Earlier today we updated what was once the Cursed Quests to be the Duality Quests. I'd like to provide more context into why that change was made, why it's been so long in the making, and how we can move on in a positive way going forward.
First, users brought up the issues regarding how Mori and Nori were portrayed so this brainstorm thread so born. If you look at the date, you can see it was created well over a year ago and users brought it up before that. It's unacceptable that we took so long to address this. While yes, our team is small and incredibly stretched thin, it shouldn't have taken us the amount of time it did. We as a team have a problem with breaking tasks up into smaller things; we always want to do everything at once. In this case, we really thought it made the most sense and was the most respectful to get everything changed at once. It was clearly not the right way to go about things, and I personally want to apologize to those I put off with my "we're working on it" generic comments.
Now, what was the issue with Nori and Mori?
This was beautifully said by user who has experience with DID and has been a champion for educating the staff and users. I asked them to sum up what the problem for users without having to read the entire suggestion thread.
We've updated the text for the Mori and Nori quests (the intro text, the turn in text, the failed quest, the reward text), the quest shop text, the subetapedia main entry about the two as well as the quick facts listed in the quest givers list, and various items around the site. We've also renamed the achievements associated with Mori and Nori. Did we miss something? Please ping me () so I can adjust it.
In the future, I will actively try to not offer excuses ("our team is small" "our focus is on a holiday") and will do my best to work with users to get things updated in a timely manner. This isn't always possible, of course, but I personally could have done a lot better job with this particular issue.
Why does this all matter? Like 's quote says, we really do strive to be inclusive and diverse. We don't want to have things on site that upset users in a negative way like this. It's one thing to not like an item because you think spiders (or something similar) are scary, it's another to have to deal with an item promoting negative stereotypes to a mental health disorder you may have. By not addressing user concerns about Mori and Nori in a timely matter, we as staff made part of our user base feel unheard and unimportant which is never what we want. We've adjusted items with a quick turn around before (Algonquin Plushie comes to mind) and the fact we took over a year to make these changes was plain wrong.
Why post a new news post instead of just adding another comment to the earlier post? The users who brought up the issue with Mori and Nori, continued to fight for the change, and actively tried to educate users and staff deserve this post. They deserve to be publicly acknowledged for the work they did.
Glad I could help!!!
and, on another note - not trying to invalidate diabetics or addicts here, but since it was previously mentioned and whatnot... I really don't mean any offense saying this, but being sarcastic and saying "remove all candy because I'm addicted and have diabetes" has been bothering me.
Like I said, I am not trying to invalidate anyone with diabetes or addictions! Diabetes is, and please correct me if I'm wrong, a disorder(?) that has been thoroughly studied and has fairly clear-cut ways to take care of it. Now, while I wouldn't think "candy addict" is a diabetic stereotype (once again, correct me if wrong, please), I am aware that "people with diabetes are usually fat people" is a common misconception, if not a stereotype. Which, guess what — Subeta staff have changed item descriptions that poked fun at overweight people! With diabetes, there's enough information out there to properly care for it, meaning it is ACTIVELY your choice to eat candy, knowing fully well that it WILL possibly harm you. Candy isn't a problematic item (unless the description says something insensitive, which in that case, tell that to staff???) due to the fact it is a CHOICE. With dissociative disorders, it's not as clear what will outright cause the disorder to harm those affected, and while we can medicate ourselves and get therapy, it doesn't always work and sometimes even causes more harm than good (yes, there are doctors out there who both intentionally or unintentionally harm their already vulnerable patients, sadly). We don't choose to switch between alters (contrary to the belief of TikTok kids lmao) and we don't have the means to never lose control and never have amnesia and never destroy relationships with our mental illness. We don't have the control over our mental disorders like many physical disorders do.
As for addiction jokes: it's a perfect example of what normalizing these things (such as making Mori/Nori multiple personalities through uneducated wording) does for us as people. I'm guilty of making such jokes, many people are, because such a heavy and harmful topic has become normalized and downplayed in today's society. Same with depression, anxiety, S/H, etc jokes. Same with DID, schizophrenia, bipolar, OCD, psychopathy, etc. Same with murder, domestic violence, stealing, destroying property, etc. When you normalize the language and approach of a certain topic in a certain way, it... well, it becomes the norm. So by adjusting Mori and Nori's wording, it removes the normalization of multiple personalities being "good" and "evil".
god I am so sorry I post a whole ass essay every reply but it seriously just... annoys me how ignorant people can be about real topics that ruin lives and are unwilling to learn better
(also I know I said it so many times but P L E A S E correct me if ANYTHING I said is wrong. I'm not 100% knowledgeable on diabetes and going off what I know through past and rather brief conversations my mother, who is a nurse practitioner. I'm just a guy with a single brain cell smacking a keyboard like it owes me money.)