Posted by Bryan*

In regards to the application, it's very bland. Use Ol'West's application as a reference.

I personally have no problems with the current application, I've had my share of times filling it out with no complaints.

But I do agree that Ol'West's application is fantastic, it mixes both personal and realistic scenarios and questions perfectly and can easily distinguish the personal questions that the current app looks for, as well as some realistic scenario questions.  

Posted by Colin

Problem with Darkk though is he is constantly telling people Andromeda will do stuff for him, and uses her name to threaten people, so you can't be too sure what is truthful and what's not.

I would still look into it though because a player who Darkk was having problems with, Darkk somehow had his private messages and were showing them around to make fun of him (and the receiving person too).

I understand that hacking and cheating occurs all around and I don't think they are saying it doesn't but rather spar is just their main focus so you often hear them voice it more than other aspects and because right now towering is dead-content so less people there to be complaining about hackers (which will be a thing come NGS for sure).

Cheating in spar is something that is really common now and that is why people react like this, it's just completely ruining the fun for them and this isn't the first time the streak has been lost to a hacker which really sucks to the people who achieved it beforehand.

I understand completely where you are coming from on the staff end but you also have to understand where people are coming from on the player end, especially those who have been involved with competitive aspects for years. It may seem like they are over voicing them selves and being condescending but it's kind of hard not to be when something you've spent so long doing is being ruined by cheaters with no real fix at the current time.

Think Jarace is doing a really good job with how he handles situations and conducts him self so having him as GPA is a good step going into the future.

Another good step would be people like Red properly voicing their opinions, it's good to have discussions about this stuff but not gunna get anywhere going the Red route (he updated his post, progress!!!)

At any rate; Dark shouldn't be telling people that anymore.

I totally get the concerns and that is why I'm trying to address many of them. I was a player for roughly 4 years before I became staff, so I can identify with them on a lot of issues. People who cheat and such at towers or spar make the game very frustrating to play. Unfortunately, I can't change the core game mechanics to make these things impossible. I'm going to do what I can do by hiring and training GPs who will catch these things as quickly as possible.

Posted by Thallen

It's terrible. You tell me what's more important as a first hurdle: getting cookie-cutter answers out of players with some weird personality test, or putting them in situations that they'll actually be in as a GP and seeing how they'd handle it with no training or experience. You know you can gauge how well someone's English and maturity level is with the latter too, right?

It's so easy to BS through that application and it's setting you up to hire people who seem "nice" rather than people who can do the job properly. These are the types of questions you can Google to get good answers to. You can't do that with questions that are specific to Graal or being GP.

Is the last question on the application a better example of something you would like to see? It's something we could definitely consider adding more of, but I can't directly influence it so it might take a while to change.  

어딜가나 병림픽은 존재하는군 peace  

Being an admin has to come from the heart. To be a great GP, it has to come from within oneself. Sadly, can't trust anyone nowadays. Anyone can give a great answer. Play the right cards and you will get hired. There is no way of really telling how a person truly is or will be. There are no lie detectors you can hook up to a person online.

Furthermore, higher up staff can't always be there to monitor new hires or they are just not on at the same times. Monitoring staff is asking quite a lot for someone to do and not many will have time for that sort of thing. Unfortunately, GPs can get away with abusing powers in that way. Thus, hiring is not an easy task. I agree with much of what Coco has stated. I think hiring should come from the company itself. No more of this hire volunteers.  

Insight from a retired staff.

The application is but a fraction of the hiring process. Is it flawed? Absolutely. Under the pretext that the majority on the forums are either late teens, young adults or full fledged adults, the application is NOT the section preventing you from becoming a GP.

For some, it is your ban history. You cannot change what has been logged on your account. All you can do is wait months/year without being warned/banned.

For others, it is your comportment. How do you behave on Graal/ other mediums on a daily basis. Are you confrontational? What vocabulary do you frequently use. You may not be reset for it in game, but frequent use of "ffs" or "stfu" doesn't reflect very good. Keep in mind your activity is monitored, more so if you happen to check all the boxes in your application. Are you a cooperative person? You may write so in the application, but perhaps take a look at how many people you have blocked. Plenty may be justified but if you happen to be that person who blocks others for mildly being annoying, once again it doesn't reflect that well.

Another aspect is who do you hang out around Graal? Jarace earlier addressed what appeared to be an issue with Andromeda being close to a player not viewed particularly favourable. This is an example of players not trusting staff because of their social circle. How often do your friends mention that they have been wrongfully banned or rightfully banned. You might be spick and span, yet suspicion can justifiably arise from the logs of your friends. Can you take action and ban your friends. Many turn a blind eye to that.

I believe a comment was mentioned either in this topic or an earlier one about that the issue with Classic's staff is that they seek players who have an image of a GP, instead of hiring those who can get the job done properly. I agree with that, but not in same way as the author of the comment. The current team is full of capable individuals, they just don't have the image of it. Are there ****pumps in there? Likely and I trust that they will be weeded out once they show their colour, especially with the current GPAs.

Now I might not have the same graal background as them as I've been in three successful tower guilds, I've actively sparred for a year back when, etc. To some, they believe that is what constitutes a good GP. A Jack of All trades. However, there is some pedestal being created here that they should all should be like that. I disagree. From 2013 to when I retired, I've had a pleasure to staff with capable members from all backgrounds. Take current staff Za Ichi, very different graal playstyle, but from what I've seen, he's just as those capable of those with sparrer/pk/bk histories. GPs like him put in 1.5 to 3 times as many hours I could ever have weekly, yet hardly get recognized as they don't fall in the "image" of the model GP. Take your time and pm them. More often than not they will provide an answer to your question. The only time I suggest not to, and many players do it, is submit their question following an event. Rarely you will get a response.

To conclude, for those applying or have applied, the hiring process goes beyond your ban history and your application. Now I'm not saying throw away your friends for another social group or change your lifestyle. Just be aware that more often than not, you aren't held back because of your application. While it's easy to point at its flaws as to why it is preventing potentially great candidates, it likely the other factors holding you back. Hiring these members with shady attitudes will just perpetuate the cycle. They can be good but to the players, rarely noticed. Most will assume he's just another horrible staff.  

Posted by Reemas

I think hiring should come from the company itself. No more of this hire volunteers.

Toonslab barely has any influence in what happens to the server(s) besides anything money related so it would be kind of stupid for unix/PWAs to deal with the hiring when he/they probably don't even know what's going on in the server(s) half the time.  

From a player's perspective it's very frustrating. While I fully understand that hackers will continually come online no matter what you do, that doesn't take away from the frustration. In spar it should be even easier, since you have to have 24 hours to even queue. It should not be possible midday for players to streak 90 wins while obviously cheating. I understand that you guys have to fill out timezones, but shouldn't the times with the most players online receive additional attention?

Frankly I've found that my areas of gameplay(PK, towering) have been fairly well patrolled... Or the cheaters have just lost interest since players aren't doing towering as much anymore. When the NGS comes out I fully expect towers to become a hacker-haven unless something changes(Jarace has said that changes are coming, I just hope that they DO improve things).

I think being a GP requires quite a bit; the requirements eliminate a lot of players who would be more than happy to help... I would love to be a GP, but I'm realistic in the fact that I do not have the time like others do. I spend a lot of time studying. But if I was given the powers a GP had I would be more than happy to have people kik me when a hacker was streaking or someone was blocking the stairs(with god mode) and I could quickly log on and handle it.

I realize that you guys need to have GP's who have shifts and log on certain hours, so what I stated is largely unrealistic. However, the requirements of the job(the amount of hours, that is) scares off a lot of the older and more mature players you(seemingly?) would want to have... I personally can't think of a great solution at the moment, it's a complex problem considering how quickly and drastically things can go wrong.  

Posted by Areo

From a player's perspective it's very frustrating. While I fully understand that hackers will continually come online no matter what you do, that doesn't take away from the frustration. In spar it should be even easier, since you have to have 24 hours to even queue. It should not be possible midday for players to streak 90 wins while obviously cheating. I understand that you guys have to fill out timezones, but shouldn't the times with the most players online receive additional attention?

Frankly I've found that my areas of gameplay(PK, towering) have been fairly well patrolled... Or the cheaters have just lost interest since players aren't doing towering as much anymore. When the NGS comes out I fully expect towers to become a hacker-haven unless something changes(Jarace has said that changes are coming, I just hope that they DO improve things).

I think being a GP requires quite a bit; the requirements eliminate a lot of players who would be more than happy to help... I would love to be a GP, but I'm realistic in the fact that I do not have the time like others do. I spend a lot of time studying. But if I was given the powers a GP had I would be more than happy to have people kik me when a hacker was streaking or someone was blocking the stairs(with god mode) and I could quickly log on and handle it.

I realize that you guys need to have GP's who have shifts and log on certain hours, so what I stated is largely unrealistic. However, the requirements of the job(the amount of hours, that is) scares off a lot of the older and more mature players you(seemingly?) would want to have... I personally can't think of a great solution at the moment, it's a complex problem considering how quickly and drastically things can go wrong.

Very true and I agree with you. There are times when a GP is online by themselves and they get multiple messages from players about a possible hacker. It is within these situations that GPs are required to make tough decisions. You cant believe what the players are saying and decisions are solely on you. Once you do make a decision, players than spam you saying how terrible of a GP you are and you shouldnt have banned so and so. It ends up being a no win situation.

It's also for that purpose admins have to remain hidden. Explains why there is no list of current staff. Sadly, players can add admins and are on player friends list and they cannot get away. The pressure is at times unbearable.

I still get nightmares. You have no idea.  

I don’t know where this wildly inaccurate rumor that I let Dark access my account came from, but during my time as staff, I never once gave another person access to my account, much less someone whom I’ve never even met face-to-face. Contrary to this supposed popular belief, I did not abuse my powers for Dark. Even if he did threaten people by saying I would ban them, he didn’t address these threats to me, nor would I have ever followed through with a request of that severity if he had.  

Hire Kosiris, he will do a better job than 99% of the GPs that currently do nothing but idle.

You can't expect us to be satisfied with the same answer every single time this happens: "we just aren't active enough! It's not our fault!!"  

hire kosiris, sugar, bryan, zicknex, the roller, beg td to rejoin, beg fulgore to rejoin, <- best gp team you will acquire.

While you're at it, please bring the staff list back, thanks.  

Posted by Red

While you're at it, please bring the staff list back, thanks.

They got rid of the staff list because if an admin retired or was fired, someone had to go back and update it. It would've gotten to a point where new admins were coming in and out all the time, and it had to constantly be changed.

It's extremely helpful don't get me wrong, but it would be a massive pain to constantly update so I doubt it's coming back.  

Posted by LoX

They got rid of the staff list because if an admin retired or was fired, someone had to go back and update it. It would've gotten to a point where new admins were coming in and out all the time, and it had to constantly be changed.

It's extremely helpful don't get me wrong, but it would be a massive pain to constantly update so I doubt it's coming back.

yeah, major pain to do something i literally already do on the private part of my guild's website just so they have access to GPs since reporting is actually useless

woe is me, my heavy workload  

Posted by LoX

They got rid of the staff list because if an admin retired or was fired, someone had to go back and update it. It would've gotten to a point where new admins were coming in and out all the time, and it had to constantly be changed.

It's extremely helpful don't get me wrong, but it would be a massive pain to constantly update so I doubt it's coming back.

It's possible to fetch from serverops. It was probably done automatically.  

Posted by TD*

Insight from a retired staff.

The application is but a fraction of the hiring process. Is it flawed? Absolutely. Under the pretext that the majority on the forums are either late teens, young adults or full fledged adults, the application is NOT the section preventing you from becoming a GP.

For some, it is your ban history. You cannot change what has been logged on your account. All you can do is wait months/year without being warned/banned.

For others, it is your comportment. How do you behave on Graal/ other mediums on a daily basis. Are you confrontational? What vocabulary do you frequently use. You may not be reset for it in game, but frequent use of "ffs" or "stfu" doesn't reflect very good. Keep in mind your activity is monitored, more so if you happen to check all the boxes in your application. Are you a cooperative person? You may write so in the application, but perhaps take a look at how many people you have blocked. Plenty may be justified but if you happen to be that person who blocks others for mildly being annoying, once again it doesn't reflect that well.

Another aspect is who do you hang out around Graal? Jarace earlier addressed what appeared to be an issue with Andromeda being close to a player not viewed particularly favourable. This is an example of players not trusting staff because of their social circle. How often do your friends mention that they have been wrongfully banned or rightfully banned. You might be spick and span, yet suspicion can justifiably arise from the logs of your friends. Can you take action and ban your friends. Many turn a blind eye to that.

I believe a comment was mentioned either in this topic or an earlier one about that the issue with Classic's staff is that they seek players who have an image of a GP, instead of hiring those who can get the job done properly. I agree with that, but not in same way as the author of the comment. The current team is full of capable individuals, they just don't have the image of it. Are there ****pumps in there? Likely and I trust that they will be weeded out once they show their colour, especially with the current GPAs.

Now I might not have the same graal background as them as I've been in three successful tower guilds, I've actively sparred for a year back when, etc. To some, they believe that is what constitutes a good GP. A Jack of All trades. However, there is some pedestal being created here that they should all should be like that. I disagree. From 2013 to when I retired, I've had a pleasure to staff with capable members from all backgrounds. Take current staff Za Ichi, very different graal playstyle, but from what I've seen, he's just as those capable of those with sparrer/pk/bk histories. GPs like him put in 1.5 to 3 times as many hours I could ever have weekly, yet hardly get recognized as they don't fall in the "image" of the model GP. Take your time and pm them. More often than not they will provide an answer to your question. The only time I suggest not to, and many players do it, is submit their question following an event. Rarely you will get a response.

To conclude, for those applying or have applied, the hiring process goes beyond your ban history and your application. Now I'm not saying throw away your friends for another social group or change your lifestyle. Just be aware that more often than not, you aren't held back because of your application. While it's easy to point at its flaws as to why it is preventing potentially great candidates, it likely the other factors holding you back. Hiring these members with shady attitudes will just perpetuate the cycle. They can be good but to the players, rarely noticed. Most will assume he's just another horrible staff.

Go eat beaver tails!