They are human. Thus they are flawed. All mods are players who have spent a considerable amount of time on this game. Players familiar with the game and the wider community. Players who over these years have made friends, had drama, developed clan loyalties and in some cases partook in Doritos/Mountain Dew rp. For these players it is extremely difficult to avoid emotional attachments to the game itself and other players. Whilst the social aspect of kaw is its defining feature, one can clearly see the negative influence it has on the Moderation of this game. If they cannot see this clearly here are a few points to take into consideration. Point 1:- As stated previously, mods are human, humans are naturally judgemental, as a result it is only natural for a human especially one with direct, almost intimate contact with players whom they constantly share a gamespace with, to let their personal feelings get in the way of a fair judgement. Point 2:- Clan loyalties are an integral aspect of kaw. One must point out the elephant in the room...Apoc mods. For one Alliance to possess so many mods, who have undertaken...questionable courses of action in the past is quite frankly somewhat irritating to a significant number of the playerbase. However one must not assume that all mods are biased as a result of clan loyalties, for this reason INDIVIDUAL MODS will not be targeted. One could compare the adverserial nature of mods in osw to the British political system, overly adversial to the point of suffering in terms of efficiency. Point 3:- Humans behind a screen are harder to predict than those you see in person. Mods are somewhat unpredictable. Cough cough Benny, cough cough Moose. As kaw slowly loses its playerbase/income of new players, mods who have invested so much time into this game may become touchy about this fact. The may feel threatened and as a result be more prone to 'go rogue' or make an unjustified silence/forum ban. The alternative? Modbots. Dev controlled mods that should ideally conform to the ToU. Neutral entities working I'm the communities best interests...if only ideals were so easy to achieve. The devs surely possess some favouritism and disdain for certain players, the devs will certainly focus on capital maximization. Howver if the dev modbots 'bent the rules', well then one better believe that a lot of players will become disillusioned with the devs themselves. A way of looking at the devs use of player mods is based around accountability. If a mod makes a huge mistake or is constantly harassing a player (shout out to pizza) they are accountable should it become widely known the the kawmunity. However if the devs screw up or target specific players? Massive loss of credibility. This move is understandable from a businesses perspective. So how do you ladies and gents feel about 'Human mods' versus the almost equally flawed alternative? And how do you feel the current system can be improved in both efficiency and transparency? I AM IN NO WAY CONNECTED TO 'PIZZAGUY', I SIMPLY FELT THAT WHAT HE WAS SAYING NEEDED TO BE MORE CLEARLY CUT AND LESS BIAS.
I quite clearly criticise player mods and dev controlled Mods/bots. Of course the dev controlled mod is human, but I refer to them (the current player mods) as being 'human' in the sense that they are simply more emotionally connected to players/entities in the game.
How do you make this feasible for devs? The whole point of player moderators is to allow devs to focus on other features of the game, to eliminate the need for a paid worker to do it. You say the solution is modbots but unless they are completely automated then they completely contradict the whole point of player mods. I have very limited knowledge of writing scripts or code however I would assume such an automated program is: 1. An unnecessary expense when the alternative is free labor 2. Lengthy lengthy code to encompass all the bypasses and violations that players can create. We have some creative rascals So I understand where you are coming from but I can't agree that a change is necessary
@Zethro. I provided generalised criticisms of both systems. I personally do believe that modbots are to an extent unfeasible for ATA as a company. However from a player persepective Player Mods do themselves have obvious drawbacks.
It'd be too hard to create a bot that can account for every possible bypass. At some point or another, they would still need a human in some form or another
I referred to "dev controlled mods" as well as modbots. Yet as others have stated human involvement would run up costs both financially and in the devs own time-a very fair point.
Y'all need to realize that unless you are doing something wrong, the mods are more than happy to leave you alone.
You can't beat having unpaid workers that spend all day moderating your game and only need a green name plus a sense of phone app superiority as compensation.
Also in this world. And currently I believe apoc has the lowest number of mods it ever has had. And if you have specific evidence of a mod abusing what little power they have then feel free to email support. Grant has absolutely zero tolerance for mods who abuse their position.
Did I directly accuse a mod or group of mods for a specific abuse of power? You seem kind of touchy- very defensive.
Never said you did. You did seem to have a fascination with apoc mods. Of which there are only 3 left. Out of 19 mods according to daphnias current list. I don't get defensive because I have nothing to be defensive about. I don't like the team being called into question is all. The mods of kaw have had their ups and downs. Won't argue that. But I don't believe it would be any better with an automated system or support running it.