Sotarks: An extended thought

Hi everyone.



My post yesterday in reference to my intolerance towards Sotarks and his behavior merits further explanation, especially following some people's misunderstanding of my points as well as what was briefly a Twitlonger replay by Sotarks himself that I'd like to deconstruct.

Here:

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sqo7in



A Clarification:

I've noticed some people are trying to summarize my posts and undermine my points by misrepresenting what my larger concern about Sotarks are.

I am not upset about his mapping, nor his infamy as a PP mapper. I personally don't mind his maps. I'm a big proponent of "play what you enjoy", and most of what Sotarks creates doesn't particularly appeal to me. I don't particularly care about his drive to exploit the system as much as possible; He's not the first, nor will be the last to do it and it is a necessary process in forcing change towards a stagnant, broken ranking system.

My issues don't lie within his placements of circles.



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I want to make abundantly clear exactly where my issue with Sotarks lies:



As a person, Sotarks is potentially one of the most inherently toxic individuals osu! has ever seen. He is manipulative, selfish, and condescendingly rude to anyone who stands in the way of what he tries to achieve. Again, there is nothing wrong with wanting to have your maps be played a ton, or having the highest pp play on your map. Though the methods Sotarks uses to paint himself as the unanimous villain of osu!mapping come across as slimy, disgusting, and wholistically counter to what mapping is and should continue progressing to be.



Sotarks' entire identity and purpose for continuing to rank maps are to be the definitive center of turbulence among osu!mapping in general. Never has it felt like Sotarks pushes his creations to rank because he is proud of his work, because he feels as though they progress ranked mapping, or because he wishes to make osu! better in the long-run. Every action Sotarks takes can be characterized by one simple sentiment:



"Fuck you. I do it because I can."



1)Criticisms against this perspective are simply met with a verbalization of this attitude. He has continuously touted never letting anybody affect him nor stop his map ranking agenda.

2) Criticisms against this perspective are met with the notion that he is doing this to "make the pp system better".

3) Criticisms against this perspective are met with "just ignore what you don't like".

4) Criticisms against this perspective are met with "why give the attention-seeker attention".

5) If all the above fail, criticisms against his perspective are met with indiscernible childish memeing and otherwise petty insults.

I wish to explain why none of these arguments hold any merit.



1)The issues I have Sotarks do not transpire with other so-called PP mappers. The issue is how vehemently he insists on making this his identity. Not only that, but he will actively rub that in everyone’s face time and time again, and act unruly and condescending to anyone who speaks out to him because “you can’t stop me”. A prime example shows in his pinned tweet that was a picture of him bragging to peppy about how he “broke the pp system”. This is not an ideal self-portrayal of someone who wants to be seen as trying to better the game. It is instead of someone who takes pride in his continued walking along the fine line between egregious and "good enough". Those who enable him by iconing his mapsets feed into the ego that has given rise to an entitlement to which nobody has any authority to strike him down from. This ego and entitlement then manifest themselves among his interactions with fellow community members, in most recent memory, interactions within the past week with Chippy and ProfessionalBox off platform:



https://twitter.com/Chippum_/status/1068650132617527301

https://twitter.com/ProfessionaIBox/status/1071011479443386368



2) Sotarks sometimes claims he is trying to elucidate flaws in the pp system, and bring to light how easily exploitable this is. This is something people like Xexxar have been very openly doing before. The difference is that I have quite literally never seen Sotarks engage in any rational or civil discussion maybe ever. Xexxar is very actively reconstructing the pp system from the ground up. Never once have I seen Sotarks give reasonable, constructive feedback to the system he claims he is so altruistically making better. Sotarks’ only concern is his own numbers, getting plays on his maps and getting players their pp. He is so tunnel visioned on what is best for his own agenda, he gives such little of a shit about anyone else. This can be best seen in how often he flaunts having maps in the top 5 most played (24h), or how many plays a mapset of his has, or how his difficulty boasts the highest all-time pp play. While not particularly terrible things to be proud of, in the context of Sotarks' behavior it only serves as another demerit against his ideals regarding mapping.



3 and 4) Some may ask why I'm giving a supposed attention-seeker so much attention. Some might ask why I don't simply ignore him since adding maps to a free game never hurt anybody. Largely I agree. Though I draw the line when it is having a substantial impact on the people who enjoy playing the game or it creates a toxic environment for discussion and holding people accountable for their actions. Sotarks is doing both. It becomes impossible to ignore him when he has no reservations antagonizing people who choose to do so. Sotarks continuously badgered Angelsim to farm his maps, when he was doing explicitly what Sotarks sometimes argues to do: ignore his maps if you don't like them. He was rude and insulting to someone who was doing what everyone tells you to do. Ignore it. Sotarks will not go away if the community at large chooses to ignore him. He willingly forces the spotlight back onto himself.



Now I've personally spent the last two years silently watching this behavior transform and grow more selfish. I've made very few opinionated statements regarding Sotarks or his behavior. I've made little to no effort to whine about PP mapping and how it is "destroying the game".



Look where this has got us.



If me speaking up against this behavior gets us somewhere, even to a slight bit of introspection from Sotarks, then, by all means, I'll place the spotlight directly in his face.





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I want to now take this time to respond to his Twitlonger post considering I imagine it was mainly directed at me. But I want to direct mine directly to Sotarks. (Broken up by paragraphs in his main tweet)

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sqo7in



I'm really happy that you've found so much success in streaming osu!. I'm glad you were able to get partnered and it seems a lot of people enjoy your charismatic personality and high-energy streams. That's awesome.



Now it seems what I've said finally struck a chord with you. I would like to question what other mappers have been mentioned among this negativity, and where I file complaints against mapping in general. I am making this as clear as possible that you and you alone are an issue within osu!. I totally understand not wanting to be subjected to negativity, I'm not a fan of drama myself, though I don't seem to agree that this is unnecessary whining about something you may or may not have done. This is a crucial call for self-reflection of how your actions continuously mock the community at their expense and laugh when nobody can hold you accountable.

I'm personally holding you accountable. Don't misinterpret this as hatred, or ill-will. This is just the voice of one person who is frankly fed up with the stance you choose to take at the expense of everyone but yourself. However, you seem to have finally found a new way to undermine the points people bring up against you, and that's to play victim, claim everyone is out to get you, that it's simply mindless hatred, and blocking those who stand up to you because you are unable to form a coherent response as to why you do what you do. You've shown no signs of personal reflection, you've shown no entertainment that you are the sole cause of the same hatred you're vilifying in this post.



This is a community-based game. You're so entirely right. So why do you keep bringing your own vile comments towards other members of it around? Why insist on being the villain of this community? I'm not trying to incite hatred against you because I find this fun, or I don't have anything better to do. It's because at the end of the day, I care about this community astronomically more than you've ever cared about anything you've ever pushed for rank. "Please enjoy game, stop taking things so seriously". I believe basic human decency and respect for others is something to be serious about.



Again, you've shown that you have no concern for anything but your own mapping agenda. once again showing your only concern is in ranking the maps you want.



I'm glad that you're able to enjoy the game however you want. But I'm begging you from the bottom of my heart, please stop enjoying the game at the expense of everyone else who just wants to enjoy the game.



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P.S. I won't touch mapping commissions. That's not part of the issue here though I still hold my reservations about it because of forseeable consequences on the mapping scene in the far future, I understand you're not doing it maliciously, and I respect your drive to tun a hobby into an extra source of revenue.



This is the last I expect I have to say publicly about the matter. It should sum up everything.

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