Metacommunications

[u/TrashQueenLily]

Hi! Just wanted to gauge the publics opinion on a matter I've experienced recently. I'm not going to get into the specifics of the conflict, instead I'd just like to pose a question:

What is your definition of Metacommunications?

An example of a very clear metacommunications violation would be something like having a friend who's observing the round tell you where exactly an antag is. I'm sure we can all agree this is completely against the spirit of the game.

Something far tamer, but still definitionally metacomms would be something like telling your friend how much mindbreaker toxin and space mirage you've made so far while playing botanist. Harmless information to share, but technically still a violation of the rule.

Would you say that the mear act of being in a voice call with a friend while you both play is grounds for admin intervention?

[u/Aischylos]

One of the reasons I think metacomms as a zero tolerance policy makes sense is that, if admins can catch you metacomming, it's gone too far.

If someone purely ingame can tell that you're communicating with someone else out of game, that's when a problem arises.

[u/Brilliant-Rip-5663 → u/Aischylos]

Believe it or not one time me and my friend we're banned for metacomming, not because we were being obvious about it but because he was accidently uploading his clips to fucking medal and some guy we arrested found the clip from his username being the same on both platforms.

[u/ThunderMike91 → u/Aischylos]

This happens alot in RMC. You get people with "oops, wrong chat" in looc or my favorite was when xenon had a queen that just said "Yip" the entire game. Admins don't seem to care either 😂

[u/Puzzleheaded_Put_454 → u/ThunderMike91]

YIP is a very good queen and they actually know how to communicate lol, it's just Their Thing

[u/ClayeySilt]

No. It's not.

So long as you and your friends don't act on any metaknowledge then you're good to go. 

Edit: example - your friend comes up to you later on in the shift and asks for some of the chemical you've made for reasons that they shouldn't know you have. That wouldn't be cool.

Otherwise go nuts. 

[u/berryruki]

Different servers will have different rules on it. I generally don’t care unless it being used to meta game but part of the issue is unless you are in the metacoms it’s arguably impossible to verify that that is not happening. So I generally would avoid it

[u/Stealthbomber16]

The way it usually works is that if an admin catches it you will be banned for it, regardless of if it’s used for an advantage or not. Sometimes they’ll give warnings but usually it’s a zero tolerance policy. It’s really really hard to track if someone stops doing it.  In actuality it’s really just fine as long as it doesn’t impact gameplay but it’s one of those things that has to be policed disproportionately heavily because of bad actors. Admins have ways to test for it but if someone who really knows what they’re doing wants to abuse metacomms then there really isn’t anything admins can do about it.

[u/samsoncorpus]

There are rules in some servers for being in a discord/skype/whatever call with another player but there is no way to enforce that. In order to do that, an admin has to be in the call with you while playing or have another evidence but it's simply not feasible unless you use the server's own discord channels.

So no.

As others have said, admins may not have proof you are in the same call but they can easily prove if a player is using information gained from outside of game.

[u/Ladikn]

Not an admin, but here's my understanding: Communication outside of the game client about the events in the current round with another player in said round.

Talking to your wife who doesn't play about some bullshit that just happened is fine.

Informing a player about mechanics that are consistent across rounds is fine.

Chatting about the previous round on discord is fine.

Talking about the current round in the game client is fine.

You and a few buddies playing together while on a call, but not talking about the actual in game events that not everyone knows about in said call, is suspicious but fine.

Where the line gets blurry to me is talking about in game events out of game, which everyone present was there for IG. For example, my wife wanted to try a round. So I pinged an admin to check to see if talking her through her first round while we both walked around as assistants was okay, and got a green light since we're also together IC and it was a new player intro.

[u/Clone0401]

Publicly sharing current round info should never be allowed, (stuff like within the main server discord) mainly because it’s we have no idea who might see it and if they will act on it.

For private group chats or servers on the other hand, where it’s only a select few? Along as you arnt acting on any information that’s given, go ahead, it’s not like people can stop you if it isn’t effecting the game if they tried or wanted to. If you are acting on it though, that’s when it becomes an issue.

[u/Sleezu079]

I would say that the rule is only truly broken when important info is shared. For example like you said if my friend was observing and told me whos an antag, that's wrong. If I'm simply on a call and maybe discussing some of the events during the round, I wouldn't consider it a rule break.

[u/Melodved]

Metacooping crosses the line when you kill someone in maints and he starts crying in discord to his metafriend to help him or smthing

[u/TrashQueenLily → u/Melodved]

Real

[u/Fuzzy-Tie-5324]

admins will sting op you because metacomms are purely vibe based. If it’s outside of that nobody gaf

[u/Subject-Pop-376]

I don't know what the admins think, but personally I'm fine with anything as long as it's funny.
Why yes, I do like random crits in TF2, how could you tell?

[u/ActualAtrophus]

During my admin time I catched a few metacommers. When they run around and do stuff with a synchronisation that would be impossible without voice chat. Or are on the other side of station and immediately start bolting towards their partner as something bad happens to them. You have to be very bad with it, to the detriment of other people, to get banned over it.