In-game Username: WilliamTheHuman
Discord username: WilliamTheHuman
Characters you play: William Zi Hughman, William-The-Human (of course!)
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 10-20
Days you are available to admin on: I usually play after classes all week, and on weekends
How old are you? I am 18.
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Wizard’s Den servers, or any SS13 experience? I have played a few hours of SS13, have played many hours of RMC, and other assorted servers.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? I have! I used to be a trialmin for a few months, a little under a year ago, but could not continue because I got very busy with IRL stuff. I enjoyed adminning and did not find it too stressful, so I would love to try again! I hope the offer to come back is still available.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers? I have never been banned or kicked.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin? Being an admin is a great way to keep rounds fun by spicing things up, responding to issues and prayers in fun & creative ways that won’t affect too much. If I do end up doing events, I will ensure they are connected and for the entire station - it bothers me when admin events are selective and only a few people know what is going on. I want to continue thinking of fun ways to do events that will be both fun and accurate to SS14!
What are you least interested in doing as an admin? Though neccisary, nobody wants to deal with shitters who ruin the game for everyone else, but I am more than willing to do so. Adversely, responding to issues when I am not online will be a chore, but I am capable of doing it. I would much rather only have to deal with Ahelps when I am online and available, and would not want to have to log on while doing IRL stuff.
Detail Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
Admins keep the game fun! Without them, LRP especially would be a lot less of a great time to play. They keep unwanted stuff out and keep SS14 as SS14, and I am very grateful for that. I would love to be a part of the admin team and give back to them.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
A few months ago, a large portion of the admins stepped down, and seeing as I am often spectating rounds as well as playing in them a lot recently, I would love to use this time to help out a bit. It would make me very happy to be able to make the game fun by making creative events and admin rounds, and I might as well be using all the time while ghosting usefully!
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
I love the state of the game, being the different factions and the tensions between them and the sentiments that come up because of that. It is very fun to be a part of that, and I enjoy the silliness that appears because of roleplay. While I mostly play LRP, I do not mind MRP and would not be adverse to playing it! It can make for some really interesting stories which make the game much more motivating to play. While most players do not seem to like the number of people brought in by PC Gamer, I do think it was a massive boost for the game, and I do not find that it has negatively affected the state of roleplay. Most roleplay has been a positive experience for me, and I hope I can continue to be involved in it! For instance, yesterday I had an amazing round with roleplay on Lizard, as an amazing librarian became a quest giver and gave tasks to the various members of the crew. I wanted to help out, so I retrieved many items to add to the librarian’s coffers while doing their quests. A salvage member decided to give the Librarian a possessed Golden Mask for a quest reward, and for completing one, the Librarian gave it to me. I had never actually encountered a possessed mask before, and after the librarian warned me of its power, it ended up possessing me and four other people. It made its way through the station, possessing people one by one, including HoS and two other security members, before we made it to Centcom. It was an amazing and memorable round and made the mask so much more than a simple item through roleplay.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
In my opinion, the funnest thing an admin can do is give a variety to the players. As evident from the insanity of the April Fool’s updates, SS14 is one of those games that is much, MUCH funnier with variety. If too much happens all the time, it gets very overwhelming. A normal syndicate agent round is so important to the game, but having the occasional honkmother attack can be so special and memorable. The novelty of having an admin run a fun round is so important, and adds to the unpredictable aspect of the game! It makes me love the admins of the game so much more than any other moderator team, as they give so much to the players by making fun rounds every once in a while.
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?
Other than unjust arrests (Which are bound to happen) or unintentional metagaming, every interaction I have had with an admin has been them only trying to serve the greater good. I have had an RDM warning before because of self-defense, but even then, they were only trying to keep the game fun and safe.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
Other than having to talk about a problematic crewmate, every experience with an admin has made the round special. Whether it comes to bugs or events, they make talking to them so helpful and special.
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”.
While it happens often, I do not think admins should feel pressured to modify or do anything to the round. I can’t just act and modify the game whenever someone wants me to. Depending on the circumstances of the round, the traitors need time to prepare and achieve their objectives, and without setting the game to a custom gamemode before starting, I do not want people to feel like their antag round was wasted by an admin who was ignorant toward them just to “be funny”.
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.
Again, depending on the circumstances of the coup, it would be wise to know why the HoS has decided to turn on their captain. While it is against the conventional rules of the game, it is not particularly a “bad” thing if the heads of the round have conflict. It is a natural flow, and it may not be something that needs interrupting. If the clown has remained unaligned with the HoS and is not simply validhunting to kill the captain, it is simply part of his job to be funny and could occasionally steal things for the humor of it. As it is not a syndicate objective or something that can majorly alter the round, the saber can be handled by sec as long as the clown is not trying to self-antag.
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.
Banning a player permanently should be seen as a last-ditch effort. Players are so important to SS14, and if they think it is unsafe to differ from their regular playstyles due to a fear of tight rules, the game would lose a very large portion of its fun. If I am the only one who can act on the issue, I am going to try to talk to the player immediately. If they do not answer, I will temporarily ban them, but through communication, you can learn so much and understand the issue so much better. It is much better to take time and consider the player’s point of view rather than immediately act, making the player unable to communicate.