DepthCharge Reviews 04-11-08

Okay, review time. Thanks to everyone who reviewed me.

With reviews I usually get a whole bunch and spend a few nights writing responses to half of them then get distracted by some other charstaffly item and never get around to posting my responses. But since I’ve got 6 reviews this time it should be easy enough. Plus there’s some CSH stuff I need to inform everyone of. As pretty much I’m retiring from Staff.

All of staff already know of this decision, I gave them advanced warning. But I couldn’t really not mention my intended plans in response to my reviews. As.. well.. to have people saying ‘Keep up the good work DC’ and me saying ‘Sure will!’ when I don’t intend to is pretty dishonest. And I don’t lie to the playerbase.

So this will be my last review. So best ensure these responses do make it to the posting stage and I don’t get distracted by anything.

For those that haven’t read my review responses before, I’m honest in all my answers. The only thing I reserve the right to do is edit out the names people may ‘drop’ in my reviews, in order to ‘protect the innocent’ as it were. Pleases where I’ve edited things are represented by < >s

But apart from that, let’s do it.

'''001 DC DC you are wonderful. You are a fantastic guy and a great charstaff head. I hope you never leave, half because you are so great and open and fair (you turn down as much as you approve, but you do it in an evenhanded way.) And you are open to new ideas like Gnaws and Full-Tilts. The MUSH isn't frozen, and we need change to keep things exciting, we can't just have the avail list full of Rewinds and Hoists for years on end. Thing is, I'm honestly not sure who COULD replace you if you left, certainly no-one on charstaff at the moment (no offense to any of them of course!). So keep happy, keep being awesome, keep being about, and oh god be IC I want to play with you more :('''

Thank you. I like to think I’m fair. Although I may not always approve things, I always try to do what is in the best interests of the MUSH.

Being IC is difficult for me. With timezones and all. Every review I usually get a few people telling me I should be IC more. Well, as I always say, during your ‘peak’ times it is my day time and I’m at work. As such I have work I need to do. So RPing is out of the question Sunday to Thursday. Because really, I shouldn’t even be on the MUSH. I would be fired if I was caught wasting company time like that. I’ve had to open holes on the company’s firewall a number of times just to be able to connect at all.

There’s very few people I see who do role play while they are at work. One of those is Blueshift who I did a few scenes with. And I like to think he found it as difficult as I do. :) And it was just me and two other ‘bots. So that’s why I don’t play during peak times. It’s just too difficult. I have enough to do at work as it is without downtooling so I can concentrate on a big scene.

As for Friday and Saturday (my weekends since I’m a day a head). Well.. I like not being cooped up inside all day. If I role play I waste a whole day of sunshine and shopping and doing the garden and visiting friends and such. Stuff I don’t get to do during the week.

So yeah. That’s why I don’t go IC much. I sacrifice a lot already. My job and weekends are ones I don’t want to. Hope you understand.

As for who can do my job, I’m sure people just need a chance to shine. No one is truly irreplaceable, so I’m sure you all will be just fine. The person I’m handing over to has been my support for 2 years and you’d probably be surprised exactly how many cool decisions I’ve made because he has said ‘yes, that’s awesome. Go for it’.

'''002 Boss! I miss you :( I miss our quiet nights together, eating pixie sticks and discussing the merits of Americon's toes. Oh, I miss those days. I'd say be on more, but it's probably because I haven't been around much. So maybe this review is more for me. So, uh, ME: Be on more! The end.'''

I think I can guess at who this is, since only my Charstaffers call me Boss. And only one would talk about pixie sticks and Americon’s toes.

Hope you’re scolding of yourself wasn’t too hard. Hope your review of yourself bares wonderful fruit.

'''003 Hi DC. There's been some crazyness since the last time I wrote a review for you and it made me think about what I want from a wiz and CSH at 2k5. I like the job you're doing. To me you come across as a responsible wiz, putting in time and making an effort to be fair and do things that are good for the MUSH overall. Charstaff wise, I like the variety in characters available here, and the attempts to keep things balanced. I like that you get new staffers when it's needed, good management of your 'team'. Something else you do well: when you reject an app you do explain why and also give recommendations. BUT I think the more flexibility in the alternatives you can give the better, otherwise you may be recommending changes to the basic concept of the character. One thing I really miss is some bboard posts/announcements from you on what your CSH plans are. I think especially now with big changes coming due to the combat system a lot of us are really wondering. Even if you don't have any major plans to announce I recommend posts that talk about the way you see things. A lot of the time if you are writing your reasoning for rejecting something, it's something that wasn't indicated anywhere else in news or rules or even from looking at existing characters. Maybe a FAQ bboard or an announcement if you are rejecting something on a lot of apps would help the rest of us understand where you're coming from. Overall, keep up the good work and thanks for all your time and effort here.'''

The best way I can paint charstaff is, we are balancers. Balancers in the sense we worry about power level balances, and we balance the importance of a person’s stats with their character concept and trying our best to give them the character they want. We’re a different breed of admin than TPStaff. TPStaff has a luxury we don’t; they can say yes to almost everything. One of the biggest feedbacks I saw sent to Blueshift upon becoming TPStaff head is that they really don’t want to see a lot of ‘No’s towards TP suggestions.

If a TP is submitted, TPStaff’s job is seeing how to make it fun for the playerbase. How to make it workable.

Alas, Charstaff doesn’t always have this luxury. It is our job to say ‘no’ to things. We’re the gatekeepers of the MUSH. We watch over the stat portion of the world. Because when you have a coded combat system Stats can equal Power.

With character creation, stats always take priority over concept I’m afraid to say. A person my have a brilliant character concept of a speedster Autobot that goes so fast he is able to teleport ala Skywarp. And to represent this he has 10 Speed, 10 Velocity, 10 Dex, 10 Intelligence, 9 End and 5 armour (he has to be built to withstand g forces you see). The application may be the most brilliant thing I’ve ever read and may be 30 pages long and reference Shakespeare along with getting into a deep and meaningful debate about the meaning of life, death and everything between. But even still, the stats override the concept. This most brilliant application ever, that brought a tear to my eye, would be rejected and the person would have to adjust the application to reduce the stats to something acceptable.

Would this be at a cost to the person’s concept? Yes.

But as charstaff we have to worry about the MUSH as a whole and how this one person’s concept would affect the many. So yes, there will be times we will reject things that may make perfect sense for a person’s concept. But we do so because they wouldn’t make perfect sense for the power level balance of the MUSH.

In regards to big announcements and such, I’ll address this after the next question as the next review will tie into the explanation nicely.

'''004 Hi DepthCharge! You remain steadfast and consistent in your charstaffing duties. I can tell that you're starting to feel worn out, though, either from real life for from the game politics, and I hope that you can get over that however it takes, because the best and most vital staffers on a game are always the ones who have the most fun getting in there and actually playing. . So I just thought I'd let you know my opinion about your performance and your staffers, and I hope that these comments can be of some use to you!'''

Hi reviewer number 4. Thanks for your review and thank you for your concern about my worn outedness.

This round of charstaffing, I’ve been doing it for 5 years. 2 as CSH. Last time I was charstaff I think it was 2 years with a glorious 2 weeks as CSH. I started on 2k5 back in 1996, so that’s 12 years I’ve been here. Half of which I’ve been charstaffing. It’s been fun and I’m glad I was able to meet with your approval.

Regarding two of the staffers you discussed. Yes Perceptor is going good, isn’t he? He reminds me a lot of myself back when I started on 2k5. I couldn’t be happier with how he is going. He’s continuing to grow and adapt into charstaff and I think in a year, as long as he doesn’t burn himself out (remember to read the line on Burn out in Brent’s charstaff guide I posted in the app box, Percy!) he’ll have as much charstaff expertise as me. I know a few people thought there were more experienced candidates etc. that could have been selected, but that’s usually the way it is with being CSH. Not everyone likes the decisions you make and will usually tell you so. ;)

When I approve a new fachead, I usually get two or three complaints. When I approve a new staffer I usually get one or two complaints. Sometimes when I give an OC or FC character to someone I get complaints. Or when I deny an upgrade I get complaints. I think you can see where I’m going with this ;) The worst is when I have people quitting because they didn’t like what I approved or whatever. Those types of complaints I really sadden me. Because, you know, I feel like it is all my doing.

So yeah. I’ve pretty much accepted that part of being CSH is that a lot of the stuff you do, you’ll get people that aren’t happy with the decision or path you are going down. So the best you can do is just do what is best for the MUSH as a whole. I like to think that history is usually on my side. That the decision I’ve made, although I received some flack for it, turns out to be a good one.

But in regards to reviewer 3’s question of why I don’t post announcements/plans anymore. To be honest, because if I don’t post big plans, I don’t get people complaining to me that they don’t agree with what I’m doing. And less complaints equals a more enjoyable time on 2k5 for myself. But hey, that’s not exactly the best attitude for a Wizard to have, so that’s one of the reasons I’m retiring. To reviewer 4, in regards to your concern you raised over the reuse of names. The black mark you hold for the charstaffer who did it really belongs to me. I didn’t see anything wrong with the name to be honest. I’ll give you the reasoning:

On 2k5 we do from time to time re-use OC and FC names. For example, there have been two different ‘Recoil’ OCs. Two different Slipstreams. There’s been about 3 to 4 other OCs that have had names of past nuked OCs. Different character concept, re-used name. Why?

Because sometimes coming up with names is hard :) Sometimes the perfect name is one that was already used. So if the OC has been nuked and lost to history, we let a new apper take the name. The same goes for Tfers that don’t exist in our 2k5 theme, but may exist as a toy or as a comic appearance or whatever.  We’ve got Countdown, Recoil, Broadcast, Overload and Whisper. We had Airwave, Eagle eye, Irontread, Slipstream and Gunrunner just off the top of my head.

It’s not a new thing at all on 2k5 for someone, if they have picked a name and it is of some lame, little cared about, Post-Season 3 character, to accept it. So long as it isn’t that actual character itself. There’s so many TFer toys that if we didn’t overlap occasionally it would be even harder than it is now to come up with decent OC names that feels ‘just right’.

So I’m sorry that you do not like the occasional recycling. It’s something that I’ve been allowing to happen for the above reasons. If you don’t agree, I hope you can see I do it because I think it is best for the MUSH as a whole.

'''005 I have heard that DepthCharge is cracking down on people who . Sometime, the people who  really sicken me, so I figure he's justified to crack down on them. However, could he also  I've seen two different admin need to '''

Hi reviewer 5. I hope you don’t mind that I had to edit your review for posting purposes. To generalize it and remove names.

I’m sorry that at time you’ve felt sickened. I know a few other people have felt similarly, hence the staff action. In an ideal world, everyone would get along. Or at least be able to be the ‘better man’. Alas, since it isn’t an ideal world, staff has to step in at times.

So everyone, please be aware of ‘news policy’. If you haven’t read them in a while, please read it.

In regards to ensuring it ‘swings both ways’, I’m usually only aware of stuff that happens on channel or stuff that people bring to me. I’ve dealt with one situation to ensure it ‘swung both ways’. But because I’m not always aware of everything, I will let other staff members act on stuff they are aware of.

Since you have made a note that breaches of the policy did sicken you, and I really don’t want people to feel depressed/upset when they play here, I kind of feel like I’m letting you down as I up and retire. Though please feel secure that my replacement will be more than suited to continuing to ensure ‘news policy’ is not continuously breached. By everyone (we do not play favourites). I have the utmost confidence in his abilities in such matters.

006 I would like to request that this review not be publicly posted.

Very well reviewer 6. Thanks for your kind words. I am glad you are happy. And I don’t mean that in a general sense. Seriously, I am glad you are happy. You are a good person and always have been in my eyes.

Well that’s it. My last review. Anyway on to some last charstaffly business.

Yes I’m retiring. I was going to endeavour to see the year out. But I’m feeling more and more like a ‘lame duck president’ (You Americans have such nifty terms) as time goes on. Since the new combat system roll over is going to need someone with a lot of get up and go to organize things charstaff wise, that person isn’t me. So really, I shouldn’t hold on to the reigns just because I determined December 31st is a good retirement date. I should do the hand-over when I think is best for the MUSH. And that’s before roll over.

Which is.. now. Since Hazard has left the ranks into Wizhood, charstaff probably needs a bit of reorganizing.

And so I pass on charstaff chainsaw of leadership to Sneak Peek as I stand down.

Not many people know what happens behind the scenes in the charstaff room, what we all talk about. It is often Sneakers who provided me with advice throughout my 2 years as CSH. Was there to bounce ideas and concerns off. We share many the same views charstaffly wise, so he would be a good replacement. Plus I’ve seen his organizational skills first hand; he is an excellent manager of people. So for roll out of the new combat system, he will be perfect.

So, that’s it. Thank you all for reading.

- D.C