The Myth of Staff Privileges

The Myth of Staff Privileges

Every year or so we run into the issue where a few players are concerned with the idea that the players who are on staff receive unfair privileges that players that are not on staff are not privy to.

Items and Service Points
This much is true about Knight Realms. The more you give to it the more it will give back. It has to. Without that core fundamental policy the incentive for helping becomes purely cavalier. And while it may sound like a noble notion that everyone who helps does so solely as donation, it is also a unrealistic notion in the long term.

When you do a lot for the game, you accrue a large amount of Service Points. The policy states that you cannot convert that service to gold, but that you can purchase items off of the SP menu. The SP policy also states that anyone with a large sum of SP may cash it all in for items to be determined between the player and the Director.

This is the extent of the benefits that the Staff has enjoyed from being on Staff. It is the same system that ALL players in the game have the ability to use. Over the last year or so I have performed this service about a dozen times for people. Some on staff, some not on staff. Only when it has been specifically requested of me, and never have I refused someone the ability to do so.

No one can in good faith complain or stress over the enchanted items that a staff member has spent their hard earned Service Points on. They have earned them. They work day in and day out to make Knight Realms a fun and enjoyable game for you all to enjoy.

More importantly though is to take note that there is no “favoritism" involved and that ANY player who has accrued a large sum of SP can enjoy the same benefits. Furthermore, ANY player who helps frequently, or donates time or money frequently can indeed reach those large sums. At any given time with ALL players that donate, I give in actuality about five times the actual SP value according to the official SP acquisition chart.

So to recap, when you see a staff member who is wielding a powerful item purchased with service points, know full well that ANY player, be they staff or otherwise has access to the same equal opportunity, pending that said player does indeed earn Service Points.

Special Favors
Now first of all, most of the time what you think are favors are not. Someone will believe that a player received some benefit solely because of who they are. Such assumptions are almost always incorrect assumptions based off of a lack of knowledge of a situation. When in doubt, if you truly care, than ask and you may be filled in on the details. There should be openness between the staff and the players, so that all you have to do is ask and they will tell you, because there is nothing to hide.

Now with that said, I will go back a step and say that favors do indeed happen. But there is no pattern of favoritism or staff, related to the ones that do. In fact Ive given more favors to non-staff members than I have staff members over the years. The bottom line is that this game is supposed to be fun. Sometimes something gets in the way of that. If giving a reasonable favor to a player will make the game more enjoyable to a player I will consider it. Sometimes its allowing a character to drop a skill or two they decided they didn't want sometimes it's a player retiring a character and getting a little more build % than they are supposed to, sometimes its giving an IOU that may never even be repaid. It can be all sorts of things and the key thing to realize is that it is not limited to one group of “elite and privileged" players. Whenever I realize that allowing a reasonable favor will enhance a players enjoyment, I consider it. The favors are things that could be construed as reasonable.  Favors are not things like getting higher lists just because, or getting powerful items just because.

Easily half the game have at one point or another received some reasonable favor. What bothers me the most however, is when players that have received these favors, turn and point fingers at other players and complain about favors. It is at those times that I feel my generosity is being toyed with.

Here is one last thing of note, relating to the possible perception of Officers. An officer, of necessity, needs to be someone who has been around the game for quite a while. An officer needs to have a good knowledge of the rules and policies, a working knowledge of the game and its players. This usually means someone appointed to be an officer just happens to have a high level character already. Any special weapons or skills they obtain after the appointment may look as favors instead of the result of sp and in-game work to any who don't know all the facts. However as I mentioned before these benefits are the benefits of SP conversion, and are the same benefits all players are privy to.

The Director and NPC cards
Most of the time I follow the stats that I have laid out for my NPCs. Some times I choose to not follow those stats as closely. The times that I choose not to, I do so as the Director of Knight Realms, not as James. Meaning James does not really care at all if the baron or ANY npc I play dies, but the Director of Knight Realms is very much interested in making the game more fun and challenging or keeping massive amounts of players from dying or completely loosing a plot too quickly or in a lame fashion or to NPCs they cant possibly handle.

I have four permanently dead major NPCs and the current Baron has taken two deaths. One of which I completely gave to myself as an RP situation, that no one was even around to witness. I hope that that demonstrates that I am not overly concerned with my reoccurring NPCs not dying. If they die, they die and I make new ones, its not that big of a deal. If I ever do something outside the norm, I do so only with the best intentions of the game in mind.