Friendliness level of the staff is the best criteria for server success

Started by Helrouis, Jun 14, 2008, 07:47 AM

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My question corresponds to a "newly launched server" - Do you agree or Not?

Agreed, friendliness of GMs does matter a LOT
No, as long as they're good on implementing features, it's good.

Pandora

You get both. You find people to complete your team so it's well rounded, if you're good at tech you get a pr GM to handle all the in-game drama and assistance needed. Also, you learn to delegate, because you can't do everything yourself, regardless what kind you belong to.
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Helrouis

Quote from: Pandora on Jun 16, 2008, 09:41 AM
You get both. You find people to complete your team so it's well rounded, if you're good at tech you get a pr GM to handle all the in-game drama and assistance needed. Also, you learn to delegate, because you can't do everything yourself, regardless what kind you belong to.

Yes, but it's hard to find someone to trust. =/ , i mean the pr you're speaking of miss pandora.

Mewi

You need both,  either way friendliness should never effect the GMs ability to enforce the rules.  You could be the friendliest GM on the server, but the moment you punish someone for breaking the rules is the moment you could get branded corrupt/unfair/dumb or whatever else comes in line next.  Being a GM is a love hate situation, either people really love you, or people really hate you.  There is not really an in between.

Drama,  you could have either, or, or both and still get mass drama.  Drama is a huge problem even on official servers.  I wouldn't expect to see a 24/7 peaceful RO server.  The internet brings so many people together... whether you like it or not,  the good, the bad, the ugly ( in terms of personality )

After several GM jobs, all of which contained one level of Drama or another my friendly levels have dropped a great deal.  I now am extremely serious when it comes to people breaking the rules... because I know ( from experience ) that if you let one thing slide,  then it will just get worse and worse and worse, until people are crying "But you let him get away with it! CORRUPT" or "OMG STOP THESE PEOPLE THEY ARE HARASSING ME"  or some random scenario of similarity.

But either way,  I've said it once, and I will say it again.  Developing and GMing are two entirely different areas...  Developers do not make good GMs and professional GMs do not make good developer.  I have heard this statement before  "Anyone can do a GMs job" .  Sure anyone can DO a Gms job, anyone could DO a developers job,  but can they do it right?  Highly unlikely... Hence all of the corrupt GMs.

I personally,  despise when someone says anyone can do my job especially when they haven't taken a single step in my shoes.


Becoming a GM means you sacrifice a part of your soul forever, be prepared.

Helrouis

Quote
I personally,  despise when someone says anyone can do my job especially when they haven't taken a single step in my shoes.
True, players really are perfectionist.. Sometimes, I even want my server to be managed by my npcs rather than me myself. Though in the end of the day, they would be looking for real people behind the great game.

Thorin

Best chance for small servers is to advertise and prey on the players of larger servers that die. sadly thats what happens =/

Helrouis

Or the target, as I said before, can be the youth who aren't into RO. They would be the best prey ever. Because if an individual here belonging in the forums can still remember the 1st time they play RO, it was like, addicting, and more or less these people wouldn't leave your server right away.

Auroraâ„¢

I, personally, think that Mewi hit this question on the head.

Granted, I've only been doing GM jobs for about.. three? four years now? However, I've been through probably almost any drama that can be brought up among staff vs staff, staff vs players and even staff vs server. As Mewi already said, it's a commonly known fact that most friendly/professional/smart GMs have freak out when they see the first glimpse of anything related to scripting. (I, myself, can handle messing around with TXT crap, but SQL, C++ and everything inbetween is like a carpenter trying to figure out how to build a computer, i have no idea what to do.) And vice-versa for talented designers.

To me, a good, professional GM is kind, friendly, open and accepting. They get along well with other players, and they actually try to get to know them. They make it their personal duty to bond with players, while at the same time get the job done. A good GM won't break rules or abuse for their friends, and they certainly won't let their friends slide with rules. They're not afraid to smash someone with the ban hammer, and they're certainly not afraid to put their foot down. Granted, GMs are human, but that's no excuse to do the same thing over and over and over again. Mistakes are there for a reason, as well as second chances.

Now, as also already been stated, good GMs are the ones people end up hating, because they do their job. Players get angry, they fuss, they whine because things didn't go their way. And unfortunately, that's exactly what causes good GMs to leave their positions 9/10 times.

The only way, in my own opinion, to have a well built staff is to a have an integrated staff made up of at least 2 professional GMs, and 2 GMs that know how to script/design. (That's at the minimum, anyways. I personally prefer bigger staffs, made up of different time zones.)

Either way, my answer is, mixed. So, basically, I agree with practically everyone here. XD


» Coming Soon! «

Poki

Become the angry professional administrator and hire minions currently known as GMs to do the "kindness" for you.

Also like to point out that kindness does not last forever in the server as a GM or as an administrator.  The kindness will eventually die out, you will be bored, and lose your commitment.

Guest

T.T stop being so depressing lol
but ya your right in most ways.... nothing lasts forever =/


but i still think that all GM's need to be as kind and professional as possible

freakyred

yeah ... at least act kind so that people will go on your server.

Poki

Yup, in the end, the best GM team would be the team with both kind professional GMs and strict demonic GMs.

freakyred

Quote from: Poki on Aug 20, 2008, 02:30 AM
Yup, in the end, the best GM team would be the team with both kind professional GMs and strict demonic GMs.
well ... that's true and false at the same time because those GMs could balance the server but could also argue about how to handle different situations.

Poki

Then they're terrible GMs for jumping and meddling in to another GM's capabilities of solving and handling a problem.

asdfqwerty123

The question itself is flawed to begin with because lacking either isn't good, and only considering those aspects is a narrow view of what people can bring to your server.

But in a nutshell, friendly yet unskilled staff not making any progress on updates or features (or even basic things to keep the server online should anything happen) isn't as effective as impersonal/not-so-socially-involved staff that are skilled (notice I didn't say mean or rude, I said impersonal).  But obviously friendly and skilled are the best combination.  You need to have at least one person with the ability to add features or you really have no server worth playing in the first place.

And here's a fact, just because you're social doesn't mean people like you.  In fact it makes you a lightning rod when you're too social.  You're a target for favoritism claims.

Staff A's server would last longer than Staff B's server, but neither would be pleasant because they both lack critical things.

You know what works better?
Combine Staff A and B to make Staff C.
Enforce staff rules, weed out those who are not cut out to be staff.

Anti-Static Foam Cleaner

Quote from: Auroraâ,,¢ on Aug 17, 2008, 09:14 PMAs Mewi already said, it's a commonly known fact that most friendly/professional/smart GMs have freak out when they see the first glimpse of anything related to scripting.

This is SO exploitable.