Staff team changes

I appreciate your comment that these are changes potentially directed at introducing more options, more decisions and more fairness into the game. It’s also very possible that I’m biased because naturally the people I interact with the most in game nowadays are mostly so called “end game players” whom you all are referring to though I’m not sure everyone’s version of an endgame player is the same. I can’t deny the fact that it takes me at least 15-20b to upgrade 50 range now like you say but I certainly don’t play the game solely for the purpose of upgrading gear and nor do I spend 10+ hours a week in ulu. I also can’t deny the fact that I am one of the most vocal and probably one of the most demanding, and don’t pretend that I represent the playerbase when I post feedback suggestions.

With that premise in mind, I have to say I personally don’t see this year’s changes as “reasonable”. What the current staff roster fails to appreciate is that the “end game vs. casual player” balance is flawed to begin with. As a so called end game player with multiple level 200 characters I have access to virtually all of the game’s content and can offer opinion based on experience. The so called casual cohort of players who now dominate the voice within the remaining staff roster does not. In fact, the current staff don’t even represent the “casual playerbase” because most are inactive, don’t play the game regularly anymore and as June mentioned in the last few days, over half have never even horntailed or Auf’ed.

I find it disdainful that people who rarely play the game and have a handicapped view of the game’s content can sit in a group discord and make all these decisions over changes which either affect a very specific part of the player base, or affect the whole player base in ways they have little to no understanding of. The effects of these changes seem to be rarely evaluated and sadly they often can’t because their game experience doesn’t allow them to see the overall picture.

I’m trying to be much more general in my response here and deliberately avoided listing specific examples (though I can at any point if you want), mainly because it’s a general overhaul that I’m advocating for rather than specific changes to be reversed.

 

I consider myself a casual player and somewhere close to "end game" and I do think some changes are reasonable. Despite I don't like the fact that nlc potion price increased, I think it's a reasonable approach to nerf multi-mages farming. The introduction of party exp system encourages grinding rather than leeching all the way (but seriously, why is everyone ignoring this exp update?). Hence, I do agree that the updates are reasonable from the game design standpoint.

I have to respectfully disagree on this. There is indeed a gap between the end game and casual player. Just a quick example, a player can barely join an HT or cwk run without mules/low range.

 

No doubt there is a gap but the point I am trying to make is that game changes shouldn’t be made following a perpetual vote-off between “endgame” and “casual” Staff when the terms are arbitrary labels to begin with and when the so called casual portion aren’t able to offer a substantiated opinion on changes as they’re basing them off guesstimating their impact. Fundamentally I think the staff roster needs its members to all be players with fairly broad game experience and ideally passion to actually continue playing the game. You don’t need to have level 200 characters or have 60+ gear or make 15+b mesos a month to fulfil this.

Practically it might be difficult joining HT/CWK with low range or no mules nowadays but technically speaking there is no absolute barrier to these bosses - as members from the current staff will tell you, you don’t need to HP wash or multi-client or have billions’ worth of gear to enjoy the Royals content available. This is actually true from a technical sense so why is it that horntail, CWK and auf are still considered bosses restricted to ‘endgame’ players only?

 

After more thought, I want to retract my statements pushing for Tim to resign. It was a big overreaction to a problem I don't even know all the facts of. While he screwed up big time getting involved in a situation he couldn't judge impartially, that doesn't take away from the work he has done to keep this server playable. Everybody screws up sometimes, but what matters is putting things right. I don't think it's too late for him to apologize for his poor judgement and to use his expertise to come up with a plan for how to manage the server better moving forward. I apologise to Tim for my previous comments.

There's a reason conflicts of interest are taken so seriously in the real world; they can lead to the most rational of people making poor decisions. It seems to me that Tim's judgement was severely affected by it. He had to choose between the best interest of the wider community and his friend. Him being a guild leader doesn't help either; if somebody approaches him with a concern about a guildie, then he has to in theory be wearing his guild leader hat, but in reality he can never completely take his admin one off.

It also sounds like Matt and Becca's relationship (which I'm happy for you both, don't get me wrong on that!) is a conflict of interest that leads to resentment and jealousy among staff (as Becca is perceived to get more opportunities and privileges than others, due to her relationship with the server owner). It's probably just as well Shiyui has moved on from this server. I remember there were a few concerns here and there about what access to information she had, due to her relationship with Tim (again, I'm really happy for her and Tim, I'm not saying our hard-working admins shouldn't be allowed girlfriends

Other staff problems in the past also boiled down to a conflict of interest.

So here is what I ask of the, for the most part, awesome staff of this amazing server: please have a serious think about the conflicts of interest that are affecting your judgement. Ideally, all have an open and honest discussion, where everybody is willing to accept the issue (including Tim and Matt). Then think about how you're going to mitigate those conflicts so that they don't affect the rest of the staff and the community of this server. Because it really does seem to be the biggest threat to the future of this server, as minor as it might sound initially. Up to you all on how you deal with it, but you really do need to take the issue seriously.

 

i think both of you are missing the pertinent point here, which is that Matt almost always supports Becca in Staff discussions, regardless of whether or not the stance she has makes sense. this applies to pretty much everything, and is not about the gameplay changes themselves specifically

but since you’ve mentioned it, yes, i agree that the Collector medals are pretty much endgame, only comparable to the lv200 medals, which imo, should be the ultimate ones

that being said, the hp increase to the Collector medals was definitely warranted, bc it takes a ton of time and effort to complete. it also pushed more players to explore the game and i personally feel that’s a hugely positive side effect

the issue however, with the larger hp increase margin both Matt and Becca were advocating, is that the medal choice was way too arbitrary, and way too silo-ed. what’s the basis for pushing that much of a hp gain into one selective aspect of the game? why not spread it to other means (e.g. repeatable quests, other common equipment). what’s more, the Collector medals already have “combat stats”, why not add hp to the lv200 medals instead then? depending on your character and playstyle, getting to lv200 might take even longer than the Legendary Collector medal, and for sure lv200 medals should be the endgame ones, if not at least the very top-tier

again, while i appreciate both your input on the gameplay changes, please try to grasp the main objective of this thread, as much as possible. if you’d like to ask for further adjustments, please use a separate feedback thread as appropriate

sorry @xMightyx i think i quoted your post wrongly (should’ve been the first one) bc i’m on my phone atm, but i trust you get the point i’m trying to get across

 

So...there are staff VOLUNTEERING TO MAKE POSITIVE CHANGE, even offering tangible due dates, and they are being ghosted??

Are we reading this right??????

 

So this is just something I want to get off my chest in regards to the entire GM June situation, I just want to say that I think it's shameful negligence on the owner/staff's part for them to unban the player they after that player harassed and ultimately doxed someone. There should be 0 tolerance for this behavior between players and the staff should not be playing favorites.. This is the type of thing that will kill a server, and knowing how politically correct this server is, it shocked me how this situation was appealed and the ban was overturned just because the GM was buddy buddy with some punk asshole. You are losing good staff members and players because of your incompetence, the owner and head staff need to wake up.

 

well i don't care about their personal life honestly or about their private discussions and what kind of connections they have, they get to do what they want there and rightfully so
i just think that the medal comment was not necessary and not right to be thrown here and is kinda like "nit-picking" so i quoted only that part
and i made that without intention to grasp about further adjustments

Spoiler: medal part

yes legendary medal is engame and is for a while (over a year if am not wrong) it was with +500 HP/MP +3att/matt that made this medal allready #1 at that time
this turned to +500HP buff (final result +1k HP/MP +3tma/8matt legendary medal)
but there was and still need for more +HP sources and i'm glad they are being added slowly

why not spread it to other means (e.g. repeatable quests, other common equipment)
i hope other items gets +HP/MP buffed aswell like you want and i agree with that absolutely and i ask why and when other will get +HP/MP aswell

but i don't see reason for other medals that are not in use to get +HP aswell (i don't mind but there is no point for doing that when collector medals are best and in use by evryone who explore the world and farm cards not just leech to 200lvl)

this was already discussed and wanted in many threads to make collector medals with more HP so i don't think is just matt or becca who wanted this change so yea i don't think that this some kind of conspiracie going on on that

at end of the day is private server there is things i disagree aswell and i think are not fine but can't do anything about it other then ignore untill gets worse and leave

 

i only used it as an example to illustrate my point; there are countless others that i haven't mentioned out of respect for Staff privacy but some of my fellow ex-Staff members already have. i really think you're the one who's nitpicking this just because the Collector medals are something you have a vested interest in. i strongly suggest you read all the posts in this thread again before you comment further

 

It’s sad that.. this is how I feel. I miss old admin Michael, he always had community first.

 

Its funny. I know so many former GM's from Royals well enough who have all basically said the same thing. They all start off naive, thinking they will be the change the server needs, aaaaand after a few months that wears off and the realization that nothing will actually change because the person who needs to be around to be apart of the change most is MIA

 

you’ve completely left out the second part when we were discussing 1150 vs 1000 hp just to preserve an entirely inaccurate story, as usual

 

You're right. It's their personal lives and we shouldnt intefere. But when it starts affecting the others working around them, that's when we speak up.

Till now I believe no former Staff has shared the anonymous feedback that I organized against both Matt and Becca. Depending on how this thread evolve, I may or may not release it. But it pretty much contains feedback, both positive and negative, but mostly negative, about the working relationship between them both, and how it has impacted staff dynamic, and why it caused staff to leave. I left because no concrete actions were taken despite the admins reading it (from their premise I could already tell that no f* would be given, the conclusion happened after I left). The last I knew before leaving, was Becca throwing a tantrum and blaming everyone else but herself. So much for "I'm quitting" but ended up not doing so.

Fuiyohhh right on point. But we must give credit where it is due. His girlfriend really made him more active than before. Like, really more active.

 

Thank you for taking time out of your day to respond to this thread, @Matt. As you can see, we're all quite invested in the wellbeing of this server as a community and your response means a lot to us.

It looks like a lot of "he said, she said, they said" between staff in this thread, and there just isn't enough evidence for anyone to side with particular staff, neither is it the point anymore. I know a lot of us are just glad to see that you've finally responded with an objective *other side* to the stories, and a tangible due date for the new terms and conditions. That's definitely some relief.

To my knowledge, you have yet to publicly comment on the particular feedback thread relating to Tim's mishandling of a sexual harassment/doxing case (Sharu v Roany) that ultimately brought these deeper issues to light. An admin is being accused of abusing his power to protect a player related to himself, and treating the victim very inappropriately and unfairly. Given the nature of Tim's current position and how much power he holds, and to avoid further conflict of interest, do you have any plans to facilitate this conversation between Tim and concerned players of the community?

This has been traumatizing and triggering for many of us. A lot of players (not just female) have expressed feeling unsafe. Is this something you are planning to address? As the server owner, where do you stand in all this? What are the moral values of the server?

 

I did not call for flashier items. I called for more than one NX outfit to be added. There have been numerous complaints and requests for more free options. Stop changing the words I've said to suit your narrative. When you explained to me "how" items were chosen, you said admins picked it. Then why does Becca claim picking it out when the list was published? Because I was on the hot seat for accusing you and her for cheating, I held my tongue for the sake of unity and rushed to test what I could. For Christmas patch, you stated you weren't going to work on it until the end of November- which shocked me. Becca made repeated statements in our alliance chat that you and her were hunting White Lady because you both were 'bored'. You could have had a whole month to slowly work on little pieces every day and get feedback, but you jammed it into one weekend where three people (one was me) had to rush to test everything. Additionally, It makes no sense that you "hid" the Ola Ola map from us. You're twisting your story to hide that Becca gets exclusive projects and no one else gets the ability to scoop it up or provide input.

No disrespect to all past contributors, but how long has the TnC been explicitly worked on? We've made suggestions, but there have been no concrete updates or actions since Tim's tantrum. You've been dragging your feet on this and I had to propose the actual due date for people to wake up. You haven't even stated the date in this post- so how can we hold you accountable for it? If you wanted to really prove to us that you're making moves, you would have posted it then. But you didn't, because you're afraid of us. You really didn't have much to lose though, since 6 of your more appreciated GMs left.

 

I can admit that the chat you showed was pretty shitty of me. I will get online, do one day of active work, then have no high drive to continue in the days after. I guarantee you that I was never like that up until your hiring wave. As soon as you, Johnny, Gert, and Becca were hired, I kinda took a back seat because I was so worn out from banning hackers for hours each day. I guess I just kinda fell out of the rhythm and never got back in. I can totally understand your point of view about my work ethic. I want to argue that I wouldn't say things like that to try to fool you guys into thinking that I was doing more/going to do more in the coming days, it was mostly to trick myself into doing it. Truth is, I've only really been super active on the forums, mostly in ban appeals when I'm available. I wouldn't say I lack game experience, just lack of end-game experience. I've played enough of early to mid-game that I can confidently weigh in on changes being discussed there, as I've spent numerous hours training on my Ironman characters. However, when it comes to bossing or marketplace/rwt changes, that's where I fall behind, due to not being familiar with other high level players or the prices of certain high-value items. When you and Johnny were here, I really did respect the effort you both put in, but I think I let myself get a little too comfortable with having more members to lighten the load, and I apologize for not being as active as I could have been.

 

thank you for taking ownership for this and also for acknowledging that it's a problem currently being faced by the Staff team. it's perfectly understandable to be burnt out, especially given the length of time you've already been there, what more with no actual, tangible solutions in sight for so many of the issues that still plague the server. you were one of the more objective members when it came to discussions in general and i appreciated that. i just hope that you'll either find the necessary motivation again, or at least do a reassessment of your priorities (both real-life vs. in-game/Staff or any others) and evaluate whether keeping the position is still worth your while or not