Recent "Incidents" With Staff

[Middleton 78]

In response to this thread:

 

Quote

Recently there have been some staff members that have either been getting bored with the work they are doing, or are unable to work appropriately with other staff members.

Some have retired, some have been removed from staff and one has even been community banned as a result. I would like to point out that I am targeting the ex-staff members and making it very clear that we will never tolerate this kind of behavior.

Unfortunately, when it comes down to it, this is the sad reality of any online gaming community. There is no legal obligation for staff to perform and act correctly, they are all volunteers. We entrust a lot of power and authority in the staff team, intending for it to be used to benifet the community. Sadly some staff will decide that they are leaving, or bored of the community. Due to the nature of the internet and anonymity, they elect to destroy whatever they can in an attempt to bring everyone and everything down with them.

Here is a brief overview of recent incidents:

Wasteland
Over the past few weeks and months, Lucky B33f and I have been discussing at lengths about issues with Wasteland Staff abusing the powers that we have given them, to quite severe extents. In a recent patch we removed 90% of the 'fun' admin tools, this is purely due to the fact that no appropriate resolution could be made between the wasteland staff after multiple interventions to reduce the abuse of power. As a result of this YaMum the Administrator was removed from staff, Baden retired, and Unit Retired.

Lucky B33f and I both identified multiple players receiving abuse from YaMum while under an alias.
Additionally YaMum was responsible for the introduction of over 350 admin kits to the game and the utilization of player markers to gain an unfair advantage more than 200 time. For a comparison of kits between other staff, see the below numbers.
Admin kits allow staff to spawn in items for them to use on either event or for general gameplay, we normally allow this as staff are usually unable to spend the same amount of time playing the game and building up their arsenal due to staffing work.

Please note these results were recorded on December 19th.
Admin Kits since Dec 1st
Yamum    48
Unit     12
James    1
Excel    0
Baden    10
Total    71

Admin Kits since forever
Yamum    320
Unit     22
James    38
Excel    49
Total    487

Altis Life
We have permanently banned Krypkii from the community due to multiple breaches of community guidelines after he retired.
Krypkii, after deciding to retired has proceeded to remove all community members from the Discord server. Spawn in money on Altis Life with Moderator tools and abuse moderator functions to hunt and kill other players.

I didn't really want to make a thread about this, i'm normally a fairly quiet player on the server and since retiring 2 years ago when J17 was around I tried to avoid getting involved in the politics of a gaming community, but this thread really did push me over the edge.

It sickens me to see such rubbish being spouted out by a supposed "Leader" of this community, a person who was brought in and catapulted straight to the top due to internal friends, all of which is completely fabricated and insulting. 

The primary issue with this all is not only is he insulting peoples work that they have put into this server for years and given up their own free time instead of playing the game, he has done it to people who have done it for no reward, and clearly no personal gain now that this thread has come out dragging their names through the mud.

This entire fiasco started due to some leadership staff increasingly putting pressure onto the Wasteland staff to "Boost the numbers" and "Provide better support for players", yet they had taken no notice of why the players were leaving the server, nor that it had nothing to do with the people who put in their own time to maintaining what little player base there was. You cannot moderate a server to popularity, and the sole responsibility of increasing population for a server lies in the hands of the developers and the owners, no one else. I understand complaints were made for some staff, as is expected with any moderation role as you need to make decisions which obviously the opposing party are not going to like (e.g. abusive players getting banned for being abusive, they are going to complain to get unbanned and pull any dirt up on the staff member they can). But that is not grounds to make people feel like they are worthless and that all the work they have put into this server was for nothing, they are what kept this server from falling into dismay and the fact that you would go as far to say that LOADOUTS, an arbitrary at best function given to admins was the reason they were somehow abusing the playerbase is absolutely pathetic. Loadouts were allowed at all times by the operating staff of wasteland as it not only doesn't affect other players unfairly, it is a minor perk as mentioned for people who have to spend their playing time moderating the server and not accumulating money.

This new group of server leadership staff seems to have a persistent trend of pointing fingers instead of assisting their staff or resolving issues, and it really does put a poor light on what this community once was, a mere shadow of what it used to be, with poisonous people using their appointed ranks to do whatever they want to try and save face.

It really makes me sad.

Edited December 30, 2017 by Middleton

[Nova 1779]

[LuckyB33f 1287]

Middleton,

The core foundation of this community was built on a fair go. We (5 Founders) built this place as we were sick of the servers we played using their powers to have an massive advantage. To often we were teleported to and shot on site or blown up just because. When we brought this to light the admins denied everything and would ban us just to get us out of the channel or game. With those core values we built this place.

I wouldn't say Ya Mum is a bad dude... I have spent many of hours with Ya Mum and he isn't a guy that would try to fuck us over. He is upfront which i like most. There has been many more worse staff from Altis Life then Wasteland with abusing their powers and players and in which has been dealt with.

I am grateful for the time Ya mum has put into this community and i hope he sticks around. But with so many complaints by non staff into use of kits we opt to remove them (they have been removed). Now these complaints don't go to a set someone, all managers get to see them.

There has been pressure into why Wasteland isn't as popular now. It can be based on a few things. New Games / Age of Arma 3 / Server performance / Staff / Mission Age / Lacking Features. These are all the things that come into play. We can do something that can improve WL that just requires some team work. About 2 Months ago we had a meeting about this. Things that could improve the place by reviewing the issues or what the players say. A common issue is FPS(my computer runs fine) some issues were the players having the view distance to high. FIX: make a quick guide to change the setting to improve your FPS. on this meetings it was said to not use their powers into just to play it to get a better idea. But the kits use grew.

After been here for 4 years I understand people get shitty with each other. But keep in mind that what is said about people in some of our chats are often taken out of context. Its easy to blame a circle jerking group or "the higher ups" but when presented with options to how to handle these issues we try to make the right choices.

I'll leave it at this Quote by you: an arbitrary at best function given to admins was the reason they were somehow abusing the playerbase is absolutely pathetic
We don't tend to say publicly what happens behind the doors. I believe what was said in the post was put nicely. It could have every screenshot of every issue. In which would truly drag someones name through the mud.

That is not needed here.

[Middleton 78]

12 hours ago, LuckyB33f said:

Middleton,

The core foundation of this community was built on a fair go. We (5 Founders) built this place as we were sick of the servers we played using their powers to have an massive advantage. To often we were teleported to and shot on site or blown up just because. When we brought this to light the admins denied everything and would ban us just to get us out of the channel or game. With those core values we built this place.

I wouldn't say Ya Mum is a bad dude... I have spent many of hours with Ya Mum and he isn't a guy that would try to **** us over. He is upfront which i like most. There has been many more worse staff from Altis Life then Wasteland with abusing their powers and players and in which has been dealt with.

I am grateful for the time Ya mum has put into this community and i hope he sticks around. But with so many complaints by non staff into use of kits we opt to remove them (they have been removed). Now these complaints don't go to a set someone, all managers get to see them.

There has been pressure into why Wasteland isn't as popular now. It can be based on a few things. New Games / Age of Arma 3 / Server performance / Staff / Mission Age / Lacking Features. These are all the things that come into play. We can do something that can improve WL that just requires some team work. About 2 Months ago we had a meeting about this. Things that could improve the place by reviewing the issues or what the players say. A common issue is FPS(my computer runs fine) some issues were the players having the view distance to high. FIX: make a quick guide to change the setting to improve your FPS. on this meetings it was said to not use their powers into just to play it to get a better idea. But the kits use grew.

After been here for 4 years I understand people get shitty with each other. But keep in mind that what is said about people in some of our chats are often taken out of context. Its easy to blame a circle jerking group or "the higher ups" but when presented with options to how to handle these issues we try to make the right choices.

I'll leave it at this Quote by you: an arbitrary at best function given to admins was the reason they were somehow abusing the playerbase is absolutely pathetic
We don't tend to say publicly what happens behind the doors. I believe what was said in the post was put nicely. It could have every screenshot of every issue. In which would truly drag someones name through the mud.

That is not needed here.

I appreciate the response beef,

Even with that though, I play with 2 of those staff members every day, I heard most of what was going on behind the scenes and I still truly believe that the whole situation was completely unfair. I understand that kit use may have occurred in the past, but it was allowed by the server manager, and within the past 2 months I have not seen him use a kit with me me, and I play fairly often. Regardless of that I think you can appreciate that a server administrators job shouldn't be pulled into question by the use of some kits in-game, and years of his hard work questioned by leadership staff that came into the server well after he had taken on his role. I think that he should have at least had a chance to try and fix the issues with Wasteland in a co-operative environment instead of being put up on display as a person who abuses his powers, because that is not true at all.

That fact that a poll was started to fire him from his position while discussions were still being had about how to help the wasteland server population and fix any issues with staff is completely wrong. I know this post probably won't fix or change anything but I really hope that the new team that has to come to try and help the wasteland server doesn't get such a harsh go, because at the end of the day they are giving up their free time to help your server, they should not be the ones being put on trial.

[FBI 195]

18 hours ago, Middleton said:

It sickens me to see such rubbish being spouted out by a supposed "Leader" of this community, a person who was brought in and catapulted straight to the top due to internal friends, all of which is completely fabricated and insulting. 

So database logs from 2017 are fabricated? Players filing reports and complaining are fabricated? I was once told from one of these staff members "Logs don't lie", well they sure don't do they? Now unless you're trying to tell everyone that this evidence is fabricated. No, what's insulting is the players that were banned, abused and neglected due to a person in a position of power. 

18 hours ago, Middleton said:

This entire fiasco started due to some leadership staff increasingly putting pressure onto the Wasteland staff to "Boost the numbers" and "Provide better support for players", yet they had taken no notice of why the players were leaving the server, nor that it had nothing to do with the people who put in their own time to maintaining what little player base there was.

Could you please provide some examples? I can name a few for one. Using leadermarkers to gain an unfair gameplay advantage through gaining the knowledge of where every single group leader was on the map at all times. Whenever my group used to play on the server we would assign a 'sheep' to be group leader, which essentially means sentencing him to die at the hands of Ya Mum, and surely enough this happened every single time. It wouldn't matter if you where 15 meters apart from each other, he would always kill the group leader 90% of the time. With jets, rockets, drones and finally wall banging with a APDS Lynx.

If you're telling me these reasons to not equate to disgruntled players as they would die due to a major disadvantage, any element of surprise or stealth went out the window when you where either a group leader or a Single Indi player (Counts as leader). If anyone questioned him in global he would come up with any excuse to say he wasn't using an unfair advantage. Anyone should sure as hell quit the server after being shot through a wall with a Lynx multiple times, and he always gave the same excuse "Your gun was through the wall" etc. Multiple times.. If you don't see the problem here then why even question StrayaGaming Leads. 

19 hours ago, Middleton said:

You cannot moderate a server to popularity, and the sole responsibility of increasing population for a server lies in the hands of the developers and the owners, no one else.

No you cannot but you can sure as hell run it into the ground through abuse of power. 

19 hours ago, Middleton said:

I understand complaints were made for some staff, as is expected with any moderation role as you need to make decisions which obviously the opposing party are not going to like (e.g. abusive players getting banned for being abusive, they are going to complain to get unbanned and pull any dirt up on the staff member they can).

What exactly does 'dirt' consist of? You make it sound like hard evidence is to be ignored because it is 'dirt' Of course if someone is banned unfairly they will try their best to get unbanned. Imagine if you spoke about kits in global and got permanently banned, doesn't seem right does it? Or if you saw an admin spawn inside a jet then went to question it and got banned? It sounds like you cannot accept the hard truth of the manner. Your friends cheated and they got caught, you can make any excuse you want but at the end of the day they're in the wrong. 

19 hours ago, Middleton said:

But that is not grounds to make people feel like they are worthless and that all the work they have put into this server was for nothing, they are what kept this server from falling into dismay and the fact that you would go as far to say that LOADOUTS, an arbitrary at best function given to admins was the reason they were somehow abusing the playerbase is absolutely pathetic. Loadouts were allowed at all times by the operating staff of wasteland as it not only doesn't affect other players unfairly, it is a minor perk as mentioned for people who have to spend their playing time moderating the server and not accumulating money.

So you're telling me the ability to spawn in fully kitted with a Thermal helmet, AA, Ghillie, Lynx and Nightstalker isn't unfair. What about a Compact, Thermal Helmet, Navid and Nightstalker. This can be argued as gear does not equate to skill. However when you combine that with the use of Leadermarkers it opens the gates to so many possibilities. Tell me exactly how the use of these kits which would normally cost near 90k each isn't unfair to be used unlimited times , or how it does not unfair affect others, or how it is a minor perk. You can't? That's alright, I wouldn't be able to either.

The whole arrangement of "it is a minor perk as mentioned for people who have to spend their playing time moderating the server and not accumulating money" is invalid once the people who have access to it played every single day for 30 days straight for multiple hours per day. Anyone could accept the use of those kits if they had limited play time, or that they are hard at work developing for the server, or expanding the map. But once you give a function like that to someone who plays more than 80% of the playerbase and allow him to do as he wishes it becomes a major problem. On the off chance he dies with all these advantages or a player kills him despite him knowing their location all the time, he can spawn another in and do it all again? No, anyone with half a brain would call this an unfair advantage, but you call it a "Minor Perk" and argue that it does not negatively affect others.

Additionally loadouts to my understanding where allowed for moderate use, not for usage unlimited times within the day.

19 hours ago, Middleton said:

This new group of server leadership staff seems to have a persistent trend of pointing fingers instead of assisting their staff or resolving issues, and it really does put a poor light on what this community once was, a mere shadow of what it used to be, with poisonous people using their appointed ranks to do whatever they want to try and save face.

It really makes me sad.

I cannot say my opinion on this manner as i do not know what goes on behind closed doors at StrayaGaming, however i'm sure the Staff members where warned. It also makes me sad that this kind of behaviour was allowed to go on for such a long period of time, and i am thankful for Red & LuckyB33f naming and shaming the staff in question. 

3 hours ago, Middleton said:

Even with that though, I play with 2 of those staff members every day, I heard most of what was going on behind the scenes and I still truly believe that the whole situation was completely unfair. I understand that kit use may have occurred in the past, but it was allowed by the server manager, and within the past 2 months I have not seen him use a kit with me.

How exactly was it unfair, maybe it unfair to the players that where on the other end of it? What and when he chooses to do when your are playing is completely up to him, however even though you may of never seen him use kits recently, the server logs once again are there and they do not lie. 

3 hours ago, Middleton said:

Regardless of that I think you can appreciate that a server administrators job shouldn't be pulled into question by the use of some kits in-game, and years of his hard work questioned by leadership staff that came into the server well after he had taken on his role. I think that he should have at least had a chance to try and fix the issues with Wasteland in a co-operative environment instead of being put up on display as a person who abuses his powers, because that is not true at all.

And i'm sure those newer staff members have done more for StrayaGaming than Ya Mum did in his entire years of 'hard work', of which all he was an over glorified moderator. He was given power to do good and he abused it and was dealt with. How exactly isn't it true that he abused his powers, you cannot look at the cold hard facts and accept them, please tell that the the many people that have quit Wasteland due to him, or the individuals that where unfairly disadvantaged due to his 'non-abuse' of power.

[Blue Eagle [+1 CREW] 181]

On 31/12/2017 at 12:40 PM, FBI said:

And i'm sure those newer staff members have done more for StrayaGaming than Ya Mum did in his entire years of 'hard work', of which all he was an over glorified moderator. He was given power to do good and he abused it and was dealt with. How exactly isn't it true that he abused his powers, you cannot look at the cold hard facts and accept them, please tell that the the many people that have quit Wasteland due to him, or the individuals that where unfairly disadvantaged due to his 'non-abuse' of power.

i called this abuse of power out MULTIPLE times March last year and it either fell on deaf ears or Ya Mum Denied it resulting in it being ignored. im glad this injustice has finally ended and wish you all the best in restoring Strayagamings Wasteland to its former self.

[DIRTYSCRUB 41]

11 hours ago, Blue Eagle [+1 CREW] said:

i called this abuse of power out MULTIPLE times March last year and it either fell on deaf ears or Ya Mum Denied it resulting in it being ignored. im glad this injustice has finally ended and wish you all the best in restoring Strayagamings Wasteland to its former self.

Couldn't agree more with this. I had multiple run ins with that particular scumbag. His day finally came.

[Baden 29]

Recently there have been some staff members that have either been getting bored with the work they are doing, or are unable to work appropriately with other staff members.

 

Some have retired, some have been removed from staff and one has even been community banned as a result. I would like to point out that I am targeting the ex-staff members and making it very clear that we will never tolerate this kind of behavior.

 

Unfortunately, when it comes down to it, this is the sad reality of any online gaming community. There is no legal obligation for staff to perform and act correctly, they are all volunteers. We entrust a lot of power and authority in the staff team, intending for it to be used to benifet the community. Sadly some staff will decide that they are leaving, or bored of the community. Due to the nature of the internet and anonymity, they elect to destroy whatever they can in an attempt to bring everyone and everything down with them.

 

 

Here is a brief overview of recent incidents:

 

Wasteland

Over the past few weeks and months, Lucky B33f and I have been discussing at lengths about issues with Wasteland Staff abusing the powers that we have given them, to quite severe extents. In a recent patch we removed 90% of the 'fun' admin tools, this is purely due to the fact that no appropriate resolution could be made between the wasteland staff after multiple interventions to reduce the abuse of power. As a result of this YaMum the Administrator was removed from staff, Baden retired, and Unit Retired.

 

“As a result of this... Baden retired...” grammatically the “this” being “no appropriate resolution ... to reduce the abuse of power”

 

I resigned for reasons other than those that Red lumped me into. Mainly due to the underwhelming support of staff in game, the abrogation of responsibility by senior staff for the deteriorating state of the server and subsequent finger pointing to lay blame for lessening player numbers at the feet of game staff.

 

The “multiple interventions” you speak about elude me. I remember staff loadouts being mentioned twice in the short period I was on staff. Once, when I arrived, by Unit who explained that they are available and then again in a team discussion with Beef who asked our opinion on their use. No decision was made to preclude us from using them.

 

In the last week and a half before I resigned, Beef said in “Slack” that he wanted to assess something and asked the staff either to not play or play under an alias and to not use our “powers” during that time. I have no idea what he was doing or his conclusions based on this assessment.

 

Lucky B33f and I both identified multiple players receiving abuse from YaMum while under an alias.

Additionally YaMum was responsible for the introduction of over 350 admin kits to the game and the utilization of player markers to gain an unfair advantage more than 200 time. For a comparison of kits between other staff, see the below numbers.

Admin kits allow staff to spawn in items for them to use on either event or for general gameplay, we normally allow this as staff are usually unable to spend the same amount of time playing the game and building up their arsenal due to staffing work.

 

“We usually allow this”. My understanding was clearly that it was not usual but in fact always allowed. As is evidenced by the fact that Yamum used it for more than 3 years. If it was not allowed why did it take so long for senior admin to act on the “illegal behaviour”? If it was allowed but its use was a problem for other players - ban the kits not the staff member using an allowed item.

 

Please note these results were recorded on December 19th.

Admin Kits since Dec 1st

Yamum    48

Unit     12

James    1

Excel    0

Baden    10

Total    71

 

Admin Kits since forever

Yamum    320

Unit     22

James    38

Excel    49

Total    487

 

So to clarify, Yamum plays daily he used the kits 320 times for a period in excess of 3 years! 108 times a year, once every 3 to 4 days!

 

It doesn’t sound so excessive until you compare it with Unit, who more recently played a few times a month, James who plays once or twice a week (based solely on my own observation), Excel  who I have never seen on Wasteland and me. 

 

Because it was omitted from the second part of the analysis above I can tell you I used 10 kits “since” forever. Once, the day I became a moderator to see what it entitled me to (losing the high end gear I had at the time) and the remaining 9 times over a one to 2 day period to see if it added to my experience. It didn’t and I reverted to not using it.

 

Obvious in his omission from the list is Dak who, like Yamum, plays daily and is an excellent administrator. Who might also have provided a clearer comparison to Yamum in use of loadouts and Zeus.

 

Straygaming’s concern about diminishing numbers on the server is well founded. As a player I was most concerned that the server I played on was stable and fair. For what it’s worth I would advise staff to look outwardly to what other servers are doing right. I’ve been playing on other Wasteland servers with 80 players at a time and none of the jets are flying backwards, my character doesn’t suddenly crash and there is always someone from admin there to help.

 

I played 6000 hours+ on Strayagaming, I think I was well know by the people playing Wasteland and relatively unknown by people on Slack and the SG website. Most of the people I played with would have no idea who the senior staff are and no idea how they play the game, they have concerns about changes made to the game by people they don’t know.

 

In conclusion to Red’s post: I was NOT bored in my role as moderator, I think I worked appropriately and well with other staff members, I have no intention of “destroying” anything.

 

I am targeting the ex-staff members and making it very clear that we will never tolerate this kind of behavior.

 

Since you don’t actually state what the behaviour is, I will remain alert and try to curb any intolerable behaviour.

 

 

 

FBI’s dramatic analysis, supported as always by James, should follow shortly.

[FBI 195]

37 minutes ago, Baden said:

FBI’s dramatic analysis, supported as always by James, should follow shortly.

Also sorry to disappoint, but no "Dramatic Analysis" today. I will say one thing though and that's kits where only implemented in July 2017.

 

 

 

Also i'll just leave these here... 

[dangerzone 1]

how unfortunate that nobody can see the good these fantastic moderators brought to the server

[Adolf 42]

Can't say this was a surprise about Ya Mum abusing his powers.

When we questioned him about his sus ability to come back to the same spot with a lynx, he abused us and banned me for 24 hours. Report got dismissed of course even though the logs were there, what a joke. Slowly stopped playing that server after that incident.

It is quite ridiculous that this went on for so long and only recently he got removed. 

[Red 1068]

4 hours ago, Baden said:

 

So to clarify, Yamum plays daily he used the kits 320 times for a period in excess of 3 years! 108 times a year, once every 3 to 4 days!

 

It doesn’t sound so excessive until you compare it with Unit, who more recently played a few times a month, James who plays once or twice a week (based solely on my own observation), Excel  who I have never seen on Wasteland and me. 

 

I am not sure where you got 3 years from, you have never had access to view the database. That's alright though, i'll include it here for you.

The logging for this began 2017-07-31 20:49:12 With the first kit being spawned in by ALI, you can see this below.

So taking that into account the actual usage is 15.89 kits per day, a very different story than what you believed it to be. I could pull up the archived logs before that date where I reset them but I don't think that is really necessary to get the point across.

[Red 1068]

Just thought i'd throw this in since spawning 16 kits a day is not so bad.

This is the usage of leader markers for each staff member that has ever used them. Leader markers are essentially a wallhack for the player that is acting as the 'leader' of each squad in-game. Keep in mind this is only going back to August 1st, and this feature has been in the mission file for much longer.

I have also included my SQL query so you can see how I am getting these results.

[FBI 195]

3 minutes ago, Red said:

Just thought i'd throw this in since spawning 16 kits a day is not so bad.

This is the usage of leader markers for each staff member that has ever used them. Leader markers are essentially a wallhack for the player that is acting as the 'leader' of each squad in-game. Keep in mind this is only going back to August 1st, and this feature has been in the mission file for much longer.

I have also included my SQL query so you can see how I am getting these results.

Only 272 times... 

Everyone knows you need 300 before it's considered unfair 

Edited January 7, 2018 by FBI

[DIRTYSCRUB 41]

Hey @Baden, get back to us when you eventually crawl out of that grave red just put you in.

[Nova 1779]

2 hours ago, dangerzone said:

how unfortunate that nobody can see the good these fantastic moderators brought to the server

you got any examples?

[Blue Eagle [+1 CREW] 181]

17 minutes ago, Red said:

Just thought i'd throw this in since spawning 16 kits a day is not so bad.

 

it is when you have someone who is trash and needs that crutch whilst also  using leadermarkers.

[Reaper 108]

lol

[James32 823]

Hey All,

Against my better judgement I've decided to comment on this thread to offer my own opinion and response to everything that has been thrown around regarding this issue. I had been trying to stay away from it in favour of more useful pursuits but after reading this thread i feel obliged to express my sentiment in at least some capacity.

My opinion on the issue has always been that as a function of the time dedicated to staffing/working on the server staff should be entitled to some perks, however there is a line where use of "perks" drifts into the world of abuse and becomes detrimental to the server as a whole. The fundamental backbone of pvp servers (or indeed servers in general) is fairness, a fair go. The players need to be able to feel that their experience in the game passes a minimum degree of fairness, that's why we ban hackers instead of letting them run loose and we stop teamkillers because they undermine the competitive integrity of the server and ruin peoples enjoyment.

We can now consider the idea fairness when applied to the issues red addressed in his original post/comments here, namely the way some staff utilized the tools supplied to them. Used in moderation these tools are fine, like any good thing, in moderation people tend to be understanding and okay with it given the work people put in. But if people use them all the time players very quickly feel like the staff team is cheating to win, which undermines community faith in the staff team and server as a whole and makes players feel like the server is rigged against them/fundamentally unfair in a way that makes them quit/leave.

Then we have leadermarkers, for leadermarkers I cannot/could not ever see a justification for the level of use that they saw. Leadermarkers are about as close to literal cheating as a tool can get when used in a competitive setting outside of administration duties. I acknowledge that it can be useful in server event situations or when spectating player, but when you are actively killing people with leadermarkers on and spawned gear I can easily see how players might feel that staff are cheating. It brings into question the integrity of the whole server.  I dont think anyone could argue with a straight face that someone both seeing them on the map/through walls and shooting at them with spawned in gear at the same time would not make players frustrated to the point of leaving. Because it is unfair, despite what rationalizations anyone can come up with. That is not a "perk" that is cheating.

To anyone who has/would contend that staffing does not play a role in the perception and popularity of a server I could not more strongly disagree. When players feel staff are cheating/abusing powers or are having heated arguments with them in chat it does not make the server feel like a welcoming environment or a place they want to be. I acknowledge our server has other problems, which i am working on fixing as best I can! However, staff integrity and actions can easily make or break a server and should not be downplayed like it has been in a few comments above. Because when players see staff continually using powers in a way that tips the balance beyond any reasonable perception of fairness for no reason except personal enjoyment it WILL drive people away, especially when it continues over the course of months even the most loyal players will leave, feeling hopeless and like the deck is stacked against them

The players on the server should not be our enemies, the community and loyal players are what ultimately makes a server great/long lasting. To treat players with disdain and disrespect is not just unprofessional, it is suicidal for the server. Staff arent better than players, we are there to ensure the server runs fairly and smoothly. I think at some point this fact was lost sight of by some people.

As i see it our role now is two fold,

a) to re-establish faith in the integrity of staff,

b) improve the server (performance and gameplay wise) to make it more enjoyable again.

To anyone who has been away, You are most welcome back with open arms and if you have any feedback or wants for the next update let me know! We can all make WL great again together :)

 

Anyway I've said my piece now, I hope it helps shed some light on everything.

[Nova 1779]

3 hours ago, ItzSnow said:

#BringBackOldWasteland

its comin

[Blue Eagle [+1 CREW] 181]

What happened to snowwies comment anyone?

[Salt 77]

What the hell has happened ever since myself and mozkelby retired. Seriously, it has come to this. Fellow staff members abusing their powers (ya mum) no surprise there. Always felt a bit fishy about him. 

Shocked that the population is like this now.

 

[Salt 77]

Im not trying to sound like a dick, but as soon as links (good admin but power got to his head), Mozkleby ( Great leader/Manager but couldnt handle the mess which was happening at the time) and myself retired, the whole server population started to decrease.

Dont get me wrong, it didnt just go from like nearly maxed to 40 straight away. It just slowly dropped down.

Im not saying unit stuffed it up. He has done a great job taking over moz but it leads to more of towards the other staff and also lack of interest of playing wasteland.

I aint pointing any fingers at anyone.... just putting my 2 cents in. 

I would love to come back but we would have to see ?

[LAZYSHOT 49]

14 hours ago, Salt said:

Im not trying to sound like a dick, but as soon as links (good admin but power got to his head), Mozkleby ( Great leader/Manager but couldnt handle the mess which was happening at the time) and myself retired, the whole server population started to decrease.

Dont get me wrong, it didnt just go from like nearly maxed to 40 straight away. It just slowly dropped down.

Im not saying unit stuffed it up. He has done a great job taking over moz but it leads to more of towards the other staff and also lack of interest of playing wasteland.

I aint pointing any fingers at anyone.... just putting my 2 cents in. 

I would love to come back but we would have to see ?

True that....but WOW we have called this shit for while..sorry I just logged in?

Edited January 12, 2018 by LAZYSHOT
L

[Salt 77]

On 12/01/2018 at 11:36 PM, LAZYSHOT said:

True that....but WOW we have called this shit for while..sorry I just logged in?

Yea, so have myself and some others, but what can we do lol

Oh well, lets look foward to making wasteland great again