when he attacked me as I was taking some new players on a starfarer tour of grim hex. I was able to quantum jump away but noticed he would pop up from time to time and engage me.
Rather than give him the satisfaction, I would always just leave the area and not even acknowledge the attack in chat. At some point he says something in chat to me like: "Pixelpusher, aren't you on VirtualAce's enemy list?" The name sounded vaguely familiar but I told ScaredPotato I didn't have any idea who that was. He didn't seem to believe me but I ignored him and continued about my business.
Last week N_Forcer noticed me in chat and asked a similar question about if I was aware I was on VirtualAce's list. Again I told him I had no idea who VA was and again he and ScaredPotato seemed annoyed and unconvinced. Then another night recently a player named QUANTUM-RIFT strangely asked me why I was always on the sever with this player (cant remember name) I had just met and multi-crewed with that day. The player said he was new and we had just met. Quantum replied "Mmmmmhmmmmm". He then asked us what country we were in and we both said US, and again in disbelief he replies "suuure" then left. I found the thread here about all the recent VA / AA drama and cheating and a lot of my experiences in game as of late began to make sense.
To wrap things up, this weekend I saw someone I think was in AA (cant remember the name though) making challenges for people to come take them on and being generally obnoxious is chat. I made an SNL reference to hans and frans to point out how silly they sounded and continued to ignore them. Then last night I received this message from Cloud Imporium:
Hello, PixelPusher.
This is a notification from
RSI’s Moderation Team for
Star Citizen.
We are contacting you concerning a report made against your conduct while playing the game and after further investigation, we have verified the complaint reported.
While I am confident it was not meant literally, making real life threats of finding people and harming them is not tolorated within our community, and any future infractions may result in more severe action being taken.
We kindly ask that you please avoid repeating this in future, as doing so may warrant further action being taken against your RSI Account, which we would ideally prefer to avoid as I am sure you do as well.
You can review our
Policies and Rules, here:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/...ad/website-rules-moderator-responsibilities-2
I hope this helps clarify, see you in the ‘Verse.
Many thanks.
Kraiklyn -
Player Relations | Lead Moderator
Roberts Space Industries
I asked If I could see the chat log in question and he replied with:
Transcript log as follows:
[LOCAL] Pixelpusher: we will come to your house and beat your flabby butt.
[LOCAL] Pixelpusher: I don't think you get it, im making fun of the tough guy act.
[LOCAL] Pixelpusher: ah, well we will go over comedy later
As I said initially, I am sure it was not literal, but please understand our position when such threats are made, in joking or not.
No action has been taken on your account at this stage, and this has only been a warning so far. My advice here is to simply disengage from any arguement flaring up, and takea screenshot or video of the incident. Report it to me via a support ticket, or a member of the moderation team, and we will further investigate and ensure the appropriate action is taken.
Avoid implicating yourself into the incident, and this way you will stay in the clear.
The problem here is that this transcript is missing the one single line above it that shows that I am quoting Dana Carvey's tough guy character Hanz from Saturday Night Live. The full transcript was something like this:
[LOCAL] Pixelpusher: You guys sounds like the Hanz and Franz characters from SNL:
[LOCAL] Pixelpusher: we will come to your house and beat your flabby butt.
[LOCAL] Him: Well why don't you come to Kareah and take us on tough guy?
[LOCAL] Pixelpusher: I don't think you get it, im making fun of the tough guy act.
[LOCAL] Pixelpusher: ah, well we will go over comedy later
I don't want to jump to conclusions but it seems like this is one of VA's stooges or one of his alts intentionally taking my words out of context and reporting me. I was not shown any screenshots from the mod, but I imagine all the moderator looked at was a selectively cropped photo, based on the fact that only those lines are listed in the transcript. I explained this to the mod and he replied:
I understand, but also appreciate that not everyone will interpret it the same way. While I can certianly see the context, I am sure you imagine how someone not tracking the entire conversation may see it differently.
Hence why no action has been taken on the account, other than a warning.
In either case, it is all said and done, and this matter appears to be concluded.
I just want to make people aware of the possible methods these trolls are using to harass players. I know its just a warning, but it points out a flaw in the investigation process (if there is any) for the player complaints and might be used again to cause myself or some other player more severe damage. While I can't be certain if the report was from VA or his guys, the timing seems suspect, and the player obviously took the words out of context intentionally when making their report, probably with a cropped photo or screenshot where the first line had been clipped by the top of the chat window.
