GM feedback thread
Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 3:10 am
Almost half a year ago, I posted some feedback in regards to the GMs of UOSA. A lot has changed since then--for both me and the GMs. I want to take this thread to discuss contemporary feedback, give the GMs the credit they deserve, and help players understand their individual roles here.
DERRICK
Still inactive. Hope to see him come back at some point; I'm not sure if there's any possibility of that, though.
Mammoth
Still MIA. Would love to have him back to do some PvP events but naturally everybody is empathetic due to what happened.
Kaivan
I believe my criticism of Kaivan was the most unfair. I've since come to respect his role here on UOSA a lot more. Without a confident policymaker, a shard like this couldn't exist. Even though some of us want to duel Kaivan irl for town-addons and changes to certain aspects of the shard, without him, this shard could very well devolve into a cess-pool of neon and 13 year olds at the drop of a dime. Keep that in mind next time Kaivan disagrees with you.
Boomland
Boomland gets a lot of praise right now, and for good reason. He's spearheaded almost every event that's currently taking place. This place would be boring as fuck without him. Since (but not necessarily due to) my initial criticism, he's taken it upon himself to diversify event categories and polish existing events.
(in George Costanza's voice) "Bagball, Jerry! BAGBALL!"
It's important that we remember that Boomland is not superman. When he runs event nights, please do not spam him with "one more tourney plzzz!" or "this event sucks". Instead, treat him like a human being. If you have an issue or feedback with an event, PM him on the forums or IRC. If you want to see more events, contact him and seek his approval in order to try running an event yourself! You'd be surprised how willing he is to cooperate and add GM support to players wanting to run events. Not every event is going to be a raging success, but just because something's hit or miss doesn't mean there's no sense in trying.
Anarcho
Anarcho was the GM that received the brunt of my criticism. In hindsight, the reason for this was twofold: he has less of a filter on what he says than the other GMs, and his role here is mostly implementing changes to existing code. There is naturally a lot more room for error when it comes to this than say, Boomland's role. When Boomland screwed up with the silver drop rate, things blew over in about a day or three (for most of us, at least). In contrast, when Anarcho makes a mistake, people end up placing Ocllo bank houses or bridging three towers together and getting sweet grandfathered spots. Of course, this leads to frustration among players.
But I've learned that that's just how these things go. Sometimes people make mistakes. Nobody is paying Anarcho, he does this in his own free time. I'm confident he does his very best to ensure there are no mistakes in the code, but there are bound to be errors due to him working on this stuff mostly alone. Are these mistakes worthy of constructive discussion? You bet. Is Anarcho worthy of scorn because of them? Absolutely not. My borderline personal attacks on him in my initial feedback post were completely uncalled for. Join me in making a concerted effort to help Anarcho when he needs testing done and not beat him with a bat when he does slip up.
That's all. What're your thoughts?
DERRICK
Still inactive. Hope to see him come back at some point; I'm not sure if there's any possibility of that, though.
Mammoth
Still MIA. Would love to have him back to do some PvP events but naturally everybody is empathetic due to what happened.
Kaivan
I believe my criticism of Kaivan was the most unfair. I've since come to respect his role here on UOSA a lot more. Without a confident policymaker, a shard like this couldn't exist. Even though some of us want to duel Kaivan irl for town-addons and changes to certain aspects of the shard, without him, this shard could very well devolve into a cess-pool of neon and 13 year olds at the drop of a dime. Keep that in mind next time Kaivan disagrees with you.
Boomland
Boomland gets a lot of praise right now, and for good reason. He's spearheaded almost every event that's currently taking place. This place would be boring as fuck without him. Since (but not necessarily due to) my initial criticism, he's taken it upon himself to diversify event categories and polish existing events.
(in George Costanza's voice) "Bagball, Jerry! BAGBALL!"
It's important that we remember that Boomland is not superman. When he runs event nights, please do not spam him with "one more tourney plzzz!" or "this event sucks". Instead, treat him like a human being. If you have an issue or feedback with an event, PM him on the forums or IRC. If you want to see more events, contact him and seek his approval in order to try running an event yourself! You'd be surprised how willing he is to cooperate and add GM support to players wanting to run events. Not every event is going to be a raging success, but just because something's hit or miss doesn't mean there's no sense in trying.
Anarcho
Anarcho was the GM that received the brunt of my criticism. In hindsight, the reason for this was twofold: he has less of a filter on what he says than the other GMs, and his role here is mostly implementing changes to existing code. There is naturally a lot more room for error when it comes to this than say, Boomland's role. When Boomland screwed up with the silver drop rate, things blew over in about a day or three (for most of us, at least). In contrast, when Anarcho makes a mistake, people end up placing Ocllo bank houses or bridging three towers together and getting sweet grandfathered spots. Of course, this leads to frustration among players.
But I've learned that that's just how these things go. Sometimes people make mistakes. Nobody is paying Anarcho, he does this in his own free time. I'm confident he does his very best to ensure there are no mistakes in the code, but there are bound to be errors due to him working on this stuff mostly alone. Are these mistakes worthy of constructive discussion? You bet. Is Anarcho worthy of scorn because of them? Absolutely not. My borderline personal attacks on him in my initial feedback post were completely uncalled for. Join me in making a concerted effort to help Anarcho when he needs testing done and not beat him with a bat when he does slip up.
That's all. What're your thoughts?