More Staff/Imms

[Kinni]

A rather strange suggestion, admittedly...

I would like to suggest that the current staff group and imms consider taking on some help. Our playerbase is quickly, and thankfully, expanding. Our areas and items are expanding. This means more bug reports, more applications, more suggestions, and more roleplay! All of which are great, but only so long as the players submitting them and participating feel heard for their time and effort, otherwise it can leave a sense of disappointment.

My intention is not to step on any toes with this suggestion, but as amazing as this game and community is, I can see the potential that can be accomplished with a well-oiled machine of staff and imms working in the background. Part of a successful team is knowing what tasks can be delegated.

I'll leave this suggestion at that and add only that I do very much enjoy being part of this gaming community. What has been accomplished so far is very impressive.

[Algon]

A little extra help never hurts! Not sure how over-extended people are. But It's never a bad thing to have help when its needed.

[Harroghty]

I realize that you are not trying to be careful, but I do not want an unfamiliar reader (or prospective player) to get the wrong idea. It is the very rare application or bug report which goes unremarked for longer than one week; the vast majority are resolved in a day or so.

While it would be great for additional people to move into staff roles. The idea of being on staff is far preferable to the reality of it, however; if someone were interested then they would need to be not only capable, but dedicated. It is far more fun to log in and play the game then it is to scroll through pages of code hunting for an elusive bug whose author is now relegated to the pages of the game's history.

In short, being on the staff is not very attractive, but it would be very nice for more people to become (seriously) interested in it.

[Aldren]

I do not think the problem lies in people wanting to join the ranks of staff, but rather the misconception that all staff are IMMs and vice versa. People see it as a large wall to jump to get to the other side - Myself, being a player for more than a decade, I would love to have joined staff one of the numerous times it's come up that the playerbase would expand and require the added help. It goes a long way to help the playerbase as a whole that one cannot simply do by playing their characters and RPing within the bounds of reason.

The biggest point I can make is: People have been contributing to this game so much for so long (and in more ways than just building and coding) that long-term players and those who grasp the policies and happenings of the game would be more than adequate to fill staffing gaps.

Cheers.

[Nysan]

Someone can contribute to the game without being a staff member. Plenty of ways one can improve the game without fancy titles or special commands. Some folks have been doing things for years that have improved the game and they are no more special than you or me. Even minor building projects do not require much more than the average player can do.

As for actual staff member, the idea may sound promising but not everyone can put in the time and dedication such a role requires, even the unsung heroes that do the day-to-day stuff, like new character name authorizations. Over the years, I have been exposed to quite a bit of the behind the scenes of the FK (my work on the crafting system still haunts me, so much repetition!!). I know for a fact I have the ability to do what most imms do, but I never could invest the time that it would require to do the task justice... heck, I can't even muster the time to play Gilain right lately.

As Harroghty pointed out, most applications, bug reports, and the like are tended to rather quickly, far more efficient than in days past. Our current imm staff is holding up with the demand quite well, if you ask me. Still, if anyone thinks they are up to the challenge, ask. Worst case, they say no and that's that. No real drawback. Same can be said about asking to build, especially some of the smaller, minor projects (hint, hint).

[Harroghty]

Absolutely, Nysan. That's a great a point about how players can contribute. A player character contributing to the game world by organizing events or groups is adding a huge amount of value.

[Raona]

...and to perhaps make more sense of the staff responses, which I know I found puzzling before I was on staff, or at least before I ran the Watch...yes, we do need more help! But all too often the experience is that you spend a lot of energy and time training someone in, and then either as they learn the ropes or shortly thereafter, they find they don't really like the staff role as much as they thought, and they stop doing it, or worse still feel bad about it and stop playing altogether. We've lost too many great players that way! It's not bad to suggest and its not bad to out-and-out volunteer - but don't expect to be taken up on it right away. We will likely remember, and we'll look for what you seem into without it being your job (I look for people who report bugs, especially when they report what they think is causing them, for code team). The last two people to volunteer, before I dipped into a three-month pit of teaching overload, were great prospects in many respects...but now that I've returned they are not playing anymore. In both cases they were long-term on-again-off-again players and the conclusion was to wait and see if they stuck around...and they didn't. You can argue that they might have stayed if we'd brought them on board as staff, but past experience has not borne that out. But that we could scry what the outcome would be when we invest in bringing a new staff member on board, but we can't...and years of experience have made us skittish.

In short - one of the prerequisites for staff is longevity. If you want to help us a lot, do what you can as a player, and keep playing! When you start getting bored of playing, because you have been everywhere and done everything (well, not EVERY last where and thing, but to at least to some extent with one PC), offer your services. Don't volunteer for what you think needs the most help, but rather for what you think you would really like to do (because that makes it more likely you'll keep at it, which is what we really need!). Volunteer again from time to time. A string of such offers over time is pretty compelling, especially if you are still actively playing.

...and yes, we are sometimes guilty of being so caught up in trying to keep up with the day-to-day that we don't think strategically about how to get more help! Well, I know I do. So a reminder doesn't hurt! That said, a bigger machine is not necessarily a better machine. It gets harder and harder to maintain well-oiled status as a group gets bigger, particularly in a volunteer organization.