Vanilia's Admin Application

In-game Username: Vanilia
Discord username: Vanilia / tag: piotrskrzyp
Characters you play: Tar-On, Rat-No 🦎

 

On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 15-20 hours

Days you are available to admin on: Whole week, different time zones (can play by American or European hours)

How old are you? 24 🇵🇱

Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience?  I played nearly on all english speaking servers in SS14. Notably, over 200 hours on Delta. 

**Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? **I have no adminstrating experience in SS13 or 14, but I help with managing official Wild Rift Discord, community, and together with RIOT games partnership, host European Wild Rift tournaments. (Discord screenshot) I did also work with a lot of esports tournaments, events as staff & referee & representative.

Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers?  Yes, one week ban on delta for making cringe joke about dogs as telepath (specism).

 

 

Admins have the ability to perform various tasks which are not available to the average player. An incomplete list of these tasks is: in-game rule enforcement, in-game events, ban appeals, and out-of-game rule enforcement through things like replay/log reviews in response to player reports. With these, and any other tasks you’re aware of in mind, answer the following two questions.

 

 

What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin?  In-game events/interactions, in-game rule enforcement, replay/log reviews
My goal is to show players that Centcom is very real (even if zombies might not be). Answering faxes, educating new players, helping other admins with events, improving the quality of RP in LRP. These are a few things I would like to focus on.

 

What are you least interested in doing as an admin?  Handling ban appeals (especially admins votting procedures), leading events
I have seen trial admins be afraid to take direct action, and instead support one side through admemes (one time when the nukies forgot the codes and location of ther (hidden by crew) nuke). I cannot blame them, in fact I would also be afraid as a “newcomer” in the administration. That’s why for now I would be least interested in handling the mentioned things as they require experience of regular admins.
 

 

Answer the following questions in detail, so we can get a better idea of how you’d approach adminning.

 

 

What role do you think game admins serve on our servers? In my eyes, being an admin means representing the community and the game. The best adventures I have had in SS14 so far have been thanks to admins doing little things and showing me that they care about even my micro (on a larger scale) shift experience. They are colorful personalities that the community looks up to. The community wants to be heard and cared for by their admins.

Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?  I want to be part of the staff not to be that “colorful personality” nor for fame and fancy color, I would love to be that change that made me fall in love with SS14 in the first place. Someone’s spark in a boring shift or even real day. I want to show people that I care, and I want them to feel cared for. 

 

How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?  I appreciate how connected the community is. The overall value of roleplaying is growing on all Wizden servers. More and more people, start with lrp, go to any mrp server (out of curiosity mostly), learn mrp, go back to lrp (for higher pop experience) and increases the overall quality of the round for everyone. However, we still have a huge need for active administrators. There are regular raids, self antags, people abusing vpns and new accounts, vulgar trolls, or just random toxic players.
 

 

Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?  Banning should always be the last resort that admins are not afraid to take against problematic players. I believe that educating players, answering their questions, and being around to appreciate good players (as many as possible), quality RP is something that has a monumental impact. A good admin can make a bad player a great person, a bad admin can only make a bad player even worse - more bitter and angry.

 

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?  My worst experience, unfortunately, was when I got my one week ban. I believe that as an admin you should never take your own feelings or assumptions and apply them to other players. Doing so will make you only more angry, less likely to listen, and more detached from making a fair judgment, which should always be the main goal.

 

Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?  Honestly, there have been so many…its hard to count. All admins are the reason why I am writing this in the first place, they are a testimony of how much I feel cared for by them. I hope that some of them will be able to see this and appreciate their own tremendous work. Let me try to desribe three of them. 

 

  • Ajexrose - When I first heard bwoink on the server from Ajex, I knew I was doomed. I have no idea when it was or what I did, but I kept them in mind as a literal scarecrow’s fear poison (DC reference). Always straight to the point, events slowly but steadily going to full crew demise, Nar’shie enjoyer… As time went on, they turned out to be the most understandable admin I ever met, answering all my questions, always checking to see if I was just being a straight up killing clown, explaining to me for the 1000th time that I should not lock all maints and doors to the bridge when the round just started.

 

  • Lord Eclipso (I refuse to remember your nick as Eclipse) - If I had ever been abused by my parents, Lord would certainly be one of them. Hosting post & pre round events for Ghost, doing the wackiest shit (full serwer on the smallest map, welp?), and then walking off into the sunset while summoning Nar’Shie. This fella loves to tournament people, and people seem to be loving it as well - myself included.

 

  • Ryan - No cool prelude this time, I apologize… Quick round story : I wanted to admeme for 2 spray nozzles… First price from Ryan - 20 tc for 2 sprays + tanks, *consults with nukie team*, got special request to tell a joke for a discount, *tells a joke*, *price went up to 25,* ask for more time to think and ask the rest, *price went up to 29*, pays… Flamenwerfer Ops did not even make it out of the armory before being arrested.

 

  • Admin whose nick I dont remember - As a Janitor who just started his shift, I felt purposeless, everything was clean. Then I remembered about the posting from the transit station to enlist in the death squad, I faxed it to centcom and was given instructions to prepare 3 different folders of documents, and turn them in to centcom (after the shift). I collected about 30 different credentials from crew, recommendations from heads, and wrote full character backstory, criminal record (none with warden stamp). I also labeled 3 different folders as 1) Official documents, 2) Command recommendations, 3) Crew testimonials. I had to do a lot of side quests to get the crew references…but it was worth it! I was afraid that when I got to Centcom, the round would just end, but then Admin took me to the official Centcom briefing room and gave me the Death Squad Cadet gear. Never felt more rewarded on the space station

 

 

The following are scenarios, respond with how you would handle each as an administrator. Respond with the assumption that you are an administrator with full access to the admin tools, and that you have all the knowledge needed to use these tools. Scenarios intentionally leave out information so that you can describe how different details would affect your response. Respond in detail, explain the reasons behind decisions you make and describe any assumptions you are making. When you need to make an assumption, it is preferred for you to describe how different assumptions would affect your actions.

 

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 would like to remind players that each round has its own flow, and admins are not here to “do something fun”. If you’re observing, don’t always expect to get a free special role, as most of the time there will only be small ghost roles open. I think using language like “the more you ask, the more likely I am not going to do anything” is a huge mistake, as it does not fix the players’ mindset and keeps them waiting in this and the next rounds.

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.

  1. HOS, HOP - I would try to understand their IC motives, and if I couldnt understand why they decided to coup the captain, I would message them asking for clarification - as they cant just coup without a reason, they should also handle the command vote first and try to act peacefully.
  2. Clown - Message them about the situation, most likely warn (considering if they knew what they are doing) them for stealing high value items - as they are stealing antags target, effectively making it nearly impossible for real antags to find, and harder for the captain to defend themselves (and QM).
  3. Captain, QM - Make sure they are not far from the station, as Captain should never leave it (especially with nuke disk).

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.
Mention the scenario that led to the temporary ban to the admin and ask for guidance, as bans should not differ for similar or even identical scenarios. I would lean towards a temporary ban since the player had no previous issues or notes. They might be relatively new players, so I would also explain the situation to them, what they did, why it is bad, and advise them of the ongoing internal discussion - they should be aware that they might be banned the next time they join, and what the next steps should be.

Thank you everyone for your time reading this. Stay awesome

While reading my application, I realized that there is much more I would like to share with people who are reading it now or in the future. I had fun writing the original post, so here are some of my additional insights and answers to questions I’ve received on DMs (or would ask while reading someone else’s application).

What you think about current admins events setting?

I think the events are too different depending on admin present. Trial admins, and some regular ones as well, prefer not to interfere at all, while some others will start cults, revs, or create monkey pirate execution platoons waiting by centcom for evac shuttle. 

This may not be a problem because admins are too different or work on different things, but rather because the community has different expectations towards events and admins in general. If someone sees Admin X, they will immediately beg for Space Dragon and demand blood.

Solution to this could be a discord short schedule of what kind of events the community can expect
ex. 1) Deathmatch 2) Lore focused interaction 3) Survival.

At first it might look like terrible idea leading to metagaming, but in my humble opinion it would be too general (ex. number two can be CC inspector coming to station, but at the same time it could be lawyers doing some shaningans with detective, perma prisoner transport or anything else) to spoil the fun and allow people to be more aware of whats going on (ex. people be more focused on roleplaying in number two). There wouldnt be a need to constantly organize polls for every little interaction (which would keep things cooming much bigger suprise as well). This would also help admins to be more “on the same page” when it comes to running events.

Your application has none apologetic approach towards ban you received. Have you learn anything?

All admins bwoinks, messages and remarks in smaller and larger perspective taught me something. I hope that thanks to them, my current RP and playstyle is as engaging and fun for everyone as it is for me. Even this ban was an opportunity for me to learn, engage with the Delta community, receive some encouraging words, discover other servers, and spend more time reading different servers rules. Of course, I regret that it was necessary, but as I said, I hold no grudges, as I am the only one to blame for the whole situation. Thank you for that question. 

Why do you want to be admin?

I consider being an admin as an opportunity to be close to the heart of the community, to help others, but also learn more about rules, management, and as a way to work directly on a few ideas I had. For example, transforming player stories (from discord) into news post or any form of more pernament commemoration, lore posts explaining meaning behind Donk co, Syndicate, and by doing this creating good setup for meaningful events. 

Which role gave you most fun in RP?

My first love was HoP duties, being close to the civilians and keeping them informed. I was one of the few people (as HoP) who actually communicated with the service department. At this point I also enjoy being a Captain and a medic, both roles have different duties, but as their main goal is to save the crew, doing that is very rewarding. I’m also trying to learn art of being clown…but I still cant make any good jokes. 

Sometimes you can or even should lose to make it more fun for everyone. Do you agree? Have you used this rule in your game?

“Remember, losing is fun!” As a Dwarf Fortress enthusiast, I totally agree. That’s why, as a Nukie commander, I don’t push blitz ops every time, even though it would be the easiest way to win. As a commander, I have tried several “fun ops” to create a better environment for all players. Flame Ops, Fiest Ops, Smoke Ops, Monkey Ops, Carp Ops, Slippery Slope ops, Web Ops, Box ops, China Ops, Pokemon Ops, Elite Ops, countless failed Zombie Ops, and many more. Most of them failed…yes, but it was fun. 

Thank you once again for your time. If you have any questions, feedback, thoughts feel free to send them via DM here or on Discord. 

Tar-On out

Sounds like a good admin

It’s time for a little update 🦎: I have some more ideas about how to better manage the community. 

I would like to organize voluntary monthly meetings for the community - as a time to showcase content creators, new stories, fan arts, updates and so on. 

What is more, We could host meetings for people who want to contribute to the game (learn how to code), contributor’s jams (just like devjam sessions).

In my last post, I mentioned the development of the universe storyline, and that’s really a monumental activity, but an example of an action I’d like to get the community involved in is a contest for the best story/paste from the round or retelling of what happened on the station. The winning story(s) could be published in the form of a magazine or books to be found on the station (eternal glory and memory of the heroes). 

There are many more ideas, but I thought I would share the ones I would be able to run myself (or in collaboration), and are really easy to do, but at the same time very impactful.

Let me know what you think.

Is it ok to leave feedback about the applicants IC conduct?

On 3/7/2024 at 7:36 PM, Changeling said:

Is it ok to leave feedback about the applicants IC conduct?

I have personally nothing against it, and would probably appreciate some critical feedback /critique. Just please try to keep it constructive (so I could learn something from this), and open - allow me to respond. Thank you

20 hours ago, Changeling said:

Is it ok to leave feedback about the applicants IC conduct?

You can send an admin message with a link to the application

Thank you for applying. We’ve decided to not accept this application, but you’re free to apply again in the future.

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