All right everybody, one week ago I made it known that we were going to appoint people to serve on HelpDesk. With this news, I can tell you now that things are going to change within the next few weeks with how players speak to Coders.
The finalized list of appointees is as follows:
Marietta
Bobblegob
Deimne
ScipitaRourke
PoisonousJelly
Mr_Negative
Cryptic
WillHayes
JackMcLeod
Aurora
PremShark
HairyBaby
Congratulations to them.
So here is how things will work from here on out.
1) You will no longer be able to send messages to coders/developers for any other reason other than personal non-game related material, bugs, or technical coding issues. If there are complaints that you feel the need to lodge: There is a suggestion forum, HelpDesk, or Assistants. The coders/developers have also been instructed that if they are contacted in PM or by Mobmail with issues illustrated above to forward them to HelpDesk and then contact me. If there is a person who becomes a repeated issue for the coders, this person will be removed.
2) If the questions posed to HelpDesk cannot be answered then HelpDesk will forward them to an Assistant who will take a look to see if they are something that needs to be addressed by a coder.
3) If the questions posed to HelpDesk are something that require the person to know the technical workings of the game, then they will be answered with, "That information isn't known to players." Examples of this would be: "How many kills until I can drop Marietta?" "How many bodyguard kills equal a player kill?" "If I break out a person with 20 guards, how many points is it worth?"
4) If any player has problems with being harrassed and doesn't feel comfortable sending the logs or information to HelpDesk they can privately approach an Assistant or Administrator. From there the Assistant/Admin can determine whether it's something they can handle or kick up to the coders.
5) The new HelpDesk appointees will have Street Cleaning, Admin Wack, and Admin Jail features. If you have any issues or complaints about being punished by someone on the HelpDesk staff then contact an Assistant to review the information.
The reason for these appointments and new policy regarding the coders is simple and I will take the time to explain it. We have big plans for this game, and there are a handful of folks who will take any chance to waste a coder's time about bans or game changes, and for the other two owners and I to move ahead and continue working on this game then we need to make strides in how much time is devoted by coders to users with petty complaints or problems with how the game is changed. If we devote money to advertising and different ways to bring in new people, the last thing we want is for new users to see that when there is a problem with the game the immediate resource for help or lending an ear for a complaint is the coders.
Now this is not just a user issue, in the past the Admin staff has tossed around the idea of creating a hierarchy such as this, but everyone would fall back into old habits and waste time with folks just because they had played for a while.
I'm not saying if Izzy, Mario, or Anubis are shooting the shit about real life stuff in IRC or asking for volunteers to test new features you shouldn't talk to them. By all means join in the conversation and get to know them if you don't already, but as soon as it devolves into issues about the game that aren't bug or code related they will need to stop you, refer you to HelpDesk, and then report the incident to me.
For this game to evolve positively and continue to run properly we would appreciate all of your help and compliance in making this policy a success. |
