November 12, 2014

Q&A with the Mods!

Answer All The Questions!

Sora here,

Anytime I go in game I’m always bombarded with questions from players, everything from “Who are you?”, “What do you do?”, “Is BLANK item going rare.”, “Can I have ACs”.  Answer to the last one is easy.  No.

Being a Moderator* you get a lot of the same questions from players either in game or via social media.  So I had the Mod team list their most frequently asked questions, here is what they came up with.

FAQ’s for Mods

Q: What do you do as a Moderator?
A: We moderate the game keeping it safe from scammers/traders and anyone breaking the chat rules.  This is done by going through the reports players make using the tools in game.  Every report submitted is read by a mod.  All Moderators are part-time volunteer staff who mod when they have the time.

Q: How do you become a Moderator?
A: You’ll need to keep an eye on the DN, when new mods are needed the application information will be posted.  And you must be 18.

Q: Why hasn’t this person been muted/banned.
A: Mod must go off what is seen in the report.  If there is nothing to mute/ban the person for then they are not.

Q: The player called me a Noob, why isn’t s/he muted.
A: Noob is not a mutable offense as it does not break the chat rules.  If a player is doing this simply /ignore them and continue playing.

Q: I reported this person hours ago for filter evasion, how come they’re not muted yet?
A: Reports are logged until a Moderator looks at them, which means it might be a while until a report is processed.  Being strictly voluntary staff Mods can’t patrol 24/7 but keep in mind all reports are read and dealt with.  If a player is harassing you always /report and /ignore and change rooms if needed.  Ignoring a player makes it so they cannot follow you if your /goto is still on and you can always turn that off.   /Ignore a wonderful feature so you use.

Q: Can you mute/ban me for a few minutes?
A: No, only players who break the rules are muted/banned, it’s not a tool used for entertainment.

Q:Can you unmute/unban my friend/me?
A: If you’ve been muted/banned you can contact the Help Desk.  Mods cannot undo this.

Q: Someone is trading via FB/Twitter, do something.
A: We can only deal with players in game through the /report function.  

Q: Someone hacked my account, can you get it back?
A: Moderators do not have access to account information, if you’ve been hacked you must contact the Help Desk.

Q: Can you put (insert item) in game.
A: No, Mods do not have access to putting anything in game.

Q: I have a screenshot of this player trading/cursing.
A: Screenshots are not accepted as they can be altered, always use the /report feature.

What makes a good report

Good reports include reporting a player for asking for a trade, asking password, threatening to hack someone, evading the chat filter, excessive harassment and inappropriate usernames and guilds.

Example:  “Player is asking me my password.” “Player is asking if I want to trade.”

You tell 'em!

Here's a handy guide on How To Report a Player in AQW.

Players blocking NPCs, spamming class skills or being /afk in PVP are not good reports as normally by the time a moderator sees them the player has logged off.  Also none of these break the chat rules, which as explained above is a Mods main duty.   It's best to just change rooms when you see any of this happening.

New Mods

I’ll also take this time to introduce some new mods who just passed their training, made it out alive and are now running around the game with fresh gold names**.  Please welcome,

Aren
Eeriat
Furious George
JulieKheel
Occavatra
Pontus
Rexim
Saturn801
Shadow Sword
Vasuri

*Remember there are several different kinds of staff in game though we all have gold names, not everyone is a mod.
** Their names are so fresh they're not listed on the staff page yet, I'll be doing that soon.

One More Thing

Remember mods cannot do our jobs without the help of you.  Every report we read is because of the awesome players who want to keep AQW safe.  Anytime you see someone breaking the rules /report them and we will deal with it. 

We want to make AQW the safest game on the net and we will with the help of all of you!!  We mods thank you for your help!!