Sunday, November 15th, 2009
Issue: 2   Editor: Nyxxie


Staff Intervention Policy ShadowDragon
The Staff Intervention Policy that has been incorporated in this reset states that the staff will interfere with this rounds game play less. They also state that they will only step in in the most extreme cases. In this article, the Buzz will attempt to iron out all of the interpretations so that players will be able to understand what this policy means to them.

At the Buzz, we created a help desk ticket. Our question was simply, "What does the new Staff Intervention Policy mean to the players? Help Desk Operator #3 happily gave us the following statement, "Concerning less staff intervention, it does not mean we will be non existant at all. We will still be monitoring things; however, we will only get involved in extreme cases. For example, a user says something that personally offends you. Instead of like in the past reporting to the Help Desk and expecting staff to jump in and ban, we ask that you handle this yourself by filtering, ignoring, and then killing if all else fails. It also does not mean we cannot participate in forum topics/discussions."

The next action the Buzz took was to get opinions from the players. We had a wide variety of opinions from players who don't see a change at all, and other players who think the change is way too extreme. TrevWhore had the following to say, "I personally believe that the intervention of Staff is acceptable as long as it is explicitly outlined how and when they will intervene. Consistancy is very important in the business world, and this game is much like a business, with the Staff being the staff, and the users being the consumer that expects the same product every time. I don't think anybody has the right answer on how much the Staff should intervene, but they need to make a decision and stick with it. "TrevWhore brings up a unique idea that as long as the staff is consistant with their interventions it will be fair all around the board. His theory of consistancy was given to other players who wholeheartedly agreed that for this new policy to work, the staff has to stay consistant. The bar for this needs to be set early, and they must stick to it for good.

The Buzz then started an open discussion in the game forums to allow everyone a shot to get their opinions into the article. Upon the highlights of our discussion, we notice the major issue with our users was the removal of the kick out option that the players had at the end of last reset. The kick out option was available to the creators of topics, if players so chose to, could kick a player out of their topic, and that player would no longer be able to post. A heated discussion took place, some members who wanted the kick out option returned, and others who said it was useless or overabused. Bee wrote in one discussion, "I found the KO button rather annoying. Most people just used it when they couldnt win a discussion." The fact is, with something good, something bad will always follow. The kick out option was originally introduced last reset with the sole purpose in mind, if a player has a spammer or a troller in their topic, they have the power to kick that player out and continue on with their conversation. Unfortunately, this also gave some members a "sense of power" as one player called it, and then the problem began to escalate. The players who were saying the kick out option needed to return were then faced by a very tough question by VoodooDoll. She asked the players, "The KO button was only introduced late last round. How did you deal with things like this before the KO button ever existed?" Nvermind, a player who does many dice game giveaways in the Off Topic Forums, was also the player who was the most avid defender of the kick out option, replied with the following statement, "I didn't do the dice games before the KO button was introduced. I just didn't feel like it. The forums were one big messy place, and I was a calm player looking for friends. Well, I did some small games before the KO became introduced in the game, but I hated the complaining about speed, low pot, etc. While for me, dice games are all about fun. In those days I just quit doing the games because of the damn lack of respect. I didn't want to kill over it, killing isn't a good thing to do to make friends right? After the KO button got introduced, something made me try hosting games again. I kicked the moaners, kicked the players who broke the rules over and over again. My games actually had quite a few standard members who always joined, donated, and played for the fun, not for the pot."

The last question the Buzz had was a question on the integrity of removing the kick out option. Removing the kick out option would indeed be a form of staff intervention, and the staff says they will only doing it in cases that are most extreme. So, does abusing the kick out option by kicking players out of your topic who have different opinions from you, calling someone out and then kicking them when they get there, or having a forum where everyone who posts in your topic gets kicked out, qualify to be an extreme case? The Buzz went back to the help desk to find out. Help Desk Operator #2 response was simply, "Anything done in excess is extreme."

In conclusion, the staff will still be in the forums. They will still be watching everything you do, only unless it's an extreme case will they step in. This is a mafia game people. Maybe not right now, but we have the ability to walk around holding a Thompson and 30,000 bullets. Are we seriously going to cry when a person interrupts our topics, disagrees with us in the forums. We need to grow up and do it the way it's suppose to be done. The staff have other things they need to do besides babysit us. Also to keep in mind, just because they are not going to be interferring with us as much doesn't mean they won't stop in and talk to us in the forums. This is not interferring, this is simply communication between two people. Just because they're red, green, or yellow, doesn't mean that they're not allowed to stop in a forum every once in awhile and say hi. The Buzz wishes you a wonderful day.