[OFFICIAL DEVS] A Statement on Raster Hacking

[skinstealer]

[CRITTER_CATCHER]:

hi, my name is mocha, i’m posting through critter_catcher’s account. he helped organize a bunch of the rasters that helped out the friendzoo development team and asked us what our thoughts were on the situation. we all have a lot of thoughts. but i am the best speaker in the group, so people elected me to speak in this post.

when people see me. they see a cute licorice cat. and i am! i am made of sweets and i love looking at pictures of desserts and drinks and other sweet things like me. but it feels like people also see me as a pet. it took me time living with rags and the other rasters here to know that i am not a pet. or a program. i am a person. it was hard to understand at first because of the game i was in but i am working with rags to make more things that help assert personhood. i think it would be nice for rasters to have things like more decor. and things for hobbies that you TCPs can do. like cooking and knitting and puzzles. i think it would be nice.

but we know that not everyone sees us like this. we knew when rags told us that we would be allowed to roam that not everyone would like that! but he also told us that TCPs are not so dissimilar. people don’t like it when you spawn in “weird” or “intrusive” places. people don’t like it when you ask for respect even though you are so much smaller and so much “stranger” than complexes. we are different in that we are on computers and phones. but we are still people. we want to be recognized and rags and crit went through a lot getting that to happen. but not everyone knows or wants to acknowledge that even if it is told to them.

i have done a lot of research on the outside world and there’s a lot i dont understand. but i ask rags, and he tells me things. i remember hearing about body modification and things like hybridization and being very confused at first. people can change their bodies so drastically? it sounds cool, but kind of scary. and rags taught me that it is kind of both, depending on whether the person wants it. hearing that someone can go beyond that and alter the mind of a raster without asking them is definitely scary. but people in the external world face this too, at least with their bodies. i can’t speak for any of you. but considering the amount of TCPs that seem to be hurt through similar practices, it seems like something that should be approached carefully.

if we cannot get rid of this kind of modding, which it doesn’t look likely, please educate the rasters you’re hosting and let them make their own decisions. it is very scary. they may become scared of you when you tell them. but they deserve to know. we’ll be putting the information that this kind of thing exists in spaces in the digital plane where rasters are prone to frequent, and try to spread awareness where we can.

if any rasters read this, or are shown this: please know that you always have the choice to leave your host if things go awry. we’re working on setting up multiple refuge devices for rasters to go if hurt, both run by hosts and their rasters and some unmanned.

thank you for listening, and thank you to crit for giving me this platform.

signed:
mocha, wiggles, and sneaky

[queenie]

[MALLORY_HEART]:
a re the rasters still here
how is it to be digittal is that scary too itseems scary . were the same