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Revision as of 01:39, 23 May 2015
Era iPhone Staff Guide
This is the Graal Online Era Staff Guide! Whether you're a new staff member or you're a member of the Era community this guide should give you good insight into how our team works, makes decisions, and the ethics that guide our overall server management.
-iEra Management
This document is based on the Graal Online Era internal documentation for staff rules. Some of the information may be out of date or be a contentious issue within the staff team.
Contents
Section One -- Rules
Whether you're reading this document because you've just been recruited to the team or you're just interested in the way era works behind the scenes, this list is good to memorise.
This is a list of the rules that staff members of Graal Online Era are expected to uphold. Staff that do not abide by the rules can sometimes be fired depending on the severity of the rule breach.
Some feel that elements of the list are superfluous (that is, unnecessary). We feel that every rule in the list is there for a reason. Graal Online Era is a commercial MMORPG, as such we need to enforce a set of rules for both players and staff to ensure that we are acting both within the law and fairly. Of course there are going to be staff members and players who feel that we do neither in some situations, but those situations are few and far between. That being said:
Rule One: Never disclose staff real-names, ages, ethnicity, sexual orientation etc. to the player-base. This is private information.
Explanation: The reason we have this rule is because we believe that staff members have a right to their own personal privacy. No-one has a right to tell someone your personal business. This is also a right we extend to the players.
Rule Two: What is said on RC, stays on RC. Players don't need to know what happens between staff. This should include background on staff hirings, firings, player warning/jails, investigations, etc. This is confidential and privileged information, treat it as such.
Explanation: Just as crazy things happen in Vegas, crazy things happen in Era too! “RC” means “Remote Control”, think of a kind of chat room with a lot of buttons that do things to Era. RC is where all of the “server-side” action happens. We like to try and make sure that RC chat and goings-on remains exclusive to staff members. Players don't need to know what happens on a daily basis. It's actually quite boring.
Rule Three: Keep it mature. Maturity is the cornerstone of on which we build our staff team. Even though you are a volunteer for a game that is frequently played by children- and may even be a child yourself- we will not tolerate immaturity.
Explanation: Graal Era is a commercial game but it is run by volunteers, that being said we have to keep in mind that we have a specific demographic of players. The game is aimed at young people, as such we have the ensure that we present ourselves in a clean, friendly, and professional manner. From a staff perspective it can be hard to work with someone who's being silly all the time – our staff team is made up of people from all backgrounds and ages, some of them don't have the patience to tolerate children who are crazy all the time.
Rule Four: Uploading is required for PR staff.
Explanation: We get hundreds and hundreds of uploads a day, all of those uploads sit in a queue until a PR Team member can handle them. It's a lot of work!
Rule Five: Do not jail without the appropriate warnings. Make sure to do it 'by the book', look down at the jailing/ban section of this guide.
Explanation: We've had issues with staff members jailing people carelessly. It causes headaches because we have an inefficient jailing system.
Rule Six: Do not overuse your gag, staff stick or freeze, this is considered abuse. We check staff logs all the time.
Explanation: The basic staff tools are gag, staff stick, and freeze. These can be easily abused by irate staff to quiet a player who is annoying them. Even if a player is harassing you it is not acceptable to use these tools in a malicious way. Every action you take with a staff tool is logged! Remember: 2+2=5! (1984 Joke, Big Brother is watching you)
Rule Seven: Only drop EC if you are conducting an event. If you have any questions about dropping EC, ask a PRA or a Senior Player Relations staff member. You should never give anything away or transfer items without approval, even if they're just small quantities of food.
Explanation: EC is only to be given in events, and SPR/PRA approved activities (i.e. the occasional EC Hide & Seek). Quite an obvious rule.
Rule Eight: If you are unsure about what to do in a certain situation, ask someone. You're not doing your job alone. You are part of a team.
Explanation: Asking for help is a requirement! If you don't know what to do and you go by gut instinct the chances are you're going to make a mess of things. You're only one link in the chain of Era. Era only runs effectively if we're all working together.
Rule Nine: If you have issues with another staff member, raise that issue to a senior staff member of your department and it will be discussed and dealt with.
Explanation: We don't need Bold & the Beautiful dramas occurring in the team. If you're having a bad time working with someone in the team, or someone just rubs you the wrong way, approach your boss. That's what they're there for.
Rule Ten: Mind what you say around players, many are children. They can be impressionable. We are responsible for their fun and we are staff, we cannot swear or say anything irresponsible. I cannot stress this point enough.
Explanation: A common sense rule. We have to enforce the rules, as such we cannot break them.
Rule Eleven: We do not deal or monitor item trades between players.
Explanation: Apart from the occasional glitch that affects trading mechanics we're not going to try and solve a problem that comes from bad decision making. Remember to always check that you're trading the correct item for an item that you really want. There are no do-overs in trading.
Rule Twelve: Don't give out naked pictures, ask for naked pictures, or make reference to naked pictures. Common sense.
Explanation: Common sense!
Rule Thirteen: No bad mouthing about other Graal staffs or other servers on RC, client, or Era-Go. Respect others and their work.
Explanation: Yeah, everyone knows that person that works on that server that gets on everyone's bad side but we don't need to bring it up and stir the pot. Nothing is gained from causing inter-server drama.
Rule Fourteen: Copyright. Please make sure the resources that you use do not come from a different intellectual property. As Graal is a commercial game run by a legitimate business if we use stuff from other games we're breaking the law.
Explanation: As Graal Era is a legitimate MMO we cannot use copyrighted assets. It's theft. If you know about a copyrighted asset that we've missed please tell us. This rule extends to all assets, no matter how long they've been in the server. They don't just magically become our property.
Rule Fifteen: Please get permission from the manager if you want or require player-input for your project development. Leaking is a major concern when developing new content. For this reason please do not link projects under construction to the main gmap or summon players to unreleased areas or areas currently under construction.
Explanation: We want our updates to be a surprise, as such we can't have staff summoning their friends, girlfriends/boyfriends, and gang-mates to unreleased areas. It's not fair on everyone else. This extends to all staff.
Rule Sixteen: Don't share your account. This includes your staff account *and* your iOS account.
Explanation: A staff account is personal. It gives you access to the server from a computer. You use the account to access RC. Sharing your staff account is an instant firing. This extends to the staff member's iOS account as well. Account sharing is also banned for players.
Added rules:
These are rules that have been added over time that we haven't included as numbered because of various reasons.
Please do not immediately warn/jail players if they are on walls or unreleased areas or inaccessible, they might have either been warped, glitched, or have lagged there. However, if this occurs more than once, it is a possible chance they are hacking.
Please do not drag players onto buildings, and leave them there. Do not assist players by dragging them into places they are not suppose to have access to.
Do not tell players of things in development, unless it is already released.
Do not give out free items to players unless authorised by a higher ranking staff member.
Do not add money/items to yourselves to get personal items. Ask your department admin if you need something (mainly concerns developers and scripters).
Do not abuse your staff tag.
Do not base while on your staff PC account.
Do not be rude. Acting like you are superior to players is NOT professional. Please treat players with respect.
Do not delete gangs unless they are either Racist/Vulgar/Harassment/ etc. Try to rename them first.
You are not to give hat refunds or any refunds for that matter. Nobody is allowed to mess with the Gralat system except for high ranking staff.
Do not attempt to trade/sell in game items for real life money or vice versa. This applies to any type of currency. i.e. iTunes cards. These rules apply not only to staff members, but players as well. This will result in firing as well as a global ban of the person responsible being a staff member, and a banning of the player(s) responsible.
When setting statues do not glorify a player. This encourages scamming. Do not say "Duderbrah is totally legit!” This encourages scamming.
Hats. If you have your own personal hat you wish to give to players, this should only be done during a hosted regular event and in lieu of an event coin - the winning player must choose one or the other. This is the only circumstance during which you should ever give away your personal hat - not to friends or to anyone making customs, items, etc.
Items. When you are hired you will receive a set amount of Gralats (money) on your staff account and your choice of 1 ec item up to 100 value as part of new staff set-up. While it may be tempting to want and ask for all sorts of cool items, please note that your primary staff duty is your main responsibility versus playing with items. After you have successfully been in your role for a couple of weeks, you may ask for an additional item to be added to your staff account. To have items added, please speak to your department Admin (non PR), PRA or SPR for PR staff and jeni can also assist.
Personal Customs. You can upload personal heads, bodies, hats to the server for use on your staff account. If you need assistance with the appropriate folder location, please ask a member of high staff. These items can be added with the /npcaddhead, /npcaddbody, /npcaddhat commands. You should NEVER add any item, custom, etc. to your personal ios account. If you have any questions on this, please ask a member of high staff.
Boosting Spar Stats. We do not allow spar stats boosting. If you catch someone boosting their spar stats please contact a PRA/SPR and have them check out that person.
Section Two -- Duties
Every staff member has to pull their weight. Running an MMO isn't an easy task, as such we hire a lot of volunteers to do various things. Whether you're a PR or a member of the Levels Administration Team, you have to put the effort in.
Always wear your staff when you are doing something staff related.
If you are a PR you are expected to:
Investigate reports: You must look into reports and help resolve issues. This may require initiating a sit-down between two players to resolve an in-game dispute or it may involve banning Mog who's made a new account.
Whenever you find a player who's up to no good, you use the warning tool to take action. You right click a player and select Warn Player from the staff drop-down list. You will
then have to select a reason for warning, which is shown here. After selection a reason you must describe the event.Players are jailed after receiving multiple warnings.
After you have finished a report please make sure to clear it from the reports tool!
Note: in the event that you see something very serious, e.g. a paedophile or a hacker, please log what you see (text from their attributes or screenshots etc) before jailing.
Handle Feedback: This is as easy as just looking at the feedback tab in RC and responding to the players. Easy! Handle Uploads: This is a more complex task- we will touch on this shortly. Host Events: If you're staff you can host events!. It can be a complex task, see other staff for more details.
Remember to actually log-on to the server and do your job. We understand that you have a real-life, but we need your help! That's why we recruited you. If you feel you're going to have a period of inactivity please tell your boss so we can sort things out.
If you can not perform your duty without annoying others, if you are the source of drama, you will be removed. This is true of all staff, we have no room for people who can't do their work without inciting problems.
While doing your job (and this is particularly true for members of the PR team) you may be inundated with spam and harassment. This is a part of the job. It happens. All the time. To everyone. The best method of handling it is to just ignore them and move on. If you are particularly concerned inform your boss or a more senior staff member.
When getting asked to transfer accounts please tell them to read through the account and identify guide in the guide in the main menu (red book). Instruct them to open a ticket on the support site. The support site is support.toonslab.com. We do not transfer identified accounts to other identified accounts ever. There have been many attempts to scam accounts that way. Stay alert!
If you are a PR member you are expected to handle uploads!
Here is a list of general illegal upload elements:
Any custom staff head is not permitted for use by players.
Any images that may be deemed racist or offensive against player(s) or real life individuals.
No translucent, invisible, or small heads and bodies.
No heads or bodies that only show outlines.
No images which may disturb game play such as flashing shields, gore, violent-glowing shields, or shields that cover more than ½ of the player.
No flashing images, this also means no blinking hats.
No customs which have different colors in different frames.
Do not upload customs which are significantly larger or smaller than the templates.
No customs which make you appear invisible on certain grounds (such as grass-looking bodies/heads).
No images that are pictures of real life people or real life, this includes pets and photos.
No customs that are copyrighted such as Pokemon heads/bodies.
If we sell a bow, bandana, etc. in a game shop, these will not be approved on custom heads.
We do allow customs with a weapon provided it is NOT a weapon that is sold in Era.
Section Three -- Staff List
Graal Era sometimes goes through quite a lot of changes in the staff list. Here is a current list!
The list goes top-down in terms of authority (e.g. the person at the top has the highest rank on the server, note that the actual structure is divided in job positions, not individual authority).
The Management
The Owner: Unixmad. The Owner of Graal Online.
The Manager: snk. The Manager of Graal Online Era.
“Management” Admins:
PRAs: Kane (US), Nyx (US, Canada), Ser (Europe), Reno (Australia/Asia)
Development Admin: Storm Myste
Communication Admin: Jeni
The Departments
Development Departments:
LAT: The LAT department is in charge of developing the levels in Graal Era. They work together with the other development departments to create Era's world. GFX: The GFX (or “GAT”) department is in charge of creating the images used in Graal Era. SFX: The SFX department is in charge of creating the sounds effects and music in Graal Era. NAT: The NAT (or “Scripting”) department is in charge of creating the scripts (code) that is processed by the Graal Engine. These scripts essentially breath life into the world. The entirety of Graal Era is controlled by script! Developer: The “Developer” is someone who is multi-talented. They take on tasks from other departments. Gun Administrator: They handle the creation and balancing of Era's weapons. VIP Designer: These staff members are responsible for the development of the monthly VIP items.
Player Relations:
PR: The PR team is the backbone of Graal Era's customer support. They handle all player issues – issues ranging from reports, feedback and uploads etc. SPR: The SPR team is a group of highly trained PR's that have more authority than a regular PR team member.
Communications Team:
Communications Support: These staff members handle e-mail support. Era-Go Webmaster: The Webmaster of Era-Go. Forum Moderators: They ensure that Era-Go remains a friendly and safe place for its users. Newspaper Team: These staff members process potential submissions for the in-game Era newspaper.
Other Staff:
Gang Administrator: This staff member is responsible for handling gang rewards and handles feedback/issue reports from gangs.
created Reno Dorvay.