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+--- Thread: About Game Staff... (/showthread.php?tid=2467)
About Game Staff... - Ranylyn - 03-26-2016
EDIT: Less relevant now due to Sawrock's promotion to GM. But if you want to keep reading, go ahead.
Once again, this is just a random thought. If you don't think it's a good idea, pease say so. The last thing we need is implementing things nobody wants.
As it stood even before Sly went on haitus, often times, Sly and Chaos would be on at the same times. This left large periods of times when neither were around and nothing could be enforced, while rulebreaking could/would be rampant. Even when they were on, they're just two people, and can only do so much. Often times, they need to step in for a prolonged argument with someone who didn't read the rules and lore, leaving them effectively blinded to other shenanigans elsewhere. This is only further compounded by Sly's absence.
Naturally, we can't just make a bunch more people GMs to ensure one is always on; that'd be anarchy. But I do have a suggestion to help alleviate this.
From what I've seen, many instances requiring GM intervention are simply issues of explaining the rules to idiots who chose not to read them, and explaining Lore to people who didn't read their racial blurb in the character creation and try to do stupid nonsense. This got me thinking about the "Game Sages" in a F2P game I dabbled in in the past called Eden Eternal. Game Sages were basically volunteers who knew a lot about the game from experience, and would help clear up any confusion / mediate conflicts and such.
Basically, I'm suggesting we deputize people to take on part of the GM responsibilities while lacking the power to directly enforce bans and other such punishments. Issues can be put to votes among these deputies and delivered to a GM upon login, with the assurance that "Yes, enough of us agree this is an issue, we talked about it with them and they told us to get fucked, and they refused to listen to any of us, so now it's your turn to step in and crack a skull" instead of simply putting all that preliminary work of talking every single issue out to a GM, especially considering people often refuse to listen and it just leads to Chaos or Sly getting very irritated, and they don't deserve that.
I'm thinking 3-5 Deputies would be a good starting number, and we could pick them among players who've been around long enough to know the rules and lore. (I'll refrain from naming names because I know not everyone always gets along and I'd rather not start an argument over why I think those people are fitting, but long story short, I do have 5 people in mind that I'd be happy to nominate.
What would this entail on Dev's side?
- Picking a name for this group of deputies.
- Giving them a function similar to GM chat, to get someone's attention when needed.
- Possibly creating a private board on the forum for archival purposes, of chat logs and such, so proof is available if contentions arise.
What would this entail for the new Deputies?
- Creating a seperate Skype chat to discuss issues among themselves.
- Actively patrolling and seeking out issues in-game, watching OOC, etc.
- Possibly giving their Skype out to more players so people can report things to them.
Anyways, just a thought.
Re: About Game Staff... - Clockworkers Doll - 03-26-2016
I can admit that when I was having insomnia for a few months before the current and last weeks, I actually was able to pin down the exact times Chaos and Sly were offline (likely asleep), and besides the fact that it's SUPER early in the morning (2AM-7AM PST?) and there's nobody on, that actually is a concern since with that big of a time frame, a ton of rules can be broken just like Ranylyn said. But, after reading the entire post, my own concern is, well, who's truly responsible in Dev's eyes enough to warrant even just half the power of a GM, and has the time?
You'd really have to be looking at players who have little life outside of the internet (possibly not the best way to put it, but people that have a lot of free time) to be able to be able to have a consistent amount of surveillance, but yet aren't so wrapped up in the game that they'll forget. And you can't have people who're going to bias their friends out of trouble or have a history of breaking the rules (not saying anybody with a temp ban is out of the ruling, but why they were would be a factor). It's also hard to try and manage a force like this as well, speaking from experience of being (shamefully) a Minecraft server co-owner. There's also that Chaos would have to work on managing that group and the guards at the same time, and Chaos has said that having extremely large groups are heavy to take care of, so it's not like it'd be fun all around to have a group of 15-20 people. (I can't even keep up with my guild chat of twenty people half the time), and assuming most players live in Britain or America, 3-5 might pose as issue if they're all around the same time zone and log off at around the same time, cause then we're just ending up with that early morning issue.
The other two issues I saw is that, well, some people do think Chaos and Sly have bias. Not pointing fingers, but that is a common opinion that some people only talk about under the sheets. Who's not to say that people will start pointing fingers at the mini group as well? With players, it's much easier to shit talk them then it is the GMs (because some people think that doing that will get you banned, like SL2 is some kind of police state). The other issue is along the same lines, people will likely do their best to OR go out of their way to stay away from those players if they're known. This isn't an issue for some people, but for players like me, or Fern, or anybody who puts their name in the title, this would be. It would likely half the usual RP we get, and it would be easier to just tell others "Oh, [Person X] is a mini-GM, stay away from them." Which is totally a thing that happens, yes. And if you don't and get found out, what are you going to do? Make a new character? What'd be the point if that'll eventually get found out too?
There's also the smaller issue of mini-modding, which people already get bitchy about ("I'm breaking lore? Well unless Slydria says I am you're retarded!" -- Something someone actually said to me once) that might prove an issue, but if they're known that might not be. But then again, check that last paragraph.
Otherwise, I actually like the idea. People that actually have the duty to report that kinda stuff to a GM, instead of just being encouraged too.
(Although maybe not make them like the GS? I almost got permabanned for making a joke about bath salts (the drug) on that game. [sweats])
Re: About Game Staff... - Ranylyn - 03-26-2016
I actually considered all those points, myself, which is why...
1) I suggested the deputies need to vote together on things, so friends can't just be let off the hook, and they can't just rail on people they don't like. They don't need the high level of Dev-trust that Sly and Chaos have. They just need to be trusted enough to keep an eye out instead of focusing on their own gaming.
2) If the Deputies are people in good standing (using your example: Fern, since Fern is pretty popular) people are more likely to co-operate than they were with, say, Ryu. While the option to not reveal your status as one is also an option, I'd personally actually be MORE inclined to RP with people who make it their responsibility to help inform people of times they contradict the lore/ violate the rules, since I'd prefer to RP with people who give a crap about the Lore and aren't all about memes. As well, one only needs to acoid GMs if they're breaking rules. Being avoided by anyone is actually an indicator to watch them closely.
3) Chaos and Sly do indeed have a lot to manage, what with Chaos running the guard and all the reports from normal players (I know I've personally reported a lot of crap, and I can't be the only one.) That's actually a big reason of why I thought of this. This system's endgoal is to reduce the GM workload. The Deputies would of course need to work together with GMs when needed, but can otherwise work among themselves until something needs to be brought to GM attention. People could also report things to the deputies who chose to make themselves public if GMs are offline, further reducing the workload by spreading it across multiple people.
But that's just my opinion, and thank you for your feedback. I do definitely see what you mean, and I'm well aware I'm oversimplifying it a bit.
Re: About Game Staff... - Sarinpa1 - 03-28-2016
Simple.
Make their word matter, but not be definite.
"Yes, you cannot do this." "I will do it anyway."
deputy reports to GM, GM rules what deputy said as sensible, bashes the one refusing him into face
if deputy was just being a moron, he gets smacked in the face.
It's the same as with guards, they do ooc boo boo, you talk to chaos