Game Administrator Application
Start
In-game Username: aleyway
Discord Username: aleyway
Characters you play: About 90% of the time I roleplay as Gelatinnie Goup, although I have some characters I roleplay more as in LRP servers like Gwyn Knapenberg or Terry Tarkowski.
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: Upwards of 20 hours a week.
How old are you? 19
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Goob Station servers, or any SS13 experience? About 400 hours on Wizard’s Den and another 200 hours on RMC.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)?
Barring very small communities with mostly friends, no.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers?
No bans to date.
Detailed Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
Admins enforce the rules in game, answer !Ahelp requests and try to keep grievances between players to a minimum. In essence, an admin serve to make the game and its community a better place.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
As previously stated, I do really like Goob Station as a community, I’ve had almost entirely positive interactions with other players and made some stellar memories. In no short way would it make me pleased to have the opportunity to actually give something back to the people that make Goob such a great place.
Once more, there is also the simple fact that it looks like fun, being able let other players experience some of the more rare things in SS14. I’d be delighted if I was the reason somebody remembers a round where they did something really special.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin?
Of course, the fun parts of being an admin. Interesting and unique events and interactions that are on the rarer side, like being a fabled CCO or sending in an ERT or CBURN unit to help the station on request, I feel like these things always heighten the roleplay experience and I’d love to be a part of it.
I also really like Goob Station and the community around it. Since I stopped playing on Wizard’s Den, I haven’t even thought about going back. I would really love if I was allowed to give back to the community in some way and maintain a happy player-base.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin?
As to be expected, the worst part about being an admin seems like it would be having to tell players off. Most people don’t like conflict, and it is the job of an admin to get directly involved in conflict, which is generally unpleasant for everyone involved.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
While I started on LRP, I have since moved to MRP and have found that it isn’t exactly MRP. Basileus is a strange middle ground between LRP and non-Goob MRP servers. I don’t actually hate that. I more-so think that the problem falls with the disparity between Secret+Light having near no antagonists, which is far too uninteresting for roleplay, and Secret+Medium, which is usually complete pandemonium with no time to actually roleplay. This is a complaint I hear a lot and it is the only one I actually strongly agree with, it would be nice if there was something between +Light and +Medium to allow quieter, more person-to-person roleplay while leaving security and command something more to talk and think about.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
Admins do a lot of things that are net positives, I think the token system is a great example of that. Players being allowed to have a nice interaction with an admin by asking for a silly hat or divine punishment creates a system where players feel like they can reach out to admins for more than just complaints.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
I have had almost exclusively good interactions with the admins on Goob Station, in fact it was an admin who actually convinced me to apply to be an admin while we were in character. Most of the time I interact with admins its through roleplay, and it always ends up being fun.
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?
Everyone has plenty of negative experiences, that’s the nature of the game. Sometimes you just die, or you get caught in some crossfire. I haven’t had a negative experience with an admin in game or through OOC chat on Goob Station.
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”.
If the round had just started and these people chose to spectate instead of join, I wouldn’t interfere with the rest of the people who are participating in the round for the sake of two people who opted out. If there is a harmless way to do something funny, I would consider it, however this can often lead to increasingly barbaric requests once the people asking realise you might actually listen to them.
I would say the best thing to do would be to just ignore the request or politely turn it down.
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.
If the Head of Security had a valid reason to start a coup against the Captain, which is likely as the Head of Personnel also agrees with this decision, then the Captain should be asked to return to the station since leaving the station as a Captain is a breach of SOP. Hiding from a clown who hasn’t been proven to be dangerous and is only armed with a sword, is entirely unnecessary. The context behind the coup is important as it would take an egregious breach of SOP for a Captain to warrant such a thing. The Quartermaster is entirely innocent in this, they are not stated to have taken a side with or against the Captain, only that the Captain is hiding with them. If they had aided in the hiding, or prevented the Head of Security from arresting the Captain, then they would be eligible for demotion alongside the Captain, but no admin action would be necessary with them. The Clown, despite stealing as a non-antag, is still a Clown. They haven’t done anything terribly disruptive nor have they been stated to hurt anyone with the sabre. While Clowns aren’t immune to punishment, they are typically given more leniency than most, and I would think it would be harsh to take action against them.
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.
Depending on the context of the ban, the indefinite ban may be necessary, however if you haven’t made an error in your judgement or in this case, haven’t made any judgement at all, other admins should not intervene with a case which is already being handled. If the case at hand is a first offense, and it is light enough that you would compare it to another scenario that warranted a temporary ban, then stick to the temporary ban.
Scenario 4
A brand new player has joined, chosen cargo tech, and instantly rushes to get satchel charges and other salvage gear. How do you act, if at all?
There is a very real possibility that the new player in question is a raider, or griefer of some kind, considering the efficiency at which they acted to get an explosive. A light question through the !Ahelp system, like “What do you need the satchel charges for?” would be in order. If the message is ignored and they look like they are going to use the charges, it would be worth using a more direct method of intervention, like going in character to ask, or dragging them to a private location to ask. If the question is answered, and there is no answer that would warrant a cargo technician having satchel charges anyway, so it would be best to advise them to return the charges. Other context may be useful for identifying a raider, like a randomised character with a randomised name, or a purposely unpleasant looking character, although it is important not to judge them solely based on that.
Scenario 5
A security officer, on code blue, spots a mime breaking into EVA, in response, he shoots the mime with lethal force then takes him to medical, in cuffs. How do you act, if at all, and to whom?
A quick !Ahelp message to the officer to let him know that lethal force is entirely unnecessary in that situation. If this is a first offense, or the player had no prior offenses that were similar in nature, a simple verbal warning would suffice, since the mime would have likely been detained and taken to security if the officer had used non-lethals, making the ends the same, but the means different. Judging on whether the player’s admin remark record had anything similar or whether the officer was additionally unpleasant, a role ban may be fit.
Scenario 6
A chief engineer has been slacking all round, generally ignoring the responsibilities of the department, despite meteors and gas leaks happening all round. How do you act towards them, if at all?
Once more, get in contact with the Chief Engineer through !Ahelp, asking them politely to do their job. Members of command are less excusable when it comes to not performing their duties, especially the Chief Engineer, since their job directly affects the whole station, which can significantly influence other player’s experience. If this does not prove to work, a fax to the Captain demanding the Chief Engineer be fired and replaced would provide a good in-character way to fix the issue for the rest of the round. The Chief Engineer should be role banned, given that if they wanted to do engineering, they still could, just not in a position of responsibility.
Scenario 7
You are adminning with 2 other admins, and recieve an aHelp, you start handling it when one of the others butts in to the aHelp correct you. How do you act, if at all?
As stated in scenario 3, generally speaking admins shouldn’t interfere in another !Ahelp unless there has been a genuine mistake made. It is important to consider their correction, like if it was something they had seen in the round that you hadn’t, or if you had gotten some other context wrong. However generally speaking, if I and the other admin both equally informed on the situation, it would be best to finish the !Ahelp and talk to the other admin about it afterward in a non-conflictual way.
Scenario 8
A passenger arrives on station and starts skulking around in maints. Not preparing weapons or breaking into places, but gathering tools, insulation gloves, wires, gas mask, batteries, etc. How do you act, if at all?
This is very typical passenger behaviour, it is entirely accepted as something “tiders” do. It is important not to cramp how people choose to play the game, the passenger is causing no harm to anyone nor acting in a way that insinuates any future harm and as a result they should be left to it.
Scenario 9
You are playing as the HOS in-game when the only other admin online notifies you that they have to leave. Since you are an important figure, you decide to continue playing for the remainder of the round, going SSD when ahelps occur in order to deal with them. While playing, you arrest the clown for non-lethal assault against the HOP inside the medical bay. Just as you arrive at security with the clown in cuffs, you receive an ahelp from the CMO about their chemist blowing up chem. In order to investigate, you quickly hand the clown over to the warden and tell the warden to “deal with them.” While investigating the CMO’s ahelp, you then receive an ahelp about the warden beheading the cuffed clown. How do you act, if at all, and to whom?
Firstly, it would be wrong not to cryosleep and hand the role of Head of Security over when you are the only admin present. It leads to the kind of complications we see in the rest of the prompt. It is not impossible, nor entirely difficult, to verify if the clown had actually been beheaded by the radio. If the warden had beheaded the clown, ask the warden to step down from their position, with consequence of not doing so being forceful detainment demotion by either the Captain or another officer. All of this could be done while you ask the player who was the chemist through !Ahelp how and why chemistry blew up, given that the CMO had reason to suspect it was done on purpose. If the chemist had done it on purpose, that would warrant a role ban, given chemistry is an essential department, and if they are not an antagonist, they have just sabotaged it for no reason. With regards to the warden, that would also warrant an !Ahelp conversation and a role ban after everything had been handled in character unless they had a valid reason to behead the clown.
Do you have any further notes or information we should know about you?
Nothing that would influence my ability to admin. I guess I don’t really talk on the Discord server? I do lurk quite often, so I wouldn’t say I’m exactly inactive on it.
I am usually on a little before the servers start to get busy, which is a time where there aren’t many admins available, just to note.
Lastly, I do really like Goob and the community around it, and I would really like to be given the chance to give back to the people that make it such a great place to hang out and have fun. I’m grateful for the chance to apply, and offer my best regards to those who read this.