Frequently Asked Questions: Admin Edition

[WuHanXianShi14 0]

1 hour ago, 501warhead said:

 

> literally spent an entire day dedicated to increasing communication, works full time and yet comes home exited to work on/for lotc

 

"No passion btw XD"

 

XD my mans, XD. Glad you don't pick admins, you wouldn't know passion if it hit you on the head. I don't stick around because I want to stroke my own power ego, the power trip disappears after about a month on the team. About a month in you realize the scope of management as an administrator, realize how much you've got to juggle, and realize how much stress it is. Administrators without passion drop like flies. I'm here because of passion, because of vision. But of course, clearly I don't have passion and should step down - I'm contributing nothing to the server!!!!!

Maybe people would like you more if you were more personable and less dickish and didnt reply to criticism with aggressive sarcasm

[User 366]

6 hours ago, 501warhead said:

 

- We're currently attributing the retention issues to issues getting new players involved in the community (either through getting lost on the roads or not being interacted with by people), new players not finding anything to do, or new players not really getting into roleplay properly. The monk project was a big effort to try to resolve that which should hopefully start up again and get traction soon, being in-game people to guide folks and teach them the ins and the outs of the server. Then trying to promote community activity with a bunch of stuff so that they can find people to interact with. I think it's a pretty good summary of the retention issues.

 

- We have a general idea for media team director but there arent exactly people chomping at the bit, the team is very small. You'd be surprised at how few really want to do this, it's been like pulling teeth.

 

- Running rules like that would be a headache. Maybe a live stream? I'm not sure. We should do more community reviews though.

- In response to retention, I offer you this. Based on what I've witnessed, new players are literally gold for Kingdoms and groups that want to succeed. I know people that actively brought new players to our ranks the moment they saw "Welcome New Player to LordoftheCraft!" broadcasted to the server. I also know people who actively hire new players and fully dedicate their LoTC experience to giving them something to do, a good example of this being @ChumpChump who you'll find hiring and giving jobs to new players on every map. I genuinely believe without a doubt that if you treat nation leaders, as well as people like ChumpChump, as player retention solutions then the problem would most definitely be addressed on a more intimate level. Some sort of bi-weekly meeting with Nation Leaders on an official capacity to check on their status, how their cities are doing, what they think the issue is if they're not doing well, how they think you can help them, what you think they could do better, plugins they think would make their management easier, plugins that support assigning tasks to new players, the list goes on and on. At the moment nations are treated as some arbitrary group of players with no real significance, treat the leaders of these nations as the official representatives of player groups that they are. There should always be an active discussion with them, they're the ones that truly interact with players on a much deeper level. I'm confident that you'll see the issue of player retention in a different light if you do this actively. The issue of player retention won't be your burden to bear alone, or the 2 other active admins you work with.

- In response to the lack of media team director candidates: I am without a doubt guaranteeing you that if you make an official server post asking people to submit applications with the criteria that I previously listed, there will be countless people who are both capable of editing videos and capturing footage. I looked around the forums briefly and haven't seen any official attempts at searching for someone with these skills. You never know what kind of skilled people you find when you widen the search to the hundred or so people that frequent the forums.

Edit:

 

[oblivionsbane 714]

501, I think you're a great guy, and I'd call you a friend. I have to say that you have issues though as an administrator. To note, while I was GM team and I interacted with you, it always seemed like you lacked leadership and management skills. When Tahmas left the team along with most of the GM staff my first time around, I wanted you to tell me everything was going to be fine and put down my fears since I had just lost all my managers, but instead, I had to encourage you to do that. Also when I was a GM this last time, I remember in a meeting on war rules you weren't sure how to even do the meeting. I ended up saying write down some guidelines on what you want done and we can try and make rules that accomplish it. I'm trying to point out that I, as a subordinate staff member, should have not had to push you towards making more effective choices. That was a while ago and maybe things have changed, but I don't think this was merely incompetence. I think that you overwork yourself, and that affects how well you can get new work done. Also, the sheer attitude of LotC currently has to drain you. I'm not going to discredit the massive amount of work you've done though, and for every failed project I'm sure you've had a successful one (like the economy from last map). The thing is, if you get hung up on any of that you're going to have problems. You have to just keep moving forward and be prepared to innovate because the server is always changing. My final critique is that you don't lack vision; you lack the charisma, skills, and resolve to push your vision forward. You can change little things, but I've never really seen you crack down on major problems like toxicity. Your lack of skills and charisma make me think that you should take some kind of a break or hiatus to recharge.

[Arhbi 181]

Arhbi 4 Admin

 

[Archbishop 1784]

What has Telanir done in the past month?

[Hobbs_Burrows 497]

8 hours ago, User said:

You guys are doing just enough to maintain what was accomplished 6-7 years ago at this point. The server isn't dying, but if you were to look at a graph of server player count since 2012 it would literally be a flat line. That's the main issue in my eyes, there's no real attempt at growing. The past few years on LoTC has just been a micromanaging fest. It's not hard to do things like advertise on your youtube account which has a decent following, it's not hard to promote the things that cause the server to break 200+ players for a single event (Wars). You guys practically shun wars, and you don't use your Youtube channel for anything useful whatsoever.
 

It's clear that the past few renditions of the Media team have totally failed, so just take matters into your own hands. Make small videos showcasing the increasing amount of well made plugins on the server, make videos of events that literally happen every day, make videos of war claims with BACK STORY to show people that it's actually a dynamic server (even though that's debatable). Hire someone on Fiverr or something with the donation money to get a nice trailer narration voice. DISPLAY these videos on the front page of lordofthecraft.net. The videos, as useless as they are, still get a good amount of views. They would get even more views if you showcased more than just builds.

Another very obvious thing, the fact that people need to ask "What does X admin even do" is such a massive red flag. Admins should be actively involved, actively improving, actively making feedback threads, actively asking what the players want, actively trying to do things. If all of these things were being done then people would know who they are and exactly what they do. It goes without saying that discussing things in a discord chat a few times a week while having zero presence in game or on the forums is most definitely not good leadership.

Look at Shiftnative's forum activity when he was server lead, I'm not saying he was perfect but if all Admins had that kind of passion and level of effort the server would be a booming environment.

I haven't mentioned competency at all but that seems to always have been a massive issue on LoTC as well. Not everyone is meant for leadership roles, and you guys seem to have a problem with being bias and reacting emotionally to things.

 

 

 

Very well said. The attitude of people running the server for several years now has just been to tread water. No good or consistent attempt to reach out to other people by making videos, beautiful screenshots, interesting plugins, or anything innovative in any way. The server has less substance and content than it did 7 years ago. Someone was clever and ambitious enough to make a brilliant server 7 years ago and they’ve all been quite content to ride that wave ever since. 

 

501warhead you can remember those times quite clearly I’m sure. Just off the top of my head of things that were added in the space of 1-2 months are books plugin, skills plugin, ale plugin, mining permits and mines in the real world, magic plugin, soulstones, house purchasing plugin, experiments with spout craft and bukkitcontrib. On top of that we had frequent and public communication as to what was being made and where the server was going. Dev diaries, livestreams, vaq’s big mouth and cocky attitude all over teamspeak for everyone to hear and understand that the server was on the up. In the 8-9 months this map has existed, all I can remember having added is a llama trade plugin and hunting (which we already had in aegis with the much simpler system of having the wilderness full of monsters which drop minas).

 

I’ve read some whinging about people being angry that your only response is essentially ‘it will work out eventually’. But your entire attitude is not good enough. No ones attitude has been good enough for years. You need to get motivated. Make plugins - and do it faster. Have the drive and enthusiasm to show off the server to the world with quality videos and screenshots. Actually do something as admins - I read the explanation of what each admin does and it made me laugh. I can picture you all scratching your head and thinking ‘what DO I do?’ and then settling for the excuse that you do ‘lore’ or ‘inducting new admins’ or ‘communication’ or ‘strategy’. I don’t know how you can possibly write those explanations and seriously believe that any of that is good enough.

[Its_Just_Leap 399]

22 hours ago, 501warhead said:

The map is too large!

We know

God its not too large. The problem is that people would rather go make a castle or a bad freebuild nation simply because they want to. So remove freebuild and all that fun shiz. . .

 

Also tell the world development team to do a bit better of a job making the map look more dynamic, thanks! ❤️

[Anderssn 1115]

@501warhead@Knox

You claim to have plans to do a lot of stuff with the teams, but we don't see that. This post sure is the first step but we've been seeing these "first steps towards better communications" several times the past two years. I know my attitude as WD was probably a tiny bit toxic and my rants are usually that. But heres a suggestion for real.

 

 

Make an openly available schedule, or a General development Roadmap for lotc. Put it on the front page of the forums/website and keep updating as things change etc. Not only will it give the community a general idea of whats going on and whats to come, and what the staff are doing. Link posts to each topic on the schedule or somewhere with an explanation to each, and try to elaborate and go directly to business with them, as you can see it only aggravates us when the communication coming from the staff is mainly misdirection or avoiding the actual issue(s) at hand.

 

You don't have to wait for the project to start to post about it, if you have an idea and a potential solution to one of the servers many issues, inform the community and give a rough estimated time frame for it.

 

Something like this could put some pace into the work schedule too, give time limits and deadlines for team's projects to make them actually work their sloth asses. There's no denying the staff at least the GMs tend to work extremely slowly. Like when you guys set a date for raid rules release 5 weeks ahead, the GMs didn't touch the google drive for 4 weeks and basically completed all of the rules within the last week because it was the deadline. Just give a the real needed amount of time for them to complete the task, if they don't stick to time limit then whip their asses and warn their director.

 

Td;lr

Roadmap/schedule for all staff and server projects available to everyone.

 

[PraiseTheLord 868]

On 8/5/2018 at 3:14 AM, 501warhead said:

And yes, they are at critical levels. But, that's why I'm making something like this, no?

 

On 8/5/2018 at 3:14 AM, 501warhead said:

It's not intended to "address player concerns".

 

I know I'm a bit late but I find this funny lmao

[Adelemphii 1766]

On 8/4/2018 at 6:47 PM, L0rdLawyer said:

Reading!

I personally enjoy reading, send me documents that you need read pls thx.

On 8/5/2018 at 12:42 AM, L0rdLawyer said:

Is the server the greatest right now? No.

Is the server on it's last breath? No.

 

LOTC is at a lull where players want to give up hope but don't want to see the server die. No matter who you are, what rank you held, what your reputation is, it doesn't matter. We are all here because something on LOTC kept us around. We don't want to admit it, but the reason why we all leave and come back is because LOTC filled, or still fills, a void in our lives.

 

There are players that get banned, over and over, yet still try to log on.

There are players that were pushed away by their friends, their co-workers, yet still come back and try again.

There are players that push themselves to the limit to try to make a difference, told they don't matter, yet still, try again.

 

I could go on and on about this all day. Yet in the end of things it comes down to a few things. We're on LOTC for a reason, we stayed for a reason. You have a choice to try and help the server improve itself, or you can sit back and do nothing.

 

@501warhead I will call you out on this. Your words show a lot of emotions behind them. From being tired and wanting to give up, from having a lot of drive behind it all, it's a battle and you have to realize, everyone paints as you being alone. But at the end of the day, that's the struggle we all face. And the reality of the struggle, we aren't alone.

It's also great to note that this man is really good at his job, and speaks much more reason than most people allow him.

[JustMeMorgan 2065]

On 8/5/2018 at 2:14 AM, ZachoSnacko said:

On 8/5/2018 at 2:13 AM, Tofuus said:

 

I'll answer this one since it's a dev thing. There's actually a cosmetic cooking plugin that's being actively worked on atm by one of the coders. It's pretty close to completion so SOON TM.

 

As for alchemy.....maybe. We might go down the cosmetic route again. It's a bit up in the air atm.

i just hate having to explain to players interested in the dying art of alchemy that they need to be vip or suck one off to do alchemy, it really pushes them away from it.

 

Man my man

You don't need VIP for alchemy

You just need to have the balls to tell the LT/GMs 'Hey **** off I made this potion using ABC and that is how it works, so please can you be nice and do this for me'

 

I do alchemy and I'm a coal vip, I do blacksmithing as a coal vip

Coal VIP let's me change names, I get GMs to do rest or hell, don't even make the potion an item, we shouldn't have to rely on shitty pixels for rp unless we need to present them in combat

 

An Alchemy Plugin will just ruin alchemy, you don't see an Enchanting Plugin for Transfiguration do ya?

Alchemy is as free-form as anything, putting crap restrictions on it by forcing players to have to hunt for herbs and result in the game turning back to an MMO will just make it die further, people just need to have the balls to do something without holding hands

[LoTC's Next Top Model 1626]

On 8/4/2018 at 11:04 PM, 501warhead said:

...What? We've accepted 1,600 people this year. 1,500 have joined and 200 of them are still playing, our retention rate is actually going up, currently at 28.5%. What is this flat line you're talking about? Do you even know what you're talking about? Because right now, looking at the numbers, it doesn't really agree with you. That rate can and should be better but we've been rapidly bringing in new players who are enjoying the server - while the retention is garbage it's not this so called "flat line".

 

Bit late here, but I still feel like this needs to be pointed out, I think it's fairly obvious that either 501 is really bad at interpreting data, or deliberately misrepresenting this point. If 200 players have been accepted this year, and continue to actively play, and the player count is roughly the same at most times as it was at the start of the year, as shown by the following graph from the same post I quoted this from...

 

 

That means about 200 players have /stopped/ playing. New people are coming in, old people are going out, and the average is exactly the same. There hasn't been any /growth/, because as many players are leaving as joining. It's a flat line.

 

I don't think 501 is that stupid or bad at data interpretation, but I've been wrong before. I don't think it was even complicated to see what this dude was saying, if I was able to figure it out, as a burnt out dropout with an IQ of like sixteen, after all the swimming in bottled iced tea my brain has been doing.

 

Edit: Also this.

...What? We've accepted 1,600 people this year. 1,500 have joined and 200 of them are still playing, our retention rate is actually going up, currently at 28.5%

 

200/1600 is not 28.5%

It's 12.5%

And if he was referring to retention rate as of right now, you literally cannot see if a player has decided to stay in the first month, or however he's deciding a player has stuck around. I'd say you could only consider a player in for the long haul after three months. I've met plenty of new players that drop LoTC after about a month and a half.

 

[Zacho 2177]

Moved to The Great Library. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.

 

If you feel this is a mistake, please contact myself or any FM and we'll restore it.