Aro2220x
06-20-2011, 01:27 AM
I noticed there was a section to apply as a guide. I'm not qualified to be a guide (don't know EQ enough, don't have / want to spend time as a guide, don't have previous guide experience, etc) but the questions at the bottom of the list make me think they are server rules since they want to know how you would respond to them. I'd like to rant about each rule and see what kind of responses I get. NO, this is not a troll as my responses are genuine. NO, I do not believe in being politically correct -- personally, I think it's foolish. If you disagree I'd like to know why so I can reassess my opinions.
Oh and no you don't know me since I'm new and don't have any characters on the server of even the smallest significance. Maybe one day but not yet...I'm trying to get a feel for the server first before investing too much time. (Ie, if people get banned for having an opinion then I'm probably not going to last).
And away we go:
How would you respond to a disrespectful/insultive player?
--> Okay, so I've hosted game servers before and at first I was of the belief that censorship is just plain wrong (free speech and all that). But, I was proven wrong one day when someone on the server was just getting kicks out of saying the most offensive things possible and being as insulting as possible to players. It got to the point where players were going to leave the server, good players, and I had to get rid of that person.
But there is a fine line. Yes, if someone goes overboard they need to be removed but I think it is equally bad for a server to ban players that swear or use profanity occasionally, even publically, provided they are not trying to verbally abuse players. Also, since there are an infinite number of situations that can get out of hand if any guide feels players are getting worked up (in the wrong way, don't forget this game steals your xp when you die so it should be expected to be somewhat harsh and not completely carebear), they should ask people to stop and all players should respect the guide by ceasing whatever has gotten out of hand...if they don't the problem isn't even so much their offensive language or insults (players do get under each others skin, fair enough), but rather their blatent disregard for authority which strikes me as a big red flag that this person is not healthy for the server.
In response to petition about a camp dispute, a player comes into an area and starts attacking and killing mobs which another play had been waiting for. The first player says he did not see anyone around when he engaged. How would you handle this situation?
This pissed me off. Kill stealing is a huge part of everquest. Even on this server you have the #1 guild locking down all kinds of camps...."locking down" is unfair as it is. And if you ban some player that comes into a spawn that is already camped and decides to KS it...then you should probably ban that whole guild, for similar reasons. It's a thin line in the sand and I don't agree with it. Everquest has no line service, they are not individual instances and thus it was always a might makes right environment. In fact, I bet the rule on the server is probably silly like they would actually take measures against whoever is kill stealing...even though in many cases the largest group can say whatever they want and be believable / given more rights than the solo player that may or may not even be doing what they claim. The problem is the group mentality where players who see a lot of people agreeing with something assume that is the correct course of action without knowing anything about the situation themselves or having any proof.
I get that it's a tricky problem but GMs/guides/etc that take a hard stance one way or the other, imo, are trashing the quality of the server.
You receive a tell about someone who is suspected of exploiting, but the person you were asked to watch is a friend or in the same guild as your play character, how would you handle this situation?
Obviously anyone who is a guide needs to prioritize the fair running of the server above all their other duties...which leads me to what actually bothers me a LOT about this question---
Why the HELL are guides/gms even allowed to play real accoutns on this server? I took a look at the #1 guild on P99 and they had some webpage talking about what kind of people they are looking for. RIGHT ON THERE they say they prefer GUIDES.
This is like BOB in Eve, and we know how corrupt that was.
The help should never be in the same pool as the gamers. At LEAST they should play on different servers but P99 can't do that so...this is bad. There is so much room for abused power and personal vendettas...oh dear.
On the other hand, I do realize it is hard to get someone to be a guide for free, to expect them to know everything about P99, but not let them play.
Still, there is a reason why employees are not allowed to take part in giveaways and other customer only activities. A very, very, very good reason. CORRUPTION AND CHEATING.
A guild wiped to a mob they said was not behaving as normal is requesting ressurections. How would you handle this situation?
Now this is a hard situation. A REALLY hard situation. Unless it is a KNOWN problem by the devs it is really just hearsay. The members of the guild obviously have something to gain from lying so you cannot trust their statement unequivocally...but at the same time, if it really did happen as they say then that is just a HUGE frustration for them.
Obviously the devs need to spawn the mobs and test it themselves to see if they can reproduce it. Or heck, you could give them the benefit of the doubt, res them all and then tell them to fight the mob again. If it behaves strangely then they are vindicated and if not then their accounts are flagged so that next time they do not get the benefit of the doubt.
Still, none of that is an ideal solution and in most mmorpgs the gms refuse to offer anything at all.
I would imagine the best solution would be to have a very knowledgeable GM show up that knows enough to tell if the bug sounds legitimate or not and make the call. As a new player, non gm, I don't know just how many mobs have bugs like that so I can't say if this is fair or not...and then what if they fight it again and die again...do they get another res? and another? and another? until they finally kill it or get bored? Free resses always? ;-)
A player is requesting ressurections on several corpses he claims were caused by server lag. What would you do to verify his claims?
I'm not sure if you guys have some kind of tools for that. Otherwise, ask the server admin if they had any lag problems lately. If so, help the guy out and if not then say the server hasn't had any lag but it might have been their home internet and thus they are not responsible. In all honesty, the latter is probably the case 99% of the time and the player is probably lying 0.99% of the time. Maybe 0.01% of the time it is a legitimate server lag issue -- but then that really depends on how stable this server is.
Two players have started an argument in ooc and now everyone else is joining in. How would you handle this situation?
I think it's stupid that a guide has to get involved when players get interested in a topic. Arguing or not, there is nothing wrong with players chatting. If a lot of people are joining in then the topic / argument obviously interests them. If that's what they want to spend their attention on then good for them.
If someone starts to get really offensive/abusive, read my first post..they need to stop and if they dont they need to go. But if it's just a plain old argument then I think any guide that gets involve should be flushed down the toilet. The players are not 4 years old and you are not their mother even if they were. Grow up. Isn't there an ignore function, anyway?
A player is requesting reimbursement of quest items because he said the NPC ate his turn in. How would you handle this situation? (Note that Server Guides do not have access to the ability to summon items).
Oh they can't summon items? Too bad. I was going to say summon the item, turn in the quest (as the guide), if it works tell the player it works fine sorry and if it doesn't escalate the issue to someone who CAN spawn items. Of course it is a free server and once you know the quest is broken why do you need the quest item back anyway? Maybe there's a reason but I think it's more of a sorry it's not working yet and you lost your item, but hey at least you're not paying monthly. ;-) I'm not a big fan of guides (or anyone) spawning items for players. If it's a bug it needs to be walled off / removed / fixed and otherwise there's just too many people out there that have 0 problem conning guides/gms to try and get free stuff.
2 Players are being reported as being suspected of 2 boxing. How would you handle this situation?
Not sure what kind of powers a guide has but the best solution is to first check their IP addresses and look to see if they have an IP exemption.
There are things you can do beyond that but, to be honest, it cannot be proven and in many situations it leads to witch hunts which are no fun for players who get falsely accused. Not sure if the server prefers to err on the side of caution or to better be safe than sorry.
IMO, unless someone is running the game with tools (some kind of software / macro that automates their characters), dual-boxing, or multi-boxing is really not a very big deal since trying to play two characters at once in EQ is tricky and you definitely are not as powerful as two separately people playing each character.
On the other hand, if its server bandwidth that is the concern, I don't see how you are going to catch players who multibox but not next to each other. Ie: having an alt sitting in the tunnel for trades or an alt farming a slow, but valuable, mob spawn while another alt levels elsewhere, assuming they have an ip exemption or different ips.
I still don't understand the stance on multiboxing. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I could handle playing more than one character at once. I'm not that ambidextrous. But, considering that every pay to play or f2p mmorpg allows it...I don't really understand why its a big deal.
The most annoying thing about this rule for me is sometimes I lose connection or my game black screens and crashes and I have to wait to log back in because of the ip exemption. Zzzz...
I see how there can be some problems with camping and stuff like that but still...doesn't this just mean that people who have an ip exemption or multiple ip addresses have an advantage over regular users who don't?
I'm not sure where I sit on that one.
Anyway, this is a tl;dr thing but I'm just fishing for any responses, positive or negative.
Oh and no you don't know me since I'm new and don't have any characters on the server of even the smallest significance. Maybe one day but not yet...I'm trying to get a feel for the server first before investing too much time. (Ie, if people get banned for having an opinion then I'm probably not going to last).
And away we go:
How would you respond to a disrespectful/insultive player?
--> Okay, so I've hosted game servers before and at first I was of the belief that censorship is just plain wrong (free speech and all that). But, I was proven wrong one day when someone on the server was just getting kicks out of saying the most offensive things possible and being as insulting as possible to players. It got to the point where players were going to leave the server, good players, and I had to get rid of that person.
But there is a fine line. Yes, if someone goes overboard they need to be removed but I think it is equally bad for a server to ban players that swear or use profanity occasionally, even publically, provided they are not trying to verbally abuse players. Also, since there are an infinite number of situations that can get out of hand if any guide feels players are getting worked up (in the wrong way, don't forget this game steals your xp when you die so it should be expected to be somewhat harsh and not completely carebear), they should ask people to stop and all players should respect the guide by ceasing whatever has gotten out of hand...if they don't the problem isn't even so much their offensive language or insults (players do get under each others skin, fair enough), but rather their blatent disregard for authority which strikes me as a big red flag that this person is not healthy for the server.
In response to petition about a camp dispute, a player comes into an area and starts attacking and killing mobs which another play had been waiting for. The first player says he did not see anyone around when he engaged. How would you handle this situation?
This pissed me off. Kill stealing is a huge part of everquest. Even on this server you have the #1 guild locking down all kinds of camps...."locking down" is unfair as it is. And if you ban some player that comes into a spawn that is already camped and decides to KS it...then you should probably ban that whole guild, for similar reasons. It's a thin line in the sand and I don't agree with it. Everquest has no line service, they are not individual instances and thus it was always a might makes right environment. In fact, I bet the rule on the server is probably silly like they would actually take measures against whoever is kill stealing...even though in many cases the largest group can say whatever they want and be believable / given more rights than the solo player that may or may not even be doing what they claim. The problem is the group mentality where players who see a lot of people agreeing with something assume that is the correct course of action without knowing anything about the situation themselves or having any proof.
I get that it's a tricky problem but GMs/guides/etc that take a hard stance one way or the other, imo, are trashing the quality of the server.
You receive a tell about someone who is suspected of exploiting, but the person you were asked to watch is a friend or in the same guild as your play character, how would you handle this situation?
Obviously anyone who is a guide needs to prioritize the fair running of the server above all their other duties...which leads me to what actually bothers me a LOT about this question---
Why the HELL are guides/gms even allowed to play real accoutns on this server? I took a look at the #1 guild on P99 and they had some webpage talking about what kind of people they are looking for. RIGHT ON THERE they say they prefer GUIDES.
This is like BOB in Eve, and we know how corrupt that was.
The help should never be in the same pool as the gamers. At LEAST they should play on different servers but P99 can't do that so...this is bad. There is so much room for abused power and personal vendettas...oh dear.
On the other hand, I do realize it is hard to get someone to be a guide for free, to expect them to know everything about P99, but not let them play.
Still, there is a reason why employees are not allowed to take part in giveaways and other customer only activities. A very, very, very good reason. CORRUPTION AND CHEATING.
A guild wiped to a mob they said was not behaving as normal is requesting ressurections. How would you handle this situation?
Now this is a hard situation. A REALLY hard situation. Unless it is a KNOWN problem by the devs it is really just hearsay. The members of the guild obviously have something to gain from lying so you cannot trust their statement unequivocally...but at the same time, if it really did happen as they say then that is just a HUGE frustration for them.
Obviously the devs need to spawn the mobs and test it themselves to see if they can reproduce it. Or heck, you could give them the benefit of the doubt, res them all and then tell them to fight the mob again. If it behaves strangely then they are vindicated and if not then their accounts are flagged so that next time they do not get the benefit of the doubt.
Still, none of that is an ideal solution and in most mmorpgs the gms refuse to offer anything at all.
I would imagine the best solution would be to have a very knowledgeable GM show up that knows enough to tell if the bug sounds legitimate or not and make the call. As a new player, non gm, I don't know just how many mobs have bugs like that so I can't say if this is fair or not...and then what if they fight it again and die again...do they get another res? and another? and another? until they finally kill it or get bored? Free resses always? ;-)
A player is requesting ressurections on several corpses he claims were caused by server lag. What would you do to verify his claims?
I'm not sure if you guys have some kind of tools for that. Otherwise, ask the server admin if they had any lag problems lately. If so, help the guy out and if not then say the server hasn't had any lag but it might have been their home internet and thus they are not responsible. In all honesty, the latter is probably the case 99% of the time and the player is probably lying 0.99% of the time. Maybe 0.01% of the time it is a legitimate server lag issue -- but then that really depends on how stable this server is.
Two players have started an argument in ooc and now everyone else is joining in. How would you handle this situation?
I think it's stupid that a guide has to get involved when players get interested in a topic. Arguing or not, there is nothing wrong with players chatting. If a lot of people are joining in then the topic / argument obviously interests them. If that's what they want to spend their attention on then good for them.
If someone starts to get really offensive/abusive, read my first post..they need to stop and if they dont they need to go. But if it's just a plain old argument then I think any guide that gets involve should be flushed down the toilet. The players are not 4 years old and you are not their mother even if they were. Grow up. Isn't there an ignore function, anyway?
A player is requesting reimbursement of quest items because he said the NPC ate his turn in. How would you handle this situation? (Note that Server Guides do not have access to the ability to summon items).
Oh they can't summon items? Too bad. I was going to say summon the item, turn in the quest (as the guide), if it works tell the player it works fine sorry and if it doesn't escalate the issue to someone who CAN spawn items. Of course it is a free server and once you know the quest is broken why do you need the quest item back anyway? Maybe there's a reason but I think it's more of a sorry it's not working yet and you lost your item, but hey at least you're not paying monthly. ;-) I'm not a big fan of guides (or anyone) spawning items for players. If it's a bug it needs to be walled off / removed / fixed and otherwise there's just too many people out there that have 0 problem conning guides/gms to try and get free stuff.
2 Players are being reported as being suspected of 2 boxing. How would you handle this situation?
Not sure what kind of powers a guide has but the best solution is to first check their IP addresses and look to see if they have an IP exemption.
There are things you can do beyond that but, to be honest, it cannot be proven and in many situations it leads to witch hunts which are no fun for players who get falsely accused. Not sure if the server prefers to err on the side of caution or to better be safe than sorry.
IMO, unless someone is running the game with tools (some kind of software / macro that automates their characters), dual-boxing, or multi-boxing is really not a very big deal since trying to play two characters at once in EQ is tricky and you definitely are not as powerful as two separately people playing each character.
On the other hand, if its server bandwidth that is the concern, I don't see how you are going to catch players who multibox but not next to each other. Ie: having an alt sitting in the tunnel for trades or an alt farming a slow, but valuable, mob spawn while another alt levels elsewhere, assuming they have an ip exemption or different ips.
I still don't understand the stance on multiboxing. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I could handle playing more than one character at once. I'm not that ambidextrous. But, considering that every pay to play or f2p mmorpg allows it...I don't really understand why its a big deal.
The most annoying thing about this rule for me is sometimes I lose connection or my game black screens and crashes and I have to wait to log back in because of the ip exemption. Zzzz...
I see how there can be some problems with camping and stuff like that but still...doesn't this just mean that people who have an ip exemption or multiple ip addresses have an advantage over regular users who don't?
I'm not sure where I sit on that one.
Anyway, this is a tl;dr thing but I'm just fishing for any responses, positive or negative.