In-game Username: banban
Discord username: ilban
Characters you play: Mira Ark, Poipoi Ark, Whimsy Flimsy, Valorite Ark, Builds-The-Ark, Crura Ark, Kra Ark, Bamboozles-The-Self, Does-The-Thing. They are my most prominent ones.
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 8-10 Hours
Days you are available to admin on: Mon-Sun
How old are you? 38
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? I have my absolute majority of experience on Wizard’s Den servers. I have tried Starlight and Frontier Hypatia.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? I do not have any SS13/14 administration experience. I have administrated long time ago in Ultima Online (UO Renaissance). No way to really verify this today.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers? Yes, I’ve been rolebanned on SS14 19th of March 2025 on Leviathan for forming a Cargonia.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? I like to help out and engage in/with projects I enjoy.
I’d be interested in/to:
*help out with in-game rule enforcement.
*answer questions about rules & provide guidance and alternatives if prompted to.
*curating, overseeing, assisting, hosting in-game events.
*be present and help provide a “safer” game environment. That said, not big brother people and make them feel constantly watched.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? I’m not interested in settling personal disputes and mediate between people’s personal quarrels.
To go through long replays based on a poorly detailed report with lack of timestamps. However, it’s still something I can do and contribute with. Necessity after all.
Detail Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
I think game admins’ role serve multiple purposes.
*To be someone to settle a in-game dispute.
*To observe and “bwoink”-players who clearly are rule/role/law breaking and ask/talk to them about it, and talk with them what they might’ve done wrong and how to amend it.
*To respond to reports and collect necessary information (by talking with a player when there’s an opportunity - depending on severity) and to make a call of action (sometimes by discussing it with other admins if necessary).
*To uphold the rules and code of conduct.
*To play/lead with example.
(I might be putting admins on quite the pedestal)
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
I read that you were lacking in administrators. And that it was also a reason to why the EU-server had shut down. I hope to one day see the EU-server reinstated and would like to provide support and effort to the community and share the load that is on the current admins.
And I really also like events and something little “extra” happening during slow shifts (nothing major, just that little extra that people will enjoy and talk about in a fun way). I play a lot on Salamander from EU, so often there are <30-15 players, slow shifts and no admins (It would probably be around 6am-2pm US time).
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
I learned the game on LRP Lizard/Leviathan and it was too hectic for me as a player to keep up with all the chaos that was ensuing. I moved to Salamander when learning about the MRP ruleset and have thoroughly enjoyed MRP ever since. I appreciate LRP’s existence, it is evidently the more popular of the two, you can unwind in a different way and enjoy it differently. However, I enjoy roleplaying more which sometimes include being IC oblivious to events, existences and “learning/figuring things out for the first time, again”. I also don’t really like power gaming which I see happening quite more often on LRP.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
“Bwoinking” might be scary, but I think that has an overall positive impact as well. I believe in being present and fairly knowledgeable, being able to answer questions to the best of ones ability and sate that aspect of players. Also perhaps even just helping creating favorable “memories” of a round. By sometimes doing a small end of round “event”. Encouraging players for their roleplaying at the end of a round.
To further create a safe environment for people to play the game.
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?
I’ve had a bit of a negative experience happening to me by other players. Being called quite strong words (even if it’s IC, and apparently during the replay they kept following my character and kept using profanity at me as ghost. By all rights did I arrest someone with full syndicate contra equipment as HoS and got called c**ksucker for it. I opted to interpret it as a IC-thing, but probably should’ve ahelped it). I’ve not had a bad experience with any admins, on the contrary, they’ve all been a positive influence.
I’d like to help others feel more safe while playing on Wizden servers. If I saw someone else use the same kind of language to someone else, I’d “gently bwoink” them and ask them to rethink the way they’re speaking to someone IC (or even worse, if it’s L/OOC). You can express emotions in a much better way than to push another person down. Naturally I’d respond to ahelps that includes “over the top” ‘verbal’ abuse. It’s a game, but we’re real people.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
Yes, I’ve had plenty of good roleplaying moments, plenty! So many stories to tell, however, the more perhaps relevant ones are the teaching moment ones. Most player seem very happy to teach and share knowledge, which is very admirable and fun. Some even do it at the expense of their “shift” (like mentoring an entire round and roleplaying around that).
I’ve had many fun experiences with admins, mostly when they “interfere”, even by the simplest of things, like changing ghost sprites of players end of round, or hosting a small ceremony at CC. I’ve seen the work they put down for making things like “rim world” events, or just crazy fun stuff. They seem like fun people.
I love learning, and SS14 really got a lot to teach.
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”.
My initial thought is to not encourage and meddle with the round currently in session. I could do nothing but just speak with the players and engage in conversation, which leaves the round to play out the natural way. They might be disappointed, but I’m sure they’ll ultimately understand why I wouldn’t. I could do something to humor the ghosts by changing the ghost players’ sprite and interact with them in that way. They might feel appreciation to have been engaged with and thus still not affecting the round in session in a way that affects players who are alive.
Or small impact things, like “pretending to be a poltergeist” and move objects a tiny bit in a non-impactful or harmful way to the player(s). This will hopefully sate the “do something funny” and not escalate it. 60 players will have and create enough chaos as is in my opinion - and it’s round start.
If nothing else, I’ll at least interact with the two players who asked me to “do something funny”. Perhaps they have some real good non-harmful-to-the-round ideas.
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.
Oh, this sounds spicy. There’s definitely a lot to do now, or at least a lot to observe.
Gather information as best I can. It’s LRP, but that doesn’t mean everything goes. Follow the chat of the 5 people, perhaps ask other ghost players if they know more than I. Why is the coup taking places? Is it done with roleplay at heart and with justified reason? If it is, observe it and let it play out. Coups are allowed after all. If it isn’t and if it’s baseless random bullshittery, I’m most likely intervening by ‘bwoinking’ the HoS and asking their reasoning and reminding them they are HoS, bound by space law. Same goes for HoP, who is command and also bound by space law. If they understand and agree, that would be the end of it, leaving an admin remark/note. If they refuse to play according to their role and with no justification of their actions I’d escalate and tell them there would be consequences of their actions outside of the round (such as role ban). If they agree then and there, that’s fine, admin remark. If not, I’m probably going to let it play out and then role ban them for an appropriate amount of time after the round. I’d only ever remove someone from a round if it’s very detrimental to a person (such as slurs and personal attacks of the player rather than arguing to a character). If HoS/HoP gave one side of the story, there’s always a different side to listen to. Make sure to get both sides of the story - it might be completely different after all. Worst case, I’ll download the replay and watch it myself. I will confirm with the Captain player whether HoS’ story was correct and if it was justified or not (from a IC point of view).
The scenario is a bit weird/funny, since Cap/QM is hiding from the Clown instead of the HoS/HoP. Either way I’d like to know how far the Clown has done the prank, Clowns are notorious to take a prank just a step too far and security is often busy dealing with clowns. Self-antagging is naturally not encouraged or even allowed (but not always strictly enforced on LRP in my experience), and clowns are not exempt. In a “normal” non-coup circumstance, Captain would employ security to deal with the clown and to retrieve his saber.
So now I’d proceed with gathering information as best as can without interfering. Why did they steal it? Did they make threats? Do they intend to give it back? Are they hurting players with it? I would let it play out with the clown as much as I could before interfering. If it starts affecting other players in a detrimental way, such as harming them with it, I would ‘bwoink’ the clown and remind them that self-antag is against the rules.
Worst case if too many things are happening and I cannot keep up with all 5 players, I would focus on the Coup situation. At the end of the round I could ‘bwoink’ the clown and/or download the replay and go through it from each players’ perspective and create as much of a completely view as possible and take measurements post round.
If it’s all crazy roleplay happening that is justified and the crazy keeps going, then I could argue that adding more crazy could be the roleplay way. Send a message from CC with clear directives, either to force the captain to step down, and if not send an appropriate ‘squad’ to deal with the captain. And if the roleplay dictates that the captain is in the right, send a message from CC telling HoS to step down, if not, send a protective squad from CC. It really depends on the flow of the round in general. I know LRP’s are more crazy in general.
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.
Since the situation is “now”, I’d ask the second admin who asked me to indefinitely ban them to provide reasoning. I’ll tell them I’ve been told differently earlier and would like some explanation as to why that action “tempban” would be less valid. If they provide substantial reasoning with reference to earlier actions or statements from headmins, I’ll follow their directive. If they cannot provide anything that is concretely overturning the previous call, I’ll stick with the temp ban and contact a headmin for clarity when available. If for whatever reason the other admin is insistent on the new verdict, I’ll let them take over the ahelp and be responsible for the outcome of it - and still contact a headmin for clarity when available.