Get new GMs... it's crazy

Most of the staff have been inactive for a long time. Literally no staff member is commenting on anything other than in the ban appeal section.

Is it time to get new GM interns?

 

Thats kinda been the MO around here for as long as I can remember. We've needed like 10 active GM's brought on for a couple of years now. Its literally like 2-3 people doing the job that should be split up amongst a dozen people

 

Then I would suggest more people applying!

I do not think the Admins/Owner should lower their standards for GM recruitment. Perhaps we just don't have any applicants that catch their eye. I also agree having another 1-3 interns would be quite helpful but please do not sacrifice quality control. We recently had a GM who got fired for making questionable actions.

 

It's time 4 u to apply @Cynn

 

I got acquintanced to Tim recently quite well.
I think if we got new GMs, this bond would break rather fast, as he'd be looking to make better friends with those "new GMs"..

 

While they probably have their reasons for not hiring yet, I think its better to just apply to help rather than just making it known and asking others to? Assuming some of you care enough, which I assume is why the thread was made.

 

Zofran 4 GM

 

X10000, especially when the inactive GMs find the time to post personal whiny shit in the “get it off your chest” thread, create memes and read/like memes, but allegedly lack the time/ability to perform any of their GM duties. Just give them the snip already, what purpose do they even serve in their current state?

I’d love to hear what special qualifications the current inactive GMs have over the rest of our player base and/or applicants. I always see the “bbbbut how will we get GMs who meet the standard” or “the current applicants aren’t up to par” argument made but I fail to see anything in the current GMs that makes them any better qualified for the position from the rest of the applicants. Any of them running/managing a business? A teacher? A business owner? A coach? Have a degree in communications? Things that actually matter and aid in one’s ability to perform in an authoritative/leadership type position beyond “I’m a long time player who is friends with/in a guild with GMs” lol

I propose:
Clone Tim to deal with administrative tasks
Clone Kevin to deal with development
Clone 5 Shanes to deal with GM duties

 

put me in coach

 

I'm not going to defend any of the GMs, as well as the one you're probably referring to, but the control panel situation currently limits their abilities if you weren't aware. That doesn't necessarily justify their inactivity but I wouldn't go so far as to call out anyone in staff personally with blatant assumptions. And that doesn't mean you should ignore everything these members have done for the server prior to the current state of things.

Also if you didn't notice, this forum is full of shitposting and memes done by the community as well as members of staff. No one is trying to be serious all the time but it does become questionable how many within the community actually care for the servers well-being sometimes. Hiring for a GM isn't supposed to be a popularity contest, and hopefully everyone that applies understands that.

 

What baffles me is how some GMs can keep their titles for years without even playing lol

 

I'm referring to a handful of them. The control panel doesn't limit them from performing their duties. It may restrict one aspect, but nowhere near all or even a majority of them. No GM is rendered entirely incapable (not even near it) of performing all of their duties because of the control panel.

I didn't call anyone out personally and I didn't make any blatant assumptions.

Past activity =/= current activity. Just because you were a good employee/volunteer prior does not mean that you are currently one, nor does it mean that you should be held to a lower standard because of your prior work. Appreciate the stuff they did in the past, but don't allow that to influence how you judge their current performance. Let's use professional sports as the most simple example. A player can have been a former all star, but if they can no longer perform at the level needed to play professionally, their former achievements do not matter-teams still won't want them because they aren't contributing anything in the current day despite what they have achieved in the past. That player may be a future hall-of-famer, but in their current state they don't provide anything of value to the team and are either cut, sent down to the minors/waived, or they retire. This can apply to the workplace just as easily. An employee worked hard and did great things for the company during his first year, but began to slack off during his second year and his performance was below average - the company isn't going to just keep him around with poor performance simply because he performed well in the past, they are either going to sit down with him and explain that things need to change, or they are going to let him go and replace him with somebody else.

The forum being filled with "shit posting" or "memes" is irrelevant to the point at hand. Ultimately these GMs find the time to log on, but their only activity is unrelated to their duties as a GM. If a GM has time to post on their profile, a friend's profile, the meme thread, the get it off your chest thread, whatever, that means they also had time to do something like post a reply to a ban appeal - their priorities were backwards and instead of handling their duties first, they put them on the back burner and made it so that they were neglected entirely.

Based on the current staff and who was accepted in the past, it sadly seems to be a popularity contest aka friends or guild mates with GMs. I do agree though, that shouldn't be the case, and being friends with GMs or guild mates with GMs doesn't make one any more qualified or trustworthy than somebody who has never spoken to them before.

 

I do agree with a lot of what you say, but the difference here is no one is getting paid, or getting much out of it really. Its difficult to compare when no one is being rewarded for their work here so I don't think its right to be ungrateful towards volunteers. I'm not going to defend things further but theres alot of factors you seem to be overlooking. I don't know why you're placing the blame mainly on the GMs when the owners share some of it too. I think some of you need to realize how inattentive the owners have been to the rest of staff and things that really matter for the servers well-being. Just look through some of the big posts made by former staff, and I highly doubt things have improved much since then considering how things are right now. Everything starts at the top and that is why I believe your outlook is a bit too narrow. How long has this hacking situation been going on and how long have things been put off addressing it? How many game breaking exploits have gone on unnoticed for so long? Priorities are decided by the ones in charge and unfortunately the GMs don't have that kind of power to make these decisions.

 

Hi.

 

Volunteer work is entirely a personal choice. Being paid or not has no significance here. You have duties to perform whether you are paid or unpaid, and unlike a job which in most cases is needed for survival, you make the decision to volunteer yourself with full knowledge that no return comes from it. Unwilling to perform the duties of a GM? Don't volunteer to be one. No longer willing to perform the duties of a GM? Resign from your position. It is that simple. Being a volunteer does not void you of the responsibilities involved with your volunteer position.

I have made posts being critical of the those at the top and the lack of direction from their end as well. Here's a quote from one of my most recent posts: "It's almost like y'all aren't given any direction or told your specific duties and are instead just all over the place dealing with what you want, whenever you want." which is implying "those" at the top aren't providing sufficient guidance/direction for those below them (the GMs).

What are the "alot of factors" I am overlooking? Enlighten me with this unspoken information which you possess that I apparently do not.

Seen all of those threads/posts, and posted in some of them as well. None of them change or nullify anything that I have said thus far. Ultimately GMs know that certain duties need to be performed regardless of the lack of direction given from the top. We don't need Matt to tell the GMs that ban appeals need to be answered or hackers need to be banned. While I would be heavily in favor of designating specific GMs to specific duties, as it stands currently there is no reason why any GM should need direction to know that ban appeals should be answered or hackers should be banned...by somebody other than Tim/Shane.

I have not mentioned either of those things (preventing exploits/hacking) as being GM duties. The GMs are responsible for banning the cheaters, while the development side is responsible for tackling those hacks/exploits at the source (making them detectable or no longer functional). Even without the development side doing their share, the GMs duties remain the same in simply banning the cheaters until the development team comes through with the preventative measures. The GMs absolutely have the power to decide to ban hackers. What they don't have the power to do is prevent players from hacking, and not once have I said or implied that they do.

 

I completely agree with you on all those points but you're definitely missing something here. GMs can't just ban every cheater they see and often times they need the discretion of higher authority. And that just makes their job more difficult does it not? Hackers aren't the only cheaters on the server if you weren't aware, and they seem to be fairly strict on evidence when it comes to all kinds of cheating. You seem to be overestimating how much a GM can do with the control panel in its current state. Yes they can choose to do things still like reply to reports among other forum things, but manually finding and banning hackers becomes so much work. Why don't you try searching for them yourself like I have and maybe you'll understand. Its also problematic if they were to constantly rotate people that will eventually burn out from such an arduous activity. The cycle has been going on for so long where new recruits work hard initially then burn out after some time. Something needs to be done to break this cycle finally or you're asking for a constant rotation of staff members which most likely won't happen.