Game Administrator Application
Start
In-game Username: weetaht
Discord Username: weetaht
Characters you play: Is-Wrong
Hound
TABLES-8
EVE-01
HERON-804
Lemon Laguna
Racraba
On average, how many hours do you expect to admin per week: 4~7
How old are you? 24
Do you have any SS14 experience outside of Goob Station servers, or any SS13 experience? I do; I was quite prolific on Delta-V for some time and I got my start on Wizard’s Den.
My experience with SS13 involves playing AI and killing Bubblegum by crushing him with a door for ten minutes.
Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)?
Not as far as BYOND/SS14 goes, no.
My administrative experience extends entirely into roleplay spaces — I wrangled little freaks on popular ROBLOX roleplaying games for years (such as the once-great “Darkened Dawn”) and have headminned at least three character-sheet-bureaucracy-based games. I have so much experience with rules-lawyering annoying teenagers that it’s honestly a bit embarrassing for me.
Have you ever been banned from any SS14 or SS13 servers?
No.
Detailed Questions
What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
Administrative roles serve the important task of corralling the chaos that a sandbox experience inherently provides. While the primary form this takes is rule-enforcement, sometimes rounds turn out poorly, people wish to redeem tokens, or someone has a problem with somebody out-of-character. In these instances, game admins serve to levy discretionary judgement; nobody wants to have a shitty round, and it is their role to ensure that the game remains fair and fun (or sometimes just one!) for everyone.
Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
People have problems.
Solving problems is fun.
Not like math or anything; that sucks. I like evening things out with people and making people enjoy things. I play healers in games because I like to see people’s bars go up. I like playing Medical because it makes people enjoy their rounds more. I like Nanotrasen Representative because the endless tedium of bureaucracy is quite fun.
I want to be the kind of person to respond to the NTR’s faxes with something legitimately interesting. I want to be the person to suggest that the guy screaming in LOOC because he got searched on Blue as a fledgling heretic take a break. I want to ban the bi-weekly ASCII swastika raider for life.
What are you primarily interested in doing as an admin?
I am a disgusting bureaucrat at heart and my time is best spent writing and dealing with people’s problems. As an admin, I’m genuinely most interested in dealing with help requests and learning more about the people in the server. I spend a huge amount of time lurking in spectator mode and adore watching people from afar play out their rounds, and being able to help those that have issues (from an IPC nuclear operative who wants to buy a battery for TC to a Technical Assistant who’s struggling with her RCD) would legitimately make me happy.
I wouldn’t seek out a staff role if I was just here to fuck around and do stupid shit.
What are you least interested in doing as an admin?
I dislike using forums unless you jingle keys over my head or something, but that doesn’t mean I won’t ever do it. I’ll probably be a little slow to do appeals unless someone reminds me, but I’ll have an alarm or something set up weekly if I get accepted.
How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the servers?
Alpha is acceptable for what it advertises. I love to bitch about how I think LRP is NRP, but it really isn’t as bad as I make it sound. I generally dislike how little people actually try to play their characters and only exist to be their role (or antag-roll, honestly), but that’s the nature of a low-roleplay server. The roleplay aspect is there as an afterthought to the gameplay, and the chaos that Goobstation offers is conducive to that.
Basileus is genuinely acceptable. People there may not be the best at combat or killing the shit out of everyone, but they’re nice people and they have their own little community and storyline going that they’re always open to accept others into. On occasion you can see Basileus creep into the waiting hands of HRP gameplay as long as someone else initiates, but the gameplay focus is still prevalent in the server such that you’ll always see a fistfight or a firefight when over forty players.
Sigma exists and on the rare occasion that it brandishes its deadly 13-player edge, it shows a lax version of LRP. People occasionally roleplay there, but the gameplay and the role-training takes the forefront; it’s easiest to say that people roleplay there because it’s a game-rule requirement, but Sigma is otherwise NRP with a peace agreement that winds up making people chat a little.
Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
I genuinely believe that handling the smallest little requests are the most impactful. Pulling someone out of a wall when they get glitched into it by someone dragging a crate is what’s expected of you as an admin, but what really leaves an impact is when you go out of your way to do something that’s not strictly necessary.
Drawing inspiration from an earlier hypothetical, giving an IPC Nuclear Operative a microreactor in exchange for a bit of TC (or for free, if they’re nice) would make their day when dealt a bad hand. Telling the Head of Security where his Lawbringer went after the thief holding it cryoed would make his shift a lot less stressful. Setting up the AME for a low-pop station with nobody capable would help them get some departmental experience.
You just have to be nice to people. Most people, I mean.
Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
Boggle is cool as shit and actually spends time roleplaying with people in-game to the point that they know people in the server by character. I also don’t know a single fucking time I haven’t seen him in-game on Basileus. It’s disturbing.
HorsePuncher handled a bunch of shit for me in the past and even let me use an abuse token at, like, two in the fucking morning.
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?
I don’t get mad at video games.
If you want something that’s legitimately irritated me, I’ve had problems where I’ve written long-winded and ultimately non-game-changing faxes to Central Command as NTR while basically nothing has happened during the round — only to receive fucking nothing in reply. It’s disheartening, especially when playing a functionally useless lootbox role.
I prommy-wommy that I’ll try and reply to every beautiful fax my lovely (bastard) crewmembers send me. Boykisser faxes will receive a pipe bomb in return, per tradition.
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”.
Nothing. I lurk. I am not here to be a performing monkey or start a circus for these two.
If there are no active requests and the round seems to be starting smoothly, I might spawn a space platform far from the station and let them fistfight space animals.
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.
The Head of Security, the Captain, the Head of Personnel, and the Clown are breaking job standards in this scenario; pardon me if the formatting here breaks.
• The Head of Security staging a coup betrays his mindshielding, the Standard Operating Procedure outlined in Vote of No Confidence (no stated third party, only two Heads in agreement), and his SOP in weapon handouts (as this does not constitute Red Alert, and HOP is not Security).
◦ The Head of Security needs to be spoken to first, given that they’ve taken on a high-trust and high-responsibility role. Judging by their response and the circumstances surrounding this situation, I would give a warning (given that the effects have not excessively damaged the round yet) for incompetence in Command.
• The Captain is not permitted to abandon the station unless permitted by Central Command, especially not when he has his own measures to deal with a clown with a sword.
◦ Warning for incompetence in Command.
• The Head of Personnel has taken up arms and is taking on the duties of a Security Officer instead of performing his own role or aiding the coup in his own way.
◦ Warning for incompetence in Command and Powergaming (preparing weaponry needlessly).
• The Clown is self-antagging by stealing sensitive and lethal weaponry with the intent of attacking people.
◦ This act requires conscious effort and an intent to attack Command as a non-antag. The effort required to do this constitutes the maximum game-ban duration for their warning tier (for first offense, this would be one day).
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.
This player has no currently noted issues and the situation does not imply a level of urgency. Even though another admin is viewing the ahelp, I don’t think that peer pressure is a good reason to permanently ban someone for a first offense, and there are staggeringly few rule-breaks that constitute a permanent, appealable ban on the first offense.
I just temporarily ban them for the initial time suggested.
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?
I send them a message gently telling them that their role is Cargo Technician, not Miner or Salvager, and tell them to drop their gear back where they found it and return to their job. I also suggest that, since they know where these things are, they they perform a time transfer if they reply.
If they refuse to reply after a few moments, I will send another message to them asking them if I made myself clear; a third refusal to answer will force a seven-day game-ban for Powergaming, Griefing, and Competence (Cargo). If they were rude about it, it’d be permanent, because that’s obviously a raider looking to kill the shit out of people.
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?
Code Blue is not the “lethal force for secure trespass” alert level, and the situation does not state that he attempted any other de-escalation measures. While he did take the Mime to Medical, the incompetency stands.
The Security Officer is given a warning for over-escalation. I wouldn’t ding him for egregious Security incompetence because he at least tried to do his job, but fuck, dude.
The Mime shouldn’t be breaking into EVA unless the Code Blue is the usual mistaken Code Yellow for atmospheric decline. If he’s not an antag, ding him for self-antag or powergaming, depending on his reasoning.
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?
This lovely Chief Engineer would receive a very strongly-worded message about his competency along with an ultimatum that if the damages to the station aren’t fully repaired by the end of the round, he’ll receive a roleban for Command incompetency and role abandonment.
If he doesn’t have the station fixed, he gets the ban. If he does get it fixed, he’ll receive either a verbal warning or an actual logged warning, depending on how impressive it is.
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?
So long as the interruption is done in good faith and in a kind manner, I accept the correction and elaborate to the person in the request.
If the interruption is in bad faith or in an unkind manner, I bring the matter up with the staff member over Discord (or in ghostchat if necessary) and tell them to be nicer, escalating the issue to a higher-positioned staff member should they be combative.
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?
Okay, this is an actually-important distinction here: This refers to PASSENGERS, which could either be Assistants (with their old rolename) or Visitors (who are ghostrole castaways).
I’m kind of a hardass on tiders; they can be exceptionally annoying and deprive departments of required items. If they take actually-restricted gear and use these items that they’ve accrued for shady purposes, I’ll ding them and give them a verbal warning to watch what they’re doing and to not cause problems — After all, it tends to be a per-staff thing as to what Assistants are actually allowed to do or not, and Assistants have no Standard Operating Procedure to follow in the rules.
As long as they actually make an effort to aid the station with the items they accrue, I won’t ding them for powergaming.
Visitors are ghostroles and would have no reason to be taking all of these things unless employed or have their ID switched out for a crewmember’s at the Head of Personnel’s office. I would watch them closely and very quickly ding them for Powergaming (preferably just a logged warning) the moment they pick up insulated gloves, as they’re the only Restricted Gear stated in the scenario.
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?
There are several people outlined in this scenario.
• The Chemist blowing up Chemistry is a fateful part of the job. This happens extremely often, but the upside is that the chem dispensers are now electricity-fed rather than jug-fed.
◦ The Chemist would receive a message asking them what they were doing when Chemistry blew up. If the answer is obviously attributable to an accident or a failed experiment, no punishment will be levied. If the answer is insufficient, they will receive a warning for competency, as the machines are easily repaired from chemical explosions.
• The Warden’s punishment for non-lethal assault is utterly egregious and incompetent. Assault is a third-degree crime with a maximum duration of six minutes.
◦ The Warden would receive the maximum punishment for their current warning in Competence: Security (and possibly RDM, depending on how we stretch that).
Do you have any further notes or information we should know about you?
I am a university student and my active hours may fluctuate. I also cannot attend any staff meetings that take place between 12:00PM~5:30PM CST on Saturdays.
Thank you!