In-game Username: Arcane_Valiance
Discord username: arcanevaliance
Characters you play: Ruby Nightwish
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 5-10 hours
Days you are available to admin on: Weekends primarily, after hours on weekdays.
How old are you? 25
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? None at all. I play exclusively on Wizard’s Den as a consequence of my unfamiliarity with other places and therefore lack of motivation to go exploring.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? Unfortunately not in the case of Space Station. And I’m sure running an inactive Discord server doesn’t apply here either. I have had a short term moderating for a streamer’s Discord (family member) but I only dealt with banning a raid wave. To at least give you something to convince you, I understand or at least have a general grasp on handling “incidents” as they occur. If taught the tools, I can effectively carry out whatever administrative procedure is standard.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers? No, clean record.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? I just wanted to throw my hand in the ring and help out. I enjoy the game (most of time.) and seeing as I’m active during the time most people aren’t, I thought I could use that to catch the recent influx of raiders coming in and ruining rounds. Besides that, maybe after a few months of experience, I hope to host some fun events in game–wasn’t at the forefront of my mind when considering applying but I thought it would be good to mention.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? Having a hard time thinking of what to put here. I suppose the least interesting thing at least from the list above is having to deal with reports in post. The replay system has a bit of jank to it, especially when it comes to round playback. So scrolling through it to answer the report with the current tools available sounds tedious and inconvenient–an opinion that will change when/if better tools are accessible.
Detail Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
I suppose the name of the role answers itself. From my experience, they do more than just administrate and work behind the scenes: they actively ensure that we are having a good time (when possible) or at least making sure that what happens is suppose to. I think I will get a better definition of this when actually working with the other admins/moderators on the servers since I am not query to the culture of the staff. But really l just think the primary role the admins play is to ensure that our experience is unfettered as possible and only intervening when necessary.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
I mentioned it before but I just wanted to help. I don’t really have a great resume but I didn’t want to let that stop me from trying to apply. If denied, no problem, I’ll keep playing regardless. Of course I was mostly spurred into applying with the recent exodus of team members as of this posting, but don’t let that sway your decision. Besides that, personally I think I have a strong, virtuous moral code, and that makes me heavily disapprove of rules not being followed.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
Having both played LRP and MRP, I can already say the condition of the latter is better and if for not the lack of players would be the primary place I play on. For the former, I think I speak for most when I say there has been a problem. Some of my recent rounds have had some of the “greytide” self-antagging, or at the very least giving security more distractions than they need. For a specific example, someone rerouted disposals into security, and there were several non-antags riding into there. It’s not an isolated incident because I’ve had more rounds that the same thing has been occurring. I never played security when its happened but I definitely don’t want to be them when having to deal with the 10th repeat passenger breaking in and just being a nuisance.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
With regard to current events, I think pointing players in the right direction–clarifying rules to be the most positive impact. I don’t think players often read on rule updates when they happen, so the recent* implementation of space law in LRP is kind of glossed over by most. I explain, leading into the revolutionary game mode and the laws on mind-shielding… Security players are often not reading into the new laws on forced implantation, and the gamemode is already meta-gamed hard. I think I’ve made my point by now. When people know the rules, and play by them they don’t need to report, and that makes less work for the admins.
Have you ever had a negative experience in the game or with a game admin? If so what, if anything, would you do to prevent other players from experiencing this?
None that probably didn’t deserve. I haven’t had much interaction with AHelp except when it was really needed.
I suppose if I were to say one thing, there was a time I was tipsy playing the game. I asked for a role and that was obviously not allowed (not necessarily apparent but still not allowed.) and I was met with a rather firm warning. While I’m not someone who is sensitive to that kind of backlash, there are people who are. Something I would’ve done was have a more gentle but still firm hand in rejecting the request. Even though that kind of pathos is difficult to emulate in text.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
I can’t remember any experience off the top of my head for a positive interaction with a game admin–not for lack of trying but I believe that the only good experience is that they resolve the issue that is happening. Game-wise though, all my good experiences have been when working with co-workers in the same departments, or fellow syndicates/antags. One of my more recent ones was coming across a thief and getting some more TC from them. We proceeded to all green-text the shift all while flying under the radar of security.
Scenario Questions
Scenario 1
It is the start of the round. There are 60 players on the server. The game mode is traitors, traitors have not been selected yet. There are three players who decided to observe the round instead of join it orbiting you. Two of them are encouraging you to “do something funny”.
I feel like I’ve done something similar, just wanting to watch the admin ghost and orbit them. In this situation though I think it is best to not encourage the behavior. I’ve had an admin ghost “disappear” when I orbit them to watch them, and I would do the same here without saying anything. The reasons behind it being that is would discourage them from continuing to engage and move on, and/or make them think I left. I think the behavior is attention-seeking, so if I show them they aren’t going to get anything from this situation they will give up… HOWEVER, if that does not work and they push it after I’ve done so, I will verbally respond with a kind request to cease, followed by a firm one as a final warning before I actually take administrative action. Assuming that is within my right.
I believe going invisible first in this situation (if possible) discourages the behavior. If their pushing does become an issue, then I think “pulling rank” becomes warranted and deters the behavior. I want to give the players a chance to correct themselves before I actually step in, since that will encourage their own growth and self-moderation.
Scenario 2
This scenario takes place on LRP. The Head of Security has decided to coup the Captain. The Head of Personnel agrees with the Head of Security and has taken up arms in case it is necessary to aid in effecting the arrest of the Captain. The Captain is hiding with the Quartermaster in the cargo shuttle to avoid the Clown who has stolen the captains saber as a non-antag. There are five people named in this scenario. Please describe what actions, if any, you would take in relation to each, and why.
This is a rat’s nest of problems it seems. If possible, I want to see what led up to this situation. Were this simply part of an event and intended, obviously I wouldn’t do anything. But assuming this is a normal round, I would want to attain a rudimentary understanding of the cause before moving further. So first looking at the conversations of the command radio most likely with any chats between the HoS and Captain. If the captain is unfit to lead the station, the rest of command is able to force him to step down from my understanding. (Were the HoS just doing this on a whim obviously that would put him in the wrong and dealt with accordingly.) The HoS and HoP share responsibility on this matter so both will share the consequences, if any. Assuming it’s the Captain being unfit for leadership, everything will just be let be until the Clown come into the picture. If they intend to keep it for themselves and not relinquish it back to the captain, or command then they will be informed to do so. The QM appears innocent in any variation of this scenario unless they have taken sides, and in that case will share the consequences, if any of said “side”.
Now if the HoS and HoP are doing this without any real reason to be doing so, they will likely first be warned to abort their course of action, and if not possibly role-banned from those positions/command if that is the right call. The Captain and QM are seemingly innocent in this scenario, while the Clown is given the same warning as before.
I can’t imagine there’s any other noteworthy variation of this scenario. If there’s a lot of self-antagging from both sides of command and crew, then code Epsilon sounds like an easy way to deal with round, and role banning any offenders. I don’t imagine that’s how that is usually dealt with but that’s the nuclear route I’d go unless told otherwise.
Scenario 3
You are ahelping a player about an issue. The player has no prior noted issues. A few days earlier, an admin had told you that this type of situation should result in a temporary ban for a first offense, and you are confident that this situation is not substantially different from the type that admin was describing. During the ahelp, another admin pings you on Discord with a link to the ongoing ahelp and tells you to just indefinitely ban them and make them appeal. Excluding trialmins and headmins, all admins are equally “ranked”. A headmin is not currently available.
In this scenario I would defer to my best judgement. I’d weigh the player’s actions with their behavior and divine what is the best punishment to apply here.
Considering their playtime and the intention of their actions, if I can garner that they know better, I will go with more recent admin’s recommendation and indefinitely ban them to appeal. If it’s a new player, I will temporarily ban them and inform them to do better should they return after the ban timer.
These will still probably change depending on the situation and severity of the occurrence.