Give GMs more authority or get more admin/GM staff

Wym that his a rwter. he just played 10 years ago and used 50% pink scrolls which provide the same stats as 10%.

If player reports arn't look into, does that means GM totally put their personal suspicious players searches on halt too? Oh no, nono ..

 

Investigating RWT is similar to solving an equation. While game-experience is an important trait, the tools are essentially the missing puzzle that are required to solve the equation. You could be the smartest mathematician in the world, but without the actual data, no conclusion could be made. Vice versa, you also need the knowledge to interpret the data to draw conclusions. With that being said, even though the GMs may find the reported player suspicious, there could be other factors leading to the suspicions. More information are needed to confirm and issue the ban accordingly. We are essentially avoiding the dilemma of “ban first, ask question later” because it is simply not responsible for the player.

I am not making an excuse for the slow process of rwt related cases. We could do better and we are actively working on the solutions. Giving more tools to the GM are one of the top priorities. The recent tools upgrade allows the GM to process more query that were previously locked to admins. But it’s not enough for GMs to independently investigate RWT. Recruiting more interns are also on the table since there are many talented applicants (although new interns would need the tools too!). However, recent staff abuse once again barricade us from proceeding.

 

Now the first question, "Giving more tools to the GM are one of the top priorities. The recent tools upgrade allows the GM to process more query that were previously locked to admins. But it’s not enough for GMs to independently investigate RWT"
May i assume this sentence means, yes we will give the GM tools another buff because the tools right now are not sufficient?
If so, i believe this thread should be tagged under "Accepted".

Secondly If these tools upgrade are implemented, which are "one of the top priorities", Should players see

• Results in the upcoming month of January, with the current GM pools initiative?
  
• Ban appeals to be NOT left hanging without reply for weeks, and simply replied, we will get a admin to verify your case?

Or, for Tim to be the hero and solve this entire RWT report problem?

If its not accepted, I personally can't see how you guys can't work as a team together with matt to solve the simpler reports, perhaps 2-3 easy ones in an hour.

Yet the simplest equation,
Josh + Johnny + Tim which can be replaced by GM X + GM Y + Matt can't be solved by the team. That's a concern here.
With Matt in the equation, what tools are u missing? Time? From experience, I don't think you need 30mins together to look through a single report.

• Slow or Can't? From what i understand from
  - We want to help but we cannot without these tools

RWT reports ain't getting replies, GMs aren't going around looking at suspicious players themselves for those who are not reported, there is currently 0 manual RWT ban happening is what i speculate.
I'm not gonna repeat on you guys anymore, I believe I've believe gotten my point across well enough at this point, if staff thinks i'm just accusing you guys, so be it. and if somehow true, lets work on it.
We all been in this server together for years now.
I know you guys can do this easily with or without Tim, the server must still move on.

Why are you letting us players know this? But if you are talking about whatever june/chee did, RR rigging or leaks, why will this affect you guys and barricade from proceeding? Huh?
A typical small company out there wouldn't overwork their staff, not employ new employees just because of previous abuse / leaks..?
Heck these only happen because the team isn't satisfied or there's poor leadership.
I'm no professional in this field, but wtf are you gonna do? Play among us? Setup a bot where you can track users screenshotting the logs? This doesn't make any sense to me.
Just open the new template, recruit new staff, improve the QOL, tell them not to abuse and built trust from there once again.

Finally, In the end of the day, we simply spend all these time typing and reading during the holiday season simply because of the love of MapleRoyals. Nonetheless, I appreciate that its a volunteer work, the RWT report assist from players will never stop, even till 8 years down the road, just like you guys envisoned in May’s GM blog.
This longevity can be done.

 

I'm curious @Jooon, do you recognize this? -

"What is your main focus in life?:
I try to keep a positive outlook every day and aim to put a smile on the faces of everyone I meet."

I find it extremely hard to believe personally based on your demeanor. However, after all, that is only speculation.

 

Sadly. I tried. In and out, and its just disappointments again and again.
And yes yes.. I remember being hopeful alongside with the excitements when I wrote that in 2020.

 

You may want to attempt a new approach then. The definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result".

 

Your absolutely right. Thank you.

 

To the portion you edited in later - Your profile states you've played since 2015. If you were excited from 2015 - 2020, and aren't now. I'm ABSOLUTELY not surprised. I'm sorry your main goals in life have shifted so much within the past year. Best hopes for you.

 

bump.

it is frustrating to see people leaving finding no hope against the cheaters in the server.

 

And here is the crux of the issue. The interaction between you and @Becca is alarming because it isn't "GM's are worthless because they are lazy", it's "Gm's are worthless because they literally can't login to the fucking database".

It's like volunteering to clean a beach for the last 5 fucking years and you aren't given trash bags, you're given buckets to help collect shells (bots), and wow, there's an oil spill and the only person who has cleaning materials is 1-3 fucking people. And those 3 people have to determine what chemicals to use to determine which bird species are invasive(RWT) or not.

So yeah, hire the entire college campus, they'll have their buckets of seashells (BOTS), BBQs(events) but have to watch everyday while gushing oil kill the entire beach lmao. Then you have Joon, the beach goer going what the fuck while she's hoping her beachhouse (her accounts she invested time into) isn't depreciated into oblivion.

-------------------------------------

Can someone explain to me why the maplestory server data isn't accessible to your team in a view non-edit format to make these investigations plausible? Is it a money issue? Like, what barriers are you experiencing that makes this really simple solution not plausible?

Thanks,
player

 

@Charlie

 

https://royals.ms/forum/threads/yikes.108042/

Elaborate.

 

Time to invest into data warehouse

Edit: Also curious, I assumed GM's already had access to this information, are there any players uncomfortable here with having their birthday, email and chat history available to GM's? That is a bizarre expectation of privacy in my opinion.

Can't speak on how you guys access data, are you really priced out of that option? I don't know how much data you operate with, might be a heavy upfront cost but temporary regarding RWT as the investment into it then loses its value as you demonstrate a consistent and effective way to catch them.

 

We'll be marking this as 'Accepted' since it is something that is constantly on the staff docket.

As with any organization, be it volunteer work like what we do, or a Fortune 500 company, there will be turnover. Employees leave companies all the time. I just recently quit a job of 5 years on a whim. Some of our GMs are very much wanting to help but they have limited time, it's understandable and they do a fantastic job when they can pitch in. We are always looking for more dedicated, trustworthy, and helpful people to join our ranks. Becca has already mentioned the reworked Staff Applications that she put a lot of time in on and has been pushing for for a while.

More GM Tools are coming. They are being worked on. It's not something that will be rushed because security is always a top priority for Matt and Kevin.
To what @Rhynhardt just posted about above, I'm sure most community members wouldn't care if I knew their birthday or email. What would I even do with that information? I'm not the type to send out birthday cards. BUT there isn't really a need for us to see it, so the additions to our GM control panel will only have the information we need to work on the current Admin only cases like RWT and vote abuse. It takes time to make sure this information can be reliably pulled from the database and shown to staff members in way that even the non-programmer types (yours truly) can interpret it properly. At that point more Administrators won't even be needed.

It's great to see Feedback threads like this as it does show there is strong passions for the game to excel and improve, so thank you for all that took the time to write up their thoughts.

 

@Matt Can you clarify the challenges that are making this feature take time? Is it not enough knowledge, volunteer hours, or access to programs? I'm not trying to be critical it's more on the lines of, would contracting outside help assist in the drag were facing now? Could an open donation fund towards contract labor be an eligible idea for you to help assist with these more robust projects? I understand you do have a donation option and I have utilized it, but I feel it be more effective and give the community more empowerment if we could donate to specific community desired programs. This could also translate to the autoban system