In-game Username: UpAndLeaves
Discord username: up_and_leaves
Characters you play: Echo Lampwing
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 5-10
Days you are available to admin on: Most days except Thursdays, with more time during the weekend.
How old are you? 18
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? I have minor experience with other forks, such as Goob, Funky, Frontier, and Trieste, but I spend the vast majority of my time on Wizard’s Den servers.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? I do not.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers? No.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? I am primarily interested in in-game enforcement, especially being prompt and reactive to a-helps. I have experienced many a time where I felt frustrated due to the length of time a response may take, and alleviating this burden is the primary reason behind this application. Additionally, I find solace in helping newer players, and I appreciate being able to give a helping hand to those who need it, especially in such an intricate game such as this. When it comes to events and out-of-game enforcement, I find myself fairly neutral. I could see myself creating minor events at the end of a round, but I would likely leave bigger, round-spanning events to other admins. Out-of-game enforcement seems like it would be a slow duty compared to the rest of what an admin must do, but I have experimented with the existing systems in the past, and I do not find it too onerous.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? Personally, I would dislike handling ban appeals and admin complaints, as I would not want to be the one responsible for sowing discord or resolving it. Perhaps, once I had a greater experience as an admin, I would wish to go through ban appeals, but it does not seem like something that I would enjoy at the beginning of my experience. Nevertheless, I see its purpose and would willingly go through appeals if I was so requested.
Detail Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
Considering that, at its core, SS14 is a roleplaying-centered game, I believe that the primary purpose of the admins is to facilitate roleplay through the tools they have at their disposal. That is not to say that roleplay should be overly forced upon everyone, but that is why we have a distinction between LRP and MRP servers. Game admins encourage roleplay in a few ways, as I will detail below.
The first way, and the most player-positive, is to create events and encourage interactions that will create unique roleplaying moments between players, at no expense to the players themselves. These moments serve to brighten rounds that could otherwise be rather monotonous, leading to a less stagnant player-base.
The second is to speak with players (through a-help, subtle messages, or otherwise) regarding the rules, ensuring that people follow the rules that are designed to foster a fun roleplaying environment. This is a more player-negative approach than above, but it serves its use well in reminding players - both new and old - how this community is expected to act IC and OOC.
The third, and of course most player-negative, is the system of role-bans, temporary bans, and permanent bans that are put in place. In an ideal world, these measures would not be required, but to say that is to ignore reality. In reality, despite anyone’s best efforts, there will always be raiders, rule-breakers, and bigots that wish to play this game, marring our community and our image. The admin tools here are not a “last resort”, but a heavy measure that can be used to deal with these unfortunate problems that arise. This is the most stereotypical role of the admin, banning raiders and enforcing rules, but it is inaccurate to say that these measures are not required in a niche community such as ours.
These three aspects are the bread and butter of an admin, but there is a further point that overshadows all of these: fostering respect. Administrators can not expect to do their duty if they cannot be trusted by their community, which is why a good admin must keep good relations with those around them, and utilise the above aspects correctly: never being heavy-handed when a discussion will suffice, and conversely never ignoring a major problem or incident within a round or server.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
I wish to be an administrator as, frankly, there can never be enough administrators. I’ve seen time and time again the anguish it causes players when there is not an admin online responding to self-antagging or raiding, and to be an admin myself would be to alleviate these stresses placed upon the existing admins and the current player-base. That is my core answer, and one that I overwhelmingly believe in, but there are other minor reasons as well.
For example, I often spend my time on servers simply observing, and it would be excellent to be able to do something with that. I often witness fights and arguments in LOOC and otherwise, and I find myself wishing that someone could come and resolve these issues. Being able to do something at the very least would be quite an achievement for me, and would prevent that stress from being distributed to someone other admin that is already overworked.
Additionally, the admin tools are incredibly comprehensive, but I have never been able to utilise them outside of local testing. In this mechanically complex game, learning and understanding even more regarding its fundamental operations has been a personal goal during my playtime.
I have many minor reasons, but the major reason still stands as increasing administrator presence and being able to share the load, reducing stress on others.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
It’s, in my eyes, “fine” in the truest sense of the word. It could be better, it could be a lot worse, but I have no major complaints regarding the roleplay I have seen. On LRP, people are still kind and engaging. On MRP, people take their time to build stories that I am always happy to be a part of. The only occasion I see roleplay break down is during a Revolutionary round, but that is no surprise to anyone.
Of course, I have grandiose ideas as to how roleplay could be improved - bring back SOP, adjust the servers, rework revolutionaries - but those ideas will be worked on in my capacity as a contributor, not as an admin. If I find issues as an admin, I will not complain to myself and grudge against my duties. I will instead bring it forward for discussion for the wider community and work on changes to the game’s codebase and internal systems.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
I believe the single biggest positive impact is simply presence. I have received a vast variety of responses to a-helps I have made in my time, but there is only a single type that I have felt dismay towards. If an admin does not find my complaint reasonable, that is an adequate response and I have no grudge towards them following that response. If, however, there is no response, I feel let down by the community and annoyed that my request or complaint has gone unanswered.
Events are incredibly fun to play through, but half of that fun comes from the knowledge that, were anything to go wrong, an admin is guaranteed to be online and present in the round. I am not unaware that admins can review rounds posthumously, but that is not the issue I am presented with. An admin’s presence is calming, and a reassurance that if there is an issue, it can be handled promptly.
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 have had negative experiences in the game, but I have never found them to be too overbearing in my eyes. When I have had issues, the game admins have never given me an unsatisfactory response (except when they are absent, see above). Since I spent the majority of my time on MRP, I often find that any issues I may have can often be resolved in-character.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
I have had many good experiences with the game, the players, and the admins. I’ve found enjoyment in combat, in roleplay, and in many of the deeper mechanics of the game.
One particular example I remember is when it was such a low-population shift that it was only populated by service staff. We had to create our own command structure and figure out how to set up power and all the various systems on the station by ourselves. It was a very fun round where everyone cooperated to the best of their abilities, and we ended up having many fun roleplaying opportunities as we all found ourselves doing tasks we would not have done in the shift otherwise. I ended up being the only person to roll traitor, but due to the non-combative natures of my objectives we were able to have a fun shift without worry of raiders, antagonists, or otherwise.
It truly showed me how simple a moment can be to inspire these fun times that we’ve had. Everyone on that station looked out for each other, and we had a brilliant time regardless of our original standing.
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”.
Given the nature of the round, at the very least I would wait roughly thirty minutes to observe the round and how players are feeling. If the station is struggling, I would not intervene with an event unless the station was specifically asking for it (for example, requesting ERT or CBURN). Otherwise, if it feels reasonable, I may spawn a small non-antagonist shuttle for these bored players to occupy with ghost roles (I’m particularly fond of the NT Quark, it’s a secret shuttle that’s technically in the game but nobody has experienced it yet).
I would not run a major event unless the station was well set up and the living players were complaining of boredom. If I did wish to do a major event, I would either wait for the next round or send an announcement allowing the players to opt in or out of the upcoming event.
As for the three players orbiting me, no matter how annoying they may be I would not punish them, as simply requesting a fun event is not unreasonable.
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.
There are many different variations on this scenario, but there are two major questions that I would have: 1) How badly did the captain mess up? 2) What were the alternatives to this mess happening?
(As an aside, I shall presume that the clown intends to kill the captain based on the wording “to avoid the Clown”
We’ll consider the first question. There are three major categories as to how badly the captain messed up: “Insignificantly”, “Significantly”, and “Extremely”
a) An insignificant mess-up (i.e. the captain crit Ian on accident)
I would not deem this as grounds for a revolution, and I would deal with all players involved with this in mind. I would intervene as soon as I can, and gather evidence throughout.
For the Captain and QM, I would message them and explain the issues they have caused, though they are at no major fault of their own.
For the HoS, I would deal with them in alignment with the Competence and Self-Antag groupings in admin policy, discussing with them before going through what would likely be a short game ban and a longer temporary role ban.
For the HoP, I would admonish them for stepping out of their lane, but first acquire information as to how much they were aware of the situation. In my eyes, given that the coup already began, I would not overly fault them for the situation and give them a punishment that is lesser than the HoS’s.
TheCclown would be dealt with in a similar manner to the HoS, being primarily admonished for inciting violence (under the Self-Antag grouping) and probably being given a temporary ban (but not a role ban, as it had little to do with them actually being a clown).
b) A significant mess-up (i.e. the captain committed a Major ranked or Extreme ranked crime and refuses to be held accountable)
Whether or not this is deemed grounds for a coup is heavily debatable. If it isn’t, based on my observations, I would deal with it as above (but additionally issuing a punishment to the captain based on their actions during the round). If it is grounds for a coup, I would wait and observe, and go forward with this in mind:
For the Captain, the mere fact that this coup is justified is grounds enough for a role ban, but otherwise I would deal with their specific crimes based on the admin banning policy.
For the QM, unless there is some other factor that is missing, I would not fault them for what they did, especially considering they were trying to protect themselves from the Clown.
For the HoS, I would ensure that their coup uses as least lethal force as possible, and would possibly warn them for not requesting an admin step in in lieu of their coup.
For the HoP, I would deem their actions to be overstepping considering their intended role upon the station. This could lean between a warning and a short role/game ban, depending on the circumstances.
For the Clown, this is still Self-Antag, and would be dealt with as above.
c) An extreme mess-up (the captain is harming the station and poses an active threat to many players)
This is for the case in which deathsquad would be appropriate. In this case, I do not fault the HoP or HoS for the coup.
I would try to act immediately, either calling in deathsquad or removing the captain from play. After an investigation has been made, I would likely follow through with these actions:
The Captain would likely receive a ban for an extended period of time, and a role ban to match, based on their actions.
The HoS and HoP would not be admonished based purely on their motives, but individual actions may be looked at.
The Clown, given that the Captain is a current threat, would not be given anything more than a warning for this, but other actions may deserve to be looked at.
The QM is most likely innocent, but further observation may show some actions that need to be addressed.
However, for the second question (“What were the alternatives?”), there are many possible options. I shall summarise a few below:
- Did any of these players a-help before going through with their actions? If not, action may be taken as they did not take the necessary steps before resolving the conflict with a coup.
- Do these players have previous warnings/poor reputation? If so, the opposing side may be seen as more reasonable than otherwise.
- Was there sufficient numbers to deal with the offending Captain? If the only member of security was the HoS, I would deem it much more reasonable for the HoP and Clown to get involved than otherwise.
- What did people know at the time? There are many questions that could be asked regarding the Clown, the QM, and the HoP’s version of events, and that could alleviate some of the issues mentioned above.
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 the conflicting information, I would likely default to following the letter of the Admin Banning Policy as closely as possible, as opposed to choosing a side between the two other admins.
After a brief look over the Banning Policy, it seems that there is very little overlap between circumstances that require an indefinite game ban and a temporary game ban. As such, it should be trivial in most circumstances to determine what a correct action would be. If it is still vague, I would default to the most recent recommendation of an indefinite game ban due to my hope that the other admins would know what they are talking about.
In any case, I would include this information in a private note on the offending player (see below for an example) and set a reminder for a few hours/days later to confer with a headmin as to the correct course of action.
Private note example: “[TYPE] ban given to player on recommendation of [ADMIN] at the time and based on Banning Policy, contrary to earlier conversation with [ADMIN]. Feel free to review and adjust based on further discussion and voting.”