In-game Username: CrudeOil
Discord username: CrudeOil
Characters you play: Bernard Flutterson, Dunks-the-Donut
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 5-6
Days you are available to admin on: Incidentally on weekdays, more consistently on fridays and weekends
How old are you? 32
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? Played a bit of SS13 on Goon station I think. Nothing significant
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? I used to host a TF2 server a long time ago on the FacePunch forums. Around 2009. I am mentioning it but it was so long ago it might not be relevant. If necessary I can probably find the receipts in my email.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers?
No.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? Mainly in-game rule enforcement and out-of-game rule enforcement. I think I might enjoy ban appeals, but they seem like they can also be exhausting to chase after. I would have to try things out and see if I can deal with them.
I also would like to run the rare admin event, or just mess with rounds/players in small ways.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? Big in-game events. Maybe occasionally, but I feel like they are often received with mixed reactions and it would hurt a bit to set up something elaborate and have the players not like it.
Maybe I would change my mind if I do end up doing an event and the players enjoy it.
Detail Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
To enforce a basic level of decorum/behavior from players, and some more gameplay-oriented rules. Admins keep the game consistent and fun for players. Admins steer players towards what is the Wizden expected way of playing space station 14.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
I’ve been playing long enough where I want to do a bit of duty to the community by administrating. I spend a bit of time spectating rounds, and now a lot of time playing Station AI which is also a largely observational role I enjoy. I feel like I can spend some time administrating while observing rounds.
I also noticed that during the times I specifically play on Saturday and Sunday, I think on the US east servers admins are not often online. I could contribute to coverage during that time.
If ever European servers reopen, I could contribute to administrating those as well.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
I only play LRP, and that generally works for me. People get to kind of opt-in or out to higher levels of roleplay, or it’s mostly centered around the bar and provides a cozy experience. I enjoy that LRP ends up being more centered around engaging with the game systems, and the way people act in-game is pretty funny to me in LRP.
LRP does have its odd problem with powergaming, which is mostly enforced through culture and IC interactions. I don’t see a way of reducing powergaming without a significant amount of admin intervention however.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
Mainly being present, answering questions when a player is uncertain about a course of action, and helping resolve bugs or other things that can happen in a round that are beyond-space-station-14 levels of unfair.
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 have not had negative experiences with game admins. I have made one or two ahelps too fast or in error and the current admins seem to be pretty nice about that. Generally I have not interacted with admins a lot.
I have had negative experiences with players in-game, and I have certainly negatively affected players’ experiences.
I have had multiple bad experiences when playing security, which to a degree comes with the territory. In at least one of these cases it would have been nice to have an admin nudge things a little bit. Largely this is an IC issue but I left that interaction pretty upset.
I have had problems with other players that weren’t really problems at all, and after ahelping the interaction with admins helped me see that.
So just some intervention in these cases can be good. Especially if it does not seem like the situation is getting any better and things are not in good spirits, or if something has gone well into LOOC.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
My experiences in the game have largely been good. I mentioned in the previous question that security has been a source of bad experiences, but it’s also a source of good ones. Establishing some rapport with the other players as sec is great, and it’s really nice to see that pay off later in the round.
With admins I have had only good experiences, or at least no bad ones. I have had an ahelp where I did not leave entirely satisfied with the resolution but I think that’s just part of how online games or conflict resolution works.
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 wouldn’t really want to set an expectation that if someone eggs me on enough I’ll do something.
I understand admemes are usually announced with a vote. If I called a vote prior to the round and the players voted in favor of admemes I would be in the process of doing something (I think) is funny or interesting already anyways.
If there was no such vote I don’t think I want to interfere majorly in a round, and I think a random player’s understanding of “funny” is pretty much exclusively stuff that interferes in the round in a major way. I would not want to do that.
There are small things that can maybe be done that I consider to be funny and don’t interfere in the round. The world does not see enough tippy.
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.
HoS and HoP: Any command cannot decide on their own to depose the captain. This should go through a vote. If the captain has done something very egregious that requires immediate removal I could understand. I would want some more information about the circumstances, but on the face of it this does not sound like proper behavior from either the HoS or the HoP.
The HoP has then additionally taken up arms against the captain. I think this is even more egregious because they are stepping well outside the bounds of that role.
I would want to ahelp them first to understand their perspective, but if there is no need for an absolutely immediate removal of the captain then some role bans might be in order. It would really have to be on the level of a captain actively killing crewmembers or something for the behavior to be understandable.
Captain: I am not certain how the captain ends up being so afraid of the clown that they feel the need to hide off-station, even if the clown has a saber. That raises some eyebrows. Ideally command does not go off-station without good reason, so I would really want to know why the captain is hiding in the cargo shuttle. Unless there is a total breakdown of security and the captain has lost all equipment I don’t see this as a good sign. But considering the rest of the scenario I am a little bit more sympathetic towards the captain. If this situation didn’t come from gross incompetence, I don’t think I would do anything. If it did, the situation may call for a roleban.
Quartermaster: I would need more context but them being on the shuttle and harboring the captain doesn’t need to have any action taken, unless the captain has done something very bad and they are defending them.
The clown: The situation seems like the station is already experiencing some amount of chaos, and I think stealing the saber as a clown is already far into self-antag territory. It’s bad enough that I would ask their reasons but probably want to issue a gameban. How they explain themselves and their prior offenses would impact the duration.
Taken altogether, it seems there is some sort of chaotic situation on the station and/or in command that requires intervention. To the point where it may be appropriate (and fun for the crew) for an epsilon alert to be called with an accompanying ERT.
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.
I would check the guidelines and make my own decision.
I don’t know what the issue would be that opinions between admins differ this much (between a temp ban and an indef ban?), but for someone with no prior noted issues I would much prefer to give the benefit of the doubt.
I know sometimes multiple admins can handle an ahelp, but this chiming in through discord does not seem appropriate. I would feel the need to check with another admin or a headmin later about it, but for the action towards the player I would make my own decision.