Sunday, November 21st, 2010
Issue: 56   Editor: SeanRFgt


Two New Moderators: a New Start? NVIDIAldarion
This week, two new moderators were added to the Bootleggers staff: Zeb and KamikazeDavid. The Buzz had an interview with both new moderators to see how they felt about their promotions.

We kick off with one of the most killed Help Desk Operators (HDO) of the modern times. Some say he accepted the offer to become mod just to avoid being killed any more. All we know is, he is called KamikazeDavid. The interview started off very serious when he stated his initial feelings about the promotion, “After logging in this morning and looking at the statistics page, my first thoughts were probably "boy if I hadn't accepted last night I’d be thinking of a new username right now".” Leaving serious matters aside, he continued, “Joking aside it was the end of one era for me last night on bootleggers, handing over the crew spot, funds etc and then explaining to a few select people that I will no longer be there to help with crew matters. So basically it was goodbye to being shot at and gambling my cash away and hello to a new era with fresh surroundings and different responsibilities.”

Only a few manage to skip the step of being HDO and unfortunately KamikazeDavid couldn’t skip the step of becoming one of the biggest targets in the game. However, did he ever aspire to become a mod? He told us, “Being offered the HDO position way back was a complete surprise and as mentioned below I had no goal/plan to move further up the ladder. If all the current HDO's had been promoted and I stayed yellow would it have bothered me, not at all, we all have different skills/abilities and at the end of the day it shouldn't be about who has been there longest etc, the game should be put way before anyone’s potential ego.”

Recently, some stories were posted on the forums that suggested he had been offered the job of mod before, but that he refused to become one. We asked him whether this was true, or not. He said, “yes I had indirectly been asked if I fancied the position, initially back in August and then again mid-September (going from memory) by 5Litre. Due to the fact I rarely share much information with anyone the full story of those discussions may not have been known to many. Basically I went to Travis (5Litre - I get moaned at when I use peoples real names) back in August as the game at that time was lacking (at least I personally felt that) an active European moderator who could deal with issues etc rather than tickets sitting queued or problems occurring which would not be solved until later in the day. With a fulltime job (yes I still have the job right now) I would never have been able to give my time to the game during that period, so I put forward people who I felt would help cure the gap we had and went back to my own daily routine.”

Even though KamikazeDavid initially did not want to accept the position he eventually did. He told us, “One of the most important aspects would be listening to the Community, understanding their concerns and hopefully over the course of time moving things forward and bringing back the strong bond the Community once had with one another. Of course that certainly won’t stop me moaning about things in the background, even though I’m sure some are more than happy I don't irritate them these days with my frustrations (no names mentioned, but he knows who he is).”

Of course, leaving as a HDO meant that he left an inheritance for the other HDOs as well. Something I’m not quite sure they’ll like. David said, “The only additional piece I can add at this stage is I’m glad Sean, Lew and Sky are all aiming high and trying to take over my role of being the most killed HDO this round. However at present they all have a fair way to go.” So, there we are, a new ambitious mod who is not just taking care of the people playing the game, but also expressing interest in his fellow colleagues being shot. I’m sure his feelings are appreciated.

We move on to someone who returned to a position he already had, a long time ago. After a lot of hard work he left to return several years later, not having seen the game for years. Ladies and gentlemen, please applaud for the one and only Zeb!

We first asked him how it felt to be back at his old spot. He told us, “Great! I honestly wasn't expecting it and only asked once during the Dutch hacker episode to help stop that and was actually approached out of the blue.” The games has changed a lot throughout the years and someone who’s been away for while probably has a clear view of how things are now compared to how they were back in the days. Zeb told us, “I'd have to say mixed feelings. It's one of those nostalgia things really. I started here about 6 years ago (maybe earlier) and back then respect was very much a part of the game and there was much more action. Now the code has improved and dupes & proxies have been mostly sorted I think some are cautious of getting into action for losing their accounts. I can't say for sure as I've never duped or proxied.”

Accepting Zeb seems to be a move that makes a lot of sense. He is someone with experience and someone who also understands the game on a code basis. Some of you perhaps know that Zeb used to code as well, all these years ago. Considering that BSF was the only one capable of coding, accepting Zeb seems to be a move that makes even more sense considering his capabilities of coding. We asked him if he would perhaps start coding again, he told us, “For that one I'd have to think very seriously if it was ever offered. I can code and have done for 30 years on countless languages over many platforms but I'm strict. I have set rules when coding and as such I find it extremely difficult to adapt to other methods. Plus that could take me into areas I might not be comfortable with.”

We also asked him whether his coding capabilities may have played a role in BSF2000 promoting him to mod (again). He said, “I don't know to be honest. I know that when 5litre and Nyxxie left there was a void because they'd done such a great job together. I was honestly concerned about the game and did wonder what would happen when they left. When I was approached to come back on the team I thought it would be a good idea. I have the time thanks to my health so I said yes. I've been thinking that my return was mainly to do with I've always been as fair as I can with the players and I've always had the interests of the game and players in mind at all times.”

At the end of the interview he gave of some of his thought on the job that lies ahead of him , “It's difficult when dealing with the community because there's the old saying that applies, "You can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time" so there'll always be someone unhappy and if I suddenly leave a conversation in the forum it's not because I don't care - it's because I can see nothing getting sorted so I'm leaving before tempers flare up and I won't ever drag anything on, name call or get abusive.”

This promotion of two new moderators is very positive. Together with BSF’s announcement on the Game Forum, this shows that he doesn’t want to simply let the game die. Two new active moderators can certainly help to turn the game back around, onto the right track. The fact that the Elite Guard finally has another coder on board (at least one who has the knowledge) is positive as well, as the last coder left over a year ago. Of course, whether this will actually happen remains yet to be seen, but we have to say, this seems a good restart.