General Ban appeals are a meme and need a clear rework.

It happens outta nowhere *Your ID has been deleted or blocked from...* and then you do the obvious and appeal, you find that you have been banned due to "X" and from there the community might either view you as a rule breaker or as an individual that has been wronged, there's nothing to do but providing an answer to the questions you're asked for what else there is to this?
No system to support you, nobody to complain with and nobody within the staff that can counter check any potential wrongdoings within the staff when it comes to ban appeals management, you can bump your thread and either be told that you cannot bump your thread because apparently "sends you to the bottom of the queue as the administrator works from the bottom" or be deliberately ignored even if you're bumping.

But how long can you wait to get an answer when *You* are the one banned, without losing your sanity. Apparently Royals do treat banned players and their general populace as cattle, if you're gone by tomorrow you won't be noticed in the grand scheme of things, people do come and leave and royals being as popular as it is can afford seeing players leave in one or other way hence the staff do not really show any degree of empathy towards banned players seeking for an answer to their deeds, sure as hell i sound bitter but i, myself i am currently banned facing a long appeal characterized by a general lack of care, there's no way anyone can convince me that Royals do actively seek player retention because it doesn't need any - the server will always replenish the player pool with newcomers, thought let's not turn this thread into a Royals is dying meme tier thread, because its not.

It doesn't even matter if the staff can argue and back themselves claiming that plenty of stuff falls within Admin territory, if you as a part of the staff cannot see the problem and you aren't actively seeking a way to improve this scenario then you are part of the problem, but if on the contrary you are trying and that's not within public domain as plenty of things aren't, kudos to you.
Hence i can't suggest anything specific asides the obvious title of this thread.

Can any of you really agree that is fair to see appeals getting an average answer of one reply per month. (Your personal beliefs shouldn't come to this, be impartial, either if the person is guilty or not according to what you think) is really this a fair treatment of those that do bother to appeal?

I don't think any sane person can favor this kind of treatment of your fellow players, let's not even mention the possibility of you (reading this right now falling within this territory ever)

So a change is needed, the people that manages, answers, the protocol, the amount of staff currently active, it doesn't matter what, whom, which, things are bad and that's a fact, the staff must find that solution and work upon it.

There are appeals that took half a year or even more to be fully closed be either with full ban confirmation or said ban being overturned.
That's awful and shows total lacks of care and respect towards the player base.

I don't know if i should expect a comprehensive answer from the staff to this topic, personally if you belong to the staff and you are reading this please do try to show me that my time playing MapleRoyals wasn't a mistake.

 

I dont get the "banned for suspicious activity" thing. Reading through some ban appeals I can see that maybe there is a correlation between getting suspicious activity and RWT. But what about those of us that actually work hard for the nice things we have? We just have to get banned until the staff has the time to review our case? That doesn't seem fair at all.

 

how meme is it that an appeal takes 1-2months for an admin to reply ...I mean I get that people are busy and everything but how unfortunate would that be for the victim? let say they are actually legit but spends months waiting not to get unban but waiting to get a single reply


this is why it is so risky to take loans now or even play the game in general because some weirdo is role playing supreme leader out there think he rules the server and will literally write an essay of fake evidence just to get you falsely banned
like yes sure , it wouldn't be really a thing if things were handled in a week or two but 1-2months and more for potentially a false ban? You literally have to lose months of progressions without really any compensation

anyways , IFYKYK.

You know my "guess" is , whoever reported Solsticio probably was pretending to be all friends and homies with her lol , I mean that's pretty sad ngl , not the fact that solsticio got reported but more because of how desperate that person who reported is , you guys tell me if i'm wrong lol
~happy mapling~ and stay safe? ~_~

 

What is suspicious for me, might not be suspicious for you nor others, the definition of suspicious lies in a particular individual that decides everyone's fate.
That's the reality.

Ya but in between how false is this person and the staff not being able to carry things promptly well, it might be a case of pick your poison but definitely the staff is at fault with how slow do they carry their procedures to review things.

 

Not having gachapon reward logs or having inadequate gachapon reward logs is also a meme

This is my favorite ban appeal ever, a guy from 2018 having the audacity to gachapon: https://royals.ms/forum/threads/ban-appeal.212238/

 

Certain classic, tho i hope his compensation wasn't a mere exp/drop coupon lol.

 

Just need to hire TFI to solve those problems.

 

I can't even remember the number of threads I've seen since I joined Royals stressing the fact that this server needs more than one person that can progress any ban appeal with even a little bit of investigation required. But nope, it looks we will forever be stuck with the way things are, month long wait for responses, and no matter how quickly you respond back, its another month before they get to you. 3 questions and 3 months fly by and all you might have done was swap your auf helm out for a zhelm . What a way to kill the motivation to play the game.

https://royals.ms/forum/threads/give-gms-more-authority-or-get-more-admin-gm-staff.199259/ GM tools have been talked about forever, I'd love to hear about any progress, because it still doesn't look like we are close to something effective.

 

Its a touchy subject, at the end of the day I think its Matt’s and us players best interests we have very limited admins.

Admins have access to the entire code base I would imagine, this servers been tried and tested for ten years now, the code base of Royals is Matt’s greatest asset. I honestly could see if it entire code base was available to regular gm interns, eventually one of them will would try to pawn it off, I could honestly see someone paying a large sum for it seeing how much success Matt has had over the years. And we’ve seen in just recent, we’ve had plenty of GMs who would never abuse their power /s.

You see all these new servers that try to fill the same niche as Royals with half empty promises their management/staff will be better (they’re usually just as much as a meme if not worse) than ours. But at the end of the day, they just don’t work. Their game barely runs and is riddled with bugs and is years behind in content/assets.

If I’m allowed to at least talk about deceased old private servers. Helios was literally a server where old GMs/active community members said fuck you Matt, we’re gonna go make our own low rate v83 private server, but with blackjack and hookers. The game barely worked and I believe one specific GM caused so much drama there it helped accelerate their demise. I knew ppl who logged on to get their version of the new beginnings ring only to barely want to play with the servers constantly crashing.

You see all these people unironically asking for wipehype, if some random goon for example from Sweden who now sells Nokias or something got a hold of the codebase, he could just prop up a server and run the exact same rates and lots of players would flock there just for the novelty of being a top 1% player there, because here, its almost impossible at this point for someone joining now. Hope you’re doing well though Tomi xoxo

Also we can’t have more admins if we constantly have this revolving door of gms. For the most part, older players no longer want to become a GM. Being a GM was so sought after it feels back in 2017-2019 before my extended break. Now you ask around, most older players don’t want to touch a staff application with a ten foot pole. So GMs are left with less than stellar applications. But also its not entirely the existing staffs fault, the players on Royals mostly played GMS back in the day. When I played in 2018 at least half the player base was most likely in college. Now its 2023, most of us have jobs now we have to balance our lives better, we don’t got that young college life anymore.

The only existing staff member I think would even be considered by Matt to be trusted is Kenny. The loss of Andreas was huge, I knew from the moment he stepped down we were fucked, as it’d be unlikely we’d get a new admin anytime soon. How many years has it been now since he stepped down? 3years? More? But also, I love Dong, lets go Dong!

We can’t even trust Staff to not rig Russian Roulette or stalk players in Hidden mode and then talk shit on their player characters. I don’t want them to have access to the code. We need better/more staff. I’m not saying anyone on our current staff is bad, but I think its clear we really need staff that’ll be active staff members for more than the honeymoon phase, even if they don’t formally step down/kicked. Only then can we even consider promoting our current interns to GM and hopefully a current GM to admin. Community’s gotta step up.

Me personally, I’d make a horrible GM. I’m too chatty, at times abrasive/drama magnet, and hate the obligations to help people. Id like to think I try to chip in answering questions to people on forums/ingame when I can and occasionally help newer looking players, but I only enjoy doing it cause I choose to do it. I’d probably burn out in like 3 months and hate playing the game.

That being said, #FreeEng
please.

Edit:
Regarding your cattle statement. Royals cannot afford another mirror server with similar rates imo. We all see how dead the server is off events. It would be even worse than that if someone ran away with the code and made Royals2 Electric Boogaloo and took even 100 of our active players. Royals in dead times is like 800-1000 online, but realistically thats like 500-600 players Id imagine. If we lost a fifth of that it’d be an enormous loss.

 

I’ve played a lot of other pservers before joining Royals and I can say that it does not seem like the Royals code is anything special. If anything, it’s quite lacking in a lot of ways to be honest.

The number one reason why I was drawn to Royals is because of the amount of players and their stability in holding the number one spot on GTOP. Every other server dies out eventually even if they implemented better coded features.

But, seeing the ban appeal posts and seeing OP’s ban appeal absolutely terrifies me. Months on end for some people to get a response even if they were innocent… I’m resorting to tracking my daily mesos earned and I still fear it’s not enough to escape this horrible system that’s in place. Please, if the only admin in charge of investigating these bans is too busy, add more people to help. Giving breadcrumbs every other month is not a way to treat people.

 

Obviously their priority should be to develop tools that would allow GMs higher level of permissions within the data base in a secure manner where they wouldn't be able to deal with very sensitive data, but i know shit about the subject and that's why i don't and i haven't mentioned specific solutions that they should seek and implement, not really my business as i am in the end receiving of this train, regardless the urgent need for a solution is imperative.

Things have changed but who knows, we cannot read the applications anymore either way more GMs wouldn't help because there's a bottleneck within the administration, no insult to anyone in the staff but being GM here is like idk, a glorified janitor at most?

And only once the higher ones in the staff truly decide to change the way are handled, we'll see changes because even the most passionate, ardent and loyal person won't do sht as GM with the current tools they have available and this comes from what is obvious and public knowledge, but you know? Not having the tools does not excuse the inaction and lack of empathy.

Yet the staff treat players this way, tbh this is the only private server i've played but from what i can read on r/MapleServers (Reddit) others aren't in better shape and actually Royals is doing quite ok, hence why do Royals staff do not truly give a dime about player retention.

 

After talking to some people I agree with this. The code's not too special but the proper timing when the server released help slowly build up ints population.

A lot of other growing servers with similar codes or even better fall short often to 2 things:

• Their staff's internally explode
• The server gets shut down

Matt is a fucking wizard at making sure his server doesn't get taken down.

I really miss those funny GM apps.

Maybe add a role between Admin and GM or just give full GMs more power.

I more blame the community for your ban than the slow GM response. RWT Witch hunt meta has gone too far.

 

I'm torn because its not only the one who bullshit its way with the report, but the staff that asks us to do "due dilligence" but its failing theirs.

 

I believe the way ban appeals are handled needs to change because I understand the frustration and demotivation that comes with a long wait. It can make all the time you spent playing on the server feel like it was for nothing.

If you are innocent, it's only a matter of time until you get unbanned. However, the question remains, when will that happen? I understand that everyone has real-life responsibilities and no one owes us anything.
But involving more people in the process can assist the administrators in verifying whether a banned player is legitimate or not.

All I'm saying is that banned players need to know that they still matter.
I acknowledge that there are rule breakers who have tarnished the experience for everyone, but there are still innocent players who have been wrongly banned.

Spoiler: ...

zhelm is beautiful

#FREE_ENGEL
(only because we need skele leech)

 

Here is a comment i made on my ban appeal :
So first i get banned for something i didn't do and then u ignore my appeal for over a month (I really do feel bad for the people who play this server as long as i'm not unbanned, feel free to belive me or not lol)
Just shows how bad the current state of this server is
I love how u guys say that u feel bad for the current state of the ban appeal section but u do nothing about it, just shows that u guys actually don't really give a single f about it and about the community of this server.
Oh and the best thing is how u guys tell people to not bump their appeal but then u ignore them for few months
The least u can do is update players that ur working on their appeal cause this situation is just sad.

 

As someone who has been on the server for half a year approximately, I think the ban appeal system needs a reorganization. I won't speak on the admin/staff/behind-the-scenes part because I don't know their processes and how they manage things, and it is unfair to criticize them without knowing what's going on, or knowing how things are done, but I think it is okay to express frustration with the way ban appeals are "sorted" and handled.

For one I think if ban appeals were compartmentalized better, that would make things a lot better, for instance, in terms of severity of the "crime committed". I think priorities should go to the more severe case, and things like temporary bans (3 days, 2 weeks, should be notified to the player right away so they don't waste time opening an appeal thread and just serve their sentence).

Seeing some higher profile/wealthier players get banned and go through the process makes me wonder a lot of things. For example, seeing AshShade get banned makes no sense, he's been playing for a while, and the gear he has isn't even unreasonable, I've seen much newer players who have that sort of equipment. For a guy who I know through a mutual friend who plays a ton of Royals and consistently bosses everyday, seeing him get banned makes me so confused. Is it that unreasonable for him to have the gear he has? Why was he banned? Did the admins conduct a random check? Did a guildie/friend have a falling out with him and snitched/falsely accused him? All the things we'll never know.

I'm not going to tell the admins/staff to do their job better, that is rude, even if it is frustrating. What I will say is there is significant room for improvement, and I believe the community would gladly contribute to it, if possible, and if not, communication regarding this matter would really help us players understand what's going on behind the scenes. No matter what industry you are in, communication is key. A 5-10 minute read from time to time would definitely do a lot of good for the community, instead of the dead silence.

 

To think you went through this shit...

Simply awful right? Zero empathy at all, the empty responses devoid of any emotion that you get while appealing may as well be written through ChatGPT.

Tbh the real issue is the lack of communication and how long do appeals go for.

Any ban even a wrongful one would be somewhat ok to deal with if you had some sort of open communication and things weren't dragging for months to no end and this happens because we are "plebs" and someone is unable to leave his high horse.

 

I hope I'm not saying complete nonsense at this point but regardless, I want to express myself as well on this matter. What I have in mind is that Royals just needs more staff members (not random ones of course, we've witnessed also big big downfalls for certain staff members in the past who don't need to be named btw of course). A server this big like mentioned above and we all know this server to be #1 in so many ways (else why would you still be here), the staff have their hands full constantly aside from their personal life. The more help there is to fix an issue, the faster it will be. A lot of people don't realize it, because it's easy to assume things. That goes for me as well of course, I'm not perfect either, faaaar from it!
But I feel like it's quite harsh when some people state that the staff don't give a crap. I personally don't believe in that statement and you can take it with a grain of salt, but it's what I personally have become to feel.

For example. Witnessing one of the recent events that was hosted by a GM. The pure hate from the chatbox, whether it was hinted or not by some, was extremely sad to see whereas the GM was just trying to please people with an event with pure intentions as they try to do as often as possible to please people (not to mention, couple extra events came later after that as well). And yet a lot of people were so pissy about it. I didn't win the first prize or any of the three, am I mad about it? no. I finished with only 30 seconds remaining, and the encouragement helped a lot by the staff member to "not give up", a prize was still obtained when you finished it.
Sorry if I got off track with that in some opinion, but it goes with the point.

I voted for this thread, I voted for the first answer. So I'm not disagreeing with the entire idea of this thread. Absolutely not.

I do agree that a month late reply and in worse cases even longer, is not right at all. I totally agree that it ruins the game experience when you're innocent and you've been playing for a while, I agree because I would feel the same. But ask yourself this, why is that? Why is the first assumption from a lot of players, that the staff simply doesn't care or that there is 0 empathy towards players during those situations.

People are requesting so much stuff for the server, and hey if we had magic fingers, that would not be an issue. But all of that takes time. And there's definitely a priority list.

This server closed? I wonder how a lot of the people would feel then lel

Am I not scared of getting falsely accused of RWT? Wrong!

But I shall remain patient with what ever is going on, I know they're trying their best to give us the best maple experience that we've missed and wonderful new content as well.

I'm pretty sure there will be an answer about all of this by staff, because why would they want you to be scared of getting falsely accused? Personal amusement? Please...

My main point to conclude my expression, is that I feel like there should be more staff members (carefully selected obviously!). The ones who are already staff, have a lot on their hands, don't underestimate them cause just as one of you mentioned, we don't know what happens behind the curtains. Communication becomes easier when there are more staff members to communicate with. More good staff to work on the server, the better it becomes.

Those who were around to wait for the new source, remember how impatient everyone got? Any of you could of done it faster? Should of applied for the position then.

Also keep in mind that this is all my personal opinion, try not to hate, it's just an opinion. Thanks!

 

Personally at this point i am here because i've spent four years playing and two fully leeching to gear myself so that's the sunk cost fallacy.
Yes, that and some friends are the only thing keeping me here, but mainly the fact that i have to "clear" my fucking name before moving on.

I've stated this before but no amount of staff will help if they are constrained by the available tools, limited by their roles and the clear concentration of tasks upon a single person that is clearly overwhelmed by these.

I don't think there's a comparison, i am not sure of what kind of event neither what went wrong but i assume since you've mentioned "30s left" that it was an event in game, even if the event was poorly hosted by the GM in charge or the event crashed due to technical issues, people being pissed would be experiencing no more than a circumstantial inconvenience, while the lack of response and action in ban appeals (and i might presume in other areas where only the admins do have a hand) are a major problem, i do commend your empathy towards the GMs being bitched on for such scenario but i have next to zero thanks to my particular case and that's where our viewpoints diverge.

Simple, no response, the general treatment i've gotten and not only me but all the appeals that aren't "vote abuse" do have a general apathy feeling ingrained, the stiffness, the nonexistent communication in any channel, the lack of transparency.
I mean it is hard to reply something among the lines of your appeal is still under review, please do excuse the delay? Some do get the "do not bump" reply and hardly you see an attempt to confort those in their long wait.

Their priorities obviously aren't the appeals, hence the ones currently banned and appealing like me are entirely disposable.
And hey, if i had magic fingers i would've unbanned myself.
But seriously patience tends to run out at some point.

Kudos to you, but i'm not you.
I can't accept the 1/month or more ratio that the staff currently holds to answer an appeal.

Furthermore, do not take this as an attack but are you a casual or hardcore player?
I was hardcore, that means 6-10h/day leeching prior my ban to get to the endgame level and you may call it unhealthy or whatever but that's not up to discussion.
Are you invested in this game this way?
Because the least you play the "least" you may care about this (And on the contrary i do expect that even people that hardly plays would be pissed off by the general lack of answers on their appeals)
But then perhaps we are completely different, you're as hardcore i am and have the patience that i don't have anymore.

Let me try to resume it.
- RWT Witch hunt got outta hand.
- The staff is overwhelmed.
- The staff does not care anymore about a well-made investigation (because they are overwhelmed)
- You got banned? Well, who cares? We did our "job", let's find the next one.

So no, i don't think there's no personal amusement but banning first and asking questions later (oh, except that they will ask 1 question/month if so) kekw.

Already addressed, more staff won't do any good to this server while a very specific individual continues here as a bottleneck for the rest.

I wasn't here during that time, but i don't think "do it yourself" is the right approach.
I don't need to code to criticize horrible code.
I don't need to be a 5-star chef to criticize horrible food.
I don't need to be a politician to criticize horrible politics.
I don't need to be a pro-sports player to criticize horrible plays.

Ofc you'll find morons everywhere but not being a qualified individual does not take your ability to criticize specially when you are in the receiving end.

Last while i disagree a lot with you, all good.
Your opinion is valued.

Feel free to elaborate if you want.

 

I'll elaborate soon to maybe correct some of my expressions and explain further, need to do a quick run to the store, but I appreciate how you addressed your response. I very much appreciate a respectful response whether we have a difference of opinion on certain matters or not. I might not be a hardcore player per say but I have been around for a while despite my irregular presence or absences. I'll be back soon, but I do want to mention ahead that, the fact that this issue is maybe even hurting certain people, I'm not taking it as a light subject or anything as such just to let you know.