Jump to content

Founder announcement - Staff role changes, server values, 1.5 release


Recommended Posts

GTAW-rectangle.png.46ee4164df3eb9064602f89c28d7ffb0.png

 

Hello! 

 

March will be a very important month for GTAW, as we'll be deploying our new 1.5 update, with amazing content to come and allowing us to go even further for next updates ! But you shall all hear more about it in a few hours and next week.

Our staff update is coming up late this month as we've had issues reviewing the staff applications and decided to let them open a few more days since we were not happy with the current applications sent.

However, major changes are being made in the team and needs to be pushed as of today, hence why there will be two staff updates this month.

 


 

Staff roles update

 

@Ikechukwu will now be a Manager as  Head of Community

@Maca has been promoted Head of Admins

@Dominykas. has been promoted Head of Support

@Caporegime has been promoted Head of Illegal Faction Management

 

 


                  

GTAW Values

 

Now that our community is starting to become really big and reaches more than 200 players at peak time, I feel that It is a good time to remind everyone why GTAW was created and what is the goal of this project.
Most of you know where I am coming from when it comes to roleplay, I spent 10 years playing and learning to roleplay on a SAMP server that had its strengths and its weaknesses, but overall It was a great server where I was able to enjoy my time there as a roleplayer and where I respected the team managing it.

 

These past years, It seems that the server I spent a long part of my life on and Its management got driven by other goals than just offering their players a fair, transparent, and enjoyable roleplay environment. Is it my role to judge them about this ? Could I do anything about it and make them change ? I tried, twice, three times and ended up witnessing corruption at its deepest by my own eyes. Which was the moment I decided It was time for a real change and that I would start this project with only one goal in mind : Provide myself the roleplay community I will enjoy playing on and respect.


GTAW was nothing but a selfish project at its core : I was not driven by the motivation to create the biggest server in the world, nor to buy a yatch with donation money, nor to welcome all players that cannot play elsewhere. It was my own little selfish project as I wanted to provide myself a place where I could roleplay with the standards I was expecting, in text and not voice, with fair administrators and a transparent management.


It turns out that my project attracted you all here, some followed me from my past as lead developer on other servers, some followed me because they roleplayed with me on past servers, and some came because they liked how the project was shaped. The initial development started 2 years ago, and we are here today with all of you coming from everywhere after your friends have recommended you to play here.

 

You might have had various reasons to come, some because of the roleplay quality, others because of the gamemode, others because your friends play here and you followed them. But I want to make sure you always keep in mind the most important reason for GTAW to exist and the most important one you should remember, because It was not always granted and I personally fought for it : Values.

 

The first value that GTAW is built upon is that we are all players. You, me, administrators. You might see me troll on Discord, share memes, my discord is 24/7 opened for every players to speak with, and this shall continue as much as possible. Of course I sometimes cannot answer some messages, I have a real life work that forces me to balance both and miss few things, but in general you know I'm fullfiling this "open communication" mindset.

 

No administrators shall make you feel inferior, or think that they are protected because they could have became our friends. Some of you here thought this and got quickly removed. I have lost many friends in the past months managing this server, some have completely cut contact because they could not understand how as Founder of GTAW I could remove them whereas they've known me for years. And some understood and are still my friends today, as players.

 

All administrators also have to sign an "Administration values" thread which reminds them about all this upon joining the team, which you can find below:

  • Never aim for bans, but for awareness and teaching. If a player is doing an obvious mistake in your eyes, he might just need few explanations to get back on tracks and become a good roleplayer.
  • Always stay available for players: I do want all of you to answer players on discord, private messages, etc.. when they are looking for information or have questions. We're not a millions players wide community, and forcing everyone to "follow the process" by going on forum or make a /report ingame just to ask you a simple question is only creating distance in our relationship with players. If I manage to answer every single discord message I receive, and PMs, you can too. Due to your roles, some of you are authorized to handle communications on forum only and not discord to keep track of it directly.
  • Do not handle reports where your faction is involved: I know all of you were recruited because we consider you unbiased and excellent roleplayers, but we have more than enough staff members to handle a specific situation / report instead of you If your faction is involved and we want to show players that we're acting fair for both parties at all time. This does not apply to LSPD If no other administrators are available.
  • Never keep a doubt or a question unanswered: If you have any question to ask the management or another administrator, do it. We're here to be fully transparent with you and answer every questions. From service finances to a personal question about your life, we will never deny your question.
  • Be fair and neutral with players: We expect you to always be fair when making a decision and weight all the impacts your final decision will have. Make sure you have understood the full context, gathered the different point of view and evidence as we may challenge your decision at any time If we believe It wasn't following the server values.
  • Always remain professional and calm: You'll encounter players that do not share our views of what a community is, they might attack you or insult you, and force you to react in a bad way. You must always remain professional when writing to players, approach them professionally and never allow your anger to be visible, which could lead to you being disrespectful or rude.
  • The founder is a player, you are a player, we're all a community of players: No one is better than anyone else or above anyone. We are all a roleplay community and you must never consider yourself superior to another player because you're a staff member or because you think that you have more knowledge than another player. You're here to make this community better, improve it, guide it, protect it, but not to act like a god.

 

Now, this doesn't mean all your staff reports are valid and you may chain report administrators everytime they do not rule in your favor, but It does mean that we are promising you that our management team will review your report in a 100% neutral way and by putting aside any friendship, bounds or needs it may have with the reported administrator. And I thank @Notbond again for always being here helping me with these, because It is really not an easy job to handle these reports and to take important decisions from them.

 

I hope that you will all understand that these words I share with you are very important to me, and I hope they are to you too. I did wrote that GTAW was initially a selfish project, but all your support and good words during these years together have shown me that I was not the only one in need of such an environment, and that the happiness I can receive from your thanks makes me way happier than anything else I could receive while roleplaying. I might have not found the time to roleplay since release, but I found the time to make almost 25 000 players roleplay on an environment I wish I could roleplay on, and to receive hundreds of thank you. You do not know the strength of few good words, sent to me or an administrator that did help you, so make sure you always think about giving us some appreciation If you're happy, It always makes my day, as I wish I help yours being a good day too! Nothing is perfect and GTAW is far from it, but we're trying our best to fix what you complain on sometimes.

 


                  

1.5 Release

 

We're getting closer to update 1.5 release : Join us Wednesday 13/03 at 9PM servertime for a reveal stream that will end with a surprise for everyone !

 

lLbSJ8D.jpg

Edited by Nervous
  • Upvote 17
  • Thanks 1
  • Applaud 4
Link to comment

I'm glad that you're reminding everyone of your values and keeping them in mind even 2 years later. 

 

I fully support your "idea" of the perfect community, and I will be here as a player to enjoy it. The environment is what I've been looking for for a long time. I've never had any issues here personally. I know others who have, but again, all the processes to me, have seemed fair and just.

 

I appreciate you posting the administrator values for the public to see. It's good to see some of the core concepts your team are bound by in the execution of their duties.

 

We're all looking forward to 1.5, lets see what the future holds.

  • Applaud 1
Link to comment

Glad to see the values expected out of our administrators reiterated, though I'm not entirely certain the entirety of the administrative staff abide by them. Throughout my little over a year here, though, Nervous has steered this community in the right direction. By and large the administrators do abide by the values listed above, though I'd like to see more impartiality expressed by some that have personal friendships with player or groups of players. By addressing this readily, I think Nervous shows that he understands the concerns of a lot of the player-base, and I have full faith that this community will continue to head in the right direction!

 

Excited for 1.5!

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment

This community has certainly come a long way. I appreciate what you've done for this community, as goes to every other staff member. The server has gone from crashing every 20 minutes to a stable, enjoyable experience with brilliant features. Great job, I look forward to the new update.

Link to comment
×
×
  • Create New...