A Semi-logical view of the Staff Problem

[Cig Smoke]

haha dimboy!!

and good paul bc i dont really mean it as a bashing of any sort im jsut implying what i think of the problem from what i experienced on staff

here is a small exmple i wont use names tho cept me i am the <ZH> :P


help (guy) (#hoebag) : <question)
1:mod> on it
help: (guy) (#hoebag) : thank you
1:mod> !tell saywelcome ( i think :x)


2 days later

help: (guy #2) (pub 0) : <question>
1:Cig Smoke <ZH>> on it!
help: (guy#2) (pub 0) : thank you cig
1:Cig Smoke <ZH>> !tell saywelcome

then i got yelled @ by some upper staff for doin that...but since i saw a mod do it w/o beign yelled @ I thought it wsa alright..get the drift?

[Demonic]

hmm funny cig, cos i often type either !tell msgstaff or !tell yw (your welcome).

No-one has said anything bout it to me, so dunno (i wasnt the mod was i?).

Dem

[Cig Smoke]

no u werent the mod =p

well there u go for some reason i was told not to do it and got a lecture...where as u do it multiple times and nothing done =)...if staff is gonna have a rule to not do them things then have the rule for everyone...or maybe some upper staff got off to lecturing me..i know i get off to lecturing TIgerex or Dark commando when they wont abuse help with me damn sobz

[Server]

Originally posted by Bilbo

rofl!!!

[Zerzera]

Zone Helper:
Helps people in the zones with their questions that are related to TW. I answered helpcalls that were hardware related, software related, food related, relations related and so on....
I was asked questions I didn't know, I look them up, I ask other people and I try to remember.
(One time I was asked how to get killmessages in chat, I told the person to exit game and go to options, he told me that you could toggle it with ?kill, I am not allknowing mkay!)

Being a ZH can be a thankfull job, but alot of times it is not. I never played wbduel, but now I am summoned there every 10 minutes to start it.

The problems is not the newbies, they have real valid questions and any ZH can answer them, and most of the time they're funny and all cool. The most trouble one would get is with people that left the newbie-stage and think of themselves as vets.

Those people can't get enough of asking tricky questions or questions that need subjective answers. Most questions they can answer for themselves. They probably want to test the ZH. When the ZH can't answer they're most satisfied, they have proven to themselves the ZH isn't as good as them and they really should be staff instead of the ZH. Yes, most people want to be staff.
---
Before I started the game (I was hooked on the game first time I saw it, yet couldn't play due technical problems) I played the offline modus and read about every single helpmessage the ticker had, I read the F1 menu and the newbie guides on the internet. Most people could easily do ?help how do I turn off helpticker and five minutes later ?help how do I shoot?.
Maybe they should read before asking for the obvious, and so it is handy that Robohelp answers most of those questions.

I never use robohelp because I don't like it and it's too much trouble. Alot of people aren't clear in their ?help and so I have to ask them what they mean anyway.

[Cig Smoke]

Zerz i dont think many ppl in the public would complain about u..its some of the others...and recently hired oens

[Tigerex]

FREE POST!

[Zerzera]

Originally posted by Cig Smoke
Zerz i dont think many ppl in the public would complain about u..its some of the others...and recently hired oens

Problem then is that I back up every single ZH at this moment, I might know people that I think would make better ZHs, but that is of no importance. Just in real life you might think that certain employees should be replaced by other people, yet you probably don't know enough to judge.
We are talking about people that are assigned to help people (mainly newbies) with TW related questions. Not about world leaders.

The only problem might be that people might get promoted really fast and get certain powers before they were really put to the test, but we will just have to trust upperstaff on that matter.

[kthx]

Alright, well I know your all thinking that im probaly going to start bashing staff cause thats what I seem to be doing lately. Im not doing it to be an asshole, I have seen staff steadily become worse and worse over the last six months. I have had more ER's and Mods take my ?help calls then ZH's. It's as if noone is explaining to the new staff what their job is and what is expected of them every month. I have had ER's asking me how to host games, I have been told by an ER that the reason no ZH's took my helpcall is because there was only two on and they were both afk. Now perhaps im just one of those.. vets reliving the olden days or whatever, but when I was a ZH we had people busting our balls, we would be literally fighting over help calls, having on it! wars, and if noone took the call, you bet your ass some higher staff was about to chew us out for slacking off. The robohelp can be fun sometimes, even helpful, especially now that you have Cpt.Guano who added alot of new messages into it, But look what kind of example your are setting for staff. If a ZH is brought up thinking the robohelp is the endall tool, then when he/she gets ER he/she will probaly still think the same way, and constantly rely on bots to host games. Now there is nothing wrong with that unless that is all he/she hosts. Another problem is that the current games are getting stagnant, Dimboy <ER> does a good job at spreading out the games he hosts but alot of other staffers don't really do this, im not just talking different games, im also talking about throwing in a bit of originality and creativity into everyday hosted games. Adding a few new rules, or making up a new game in an arena that people play everyday will sometimes bring some spice back into that arena, it will make people want to play your games more if you are a fun host, who keeps things fresh. Also.. I can't stress enough how bad most of the adverts are today, im not talking about Icey's advert - an advert that will live in infamy - thing, I mean everyday adverts.. Turretwarz2 in.. ?go turretwarz2 is just sooo boring, if you want players add a little charisma to your damn ads, even if you make yourself look like an utter moron, people will laugh at your ad's and probaly come to your games. About the pointed out "Staff is hiring newbs" well no offense to anyone in particular that is partly true, players who have played the game longer do deserve the chance to be promoted over someone who is a newer player, not only will they get more respect for players in arenas who have known the player for years and like him/her, but they will chances are probaly know more about the game in general then someone who just started playing a few months ago. I also appreciate everyone keeping this forum civil, when staff sees well typed forum posts that don't turn into flaming they probaly take it alot more seriously.

- WarkWark

[Cig Smoke]

i honestly dont think staff gives 2 rat's asses what we type here...still fun to bash them bc most everything everyone is saying is true yet nothing is done about it

[ZeUs!!]

Actually most upper staff read these forums especially this one, as this is the forum for getting your views across to staff: however shit they are

[Melo]

Robohelp subject: I 100% agree with demonic with the fact that we should still go ask if the person was correctly answered thats your job as ZH... you need to have a direct contact with the guy asking the question as much as possible.

Recruiting staff/staffers attitude: We need to understand that were not into a place were people get PAYED to be staff so for sure some people wont act as they should...and note that people here are moslty 11 to 17 years old which is where people have the most ``unstable attitude``. But I personally find staff way better than it was 2-3years ago... I remember those times with smods fighting each others constantly and ``unappropriate people`` being recruted to be axed later on (I wont name people). There is 2 dean of staff for a good reason its very hard to recruit because there is no one that everyone likes (maybe except Pasco and Abyss that never talks :P). We have very good smods! and Mods,ERS and ZHS that needs to fix up the way they do there job as staffer...

Wark blaming zhs not taking as many calls: Wark not everyone have as much time as you to play this game (not an insult I would play alot too if I had the time) so take advantage of that time to help as much as you can and that will be benefic for a promotion so no whining needed wark

I wanted to say more but I cant follow with so much postings.. those of you who have nothing interesting to say plz dont post it makes us search more pages for ``intelligent`` commentaries

[kthx]

I wasnt exactly blaming ZH's even though I have done help calls and not been answered and seen 3-4 playing in ?go base - but thats not the point, if you guys only have 2-3 afk ZH's on at a certain time, that probaly means you guys need to have a few more ZH's who are online more. It really makes staff look bad when no one answers a helpcall.. again, im trying to stay away from staff-bashing on this forum.. cause I want staff to read it.

[Awesome]

hi wark
i love your signature.

[Facetious]

I mean, I wouldn't say that the majority of people that play Subspace are actually concerned with "corrupt" staff. I've still never figured out what in the hell anybody's actually done that's "corrupt" to the point where it affects the player base. "smod A lets ER B be mean to ZH C, but when ZH C is mean to ER D, ZH C gets chastized" and that kind of stuff doesn't really affect me in any way.

I think most people don't like staff because staff tend to be the kind of people that need lots of attention. Dimboy and Ice Storm both used to be really annoying on forums. They're not bad at all now, but having them on staff still leaves me feeling kind of negative towards staff. Nevermind having people like Awesome and Goddess on staff (or formerly on staff, whatever), who spew nonsense in game and on forums 24/7 (Awesome still is fairly helpful on staff, I just don't like his forum/game persona otherwise).

Basically, I don't have a problem with staff in general, I just happen to dislike a lot of the people on staff, and I bet that's the way most of the TW population feel. Honestly, I'd have no problem answering help calls politely when I was in Subspace, and I bet I'd be better at it than your average newbie ZH, but there's no way in hell I'd endure sitting around on staff chat to do it, and I certainly wouldn't want a quota. I bet a lot of vets (not to say that I neccessarily am one) feel the same way.

How do we fix this? I have no idea.