As a bZ7 regular, at least as of last week, I have some perspective on the situation that I think the bZ admins should consider.
It’s unfortunate but true, at least from my point of view, that bZ admins do not frequent bZ7 during typical peak times, and this has become mostly common knowledge. For all the times I’ve played on bZ7, I have seen Topher play 30-40 times, and Neonardo 3-4 times. I’m not familiar with the other admins, so I can’t attest to whether they frequent bZ7 or not.
Griefing against players who are doing well is a constant concern on the server. Practically speaking, this is unavoidable on any server given the different states of mind in which people play the game (sober, inebriated, elated, dejected, chilled out, angry...). However, the presumed absence of admins means once someone get started with griefing, they very much keep going (unless, of course, they hit upon hard thresholds like the per-game TK limit).
The only practical solution to keep such griefing in check is to have admins around fairly frequently, so people know they can’t go crazy without repercussions. One particular instance from a couple of weeks ago drove this point home to me: I was gunning with Neonardo (just this once) in the attack helo on Dawnbreaker and the friendly LAV decided to TOW us - the griefer was instantly banned for 3 days.
CriscoCube typically does very well in any game he plays on bZ7, given that he is a particularly skilled player. That this grates on other players is easily evidenced by the gargantuan amount of vile smack talk thrown his way on game chat - most of which he seems to ignore quietly. It is therefore not that far-fetched to see how he ends up being a perennial target for griefers. Given the only recourse available to a target is to file complaints on the forum, it is natural to expect a steady stream of such reports from him.
I find it alarming that bZ members are trolling him on various forum threads for posting these complaints, given how “no griefing” is rule #1 for the community. What I find more concerning though is that no bZ admins are stepping in to point out in any of these threads that Banzore is against griefing; instead somehow CriscoCube is being accused of “toxicity” (I’m frankly not sure how that argument is being made).
As to all the suggestions he has made so far publicly, I fail to see how the aggregate of CriscoCube’s comments can be seen as anything other than a genuine desire to help make bZ7 better. No server is perfect, or ever intended to be. Even today, the mapvote logic for bZ7 is haplessly broken in that it did not trigger if the attackers win too fast. So what if he criticized the server setup or the map rotation? Is it not fair to seek to improve things that are broken?
In retrospect, I would have urged CriscoCube to use more tact and avoid targeting any one particular person when talking about server improvements. But even that is more a direct consequence of the reality, at least from my limited perspective - it is well-known that Neonardo makes all the decisions regarding server configuration. I think it’s fair to expect to bear some of this ire when you are the sole decision maker and you may not be available sometimes for long periods of time. (To be clear, I don’t think anyone is expected to be “on call” for what is, at the end of the day, a game).
As admins, you have the privilege of making the final calls for the community. I have genuinely been impressed by the calm, dispassionate manner in which Neonardo & Topher have handled multiple contentious ban appeal threads. However, as admins, I think you also own the responsibility of acting as guardians of the community you seek to cultivate - is it really in the interest of that community to impose punitive actions for seeking justified recourse & server quality-of-life improvements?
Practically speaking, I have no dog in this race now, given I’m not friends with CriscoCube anymore. I’m merely interested in seeing a fair outcome pass.
It’s unfortunate but true, at least from my point of view, that bZ admins do not frequent bZ7 during typical peak times, and this has become mostly common knowledge. For all the times I’ve played on bZ7, I have seen Topher play 30-40 times, and Neonardo 3-4 times. I’m not familiar with the other admins, so I can’t attest to whether they frequent bZ7 or not.
Griefing against players who are doing well is a constant concern on the server. Practically speaking, this is unavoidable on any server given the different states of mind in which people play the game (sober, inebriated, elated, dejected, chilled out, angry...). However, the presumed absence of admins means once someone get started with griefing, they very much keep going (unless, of course, they hit upon hard thresholds like the per-game TK limit).
The only practical solution to keep such griefing in check is to have admins around fairly frequently, so people know they can’t go crazy without repercussions. One particular instance from a couple of weeks ago drove this point home to me: I was gunning with Neonardo (just this once) in the attack helo on Dawnbreaker and the friendly LAV decided to TOW us - the griefer was instantly banned for 3 days.
CriscoCube typically does very well in any game he plays on bZ7, given that he is a particularly skilled player. That this grates on other players is easily evidenced by the gargantuan amount of vile smack talk thrown his way on game chat - most of which he seems to ignore quietly. It is therefore not that far-fetched to see how he ends up being a perennial target for griefers. Given the only recourse available to a target is to file complaints on the forum, it is natural to expect a steady stream of such reports from him.
I find it alarming that bZ members are trolling him on various forum threads for posting these complaints, given how “no griefing” is rule #1 for the community. What I find more concerning though is that no bZ admins are stepping in to point out in any of these threads that Banzore is against griefing; instead somehow CriscoCube is being accused of “toxicity” (I’m frankly not sure how that argument is being made).
As to all the suggestions he has made so far publicly, I fail to see how the aggregate of CriscoCube’s comments can be seen as anything other than a genuine desire to help make bZ7 better. No server is perfect, or ever intended to be. Even today, the mapvote logic for bZ7 is haplessly broken in that it did not trigger if the attackers win too fast. So what if he criticized the server setup or the map rotation? Is it not fair to seek to improve things that are broken?
In retrospect, I would have urged CriscoCube to use more tact and avoid targeting any one particular person when talking about server improvements. But even that is more a direct consequence of the reality, at least from my limited perspective - it is well-known that Neonardo makes all the decisions regarding server configuration. I think it’s fair to expect to bear some of this ire when you are the sole decision maker and you may not be available sometimes for long periods of time. (To be clear, I don’t think anyone is expected to be “on call” for what is, at the end of the day, a game).
As admins, you have the privilege of making the final calls for the community. I have genuinely been impressed by the calm, dispassionate manner in which Neonardo & Topher have handled multiple contentious ban appeal threads. However, as admins, I think you also own the responsibility of acting as guardians of the community you seek to cultivate - is it really in the interest of that community to impose punitive actions for seeking justified recourse & server quality-of-life improvements?
Practically speaking, I have no dog in this race now, given I’m not friends with CriscoCube anymore. I’m merely interested in seeing a fair outcome pass.
