In-game Username: BurgerMoth
Discord username: RedChair368
Characters you play: Eats-The-Burgers, Lt. Columbus, Burger Silkbread
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 4-8
Days you are available to admin on: Every day
How old are you? 19
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience?
A fair bit of playtime on RMC (50), Frontier (46), Funky (16), and Goob (20). no experience with SS13.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)?
None.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers?
I had a server ban on Rouny’s Marine corps due to a VPN issue that has since been resolved. I have sometimes played on my college campus’s gaming computer’s, so I believe the server flagged me due to an issue with the school’s intranet system. The warning specified it was not an account ban, and was only related to the VPN.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin?
In-game rule enforcement. Rounds can greatly suffer from raiders, and the dreaded “shit-sec”, so I would like to alleviate this given an admin is not always on to catch these things. I tend to play on Salamander (MRP), and it frustrates me that I quite often have to advise certain staff to not power game. Apart from this, I’d love to also do slight admin intervention, as many people don’t even interact with the various in character ways to interact with admins (whether by altar, phone, or fax) and I wish to change that. By introducing new elements to the story of the station, I’d like to add to rounds in a non disruptive way.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin?
Ban appeals, as I currently would not feel comfortable making judgements with my lack of experience.
Detail Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
I’ve always seen admins as DM’s, and I love Dm’ing. This game is so unique in that the goal of the ideal player is to tell a story; death or failure can create memories and I truly love that. Admins, allow for the story of the station to involve extraordinary elements when needed or asked for by enough portion of the crew, whilst also stopping bad play which would otherwise hurt the narrative. However, I have seen certain ad-memes go too far given the MRP context, devolving into unsatisfying and even frustrating chaos, and
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
I love DM’ing in roleplaying games such as DND, and SS14 seems like a unique way to connect with people interested in unique mechanics and RP scenarios. Having seen people chop up the use of phones and altars as not worth doing due to a lack of admin, I wish to be the means for players to access that extra layer, and as cap I myself wish I could’ve interacted more with CC (I particualry enjoy when admins put up CC officer ghost roles for debriefing with command after round end on Mander).
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
I tend to stick to Salamander due to how aggressive things can be on the other wizden servers, but, I do remember some rounds ruined by raiders (once I found one while a ghost and DM’d an admin to help address it) and I wish I could help ease that in the future. Among other things, I also want to use the threat of CC retaliation to keep command/ security from breaking space law, power-gaming (MRP specific), or generally acting unethically. On salamander in specific, there’s recently been a good deal of aggressive play and powergaming. It hurts the RP atmosphere when certain departments are working overtime due to the actions of non-antags or some antags who are clearly stepping out of their lane, or bad actors who clearly prompt conversation in order to use lethal force on someone mid response.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
Answering prayers, giving guidance, introducing situation appropriate ghost roles (for those that die early or start as ghost), and doing the occasional ad-meme to bring something exciting to a possibly tired crew.
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 fair bit of negative experiences. There have been a few times I’ve been wrongfully killed during zombie and rev rounds (lack of escalation), rounds where overlooked mechanics have been abused (Salvage Ops not only is busted, but is almost round stalling for crew), and there have been ad-memes on salamander that were incredibly disruptive (one ad-meme resulting in what I would consider evac bombing, as 39 Rat Ogres spawned on the shuttle, killing everyone who had survived up to that point and were engaging in reflective RP). Most of my playtime by far is on Salamander, and I believe much of the servers recent culture issue could be tended to with bwoinks.
To the nukie teams buying holo clowns: Please ignore the job specific items, this is a bug.
To the non-antag tider breaking into perma multiple times: why are you doing this?
To the HoP snagging magboots and a tool belt from an engineering locker roundstart: why are you doing this?
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
I’ve had many fun experiences with this game! One time I gaslit a janitor as an artifact until they bit their tongue. Although this may sound morbid (and it is), it was really funny to convincing them they were in a coma, everything is fake, and that they need to wake up (it was an experience I could only have on this game). As for admin interaction, I’ve not had much if any sadly.
Update: I’ve seen a lot more admins lately and they’ve been really nice. One time I commented on how fast an admin’s ghosts was, and they gave me that speed too. It was really fun zooming around at Mach 10, essentially doom scrolling through the different plots happening on station (switching spots when my attention ran even a little thin). There was another instance on Starlight, in which an admin was running “gamble deathmatch duels” and I thought it was a fun way to keep ghost players engaged.
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”.
Before traitors are called, I am unsure how much sec will have on their plate, and as such I shouldn’t introduce new elements before understanding the threats the station will already be forced to face. If there was a time to “do something funny” it would be mid round when the shift is particularly quiet, or inbetween rounds, during which I can ask players if they are interested in something different via a poll. However, in order to keep the ghost players entertained, I may spawn a test room for them to mess around in. I could simply show them admin only items they would otherwise not see, and I really liked watching gamble death matches, so I would also offer this up as well. This being said, test room antics can only keep people entertained for so long, so I could spawn a ventilation creatures event about 15 minutes in, or possibly an RK raffle. Anything like a ninja or loneop would require more time to have passed.
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.
First, I would try to understand who is in the wrong. Did the captain act wrongly? Or is the HoS acting uncharacteristically power hungry? In either case I would reprimand the HoS (via bwoink), as even if the captain is in need of demotion, they should’ve Ahelped or faxed CC. I have two responses given the scenario.
If the HoS and HoP is in the wrong, I would consider giving them both a temp role ban (severity depending on the severity of their conduct during the round and previous offenses, as the HoP may have been railroaded into complying and they may have still acted in accordance with space law for the attempted arrest), send security staff a fax detailing the HoS’s bad conduct and their new instructions to no longer follow their head, and send an security ERT team (Death squad seems too drastic) with the spoken objectives of: linking up with the cap and QM, regaining the caps control over the station, and forcefully cutting the HoS’s and HoP’s contracts. If the ERT roles go unfilled due to a lack of ghosts (which I’d not expect), I’d continue with the ahelp, but also provide weapons to the QM and Cap via CC sent supplies at the ATS.
If the captain is in the wrong, I would fax a warrant for arrest to Sec, but still reprimand HoS with a warning. If it’s not clear, my goal is to provide needed punishment, but also do so without breaking immersion for those uninvolved with the rule breaks. With most negative behavior I would opt for a more quiet ahelp, smite or ban as to not encourage such behavior with a fun story line. In this case however, the importance and visibility of Command staff changes things and I feel it would be important to publicly show punishment for bad conduct. In reference to the clown, I’d question why they are disadvantaging their boss, ask them to return the sword, and let em off with a warning given they didn’t do more than slip them. I am hesitant to concretely punish the clown, as there are a few circumstances in which the sword stealing could be passed off as a joke, however a Bwoink would still be required and the sword should still be returned even if it’s LRP.
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.
An indefinite ban is a big deal, and as such I’d rather deal out the temp ban recommended in earlier discussion and risk them becoming immune to an indefinite ban due to double jeopardy (unless this isn’t a thing), even if they really are deserving of a harsher response. Given the type of offense in question is valid for temp ban on the first instance, I would assume it’s serious (the activity has seriously harmed the experience of others), and as such the ban duration may be anywhere from 4 hours to 2 days.