Application: James

[HoudiniMan]

Can you tell us why you are no longer working on the accounts team, GMing (here or there), etc?

[James]

Originally Posted by HoudiniMan

Can you tell us why you are no longer working on the accounts team, GMing (here or there), etc?

Accounts Administrator - There was some dispute between me and contego over the job, and I left so contego could take over. contego deserved the job more at the time then I did. That is when we formed a new team called Account Reset Team, and I lead that a long with Lamer and IceHawk for a few months. If I remember correctly, that team, was then useless when the PWA was formed, so it was disbanded.

GO Game Master - I only held this position for a few months, as when NightLord left they decided to remove me from the position as well. I didn't seem to care at the time.

RO Game Master - Urashima, a former member of this community, had a private server called pillows, and he decided to stop hosting the server (it had about 100-130 players online on average). It was very professional.

I'd like to also mention I was Police Chief of Graal2001 and FAQ Chief when it was popular, so I've had quite a bit of experience with dealing with people. My current job in real life also deals with customer service.

[contego]

Originally Posted by James

Accounts Administrator - There was some dispute between me and contego over the job, and I left so contego could take over. contego deserved the job more at the time then I did. That is when we formed a new team called Account Reset Team, and I lead that a long with Lamer and IceHawk for a few months. If I remember correctly, that team, was then useless when the PWA was formed, so it was disbanded.

GO Game Master - I only held this position for a few months, as when NightLord left they decided to remove me from the position as well. I didn't seem to care at the time.

RO Game Master - Urashima, a former member of this community, had a private server called pillows, and he decided to stop hosting the server (it had about 100-130 players online on average). It was very professional.

I'd like to also mention I was Police Chief of Graal2001 and FAQ Chief when it was popular, so I've had quite a bit of experience with dealing with people. My current job in real life also deals with customer service.

I'm a little late, however I'd like to rebuttle and say that we didn't really have a dispute because my issue I had was that the automatic account creator and password changer was not functioning at the time. Therefore there was a vast amount of e-mail's pooring in over 100 e-mails a day. This required us to reply to each one and await a responce for them to answer security questions to insure the the person requesting was infact the owner, all of this has to be done daily. You were inactive for over a month which left me with all the work. Also there were server issues which required the use of our lvl 5 RC and no one with the lvl 5 RC was ever active, ever. So having said that, our "dispute" was that I was frusterated with doing all the work and when I confronted you weeks later you were offended and stepped down.

And just to note when Nightlord hired me from SL as Accounts Admin, you were the Assistant Accounts Admin at the time. I believe I replaced Mr. Bear and you were offended I stepped over you and if you recall correctly I requested they make you Admin and I your assistant. Anyway it was agreed upon until you left. Shortly after I promoted SnakeEyes and James205 as Assistant Account Admins. Soon after I was promoted to GM to work closely with unixmad and thereafter is history.

I left because unfortunately Stefan didn't support most decisions made my the global staff and it caused too much miscommunication between staff member's on server's which is why I decided to retire. Management should have open communications and willing to listen, more commonly known as an open door policy. In addition, Stefan and unixmad showed very little appreication for people who dedicated their volunteer time to help support Graal.

I have a degree in Management Studies and I'm a Branch Manager of a bank, so I can confidently say that Graal has a very poor management structure. And management shows very little support to their volunteer employees. Not to mention there's little incentive to work for Graal, or none that is highlighted.

On the flip side, Graal has had an improvement in the global staff hired. And there's little tolerance for those who abuse their rights.

Stefan and unixmad play key roles in the development and growth in Graal. As noted before by someone, Stefan is moreso development and updates and Unixmad works more with billing issues. They have little time to support staff and they lack the knowledge, experience, and patience to do so.

This is certainly not a bash against Stefan or unixmad because I have much respect for their accomplishments with Graal and how far they've come but they need some fine tuning and polishing. No one is perfect, but they are no where near it when it comes to managing staff and keeping open communications.

[James]

Originally Posted by contego

I'm a little late, however I'd like to rebuttle and say that we didn't really have a dispute because my issue I had was that the automatic account creator and password changer was not functioning at the time. Therefore there was a vast amount of e-mail's pooring in over 100 e-mails a day. This required us to reply to each one and await a responce for them to answer security questions to insure the the person requesting was infact the owner, all of this has to be done daily. You were inactive for over a month which left me with all the work. Also there were server issues which required the use of our lvl 5 RC and no one with the lvl 5 RC was ever active, ever. So having said that, our "dispute" was that I was frusterated with doing all the work and when I confronted you weeks later you were offended and stepped down.

And just to note when Nightlord hired me from SL as Accounts Admin, you were the Assistant Accounts Admin at the time. I believe I replaced Mr. Bear and you were offended I stepped over you and if you recall correctly I requested they make you Admin and I your assistant. Anyway it was agreed upon until you left. Shortly after I promoted SnakeEyes and James205 as Assistant Account Admins. Soon after I was promoted to GM to work closely with unixmad and thereafter is history.

I left because unfortunately Stefan didn't support most decisions made my the global staff and it caused too much miscommunication between staff member's on server's which is why I decided to retire. Management should have open communications and willing to listen, more commonly known as an open door policy. In addition, Stefan and unixmad showed very little appreication for people who dedicated their volunteer time to help support Graal.

I have a degree in Management Studies and I'm a Branch Manager of a bank, so I can confidently say that Graal has a very poor management structure. And management shows very little support to their volunteer employees. Not to mention there's little incentive to work for Graal, or none that is highlighted.

On the flip side, Graal has had an improvement in the global staff hired. And there's little tolerance for those who abuse their rights.

Stefan and unixmad play key roles in the development and growth in Graal. As noted before by someone, Stefan is moreso development and updates and Unixmad works more with billing issues. They have little time to support staff and they lack the knowledge, experience, and patience to do so.

This is certainly not a bash against Stefan or unixmad because I have much respect for their accomplishments with Graal and how far they've come but they need some fine tuning and polishing. No one is perfect, but they are no where near it when it comes to managing staff and keeping open communications.

I'm sorry if I failed to mention any specifics, it was quite a long time ago, and I don't exactly remember everything that had occurred.

I will actually take the time now and withdraw my application because I don't believe I'm fit for the job, and there are several applicants that I know would be willing to make this job their first priority in life, as old as I am I have too many responsibilities to take this position with a full head of steam.

I didn't know you were still active contego, it's nice to see that you're around still.

[Rufus]

Originally Posted by James

I will actually take the time now and withdraw my application because I don't believe I'm fit for the job, and there are several applicants that I know would be willing to make this job their first priority in life, as old as I am I have too many responsibilities to take this position with a full head of steam.

Disappointed, to be honest..

[James]

Originally Posted by Rufus

Disappointed, to be honest..

As I see it, this game seems to have lost almost all of its mature players. Graal is centered all around 12 year olds now. The website, the game interface, everything, you can't even post a link on the forums or link to an image anymore without getting a friggin' infraction.

I don't care for the state Graal is in, it seems to be all about the money now, and that really disappoints me. It's not the same anymore. If you keep pushing the players away with high prices for a game that doesn't have much content, then you're pushing away a lot of people that really brought Graal to life.

The forums used to be free forever, now in order to even use them you have to have an upgraded account or not clear your cookies.

I know Stefan and Stephane have a business to run, that's great and dandy, but paying for one empty gold server that has limitless potential, and another server that is just a rip of Sony's Infantry, it's not worth the money in my opinion.

They want to go 3d, but I feel in my heart of hearts that is the wrong move, Graal should not stray away from what made it great.

The ridiculous amount of cursing, the constant trainer users, the awesome community, the depth of Classic was awesome back in the day, but that's all gone now. Everything is censored, people are banned for the most petty things, and no offense to Stefan, but he can't ever stick with one project, and is full of empty promises.

I love this game with a passion, and I probably will always be in the community as long as it's around, but something has to change.

Stefan needs to be made a full programmer, and Stephane needs to hire someone else to oversee new playerworld projects. What the heck is going on with GK? Why are people paying money to play on something that hasn't had a real core update for months and months? It doesn't make any sense to me. Their earnings would be so much greater if they made a gold world besides Zone and kept it constantly updated. Revive NewWorld? I don't know. GK is far from done, and I know MMORPGS are never done, but GK doesn't have enough content to even keep it online. Online games need replay value. The most exciting thing that happens on that server is the events.

I'm done with my rant, but basically I'm saying I don't think I want to put myself in that kind of position when I'm not even happy with Graal's current state.

[contego]

I'm back to just sparring on UN now. Glad to see you're still around. <3
And TBH I think you're probably the most qualified if you were dedicated. It's important to at least be checking your e-mail daily if you can't sign on to Graal. There needs to be a quick response time to Graal's paying customers and all customers for that matter because each player is a potential paying customer, espeically the volunteering staff.