Influx of Griefers & Current Admin team.

[Sky Monster]

Somewhat recently, with the release of DayZ in full swing, there has been a massive influx of players to the ArmA 2 community. I don't think anybody can deny this, speaking in general terms, is fantastic. it breathes new life into a relatively stagnant and incredibly niche playerbase. There are problems with this large influx of players though. Anyone who plays regularly on games.on.net #1 can agree, there is a far higher percentage of undesirables connecting to our server every day.

Currently, as far I'm aware, there are four admins for the games.on.net #1. Ball0, SkenZ, southy and ???? (apparently there is a fourth, but I have never seen him nor heard his name). These Admins do perform their jobs when it is asked of them, and we do appreciate this. However the reaction time is sometimes not as swift as it could be, and it's not always possible 24/7 to get in contact with one of these admins. No complaining there either, as to expect 24/7 admin coverage would be ludicrous.

There have been many people, who I do and do not get along with, who have expressed their concern about the four admins not actually being present in the server any more than once a month, if lucky. The problems with this are;

1. Game Admins cannot view server logs, unless they have RCON open 24/7, the issue here is obvious

2. Games Admins also cannot hear in-game VON (mic comms). Things can get fairly heated sometimes, there was even a case of someone being bullied off the server last year, which I doubt anyone but me remembers. A fellow called lonedestroyer, who meant well, however many mistakes he made, was abused every game he joined, until after a week he simply stopped playing.

3. Game Admins cannot hand out correct punishments to those using game wrecking tactics/exploits. It's incredibly frustrating to have a person join a 6 hour game, screw it up in whichever way he pleases, then disconnecting before anyone can get their GUID. This goes hand in hand with problem No.1, not being able to view backed up server logs.

4. Due to BiS' rather sloppy programming skills, servers often require hard resets in order to function smoothly. Getting an admin to do this at the right time (ie within 2 minutes of the end of an 6-8 hour game) is a pain for both them and us.

"But what are you really getting at Sky Monster?" you may ask. Well, basically; we want a new Admin in addition to the current four. Somebody who still plays on the server at least twice a week, and has a good understanding of how a game of Warfare is played out in it's current state. We need experienced eyes in the field, making judgements of what is acceptable and what is not, and most of all, someone who can instantaneously kick & ban those who are attempting to ruin 6 hours of work that 31 other people have put into a game of warfare. Someone with vast knowledge of known exploits would also be a +plus in my eyes.

Voting for a temporary admin via server controls is simply not good enough, we cannot get a full picture of who is doing what, who is abusing who etc. if we cannot see the logs. Not to mention once a Temp Admin does boot somebody, they can simply reconnect under a different name 20 minutes later, and begin screwing around again. We can check GUIDs, but to do that for every player that joins is a ridiculous task. Whoever is admin has to sit there '#beclient player'ing every time a new person joins. Some of these fools actually sit there for 20 minutes spamming reconnect knowing how much effort it takes to keep them away. I do have a shortlist of regulars I think would be suited to the task, won't bother listing them at this very moment, unless positive feedback from GON higher ups is received.

The. End.

Feedback/criticism/support from any and all readers of this post would be strongly appreciated. Yes, that means you, person reading this right now , please, don't be afraid.

(the real end)

[Baskerville]

I know the current admins Ball0fire and SkenZ do a lot of behind the scenes work with dayz and warfare. But there is a real need to have admins that actually come in and play the games dayz/warfare from time to time so people who don't have a presence here can have their voices heard.

Quick reaction to people who grief is paramount even in the current climate it still takes up to two minutes to get someone banned and by then they have ruined a lovely six hour game.

[Goshawk]

someone who can instantaneously kick & ban

Unfortunately this might contravene the GoN code of conduct.
For the same reason a global Arma 2 ban list wouldn't be acceptable here.

[Sky Monster]

I know the current admins Ball0fire and SkenZ do a lot of behind the scenes work with dayz and warfare

Let me go on record and say I acknowledge and strongly appreciate this, same goes with Hydra and his server maintenance duties.

Unfortunately this might contravene the GoN code of conduct.

Well, I find that ridiculous, and so would anyone else who has a 6 hour game ruined with a few minutes work. I'm not sure the higher ups understand ArmA is not like BF3, where maps end in 20-30min. Warfare takes a lot of time and effort.

[Tonmeister.]

I absolutely support this as a means for improving the experience for regulars and new comers onto the GON server. It is important to have a presence on the server and I see many players taking the admin role, booting offenders only for them to come back later in the match.

No doubt, whoever is voted for this role needs to be transparent, unbiased and has the ability to resolve conflicts as they happen, not days or weeks after the offense occurred. I also think the new admin needs to be clearly identifiable to all online players as the acting [GON Admin].

[revengous]

if you have a problem with the admins, you should contact them under the contact page, not write an angry forum post.

you did state 'we' perhaps get those people who support this to vote and express any suggestions here, a large topic with constructive suggestions on how to improve the gon arma community will not be ignored.

[MarkusNemesis]

if you have a problem with the admins, you should contact them under the contact page, not write an angry forum post.

you did state 'we' perhaps get those people who support this to vote and express any suggestions here, a large topic with constructive suggestions on how to improve the gon arma community will not be ignored.

It's best that stuff like this is done on an open forum so that it seems that something is being done at all. Transparency is good. As for the OP, I agree on a lot of points. It's often hard to vote in an admin and the voted admin's inability to ban (if even for 20 mins) people who are being constant annoyances makes it VERY taxing on us GONers who are just playing to relax, only to get some 11 year old DayZ noob team killing them and attempting to satchel the base.

These people aren't going to become regular patrons, they're just going to hit and run and never think twice, so banning them will stop them from rejoining and go somewhere else. Otherwise they'll just keep reconnecting and the poor elected Admin has to sit there and kick idiots all day instead of enjoying their game.

As for Hydra, he's a good guy, though, with Ball0 being the middleman, it makes getting anything done with server files a challenge. Not taking a jab at Ball0 however, it's just hard to get them both on the same page at the same time.

[Sky Monster]

if you have a problem with the admins, you should contact them under the contact page, not write an angry forum post.

I've not seen you playing before, what's your in-game name?

you did state 'we' perhaps get those people who support this to vote and express any suggestions here, a large topic with constructive suggestions on how to improve the gon arma community will not be ignored.

But they already are? I posted this fairly late so I'm sure this coming weekend more will provide their input. Like I said, many have commented on the situation, though all comments have been made in-game up to this point.

[Freeborne]

GON has run well over the past few years as a democracy.

(Generally) we all vote an admin, with everyone often voting the same player. As long as it's one of the regular's, few of us have any problems with voting one of them as admin. These guys have pumped in hundreds of hours on the server, and aren't going to stuff things up and risk being banned, so they're pretty safe bets to vote as admin.

Problem I guess, is the temporarily elected leader/admin of this democracy has few admin privileges. It only takes one hacker or grief-er to mess up a game, and it's hard to stop them if they keep rejoining under different names. Another problem is when you get some noob who voted himself admin early in the day and just won't log out. No-one can be voted admin while another admin is around (or AFK).

Imagine if someone recognized these problems long ago, and realized the only way to really fix these problems was to get a server that could have a large team of regular "players" run the server. Then you could have admins that have a presence in the game, and have a vested interest in looking after the server, and not treat it like a chore.

Why you're at it, you could get a faster server too, and give trusted players the ability to upload missions themselves, and give them web access to the game panel to physically restart services (even the server) and review log files.

Would also be handy if there was a vibrant TeamSpeak community for the server, with lots of players and admins around 24x7.

Oh wait....

[Tonmeister.]

you did state 'we' perhaps get those people who support this to vote and express any suggestions here, a large topic with constructive suggestions on how to improve the gon arma community will not be ignored.

Its somewhat disconcerting to read such a comment. If you are an admin, are speaking on behalf of admins and you value your community, then suggestions for improving the service should be based on the strength and validity of the argument, and NOT the size of the thread. From a personal perspective, I've only recently joined the forums, but I've been a regular on the GoN server for some time. I personally feel the ArmA community is being stifled and pushed into a small box with little resources and no room to breathe or grow beyond its current capacity. I would like to see this change, both in resources and attitude. But hey, fat chance, no?

[Bicketybam]

I don't play Arma or DayZ so I don't know how the game works.

But I do know how we get different Admins for the different games and none of them is by player voting. We do it by choosing people who are interested in helping the community. Submitting TMR's, trying to help others and being polite to others will certainly help you get noticed.

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From the GON FAQ : http://games.on.net/faq/ (at the bottom)

I like the sound of this ‘Admin’ guff. How do I go about getting in on this?

With the release of new games or an increase in the popularity of an existing game, the games.on.net Administrators may have an intake of Admins.

There are many desired qualities we look for in new Admins, the most noteworthy of these being your attitude in game and in the games.on.net forums, knowledge of the game in question, and quite often, your activity on the forums.

These positions are offered to games.on.net community members deemed suitable by the games.on.net Administrators.

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Trying to help the community is always a good thing.

[MarkusNemesis]

I don't play Arma or DayZ so I don't know how the game works.

But I do know how we get different Admins for the different games and none of them is by player voting. We do it by choosing people who are interested in helping the community. Submitting TMR's, trying to help others and being polite to others will certainly help you get noticed.

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From the GON FAQ : http://games.on.net/faq/ (at the bottom)

I like the sound of this ‘Admin’ guff. How do I go about getting in on this?

With the release of new games or an increase in the popularity of an existing game, the games.on.net Administrators may have an intake of Admins.

There are many desired qualities we look for in new Admins, the most noteworthy of these being your attitude in game and in the games.on.net forums, knowledge of the game in question, and quite often, your activity on the forums.

These positions are offered to games.on.net community members deemed suitable by the games.on.net Administrators.

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Trying to help the community is always a good thing.

In Arma, players can vote in an admin who is admin till they logout. It's a feature of the server, but it's not always the best and you can only kick people and change missions.

[Bicketybam]

Fair enough.

[Freeborne]

Bicketybam's subtle suggestion is still valid though. If people are not happy with number/availability of GON admins, they can apply for admin positions themselves.

Depends how GON manage their admin staff. Can you just be admin for one game/server, without having to idle in IRC and only elect to be "available when gaming", etc, or does it have to become a full time gig with people bugging you during your 2am porn session via Steam and Facebook

There's plenty of ways to improve access, security, and management of the ARMA2 servers too. That's why it would be nice if their were actual players with full admin access and knowledge/motivation to implement these.

[Goshawk]

You cannot apply to be an admin, you must be invited is how i interperted that post.