Misguided Management?

[Velox Cruentus]

Note: This is not a thread intended to bash or flame the current GO Administration team, but rather to elaborate an idea I have towards improving professionalism of the GO Team without costing any funds.

My ideas briefly came form:
http://forums.graalonline.com/forums...ad.php?t=56833


After reading that (and creating part of it) thread, I’ve came to understand at a deeper level how the GO Team functions. It has come to my mind (slowly forming) that GO hasn’t hired the global staff on the level of maturity, responsibility, and sense of professionalism. As a global staff, they aren’t talking in the name of Graal Online, but rather their own opinion and course of action. This seems to have caused a lot of problems with displeased customers.

This is not entirely the fault of Graal Online, nor of the Global Teams. In my opinion, I see it as the Global Teams are taking upon their duty to fulfill lacking responsibilities of Graal Online, and by consequence overburden them of irreverent tasks. A Global Scripter, per say, shouldn’t discuss the terms of scamming of items on GK. They are after all, programmers whom are hired for their programming aspect, and not their interaction with players.

My proposal would be to create a team of members apart from the Development branch, and develop into something that Graal Online is truly missing: Player Relation. There are means of contacting appropriate staff, as well as reporting errors (Graal Desk Support System), however live supports isn’t accessible.

A player/customer is someone who usually demands immediate help when something bad happens and sometimes waiting a day or two for a reply directs their anger towards the GO Administration Team. If the problem is fixed rapidly, they are likely to be thankful and give gratification to the game.

To accelerate the process of response, the development teams should easily be contactable with the Player Relation Team. When a problem does occur which is beyond the Player Relation Team, which involves development teams, they should easily contact them. This would prevent misplaced judgment of contacting the wrong person, and thus making his waiting time even larger. Due to the massive player base, this can slow down the process tenfold then that it should be.

To conclude, the GO globals wouldn’t be interrupted while the player would have someone they can readily contact when they need. This would be relatively cheap, seeing a lot of people wouldn’t mind volunteering to do this sort of work.

If you need someone to start this sort of work, I wouldn’t mind volunteering: I’ve played Graal since 1998, and I have faith that the community could improve. I deem myself quite responsible, as well as mature.


P.S. READ => THINK => RESPOND.

[protagonist]

The PWA is kind of like that. The thing is, people have to treat us with courtesy too. We aren't payed to take their crap, so if they want something they should be polite about it and we will extend the same courtesy to them. I never treat people badly unless they treat me badly, and even then I'm polite to them unless it keeps going. Then I very calmly tell them that they are annoying.

[Velox Cruentus]

I didn't speak in behalf of the PWA. This is a rather young community, and although courtesy is expected among them, some are too young to know the implications it takes, or the maturity to handle their anger appropiately. Secondly, the PWA is mostly oriented towards specific Playerworld problems, and although I do agree that the PWA takes extra duty towards the community, I don't believe that putting additional work on their hands is helpful towards the servers due to being preoccupied by minor problems.

Thanks for your reply, however. I appreciate you not attempting to deteriate the content of this thread.

[Qwert616]

Seems superfluous to me. Couldn't such problems be fixed by making it easier to find the appropriate staff member's contact? I don't see how a PR team would help solve a problem any quicker when it will typically be just as difficult for them to contact the proper staff in order to ramble off a slightly more organized list of requests.

Or am I'm underestimating how much of a burden this is to the Global Staff?

If you need someone to start this sort of work, I wouldn’t mind volunteering: I’ve played Graal since 1998, and I have faith that the community could improve. I deem myself quite responsible, as well as mature.

Hm. Who else saw that coming? ;(

[Janus]

Originally Posted by Qwert616

Hm. Who else saw that coming? ;(

I did aswell, but sometimes rather than merely egotistical, those types of remarks are truthful as the result of an impartial judging of oneself; self-nomination should never be looked down upon, for those who do it may in fact be worthy, yet unnoticed.

I personally feel, from the posts he has written in his past, I would judge Velox acceptable for a Player Relations position.

A few reasons:
- He has been intellectually fit enough to help people with scripting
- His ability to communicate is superb
- He seems mature
- He is responsible enough to put a disclaimer of anything that may be considered offensive at the top of his post, protecting him from the wrath of the "GO Administration Team".
- He appears to care about Graal, and gives constructive criticism.
- He seems to know enough to assist others with their problems.
- He says he has been around for a long time, so if this is true, then he has a knowledge of historical events.

[Qwert616]

Originally Posted by Janus

I did aswell, but sometimes rather than merely egotistical, those types of remarks are truthful as the result of an impartial judging of oneself; self-nomination should never be looked down upon, for those who do it may in fact be worthy, yet unnoticed.

Yes, it's not always intended as a grab for power, but it really doesn't help the case either. Regardless, it doesn't matter who's fit for the position, but if the position even needs to exist in the first place.

[Velox Cruentus]

Originally Posted by Janus

I did aswell, but sometimes rather than merely egotistical, those types of remarks are truthful as the result of an impartial judging of oneself; self-nomination should never be looked down upon, for those who do it may in fact be worthy, yet unnoticed.

Hrm -- I didn't think I helped you with scripting, have I? Although I do appreciate you taking my defense.

To respond with Qwerty616's arguement about the lack of need: I do see a need to centralize the attention of the players towards a particular head icon. This would diminish the amount of work GO Administration Team has by having all their work, if the problem isn't fixed through the first step with the Player Relation, sorted according to their division.

Example: Many people PM Stefan about problems they have in the game. If we remove the majority of these PM, then Stefan would, by consequence, have less to reply towards. This would lower the amount he has, allowing him to work on more important updates instead of worrying about serveral complaints customers send him. If there is a more important business, and the player in question should have contact the player relation and they contact an appropiate member of the GO Administration Team.

I honestly think this will speed up matters in the Graal Community, as well as increasing the productivity rate. If there wasn't any obvious problem to begin with, I wouldn't've thought about a solution to help.

As I quote: "The simple fact that the question 'Does size really matter?' exists, deducts that it actually does, for if the problem wouldn't exist, the question wouldn't as well."

[Qwert616]

Originally Posted by Velox Cruentus

To respond with Qwerty616's arguement about the lack of need: I do see a need to centralize the attention of the players towards a particular head icon. This would diminish the amount of work GO Administration Team has by having all their work, if the problem isn't fixed through the first step with the Player Relation, sorted according to their division.

Example: Many people PM Stefan about problems they have in the game. If we remove the majority of these PM, then Stefan would, by consequence, have less to reply towards. This would lower the amount he has, allowing him to work on more important updates instead of worrying about serveral complaints customers send him. If there is a more important business, and the player in question should have contact the player relation and they contact an appropiate member of the GO Administration Team.

Again, is this not something that could be solved by making the contact list of existing 'GOAT' members more evident and concise or the members themselves easier to contact? A team of players dedicated to passing on a complaint seems needless.

I honestly think this will speed up matters in the Graal Community, as well as increasing the productivity rate. If there wasn't any obvious problem to begin with, I wouldn't've thought about a solution to help.

As I quote: "The simple fact that the question 'Does size really matter?' exists, deducts that it actually does, for if the problem wouldn't exist, the question wouldn't as well."

There can also be many answers to a question. This may not particularly be the best one.

[zell12]

This team would need to be mature A D U L T S and have to sign a contract and all that other crap so they can be trusted with the administration tools. Stefan and Unixmad can't be doing all the work when they other things to do. So GO needs a team of adults to do the work, instead of getting a team of immature idiots that are power hungry.

[Qwert616]

Originally Posted by zell12

This team would need to be mature A D U L T S and have to sign a contract and all that other crap so they can be trusted with the administration tools. Stefan and Unixmad can't be doing all the work when they other things to do. So GO needs a team of adults to do the work, instead of getting a team of immature idiots that are power hungry.

What administration power would they recieve? Velox's original plan doesn't seem to mention any powers other than the ability to contact other members.

[zell12]

It doesn't say anything about them being people to redirect the problems to stefan either.

IN MY OPINION I think that if this team was created, they need to be adults, able to sign a contract and have the power to fix the problems players have.

[Lance]

We've tried to tell people to contact others who can handle their problems. They PM Stefan anyway, or they are dissatisfied with how the others handle it and appeal to Stefan.

It just doesn't work the way you want it to.

[Gambet]

Originally Posted by Lance

We've tried to tell people to contact others who can handle their problems. They PM Stefan anyway, or they are dissatisfied with how the others handle it and appeal to Stefan.

It just doesn't work the way you want it to.

Maybe because we feel that Stefan is mature enough and dependable. Maybe because we know through Stefan things will get done. If we go to any other staff, then what will they do? Direct us to Stefan (has happened countless times), or simply make us wait days/weeks for whatever it is we are trying to get accomplished.

Some globals just arnt dependable.

I agree with the meaning of the PR Team, but i disagree with actually going along with it. Why?, because the PR Team will basically be messengers. Why?, because player relations have to do with the server in itself. When a player has a problem with something, then it must do with the server they are currently in, thus making it the staff of that servers job to guide him. What exactly would a PR Team do anyways, except redirect people to the proper person, I mean, the PR Team wouldnt have the rights to handle anything, because most of those things would a require high administration level, which Mr. Knorr wouldnt aprove of. Its pointless, really. I mean, a PR Team in a server, I can understand, because they deal with player relations ON THE SERVER. But what good would a global PR Team do?

[Velox Cruentus]

Hrm... Haven't thought of power. I do presume that the average question that is asked by players/customers is irreverent to the actual necessity. Most of the complaints can easily be solved through rational explanation of either how to fix the problem, or to present them an adequate reply on to why (if they are scammed) they can’t do anything. This would prevent a lot of agony just being there.

Stefan is, in this community, a head icon of responsibility, maturity, and professionalism. Who's better to contact then the person who made the game itself? It's a logical outcome, and this won't be able to be changed within the first week, but rather an extensive amount of months allowing people to change their primitive habit of contacting Stefan. I do believe some 'power' would be needed to fix the minor problems, however I believe that if you allow the person in question to prove him responsibility, maturity, and professionalism, then I presume that that person could be trusted. Humanity as a whole is a greedy egocentric race, however each individual can renounce him claim of that and become more humaine.

[Sildae]

Originally Posted by Velox Cruentus

Most of the complaints can easily be solved through rational explanation of either how to fix the problem, or to present them an adequate reply on to why (if they are scammed) they can’t do anything. This would prevent a lot of agony just being there.

While the first part of this paragraph is true, the last sentence is not. The reason for this lies within the nature of Graalians.

I believe that if you allow the person in question to prove him responsibility, maturity, and professionalism, then I presume that that person could be trusted.

Add "blind devotion to Graal and Unixmad" to that list.

Humanity as a whole is a greedy egocentric race, however each individual can renounce him claim of that and become more humaine.

How does renouncing the nature of humanity make you more humane?