Letter to the community

[Kizo 41]

Greetings shinobi,

 

Over the last few weeks, I’ve reached out to a few people in the hopes of addressing certain claims that have been making their way through the community. Among these claims are items such as releasing information about exploits to friends, using GM powers to help certain players to the detriment of others, and several other very serious offenses.

 

Since becoming a GM, it's no secret that I've been very active in all regards. This also means that I've banned former friends of mine for not complying with our ruleset, compromising our friendships in the process. To me, abiding by the rules has nothing to do with who you are, who your friends are or what your rank is. The rules are the same for everyone, and the same goes for my acquaintances.

 

This leads me to a very important point: I clear everything I do with the senior staff on the team, as the newest GM. While certain actions may appear biased, such as removing bosses, often these actions are only taken at the direction of senior staff. Additionally, only Vlad has access to the logs and information such as character databases, for privacy and security concerns. Actions taken by staff, especially new GMs, are reviewed. One of the main goals of the staff is to facilitate a great experience for players.

 

In regards to helping facilitate a great experience for players, I want to discuss my behavior recently, both as a player and as a member of the staff. As a member of the Staff, I need to hold myself to a higher degree of accountability when dealing with players, regardless of which account I am currently on. While I am certainly human and have been dealing with certain frustrations, such as accusations of cheating, this is no excuse for addressing players rudely in game or on theorycrafting threads. I would like to apologize to the community at large for these actions, and have already reached out to several players personally to apologize for past actions.

 

In response to previous feedback on the forums, I’ve attempted to slow down in replying to most suggestions to allow newer players an opportunity to fully express their opinions. I would like to note that as a player, I too have to submit feedback in the same way as the rest of the community. That being said, I understand that a member of the Staff, even not a developer, can be seen as having a more heavily-weighted opinion. Like the rest of you, I just want an opportunity to express ideas about the game that I love. I will continue to make an effort to foster healthy communication, even if that involves stepping back and seeing a different perspective.

 

I would also like to discuss my role as a player in the community going forward. As both a GM and a player, I need to work on finding a better balance in terms of player relationships and the community overall, especially when it comes to PVP. We all want to play the game in the manner we choose, and some of my actions kept players from having positive interactions with Shinobi Story. I sincerely apologize for that, as I only want the game to grow and more players to join and enjoy themselves. Effective immediately, I will cease bounty hunter operations on my character — my organization, for its part, has been passed on. Additionally, I will be spending more time on my GM account than player characters to better reflect and observe the community in order to find a better, healthier ground.

 

Lastly, while my DMs are usually closed (primarily so that players use the Discord ticket system instead of privately messaging me for /unstuck requests), I am going to leave them open for the foreseeable future, at least one week. I am doing this so that players have an opportunity to approach me privately and provide any feedback, changes, or opinions that they may have. I am also available for any players who just want to chat, ask questions, or even get to know me better.

 

That being said, I look forward to continuing to work and serve the community. Even if you're stuck in the same exact spot for the 19th time, I remain dedicated to helping you and the community.

 

Thank you for reading this far,

Kizo

 

[mastery reset enjoyer 4]

An empty, corporate post full of empty platitudes. Part and parcel of an experienced bully. Very disappointed in the decisions made by the staff team to support this behavior. 

[LiamEclipse 0]

I don't believe your apology is genuine. Not only did you give a cookie cutter apology to the person that finally sparked this.

You have a history of being negative and actively harassing people in this community (whether people/you want to actively admit this or not). Furthermore you have been seen abusing your GM powers and using them to the advantages of either your friends or yourself. This has been brought up several times before being swept under the rug.

It's really tiring to see minor examples of these negative behaviors and then when a large example like this occurs where not only you but several players harassed people where you then openly admit to you bullying/attempting to bully people off the server.

 

Regardless if this is "the player" or "the staff" member acting, its unacceptable. This shit wouldn't fly anywhere else, in every server I've played from WOW, GMOD, etc, if the person who did this was caught and the messages forwarded to staff they would not only be removed from said staff team but banned for at least a week (bad day or not).

 

A friend of mine asked during the community meeting asked when Vlad was placating everyone about how "things will be better"  and things were being talked about they asked very clearly in response to the concerns of staff behavior "How far is to far?" before he immediately left the channel.  Whether he somehow didn't hear the question in a quiet channel or actively dodged the question, it still remains for me: How far is to far? Because for me, I already know my answer to this as a whole as a person who has a history of being a GM and admin for smaller communities of RP communities (some with as low as 50 players others as large as 250) and as a player as well where my limit is for this behavior.