A proper discussion regarding admin's inattention to community and staff input.

Seeing as how this thread was recently closed, and perhaps rightfully so given that the conversation has, in fact, derailed from the original post topic, I felt it might be good to open up a thread regarding Admin's inattention to community and staff input. Frankly, I'm not sure whether the rest of the community feels heard, but I can say with confidence that I, and my constituents, definitely do not. This is honest feedback, positive or negative, regarding the game and its management - please keep it civil.

For reference: I made this thread regarding the state of the current economy and AP resets. The thread has reached 1st in replies and 2nd in total views, and I/we only just received a response from the admins. I, in detail, went about showing the ways in which I felt that Matt's observations were incorrect, and in the months since that post was made, nothing has been said, and, frankly, it would appear that admin intention is to do nothing regarding the issue. As former members of staff and community have indicated, this is just one more link in a chain of instances where we are ignored in favor of reasoning that is outright incorrect.

Now, that said, I would really appreciate it if this thread didn't turn into a witch hunt, I'd simply like for people's opinions of the current admin/staff to be brought out in a constructive manner.

 

I'm a bit upset that the previous thread got closed before I got to reply, but this is what I wanted to reply with:

The reason people are acting hostile towards you right now is because we are to believe your job here is to moderate the forums and not to involve yourself in discussions like these where you try to defend the Staff's decision while you shouldn't be involved in decision making.

As much as I love Matt as a friend, I know how stubborn he can be when it comes to making decisions and some GM's and Admins can't deal with that very well. In the end we all work(ed) to improve and moderate the game, and for that we also raise our voices and hope for those to be heard. The reason they left is because there have been a fair amount of times where there voices have not been heard, and they felt like they were hitting a brick wall over and over again. I don't find it fair for you to say that they didn't stay long enough trying to fight for what they think is the right direction for the server.

 

The other thread got closed because it got too off topic, so I'm glad a place where my content is more on-topic has arisen.

They left because they spoke up and those of you who opposed them time and time again ignored them and made them feel like less than what they should be, that their opinions didn't matter, that they were personal or charged or unfair. They left because no matter how hard they tried to speak up for what was right, the few of you who continue to run the remainder of the server stood for what was wrong instead. They left because they tried to do the right thing, and this server refused them the ability to do that. The staff on this server is in shambles because of the actions of you who remain, and it disgusts me that you dare turn this to the people who could no longer stay and be a part of the madness that is this whole bloody situation.

You are not allowed to guilt them for leaving. Don't you dare. You don't have the right to post what you did, and you should be ashamed of yourself.

I held a lot of respect for you from the day you joined staff Evan, and I have defended you multiple times to the people who disliked you unfairly; ask them and they'll tell you themselves. You have lost every ounce of that respect with this one sentence. I truly do hope you understand that people aren't targetting you for no reason. I want to believe you have the ability to figure out what these posts mean. Even if you've never shown it.

Since this topic is based on the Administrators here, I've held this back for a long time, but it's probably time I put it out there. I want to make it known the truth about a couple of situations that have floated around regarding Administration here, as well as share some things that I believe the server at large deserves to know.

Matt, you are a horrible leader and a terrible boss. From day one of my time on staff, I have seen you run members of staff into the ground multiple times, and make it their fault that they could not put up with it anymore. It started with Christine, the first Christine, but I wasn't around for the end of that, so I didn't know about it until much later. She did everything for you... everything. As a regular GM, she coded for you, she did database work for you, she held events for you. She genuinely loved the people on this server when it was small and was a huge reason why many people, myself included, decided to stay here or even join here in the first place. When she was on her last hair, you told her she wasn't doing enough. So she left. We saw it again the next year, when Sila was running herself into the ground as literally the only active Game Master, and it took you months to notice that more were needed, simply deciding that because everything was getting done, nothing needed to be changed. After that, Katsuruka took care of the entire server like a mother, until she literally had to quit because of unrelated health concerns. And from there, it became Tim and I... I won't speak for Tim, but let's talk about how you treated me?

I put my heart and soul into playing this game, helping people and making sure the community was the best it could be. I befriended as many people as I could, I took care of Character Issues as best I could, I got to know what people in general wanted, just so that our administration together could be one that cares. Every time your staff argued with one another, it was me who messaged everyone and kept things moving forward. It was me who held your staff together when shit hit the fan. Every time Andreas whined about being shut down when he was just a Forum Moderator, every time you all harassed Jeen for her poor typing skills from mobile, every time Jeen went overboard in response. Literally every time something went wrong in the twisted family that we were, it was me who picked up the pieces and made sure we all got along.

And for a while, it seemed like you appreciated that. I'm not sure if I was just naive, or if you changed, but once November 2016 rolled around, everything changed. You suddenly stopped listening to reason. Every one of us told you that new source wasn't ready, but you pushed it out anyway. Every one of us told you that removing the FM button was a piss poor idea, but you did it anyway. And it's clear now that that's still happening - your own staff are posting that they didn't have any idea what the process was, it was an "admin discussion." As we've all heard many times, this is your server, and you can do what you want with it. Where I draw the line was where... as I was moving myself 3600 kilometres across the country after being steeped in the deepest bout of depression I've ever had in my life, as I was rebuilding everything I had in my personal life very literally from scratch, as I went to bed every night holding back the urge to do something stupid to myself, I was still here as much as I could be, helping this server amidst the utter chaos that was new source's first six months. I rewrote the entire Terms and Conditions with no real help from anyone. Then I did the same for the Forum Rules and Regulations. I wrote essays on this game and the facts of how different content that we were thinking about implementing would affect the overall metagame. I scouted out the community, asking what they wanted, and how they felt. And your response...?



I need to re-evaluate if I want to be there, because it hasn't felt like it? You're disgusting.

But let's leave you alone and talk about Andreas for a short bit instead. Andreas, you've always been one of the most hard-working individuals I've ever met. You sit down and do tedious, boring work every single day, and you make it look like nothing. I've always respected that about you. But the truth is that you don't ever come across like you care about anyone. I will never forget the words that you said when we were talking about how much changes from new source were hurting players, how much they hated it, how their complaining would only get worse if we continued down the path we were on. I didn't screenshot it, because I didn't ever anticipate this day would come. Your words were "so what if they don't like it? Let them complain." That's a horrific statement from a member of staff, any member of staff, much less one that's now an administrator. The moment I saw you got promoted, I knew nothing good would come of it. And what do you know? People hate you now more than ever for the poor decisions that you've made, for the awful way you've treated the community. Called it.

Since we're talking about administrators, let's touch on two others, really quickly; first off, Tim. Tim's put his blood, sweat and tears into this server and everyone knows it. Right now, I believe deep in my heart that Tim doesn't actually want to be on staff anymore. I won't speak for him, that's his own place, but I do know him a decent bit. Maybe not as much as others, but I know him. I've seen him for years. I know his girlfriend pretty well. I'm in his close-knit guild. He doesn't want to help this monstrosity of a server administration anymore, he's purely there to help out the people. How long will he last? I'm afraid, and concerned for my friend. He may not ever leave for his own sake, like Dimitri did. While we're talking about Dimitri, I think it's very important to share with the world that Matt had absolutely made the decision to not ban him for his GM abuse. I know about it even though I wasn't on staff because I was informed by Dimitri and asked to not share it so that there would be no backlash. Nobody was ever supposed to know that Dimitri did anything wrong. And I agreed to that. I said that I wouldn't tell anyone about it because at the end of the day, I didn't want a man I look at like a brother to be banned from the game we play. But when Dimitri came back and told me that he wouldn't be banned, something deep inside me didn't sit right. Matt actually just let off his friend, in spite of everything that had just happened with Charlie, in spite of every other person on this server who had been banned without a second glance, without a real appeal. Dimitri gets to walk free, because they were friends. I told Dimitri this and eventually, Dimi understood what that meant, and he was the one to go back to Matt to say that he should be banned, and that it wasn't right for him to walk away.

Figured I'd also throw out there the uncommon knowledge of the extreme negligence this administration has shown since I left staff. The administrator keys to get into every bit of vital server information, the source code, the database with full rights to edit, all of it, wasn't changed for Dimitri and I for literally months after we left. We just still had access to that to do as we pleased, with no logging, no history being taken, nothing, even though we had left staff. Dimitri had to pretty much beg the remaining administration to remove these privileges. On top of that, I know that my personal Game Master account and character were left with full rights to do anything that I pleased until January. Of course, that character's commands would be logged, but what would have happened if it was hacked? A rogue with access to a zombie Game Master account could have done anything with it and I would have been to blame for their negligence. I can still see the bloody whitelist applications even to this date - that's right, all of your personal pictures or you and your friends/family/loved ones who also play the game that are only supposed to be seen by staff are now visible to someone who left months ago. I didn't even notice because of how honestly cancerous these forums have been over the past few months, but I noticed it now. Pretty thorough job that they've done, right?

I want you all to read what I've wrote, and decide for yourselves what you think about the people who run this server now. I have not added or omitted anything from what I've said. It's a true and full account of some history that is not common knowledge, and I believe that, in light of how clear it has become that this server is no longer acting in the interests of its community, the community has a right to know all of it.

To the three of you that I've specifically targetted with the information presented; feel free to lie and oppose what I've posted. It will only reinforce in my mind how utterly disappointed I am in you. I really did see good in every single one of you, and it's so very sad that I no longer do.

Happy Mapling.

 

Im appreciative of some of the changes staff have made recently. Some of the changes were taken directly from feedback we the community gave them. Its nice to see that our feedback can be heard and put into the game.

With that said, I'm feeling extremely uneasy at the current landscape of Administration. I hold no ill towards any particular person here, but I feel like there is not enough appropriate communication coming from the right channels to us the community. I'm also concerned that not enough people are actively listening within the actual administration. Ive heard from reliable sources that communication is far to often a one way street where peoples ideas are just flat out ignored. This is ridiculous behavior from otherwise grown adults. We cannot continue to flourish and survive as a community when we ignore each other.

 

We should honestly bring back the FM button. The Lounge is a massive failure.

 

On a side note, I like how all of Dons posts are just him asking what's going on, or going ohhh shit, along those lines lol.

As was said, some of these buffs were things the community actually asked for, which is nice to see. Even if they were not needed, AM 1v1.

Is there a way we can get a poll set up to judge the communities reaction before changes are made. I think a large portion of changes are supported by the majority of the community. At the same time, the ones we don't agree with are pretty universal across the board. Just think it would save you guys a lot of headaches and would eliminate these kind of threads.

 

Other game developers have shown PUBLICLY a road map for the future of their game. Showing what is to be expected in the near or far future. Rather it be new maps, skills, items, glitches being fixed etc. A list we can all see publicly. This server is very secretive and it's future is very unknown unless you're in the staff or know someone really well in the staff. Feeling out of the dark when there are thousands of us isn't right. A road map of what WON'T be fixed and what WILL be fixed to keep us from constantly pushing at the developers/admins here would be greatly appreciated by everyone. To know what is going on. I understand why patch notes aren't posted until the servers are already down (so there won't be a change in the economy or something else crazy before it goes down) but you don't have to give a definite answer and there are ways to go around it.

This has been addressed endless times and will be again by others. I'm wasting my time typing this but show us that you care about us. We feel like we're never heard unless it's an uproar. I feel like were all holding our breath for as long as possible and waiting to see what will happen. Yet we keep suffocating with our unrewarded patience. I spent too much time on this server and donations lol to see it fall apart. BUT what do the people that actually play this game daily know?

 

I will say, I would appreciate more GM feedback instead of player feedback on the server topics.

CPQ hasn't worked since a little after I started. Almost 3 years.

LMPQ being nerfed to the ground misleads players at that level, and are almost forced to buy leech which is ridiculous.

So many quests don't work properly.

I'm scared to even voice my opinion right now, because these rules are so strict that I have to filter myself from my own opinions. That isn't right, and honestly I know A LOT of people feel that way.

There's a lot to be done that can be done with time, and I respect everything every GM, Moderator or Admin has done for this server, but I do agree that it is time to pay a little more attention to players, instead of leaving them wandering, and curious for an answer.

I love you all, it's been 3+ years with all of you, but this is indeed one of the craziest states I've seen this server.

As people who support and continue to play this server and actively play and give feedback, we'd like responses. We'd like information, we'd like to know more than just "Yes" or "No", or even have our topics of discussion literally dismissed and just have players talk and give feedback instead of the people we want to hear from the most, the GM's and Admins/Moderators.

I had to edit this because honestly, I have the right to voice my own opinion.

I recently came back after my break beginning of January. I smegad for a guild since I was gone for so long, and joined a fresh, small Guild full of brand new players to the server. We all became close, and became family.

Hearing them come to me about issues, curiosities about the game and it's state, and why they weren't feeling like playing anymore with how this server is. To be honest, it hurt me.

I've spent years here, finally came back with a debit card and donated and will continue to, but to hear NEW PLAYERS come to me with issues they had that they ALL shared irked me beyond belief. This server's grown, and honestly, I don't see it growing much more with how it is right now.

I love Royals, and Maple will always be something I'll never forget. I've made endless memories here and have ALWAYS come back, I can't leave. Many people feel that way, and you guys know it. But it kills me inside to see this happen. I'm not blaming anyone in particular, I'm doing it as an entirety.

You guys have established such an amazing, helpful, loyal community. Please, for all of us, listen. We are here to help, to bring more players to recommend more people to make more people come back to this server and create memories that all of us will never forget.

I'm sorry for outlashing, but the emotion inside of me has burst out. I want better for this server, and for the community that I'll always remember and always stand by. I don't mean this in any harmful, subjective, or angry way, just simply a cry for help. Something that I can at least voice my opinion with and hopefully create something better for the people.

You're top charts on Gtop100, you're the most popular Maplestory Private Server to date, You have the best community of ANY private server. Please, don't continue the road this is going down.

Thank you all for reading this. This may not be as important as other posts in here but I wanted to voice my opinion, as well.

- One of the hundreds/thousands of Loyal Royals players who want a change.

 

Just an example of how well polls work.
https://royals.ms/forum/threads/removal-of-fm-button-8-months-later.100485/

 

Interact more with players!! Come online more frequently, even if it's 5 or 10 minutes!! Put up a simple world notice and say "Hello Royals, how are you doing today?" from time to time!!

Dedicate more of your time reading feedback and respond to it!! Don't just ask us to post it on feedback and ignore it!!

ALSO, IT'S 2018 AND NEW SOURCE IS STILL NOT LIVING UP TO ITS PROMISE. DO SOMETHING.

 

New Source is also no doubt a massive failure since launch. Since it was release on Dec 31. 2016, we are still in a state of in repair of the server. We have waited long for the servers to first come back up during the release. We have long waited for the release of zakum. We have finally seen the release of Horntail in December and now we are here with APQ in February 2018. New Source was rushed and the players were paid the price and still paid the price of waiting for a properly functional server. RIP for all the players that have come and gone throughout this long journey since the release of New Source. RIP for things that are still in need of fixing without knowing when/what will be fixed next. One step forward, two steps back.

 

Lmfao bruh

I can't lie, I even forgot the lounge was such a thing. But me personally I like the fact that we have to walk to FM.

Well tbh Matt the only thing I can think of that relates to this situation is you being Arsene Wenger. You've done so much for our club, and the older fans have seen the love you brought to our club from the day you joined and have seen what it's grown to become today. But the new wave of fans are only going to know you for the stuff you're making crumble other than what you built up. Your travelling fans want you to change, but you're stubborn and don't like taking advice. Still, they come, not for you but for the club, because it's the club they love more than anything. They just wish that after the grueling hours spent on all things related to the club, that you would open your eyes are hear their cries. Do they not have stake? Afterall, is it not for the fans that you remain?

And the letting a friend get away with crime thingy.. tbh we're all human and shit happens. BUT...

That is the biggest most rudest slap in the face to every single other person who had a ban. Whether you couldn't sympathize/empathize due to language barrier or not even knowing the person or whether they were your closest friend and you struggled to play the game after their removal, every single person that got banned had been wronged by that one act. I'm not here to give opinion on it, because I believe that that is fact. Who's to say that those who did the punishable offenses weren't contributing to the game positively behind closed doors in their own way?

Then again, I could be wrong, but let me just take this opportunity to say to you all...

Spoiler: TL:DR

Wenger get the fuck out of my club

ALSO VERY IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE WHETHER YOU CARE OR NOT

I have been inactive because life, but I've also been sitting around waiting for things to happen in this game. And I've got to say, when you take a step back from the maple world, and then return to the forums and the game, you really do see how fucking slow everything has been moving. Remember that episode of Spongebob where Mr Krabs opened up that useless theme park? That's what the whole situation on this server has felt like to me. Some cheap attempt at doing something that should have been done better. Not could have, should have.

 

I feel like this splits into two parts; the admins' relationship with the community & the admins' relationship with the rest of staff.
As someone who's been on the end of both of those, here are my two cents.

Let me start by reminding the current decision makers that this is a MapleStory private server. You're not some big ass company looking to make money off of preteens, this server literally only came into existence to make people nostalgic and happy. So, if the server isn't making people happy, what is the actual point of running it?

Now, if you're looking to make a community happy, if you're looking to make a game that people actually love and enjoy, I don't see how you could possibly do that without actually listening to what people want. Over the past few years, I've seen sooooo many changes happen. Some for the better, some not. But it seems like now more than before, a lot of changes are happening with little to no backing from the community. Or, changes that the community actually wants to see end up being ignored (like the in examples linked above) for way too long a time. I simply cannot understand why this is happening. The players who care about this place, who put their time into making huge, detailed feedback posts, who keep asking questions and making suggestions to make the server better are literally being ignored. This is so discouraging and frankly really disrespectful to those people. Staff can disagree with what the community has to say, I'm not saying we should make a poll about everything and decide everything by votes. There's a reason there's a selected few who run this place and make decisions, but if you are one of those few you have got to give people the bare minimum respect by listening to what they have to say and actually keeping them in the loop about what's happening. If there is no intention of following up on a feedback thread - say it. If there's an intention to look into it but there are complications - say it. Trust me you will regain a lot of trust and respect just by actually communicating with the community.

And as for admins and staff. I have not been a staff member for over a year now, I have not witnessed the conversations (or lack thereof) about FM button or New Source; however, I am friends with many of the people who were and have heard a lot about it. From what I hear, which I do not find hard to believe at all at this point, the discussions that I knew as constructive have turned into one-sided arguments and I actually find that to be worse than shutting your own community out. You handpick staff members - people you trust, people you have faith in, people who love the game and are willing to literally give their free time to help make this place as amazing and welcoming as it always was - but somehow that isn't enough for them to have a voice? I have seen the process of getting new GMs in. It's not simple. You are picky and you should be. But then why do you treat those people as if they don't know what they're talking about or care? Especially if you're talking about GMs who have been there for a while, have proved themselves over and over again, have played this game for years and know it so well. You were right to surround yourself with people like that but then how do you go on to ignore what they have to say? Remember why you picked those people in the first place and give them that well-deserved respect.

One last thing I want to touch on - being a GM is voluteer work. The staff members you have around you are people who care enough about this server to literally devote their own personal time to make this place better for everyone. So @Evan to say something like

is horrifyingly disrespectful. I can only imagine the anger and frustration of caring about the server and having to watch a bad decision after another bad decision be made, and to then go and argue against it over and over again whilst constantly being made to feel like no one is ever reading what you've typed...
Point is, you have no right to tell them they should have fought harder when their love for the server was met with nothing but ignorance and stonewalling, when the whole time they were giving from their own personal time. Literally, how dare you.

I absolutely hate being this negative on here. I love this place so much and it just really hurts to see it just burn slowly.

 

Well nothing new, Matt is horrible owner and he gives a shit. I always mention how I admire people who applied to become a gm, I would never be able to do that, working with "for" person like Matt would suck life out of me. Instead being greatful to his community and long term dedicated players he just doesn't care. But hey ! what's new, he never even used to play this game before deciding to do stupid new source changes. Good luck to all players who still play this

 

One step I want to see improved in the tweeking of different areas of gameplay is the “why” behind the things. Just looking at the changes implemented from this recent patch, I personally understand some changes while I am utterly confused about other ones. I won’t jump the gun to say which changes may be good or bad, but for the major ones (like pally, hero, drk), an explication to the thought process would be helpful to us as players.

Just to give 2 examples of this recent patch: the range of si has been increased and hero’s armor crash has been changed to magic crash.

Instead of simply stating that here are the changes and think that everyone understands why they have happened, even a little background information would go a long way. For speed infusion, you can say that speed infusion’s buff range is no where near as good as the next range’s party buff. we wanted to match the range of si with other party buffs. As for changing armor crash, a potential reason could be that you feel as if you are bringing a larger diversity of warriors into HT instead of the typical 1 hero meta by slightly nerfing heroes and buffing the other two classes’ potential.

I, like the players before me, want to see this server become successful not just in numbers of votes or amount of players, but also with the relations between the staff and the player base. Please understand the players’ frustrations and thank you for the consideration. Good luck!

 

shit, that was my thread. the inattentiveness has been feeling pretty palpable, and honestly there is tension between the administrators and the players. let's see where this goes.

regarding the current economics of ap resets, the lack of new surrounding it is troublesome, given that Matt himself has stated they were working on addressing it. It's been several months since and i admit i don't know what goes into observing these kinds of things, but not even a mention of it was given in the recent patch notes. it seems for the most part the issues surrounding these things are feigned acknowledgment while never properly addressed with any significant semblance of communication.

There has been a thread recently that addressed making HP washing more viable for higher level characters for players who may not have had the funds at the time to meet their hp goals. however, I have not seen that addressed by any admins yet. It almost seems like admins in general avoid issues that are controversial, and gravitate towards the argument "HP washing is not necessary" or that "this does not line with the vision of our nostalgic server or some shit like that, fuck forget typing like a pc 'everyone lets get along' autismo im going in baby

listen ya'll, you cant be here trying to fist us with these arguments of "preserving nostalgia" while at the same time pushing your own arbitrary bullshit agenda for the sake of "balance" when half this shit doesn't do anything to address the issues, like with paladins for example, but jesus let's leave these poor bastards alone for once just for a bit and talk about some other folk. hey, what about them AMs let's buff them, i can dig it, we still won't bring you guys to boss runs because you still fucking suck but eh why not? let's buff those skills you wont use 99% of the time because you're too busy spamming ultimates to leech those hp washing nls with 400 int, progress. marksmen, we'll get back to you, you guys are kinda hard to play, your skills work against you, and you guys suck almost as much as those elemental warrior class chumps but your hegemonic struggles and dichotomy with BMs over dps isn't memed hard enough yet, so just shut up and se, what else are you good for anyway, but soon trademark. bishops, i know skeles isn't what is used to be, but also your dispel does half of what it used to now, why? i dont fucking know some shit about warriors needing a role in bosses or some shit, by the way heroes, you guys have even less of a role than you did before, now i know you guys have been struggling recently with the new ht changes or so i've heard, but HEY, you have RAGE right?!

don't you realize how ridiculous and out of touch all of this is? One of you was being a cheeky explicit and actually included in your sentence, (implied dare i say) "we still have rage" as a viable party skill, in the midst of my thread where i outlined heroes losing armor crash, joking or not. one of the leaders of this fucking community mind you. is this how you would seriously respond to the legitimate claims that we have? i know, that you know, that we both know, that magenta haired broad in new leaf city sells that fucking red drink that's enough to personify rage and give it a cripplingly inferiority complex, you're better off adding points in final attack axe and dicking around with that than putting points into shittier-warrior-elixir and accidentally overwriting some poor guys apple and feeling like a fucking idiot. i suppose you can do it on purpose too i don't know at least that could be fun, something this server seems to want to avoid ever since soon trademark.

do you admins in your heart of hearts honestly expect us to buy all this shit you guys are "communicating" to us and go along nodding our heads without actually addressing anything while fucking albert over here, some other who i don't remember seeing in 0.62-82 is selling us these fucking fast travel tickets (wasn't in 0.62-83 either btw) but wont sell us those fucking ap resets, jesus fucking christ

 

You actually believe that @Matt comes to his house, to sit on his computer, open the forum of royals and read? LMAO. Like @Andreas said:
"so what if they don't like it? Let them complain."
f2-

 

I for one don't like to be pressing (unless it's for CPQ or more PQs I will bug you to hell and back about it) but this is the most none-bullshit most direct send for staff I've seen in my life lol it's like it's the staffs turn in a rap battle but all jokes aside I believe this thread deserves a response from the admins. They must be working on one but if there is no response from the admins to this thread at all then you know we are all peasants on this server lol.

Curious as to what an official response will be.

 

I personally don't like how this thread is going.

Feedbacks are crucial and good, but they =/= indirect personal attacks, esp towards the people who help maintain/ host this server for free to us.

Can the numerous posters in this thread, before this listing retail out more professional responses towards the admins in question, instead of wholly indirectly launching hits at them?

It's like as if you are not grateful for the things they have done, despite them having shortcomings to be better at it.

And before you want to comment denying that you posters didn't exactly post such responses, query your heart. Read what your posts are quietly snarking about, before commenting back to me.

 

I’m sorry, but I don’t think that’s a fair characterization of their posts. I wasn’t going to post here because I think my point was made clear enough in the previous thread that Jae referenced, and my posts helped spur this thread in the first place, but here goes.

When I read through the above posts, what I see is people pointing to specific things that have happened in the server that they would either like changed or that show why they feel they have been ignored by admins. Yes, some people have gotten more personal and perhaps others have tended toward snarky, but, for example, I think @Michael has more than the right to be personal and shed some light on how he has felt over the time he was staff. I don’t think anyone here is being ungrateful - people have literally talked about how much they love this server and how much it means to them. They just believe it can be, and should be, better — and that the server has deviated from the circumstances that made them love it in the first place.

I get how, especially if you’ve been with us for a relatively shorter time, this thread may seem overkill or unnecessarily aggressive, but I challenge you to see it from the perspective of people who have been here for years. We’ve been here through the good and the bad, and we’ve seen what the server can be like when the administration is paying attention to both the staff and players.

Honestly, I really think this is the most non-troll, serious, not only flaming feedback thread directly pointing at the administration’s behavior that I have ever seen on this forum.