[Accepted] Doggie66's Command Whitelist Application

[Doggie666]

BYOND key: Doggie666
Character names: 

How long have you been playing on Aurora?: About 11 months
Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?: I love the challenge of taking on new roleplaying opportunities, and I think it would be a lot of fun to plays roles of high-importance! I have waited on doing this myself until I felt like I was adequately prepared for it.

Why did you come to Aurora?: Outside of only a few experiences with CM, I have spent little time in servers outside of Aurora. My friend introduced me and I've fallen in love with the high standard of roleplaying and the lore and characters that you all have created.
Have you read the Aurora wiki on the head roles and qualifications you plan on playing?: Yes
Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they?: Not that I'm aware of

Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph each.

Give a definition of what you think roleplay is, and should be about: If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong. But you also want to make sure that everyone else is having fun, too! It's a balance to consider the thoughts and feelings of not only characters but the people that control them. A good rule I've learned from reading DM guides has applied to my philosophy for roleplay here: characters can be absolutely miserable while their players are still having a lot of fun. Because of the nature of SS13, character misery, suffering, and death is all but inevitable (and a lot of fun to play out). Roleplay is knowing that your ideas don't always work out, and that's okay! There are high and lows in a roleplay, both for characters and their players. I value my memories from good rounds and I know that I have the potential to make lasting, valuable memories on other people, too. Good ideas don't always work out for the better.Making each of those experiences memorable, unique, and interactive is often challenging. Escalation, interaction, and creativity are imperative to good roleplay, especially in the context of SS13.

What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?: They keep everything running smoothly, or at least do their best to. Whitelisted players help people know what the characters in the department are supposed to be doing and why what they're doing has any importance. SS13 isn't a beginner-friendly game, which I've found out the hard way by both being a new player at one point and also trying to teach other people. Heads of Staff can do a lot of teaching of game mechanics. They know their department well enough to provide plenty of learning opportunities for both the characters and players that they work with. They set the bar for everyone else in every roleplay-related way, doing either the mundane responsibilities of the department or making the round. When the round spotlight is put on a Head of Staff, I've found that whether an antag or not, they usually do a great job of making whatever is happening more interesting, which is only fitting; as characters, they are highly-qualified individuals who are of high-importance to crew and antags alike.

What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?: Similar to a species whitelist, A Head of Staff whitelist shows a player that has successfully proven that they can uphold a certain standard of roleplaying that new players can look to see how they and their characters should be interacting with the world that they have been immersed in. With the power that staff-whitelisted characters have over other characters, they are exemplary of maintaining immersion with in-character station directives and responsibilities. Out of characters, one would think that someone given enough to trust to play roles of importance are also familiar with the rules of the server and would uphold them to an exemplary fashion when interacting with other players. I think one of that things that whitelisted players have inspired me to do is to apply for whitelists myself, which has in turn encouraged me to be more active and participatory than I think I would be otherwise. It's great when a lot of people are applying for whitelists, and that can't happen unless other players are shown that playing whitelists are wholly feasible with enough competence! 

Could you give us the gist of what is currently happening in Tau ceti and how it affected your character and their career?: Whryyl is happy that human-skrell relationships are improving from what they used to be, and his fascination with human culture and research is what has made him want to contract with Nanotrasen in the first place. With news of the Aut'akh coming into Tau Ceti, he is wary of their religiously-synthetic values. Whryyl is skeptical at best, but he reckons he will despise Aut'akh even worse than synthetics since they are organics that have willfully augmented themselves rather than being machines designed with purpose. His deceased wife was sterile as a result of the genophage, and he is terrified of synthetic influence. For this reason, he approves of President Dorn and his policies relating to curbing synthetic rights. He does not support extremist anti-synthetic bodies like the True Democrat party or any influence of Dominian policy on Tau Ceti. However, Whryyl was appalled that one of the candidates for the last election was a synthetic itself! In regards to the Sol Alliance's drama inevitably leaking onto Tau Ceti stations because of so many Sol employees, Whryyl is anti-ATLAS because of the party's poor relationships with skrell. He also believes ATLAS' presence could sour diverse workplaces like the Aurora.

What roles do you plan on playing after the application is accepted?
Research Director, for the moment. I have possible future interest in Head of Personnel and CMO in advancements of characters that could reasonably be given such a promotion, but no current concrete plans for these roles (as I feel I have no such characters who would be competent that I also feel have been appropriately developed for them in the way that I want).

Characters you intend to use for command or have created for command. Include the job they will be taking.:

Whryyl Diulszi-Quub - Research Director

How would you rate your own roleplaying?: A 7 or 8/10 on a good day.

Do you understand your whitelist is not permanent, and may be stripped following continuous administrative action?: Yes

Have you familiarize yourself with the wiki pages for the command roles?: Yes

Extra notes: there is nothing like this place. i am forever intrigued by it.

[MelodicVoid]

Though I do not recognize any characters other then maybe one, from a long time ago, I have read through your application and personally I think your OOC answers are pretty good. Thus I will give a +1. If the answers are genuine then you will make a excellent head of staff

[VTCobaltblood]

I recognize none of these characters except one.

[Doggie666]

I play during lowpop a lot; I'd like to think I have pretty good playtime. I know I'm not exactly a celebrity here.

I intend to be very active if given a trial.

[Chen Yakumo]

I vaguely remember some of these characters, primarily the skrell anomalist Whryyl. You're actively mostly during deadhour, so we don't interact too too much, but the times we have were very enjoyable. You play a very organic, life-like character, and that tells me your roleplaying ability is up to snuff. Your OOC answers here are good, and I feel that if you're given a chance you won't disappoint anyone or let anyone down. Deadhour is problematic, since you can be SUPER ACTIVE and still be relatively unknown. I'm gonna +1 you here and hope you're given a chance to prove me right.

[Resilynn]

I could have sworn you had a command whitelist and played an HoS ~10 months ago. 

Youve been here forever, you’ve played decent characters. I’d support this. 

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Hi! Sorry for the delay, we will be giving you a command whitelist trial which lasts Seven days. This trial can be extended if you need more time. 
Activity is very important within these seven days. Be sure to play command. 

Trial beginning 2/16/19 
Trial Ending 2/23/19

Good luck!
 

[Lady Fowl]

There has been a few instances I have noticed recently where uyuou act rash towards other players in ooc over criticisms or them messing around with you. I would like to know how you may feel this could impact the image of a head of staff

[Doggie666]

43 minutes ago, DRagO said:

There has been a few instances I have noticed recently where uyuou act rash towards other players in ooc over criticisms or them messing around with you. I would like to know how you may feel this could impact the image of a head of staff

If we are talking about the in-game discussion of the xenoarcheology thread, I believe that the OOC discussion of it during the round was completely civil, even if we did not agree. You and someone else said that you didn't believe my idea was necessary, and that's fine. I defended my opinion. I didn't call anyone any names.

If we are talking about when anomaly isolation was accidentally flooded with phoron and the OOC discussion that was generated after that, I requested that the player in question leave me alone. I do not wish to have casual conversation with the individual in question due to other reasons unrelated to the two above incidents. They were not in the round. I do not want them to "mess around" with me.

Are there other instances that you have in mind?

[KingOfThePing]

Hey, hey, I was present during these OOC discussions Doggie mentioned, so here are my two cents:

The first one about improvements/quality of life changes about Xenoarcheology began in LOOC/OOC before the thread was posted and I agree, that it was civil. No one lashed out to someone else and in my opinion it was a good discussion. It gave me a few ideas myself.

To the incident that the Anomaly Lab got (somehow, I still don't know how) flooded with Phoron and another player made fun of that in LOOC, here I can also say that it was most likely banter from the observing party and nothing beyond the "(Please) leave me alone", which is understandable if these two players do not like each other. I wouldn't really connect this as critique to the RD character itself. I have played some rounds with Doggie's RD and they are good with what they do. They know what they are doing and what they do not know they ask/learn.

If there have been other incidents, regarding lashing out to other players in LOOC/OOC, I cannot comment on these.

[Doggie666]

Game ID is bYQ-dbnK (based on the time the Xenoarcheology thread was posted) if any parties would like to conduct further investigation.

[Doggie666]

Talked to Drago on discord and it appears this was the only round in question and was a misunderstanding; we are good terms.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Hey, sorry for the slight delay.

Application accepted!