In-game Username: PicklOH
Discord username: PicklOH
Characters you play: Fumbles-the-Cuffs, Rock Kenstone, Pets-the-Borgs, Anna Turney, Jocelyn Garnier
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 4-6
Days you are available to admin on: Primarily weekends, but I typically access the Wizden servers almost every day so week days are not out of the question.
How old are you? 27
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? I’ve played a bit on Starlight and Goob to try it out, but otherwise have been a Wizden purist for all of my playtime. I have no experience with SS13.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? In the past I have been an admin for my gaming Discord’s Minecraft server, typically seeing traffic between 7-15 players on at a time. Sadly I have no way to verify this because those servers are long gone.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers? Nope.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? I am primarily interested in performing in-game rules enforcements. SS14 is an incredibly complex game, and there are many ways players can intentionally or unintentionally make the round worse for their fellow players and even themselves. As an admin I believe my responsibility would be to be an invisible guardian that ensures the round runs smoothly for the players, and to make sure everyone is having fun.
While the potential to host or participate in an admeme seems appealing, I believe I would only want to do so if the lobby at large is aware of it, such as announcing it in lobby chat or hosting a poll. Sometimes you just are having a tough shift and having it get twice as complex in the middle can be stressful.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? Ban appeals I am indifferent to. I sometimes peruse the ban appeals section just to see the funny reasons people have been banned, or alternatively the awful excuses some players come up with. I’m sure doing the ban appeals myself would make them lose some of the novelty however.
Replay and log reviews are something that don’t intrest me at this time. I think that rules should mostly be enforced mid-round if possible, so that’s how I prefer to do business.
Detail Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
Admins in my eyes are seen as invisible guardians that ensure the round is running smoothly while still enabling the chaos of your typical SS14 round. Admins also serve as a beacon of hope post mass admin exodus. Just seeing a colored admin name in the chat can encourage players that the game they love is still being monitored and cared for.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
I play the game nearly every day, and have grown to love it and the community surrounding it. I also can see that the current admin team needs help. If allowed, I want to do my part to give back to the game and community that so far has given me hours of enjoyment for free.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
I used to play almost exclusively on Grasshopper when it existed, and I loved its MRP-lite feeling. Most players stayed in character to teach and help the noobs, and often it was those noobs themselves learning how to RP that were the ones playing like it was LRP. Raiders were frequent however, and obviously did not participate in RP and ruined the experience for others.
I now play on Leviathan almost exclusively, and the RP on that server trends towards bad for me. I constantly see metagaming regarding gamemodes such as Revolutionaries and Nukies (“This shift has been too quiet, time to start building bombs…”), and additionally game mechanics. (“You can’t have those Beer Goggles! You stole them and are not a bartender!”)
If I had to toss out a hope of mine, it would be to make a server like Leviathan MRP instead. As an east coaster, my connection to Salamander is just not good enough to make me want to play on that server, and honestly I’m saddened that there is no east coast MRP server. I think some of the players on Leviathan (read: regulars) would encourage and enjoy Leviathan becoming MRP to avoid RDMfests and overall bad RP experiences.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
Just answering Ahelps serves as a large positive impact on the round and playerbase. I know many times I have been disheartened to post an Ahelp and see it go unanswered before the problem at hand has become too big or has solved itself at the cost of the round experience.
I think Admemes have their place as unique, fun, and crazy experiences that have a positive impact. Some of my most memorable rounds are Admeme rounds, and I’m sure there are many new players who saw something totally crazy (Admeme level) on Youtube who want to participate in a round such as that.
Admins also have a positive impact by just, being there. Post mass admin exodus, seeing an admin in the lobby gives players hope, as I said above.
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 play Security quite often, and in general on LRP I think there is just a very flimsy understanding of Space Law at best from most of my fellow Security players. I see sometimes players suggesting that bombing Med Bay is a Terrorism charge, or that simply being a confirmed Syndicate agent is grounds for Perma and/or max timers and/or having all your gear confiscated and being demoted.
Since I play Security so much, I often also see self-antag behavior. Graytiding has its place in the game to keep Security occupied while the antags start to formulate plans for their objectives, but I frequently see players going too far. For some reason, many Tiders seem to think they queued up for Clown, and therefore their job becomes to be the biggest nuisance to Security possible, interfering in every arrest they witness and bullying the Cadets.
As an admin, I would attempt to nudge players such as these towards the right path. I would encourage those playing Security to try to think “Would it be fun for me to sit in Brig for 10+ minutes for such a crime if I were that player?” and to actually be aware of Space Law. I would also encourage Tiders that there is a line between being annoying and self-antagonism. These subtle reminders that the game is supposed to be fun for everyone would go a long way in my opinion.
My only negative experience with the admin team thus far has been the lack of admins themselves, and I am attempting to do my part to alleviate that here.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
Admins have saved me from buggy situations before, such as sliding on lube into a wall. Admins I have interacted with have also been friendly and understanding. I have had my Ahelps answered and it encouraged me that something was being looked into. I have also undoubtedly been the subjects of Ahelps myself (though never intentionally) and the Admins listened to what I had to say and were quick to point out what I had did wrong in a manner that left me with a greater game understanding.
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”.
Likely my first response would be to throw said ghosts into a disposals. It has happened to me, and it was hilarious (Thanks for the funny admin interaction, Djungelskog). If pushed I would try to kindly remind the orbiters that it is too early to intervene (nor should I). Intervention should only be necessary when things are not going well for the round.
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.
My first response would be to observe each of those players and decide if I need to ask why they are taking such actions. Context is important to understanding the events that led up to these decisions.
I would probably start with command, as their actions have the most potential to throw the round into an unnecessary imbalance, and command players are supposed to be held to a higher standard in regards to RP and behavior. From the position of the HoS and HoP, the Captain may have done something that warrants this coup, and getting information from them that explains how they are justifying their position would be my first step. This would be in the form of me listening to their conversation together, and potentially asking them for more information.
Next I would observe and potentially speak to the Captain, and try to understand why they are leaving the station. I would also question them about any actions that the HoS and HoP have informed me of if I talked to them about it. Next I would try to get the POV of the QM, as they seem like they are just following along in the rest of this scene. A potentially neutral party might have a stance that reflects the situation in a way that sheds new light to it.
For the Clown, I think that I would just observe unless they are doing something wrong, such as acting as a self-antag. If not, I would likely let things play out. If so, I would intervene as necessary.
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 first reference any guidelines or documentation of the type of situation and its consequences for a definitive answer. I mostly likely would err towards the side of leniency unless the actions taken by the player were particularly mean-spirited or egregious.
I would also confer with the admin that messaged me and inquire to why they would handle it with a harsher ban and point them towards the documentation or guidelines if found.
If there is still any confusion, I would speak to a headmin at a later date to better understand what I should have done, and to follow up with any actions that still need to be done, such as extending or potentially removing the ban.