[MakeshiftWalrus]

Having previously been apart of the mentioned, I'm going to offer a couple of suggestions to how I think the game could vastly improve its current staff staff structure. This is purely how I would want to structure an administrative team. I'll also be offering criticism here, and there where I feel it might be required. This might border on rambling, bear with me.

Part 1: Clockwork, Oil, and the Administrative Engine

Current perceived issues:
- A lack of diversity, and direction in the current team leads to many needs going unfulfilled, or being shelved as other things become prioritized.
- Far too few roles to manage everything that goes on. The work becomes loaded towards those who step up, leaving little for the less proactive.
- Bottlenecks galore, presumably because one person is trying to handle things alone.

Potential fixes:
- Taking on more members of the administrative team.
- A rework of the present structure.

The Bread:
As it stands, one of the issues many have with the GM team is how little they outwardly show upon the game. Many hardly know them at all, and thusly remain incapable of forming a different opinion than the one of the social circle they currently reside in, which from my observations echo mostly a negative tone when the topic comes up. It's hard to tell what's justified, and what isn't, even for someone whom spend a considerable amount of time within the same circumstances. Since then, though, I haven't personally felt the situation improve in this regard, outside of the few weeks after the forum's last nuclear meltdown.

We, the players, are promised the high heavens of change to come, and while some efforts have been made from then, to now, such as the application forums, and the addition of a dedicated mapping team, other areas are slacking severely despite how many voices spoke out on those particular subjects. I won't mention what it is, but I'm sure many can think of the obvious. And nearly four months later, we're seemingly almost there. That, in my opinion, just isn't good enough when so many players are relying on it.

What we've gotten so far is wonderful, but in order to facility a less stagnant growth of both the playerbase, and the game itself, matters of expansion should be considered, especially so when the momentum of the last wave of additions has so far ceased. Many might scoff at the idea of increasing the burden, but fail to recognize that the idea isn't to overwhelm those in charge, but to also expand where it's required on the administrative side of things. After my own experiences, I have zero desire to ever act as a moderating body again, but many share the sentiment that more administrative power is needed, and so I offer what I perceive to be the best compromise: A way to expand the team without needlessly shuffling in more GMs where they might not be needed.


Part 2: Head, Shoulders, Arms, and Legs

An online game is much like a body in a sense. We need every part to do its function to be a total human, and right now we only have the head, and the arms. This should in my opinion change to offer a more diverse selection of roles for players to aid the community in. This is already underway for multiple things, but could stand to be expanded upon in ways that would allow for much more to be done in a shorter amount of time. Such a structure could look like this:


Tier 0: The Developer

The head honcho. I have little in criticism for Neus. I wish they'd communicated more during the time I'd been a GM. Oftentimes the role felt very directionless, and ungratifying. Even after the better half of two years, they remain an enigma to me, and most of all the community. I can understand the need for distance when every other game on BYOND seem to have extremely eccentric, and/or unpopular owners, but communication is oh so important when it comes to managing the team supposed to run your game. I don't think it'd be a poor idea to be more open to the community, scary as it might be.


Tier 1: The GM

The ones supposed to oversee the field, and handle things out the depth of those below them. Ideally, there are five of them to break ties in cases of democratic votes, and ideally, they have their hands in more things than simply the administrative business. A good GM is an active pillar of the community, and knows most of the players at minimum by name, if not by merit. If anything affects the world, these are the people you should go to for approval. It is in my belief that any one of them should be able to perform the other's duties independent of each other if it becomes necessary, and for that reason, no one GM should have total dominion over any subject. It should always be a cooperative effort.


Tier 2: The Moderator

The first new addition to the line-up. The Moderator's job is to ensure that everything is up to code upon the game. If anyone is grinding their alts, or doing something dirty in the corner, they should be the very first to sniff it out, and give them a good spanking. Additionally, they should always be able to cite the rules, and be capable of assisting anyone that might need help. It would not be their job to do community-wide role-playing content, although they should certainly have the tools to do so if they wanted. Whereas the GMs are the ones handling longer investigations, and deeper breaks of conduct, the Moderators are more of the here-and-now-brand of rule enforcement.


Tier 2: The Application Manager

The rank that should have the fewest people, but not because of being the least important. This is a role specifically meant to tend the less serious aspects of the application forum, such as those applying for age, fluff powers, or height. General things that wouldn't have any impact other than for the character itself. This is to keep breadwork out of the GMs' hands, and though they should always be there to supervise, and instruct on things the Manager might be uncertain about, a GM should only really be touching applications of more serious nature, such as event lines, dramatically radical character abilities, or world-shaping lore like kingdoms, and world events. The Application Manager can play a moderating role in-game, but I personally wouldn't have them do both out of concern for stress.


Tier 3: The Eventmin

I don't think anything needs to be changed about this role. So far, it's going strong, and it's nice to see it be used. It would be nice if people could be made into Eventmins temporarily through easy means, if a normal player wanted to run their own things, rather than relying on an Eventmin to use all of their tools for them. This might defeat the point of having them in the first place, though.

Tier 3: The Mapper

I can't comment on this role much. We haven't seen what they're up to so far. Hopefully they'll churn out some amazing stuff, we'll just have to see.


Tier 3: The Lore Writer

One complaint I see leveled against the game a lot, is the fact that though the game is incredibly broad in scope, it suffers greatly from being surface-level on nearly every point, relying instead on lore questions that after years, upon years of webbed answers either begin to contradict themselves, or never reaches the total scope of the community as a result of being completely buried. Many attempts were made to rectify this, but it was unfortunately never good enough. Additionally, there are still many, maaaany holes we have no clue about that could be patched through the inclusion of a player-driven team of writers.

The team would be overseen directly by the GMs, and nothing would be posted without the clear acceptance from Neus themselves. Though anyone should be capable of writing 'Canon' lore with the same approval, this team of writers would exist purely to organize with the staff to flesh out the world where it was needed in a motivated manner. It would also be possble to communicate who was writing for what as a result, so multiple people aren't stepping on toes. Finally, it would also allow an open forum where people could spitball lore to each other, and offer criticism before it was offered to Neus, or the GMs for approval.


Part 3: Conclusion

What I want to see improved first, and foremost about the game, is the foundation it stands on. The GMs, and Neus in particular, feel unapproachable at times, and much of that I feel isn't necessarily their fault. With additional people manning the ship, however, it would naturally force more interaction, and thus spread deeper into the community as a whole. It would, in my opinion, also help the general stability of the game.

If you've managed to read through my entire post, then congratulations, and thank you. I hope it brought a couple of ideas to mind.