Forest

Give em' hell friend :coffee:

so when do we get ea game coupons and free game giveaways?

 

[attach=full]28853[/attach]

Lets be honest, what could you possibly want from EA.

it isn't everyday xG is part of classwork, so I thought it was cool.

Funny enough, I actually used my experience here with Xeno Gamers (as general Staff, Division Manager and Co-Leader) in my resume/cover letter when I applied at EA. During the interview, there was actually a large focus on what my responsibilities/duties entailed with Xeno Gamers. Just thought I would mention it here as a neat example that xG can actually have a real-world influence/impact :coffee:

Is there any way to customize a Member's post-background? Lately been thinking of a "premium" feature to be donated for that includes exclusive content/features/perks; perhaps one that times out after a certain period of time?

To elaborate further on this:

1-Day/Trial Period - User is given 24 hours upon donation of a set-number ($1 or even free trial period, one time use per forum account) that enables access to premium Membership perks

1 Month Period - User is given 30 days upon donation of a set-dollar amount

1 Year Period - User is given 365 days upon donation of a set-dollar amount

Premium features are TBA, though it should be discussed in detail before enacting any sort of feature ahead-of-time. Generate the hype, so to speak.

That being said, this all heavily relies on whether or not it is even possible pending @Rhododendron 's response

So basically, from what I can think of, these would be the areas affected:

• Upon donation, user would receive permissions/access to otherwise "locked" features of the forums (for a pending period of time)
  
  • This can include [but is not limited to]
    
    • Custom emoji set(?)
      
    • Customizable background of post(?)
      
    • Custom ratings(?)
      
    • ???
      

Obviously this is by no-means a final product; this is merely the conceptual stage. With a feature like this, it will promote exclusivity which in and of itself is already desirable (hence popularity in Servers with exclusive hats/trails/etc).

Additionally, this may also rake in more donations; and theoretically, the credits system could even be utilized instead of donations which can potentially bolster activity in Members of the community seeing as how they would have something to work for via posting, etc. This would give Members the option of donating for credits to purchase premium Membership, or to simply deliver incentive by working for it to accumulate credits through regular use of the forums.

Though to re-iterate, this hinges on whether such a feature is even possible.

I suggested something like this in the past, Rhododendron turned it down because he said we have too many ratings as is.

We already have way too many so I would want to replace only :( I COULD code a new method that lets you choose from a list, and we could have many more ratings, right now there's sorta better areas of the community that I could put such effort towards.

[ Suggestion ] New Forum Ratings

Instead of proposing a new rating, maybe consider having a rating or two that already exist be swapped out? To name a couple, "Cena'd" and "Shrek'd" are pretty tasteless [and outdated] in my opinion :coffee:

That being said, I'm not sure if this would dissolve all of the previous ratings (for the swapped out ratings) on someone's Profile, or if they would simply just be re-labelled.

EDIT: As for emoji, it would be cool to have a 'Custom' set (much like Default, Extended, etc) that only include "donated-for" emoji. Obviously there would have to be rules set in place (IE. content of the emoji), but I think it would be a pretty neat feature to allow for individuality. Additionally, if possible, this set could only be accessed by those who have donated for "Premium" emoji. Just a thought on top of what was previously suggested in this thread.

@Rhododendron for thoughts on this thread.

Never gonna happen. Can't guarentee security for everyone with Discord. Teamspeak is encrypted for everyone so no worries there. Also Time Warner Cable owns Discord so no idea what will happen with it in the future.

Do one of the challenges.

Want To Get Unbanned?

The process would be similar to that of moderating sprays; Staff wouldn't have to actively search for it as they would only take action when it is seen or if a Player has reported it as previously mentioned. That being said, I can definitely see how this could lead to disgruntled Players leaving due to the inconvenience of having to swap it out like Aegean said. It gets to a point where the Server becomes unplayable due to the mountain of rules to keep it a "safe place"; which is unrealistic due to the nature of the game itself as well as being one that is online and free to play.

To be perfectly honest, I think the whole "PG13" aspect of the General rules should be completely re-hauled or otherwise tossed. I know for a fact that the chat on the Servers (in General, not exclusively TF2) can vary heavily in terms of derogatory or otherwise offensive content. Hell, I know for a fact that even Staff/Members indulge in swearing every now and again. Point being that it's easy to maintain a PG13 environment on a Forum or any other social gathering that is relatively static, but when it comes to a more dynamic environment with a lot more going on (IE. Servers) it just isn't very realistic to maintain a PG13 environment. But I digress, this is something that warrants its own thread.

All in all, in my opinion, if the renamed weapon has derogatory/offensive content (namely ethnicity, politics, religion, sexuality) then it should not be permitted on the Servers. Anything that involves "Butt Blaster" or whatever should be fine, but again, this is only assuming we're actually taking the whole 'PG13' thing seriously; something that I'm inclined to believe that we really aren't :coffee:

@orangejuice

Also obligatory @JuiceBoxBoysEverywhere

Best of luck gaining traction there, no offense or anything. It just seems unlikely given our current playerbase :coffee:

@Jacob

 

Good luck with this one "shut up you stupid 4ner"

Don't know why but it looks like something Rabid would say.

Here's an easy one:

"the real og rimdog"

@Chrono

Yeah obviously if someone's breaking a rule I will deal with it and go out of my way to stop them from breaking that rule. However, a simple warn on mic is so much more efficient and is just as good as a warn in chat as it has its positives such as being a lot easier to do without breaking the flow of the game and you can do it anywhere at anytime almost. Obvious negatives include what has already been stated, but I strongly believe that warnings on mic are a lot more efficient in situations as I've watched every staff member do who have mics. I take a lot of pride in being staff of course but I'm trying to say if you aren't enjoying yourself then you should probably step down. Some situations as I've previously stated still apply such as being the death on deathrun as that can ruin the game for everyone else who doesn't have a challenge and can rush on ahead and win the game because a staff member has to do their job. Being a warden on jailbreak obviously means that people should be listening to you on mic so you should be able to warn them as warden anyway.

I understand what you're saying, but you seem to be misunderstanding the point here. While it may be efficient, it is not a static way of ensuring the rule breaker understands that a warning has been given. There is no way to disregard text ingame (that I'm aware of), while voice-chat can simply be muted. Not only does this absolve our Staff of the whole "I didn't hear a warning" case, but it can also provide tangible evidence that a warning was issued.

Additionally, at no point should Staff bypass or otherwise ignore proper protocol or procedure because "other Staff do it". The proper steps to take would be to remind the offending Staff Member that they are to verbally warn the rule-breaker via text first before choosing to resort to vocal warnings.

I also realize there are many scenarios where warning via text can inconvenience Staff or hinder gameplay, but that's just it; it [potentially] inconveniences the Players for one round at the most (assuming it really takes that amount of time to deal with a rule-breaker) while a rule-breaker can hinder multiple rounds. If there are multiple occurrences of rule-breakers, then Staff should not be taking a prominent/active role (IE. Warden, Death, etc) to begin with because, as previously mentioned, your duties/responsibility to the Server(s) as Staff are priority #1.

Though you're correct, if you aren't enjoying what you do, then you should resign. As previously mentioned, it is by no means mandatory that anyone be Staff just as Staff should not feel obligated to maintain their position; there's no shame in stepping-down in order to enjoy the Servers more. You can still be a prominent role-model as a Member by taking demos every now and then and by reporting rule breakers without hampering your own fun.

.. If they're mic spamming or spamming via text, then gag/mute them before/after providing the necessary warning (regardless of it being bumped to hell). Obviously there are case-by-case uses of commands; if someone is outright flooding chat (literally copy+pasting something stupid like the 'lenny face' pandemic) then that is means enough to gag immediately and then warn. Likewise when someone is holding down their mic and speaking incoherently or is otherwise displaying an obvious intent to troll.

Otherwise I completely agree with what has already been said, being that Staff are there to maintain the Servers and to foster a healthy and fun environment for Players. If you aren't able to stop whatever it is you're doing in that particular Server during a round to settle a dispute because you want to keep a good score, or are having 'fun', then I'll put it bluntly and I'm not going to sugar-coat it: resign and do not be a Staff Member. I won't speak on behalf of the Higher-Ups, but ideally any gaming community will want Staff who take pride in what they do; those who are willing to put aside whatever it is they're doing to completely handle a situation in the correct manner. Staff Members represent Xeno Gamers more than the average Members do, and therefore should make an effort to maintain their integrity both in and out of the Servers when dealing with disputes.

Your top priority [as a Staff Member] should and always will be to fulfill your duty as Staff. To put this into perspective, it wasn't uncommon in the CSS Division to pass Warden or to slay/kill oneself in the middle of something in order to provide complete attention to a situation and to moderate when necessary.

TL;DR

- Text warnings are preferable (if not mandatory) to vocal warnings as no excuses can be made by Players stating that no warning was issued during a Ban Protest

- Staff Priorities take precedence over anything in Servers. Take some pride in what you (Staff in general) do and perform your duties as a Staff Member, or step-down. You weren't promoted to have fun, but that doesn't mean you can't have any on the side.

To re-iterate:

1. Guess the person's quote from the previous poster

2. Drop down a few lines in your post

3. Input the quote/mimic that you want someone else to guess

3a. Tag whoever you think should know it, if they're the next person to guess (and they're wrong) rate their post "Drunk". Responses are first-come, first-serve. If the tagged does not guess before someone else does, then the game carries on

4. Rinse and repeat

Glad to see y'all having fun, but these are some pretty basic rules and it makes things a lot easier for everyone if you play along ;)

For reference, this was the last legitimate quote/mimic:

@lilbleed aka steven probably said that

 

try to guess this one "I don't give a shit about Harambe, nobody cares about that n***er gorrilla"

Bored at work, felt like posting a useless thread for entertainment.

Post an iconic or otherwise memorable quote of a User/Player from Xeno Gamers (without including their name).

The next person to post has to guess who it was who said it, and will then provide their own iconic/memorable quote of another User/Player, and so on and so forth.

Alternatively, you may also post what you think is typical of the User/Player to say either in chat or over mic.

Example Mimic:

"I typically come off as a pretentious know-it-all in my posts' date=' but it's only because I care about Xeno Gamers!"[/i']

Definitely Forest.

Example Quote:

"All Ts turn around and get dick-ass tight with each other."

Oh $moker' date=' how I miss that offensive-ass dude[/quote']

 

Please refrain from making hurtful or otherwise hostile statements/comments when writing your quote/mimic about someone unless you know it will be taken in a jokingly manner.

 

You may also choose to tag someone who you know will (or should know) who the quote/mimic is referring to in your post (the tagged user must be the one to reply with a guess, otherwise someone else may make the guess at which point this no longer applies). *Important* if the tagged person makes a guess and gets it wrong, it is mandatory for everyone to rate their post "Drunk", because they deserve to be publicly shamed.

 

It is also mandatory to make the quote/mimic incredibly and unnecessarily highlighted/colored/formatted. You may also choose to format it in a way that hints at who it's referring to in some way (don't spell it out).

 

Let the games begin. Good luck, have fun :coffee:

 

"FUCK THE POLICE. REBEL BITCHES REBEEEEEL"

Not so sure it's worth going through the trouble of implementing anything over something that seems so minor and trivial.

 

Though it is worth noting that this is a Gaming Community, so it makes sense that sections related to 'Music' or 'Drawing' are dead, and honestly I don't really see that as a problem. The only reason they're there is to provide an outlet should anyone feel like posting specifics.

 

If anything, I would just consider removing them altogether or just merging them (remove specifics like MS Paint, Sprays, and keep Drawings). Reason being that the 'General' section is a section for practically anything in general, which can include [but is not limited to] drawing, music and the like. Sort of makes the existence of any other specific section moot in a way. I mean, I would go so far as to say that the General section makes up the majority of activity and threads to begin with. But even then, I see no reason to remove those sections as they aren't really doing any harm; at the most, they encourage people to share their opinions/thoughts on topics outside of the whole gaming spectrum.

 

Aside from that, I don't really see the need/benefit to promote sections that don't exactly pertain to Xeno Gamers as a whole, especially if they don't receive any attention to begin with. As previously mentioned, the existence of those sections is purely for convenience. The attention/resources could be better spent on higher priorities like Servers, Social Media, YouTube, etc. If grave digging is the problem here, then just implement a small rule stating that it doesn't apply to 'Creative' sections of the Forums.

 

EDIT: apologies in advance for this long-ass post, I swear it wasn't supposed to be this long :coffee:

Quoting myself from a previous thread (source) because this is somewhat relevant to the whole "make a new board" concept. Also, I'm not sure how anyone could possibly be "off-topic" when posting in the General section of forums.

As Silence so eloquently put it:

As for the whole anonymous board, it's pretty well exactly as Silence put it back in the day; a 'Bad Idea'. The concept was that it would allow Players to speak out against abusive Staff without fear of being judged or scorned. That being said, it just turned into a place where people would fling insults, flame each other, and just spawn racist or offensive shit-storms that no gaming community would want to be associated with. I don't think it would be the best idea unless rules were to be put in place that rule against any derogatory, offensive or graphic content; however, even then I would still be hesitant because we're a Gaming community, not a discussion forum for Politics/Religion/etc. If anything, see if you can convince @Rhododendron to create a separate blog or something for that kind of content. The Xeno Gamers' forums should remain focused around gaming and other creative interests in my opinion :coffee:

Sooo, don't change your profile pic ever? Got it. (haven't felt the need to since I first created my account anyways)

You think that's bad?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5lGCSx3K4o

@ 0:52

@ 1:31

Take a wild guess who it was who dealt the ban :coffee:

Under normal circumstances you would be correct in saying that anything done outside of Servers should have no sway on rules broken in the Servers; however, this does vary from time to time, especially when it comes to harassment or other abusive communication (text or verbal). Assuming this was the case, then the ban was justifiable.

 

That being said, if this was simply a matter of a Player commenting on a Staff's profile to get a rise out of the Staff, then no, I don't believe this to be a justifiable ban in any way. Not only is this not disrupting the gameplay or Players/Staff on the Server, but this may very well be borderline abuse of power.

 

Before this gets blown out of proportion, (also keep in mind that this is personal opinion) please consider the following:

 

Staff are there to Moderate the Servers in order to maintain a healthy gaming environment free of rulebreakers, trolls, etc. Unless a Player is explicitly affecting the Servers (or is otherwise harassing a Player on our Servers) then there is no reason to ban a Player for their actions outside of the Servers. In other words, in order for a Player to be punished, they have to be affecting the Server as a whole, or, and this is a big 'or', they have to be a danger (IE. [verbal] harassment, threats, etc) to any of the Players in the Server (including Staff). Anything above or beyond this is an abuse of power from the Staff (depending on the situation).

 

Staff are expected to receive a lot of slack for what they do, both ingame and out of it; this is a given. However, by no means should they be punishing Players for what they do outside of the game, especially for something as trivial as this.

 

As a reminder, this is all personal opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt. I'd also like to point out that all Players, regardless of the reason, are entitled to post a Ban Protest; regardless of how frivolous it may seem to some. The point for many of these isn't that the ban is for a minor amount of time, but that the ban may have been unwarranted or unjustified.

 

+/-0 on this Ban Protest.

We might need to have a conversation on what sort of outside of server communication can be punishment worthy at some point, but that convo will take more than a day.

Strongly agree with what Moosty suggested as this something that should be addressed sooner rather than later @Aegean

Under normal circumstances you would be correct in saying that anything done outside of Servers should have no sway on rules broken in the Servers; however, this does vary from time to time, especially when it comes to harassment or other abusive communication (text or verbal). Assuming this was the case, then the ban was justifiable.

That being said, if this was simply a matter of a Player commenting on a Staff's profile to get a rise out of the Staff, then no, I don't believe this to be a justifiable ban in any way. Not only is this not disrupting the gameplay or Players/Staff on the Server, but this may very well be borderline abuse of power.

Before this gets blown out of proportion, (also keep in mind that this is personal opinion) please consider the following:

Staff are there to Moderate the Servers in order to maintain a healthy gaming environment free of rulebreakers, trolls, etc. Unless a Player is explicitly affecting the Servers (or is otherwise harassing a Player on our Servers) then there is no reason to ban a Player for their actions outside of the Servers. In other words, in order for a Player to be punished, they have to be affecting the Server as a whole, or, and this is a big 'or', they have to be a danger (IE. [verbal] harassment, threats, etc) to any of the Players in the Server (including Staff). Anything above or beyond this is an abuse of power from the Staff (depending on the situation).

Staff are expected to receive a lot of slack for what they do, both ingame and out of it; this is a given. However, by no means should they be punishing Players for what they do outside of the game, especially for something as trivial as this.

As a reminder, this is all personal opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt. I'd also like to point out that all Players, regardless of the reason, are entitled to post a Ban Protest; regardless of how frivolous it may seem to some. The point for many of these isn't that the ban is for a minor amount of time, but that the ban may have been unwarranted or unjustified.

+/-0 on this Ban Protest.

@TheSupremePatriot context?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONKi2S6YBSU

More of synthpop, but fuck it.

Alright people, I'm on a Synthwave kick right now. Share some of your gems with Xeno Gamers.

For starters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WVh1zVLAcE

Because I'm hyped that Ephixa is finally branching out from his dubstep tendencies (LoZ Dubstep anyone?).

After talking with higher ups for a bit, we have realized this kind of system is incredibly abusable, as one person could just go down the line breaking rules and never really receive too harsh of a punishment.

In the time that I have been here with Xeno Gamers, this has never once occurred for any Player as the likelihood of this is so incredibly rare that no one in their right mind would waste their time doing it. That being said, if Staff have been incorrectly enforcing rules/regulations, I don't believe the solution to be a "Whoops, our bad. Let's just change the rules because we've been doing it this way forever." as this practically wipes away the integrity of what was essentially put in place and was the foundation for nearly everything punishment related.

I sincerely hope that this will not become a common occurrence where instead of correcting a problem by placing it back on track, it is instead built around these constant changes. At this point, the rules/regulations are being bent and contorted to whatever the Moderators/Administrators see fit as punishment which can result in completely skewed and biased bans or ban times in general. The reason the step-by-step process is there is to ensure that all Players receive the same punishment and treatment to eliminate any sort of bias. The fact still remains that this Player should have been banned for a week at the most. Worst comes to worse, the Player gets permanently banned afterwards and at this point there will be 0 reason to serve out another chance.

With that all said, I completely respect the decision of the Higher-Ups to either re-evaluate or alter the rules; I only ask that they be altered in a way that will still present an unbiased form of punishment for Players.

While I find the user's attitude toward this whole ordeal rather rude, I do have to raise a concern I have seen time and time again when it comes to ban times. According to the user's ban page, I am only seeing one occasion in which the user was banned for a day for exploitation (07-19-16) before being banned permanently once again for exploitation (04-08-17). With that in mind, we do have a process that has stood the test of time which has always been: a warning > gag/mute > kick > day ban > week ban > permanent ban. However, unless I'm mistaken, the user was never banned for a week due to exploitation.

To quote myself from another Ban Protest which is relevant to this situation:

... [if my understanding is correct] if Players are being given extended ban times based on any ban they previously had' date=' regardless of the context of the ban, that seems a tad bit excessive.[/quote']

 

To put context into this, the user was given an extended ban-time based on the fact that he/she had broken Server rules; however, the extension was based on an unrelated rule that was broken and so the user was unfairly punished.

 

Ban times do stack, however this is only the case when the offender is breaking the same rule more than once (assuming this is the case here as no week ban was given for a repeated offense) within a reasonable amount of time. With that in mind, the user was banned for a day in 2016, and was then permanently banned this year for "exploiting" again; I do not see how this falls under the same category given that amount of buffer time in between (provided that it's a minor inconvenience and could easily be forgotten), but I digress.

 

That all being said, regardless of the user's attitude on this whole thing, I see no reason to dish out a permanent ban when there is an absence of a week-ban to begin with. While I may not have any sort of association with the TF2 Division, I'd still like to +1 for a reduced ban time to a week based on what I have provided in this post. Whether or not my vouch will count is up to the Higher-Ups