Everyone knows them, the Green punks with their bansticks. Who are they and what is exactly their job? This week I interviewed two Moderators; Mika and Aldarion. In the conversations I had, I discussed how they became Moderator and what they are doing for the Bootleggers community.
Both Mika and Aldarion started their staff member career as a Buzz writer. Later on both filled the position of Buzz Editor and became Help Desk Operators. Therefor the promotion to Moderator was not a big surprise, although Aldarion had only been a HDO for half a year. Seeing the history of these two it clearly shows that both enjoyed contributing their part to the game and being a Moderator has given them more ways to do so.
Some players, that Mika referred to as “trolls”, regularly criticize the Moderators. In his eyes these criticism comes from players that are negative all the time. But what do the moderators actually do? In his opinion, to make a long story short, they are here to make sure that Bootleggers stays in control. This means moderating the forums, but also the players by banning cheaters and exploiters and keeping an eye on how the game develops. On top of that they answer help desk tickets, check the bug reports where possible, treat and respond to appeals, and controlling & informing HDO’s in case that is needed as well.
As most of you know, Bootleggers was facing some difficult times during the previous round. Enormous killing sprees and crew wipes, resulting in a huge drop of players. Mika and Aldarion tried to keep the game fun for the players in this dark stage, mainly by doing cash and casino giveaways and creating other events. This was their own initiative. According to Mika no-one ever asked them to do something like this, but they did this simply because they care about the game.
Mika and Aldarion are satisfied about the current state of the game but think that there are still things that have to be changed. Aldarion finds that the kill feature should be updated. In his opinion a single shooter should not be able to kill an entire crew. ” But those things will definitely change” he said.
