me niether. unless of course... lol

I think I misread this whole thread wrong, your saying that staff are not allowed to base WHILE on their admin accounts?

If it is, then yes I agree with you on this, staff should only be using this account for work related things, and not for actually playing the game, that is what their original account is for. On their player accounts however, staff deserve just as much freedom and choice as any other player.

FIN.

I probably should have rephrased things a bit. I do not agree with admins owning a gang, i believe it isnt neccesary and their focus should be on being an admin, and not focusing on competiting with other gangs, while being an admin.

However, as a compromise, i believe if admins are allowed to own a gang on their non-admin idevice account, they should NOT be allowed to be on their admin account at same time as their other device, to prevent abuse of admin powers. (there really is no reason to be on both)

Just so it might not be misinterpreted - Having both accounts online, by the book, is fine, as long as your staff account has no association with basing. Though, i can see where you're coming from, it encourages them.

This is like telling a WoW GM/Administrator that they can't own a Guild, it just doesn't work. You know that they don't use any staff abilities while running gang-related activities, and they need Gangs for debugging and such.

owning a gang is all and well and good, but when it comes to in-game competitions, such as basing, being an admin gives you an advantage whether you believe it or not,. especially as i said, when you are using your admin account on your laptop to screw with opposing members at same time as using your iphone account to base, looking as if your innocent.

it does occur, its been reported, multiple times with multiple admins.

its easy for an admin to say, "no, admins dont abuse powers".

talk to the people who compete against the admins.

ill say it again, if admins are allowed to own guilds, do not allow them to be online on both accounts at same time, its not neccesary and only leads to problems, it wont solve all the problems because im sure those such admins will still abuse powers until they are caught, whether or not they are on the other account basing at the same time, but it will deter it.

I think you have the horrible misconception that ALL admins sit there on two accounts abusing all day long for their Iphone device e,e
Admins owning guilds on their IPhone device shouldn't be limited in anyway.
This coming from someone who doesn't actually base and/or have an active gang.
As much as abuse may occur, report it and it will be looked into. We have logs for pretty much everything staff members do, if they're summoning people into bases, we'll know. Report it and it'll be dealt with.

i cant see a specific reason to be on both accounts at same time. especially if your basing with one account, other than..abuse.

i dont think all admins abuse power, i dont have a misconception of that at all, but i also know most admins dont run ULTRA competitive basing gangs and most people arent aware of the things those admins pull. and I truly believe some kind of limits need to be put on what admins can and cant do , especially when it comes to competing with normal players.

No particular reason you'd need to be on both; however there are situations such as needing to test things on an Iphone device while needing to be in control of your Staff account.
Some people like to multitask and deal with things on their staff account while also being active to their friends on their iphone device. You seem to boil any staff being on two accounts at the same time having them involved in basing.. this should be a minimal thing. I.E being there on their staff account to stop people abusing invincibility when it's reported.

As the others have said; if you know of any current Admin's actively abusing their powers to enhance their own guilds chances, report it. If you can not think of anyone currently abusing who has not been removed already, then this topic is pretty mute as that would suggest the problem lies with previous Admins rather than hindering the current ones.

I think this debate is actually a good one and not as cut and dry as some seem to think it is. I see mostly staff advocating that it is okay for staff to own gangs. I don't really play era, nor have I cared about the basing scene in a long time, so I will try to keep my opinion unbiased.

As with every debate, there are two sides. I see both sides of the coin as I am staff on iZone and I was a long time player on iEra AND iClassic. Now, the reason I say it is not as black and white as some believe it to be is for the following reasons,

-People would rather be in a staff gang than a player gang most of the time. Yes, I have seen it over and over. Between Magic and Zanza on classic to candy and sk on era. One of the reasons basing lost its charm for me back in the day was simply because staff members would use unreleased guns (call it testing~yet they still are not out), use seemingly unlimited grenades, would do freebies anytime their members needed ammo etc etc. I have been in quite a few staff gangs in my time on era, ranging between milkshake, jsi, bboy, HW, etc etc. It happens(not saying the staff listed did it), in fact the only reason you don't see unreleased guns in basing anymore is because I bitched to snk about 3 times about it.

-Staff need a break, so they should be able to enjoy the game. This is also true, staff do need a break and should be allowed to partake in activities. They also are able to find bugs and glitches by actually playing what everyone else plays. My suggestion was they should only be able to do so on their iDevices. This brings the question "what if they do not have one?" ~ in that case, it sucks for them really. I don't see why you would want to work for a server you have never played before.
Also, basing from PC against a bunch of iOS Devices gives the PC player a significant advantage. Not only are you able to click to shoot, but your usually have more of a view than an iPad zoomed out. Ever wonder how they know where to shoot from across the hall? Also, someone is going to claim the FB and Skyrider make it equal. Those laggy pieces of (french) is the most difficult thing to play on. They lag every 20 seconds and it just does not compare.

-Now with all that said, while on iZone, I partake in activities that involve planet taking (equivalent to basing). I do it rarely, but I still do it. The only time I use my staff account however, is when I am looking for bugs that need to be fixed. I also think staff should join OTHER peoples gangs instead of using their own. Both of my squads on Zone are just friendly squads, no "get to base or kick". But I find on era, the get to base is one of the leading gangs on the server. I remember the only time staff based, was when you asked for a challenge and a gang full of admins would attack you and it was actually enjoyable because they did not aim to just take your base and shut you out, it was more of a PK exercise than anything.

-Not to mention when a staff member has an idiot on their tag breaking rules and being a general twit, it reflects badly on them. That is how players minds work sadly.

Anyways, those are my views on the matter.

ok will do.

whole point of this thread was to bring these issues to light.

seems alot of admins are more aware of it now. =)

those are fair views.

and yes, the admins skewed my poll.

I didn't read the thread, or jester's crazy long post, but I believe staff should be allowed to own gangs. They're still players, right? Just so long as they don't abuse staff powers with the gang, such as invincibility in bases.

They can base on their staff account etc.
Its just if the tamper with the original walk speed to walk that little faster you'll know.

they can base on their admin account, and you wouldnt even know!

I personally have disagreed with admins owning large basing gangs because there will always be an underlying bias favoring the gang no matter what the situation may be. If a big gang leader gets hired they should have to cut ties with the gang and hand over leadership. I don't really have a problem with staff owning a social gang for friends as long as they don't get stupid advantages and crap like rooms and buildings; although I have always felt that most social gangs tend to just attract a fair share of brown nosers and and kiss asses.