In-game Username: Reisama
Discord username: Reisama
Characters you play: Lo Doreth, Vogg Ackon, Rimu Tolas, Tastes-The-Chems, Licks-The-Wall-Outlets
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 8
Days you are available to admin on: Su-Sa (I work from home, so availability is open)
How old are you? 33
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? Yes. I currently am in the process of working on and maintaining my own fork, which I plan to make into a 2-part public server aimed towards learning the game on one server, then converting players to a lasting community on the other. At current it is still in development, however it has had private playtests.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? I have experience with the SS14 administration system through my own fork, which I have been working on in my spare time. I have experience moderating and administrating communities upwards of several thousand members (Please ask me privately for the details as out of respect for said communities and the SS14 admins I would prefer to not cross advertise). I also have management and administrative experience through my employer (verifiable privately).
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers? No.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? I find that my forte is in in/out of game rule enforcement, and appeals. General community moderation. There really isn’t a task I’m not willing to assist with. I’m inclined, as a developer, to help the community and try to help with as much understanding of both the mechanics and rules as possible.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? N/A - Even my least interested thing to do is still something I’m okay doing, as it’s part of being an admin. I wouldn’t be submitting this application otherwise.
Detail Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
Admins protect the game from those who would seek to interfere with the normal flow of play, be it raiders, abusers, spammers, etc. They also serve to answer the community’s questions when the resources available are unclear. Much like law enforcement in a city, they serve to protect, guide, serve, and assist. They also can help add a bit of fun when things seem mundane, or get caught up in an odd situation that otherwise is going nowhere. They keep things running smooth on all sides.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
The community has grown on me over the course of the last few weeks. I’ve found so many people that have made me feel like I want to give back. I’ve started writing contributions, I’ve joined games and immediately felt welcomed, and when I have reported a problem to existing admins I felt like they have been actually addressed. I would love to be given the chance to be a part of that process, and give back.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
It fluctuates throughout the day, depending on the server. I primarily play on Grasshopper, as I found it to be the most welcoming but also the most consistent. People tend to be understanding that players may not understand what it means to play a roleplaying game that requires the player to provide their own roleplay, and so they teach. However, other servers people jump in and it seems like chat is vacant, or the players just do whatever because they assume “oh, it’s my roleplay” but there’s no cohesive story you can follow that entertwines people together. Even some of my least favorite scenes, or some of the times I have found I was self-antag’d against, the story was at least cohesive and touched multiple departments. Could the roleplay be improved? Yes. Is it perfect? No. Is it the fault of the rules? No. I believe that the problem is in how people may feel uncomfortable at first branching their own individual roleplay out to others. It’s something that just takes time for the individual to get comfortable with.
Different servers will have this at different times because different players log in at all times of the day. Your experiences with it will be different from mine, and the population density plays a major factor in this as well.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
Listening. Just letting the community know that someone is there to hear their report, or to answer a question (be it in OOC postround, or the occasional ahelp) can have such a massive impact on players in a positive way. A player that feels like their voice has been heard by an admin will know that they are not just screaming into a void that doesn’t care about them. A player who makes a report, then doesn’t see a change, or players who complain that there are bugs happening but get no feedback that the bug was noted - Those are the ones who feel dejected and will eventually leave.
Admins don’t have to use powerful actions like bans, kicks, mutes, etc. Sometimes just saying “We hear you and we’ve made a note to look into this” is all you need to do to handle a situation.
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?
The wrost I’ve had was making a large report about something that happened, and never heard back about it, but that was it. I know that the admins don’t always respond to retroactive reports, so I don’t really have a complaint about it. As for how to prevent it, see my last answer.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
My best experience so far was when I reported someone for a possible self-antag, and I almost immediately got a response in ahelp about it. I explicitly noted in my message that I didn’t want/need any current round information, and that I just wanted to report what I saw going on so that it could be noted. The admin was extremely prompt and polite, informing me that the previous round they were in fact an antag. I told them thanks for letting me know the information, and continued with the current round as normal. Once the round ended, and the round-end screen came up, sure enough the person was self-antagging that round. So I opened the message again to just note what was going on, and again the admin was really nice and chill. I’ve played a large number of games, and never had an admin just be so casual and chill like that. I even made it a point to thank them for being such in the ahelp. 10/10.
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”.
If I am able to see the ghosts, then I would be assuming I have not joined the round myself, and at this point also have yet to deadmin. I would inform the encouraging players that I don’t have any intentions of joining the round, and therefore I am not going to disrupt it by doing anything funny. Ideally, the players would take this as a “no” and stop. If they don’t, I would follow the next escalation based on both their response and level of continued encouragement, and apply the appropriate warning/note to them. This may include (again, depending on the language used by the players) Freeze/Mute, Kick, or Ban (if the comments escalate to a level warranted per the banning policy).
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.
In order of severity, if the captain was incompetent enough to have his saber stolen by a clown, then the HoS and HoP staging a coup is likely acceptable on LRP, as it indicates the captain is unfit to lead the station. The quartermaster assisting the captain is also acceptable, as their job is to obey the captain, which in this situation they are.
The only situation that may potentially require an admin to step in would be if the clown starts using the saber to attack anyone, which has not been mentioned in this scenario:
If the clown is only holding the saber, but not being aggressive, then no real problems are going on. The clown is being a clown and the captain is hiding for what may be no real threat other than a clown that got the best of him.
If the clown has started going on a murder spree, then since they are not an antag, they would get a warning at minimum (depending on if it was their first offense or not). Depending on the situation they have caused (for example, if they had done roleplay up to the point, or if it was the clown assaulting the captain to get the saber) then I would freeze the clown and remove the saber from them. If the clown was a raider, they would be immediately removed from play, and the saber replaced into the captain’s locker manually.
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.
Given that in this scenario, I am equally ranked to the admin that pinged me, I would thank them for the input, and handle it as I intended to - keeping notes on why I was taking the action I had decided on. I would also double check the banning policy to make sure that my action was up to date with the latest expectations, and make sure that any warnings currently on the player also aligned with any I was placing, and with the reason for the temporary ban.
Should my ban come under review, having the warning notes and the information from the banning policy will help ensure that if I did have any misinterpretations that they can be resolved.