In-game Username: CMDR_JohnAlex
Discord username: CMDR_JohnAlex (Originally known as CMDR-JohnAlex#2520)
Characters you play: Zachary Hudson
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: Always depends on how much free time I have after school. Currently, I’m able to play at least 2h on school days. On weekends, 4-6h.
Days you are available to admin on: Most weekdays, otherwise weekends.
How old are you? I am 17, turning 18 in a few months. I hope this doesn’t nullify my application, if I am legally required to be over 18, I could obtain my parent’s permission if it helps.
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? Yes, after playing many hours of ss14, I’ve tried ss13 on Paradise station and loved it, at the time of writing I have 119 hours on Paradise station. Otherwise, I have very little ss14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? I do not have prior administration experience, however I have been a part of leadership roles throughout school and clubs if that means anything? Sadly, nothing that can be verified due to the teacher overseeing my roles retired.
Have you been banned from SS14 or SS13 servers before? Yes… In SS14 I was banned a few months ago for using the suicide command as CE within 20 minutes of the shift to become Hammy. It was a two-week ban from command and I’m not very proud of my actions.
In SS13 a few days ago I was appeal-banned from command due to suddenly disconnecting from the shift in a critical time as captain without informing command staff or ahelping. In my offence, my parents messed with the router without informing me, disconnecting me from the game. I successfully appealed my ban here (for more information) as soon as I was able to re-connect to the internet.
Admins have the ability to perform various tasks which are not available to the average player. An incomplete list of these tasks is: in-game rule enforcement, in-game events, ban appeals, and out-of-game rule enforcement through things like replay/log reviews in response to player reports. With these, and any other tasks you’re aware of in mind, answer the following two questions.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? Using the admin tools to keep the shift fun for all. Creating in-game events if I am allowed/the majority of the crew wants.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? Ban appeals don’t sound too interesting.
_ Answer the following questions in detail, so we can get a better idea of how you’d approach adminning. _
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
I believe the first role game admins serve, is keeping the servers a positive and enjoyable experience for all players. Responding to ahelps and acting on them accordingly. Using the ahelp system to make sure players are following the server’s rules and role play expectations.
In both SS14/13, when learning the security role I’ve been told it’s better to use your words to de-escalate and deal with situations before using your stunbaton or whatever, and I feel like being an admin is the same. Use the ahelp system to figure out the situation and maybe hand out some warnings and pointing out rules instead of going all “shitsec” and going right for the stunbaton/banning players. My view is that players shouldn’t be banned unless they are constantly breaking rules, and restrictions like a job ban or temp ban isn’t preventing them from making the game a negative experience for everyone.
Another role I feel game admins serve is making the shifts fun, perhaps with an event if the majority of players are interested.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
There are many reasons I want to become an admin for SS14, the main one is to learn, learn to be a good admin, learn how to better handle situations, learn how to make the game a positive experience for everyone, and to gain experience as a game admin.
Another reason is that I have experience in most departments and I enjoy teaching. I believe I could be useful in helping new players learn the game.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
Heavily depends on the server. I regularly play on LRP Leviathan and MRP Salamander. On LRP Levi, it can feel like players aren’t putting much effort into roleplaying at times, and other times you’ll meet MRP-worthy players on Levi who are always fun to hang around with. As for MRP Salamander, I love the server and enjoy the state of roleplay, however at some rare times, the shifts can feel a bit empty without some admin intervention, and I’ll miss the craziness of LRP Levi.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
Like I said when I learned to be a secoff in SS14/13, using your words and giving warnings or nudges has the biggest positive impact. Other things like admin events can give substance to the story of a shift if it feels like the shift is moving very slowly.
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 my share of negative experiences with the game, mainly my lack of skill being a syndicate in SS14. I wouldn’t do anything to prevent players from experiencing this, as it is also enjoyable and dying helps you learn for the next time you are a syndicate. However, if a player (like me) isn’t learning and isn’t having much fun in the role, depending on the context I might lightly suggest unchecking the traitor role? Not forcing them or anything, and if I could, I would give them tips on how to play the role.
As for negative experience with game admins, I haven’t had anything major, except maybe some admins not taking action on things.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
Yes! I have! On the MRP Salamander server, I have had wonderful experiences with them creating some small, fun admin events, or giving me some tips in OOC on the switch between LRP to MRP. Always very positive on that server. As for the LRP Leviathan server, I’ve had mostly good experiences. Really enjoy how (rarely) an admin would go to their test map, make a planet-like area and spawn some ghost roles so players could fight some xenos and other things. I have a huge respect for admins who do those because it gives the people who have died early in the shift something to do instead of waiting for the next shift, increasing their enjoyment of the game and creating a positive impact.
The following are scenarios, respond with how you would handle each as an administrator. Respond with the assumption that you are an administrator with full access to the admin tools, and that you have all the knowledge needed to use these tools. Respond in detail, explain the reasons behind decisions you make and describe any assumptions you are making. When you need to make an assumption, it is preferred for you to describe how differences in the assumption would affect your actions.
Here I just want to make it clear, I have very little idea what tools are available to admins, what the admin policies are, and what I am and am not allowed to do.
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”.
Alright, so I am assuming the traitors are automatically selected randomly in the shift, and that I don’t need to make people traitors. Otherwise, I would randomly select players to be traitors.
Just because players tell me to do something funny, doesn’t mean I have to or should. If I wanted to do something big, I would maybe ask another admin if they could help me or if I could go to my admin test map, spawn the three people as ghost roles, and make them fight each other? Or fight some Xenos? If I wanted to do something small, I might spawn skub in maints or spawn a lizard plushie. Otherwise, if I want to ignore them I’d just ignore them.
You see a clown using crayon to write on the floor in front of security. The clown writings are negative things about security, like “shitsec”. A secoff tells the clown that they’re being arrested for vandalism, stuns them, and cuffs them. Before the secoff is able to get the clown into the brig, a passenger slips the secoff, causing them to lose their baton, then uses the baton to stun another secoff that comes to help as the clown runs away. The passenger escapes through disposals. Having heard an AOS radio callout, the detective enters maintenance near disposals and shoots the passenger to crit. There are four players in this scenario, the clown, the passenger, the secoff, and the detective.
Arresting the clown for vandalism, sure. As long as there isn’t any slurs or awful things written on the ground then the clown is fine, otherwise warn them that they shouldn’t be writing those things and admin clean it.
A passenger slips a secoff, uses the dropped baton to stun another secoff as the clown run away? Nice. The only information I feel I am missing is if the passenger an antag or not? If so then it’s perfectly fine, really cool if the clown is also an antag. Otherwise if the passenger is not an antag, until I have the knowledge to proceed myself, I would alert another admin and ask them what I should do. Otherwise, I would maybe warn the passenger about possible self-antaging behaviour but I see this as an IC issue more than an OOC/admin issue.
The passenger running away as they hear an AOS call is fine, I would maybe run away as well.
The next issue, the detective crits the passenger into crit on an AOS call? A passenger who is unarmed expect the baton they may or may not have with them? There is an issue here, the detective is shooting lethals at a harmless passenger, on an AOS call, not a KOS call? I would again ask another admin how to proceed, but I would probably ahelp message the detective why they are shooting lethals to a harmless passenger on an AOS call. Probably give them a warning and let them know what I would do in that situation if they want.
You and another admin have been adminning for around an hour. The rate of issues has been easily manageable due to having 2 admins. Neither of you have been talking in admin chat. You are using ahelp to warn a player for breaking a rule when another admin joins the ahelp and confirms that it is against the rules, but that it’s fine in this case and they can ignore the rule for the rest of the round. You haven’t taken any other admin actions yet, such as applying a ban or writing a note.
Two admins, sounds good. The first issue I see is the lack of communication in admin chat. It is important for admins to communicate with each other to understand what is going on and to make sure you aren’t stepping on each other’s toes, aka managing the same ahelp with different perspectives, and not communicating with each other.
This next part of the question I’d like more information, where is this third admin communicating this information? I’m also thinking the third admin who just joined doesn’t have the nesecary information on what exactly happened to make much of a decision. If they communicate this information in ahelp I would certainly ask them in admin chat why they said, “it’s fine in this case and they can ignore the rule for the rest of the round”. Rules are there for a reason, I don’t think you should be excusing someone from a rule as it can cause chaos, plus I’m assuming this third admin doesn’t know the context. What I would do is alert the second admin, get their input, and assuming the third admin communicated this information in ahelp, I would let the player know they do infact need to follow that rule.