by Jason (Aeston) Rosa
Several years ago, in an unprecedented move, the Event Holders of the Realms put their heads together at a particularly contentious meeting and created the Arbitration Committee, making their best effort to address a glaring need in our community. At the time the decision was very controversial, but despite that I truly believed that heads and hearts were in the right place and it was a sign that our game was moving forward. I wrote about my perspective on the decision in a View post you can find here (the latter of the two articles).
So seeing as I went to such lengths to talk about that earlier turning point in our game, and seeing as well that I am one of the primary architects of it’s replacement, It seemed appropriate for me to introduce the Complaint Review Board and to talk a little bit about the purpose of the committee and my thoughts behind creating it.
First let me give you a basic understanding of the body. It won’t take long to explain, the concept is incredibly simple. The Complaint Review Board is a group of elected individuals who have the duty to receive complaints about rules and ethics violations from the player base of the Realms, much in the same way as the Arbitration Committee did. Upon receiving a complaint it is their responsibility to investigate all sides of it through the collection of evidence, interviews, and whatever other methods are appropriate given the situation. All throughout there are extremely high standards for maintaining the anonymity of everyone involved. When the investigation has been completed, the board creates a detailed report that collects all of the information they learned and passes it on to the Event Holders. At that point the complaint is adjudicated by the Event Holders either at the yearly EHC or at an emergency session of the EHC if the Event Holders decide that it’s a matter that has to be weighed quickly.
I’m sure it’s obvious at first glance what is similar and what is different between the Complaint Review Board and the Arbitration Committee. The proposal was long and it was mostly procedural rules, so rather than explain it all in excruciating detail, I’d rather try to express why we designed this new body and why I think it is a step in the right direction for the Realms.
First, please understand that I served on the AC for three of the five years of its existence. In the two years I was not on the committee I had very close friends who were, and so I was never fully detached from how it affected its members. I can tell you with no hyperbole that it was the most stressful and emotionally damaging duty I have ever undertaken for the community. It was time consuming beyond reasonable measure. It suffered irreparably from a lack of direction and established procedure. It created immense conflict and permanently damaged relationships. I say this pointedly and unapologetically. If you are under the impression that the Arbitration Committee was capable of doing what we as a community hoped it would do then you were not close enough to it to understand its glaring faults.
The Arbitration Committee was an experiment. It was a bold one made with the best of intentions. And when you run an experiment, especially for the first time, it is not uncommon that you fail. But in that failure there is always a lot to learn.
Education (which as most of you know is my profession) is similarly a field that doesn’t have a lot of obvious right answers. It is a vocation that relies heavily on experimenting; trying your best to do impossible things, assessing what works and what does not, gathering evidence, and then using that evidence as best as you can to make the adjustments and assumptions needed to try again. It is in that spirit that I tried to design the concept of the Complaint Review Board. Yes, the Arbitration Committee did not work as intended. But it also produced five years of data and experiences which I and my co-writers tried to use to create something that would work better.
The AC started with no standardized procedures. At its inception we didn’t even know what we didn’t know about establishing any kind of norms or expectations. And without clear directions to follow, each year it felt like the group was making up the rules from scratch, sowing confusion and unintentionally creating unfair situations. The CRB, however, has every aspect of how it works codified as precisely as possible. The members of the board will not suffer from nonexistent direction but instead know exactly what is expected of them and how to fulfil their responsibilities. The AC was mired with misunderstandings about what they could or should communicate, leading to obfuscation, misinterpretations, and overall nurtured distrust. The CRB has clear instructions about precisely what they report, with a focus on both protection of the individuals in a complaint and also complete transparency with their processes. The AC made five people the judge, jury, and executioner, and expected them to mete out their own version of justice as best as they could, only to be met with anger and disappointment from the people they were trying to serve. It was too heavy a burden to place on so few people and it broke members of the committee in ways that they could not foresee. The CRB moves that weighty responsibility to a larger decision making body where a chorus of opinions and perspectives will be brought to bear to help reach the best and fairest conclusions possible.
Is the Complaint Review Board the best possible solution for what we need as a community? I can say with almost absolute certainty that it is not. Arriving at the best solution will certainly be a lengthy process of doing exactly what I’ve tried to do here. We will work with this new system, gather data about what it is capable of doing and what flaws it contains, and redesign it or reinvent it when it’s time for it to evolve. I am confident that this is a significant step in the right direction.
Years ago, in the article I linked above talking about the contention of creating the Arbitration Committee, I closed with this sentiment:
To some of you I seem like an old veteran player, but trust me, compared to many in that room, I am inexperienced and naive, so I probably lack the standing to express this. Nevertheless, I am truly proud that everyone there tried their best and showed one another that they deeply love the Realms and that they deeply care about one another and the community. Expressing it like that, in that moment, was a rare and special thing. I understand the perspective of those of you who can't agree with the decision or the method that came from that meeting, but please, if you can, try to be proud of them too.
Once again this change comes from people who deeply love the Realms and who deeply care about one another and the community. I am extremely grateful to the many people who contributed to the authoring and fine-tuning of this proposal, some more than me. Ryan W, Pat B, Pi F, Angie G, Tucker N, Alex C, Matt B, Justin M, and Renee B. I am deeply thankful to both the Players Meeting and the Event Holders Meeting for passing the proposal, both times unanimously in a fitting homage to how the AC was passed years ago. I am very proud of the eight individuals who were selected to be the first Complaint Review Board. On it are some young passionate Realmsies, both event holders and players, who the community will rely deeply on in the coming years. Joining them is a diverse cast of veterans who can utilize their wealth of experiences to help them accomplish their tasks. This job is likely not going to be an easy one, but I offer you my unwavering support and appreciation for your willingness to attempt it.
It’s no secret that as a large, loosely-structured, diverse game the Realms faces and has always faced challenges that sometimes seem insurmountable. I can only offer you the broadness of my experience when I tell you that I have seen the best us when we come together to try in earnest to solve those problems and create a place that we are all proud to call our home.
In service,
Jason Rosa