In-game Username: s3ptemb3rr
Discord username: s3ptemb3rr
Characters you play: As of rn, it is just Tricks-Time and KiKiNo
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 10-15
Days you are available to admin on: I am most active on the weekdays after around 11am CST. The weekends very much depend, but I am available around the same time on the weekends as long as I do not have clients.
How old are you? 20
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? Yes. I also play on Harmony often.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? Back in 2019-2020, I was an admin for a few larger gaming discords. Unfortunately, higher management were toxic and some of our discords got raided, so there aren’t any records left of them.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers? Nope!
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? My main interests involve helping out more “behind the scenes” such as being able to respond to AHelps/in-game player faxes/prayers/calls as well as working through ban requests and discord whitelists. I like to just sit down and bang through a bunch of work at once and I tend to hyperfixate on going through forms and comparing information. Having the ability to do this gives me hope I would be able to alleviate some of our current staffs stress levels, especially when it comes to some players constant pinging of higher admins.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? Honestly, I am not terribly opposed to anything and I would like to be able to have a chance to try all the different responsibilities of being an admin. If I had to choose, I’m really not interested in running in-game events. The idea of setting the course of the entire game stresses me out a little bit and, frankly, I just wouldn’t know what to do.
Detail Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
The administration team as a whole volunteer their time as leaders, enforcers (in a good way), and guides. They allow players to enjoy games in a way where players can explore and rp to develop the round and their characters, but the admins are also there to protect their community and step in when things get out of hand, as well as to clarify any rules or exceptions.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
I have a strong love for SS14 and its community and I want to be able to contribute to that. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a lot of stress amongst the admin team (especially within the volunteers who have been around longer), and I want to be able to reduce that stress for both admins and players by acting as a sort of “behind-the-scenes” person. This would allow me to take care of some of the more “tedious” and “less important” jobs such as whitelisting, ban requests, and in and out of game player management so other admins and moderators can run more admemes, come up with new ideas for the community, and overall have more time to focus on developing the game and discord for the better.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
I have noticed that roleplay within the servers can be extremely hit or miss, with some rounds having very little to no in-game communication (other than what needs to be communicated) to very high-energy rounds where some people take some bits even too far. Too often do “veterans” and those in higher command roles forget/do not care to rp or teach the new players. I, myself, have unfortunately experienced this where I have joined a new department and then immediately got bored or “turned off” from it simply because I would try to rp or ask others questions only to be met with very vague responses or simply silence. While I do agree that some rounds do have wonderful rp that leaves people wishing the round never ended, more often than not this aspect of the game is pushed to the side all for the sake of “winning” or completing objectives rather than having fun.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
The AHelp feature has to be a very impressive and well-thought out way to quickly interact between player and admin. I’ve seen several cases of admins being able to help players out of bugged areas to sending supplies to the crew to fight off a long, hard war to even answering silly prayers from the deranged chaplain. While some of these ahelp cases need more attention than others, admins being able to help players out during these conditions creates trust and gives players faith that admins are truly there to help them and not be dictators and only fix everything that is “wrong” with the game.
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 only “negative” experience with an admin was when I was told to chance my IC name. I did not realize at the time my name could be considered against the rules. When i was told this, I was quite shocked, but that was not why i was mostly upset. The way the admin had worded it wasn’t terribly rude, but it did feel inconsiderate and very blunt. I wish this admin had approached this issue with more consideration and grace all while immediately providing me the information I needed to find this rule. Once again, the admin was not necessarily wrong in telling me this and indeed was just doing his job, but I feel like admins should confront this sort of “issues” better. If i was in this situation, I would send the player a message explaining why I had messaged them, the reason why what the did/are doing is wrong AND where to find said rule, and how to best go fix it all while speaking in a positive, not confrontational tone. Most people who break rules, especially smaller rules such as naming conventions, do not realize what they are doing is wrong. All people need is a small, gentle push in the right direction.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
Unfortunately, I have not gotten the chance to interact with many admins at all due to the amount of stressed they’ve had placed on them lately and the difference in time zones. In the game, however, I have had plenty of positive experiences in game with one of my most recent being playing HOS and getting stranded off the station. Long story short, I was very very stuck and had no clue where I was, but several players banded together to come rescue me, INCLUDING the QM and CE who literally took one of the shuttles to come find me. Not only was it all a very funny moment, it was also pretty heartwarming and i had so much fun, even if i was on my death bed out in space.
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”.
Realistically, I would let them know that it is too early in the round to be changing anything and, if we get a high number of votes towards the end, I would be okay with doing an admeme/event the following round. If they were persistent and kept bothering me about it, I would let them know my decision is clear and I will not be open to doing any sort of events/admemes for either this round or in following rounds if their behavior continues.
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.
First looking at this scenario, its easy to assume HOS and HOP were in the wrong and therefore they should be the ones punished. It is important, however, to look at the how and why each party is acting the way they are. If it is not immediately obvious who is in the wrong, the coup or the captain, I would individually message HOS, HOP, Captain, and QM to see what they say happened. Before diving too far into these scenarios, any of the punishments/disciplinary actions mentioned below, such as bans, are simply possible actions that could be taken. My hope is to not have to take harsher actions on my side than necessary in hopes everyone gets to play; however, I am not afraid to learn and deal out the disciplinary actions associated with the player’s offence(s).
In the scenario that the HOS is the one at fault for unreasonably inciting the coup and, most likely, taking up arms against the captain, HOS would receive a warning. If HOS shuts down the coup and complies with the warning, I would like to only leave them with said warning. Depending on the severity of their actions during the coup, they still might receive a short role ban as this sort of behavior is not okay and can completely disrupt the game with this self-antagging behavior. If HOS were to have genuine reason as to inciting the coup, perhaps such as Captain self-antagging or purposely ruining the game and/or putting the crew at harm, I would still give them a warning. While I would understand their reasoning, the HOS should’ve taken it up with an admin before taking such drastic measures in game.
A similar scenario can be seen with the HOP as with the HOS. No matter the situation, HOP is siding with HOS and choosing to take up arms. It is important to note, however, HOP is only taking up arms to aid the HOS, IF necessary. This suggests that HOP has not actually done anything wrong during the time of the scenario and really only has permission from HOS to be armed, which isn’t inherently wrong in any shift (with some exceptions). Unless HOP proceeds to follow with a reasonable or unreasonable attack on the captain, HOP would most likely not receive disciplinary actions against them for just agreeing and being armed.
When it comes to the captain, they are obviously the biggest piece of the puzzle in this scenario. If captain had done something to reasonably cause their station to rebel (again such as self-antagging, mass murder, etc.), captain would receive a temporary role ban with the length depending on the severity of their actions. The captain is the highest role of command and, under no circumstances of regular game, should engage in that sort of behavior. In the case that the captain had done nothing to incite the coup or arms against them, Captain would receive no disciplinary actions; however, they would still receive a warning to return to the station as well as that they should’ve contacted an admin when the coup had started.
The QM is another person who has not done anything terribly wrong. Whether the captain was in the wrong or not, the biggest issue the QM has caused is taking a shuttle away from the station for, most likely, a prolonged amount of time. This causes cargo to not be able to do their job which further causes distress to the rest of the station who now cannot receive and send orders. QM and Captain are also essentially abandoning their jobs, and, as command roles, this is especially not okay. In this case, QM would receive a warning to return the shuttle and themselves back to the station so the game is delayed no longer. If the QM refuses, I would either temporary ban them from QM for a short bit or send something to strike down their ship for laughs.
Last but not least, the clown. The clown, for the most part, just seems to be engaging in typical clown tom-foolery. For the most part, I would let security and command deal with the clown in-game. It’s not unusual for clowns to self-antag and, while it’s not cool, I would like to hope the security team would take care of it. If it gets really out of hand and unmanageable for players/overall ruining the game experience, I would give the clown a warning to give the saber up to Sec or captain or get a temp ban from clown.
In all of these scenarios, it very much depends on who is in the “wrong” and breaking the rules and pace of the game. While a lot of them would most likely end up with a warning, depending on the severity and reasons for their actions, those who are purposely ruining the game and self-antagging for no reason will ultimately receive the higher/longer punishments.
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.
Although another admin had pinged me and specifically told me to indefinitely ban the person I was actively ahelping, the decision is mine to make and, therefore, I would give the player a temporary ban. If I had been taught that the current situation typically results in a temporary ban, I feel it would only be necessary to give them the appropriate disciplinary action especially if it was only their first offense and had no prior issues noted.
Once a headmin had gotten online (hopefully during the time period of the temp ban), I would want to go over with them the actions I took with the player and what had come out of it. Whether I had made the right decision at the time or not, a headmin would be able to explain to me the proper actions and reasoning. I want to be able to use my best judgement while also being able to check in later on to make sure I went down the right path. If I did not and I should’ve give the player a more indefinite ban, I would let the player continue with the temporary ban (if allowed) and explain to them that I was in the wrong and should’ve given them a harsher punishment for their actions. Hopefully, this will give them an opportunity to see what they did was wrong and to avoid any repeat incidents. I would also keep my eye on them occasionally for the next bit of time just to make sure other mistakes, especially due to my incorrect disciplinary action, are made by the player.