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LoneSoldier55's Admin Application


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In-game Username: LoneSoldier55 (BYOND ckey is the same, if needed)
Discord username: freeman#2651
Characters you play: John Freeman
How long have you been playing SS13 or SS14?

I started playing SS13 in very late 2013 almost exclusively on the Noxious Net SS13 server that happened to be up at the time. Nox was pretty notorious for being virtually RP-less and rule-less and as a result I think it would be safe to say I picked up a less than ideal way of playing SS13 from the year or so I spent playing there. There was a short break after Nox took down their SS13 server citing lack of interest from those running the server at the time. 

I was approached by a former coder for Nox to play on an informal, older codebase server dubbed d20 station which primarily obtained players through reoccurring threads on 4chan's /tg/ board at the time. I had already mostly worn myself out of doing usual LRP/NoRP antics like antagonizing people in-game for petty reasons to provoke conflict from Nox, so eventually, after repeated warnings and bans for doing those exact things on d20, I took a further interest in the actual workings behind the game and developing for it. Eventually I contributed enough code to the server and proven myself reliable enough to be one of the administrators for the server, eventually culminating in me effectively being one of the more prominent admins or coders on the server.

We eventually formed our own discord around 2016 or so instead of posting reoccurring threads. Our playerbase was fairly small but closely-knit (around 40-50 players were the absolute max we ever saw, we were usually closer to 20-30 on busy days), though it dwindled going through the months. Our administration team and development team (who were effectively the same people) were small, informal, and generally loosely organized, and we never really had an upstream for our server and instead opted to tinker with an ancient NT station build from 2014 for eternity. Still, all of us generally got along and managed to keep things going steady until around 2017 or 2018 at which point most interest from everyone dwindled out.

I was approached about Space Station 14 which I had heard was in development for quite some time and saw it was in a pretty playable state. I had previously been in the SS14 discord and held at least passing interest in developing for it when it was still early but eventually was scared off by having to re-learn and re-immerse myself in something that wasn't DreamMaker (as horrible as DreamMaker is). I've been playing Space Station 14 for a good bit now and it's refreshing to be back on the end of having to learn how to switch hands again and not be assaulted by the number of features mainstream SS13 stations have now all at once.

How many hours are you available per day/Days you are Available On: To answer both of these, I work an 8-5 Mon-Fri office job. I am east coast and usually available outside of those hours.

Prior administration experience (SS13 experience recommended). Please also post a way for us to verify this: I kind of hit on this already with the SS13/14 experience, so I don't want to waste anyone's time by repeating too much. D20 station started off as an LRP server until we realized that for the most part, almost every station with an "RP" rating in its title was effectively one rank of RP lower then what it advertised. We eventually upped to MRP to try and reduce the amount of blatant powergaming and in general poor behavior from the server's players as we had plenty of people joining, doing greytide and self-antag things, then claiming it was okay because it was LRP. 

I was effectively one of the primary admins on d20 station. Since our admin team was loosely organized (effectively just trusted senior players and developers), procedure for bans and other punishment was effectively as the admin saw fit, so we didn't have a ton of structure, though vast majority of ban-worthy players were blatantly obvious griefers or ban evaders so this was never much of an issue for us. BobdaBiscuit can verify this claim of adminship.

Have you been banned from our game servers or SS13 servers before?

I have not been banned from an SS14 server before.

I have been banned from SS13 servers before for general greytiding or antagonistic behavior prior to my d20 administrative experience. I did intentionally get permanently banned from Vorestation by self-antagging when it was up because d20's hardware was down at the time and I didn't really have any intention of ever playing on vorestation otherwise. After I actually started developing for d20 though, I learned there was a lot more to the game then just being physically or verbally combative with other players.

This is the more essay-y part of the application, you should answer the following questions in detail, so we can get a better idea of how you'd approach adminning.

What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?

Administrators serve as the conflict-mediator between players. In a game about intrigue, deception, betrayal, and other similar themes, it is impossible to make everyone the same amount of happy with how the round played out. Someone will feel that someone else has wronged them and broken a rule in the process, and it's the administrator's responsibility to make sound, accurate, and fair judgements based on the available evidence (which is sometimes lacking) that either makes both parties happy, or more often, reprimands or punishes the party in the wrong. 

Administrators try to make sure the server and rounds run as smoothly as possible with as little intervention as required. They must strike a careful balance of allowing situations to resolve themselves in an IC manner while also moving in to act when something breaches the conduct of what is and is not acceptable. Administrators who do nothing are almost disliked as much as administrators who are overbearing and insert themselves into situations which may not be appropriate or required. Generally my philosophy towards administrative duties across most games and communities has been "Player first, administrator when required" and I try to avoid being overbearing or  highly visible when it is not required (those who think they are not being watched often blatantly break the rules; I think I have already seen this happen with players probing adminhelp for responses or the relay message before breaking the rules). 

How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the server?

I am partial to MRP myself as that's the type of server I helped run at d20. I feel like right now, partially due to the influx of new players who have no SS13 experience, comparatively much wider exposure of players to the game via Steam, and the number of players indifferent to roleplay compared to those who value it, tends to make the server feel a precarious border between NoRP and LRP. I would like to see at least a slightly higher standard and expectation of roleplay on the server. On d20 we actively discouraged pre-emptive spare-rushing, early shuttle calls, blatant powergaming/metagaming, and other unsavory behavior that tries to confer an advantage to a player before there is even any reason for them to seek that advantage. I still enjoy playing the game, experimenting with systems, and being able to interact with majority of the game's mechanics without having to feign knowledge of a function unrelated to my job (which I believe is more HRP-centered), but I dislike behavior that would lean to a "play-to-win" mindset which I feel tends to detract from other conflicts or experiences, as I feel like that kind of mindset exclusively focuses on the antagonists and shuttle-calling as soon as the antagonist(s) are deemed no threat; this tends to detract from the experience of other players not involved in the hunt or players who are not antagonists.

Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?

Given the number of players this game gets daily and the fact that every couple of weeks over 1000 individuals are added via Steam Playtest, I can only assume that administrative coverage can be hard to come by at all hours of the day that the server has players. I think I can at least help shore up gaps in coverage and deal with blatant rule-breaking to take some of that burden off other members on the admin team so they can do more important things, as even reading through closed ban appeals I see that ban evasion is, as it was on SS13, a very popular strategy to try and keep oneself invited to somewhere they've been thrown out of.

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