[Denied] Omicega -- Head of Staff Application

[Omicega]

BYOND Key:
Omicega

Character names:
Alicia Parker -- Security Guard
Yingmei -- Bartender

I have others, but these two are by far the most significant and well-known, I think.

How long have you been playing on Aurora?:
Two months now in a solid block. I dabbled for a few days at a time in the past, but this is the first time I've really seriously played here.

Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?
I want to play some of the head of staff roles as well as a consular officer from time to time. I'll be honest and say that I don't really see why these roles are gated off to begin with -- I certainly don't think the whitelist helps ensure any level of quality in the players and/or characters that I see in these roles, personally -- but this is really what the answer boils down to.

Why did you come to Aurora?
I played on CM for a couple of years -- primarily held there by the roleplay angle, believe it or not -- and left in about October-ish of 2019 following a final decline in standards that couldn't really be ignored. I went to Bay for a brief while before migrating to Hestia after a few months of trying to cope with Bay's community wore me out. Having tried Aurora for a brief period around that time I never found it gripping enough to fully engage me (that and the footstep sounds were atrocious), but when I dipped my head back into Aurora in late September this year I haven't really looked back. I love the standard of roleplay on offer here and find great enjoyment in getting involved with the community.

Have you read the Aurora wiki on the head roles and qualifications you plan on playing?:
I have.

Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they?
To the best of my knowledge I have never been banned, formally warned, or had administrative action of any sort taken against me.

=======

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:
I think it should be about fulfilling interactions and ongoing personal storylines between interesting and fleshed-out characters. I personally prefer playing characters that are more on the 'grounded' end of the scale (more of a working everyday individual than a novel protagonist or something), so I have a natural tendency to prefer that end of things, but ultimately I really enjoy seeing the creativity other people put into their characters and how they can bring interesting interactions to the table. I don't necessarily agree that it's something everyone has to agree on, at times -- sometimes your characters will be put in places you'd rather not have had them put, and dealing with that in a believable manner is part and parcel of roleplaying a character properly. As long as the setting as a whole maintains a level of believability that rides above a certain level, I think roleplay really does just boil down to the way individual characters interact with one another and build relationships; whether that's on a longer-term scale, or in the context of a single round.

What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is ingame?
First and foremost -- they are the most important factor inside a department where new players are concerned. They have the most weight in ensuring that cadets/apprentices/interns don't end up confused and lost and alone for two hours, and should use their influence in this regard to make sure these sorts of players have a fulfilling experience as learners in learner roles. This duty of care extends to their department as a whole, of course -- the head of security has an integral role in coordinating security's response to antagonists on secret rounds, for example -- but I think it should mainly focalise on learner roles. Finally, they are the one line of IC contact between the ongoing round and online staff in the form of Central Command (and distress beacons etc), and need to have this in mind depending on how the round is playing out. In short, they need to be ready to fax as well as being switched on with regards to their department and its workings.

What do you think the OOC responsibilities of whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?
I don't really think whitelisted players have any extra responsibilities ahead of other players, to be honest. I'm going to be blunt and say that I've seen absolutely no difference in quality from command whitelisted players and players without the whitelist; there are people of all levels of quality on both sides of the scale. They have more of an ability to impact the round of non-whitelisted players, for sure, but I think the same basic concepts of decency, empathy, and an overall understanding of what it means to try and make the round fun for everyone involved (antagonists included) apply to heads of staff and whitelisted roles just the same as they apply to anyone else. I can only say that I'd try to play my heads of staff with the same level of quality as I apply to the rest of my gameplay here -- with the same care and attention to how other players' rounds are affected by my actions.

Could you give us the gist of what is currently happening in Tau Ceti and how it affected your character and their career?
The current ongoing arc with the Solarian invasion is weighing extremely heavily on Alicia (my main character at the moment). Being at odds with her home nation is taking its toll on her, and while she's doing her best to suck it up and move through the fear and concern burdening her it isn't always as easy as it should be. Every day seems to bring a new and troubling piece of news from the Bugle, and the impending war (or conflict) is about to come very close to home -- potentially in and around it, considering that she lives in Mendell City. As someone involved more closely to many of these affairs than she'd really like, given her work as a security contractor on the Aurora, Alicia is riding a fine line between trying to protect herself and those close to her while not either torpedoing her career through a lack of engagement with her job or flat out getting herself killed through the events of the days and weeks to come. More than that is hard to say, since I have no idea how the rest of this arc is going to play out and where things will end up -- but suffice to say that canonical events regarding her have definitely impacted heavily on her personality and character development, and are a constant factor in how I play her round to round.

What roles do you plan on playing after the application is accepted?
Head of Personnel and potentially Chief Medical Officer in the short-term, as well as very potentially a consular or two. I'm not sure on that. I would look to branch out into Head of Security later on too, perhaps, but after the trial period.

Characters you intend to use for command or have created for command. Include the job they will be taking.:
I won't be using any of my existing characters for command. I have a concept in mind for a Golden Deep IPC as either a consular or head of personnel (probably a head of personnel, but I am still finalising the details). I really enjoy the concept of the Golden Deep in particular, and it's not something I've had much room to explore on account of most of the fitting roles being gatekept behind the command whitelist here on Aurora. IPCs are a race I've really been eager to dip into in every respect after getting the whitelist, and I am excited to see how I can blend an IPC's goals and motivations in with the gameplay and roleplay opportunities afforded by roles like the head of personnel and a consular officer.

How would you rate your own roleplaying?:
I've been around, both on SS13 and on other games with roleplaying scenes. Aurora has given me a lot of fun and interesting creativity space to play with as far as character concepts and the general quality of lore goes, and I think by now I'm beginning to feel way more adjusted to that. There are some roleplayers here and elsewhere that still manage to blow my mind in terms of the inventiveness and overall quality of their roleplay as well as the speed with which they can come up with it. I don't want to put a number out of ten on what I think my ability is, but I've been roleplaying for upwards of a decade now and feel as if I have a pretty good grasp on building and playing new characters as a whole.

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

Have you familiarized yourself with the wiki pages for the command roles?
Yes.

Extra notes:

I'm going to be starting a new job next week, so my available time will be cut down significantly as far as Aurora goes, but I'll endeavour to put in the hours required if I do make it to a command trial.

[MattAtlas]

Considering that someone else is handling this application as they sniped it due to my procrastination (damn you, Itzal), I suppose I'll have to leave my own feedback instead. Which is fair anyway, you're a dear friend to me, so perhaps it's better to have a third party handle this.

You're a good player and person with whom I thoroughly enjoy playing with and your characters always manage to make me feel jealous in terms of how enjoyable they are compared to mine. Some of what you've said regarding characters has even stuck to me. Additionally, I don't doubt your competence in basically all areas of the game from what I've seen of you. I appreciate your presence when you are around, and I hope to see you play a head of staff in the very near future.

That is not to say you are without flaws, because everyone has them. Your temper still needs some work, but I'm sure you can get past it easily.

+1

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by MattAtlas

[Kintsugi]

Do I know Omi well? no. Do I think Omi is cool? Yes. Do I think Omi is good at synthetic roleplay? Also yes. Do I think Omi is good at roleplay in general and at the game? That's a yes too. With those factors in mind, I'm afraid I must simp in favor of them. I think they're going to make a great command player, and I'm sure their golden deep commando will be great on top of that.
+1

[Shadow]

As Matt has said, I'll be handling your application.

Considering you have some people vouching for you and your realtively clean history I don't see an issue with giving you a trial.

Starts as of today and will end on December 1st, 2020.

Try to get as much feedback regarding your command play as possible during your trial. You can advertise your app once a round.

Feedback that's essentially just a +1/-1 or feedback regarding your non command characters will not be taken into account.

[Omicega]

Hi,

I'd like to ask for an extension on this. I didn't play at all last week on account of the scale of the ongoing event catching me a little off-guard; I wasn't really up for figuring out a way to introduce new characters during a total Aurora lockdown that made any sense to me.

[Owen]

I know that you've mentioned that you would not be using any of your existing characters for this, but it would be helpful to list out the character(s) that you've been playing in command positions since you've been on trial. 

[Shadow]

The Council of Thirteen has decided to grant you your request and extend your trial.

 

 

Edited December 11, 2020 by Shadow

[Omicega]

I appreciate the two extensions to no end, but ultimately I haven't really been able to pull up the motivation to play much command at all over the past weeks. A combination of factors throughout late November and December so far have torpedoed me to no end.

I'll reapply -- probably with the same application -- when I have more of a chance to actually leverage the command hours needed in a relatively short timespan to power through a trial, but this can be closed now. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your responsiveness on Discord regarding this app so far.

Edited December 14, 2020 by Omicega
i can't punctuate