StevIII Moderator Interview

FlamingoToday at 11:00 AM
Awesome, can you start by stating your ckey for the record?

StevToday at 11:00 AM
steviii

FlamingoToday at 11:03 AM
Cool. If you have any questions feel free to stop me and ask at any time.

Let’s begin with something simple. During your time here, you’ve had a few run-ins with staff for mostly minor things. How do you feel these experiences have affected you, and how have they changed you as a player?

StevToday at 11:04 AM
Hm, well, none of them were really for more than super minor things, like speaking in (( in binary chat, as ai cant use looc. But, really I think all of them have helped me continue as a player.
I don't really think they've changed me noticeably, but I think they have advanced my RP skills a bit.

FlamingoToday at 11:08 AM
That’s fair. Do you feel like you’ve had any unfair or unreasonable interactions with staff? Don’t feel like you have to be dishonest.

StevToday at 11:08 AM
Well, I feel like getting a warning on my account was a little excessive, but I understand why alberyk did it.
Apart from that, I basically like the entire staff team that I've interacted with
And also, I just woke up, so I may honestly forget details, and 'lie' accidentally.

FlamingoToday at 11:11 AM
No worries. You may find (assuming you move to the trial phase) that you need to work with people you disagree with, or sometimes you may need to enforce policy you disagree with, or punish people you consider friends. How do you think you will handle this?

StevToday at 11:12 AM
Well, I try to be as un-biased as I can, and follow the server's rules, but obviously I will make mistakes. I personally believe I should be able to do it, as I'm not really a disagree-able person.

FlamingoToday at 11:13 AM
Cool. If you could change one aspect of the server, be it a rule, policy, etc, what would it be?

StevToday at 11:13 AM
I honestly cant think of anything.
Most of the changes id like are more of a change to byond.
But I'd probably go with.. Maybe provide some gimmick suggestions for new antags, so they don't just commit murder

FlamingoToday at 11:16 AM
Speaking of gimmicks and antagonists going on murder sprees; what do you feel the goal of Aurora is? What sort of roleplay environment do we look to provide?

StevToday at 11:16 AM
I feel like we provide a welcoming experience for people who want to play SS13 as more than murder spree-13.
We aren't insanely different from other servers, so new players can most of the time wrap their mind around it.

FlamingoToday at 11:17 AM
Do you feel like murder (even mass) have a place in our roleplay environment?

StevToday at 11:18 AM
Well, yes and no. Mass murder, no not really. it just ruins the gameplay experience for a lot of people, even if they're an antag, but single murder, in a provoked situation is a logical thing
like your hostage trying to escape as a raider.
instead of tossing a grenade at a kindergarten

FlamingoToday at 11:19 AM
What about a situation where you’re a raider holding a hostage and people say - keep rushing you to try and save the hostage, rather than negotiating and such? Would you be in the wrong to kill several people if they refused to cooperate?

StevToday at 11:20 AM
Personally first id say something to an admin, say there's a bunch of people refusing to RP, and then id probably attempt to get to a position away from them. if they continue the valid hunting, id likely shoot.
but id only do it after as much time as possible to let the admins tell them to stop.
Just warning, I dont really play antag's that much. I dont enjoy them personally.

FlamingoToday at 11:22 AM
Let’s try from a different angle then. How do you feel about self-antagonistic behavior (in general)? What about self-antagonistic behavior that stems from a character’s backstory and personality? For example thieves stealing things, or an alcoholic getting really drunk and then causing trouble?

StevToday at 11:23 AM
I feel like its good in moderation, and with staff permission first. Like just shoot an adminhelp of like "hey, can I do this. this is the backstory of my character"

FlamingoToday at 11:24 AM
What about more serious antagonistic actions like murder? Do you feel like a non-antagonist could ever murder someone? Why or why not?
We’ll say for sake of argument during extended. Not self defense.

StevToday at 11:25 AM
I don't personally think a non antagonist should ever commit murder, not out of self defence. And even in self defence, murder is excessive.

FlamingoToday at 11:26 AM
Why not?

StevToday at 11:27 AM
Well, a non antagonistic murder would ruin the game for someone else. Like if you're happily enjoying the server, then someone tosses a flash at you and toolboxes your head in

FlamingoToday at 11:29 AM
Well, let’s say for sake of argument they have an actual reason and it’s not just gank. Would that make it different if say, they were a doctor who was operating on your brother and they died? And it came to light it was due to negligence on their part?

StevToday at 11:29 AM
I feel like asking the admins first before doing any drastic action is your first choice, then just doing it if the admins say so. otherwise report them to security and see a psychologist.

FlamingoToday at 11:30 AM
Obviously asking the admins first is always a good idea, but assuming you make it to trial, you will find a lot of people don’t before they do things like that. If you came across a situation like this one I’ve outlined, how would you approach it?

StevToday at 11:32 AM
Well, id pm them the dreaded "Hey, got a moment?" and get them to go to an area where they wont be involved in RP. id then ask why they murdered the person without asking first. if they said "oh, he murdered my brother" id just tell them to instead report them first, instead of taking drastic, game ruining actions. if they co-operated, id probably give them a warning or a ban, and res the dead guy.
if they just disconnected, id give them a ban and res the dead guy.
and probably say in looc around the dead guy to ignore the fact he was murdered

FlamingoToday at 11:35 AM
Cool. What do you feel is your biggest strength as a potential moderator? What makes you stand out from the average player?

StevToday at 11:35 AM
I feel like I can be a moderator that people wont be scared to talk to. Like, most people will be quite scared if alberyk randomly messages them sternly, but id try to bring a bit of nicety to it to make them less likely to just leave

FlamingoToday at 11:36 AM
And what do you feel is your biggest weakness or flaw as a potential moderator? Anything you foresee being difficult for you?

StevToday at 11:37 AM
Probably info on departments and stuff. id slowly learn it over time, but for the start of my trial id likely be very bad at answering questions.
Like, I don't even know who hosts the server.

FlamingoToday at 11:40 AM
You will learn that stuff over time. Let’s do one last line of questioning.

How important do you feel the new player experience is versus maintaining veteran players’ expectations? We often get players coming from much lower RP servers and have a tough time adjusting to our more serious environment.

StevToday at 11:42 AM
I feel like, if someone just doesnt understand things, id give them a simple run down of the differences of our server from LRP. but if they were actively going around, saying references to things that happened in this year, and generally ruining the immersion, id maybe give them a vocal warning and explain the differences.
And I feel like its important to keep the veteran's interested while gaining a new playerbase, so that'd be something that would have to be balanced. And obviously you'll lose people, thats just how it goes.

FlamingoToday at 11:43 AM
What about players that mean well and try to fit in but seem to keep messing up or inadvertently breaking the rules?

StevToday at 11:43 AM
id probably remind them to read the rules, and explain the things they've been doing wrong so they can try to improve and play better.
if they were, say, just slightly breaking the immersion, id explain that we prefer to not do that

FlamingoToday at 11:44 AM
I mean more along the lines that they’ve been spoken to several times in the past about things like breaking immersion, and while they mean well, they can’t seem to refrain.

StevToday at 11:45 AM
Ah. id probably give them a warning and say "While yes, we know you mean well, we value the general feel of the server" and hope they manage to improve. id obviously prefer if they did, instead of just leaving back to an lrp or mrp.

FlamingoToday at 11:46 AM
And if they continued to have trouble? Do you feel like a ban is warranted after many low level rule breaks, or repeated breaks of the same minor rule?

StevToday at 11:47 AM
I feel like only after an excessive amount of breaks of something would a short ban be reasonable

FlamingoToday at 11:48 AM
Why is that? Oftentimes veteran players get very frustrated having to deal with new players who break immersion a lot and don’t seem to be improving, even if they seem willing to.

StevToday at 11:49 AM
hmm. personally I might be a bit to (also kinda bad at grammar) lenient sometimes
I feel like a ban would be in order if its annoying a lot of people, and they're receiving a large quantity of reports/warnings

FlamingoToday at 11:51 AM
Okay. I only have one more question then. Are you comfortable having this interview posted on your application?

StevToday at 11:51 AM
Oh, sure

FlamingoToday at 11:51 AM
Excellent. This concludes the interview then.