Delegate to increase Efficiency.

Hello,
I'm a Full Time Student pursing my Bachelor's degree in Business Management, I also work a full time job in logistics during the overnight hours. 10pm-7am. I've got a lot on my plate, I come from a military background in The United States Airforce 2S051 - Supply. For those of you familiar with the AFSC coding. Anyways, I say all that to relate my experience in the proper use of a key tool in any organization. Delegation. It's what keeps companies afloat and leaders sane, it's what grants efficiency to a system that can be complicated and difficult to manage. It ensures in the case of a business, that your customers are getting what they need so they can in turn keep your business prospering. Delegating tasks based in part on priority and in part on the available leaders/staff you have to work with. Right now, we're at a slight loss of leadership manpower. With only two Senior AMs (at my last count) the web of responsibility is stricken. This is why the importance of delegating smaller tasks to the Junior AMs and Trainee AMs is so important, trickling down the area of responsibility and speciality fields. A Team dedicated to setting up and hosting events, while another team though having the option of such isn't obligated. Rather they are primarily the Customer Service Task force, that SHOULD be all AMs responsibilities of course and nearly everyone I've spoken to does an amazing job at it. But a more core group that focuses on getting to the heart of player-issues to free up other AMs to focus on their particular jobs. Checking performance, Bug-Identification, Portaling Players into the aforementioned Bugged instances. Etcetera. This type of delegation and distribution of responsibility doesn't have to stay at the bottom and middle management areas either.
Higher ups, a shout out to our friend Lautaro for instance is right now seemingly the only one that is able to adjust and reset credits, (This is a responsibility you really don't want shared with a wide net of people even if you trust them, it just isn't practical.) However, there are other functions that can be shared. Such as identifying Transfer Failures resetting and reinitiating them. Keep in mind, I'm not a GM. I don't have my own private Server. I've been an Immortal on MUDs and I'm familiar with the type of coding and server maintenance that goes along with that platform. (Vastly different from the High-End 3D Graphic engine based games like Aion.) So some of my suggestion might not be viable because of the manner in which certain procedures needs to be done. Perhaps Transfers can only be done from those in possession with access to the host servers, this is the kind of information you'd prefer to keep restricted just in case. Perhaps there isn't enough AMs to form these specialized groups of Staff. But what I do know is that the current system isn't working for anyone, not for the staff who are harassed by players to do something about the bugs and not for the players who feel compelled to harass staff because for every instance that works, two others don't without lots of intervention.
Efficiency is the name of the game and I think delegating more responsibility is the key to make that happen, peer through those online profiles again. Take up the dedicated player base and put them to work. Offer INITIATIVES for player bug teams that identify and help to come up with fixes that the SAMs and programmers can emulate. We have Dozens and DOZENS of college students many seeking degrees in fields relative to computer and software operations and programming. Anyways, that's just my random two cent suggestion for improving game-play and the overall Gamez Experience.

 

They do what they want regardless. Learned that the hard way. Take it from someone who has had experience. As for bugs? Every private server has bugs. It's just the pace of Gamez - super slow.............Not trying to bring your hopes down, just being realistic.

 

You have to understand that the reason why the SAMs are two is because two of them resigned. And as much as y'all would love for another two to be promoted to replace the lost ones, there are no people currently that could take that role. I want to remind you that 2014's AMs are all demoted/gone, and we are the new batch that got promoted literally a month ago. Do you want people to go from trainees to SAMs? No. I don't either.

As for the role distribution - those are ranks for you. AMs are responsible for common player problems, answering questions, porting people to bugged instances and making them happy by hosting events. SAMs are responsible for dealing with bugs, spawning things that are not working, mailing stuff to you guys which you ALWAYS forget and take it as a simple task, and other general things that AMs cannot do. And lastly, the HGM is responsible for the things the rest cannot do or do not have power to complete, and generally keeping things smooth. SAMs don't focus on hosting events because they focus on other things that we, as AMs, cannot do. Do you not see this as a role contribution? Cause I do. The delegation is there, it is just designed differently than you would think. And it's always been like that. In between the ranks, people might gain or lose power. For example, the AMTs of 2 years ago might not have been able to do what today's AMTs can, and so on.

Also; if you feel like AMs should be responsible for bugs - you can report bugs yourself. It's not like AMs just sit around playing the game all day, using all skills, doing all instances, and testing every quest to see if they are bugged. Finding bugs is a team effort, and players are the number one source we get the bug reports from. You might find a bug that we never knew of, why not let us know?

The "role distribution" is not what is breaking the server, I'm amazed you don't know that. What's breaking the server is the fact that we have not had an update for half a year, and I'm sure we both know who is responsible for that.

 

I agree with you that players are the main resource for identifying bugs, my suggestion of having a dedicated Bug-Debugging team was more to get ideas rolling on what kind of methods we can use to maximize our efficiency and streamline the operation of the server. I don't think ascending every TraineeAM into a SAM is a good idea and it also isn't what I suggested, I did however suggest dedicating teams to certain areas of responsibility. That's being done to a certain measure, and I know the community appreciates it's AMs for putting out Events regularly. But every system can be fine tuned, and I think there is still room for improving the "Role Contribution" as you put it. Particularly for our Upper Management/Owners. (How about them broken broker, empty-quest-broken Levinshor issues Mr.CEO?). There are ways to get a bigger contribution from teams of people who love this game. All I'm asking is for a revision that involves some sort of streamlining especially for things that are high priority, Instance-Bug Fixes. World Boss Fixes, Seasonal NPCs fixes(For Lumiel who missed out on the last three seasonal events. Four if you count the mass exodus of Lumiel AMs who resigned.) And the community itself is the biggest asset that is completely under utilized, I've reported a Good deal of bugs. Persistent Bugs and others that seem to have spawned randomly. What's the point of reporting things that go unfixed ? As I quoted, let's make things a little more efficient and delegate some responsibility. Let's offer some initiatives for players or teams of players who make the time to go the extra mile and find a viable path to FIXING bugs. We've got a lot of smart people playing this game (No, Really.) Let's UTILIZE THIS! In my days as an immortal for Dragon's Fable we had a live test server that was mostly empty of players except for those who were dedicated to finding fixes for bugs. A Limited set of options allowed them to review where the coding might be going wrong or what file might be corrupted, they would then be able to take their findings and report it to the Immortals who having access to the Game Servers could implement these fixes. Let's keep the ideas for maximizing who we can improve the experience here flowing. =]
Nothing is breaking the game, it's already broken ;p And Yes, we know who broke it and who is being extremely slow at fixing it. Tip, if you don't have time. Use some of that hundreds of dollars of donation money you get each month, set some aside after the server cost to go ahead and pay a nice grad student to peek at the mess that is our beloved Gamez and get him to fiddle things back into shape with a set of instructions on what button to push if it crumbles a week later.

 

I think I get what you mean somehow, you want to delegate a bug-finding team by promoting more people into some rank in staff that will do just that while receiving a good enough compensation to keep going. This is actually a good idea except the existing system already works for them, you can see how they only trust a few people in this game by only promoting those who deserve to be promoted and delegate the exact task they deserve.

Gamez has never publicly announced any information about the development team, at least in my opinion, like things that answer questions: who are they? are they good? what is their progress? do we have anything to look forward to in say, the next month or do we just hold hands and hope? Why are these answers unanswered, it is because the game relies on donation = we don't pay to play the game so they don't have to answer to those demands from players and if they want to run the server their way, we players don't have much say in it unless we all leave or die by an apocalyptic event.

 

Gamez aion is just a game. Dont cry, you're playing games to be entertained, have fun and stressfree, you can duel anywhere tho if u experience some bug u can ask anyone what to do. Or if it is not that much u can find a solution urself

 

This isn't really relative to what we're trying to talk about here, we're talking about building up efficiency for the betterment of the overall gaming experience, try to refrain from antagonizing responses since the goal is to create a set of statements to help improve the community rather then divide or splinter it. If you have anything intelligent and constructive to add please feel free if not, refrain since it isn't on topic.Thank you'.

 

You know,the staffs are really doing their best. If you're not satisfied on what they do,you can stop playing and make your own server. Stop complaining. You should help,we would appreciate if you do that. Just expressing my own opinion dear.

 

That's what this thread is about helping them, suggesting ways that the community can participate and implement change. If you'll read my posts you'll see that's entirely what this is about. Although yes, I did complain a little about our CEOs. But if you haven't noticed, so do our hardworking AMs. Opinions are fine, but share your opinions relative to the topic of suggesting improvements and methods to bringing positive change to the server. If you want to comment on me, then you can comment at me in a message or open a Spam thread. =]

 

Ya sure. Later. But i'm really busy hunting down Asmodians down here in kata :3

 

Im talking about why are u stressing yourself with the matters that u dont need to bother about, If you really care, instead of criticizing why dont u help them fix bugs by reporting it, not about how to arrange staffs and interfere in their work, cause we all know that they already know it. If you become an AM because it looks like u want to gain some attention here. Can u fix those buggs immediately? Just play the game & enjoy!
PS: nobody cares about ur bachelor degree thats not related when ure playing online games.
Brag brags everywhere

 

lol u guys, he just said the reason of why he mentioned those things so he can express that his suggestion is based on something from his real life... why would u even notice that of all things.

 

You must know that this server runs by volunteers. Don't expect much to the person who are promoted to fix bug right away because theyre just there to assist players. These people who have tags are tagged based on what the higher ops sees about them. That is why we have different GM levels. Those who are promoted on the yellow tag means they know exactly what the game is and they have experience on how the game works. They share their expertise on assisting newbie players and so forth. You only get promoted to a higher position if you are qualified enough and they trust you enough to basically do some background works. As to fixing bugs itself, that pretty much involves by the server coding which can only be done and be fixed by the CEOs or hired someone who does the coding for the server.

 

I appreciate your efforts of trying to help however 'delegation' in businesses is very hard to manage. I do a little bit of business studies however nowhere near a successful entrepreneur of any type therefore these are my views of being in staff and seeing how things work. Delegation is tricky to make successful especially in a business like Gamez, people are Volunteers and there isn't a clear structure of how things that are more senior are run. Whatever you mentioned about prospering and efficiency, yeah sure, companies that have time do that. We focus on doing our day by day things and it works out, slowly but surely however don't expect reality to be like the case study you read for your exam, it's nothing like that. There won't be a 'four seasons Ltd' looking to give poor worker some more work to give him delegation. You can get a few toys like a card to access the loading bay but no paper work stuff. I hope you know what I mean. Anyway what you're mentioning would include increasing the power levels and making the power structure a bit wider and less flatter, therefore everybody would have to go through others to get things done, more authority overall but more chaos as well. That can work for a company like Microsoft.

Anyway, thanks again, I hope we sorted this issue out, Gamez will have their bugs fixed, just a little bit slowly. Fear not, even without 50 levels of authority, we as staff do everything in our will to push the server to prosper.

Regards,
Mark

 

I believe, with 50 levels of staff, things would go even slower and more out of hand than they ever would now.