More room to breathe for staff

[Old_Lando 178]

Yeah, making it a community popularity contest probably isn't the best way to proceed.  Myself, I prefer to have just one boss I answer to.  MamaDarkness is who I take my marching orders from.  Other staff members may have opinions and I can make decisions, but the only one that has the authority to tell me what to do is Mama.   If I had to worry about popularity and how my actions would be taken by the community for every little thing I did or didn't do I would quickly step down.    I do the job to the best of my ability and take my criticism from mama, everything else just bounces off.  I don't really have the interest in playing politics.

[Old_Lando 178]

Staff are there to SERVE players, if they are not involved in the community, helping people, being friendly and active and conducive to a positive game environment, they have NO place being staff.

 

Staff are there to server the community, not individual players.   Don't evaluate the staff's performance based on what you see as a non-staff member.  There are a lot of staff that work in the background and do things even if to the normal player it does not look like they are doing much.  Also, sometimes staff need breaks to play the game.  We play this game too and can't be expected to be on full time all the time as staff members. 

[Samool 2,004]

Can't ignore staff, they have a special shield around them

I'm pretty sure that you can still ignore CAs.

[RockyBalboa 565]

so enki dont get anything in return for his full time work as Master GM?

[Namekat 1,753]

[19:59:39] You  hold an emerald staff in your two hands.

[Pinchaloaf 341]

To answer the OPs original query: there is zero transparency. But that is to be expected in Wurm, where transparency is not in the vocabulary.

[sunsvortex 599]

There needs to be an oversight committee. Questionable behavior by staff can be reported to them and they can do an investigation and bring the results to Rolf's attention if warranted.

Edited March 10, 2015 by sunsvortex

[Warlander 2,730]

I vote for a fully open and democratic system. Staff are held accountable by the players on their server. If a CA is useless, a player can start a ballot (ingame popup question on login given to all players) and if the staff member gets less than 70% approval, BAM, gone. Reverse true too, I can nominate a player for CA, and if they get 70% or greater poll approval, they get appointed. REGARDLESS of who/how many enemies they may have IN THE STAFF.

This way the support team FOR THE PLAYERS has been appointed BY THE PLAYERS, and we don't get any of this crap we've had where people don't do anything whatsoever for the community but get staff promotions because they can kiss up better than others.

[Kammerz 69]

I love all the GMs, CMs, FMs & mostly the CAs! 

 

Let people go to other games such as Minecraft, where all those roles are filled by one bias server owner, or MMORPG's where support calls are never answered. 

 

This game has one of the most extensive help systems I've ever seen for such a small customer base.

 

Even the ratio of staff/players is probably the highest -  which means we've got a lot of bloody help! 

 

So all those complaining, shut up, sit down, right click the nearest person > emote > mean > slap (that should calm you down)

 

<3

[Kammerz 69]

Oh and regarding the main post by Silakka, I think ya'll should just loosen up those buttons and not worry about it, the majority appreciate the help, hence the constant ''Thank YOU'' in CA channel every 2 minutes.

 

 

In terms of using loose language like the rest of us, I think it's still important to maintain professionalism within CA Channel just because most people are seeking a direct answer. You can't suddenly start replying like a badman "Yo, jus right click ya mouse innit n' press dat button, sommat like dig or wtv."..

 

You know?

 

Also I find a lot of foreign people here copy and paste the chat into a translator - so it needs to be said in proper English.

 

But outside of CA channel i think you guys should just be who you are, cuss, swear, make jokes whatever. As long as it's not harassment obviously.. 

 

And don't go around unhitching peoples cart as they go by... I guess you can use that as a marker to when you've just gone too far as a CA . Lol.

[Elen 1,013]

Kammerz speaks truth. I have never played a game with better GM response.

I think the system is working well and although some people have dug themselves into holes with staff over the years, the system is working fine.

We have an appeal system that is responsive and working. It is honestly great.

 

I would love to see the GMs encouraged and given more room to do one-off functions on the non-pvp servers. Like for example if someone submitted a ticket to be flown above their deed to take some screenshots. Perfectly fine for PvE at least. Not sure if that is a good example really but hopefully the point is clear enough.

 

  GM is life, GM is love.

  CMs, well I figure we have ignore and a word filter... not sure we actually need em. They seem nice enough though.

  FMs, too biased for opinion.

  CAs, they fulfil a useful function. Some need replacement.

Edited March 10, 2015 by Elen

[Kruggan 519]

I think you mean breathE

[Dairuka 888]

From experience:

 

As a person without rank:

• The mere perception of authority is enough to give people cause to rebel against said authority.
  
• Anger towards changes made by people we don't have access to, tends to be offloaded on the individuals who are within reach and are associated with those we are angry with. (ie. Rolf may be inaccessible, but you're convenient.)
  
• People with special privileges will always be easy targets for the disaffected. Especially if they don't have the power to respond with any measure, and could face demotion for responding anyways.
  

As a person with rank:

• People with private access tend to congregate amongst themselves more often than with others - predominantly because of bad experiences dealing with the public.
  
• It's very easy as a staff member, (even a volunteer staff member), to fall into the trap and see it as "Us vs Them" - This adds to the detachment from the rest of the community.
  
• It's very easy to assume you know better because you're part of a privileged group. - This adds to the detachment from the rest of the community.
  
• Yes, staff talk about you behind your back: Special Staff Only Forums and IRC's tend to fill up with "Did you see that stupid guy's post?" and "I'm close to banning this guy." threads.
  
• Yes, conspiracies do exist in rare cases: Some very draconian game forums tend to remind it's volunteer staff to enforce certain policies with regards to new changes. (ie. Delete all threads that complain about X.)
  
• Developers do play favorites: They're human. Just like you. They're lying if they say they don't. Dirty filthy liars.
  
• Moderators do play favorites: They're human. Just like you. They're lying if they say they don't. Dirty filthy liars.
  

Ways to avoid misdirected rage, as a developer or staff member:

• Keep your game account and your staff accounts separate.
  
• Make damned sure nobody figures out what your game account is. If you tell even one friend, you may as well change your staff account name, because it will get out eventually.
  
• Keep your god damned game account and your staff accounts separate.
  

Edited March 10, 2015 by Dairuka

[Belrindor 663]

@Dairuka That was well written. And I laughed most of the way through reading it, because it's all true and I've been there as admin staff on other forums.

 

And yep, keeping the accounts separate solves a vast majority of this. Granted, it's not always practical. But it does work.

[Kammerz 69]

 

From experience:

 

As a person without rank:

• The mere perception of authority is enough to give people cause to rebel against said authority.

Anger towards changes made by people we don't have access to, tends to be offloaded on the individuals who are within reach and are associated with those we are angry with. (ie. Rolf may be inaccessible, but you're convenient.)

People with special privileges will always be easy targets for the disaffected. Especially if they don't have the power to respond with any measure, and could face demotion for responding anyways.

As a person with rank:

• People with private access tend to congregate amongst themselves more often than with others - predominantly because of bad experiences dealing with the public.

It's very easy as a staff member, (even a volunteer staff member), to fall into the trap and see it as "Us vs Them" - This adds to the detachment from the rest of the community.

It's very easy to assume you know better because you're part of a privileged group. - This adds to the detachment from the rest of the community.

Yes, staff talk about you behind your back: Special Staff Only Forums and IRC's tend to fill up with "Did you see that stupid guy's post?" and "I'm close to banning this guy." threads.

Yes, conspiracies do exist in rare cases: Some very draconian game forums tend to remind it's volunteer staff to enforce certain policies with regards to new changes. (ie. Delete all threads that complain about X.)

Developers do play favorites: They're human. Just like you. They're lying if they say they don't. Dirty filthy liars.

Moderators do play favorites: They're human. Just like you. They're lying if they say they don't. Dirty filthy liars.

Ways to avoid misdirected rage, as a developer or staff member:

• Keep your game account and your staff accounts separate.

Make damned sure nobody figures out what your game account is. If you tell even one friend, you may as well change your staff account name, because it will get out eventually.

Keep your god damned game account and your staff accounts separate.

 

Hit the nail on the head!

[Corsan 199]

As someone who joined the game and was running around as a noob following all the rules, and attempting to be kind/considerate of others and spending a week asking around in an area if it was OK if I set something up, and then having a CA's alt (They ran 7 different deeds...and hadn't bothered to log that one in for the whole week I was playing) show up after I'd spent half a day building a noob shack/small fenced area...and have them be insulting and 'I don't like you here.' (Because they had a rock doored mine there, which I didn't even know what it was...and had asked another vet what it was..and he'd come over and taken a few swings at it with his weapon...and told me it must just be a glitch or something..apparently he was not a fan of his own neighbor and trying to egg on a fight between us...) which then proceeded to cause drama that got me KoSed by numerous deeds, and ended up basically devolving/snowballing into this massive drama filled nastiness....that I reported all the way up the chain of command and was blocked from taking up the chain after sending in 2 full pages of harrassing logs...and over 8 different support tickets about the subject, and not a single action taken against any of the parties involved...which actually lead to my taking my money elsewhere for over 3 months...and the fact that I'm disallowed from mentioning most of this/many of my posts on the subjects get deleted...they honestly need to figure out a better way, as the volunteers themselves actually made me leave the game, due to the favoritism they were showing and hiding eachother's mis-deeds.

 

The only reason I even came back was because the game itself wasn't half bad...and I moved servers and no longer have these petty squabbles going on in my backyard.

 

Countdown to deletion of this post...commence!

[Kammerz 69]

As someone who joined the game and was running around as a noob following all the rules, and attempting to be kind/considerate of others and spending a week asking around in an area if it was OK if I set something up, and then having a CA's alt (They ran 7 different deeds...and hadn't bothered to log that one in for the whole week I was playing) show up after I'd spent half a day building a noob shack/small fenced area...and have them be insulting and 'I don't like you here.' (Because they had a rock doored mine there, which I didn't even know what it was...and had asked another vet what it was..and he'd come over and taken a few swings at it with his weapon...and told me it must just be a glitch or something..apparently he was not a fan of his own neighbor and trying to egg on a fight between us...) which then proceeded to cause drama that got me KoSed by numerous deeds, and ended up basically devolving/snowballing into this massive drama filled nastiness....that I reported all the way up the chain of command and was blocked from taking up the chain after sending in 2 full pages of harrassing logs...and over 8 different support tickets about the subject, and not a single action taken against any of the parties involved...which actually lead to my taking my money elsewhere for over 3 months...and the fact that I'm disallowed from mentioning most of this/many of my posts on the subjects get deleted...they honestly need to figure out a better way, as the volunteers themselves actually made me leave the game, due to the favoritism they were showing and hiding eachother's mis-deeds.

 

The only reason I even came back was because the game itself wasn't half bad...and I moved servers and no longer have these petty squabbles going on in my backyard.

 

Countdown to deletion of this post...commence!

I wouldn't paint all the CA's with the same brush though. Maybe there are a few bad apples. Best not to go near them though rather than paint Wurm to be a bad game. The fact you were able to move server and away from the drama means it is just a few bad apples

[Druidnature 1,118]

Being someone who had a position managing staff and there roles on another game, I can tell you: you should judge each staff for who they are, not your experiences on another one, or others.

Yes, they do have a bubble around them, yes, a few will abuse there power. Do you want me to tell you, from experience, the best way to get less of those people and more of the people that really want to HELP you?

Stop. Nagging. Them.

When people complaint about staff corruption, the people really there to help start feeling bad and feel like they aren't doing a good job, an guess what? They quit because they don't want to help anymore. And guess what type that leaves?

The game I played had the same exact issue, finally I realized That if I kept my staff happy, and positive, it mostly shut down any issues. To keep them happy though I had to really post a lot of threads discussing with players to give a bit more breathing room, how the staff work, how to report a staff member if they believed they were doing wrong, ect. After months it paid off, but it all starts with everyone stop hating everyone.

Also, before I was in that position, I know how some staff here feel, you have to target other staff members, either befriending or taking them down to "go up" in rank. Pro tip, don't. You'll come back years later hating yourself, do what I ended up doing. Want to prove your good to the team? Get the community together for fun, post guides for new players or old, give advice to your fellow staff members about how you think they can improve, be honest and tell them what you personally feel there doing wrong.

Honestly, I was a low-rank staff member and I started making threads about what I thought could improve staff and what we as staff could maybe to differently and better, the higher-ups realized I was there to actually help and not just have a shiny title, and Quickly earned my way to the positiob I enjoyed because it allowed me to help in my full capability.

Another tip: one that I think is most important, especially in wurm, even more so then my past game, don't worry about being staff, or what rank you are, you don't need to be something to, in most cases, help someone. Most of the time someone needs help its with a question, which anyone has the ability to answer or point them towards the wiki.

Now, I hope my phone got all that straight. ;P

Edit: if anyone has a question that revolves around said subject, or wants advice on something related to being a staff member and maybe how you could improve, I would be glad to help - just remember I'm not sure about much in Wurms staff(s) jobs, so I can't promise I'll be very accurate in those cases, better to ask your fellow staff. Send a pm though if you'd like.

Edited March 10, 2015 by Druidnature

[Aeris 3,752]

The biggest problem here is that a LOT of the volunteer staff does in fact misbehave. I've seen it happen again and again over the years I've played and the excuse is always the same:

"They're doing this for free"

 

Yeah. People don't play this game for free though, we pay to play and expect to be met with the professionalism you should be able to expect from a released game.

Not all volunteers misbehave, I'll admit that a decent bunch of them are great people, but whenever a wronging does happen they're excused with the "free" argument and the whole story is forgotten. I've seen a 15-year-old become accepted into the team and kicked within a month for misbehaving. The guy in question already had a fairly well-established profile as a douchebag and shouldn't have been accepted into the team to begin with.

 

I know I'm dreaming here, but it is my honest opinion that players shouldn't be part of the staff at all. If the game had proper documentation there wouldn't be a need for employing players in order to make sure that people got help from people that knows how the game works.

[Dairuka 888]

The biggest problem here is that a LOT of the volunteer staff does in fact misbehave. I've seen it happen again and again over the years I've played and the excuse is always the same:

"They're doing this for free"

 

Yeah. People don't play this game for free though, we pay to play and expect to be met with the professionalism you should be able to expect from a released game.

Not all volunteers misbehave, I'll admit that a decent bunch of them are great people, but whenever a wronging does happen they're excused with the "free" argument and the whole story is forgotten. I've seen a 15-year-old become accepted into the team and kicked within a month for misbehaving. The guy in question already had a fairly well-established profile as a douchebag and shouldn't have been accepted into the team to begin with.

 

I know I'm dreaming here, but it is my honest opinion that players shouldn't be part of the staff at all. If the game had proper documentation there wouldn't be a need for employing players in order to make sure that people got help from people that knows how the game works.

 

Soft skills positions are below the lowest rung of the totem pole for game development studios. Below even Q&A.

 

For studios with limited resources, this can mean relying entirely on a dedicated volunteer force to handle their public profile.

 

For companies that once retained people with a soft skills position - the release of a person with a soft skills position is often the first sign of financial trouble to people with working industry knowledge. If word spreads, this can hamper confidence in the product and company, further affecting sales and the direction the company takes to retain it's remaining player base or to grow it's profits. This makes the volunteer force even more attractive for smaller companies. Not only are they cheaper overhead, but they're essentially an outsourced labor pool, with no ties to the official company. They can drop volunteers at a heartbeat's notice, with no repercussions. It's not as easy to do so without a ripple when you're talking about letting go a well known staff member and public figure... as we have recently discovered...

 

Until the industry is able to quantify precisely how a person with good soft skills as a public face is able to increase profitability - you'll never get rid of the volunteer system.

Edited March 10, 2015 by Dairuka

[As_I_Decay 1,592]

I've seen a 15-year-old become accepted into the team and kicked within a month for misbehaving. The guy in question already had a fairly well-established profile as a douchebag and shouldn't have been accepted into the team to begin with.

 

Haha, I know exactly who you're referring to. Recently got a screenie of him lying about his old badge rank. If I were a stirrer, I would've reported him for impersonating staff, but I ain't.

Granted, if they so much as give him a CA badge back, it's getting PMed.

[Bachus 462]

Well I have been neighbors with a few CA's and had only good experiences with them and the GM's ( other than frustration that they couldn't help with my problem).

I even thought about becoming one myself but realized I didn't have the time with Real Life dragging me away for months at a time; so I just try to help the staff when I can without any special powers.

But having been a manager IRL I am reminded of something my manager who trained me said. " As a manager you cannot take shortcuts or bend the rules very much because for every inch you bend them the employees will bend them a foot."

So when you become a manager you also become the example for others to live (or play) by and thus are held to higher standard.

[joedobo 1,187]

When a player with a fancy title starts arguing, belittling, or even insulting (this doesn't happen often, but the first two happen all the time) a customer it hurts Wurm. If your forum alias has some official title it should be required that you will be respectful, and reserved in your posting. If you want to do something else make a forum alt that has no "official wurm representative" title associated with it.

 

 

@ The folks who answer questions in CA help...Thank you so much, so very much!

 

@ The GMs...I don't trust you and will never ask for your help.

 

@ The chat moderators for kingdom chats...You'll do keep people inline with the rules tho sometimes it feels actions are a tad overzealous.

[Xandra 353]

Hi,

 

while I think we have some really awesome helpful staff people, we also have some not worth their salt at all.

 

Worse, we have people in the staff that are not aiming for the benefit of the game at all, or the benefit of the players, but for their personal benefit (or their Kingdoms/ servers/ social groups/ whatever).

 

I cannot help but to see deficits in the election process. It seems to help a lot to be known in PvP ...

 

I'd like to name (and thank) some of the awesomely great staff members here that we have, but for sure I'd forget some. And those I forgot might be sad, and those I ignored for good reason might treat me bad in the future - so no names here.

 

I'd think ways more care should be used when electing staff members. While we have not few perfect role models, we also have quite a lot of rotten apples. And this hurts the game, IMHO.

 

Have fun!

[silakka 2,360]

I think when it's staff business, staying professional and representative also open+fun is important.

But while in GL chat or skirmish thread or suggestion thread, i just dont think everyone should focus on the title, just let there be lil more fun.

Also seems many got so much pent up anger and bad thoughts on staff. Please if it is something worthy, then do report it or make a different thread if that would be really necessary, but here it's off topic.