Post by brah on Jan 26, 2014 20:37:19 GMT -5
I'm a little late to the party, but I thought I'd throw in my two cent.
I've staffed three games, two MUSHes, and one RPI MUD. One of my roles was similar to a Storyteller in Arm, while another was more of an Administrator. I oversaw regional-level conflicts, wrote and reviewed player and storyteller-submitted storylines. The last role was a combination of role number two and a tool programmer - I designed and implemented contextual commands (for instance, to support a player having a special item, or building a special room, etc). After my first experience staffing, I made a choice to only staff places that meet the following criteria:
1: I get along with headstaff. My 'staff interview' is usually me interviewing them, rather than the other way around. I've turned down 2 staff roles and numerous special roles simply because I don't agree with staff on how things should work. Compromising point 1 is paramount to saying, "When the honeymoon is over, you're really going to regret this." How much I disagree with headstaff (or in Arm-speak, Admins/Producers) tends to reflect directly on how long the honeymoon is.
2: Headstaff has hired me for a reason. In general, while I understand headstaff's right to veto particular plots or ask me to run things by them, I refuse to accept undue control of my sphere of influence from headstaff. Under no circumstances, short of breaking the game or a mass uprising of players, is an approved storyline that's actively being worked on by players to just be discarded.
3: If I'm a team lead, I reserve the right to fire team members. Primarily because they incite staff/player conflict, do not listen to dissenting opinion, or don't do their jobs in a timely manner.
I was on-staff continuously for about four years up until about a year ago, when RL commitments forced me to step down.
I don't regret my time as a staff member at all. One of the most enjoyable experiences for me is to craft a storyline for players to run through and see how they handle it, and allow that plot to be dynamic and take their actions into account. What secrets I learned were far outweighed by the secrets I created in almost all cases, except my first time staffing (which only lasted a few months due to creative differences with the admin team, and I stopped playing that game very soon after that).
The biggest thing that I try to provide (and challenge other staff members to provide for me) is the idea that, no group is homogeneous. People want to 'play through the eyes of a newbie' because every staffer tends to play an organization the same every time. The challenge is that there are always dissenting voices, always people trying to get a leg up or circumvent the system in some way that a clever player can take advantage of. I find that once you know longer know that, after not having played in Kadius for two years, for instance, the organization of Kadius has changed and developed over time - things are 'newer' to you. Granted, you're probably never going to have to try and figure out the syntax of the water seller again, but you'll have to pay attention and not take it for granted that you've had a hundred PCs in Kadius.
As far as coded tools - some, like Arm's, seem pretty spiffy. I would have loved to have had a request tool where I staffed. However, in general, the places I've staffed I've also been able to code for, and if I needed something really bad I would talk with the code leads and develop it. I prefer to work in less-segmented roles than what Arm seems to supply - where you are either an ST, an Admin/Coder, a Producer/Coder.
I've staffed three games, two MUSHes, and one RPI MUD. One of my roles was similar to a Storyteller in Arm, while another was more of an Administrator. I oversaw regional-level conflicts, wrote and reviewed player and storyteller-submitted storylines. The last role was a combination of role number two and a tool programmer - I designed and implemented contextual commands (for instance, to support a player having a special item, or building a special room, etc). After my first experience staffing, I made a choice to only staff places that meet the following criteria:
1: I get along with headstaff. My 'staff interview' is usually me interviewing them, rather than the other way around. I've turned down 2 staff roles and numerous special roles simply because I don't agree with staff on how things should work. Compromising point 1 is paramount to saying, "When the honeymoon is over, you're really going to regret this." How much I disagree with headstaff (or in Arm-speak, Admins/Producers) tends to reflect directly on how long the honeymoon is.
2: Headstaff has hired me for a reason. In general, while I understand headstaff's right to veto particular plots or ask me to run things by them, I refuse to accept undue control of my sphere of influence from headstaff. Under no circumstances, short of breaking the game or a mass uprising of players, is an approved storyline that's actively being worked on by players to just be discarded.
3: If I'm a team lead, I reserve the right to fire team members. Primarily because they incite staff/player conflict, do not listen to dissenting opinion, or don't do their jobs in a timely manner.
I was on-staff continuously for about four years up until about a year ago, when RL commitments forced me to step down.
I don't regret my time as a staff member at all. One of the most enjoyable experiences for me is to craft a storyline for players to run through and see how they handle it, and allow that plot to be dynamic and take their actions into account. What secrets I learned were far outweighed by the secrets I created in almost all cases, except my first time staffing (which only lasted a few months due to creative differences with the admin team, and I stopped playing that game very soon after that).
The biggest thing that I try to provide (and challenge other staff members to provide for me) is the idea that, no group is homogeneous. People want to 'play through the eyes of a newbie' because every staffer tends to play an organization the same every time. The challenge is that there are always dissenting voices, always people trying to get a leg up or circumvent the system in some way that a clever player can take advantage of. I find that once you know longer know that, after not having played in Kadius for two years, for instance, the organization of Kadius has changed and developed over time - things are 'newer' to you. Granted, you're probably never going to have to try and figure out the syntax of the water seller again, but you'll have to pay attention and not take it for granted that you've had a hundred PCs in Kadius.
As far as coded tools - some, like Arm's, seem pretty spiffy. I would have loved to have had a request tool where I staffed. However, in general, the places I've staffed I've also been able to code for, and if I needed something really bad I would talk with the code leads and develop it. I prefer to work in less-segmented roles than what Arm seems to supply - where you are either an ST, an Admin/Coder, a Producer/Coder.