Tag: staff

Weekly Creative Discussions

As I mentioned to some of the staff not too long ago, I’d like to start having discussions on where we’d like the plot to go and the status of what’s going on within the game.  I know I myself (and many others) have not been around a lot, during the school year like this it is incredibly important to keep everyone on the same page and continue to move plots forward.  I’ve taken a number of steps to ensure that we can do this but one thing that is lacking is in communication.

The idea is to have a discussion among Staff and Founders about where we would like the game to go and how we can push it forward.  There are three parts to this of course.

Pushing Plot Forward

We have got far more dead or dropped plots that I would ever like to have in a game, especially in our less-used settings of Angelic Sins and Embers of Soteria.  So the first thing we will be trying to move for is more staff involvement in soliciting RP to move plots forward with a focus on pulling in new players who have just arrived and seasoned players who have fallen off the map and may not know where to get back into things.

New Plots & Direction

That being said, there is never a time to rest on existing plot lines and direction of the game.  The other half of the coin is I would like to have a discussion of where we want to go with the setting, new plots, new ideas, and keep the game fresh.  Sometimes plots fail, even if they are good ideas life gets in the way and a lot of things can happen.  As such, I’d like to really dig into what we can push for in the direction of the settings and a discussion of how we get there.

Issues & Resolutions

An important part of these meetings will be trying to figure out how to resolve the issues with the game as it is.  This can include issues with players, plots, how plots are being run, but with a focus in how do we resolve issues.  It is very important to me that everyone  makes an effort to keep problems, solutions, and commentary constructive so we can move forward and continue to build all of our settings.  The best and most robust creativity comes with we all get together.

Attending & Participation

I don’t want to make this sound like a job; if someone cannot be here for the meeting then they cannot be here for the meeting but I would like everyone to not only show up but to really try to be an active participant.  We’ve got a lot of really good creative minds on this server, this is a chance to bring everything to the table and see what we can make of it as a group!

Since not everyone can be around for this, I do plan on putting together a post about what is talked about and decided and make that available for public viewing here on the WordPress site.  This gives our players a chance to talk about things and then bring any concerns, ideas, questions, or just general commentary to our attention.  It goes without saying that resolutions or issues regarding particular players will not be made public.

Upcoming Staff Elections

Starting today we will be going through nominations for Staff members. Existing staff will not continue their places unless they are both nominated and win except for those members of the SysOp group who are preeminent staff members. The purpose of holding nominations for so long is to allow those server members who are not online very often a voice. The election process will begin and elections will be held starting on September 14th and go until September 28th (the server’s birthday).

Number of Moderators

So far the poll on how many moderators there should be is centered pretty heavily on 4 moderators. So we’d then have a total staff of 3 SysOps and 4 Moderators. Thus, the election process will take the 4 nominee’s with the highest votes (see further down for details).

Criteria for Staff

Before nominating staff members consider the following suggested criteria for staff members.

  • Be able to remain calm and rational even while being insulted, trolled, or otherwise baited.
  • Be able to assist others with role play and writing; such as creating NPC’s to facilitate role play or help refine ideas during the creative process.
  • Create a foster a creative environment that is safe to express new ideas in.
  • Exhibit a lot of patience in the face of problems, particularly the attitudes of others.
  • Is well spoken and articulate while also not being afraid to speak up to other staff members or SysOps

I would like to build a server where the staff supports each other and the server. Thus, any one person having a bad time of things or perhaps losing their cool has the other 6 staff members to rely on to reign them in and keep things steady. As such, anyone elected to a staff position should be willing to listen to their fellow staff members.

Nomination Process

Nominations will be done via DM and the source of nominations is kept private and will not be disclosed. Once nominated, the person will be contacted privately and asked if they would like to accept the nomination. If they do not accept the nomination, their name will not be released onto the server. Public nominations will not be recorded and are considered to be unacceptable.

Nominee Approval

There is also the potential for a reverse-nomination, that is if a person would like to bring up a potential nominee who they feel would not make a good staff member, they are required to do so via DM to a SysOp only, public declarations against a potential nomination are not acceptable in any way. In the event of the nomination of someone who 2 or more people have presented concerns with, the SysOp’s will privately decide if the nomination should stand. Again, this will be kept private.

Election Process

Once we have the final nominations in place after the 2 week period, elections will be held. If there are 4 or less people nominated it does not mean that they will automatically become staff members, they will still need to be elected.

Number of Votes

Any nominee who gets less than 2 votes cannot be elected to staff even if there are still slots to be filled. This means if we only have 3 nominee’s and only 2 of them get 2 or more votes, we will only elect 2 staff members.

Filling Vacant Slots

In the event that there are still vacant slots after elections, the SysOps will decide if they wish to appoint other members or not. Such appointee’s would not necessarily require to be listed among the nominee’s. The appointing of a new staff member would be voted on by the SysOps alone to fill out the vacant moderation slots. This same process will be used in the event of a staff member leaving the group, unless a SysOp leaves and then the new SysOp will be appointed by myself, the server owner.