Danny

Answers are in bold to the ones I was able to answer directly.

No, they need an RP situation to go ahead before hand. That's not a new thing... It's never been allowed under any PVP-default system for someone to just kill someone - there must be RP before it. Magic users are currently in a situation until the magic plugin comes out and allows them to operate functionally in PVP, and I still stand by the point that a PVP fight is still RP, almost as equally as an RP-fight itself would be. It's a change that'll take time for those who haven't experienced or seen the positives of PVP-default to get used to, but I can assure you it's much more beneficial in the long run.

Woah, seems you're quite frustrated there, as is to be expected when change like this comes along. I'm not in support of consensual war rules, but I'll reply to the PVP-default aspect of your post. This is a debate that's ran around since really the start of the server. Some people wanted PVP default, some wanted RP. We've hopped between them time and time again and when I was on the staff team, for most of the time, I was pro-RP. I did end up changing to supporting PVP-default and I still support it. It isn't true that anyone can be randomly killed because of PVP default. A - Nobody can actually be randomly killed, RP scenarios must occur before any kind of combat anyway. B - The same could easily happen with an RP default system, it'd just take longer. PVP default leads to less OOC conflict and drama, as well as less bickering and tension. I can categorically state that as I've witnessed it on every step of the rank ladder. RP default has a tendency to end up with accusations of powergaming and people falling out over it. PVP default deals with things nice and cleanly. That being said. RP combat is still entirely available for anyone to use if the other person agrees! It isn't as if RP fighting is outlawed - ask the person "Do you want to RP fight?" and there's a chance, if they think you wont powergame it, that they'll say yes. If anyone is just running up to you and killing you, then you should be reporting that however. Any killing must have a scenario surrounding it and RP leading up to it. Someone can't just approach you and say "Time to die" or something, they need to actually have an RP scenario with you before they try and kill you via PVP. And even then, there's the common misconception that PVP isn't an RP way of dealing with things, when it actually is. It has the RP leading up to it, it fully takes into account things like armour and weaponry (whilst mages are still at a disadvantage currently). And I mean, people will come and counter the arguments I make. And then it'll continue like every other PVP-default or RP-default argument, but the point still stands: I don't do PVP, I'm rubbish at it - but I'm still fully behind PVP default, because I know as a fact that it is the most efficient and effective system that we can put in place on the server. The issue that lies with combat now is that we need to reduce its prevalence in roleplay and try to move people away from combat-orientated roleplay, that's the issue, PVP-default isn't.

Doing the ModReqs, like I mentioned can be an issue though because you do get so easily distracted by other people trying to get a hold of you for even more important things that need to be speedily dealt with. The other points are things that can well be done, but do you really think the impact will be that big? If trust's trying to be built I don't know if quite that will suffice. The important work of the admin team is generally what goes un-noticed. Things ranging from the simple management of the staff to making larger decisions on the server. The credit from it does tend to go down to a single person (as well as the flack), and that's the person who makes the call. That's something that really won't change. I do agree that a more public image is a necessity, and I do think that things as simple as wandering around the forums and posting - this is something I failed to do as time went by, although I was at one point almost at the top of the posting list every day, it died out and I slowed down - instead of just reading, they do need to reply. Perhaps if smaller things like this were all done, by each team member, it might improve that image. And when it comes to periods of inactivity, like Viper's - temporary removal from the rank until they return is the only appropriate action. Permanent isn't the best way, as as far as I know, Viper is going to return, but it looks atrocious when you have people designated as a staff member and they haven't been on in ages. Just to clarify, I ain't arguing against you - I'm totally in agreement that the perception that the playerbase has of the admin team does need to change and that can be done via the admins pursuing a more community-based role, it's finding the best ways to do that that's the struggle. But hey, my feedback means exactly the same as everyone else's these days - I can't make it happen, although I would if I could, we just have to hope that one of the admins hops along and reads this thread, maybe even posts a reply to the matter on it.

That's exactly one of the issues I highlighted - you don't see what it is that the admin team actually does, and that's something that if possible needs to be made more evident to normal players, but it's a hard thing to make more evident because of the nature of the work they do. Unless you expect them to jump around after doing something and make a status saying "Just helped Danny with his forum account problems!" you don't see that sort of thing. I tried to aim for a more public image when I was an admin and near the end of my time I tried to fit in ModReqs etc just to try and improve the visibility of administrators, but it is a hard thing to do because you're getting constantly pestered from elsewhere. I don't quite know how else visibility can be improved, in all honestly - do you have any suggestions on how they could make themselves more present? I mean, they're on TeamSpeak in public channels chatting away. One thing might be getting involved in the general chatter around the forums as that makes them more involved in a friendly way with the community which would help to build trust. It's not an easy thing to solve, and replacing admins isn't the way to resolve it either.

The role of administrator isn't always filled by someone who becomes inherently inactive. It's true that a lot of what the admin team does is behind the scenes. I will admit now though that there is a lot of inactivity (or maybe not even that, but just non-constructive work) hence why I threw the towel in. A more public presence has always been needed and is always something I wanted to see, but it's something that you're unlikely to really actually get. I give full credit to the admin team though - I've been there, and a lot of the work does seriously go unnoticed because a lot of it isn't ModReqs or frontline moderation, but waiting for people to contact you and dealing with larger issues and developing issues under the surface of the server and you tend to get so mixed up that you don't realise your public presence has diminished. Been there, experienced it. Looking back on what I did as an admin, my activity reduced over the months. I was a very active GM - that ain't arrogance speaking that is honestly fact - when I first joined the GM team I was at the top of the ModReq stats, I was on the forums dealing with support and I was active. Over the months that did reduce, and then I became admin and boom activity set in, yet over the months again that diminished. Admin activity isn't nearly what it could be - it hasn't been for a long time, but many people do have this impression the team just sit on their arses and do nothing all day which is entirely the polar opposite of reality. They do work, and much of the work that they do isn't publicly seen as a GMs is via ModReqs, bans, support threads because a lot of it is conducted in speaking with players privately and in dealing with the larger scale issues. The GM team is the more pro-active squad of the server's management, running about dealing with things as they come and before they come. The Admin team isn't the backroom policing as such, but rather the backup folk who deal with things when they get either out of hand or simply when they're contacted directly. It isn't fair to simply categorise it as inactivity due to 'rl issues', but I must admit that there does seem to be the curse of the admin which does occur. Activity does reduce over time, and what needs to be found is two things: Yes, an increase in that activity. However, also a more public image of the actual work done by the administration team because the vast majority of their work does go under-represented in the community. This may be more difficult to achieve than the other point, as without broadcasting "JUST DEALT WITH A PM FROM DANNY", there's little in the way of a solution to this. "old PR person" - I am hurt, hurt.