[Denied] Dre9889's Head of Staff Whitelist Application

[dre9889]

BYOND key:

Dre9889

Character names:

Cecelia Martin (Main), Joshua Martin, Gianna Bianchi. I experiment with a couple others, rarely.

 

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How long have you been playing on Aurora?:

A month or two. No more than three tops.

Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?:

To provide myself with a larger pool of jobs to pick from; to afford myself more varied roleplaying opportunities.

Why did you come to Aurora?:

I hadn't touched SS13 in over a year. Went searching for a server with an emphasis on roleplay, tried out Aurora and Apollo. I liked Aurora a lot more, and decided to stick around.

Have you read the BS12 wiki on the head roles you plan on playing?:

Yes.

 

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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 guess I would interpret roleplay as assuming a persona, and performing actions vicariously through that persona. It could be in the context of a video game, table top game, LARP, MilSim, or whatever, really. It's not in any way intrinsic to SS13, and it can vastly different things depending on the situation.

In the context of SS13, and what I think roleplaying should be about, I believe that people should have the privilege of playing the game within the environment that they're expecting, which is generally dictated by whatever server they're playing on and what they advertise themselves as, with disturbances to this environment kept to a minimum.

Aurora is advertised as heavy roleplay. When I log onto Aurora to play a round, I expect to see players making a moderate effort to conform to the persona they have chosen to play as. I expect to see characters that possess traits and personalities that are within the realm of reasonable possibility. I expect that people will do their best to have good spelling and grammar. This is simply the environment that I have perceived while playing the game, and the environment that I have interpreted from reading the rules. I DON'T expect everyone to conform to some strict standard of what is permissible, what isn't, or how many times you should /me in a conversation. Everyone's style is different, and that's why a heavy roleplaying atmosphere can be such a diverse entertainment environment.

What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?:

To keep the station functioning, and to create avenues for roleplaying.

While SS13 generally gives you a lot of time where you aren't forced to be performing your job, there are times when neglecting to do so adversely affects the round experience for everyone else. Power outages, an inability to change ID cards, or a lack of a 'boss' to make an executive decision, are all scenarios where a roleplaying environment can be severely disrupted, without necessarily adding anything to the experience. It is a Head of Staff's duty to keep these 'bummer' scenarios from cropping up.

Having a Head of Staff present also expands the possibility of more extensive roleplay. Decisions made by a crew-member may have to be discussed with a Head before they can be approved, or forms may need to be filed with Heads before you can order items from particular departments. A Head of Staff may decide to dictate policy within their department, requiring his or her underlings to perform actions in a particular manner. No matter the circumstance, the opportunities for roleplay often increase drastically simply by having an individual present who possesses authority over others.

What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?:

A whitelisted player has an obligation to uphold a roleplay standard in line with the environment dictated by AuroraStation. They should strive to create a fun and interesting experience for the players that they come in contact with, and to promote a variety of experiences among others. While following the rules should be an emphasis for all players, whitelisted players should be diligent in this regard, taking care to set a precedent, and to demonstrate that being a Head of Staff is not just an IC responsibility to keep the station 'afloat,' but an OOC responsibility to maintain the roleplaying environment.

 

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Please pick one of your characters for this section, and provide well articulated responses to the following questions.

Character name:

Cecelia Martin

Character age:

Twenty-Eight

Please provide a short biography of this character (approx 2 paragraphs):

Born to a somewhat affluent family in one of Luna's great cities, Cecelia's life was already cut out for her: fly through school, attend a stellar university, and begin a career path that would end in a high-level executive job at some conglomerate. It was a mantra repeated constantly by her mother and father, an idyllic path that all of Cecelia's actions were to be measured against. If something didn't bring her closer to 'her' goal, Cecelia's parents would make sure that she stayed well away from it, be that sports, recreational drugs, or 'unnecessary' personal interactions.

Her parents didn't mean poorly. They only wanted the best possible life for their child. They understood that the galaxy was changing, that government was slowly being swept aside in favor of die-hard consumerism and jumbo-corporations. Extremely difficult views to explain to a girl of ten as she was forced to perfect calculus instead of playing in the park with her friends from school. For 17 years, Cecelia's parents got their way, and she graduated near the top of her class from secondary school. She was accepted to one of the most prestigious institutions on Luna, where she finally got the big break she had been looking for all of her life. For the first time ever, nobody was hovering over Cecelia, telling her exactly how to run her life. She had free reign, and immediately branched out into as many social circles as possible, hoping to erase her days of studious solitude through the sheer number of interactions she had with people. Cecelia began to understand what it meant to have true friends, and her social confidence skyrocketed. Despite being indoctrinated her entire life to take on a managerial role, she took great interest in the sciences, as well as medicine. Through a friend, she was able to alter her electronic transcripts to make it seem to her parents that she was taking business-oriented classes, while she instead focused on honing her skills in research, biology, and chemistry. Despite the intense social adaptations she was forced to go through, she again finished near the top of her class, and immediately began her doctorate at another prestigious university, finishing at the age of twenty-six.

Between finishing her first degree and finishing her doctorate, Cecelia held only one serious relationship: her friend that had many times helped alter her transcripts. An awkward re-connection over social media led to a passionate love affair, which eventually metamorphosed into an engagement. It was one of the happiest days of Cecelia's life, and she cherished every moment that her lover and her were together. It wasn't to be, however. A freak accident prematurely ended his life only a year after the engagement. Cecelia was just twenty-five years old. Heartbroken and depressed, she channeled all of her energy into school and finding a job, being hired by NanoTrasen and assigned to the NSS Aurora in a medical/science capacity at the age of twenty-eight. Despite her love for the sciences, her parents' advice has never left her, and the thoughts about what her paycheck could be as opposed to what it is now has caused her to express interest in a management position aboard the Aurora...

What do you like about this character?:

I enjoy the fact that this character is a woman, as it requires me to use creative thinking to come up with reasonable actions and mannerisms, as opposed to playing a male character, where I rely much more on my instinct and subconscious, considering that I'm male.

I like that Cecelia is on the younger side, as it allows me to express a flirty nature, as this is in line with my own persona. I can also relate much more to a younger character than an older one, not being very old myself.

What do you dislike about this character?:

I dislike Cecelia's vibe as being a somewhat 'standard' character; I often feel as if I'm able to subtly alter her personality based on how I feel, simply because I don't get this super strong feeling of what she stands for.

A lot of times, I feel like the roleplay interactions that I inspire with her are ones that are hard to maintain as canon; it makes it difficult to track the progression of her personality and her interconnections with others.

What do you think makes this character fit to be a head of staff?:

Cecelia tends to be a compassionate and understanding individual. She is predisposed to sharing her mind, and rarely hides her concerns or opinions from others. While this combination of attributes can cause her to be a bit abrasive at times, it allows her to effectively communicate and interact with her peers. This is an essential skill for an individual in a command position.

While a little on the young side, her above-average intelligence is clearly demonstrated through her constant positions in a science or medical role aboard the station. Nobody can make the claim that Cecelia doesn't possess the mental capacity to lead. This comes at a trade-off, however, as her lack of extensive experience can cause her to become flustered in high-stress situations, while her age causes her to tend towards hotheadedness when faced with incompetent or rude coworkers.

I think Cecelia would prove to be a very effective, albeit interesting, addition to the Heads of Staff. Her people-skills and intelligence are 100% on par with what NanoTrasen needs, yet her inexperience will present challenges for her and her peers that she will need to overcome if she is to grow as an individual.

 

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Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions.

How would you rate your own roleplaying?:

I would rate it as on par with what a typical heavy roleplay server might expect. I attempt to use a fair amount of /me's to contribute to the atmosphere of whatever interaction I am currently participating in, keeping detail to an appropriate level. I often go out of my way to interact with people, where I could simply continue with my job. I'm not the fastest typer, but I'm not slow either. While I always try to consider whether or not an action is 'reasonable,' I do enjoy playing younger characters, as it affords a certain level of rashness that I enjoy using to spice up otherwise cookie-cutter affairs. All in all, pretty run of the mill.

 

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Extra notes:

Nothing worth mentioning. Feel free to ask questions.

[Fire and Glory]

I don't feel like judging anything right now.

But minimum age for Head of Staff is 30, as it says on the qualifications bit for Chief Medical Officer (and every other head of staff) on its page on our own wiki.

(Speaking of which we ported the job pages to our own wiki why are we still asking people to read the baywiki)

[dre9889]

I do recall there being an age limit, and suspected it was 30; I didn't see it on the "Read before you whitelist" post about whitelists, where it listed applicable species for Heads of Staff, but not ages. Therefore, I went ahead and posted it.

I'm not gonna say that my character deserves some sort of exception to the rule, but I won't say that I don't think it would work either. I expected to see a comment regarding age, and I just hope that my application will be regarded based on merit of everything that is written, rather than a factual tidbit intrinsic to only one of my characters.

Thank you for providing feedback, it is appreciated.

[dre9889]

So, this has been here for about 28 days. I feel obligated to bump.

[Synnono]

Hi there! I've played with Cecilia on a few shifts as my Lab Assistant, and I both enjoy her as a character and appreciate the level of effort you put into the writing during the round. She's a face I like to see around Research as a scientist, and I think you understand the OOC sections of the application well, reading your responses.

With that in mind, I'm not sure that Cecilia would be considered by the company for a Directorship based on her backstory. In my opinion, the two years between finishing her doctorate and her NanoTrasen employment just doesn't leave someone with enough time to assemble a body of work impressive enough. The company is gigantic, with resources all over inhabited space and a tremendous hiring pool. I think it's unrealistic that they'd place someone out of academia for two years in charge of an elite team of people who have been in their respective fields for decades - even if that candidate is some kind of prodigy. There doesn't seem to have been enough time for the peer-reviewed scientific community to vet and acknowledge her as someone NanoTrasen would want to take the risk on.

The medical half of her education is a similar story. In the RL system we have to base this world's med school off of, most doctors doing nothing but med training as hard as they can can't qualify for independent practice until their early 30s, let alone take on the role of some kind of space-hospital director. That Cecilia was hired on for both medical and science implies that she must have positively blasted herself with education and advanced programs (while splitting her attention between both studies), which to my mind would leave very little time for her to actually get her own work out there to be judged by.

There is an implication that the science staff on Aurora/Exodus is supposed to consist of the best people in their fields, despite how many toxins fires and slime outbreaks prove that false during actual play. She'd be competing against people who have worked just as hard to get into the same shoes she's wearing, over much longer time periods. There are also the hard age and experience requirements that she doesn't meet, which have already been pointed out by another poster. If characters that are exceptions to those rules exist and aren't synthetic, I haven't met them yet.

Since I think you have a clear idea of the OOC expectations, do you believe it could be worth designing a new/more eligible character directly for the Head of Staff role you're applying for? These issues all seem to be solvable with a little fiction, which is the easiest fix to make.

Edited August 31, 2016 by Guest

[dre9889]

Hey, thanks for the feedback, it's much appreciated!

I seem to forget that not everyone plays young characters - My oldest ever was like 47 - and what you said about Cecelia probably not having a leg up on people who are decades older than her makes complete sense to me. She almost definitely isn't ready to take that coveted role of RD at her ripe age.

That being said, I'm not at all opposed to use a different character for the actual white listed role. I was prepared to not be able to use Cecelia in this regard - I used her for the application because I think she is very fleshed out as opposed to the other characters I use at the moment, and I wanted my app to have an accurate representation of my abilities.

[TishinaStalker]

Application denied. Re-apply when you have a command staff appropriate character.