In-game Username: oomsca
Discord username: oomsca
Characters you play: Varies*; Alana Hazes, Addison Parker, Hardaeg Chainfoot, Askka-Rathma. *I use a lot of throwaways
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 10-15
Days you are available to admin on: All except Wednesday
How old are you? 33
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? I’ve briefly played SS13 and Delta V on SS14. The rest of my hours is exclusively on Wizden SS14 servers.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? No Space Station admin experience, but I used to admin some Minecraft Survival and Discord servers. It may be a stretch, but I was also a bouncer during my university years. I think this does correlate many transferrable skillsets which is why I am mentioning it.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers? Yes, I have received a 24hr ban and a 72hr role ban on SS14 Wizden servers.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? In-game rule enforcement
In-game rule education/clarification
Reviewing and discussing ban appeals
Out-of-game rule enforcement
Minor in-game events
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? Major in-game events
Detail Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
Peacekeepers and educators, primarily. I believe that a lighter touch in all aspects is preferable, allowing the in-game characters to resolve most non-disruptive rule breaking incidents. When immediate action is not required, post-action/post-game education and discussion would be best.
Additionally, I think game admins have the opportunity to promote extra-ordinary RP through non-regular events. Some of these admin promoted events are often the most memorable for players.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
Hearing that many admins are burnt out was the initial call to action for my application. I’ve spent a lot of playtime here and I think my ability to de-escalate and educate would be a valuable skill for in-game moderation. My years as a bouncer gave me a good level of insight to communication. I spend enough time here that I’d be happy to give back and become a bit more active within the community.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
I primarily play on LRP servers (Leviathan and Lizard) and a bit of Hopper as well. While Leviathan and Lizard can often be chaotic, I think it’s good to have these environments for those who enjoy that level and pacing of RP. I believe it would be difficult to change this environment, but not impossible if so desired, but personally, I like it how it is.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
Being active and responsive to ahelp inquiries so that players can feel condident in their own or others actions. Promoting the education of the rules in a friendly way is the greatest achievment an admin can perform as it has a “compunding interest” sort of effect. That player can now teach others, and so far. Also, and using non-standard methods to course correct some activities would be far more engaging than a “bwoink”. Such as using an announcement from Centcomm, a Centcomm originated fax, or even using Centcomm Inspectors.
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 few encounters where it felt like my side of the story wasn’t considered or heard at all, or some dialogues that felt like they were trying to catch me in a lie.
For the former, it felt like the issue was heard from an initial ahelp, and wasn’t communicated to me at all before it was “punishment time”. Taking the time to make sure a player feels heard and understanding both players is a must before and decisions should be made.
For the latter, while admittedly I was rulebreaking at this time, the admin would ask multiple questions they already knew the answer to. I drew out the ahelp to be far longer and condescending then what was required.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
I’ve had good interactions through many channels of the game, such as minor ahelp inquiries about a rule or action, discussions of rules via Discord, and even just following them around as an observer to “see what they see”.
As for good experiences with the game, there are simply too many to count.
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 don’t really think there is really anything wrong here. From my viewpoint, the players are just interacting with an admin. Whether or not I do anything is entirely context driven for the state of the game, but based on the description, I believe it is far too early to do much of anything that could affect the players. Perhaps generating a “funny” loot item for salv to maybe find, or loading an admin “playground” and doing something there depending on how much time this takes. If no action can/should be taken, no response at all or a passive statement like “haha maybe” would suffice.
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.
A case like this has a lot of complications, and is very context driven. QM and HoP seem mostly like bystanders/third-parties here, and major players here are HoS, Captain, and the clown so let’s focus on them. Let’s also break down HoS and Captain as one issue, and the clown as a separate issue.
For HoS/Cap, I will need to discover the context of why HoS has initiated a coup. Valid reasons for a coup, in my understanding, would be if the Captain is egregiously rule-breaking or completely ignoring all duties and is being overly disruptive while invalid reasons would essentially be anything else but those issues. If the coup is valid and no rules that require immediate intervention are being violated, then perhaps letting the crew sort this out with no intervention would be acceptable. However if the coup is found invalid, then depending on the situation a few actions could be made to cease the disruptive coup. I will list some examples in a a specified order from “most ideal” to “least ideal”:
- Sending a Centcomm Official (time and correct player dependent) to diffuse the issue
- Send a fax signed by Centcomm explaining that the coup must be dissolved since Centcomm does not believe there is proper grounds for Captain’s dismissal
- Sending a Centcomm originated Radio Communication explaining the same as above
- If HoS/pro-coup group is not responsive to the above forms, then I would consider ahelping key members of the pro-coup group explaining the situation and communicating why the admins must step in
As for the clown, I believe a lighter touch is best here and assuming the clown isn’t murdering people I would likely leave it to the crew to deal with this. Despite is being “rule breaking” I think this can be communicated in post and become and “education” moment instead of a “punishment” moment.
All decisions made here are following the assumption that player records are clean and devoid of problematic patterns. Actions taken will vary depending on relevant history.
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 all admins are equally ranked, I would turn the colleague’s ping into a discussion and determine why they believe in their solution over the one you were made aware of a few days prior. If after the discussion you still feel confident in the prior info and wish to keep it at a temporary ban, I would communicate that and bring this up with more admins or a headmin to discuss as a group. In this scenario, nobody is “wrong” so being respectful is key. One admin told you something, and perhaps a different admin told the other admin something else. The effects of the ban could be changed retroactively to fit the crime, but I believe in “believing in yourself” if you feel confident about your judgement call.