Ask Old Man Jokhah

[Old Man Jokhah]

IDk if its actually allowed to ask but why did you got demoted from moderator?

I was demoted from Administrator, I survived my term as a moderator. I was suspended for a private message I sent to Soul that was pretty disrespectful. I was over all demoted after a vote by the team. It was determined that though I had good intentions, my actions were not excusable. In addition to the PM, I had a habit of calling other staff out very directly and with little to no respect at times. Honesty is nice, but when it causes issues with the people you work with, there is a time and place. I was not unlike some of the other community members that scream about bias and injustice, making threads about staff members and whatnot.

I tried to grow up a few times, but those attempts failed. Now I've returned, I have grown up, but there will be a prejudgement against me as this isn't the first time I've tried to flip a new leaf. All I really have to do is keep myself from getting to attached emotionally and hopefully I don't implode or explode again. I really want to do this place some good, I've always been on the side of the community, but I've learned over plenty of lost or stalemated battles that there is a line between pointing out an error, and flat out disrespect. I've learned that regardless of feelings, the community members have to work with the staff members, and vice versa. The ones who go against the grain never survive.

[Link]

Linking in with Viljo's prior question, do you believe Passive RP has changed in any way from how it was years ago, with the higher availability of RP points and introduction of teachers?

[Old Man Jokhah]

I think that passive RP was temporarily boosted by the introduction of teachers. Ultimately, however, the ability to have teachers handing out points brings into question the value of some of the points. Favoritism has always been an issue here. People love to accuse the staff, however if you look at the average community member, it's no different. I have seen low hour players rolling around with nearly as many if not more points than I managed to collect. Then again when you look at the "generation" I started in, points were scarce so having even 5 was a big deal.

Then you take a look at some of the tool changes, I saw some people with lights again. So those little enhancements used to be used by old players for all sorts of things, however with the overall increase in aggressive and even rule breaking behavior, passive rp really has hit a decline. Not just in the sense that aggressive people ruin it either, but that the quality of passive roleplay in the average passive rp setting is usually pretty low quality. Some try to sell props, others sell food with a /me or two, but it feels lifeless most the time. Now sure some of that could be me and how I see things between then and now, but it's almost like some people pull bare minimum to look like they are good and maybe net a point.

Then you also have the average point giver not noticing sections of players at a time. This teacher tends to monitor for shops and stuff, that one for low hour players trying to give them an incentive point, and the like. Few of them look at the high hour players and decide they should get a point, because we are high hour players with a few points already, this is what people feel our standard should be. Basically, it feels to me like because I have high hours, because I was former staff, I'm held to a much higher standard before I'm considered for a point, and if someone manages to hit the mark that hard, most people are too starstruck to remember to consider it. I know I'm not the only one who has over 1500 hours that feels similar. With that knowledge, and knowing that I come from an aggressive rp background, I usually feel much less inclined to host a passive rp. It's not because I have to work hard, it's because the bar is set a bit to high for me. I lack some of the skills that I apparently should know. I take it with a grain of salt though, because I know that if I had gotten to point 15 before, I'd have been banned for aggressive behavior with the tommy gun, so it's not all bad.

With all the rule changes, staff changes, community changes, the release of all bans to include the uber minges the old staff worked hard to protect you from being released, with uber minges managing to beat a UBR because people are fooled or have forgotten, passive rp is nearly dead as it is. Then you pile on that you can be banned for defending yourself from aggressive players if you take actions as a passive one, it's a recipe for disaster. It's almost like the message that Fearless RP is trying to send is that they no longer care about passive roleplay, that aggressive roleplay is the way to go, and if you don't like it you can leave. It's shitty that I had to say that, gonna be a tough pill for some to swallow, but it's pretty near if not dead on point.

If you are interested in a more indepth review of the wounds roleplay has taken as a whole and see some of the ideas of how to fix it, I recommend you go to my other discussion titled Fearless Roleplay. It's presently a brainstorm that I started and it's largely made up of information from other community members. It's an attempt to help return life to roleplay.

Additionally, while we're on the subject, people have forgotten what roleplay is. There is no passive or aggressive when it comes to roleplay. Passive generally means you don't equip weapons, make cool things with props, create things like shows, what have you. Aggressive generally means you equip weapons and at some point or another you intend to use them for one means or another to harm or prevent harm. There is nothing truly roleplay about either. All the context means is guns or no guns. An aggressive player has just as much of an obligation to roleplay as a passive one.

Example: Aggressive player walks up and demands money or die, starts counting down, doesn't get money in time, kills. Is not roleplay. It's just a dude rolling up, making a speed demand, he gets money or kills you, either way he wins.

Example: Aggressive player walks up, demands money, passive refuses, aggressive demands again with fear rp, passive doesn't pay, aggressive takes passive hostage, takes him back to base, starts torturing him for his money or the name of a friend to get the money from, they give man phone, calls, you get it. That's roleplay.

Roleplay isn't ever a speed event. It's not going in there and quick, bang bang bang. Even raiding can be roleplayed. Rally the group, make a plan, scout, blitz, get to the target. Example begins here.

Most commonly, raiders just blast everyone in sight and it's over. Not really roleplay.

Example: Take out or stand down all defending players, hostage quickly and herd them up. Front man for the raid starts saying his piece to the target, that lil speech badguys sometimes give. They go back and forth. Either the raiders wait for the response team, not to promote aggressive rp but purely to give them a shot to get their man back or even for witnesses of the execution. Or they kill him, the remaining hostages will be used to secure an escape.

Then you have the flip side. Passive players don't always react in a roleplaying fashion when encountering a mingey aggressive player. A rule I held myself to for a bit now is "Shit happens, roll with it." What that means is, sometimes a newer aggressive player comes up and breaks the rules trying to do what he wants to do. Maybe he ass pulled a gun, maybe he had no reason to do what he's doing. Instead of screaming about it, try rolling with it. Just let him try to do what he's doing, maybe let him know that he shouldn't have done it the right way, but support his right to do it at least, tell him how to do it right. Now obviously prop minges and whatnot, no. But those lil 1-3 hours kids are so used to dark rp, it's almost wrong to slap them too hard for not understanding the small differences. The code is different, the menus, stuff like that, but if you can play one, you can get by in the other. The curve isn't like from here to HL2RP or even that STALKER RP, where if you don't /me breathing you will get banned forever.

Back to the point though, passive rp is in bad shape right now. Not just because it's rare, but because the general quality of it is low, the players taking part aren't usually all that dedicated to it it seems, and the overall lack of knowledge not being passed down to this generation is shameful. We have metaphorically set them up for failure as a community and we need to confront and overcome that issue before it will change.

Hope I was useful, my mind shifted gears in there so I might have gone off topic.

[Infernaw]

If my willy bends to the left, can I add it in my description without getting banned?

[Old Man Jokhah]

Infernaw, challenge accepted.

Yes, you could indeed add in your description that your willy was to the left. Although the information would me largely irrelevant unless you were perhaps interested in some form of romance rp. Could be used as an indicator such as "The dealer is the one swinging to the left." Perhaps it's a description used by a government official to indicate distress to those around him.

Seems like a silly question till you think about the small potential for a valid roleplay use or excuse. I mean I've seen worse things in descriptions that are allowed somehow.

Afterthought: A description is used to describe your character, so willy to the left is descriptive text. Based on the limited characters we can use, you only highlight things of note, maybe he's got a big johnson.

[Haarek]

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE TYPE OF BIRD (PREFERABLY UNDER 50g) BUT I STRETCH TO 70

[Old Man Jokhah]

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE TYPE OF BIRD (PREFERABLY UNDER 50g) BUT I STRETCH TO 70

Another obviously joking question. This one is less funny though. I'm not sure I understand what the weight in grams has to do with your selection process. I don't know what the average weight of a bird is, much less do birds really attempt to interact with me. Got two peacocks that I have to feed every few days, so I'll just say that. Honestly, I'd say my favorite was plucked, gutted, and cooked. Side items are nice, but not a requirement. I also prefer them to be around 12 to 15lbs as they yield a good bit of both types of meat.

[Tzimanious]

I hope I'm not being indiscreet.

I read your bio and your war injury stood out the most for me.

How and what happened to you? Is it permanent?

[Old Man Jokhah]

I was a medic, attached to a platoon of combat engineers who were tasked with route clearance. We were sent on a mission to go relieve another platoon from the same troop (same as company, Cavalry uses slightly different terms). Day 1, we made it to stopping point with little to report. Day 2, continued movement to target location. We entered a pass in the mountains. Before I continue, here is some information you should have.

-Most of the convoy consists of RG-31s. Want to say 2-3 additional to mine.
-We also had one Buffalo, one Husky with GPR, one wrecker.
-At the time, no one was trained to a degree of skill that would be deemed anything higher than basic with that GPR
-I was in the last truck, not to say all medics are in the last truck, it's quite a "ball and cup" game with medics for safety purposes.
-Moondust is a term used to describe the baby powder fine dust like sand that is all over Afghanistan.
-HME refers to Home Made Explosive.

As this pass wasn't frequently traveled, there was about 9 inches (3/4 of a foot) of moondust on the ground and it kicks up very badly. Our drivers try very very hard to stay in the treads of the truck in front to avoid anything we might have missed. My driver was basically blind, about 1-3 feet of visability due to all the trucks in front and all the dust. He was about 4-6 inches outside of the treads, to the left and clipped a victim operated initiator. This triggered an unknown amount of HME jugs or barrels, we predict that it was between 35-65 lbs. You'd think it would be easier to determine this, but it's not apparently and I'm not an engineer so I have no clue beyond what they tell me. I don't remember the blast, all I fully remember is my helmet stoping my face from smashing into the radio equipment, then off my aidbag, I managed to stop any further bounces. Did some checks, crew was up, rest of platoon was in a panic, our comms were down so we had to use chemlights to let them know we were alive and okay. We got the truck towed and we ended up camping out a bit away from there due to lack of visability and lack of communication with target location. I assume that platoon leadership didn't want us rolling into more bad shit in the dark or catching friendly fire.

Next day, I ended up nearly blacking out after doing routine medical drills with the medic at target location. He determined I had some degree of TBI and wanted to medevac me, I refused both he and the 1SG, raising the arguement that you cannot roll out without a medic.

Following days after that till my eventual medical discharge, the pain has progressively gotten worse. There is no level of treatment for it at this time, as it has to get worse before the risks of any surgery are worthwhile. So long story short, no, it won't ever get better at this current point in time due to medical limitations and my lack of wanting to be paralyzed by a VA doctor who probably doesn't give a shit about me anyway.

There was an investigation during my medical board that determined, based on statements collected from other persons in that truck, that I hit the ceiling, it was noted that I did not have access to proper safety restraints (Seatbelt, the truck was over crowded). I was honorably discharged due to inability to continue to perform my duties as a soldier in general. If you can't wear a vest, carry the gear, or even go lengths with a helmet, what good are you? I could have pushed paperwork, but I declined the offer because that isn't how I wanted to serve.

Here is the truck I was in, that was hit by the IED, as taken by my platoon sergeant.



There is a lot of information left out. Some of it doesn't pretain to the question, some of it I'm simply not allowed to say till Jul 6 2020ish.

[Tzimanious]

-snip-

Damn, that photo...  As I understood your truck ran over some kind of "pressure mine" ? (The only military knowledge I have is from ARMA and movies so ...) As it seems the front wheels ran over the IED and hence the mess at the front of the vehicle but if a rear wheel had ran over the mine it would have probably been fatal? Fuck.

I'm glad you got away the way you did because that was really close and could have been way worse.

If you don't mind I have some more questions to ask you regarding your service.

-Why did you actually enlist ? 
-Do you think it was worth it ?
-Did you have previous experience as a medic ?
-What is something that you thought completely different about until you went to Afghanistan? (For example, I've heard that a lot of Afghanis are not even aware of any US presence)


I have also pm'd you.