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Thread: Players and Mods – Open letter

  1. #1
    Retired Community Leader
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    Players and Mods – Open letter

    To all players:
    The moderator program was implemented by Blue Byte, and is active on all the other servers; the USA servers is one of the last to have it implemented. All of the moderators are volunteers, and have now been active for at most a week. They are responsible for making sure the Terms of Service agreement and chat guidelines are followed, and do not have the option of disregarding rule if they don’t agree with them. However, the main reason they were started was due to the demand of the players, and we Community Leaders were not able to do anything when there was an active problem. And to be quite frank, many of the people complaining about the Moderators are the same people who complained when the CL’s were unable to deal with a problem. The program has been running for less than a week, and it seems there are new colors coming online; so for some, it is their first day. This is just as new to them as it is to you, and training does not really replace experience. Since moderators were taken from both servers, it is likely that most of them will be unfamiliar with the culture of one of them. From many of the reports I have received from players, many of the bans happening are because players are being just warned of behavior and the player escalating it until they are banned. This is the game equivalent of a police officer pulling someone over for a vehicle warning, and the person ending up in jail for battery and resisting arrest. If there is a problem with a mod giving you a warning, submit it to customer service so they can look at what the mod is doing. If you have other concerns, please bring them to one of the Community Leaders so one of us can address it through our channel. But please, I would really rather have to bring forward a problem with a moderator giving inappropriate warnings than a problem where a player got banned because they started a fight with a moderator.

    To all moderators:
    Welcome to the world of moderation. Meet the players, we are the reason there is a game. There are many individual reasons for the players to be in the game, but they generally can be summarized by the ideas of “escapism” and “fun”. The game something many of us do to relieve stress and to help wind down. Many of us have invested a great deal of time and/or money for what is a “free” browser game. Every player received a copy of the Terms of Service and signified that we understood them; but unless there was a specific problem, most of us have not looked at them since we started playing up to three years ago. Until last week, most of the rules were not enforced at the level that apparently you have been told to expect. So, please forgive us if we venture into the same subjects and use the same words we have used throughout our time here that are only now being called into question. As many of us have long days before we log in, we may not take what may be reasonable warnings lightly. Being effectively the volunteer part of the game’s customer service team, many times it will be your responsibility to prevent things from escalating. I hope you understand the seriousness of having the ability to disconnect one of us from the rest of the community, and while it may be necessary at times, it can ruin the fun of that player and possibly many others. Hopefully, as all of you are supposed to be experienced players, you will remember how it feels to be on the receiving side of such attention.

    To everyone:
    The reason we are in the game is to play; while there has been a lot of a stress over these changes, that is the one thing that should not have changed. Personally, that is what I would prefer to be spending more time doing. I would hope more people will chose to do the same, and let the game continue.

  2. #2
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    Many online games uses the free resource of 'community mod's' as they are getting something of value for free and dont have to use their resources to do it. The main problem with how it is set up in this community is that players are modding in the world they play in which should be a non starter. Mods should only mod game worlds they dont play in (zeus vs ares). From there what they can and cant do really has to do with how much the paid employees do or dont want to have to work and how much power they are willing to bestow. Seems like here the paid employees like to hold all of the real power and that's prolly for the best.

  3. #3
    Veteran General psaltery's Avatar
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    Well said, Aurboth.
    Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat. ~Robert A. Heinlein

  4. #4
    Soldier TheScientist's Avatar
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    People need to give some space to breathe to the moderators. Give them some adjustment time, judge their work with a sceptical mind and keep notes.

  5. #5
    Settler
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    wow only 4 replys to Aurboth post... with all the attention in global u would have thought this issue was a big deal...guess not..lol

  6. #6
    Settler
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    Very nicely put CL_Aurboth

  7. #7
    Settler
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    Not worth arguing about NR --BB has made their mind up and I've made my mind up, that's all that matters. But by same token where is the thread by the "majority" of the players who complained about global congratulating them for doing fine job, or better yet where are these players? They sure haven't come to global have they? Anyone who knows anything about the gaming industry knows 90% of players don't even read the forums regularly or chat in whatever global there is.

  8. #8
    Mayor Wimpy's Avatar
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    I guess I am one of the 90%. I am always on guild chat and sometimes whisper. I find nothing of interest on Global. But I do read the forms everyday.
    If something can go wrong, it will.

  9. #9
    Soldier TheScientist's Avatar
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    That is because such behavior is not promoted or because people just play a bit to enjoy themselves and don't mind at all about the details. The addicted players probably do that. *realizes what he just said*. Also, I join global only when other guild members point out there is something interesting going on.

  10. #10
    Settler
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    Its been stated that this is a response to two things -- complaints from the "majority" of the players about global and the desire to meet the PEGI+7 rating (which by the way Settlers Online already has been classified with that rating).

    Here is description of the PEGI 3 and PEGI +7 rating (posted both cause 7 is 3 plus little more) followed by the next one up PEGI 12

    PEGI 3
    The content of games given this rating is considered suitable for all age groups. Some violence in a comical context (typically Bugs Bunny or Tom & Jerry cartoon-like forms of violence) is acceptable. The child should not be able to associate the character on the screen with real life characters, they should be totally fantasy. The game should not contain any sounds or pictures that are likely to scare or frighten young children. No bad language should be heard.

    PEGI 7
    Any game that would normally be rated at 3 but contains some possibly frightening scenes or sounds may be considered suitable in this category.



    PEGI 12
    Video games that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy character and/or non graphic violence towards human-looking characters or recognizable animals, as well as video games that show nudity of a slightly more graphic nature would fall in this age category. Any bad language in this category must be mild and fall short of sexual expletives.

    So I ask myself exactly what percentage of the players are under 12 in this game? Are they a big market? I think we all know the answer to that.
    On the other hand the PEGI 12 rating has a little leeway in it . If anyone has been around 12 yr olds lately you know that they would laugh at that standard even (I know not YOUR kids). It is 2014 by the way.

    So the issue seems to be in my mind that they are jeopardizing losing paying players to satisfy an unrealistic and unneeded rating. Not good business.

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