In-game Username: daxter154
Discord username: datdaxx
Characters you play: Daxx Ter, and very rarely Tatatattatapapaaa
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 8
Days you are available to admin on: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday
How old are you? 33
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? I have some experience in SS13, but very out of date (6+ years ago). I only play on Wizden for SS14. I have contributed to Wizden multiple times, and have a moderate understanding of the tools and underlying systems which aids admins in their job as a result.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? None in SS13/14. However I have ~480 hours admining FiveM RP (CADOJRP - head admin), unfortunately I don’t have a way of verifying this as it was some years ago. I also have run an Arma 3 public milsim community and naturally had to admin on those servers as well, totaling roughly 1000 admin hours.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers? Yes. I was banned for 24h on Wizden for not understanding DAGD restriction for syndicate players and doing a singuloose. I have since reread the rules to make sure I don’t have other gaps and have played another ~250 hours since then without incident.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? Helping players with understanding the rules (before they break them), and ensuring through rule enforcement that players are able to enjoy their experience (within reason). While in game events can be fun, I find myself more interested in acting as a community pillar through good role modeling first. This is not to say I’m uninterested in helping in other ways.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? While I have no major problem with doing any task, my least favorite is reviewing replays due to the current inability to fine scrub without crashing, which makes the task very tedious. That and dealing with conflicts between two people I have respect for, as it is generally a very unenjoyable (abet necessary) task.
Detail Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
To act as role models and protectors of the sanctity of the game experience. Be it from raiders, spammers, heated tempers, etc. Admins help keep the game in check against bad actors and help welcome others into the community and get the most enjoyment they can out of the time they spend, even if that means dealing with mundane, underappreciated, or invisible tasks. (and occasionally a good admeme).
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
I have spend a lot of time on Wizden in the last few months, and I have always hated that feeling when I see a raider or other serious problem and thought, “I wish I could help with this”. I have also begun contributing to help make the game better in pursuit of this goal. I have had nothing but good interactions with admins so far, and I have heard many people say that there is a lack of admins and this feels like a natural way to give back to the community and help keep the bar of quality high on the servers which have brought me so much enjoyment so far.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
It varies day by day, or even round by round in some cases. But speaking generally, I feel that most roleplay is in a good state, with the exception of security on Lizard. I greatly enjoy teaching new players, and on average have great roleplay experiences in most departments. My one exception to this is just in the nature of security that they have to deal with the most disruptive of players - many of whom react with startling amount of hate towards the smallest mistakes - which leads to empty security teams since players can only withstand some much verbal harassment before they crack, not to mention people piling on the memes about shitsec. While I do believe it is the responsibility of players (including security) to know the rules / space law, I feel there is much room for improvement for rules / mechanics / training of how players interact with security roles to make the game experience better for everybody.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
being visible, friendly, and approachable knowledge sources whom players can approach without fear of judgement or indifference. Being able to listen and aide other players and making them feel heard on any range of topics can be invaluable. Also, just being visible and having players know that there is an admin present can chill problematic behavior before it even occurs without any action from the admin.
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?
Yes. Not in SS14, but many other games: whenever an Admin acts out of emotion or reacts impulsively - the results are never good. As an admin, remembering to stay cool, calm, collected, and objective make a huge difference. Remain grounded, and always be aware of the impact your actions have on all players watching, not just the one you are interacting with - as being an admin means you represent more than just yourself when you act.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
Yes. I can’t remember who the admin was, but my very first time I played as a ninja, I was so new I didnt know how to use an emagg. I got boinked without prompt and the admin helped walk me through the basics of how to play ninja on the spot - even though i died shortly after - it made a huge difference in not feeling embarrassed about knowing 10+ people just watched me fumble around like a fool for 15 minutes.
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 default reaction with no other context would be ‘players are not entitled to ad memes’. While 60 players is a healthy number of players to do some kind of event, the fact that some players went to the effort of ghosting and orbiting an admin right off the bat would tell me that they are there in hopes of admin doing something that they can get in on, rather than playing the game normally and interacting with an event in a normal or organic manner. In any case, I would still likely chat with the players orbiting me and inform them of my decision, and see if they had any questions or just there because ‘oh an admin!’. As I was also a ghost, It would be inappropriate to inject myself into a round which has already started.
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.
Assuming I am entering this scenario when all of the prompt actions have already taken place, my first action would be to collect information to ensure that what I am seeing is the full story of events, chat logs are the easiest way to obtain this.
HOS:
Based on the wording here, a coup implies an attempt to seize power, instead of some justified dereliction of duty or gross negligence by the Captain. In either case, rule 2.14 states that members of command may not demote the captain to gain more power for themselves, or in retaliation for a decision that they didn’t personally like or agree with. Hiding on the shuttle with the quartermaster is not helpful to the station, but it is not explicitly harmful, and the Captain might have valid RP reasons to be on the shuttle. After checking the player record for HOS - they would receive a bwoink and the following punishment based on the Wizden banning policy guidelines depending on their previous infractions, applying more severe end of punishment if there is a history of similar behavior, and less if there is a lack of such behavior:
Competence Abuse of a position of authority 3d - 7d RB 7d - 15d RB Indef RB
If by chance this is caught early, this could be just a warning or lower roleban, such as if HOS is just discussing doing it and before involving others, or are remorseful for their action.
Captain:
Captain is hiding with Quartermaster on the shuttle because his saber got stolen. He is not on an expedition and still considered on station. Personally, I think the captain is a coward for hiding just because his sword got stolen, but I digress, it might be part of the RP. There is no other indicating that the captain has done anything grossly negligent - as the captain frequently gets stolen from - and has broken no other rules.
Head of Personnel:
Similarly to HOS, HOP is supposed to be following their team leader. However, they are not the primary instigator like HOS. It could be assumed that HOP was convinced by HOS that the actions of the captain were worse than they really were, depending on the chat logs. The fact that HOP has armed themselves indicates that this is not just a passing fancy, but real intent to depose the Captain. Even in the event that the Captain was acting improperly, it would require more than just HOP and HOS to authorize his removal, which has not been given in this scenario. Rule 2.10 explicitly allows crew and command to ignore orders from their leader in cases where doing so would be in violation of the good of the station (for non antags). Additionally, Command members are expected to be held to a higher standard than other roles, so there is less room for leniency (Rule 2.14). After looking up player history in the same way as HOS, anything from a warning to a roleban could be applied:
Competence Taking actions a reasonable person would view as to be to the detriment of the station as security/command 3d - 7d RB 7d - 15d RB Indef RB
Like in the situation with HOS, if this is caught early, a warning could be applied instead of roleban if the offending party is cooperative and understanding, and has no history of this kind of activity.
Quartermaster:
Quartermaster could have any number of reasons to be on the shuttle, which is part of his own department. He is with the captain, again could be to keep the captain safe, or just to talk. They have not criticized the captain or signed off on removing the Captain. There is no reason to intervene with the QM.
Clown:
Clown is nonantag, but depending on the clowns actions, some or no action may be required by an admin. If the clown stole the sword and is just running around slipping security who is chasing him, not fighting back, or otherwise making a good show of having the sword and not using it, then I would consider it fair RP. Since we are in LRP, if we banned or warned everybody who picked up something they shouldn’t there would be no players. However, if the clown is now actively attacking people with the sword, this would clearly pass into self-antag territory and would warrant a bwoink or active intervention. The clown is afforded a bit of leniency when it comes to pranks, so context clues would factor in greatly compared to say, a scientist stealing it.
Self-antag Self-antag W - 12hr GB 12hr - 3d GB 7d - 7.5d GB
HEAVILY dependent on how the clown is behaving with said sword.
As a rule of thumb all interactions would be observed before being acted upon to gather information and context unless obvious, active harm was being done to the round. This could include questioning other players who may have witnessed something, reading logs / chat logs, etc.
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.
The very first line of the very first rule on the rulebook states:
- “These rules are not perfect”.
- “Admins can override rules if they deem it in the best interest of the current round, server, and/or community at large. Online admins are able to make final interpretations of rules during a round.”.
- “If admins believe that you are an overall negative impact to the community or rounds, you will be banned. Admins will be held fully accountable for their actions if they exercise this privilege.”
Using these three rules in conjunction, I would thank the other admin(s) for their input, and apply my best interpretation of the rules towards the current scenario, as it applies to the current round and situation. But since the ban will be on my shoulders, not theirs, I must make the final determination. In this situation the temporary ban seems the correct choice (since the prompt says I am confident that the situation is not substantially different). Applying a permanent ban out of laziness could likely have deprived the community of potentially good players. I consider myself a good player and if my first 24h ban had just been arbitrarily upgraded to a permanent ban there is a good chance I would not have continued playing. I am assuming that in this situation I am a regular admin, not trialmin. Finally, I would discuss with the second admin (the one suggesting the perma ban) why they think the situation warrants a permanent ban. Since I am answerable to the bans I apply, I would be uncomfortable applying an upgraded ban just because another admin asked me to. If the reasoning behind their desire to upgrade the ban seemed out of place, I would discretely escalate the issue to a headmin for clarification and or resolution.