Questions about Staff Applications?

[Sanvean]

Questions about the process or what it involves? Post them here and I'll take a shot at answering them.

[Seeker]

Would I like it?  Enough to totally justify never having an awestruck player's perspective again?  Ever?


Seeker

[Maybe42or54]

What is the usual amount of time that the staff requests that you be experienced with the game/.

[Ourla]

And the usual amount of time staff spend per week/day doing staffly things for the game?

[Sanvean]

Would I like it?  Enough to totally justify never having an awestruck player's perspective again?  Ever?

I think so, but that's also a consideration worth thinking about. In the past we've had a few staff that came on thinking they'd just avoid parts of the game and thus keep them a surprise, but that's always been unsuccessful.  I do think there's a lot of enjoyment to be had on the staff side, but it -does- affect the way you play.

What is the usual amount of time that the staff requests that you be experienced with the game?

I've found that usually staff work better with at least a year or so experience under their belt, although experience may vary -- some people may had had previous experience staffing on other muds, for example, or run a variety of other characters. We've had at least one staffer who had only run one character before coming on, but it was an extremely long-lived character that had been a clan leader.

And the usual amount of time staff spend per week/day doing staffly things for the game?

Again, varies. I do appreciate the people with no social lives who throw a ton of time into the game, but that's certainly not mandatory.   When people stop logging in for at least a few hours a week though, we get out the poking sticks after a while.

[BuNutzCola]

If one was interested but knew they would have to take a two month hiatus in two months time, however their time would be back to normal thereafter, should they just wait until the next batch?

[Sanvean]

Yeah, I would wait till the next call in such a case.

[cyberpatrol_735]

What makes a good application? What are some things that would disqualify a person from even being considered?

How do you choose who to interview and who to tell 'no'?

How much of a bearing does the amount of times applied go into consideration when looking at staff applications?

Does how many years played go into consideration?


I've got a ton.. but I'll stick with those.

[Sanvean]

I wanted to mention to people who are interested that this is an Arm 1.0 position, and that if one wanted to keep Arm 2.0 somewhat mysterious, it would be possible to do. (Or you could go onto 2.0, that's open as well.) You would see some of the plotlines that will shape 2.0, but most of it would not be visible.

What makes a good application?

A good application - someone who is a team player, works well with others, creative, enthusiastic, good knowledge of the game, mature, sense of humor, good communication skills.

What are some things that would disqualify a person from even being considered?

We consider all of the apps, I don't think we've discarded any out of hand except for one person who, I believe, applied as a joke.  It takes a lot.

How do you choose who to interview and who to tell 'no'?

We sort them and basically interview the people who are at the top of the list.

How much of a bearing does the amount of times applied go into consideration when looking at staff applications?

Not much.

Does how many years played go into consideration?

Yep, it's a factor. We don't rule out people who haven't played very long, but usually if all other things are equal, we'd go with the long-time player.

[brytta.leofa]

Sanvean, this isn't related to this round of hiring...but do you see the game needing coding staff in the near-to-mid term (next year or so)?

Storytelling is somehow far more intimidating to me than C++.

[Sanvean]

For Arm 1.0? No.  Possibly for 2.0 but right now we've got a great team working away on that.

[Malken]

Sanvean, this isn't related to this round of hiring...but do you see the game needing coding staff in the near-to-mid term (next year or so)?

Storytelling is somehow far more intimidating to me than C++.

I had the same sort of question, but I didn't know if I should have posted it, but since someone else asked, I might as well.

What do you look for in a coder? I have a feeling that the mud isn't going to be coded in C++, though. Can I ask which language experience you are all looking for in a coder? Javascript would be my guess..

[Sanvean]

Arm 2.0 is being written in Java. Javascript would be helpful in either 1.0 or 2.0.

[Sanvean]

Reminding people that the deadline is this Friday.

[Eukelade]

The Immortal Class of 2007 is tired of being auctioned off to the Highlords by other storytellers and press-ganged into the shittiest jobs in the dead of night.  We need freshmen to haze, so hurry up and apply already!

[Ghost]

hahahahahaha

Being auctioned off to the highlords..

HAHAHAHAHAHA

[Nyr]

hahahahahaha

Being auctioned off to the highlords..

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Laugh at your own peril.

[Sanvean]

Get back to work, Nyr!

[Gimfalisette]

Are you making Nyr wear hotpants while he works? I might app for staff just to see that.

[Hot_Dancer]

I staffed very briefly on a little known RPI and found it took away any chance of my impacting
the mud again as a player, since anything I may've created was simply a staff alt after that.
Anything my characters may've accomplished would be minimized because I was staff, no
matter how many self-imposed restrictions I could've put on myself.

Not to mention I got to learn all the wild sekrits to further dull future experiences.

Any Armageddon Staff run into the same problem?

[Sanvean]

I didn't experience that when both playing and staffing, but my characters tend to be fairly low key, and not out to change the world. It does have an impact on the play experience, though.

[Seeker]

Now that you're down to the wire with your deadline, I'd like to hear about the less well-known staff perks, please.

Seeker

[Dalmeth]

Eh, I really wanted to apply for this, but my current role requires too much of my time as is.   Looks like I'll just have to see on the next round. 

Though, I'm sure whoever gets in this round is going to have tons of fun.

[Mood]

How many new staffers do you intend to take on this round?

[Sanvean]

Our plan is to take on two staffers, which is as many as we need right now, rather than the usual five or six that we've done in the past. That makes things hard -- we got nineteen applications this round and some of them are outstanding.  I was just going through them -- looking at the app, account notes, and GDB posts in order to make an assessment, and I marked six or seven people that I'd like to interview. Right now everyone on staff is looking through those apps, and posting their assessments -- usually split into lists of people they'd like to see interviewed, people they're not sure of, and people that they suggest passing on this time. I put a number of people in that last group, sadly, that I would have normally interviewed, just because there's such a large number of strong ones this time. So if you don't end up on the interview list, please don't despair.

Some of you have been IMing staff members in order to ask questions, and I'd really prefer you do that sort of thing here on the board, where everyone has access to the information, and where I can make sure you're not getting an answer that might not be as clear as possible.

In answer to a few questions that have come up in the apps:

Storytellers are free to animate NPCs. We do prefer that they not start kicking off plotlines in a clan someone else is running, because they may not know all the ins and outs of the clan dynamics and politics.

What does a Storyteller do?
Usually they oversee one or more clans, usually as part of a team doing so. They answer e-mails from their clan members, fill clan-related quests, keep an eye on the clan forums, post periodic updates so the rest of the staff knows what's going on in their clan, and do maintenance: loading items, updating NPCs, etc. They may run RPTs for their clan members. They check updates from other staff to see where they might be able to fit their clan into new or proposed plotlines.

Some may write javascripts or help with testing code. Some like to approve applications -- others may not be sure enough of their spelling skills to want to do that.   The bug/typo/idea database is accessible to everyone, and some people like to go through it. Tastes differ.

The main purpose of Storytellers is implied in their name: they're here to help tell the story, to come up with plotlines that interest and intrigue players as well as to help players create and maintain their own plotlines.

Questions about that? Feel free to ask. I'd like to make this process pretty transparent so you know what we're doing and how we're doing it.

[Sanvean]

Re: the lesser-known perks

Being part of a very cool project that's going to be hitting its second decade in a few years
Being part of a group of smart, funny, creative and (for the most part) good humored people
Being invited to the yearly staff gathering
The occasional really nice note from a player that makes you all teary