Balance Team Code of Conduct (Proposal)

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[TheWindCriesMary]

The following charter would help bring EiR's balance process a welcome injection of integrity, accountability, and ethical due process. Getting rid of Smokaz (allegedly) is a step in the right direction, but more is needed.

Balance Team Code of Conduct


 1. The current and up-to-date roster of all people on the Balance Team (devs/mods or otherwise) shall be made public knowledge to all players via forum titles, and a sticky thread at the top of the public balance forum.

2. In order to suggest a nerf to any unit, ability, or doctrine any non-dev/mod balance team member must provide screen-shot evidence of 3 current separate games that clearly show he/she using that unit/ability in battle.

3. All votes on any unit made by a community balance team member (non-dev/mod) must be accompanied by 2 current screenshots showing the unit in use by the player voting. If these are not provided, they cannot vote on that specific change/unit.

4. A balance member must vote "abstain" upon any votes which they do not provide the proper documentation for. Be it if they are unable (due to time constraints) or unwilling (due to not having a strong opinion on the unit/ability in question) to complete the above 2 guidelines.

5. In order for any vote to pass in the balance forum, 80% of the entire balance team must vote yes, no, or abstain. If they are AWOL or on vacation for a few weeks, the vote continues until they get back.  People who are consistently absent from votes that are not consciously abstained from (IE. they are present but vote neutrally) or who are absent for an excess of 18 days shall be removed from the Balance team.

5. All balance members voting on any issue must have played 5 or more EiR games in the past 14 days

6. Any balance team member who is caught or found to be abusing (or threatening to abuse) their balance team influence shall be immediately removed from the balance team upon the provision of sufficient evidence.

7. In order to facilitate the adherence to provisions 1 and 2, Balance Test Accounts shall be made available to all Balance Team members under the following strict guidelines:

A) All Balance Test Accounts shall be exclusively (and without exception be named) BALANCE TEST ACCOUNT 1, BALANCE TEST ACCOUNT 2 and so  forth.

B) All Balance Team Members using these accounts shall do so ONLY for the purposes of gathering experience/insight into an EXISTING abillity/unit. These are not for testing reward units, or abilities/units not available to regular players.

C) All balance team members shall inform all players in the game that they are using the account, and  they will also inform them which unit/abillity in question is being tested.

D) All balance team members using these test accounts shall obtain the express permission of all other players in the game before pressing 'RFS'. If requested by even a single person in the game, the BALANCE TEST account must be removed from the game.

E) Failure follow any of these rules will result in immediate termination from the Balance Team upon the provision of suitable evidence.




-Wind

[TheWindCriesMary]

(Spot saved for point-by-point analysis of each item)

[WildZontar]

Sounds like a great plan.

[Jodomar]

Signed and this would be a great leap in the right direction!

[3rdCondor]

+1 for Wind

[TheIcelandicManiac]

i agree with wind on this.

[Spartan_Marine88]

This makes sense, and its how it should be.

Hence it will never get passed, with the usual bullshit of how they don't have enough time to play the game, can't get together etc.

[Heartmann]

I would add that it would be propper to have the balance team try not onlyt the unit in question but also fighting against it to percive both views no?

[lionel23]

This makes sense, and its how it should be.

Hence it will never get passed, with the usual bullshit of how they don't have enough time to play the game, can't get together etc.

It seems so, I agree with this setiment, it seems they never have time to play and actually see how these changes seem to be affecting things.  While your post, Wind, has good intentions, it's too much work for them to implement, let alone follow.  How do you go by enforcement of these rules?  Remember the whole deal with the test accounts being used against people where EIRRMOD had to just remove them because certain dev members were abusing the hell out of them? Even when there were clear rules and dev members were willfully disobeying them.

[TheWindCriesMary]

While your post, Wind, has good intentions, it's too much work for them to implement, let alone follow.  How do you go by enforcement of these rules?  

 Quite simple actually:

 1) In the balance team, no member can vote or make a change suggestion post without providing the required screenshots.

 2) Absences is documented by the Balance Team Leader

3) Screenshot proof of balance accounts being abused results in immediate loss of access and balance status termination

Remember the whole deal with the test accounts being used against people where EIRRMOD had to just remove them because certain dev members were abusing the hell out of them? Even when there were clear rules and dev members were willfully disobeying them.

 I remember this situation, but you do not seem to remember it very clearly.

First of all, these 'test accounts' had little to NO rules and guidelines. Names could be whatever they wanted, and they didn't have to be used stricly for testing purposes. They were essentially instant rank 9 smurf accounts that could be created at the drop of the hat and used without telling anyone.

There was no oversight and no regulation.

See the difference between this and my current proposal? Good.

-Wind

[Heartmann]

Trust is not taken, its given, and one cannot give if there is no one to receive. New chances, new opportunity, Even if things have failed in the past there is not a 100% guarantee that it will again, not saying that it wont, but in some cases it just might work ^^

[lionel23]

I remember this situation, but you do not seem to remember it very clearly.

First of all, these 'test accounts' had little to NO rules and guidelines. Names could be whatever they wanted, and they didn't have to be used stricly for testing purposes. They were essentially instant rank 9 smurf accounts that could be created at the drop of the hat and used without telling anyone.

See the difference between this and my current proposal? Good.

-Wind

Actually there were rules Wind, strict rules and guidelines because I was informed of them when I was a part of the team, it just that other members disputed or refused to follow said rules, which is what made other members of the team upset enough that they had to have test accounts locked.

[Spartan_Marine88]

it just that other members disputed or refused to follow said rules,

So why are they still memebers of the balance team. The test accounts should not have been removed, the Balancers violating the rules should have been, and the people who brought on the balancers and make the decisions (other then EIRRMOD) should also have been replaced

And there is such a thing as a bad volunteer

[TheWindCriesMary]

Actually there were rules Wind, strict rules and guidelines because I was informed of them when I was a part of the team, it just that other members disputed or refused to follow said rules, which is what made other members of the team upset enough that they had to have test accounts locked.

They were not strict rules and guidelines. They were little to nothing (as I said before).

There was no rule such as:

A) Account must be clearly named

B) Cannot be used to smurf

C) Can only be used if all players in the game are informed that it is a test account

D) Can only be used if all players agree


In fact, what few rules there were only came after the initial round of disputes were lodged. And even then they werent half as comprehensive as the guidelines i've proposed in the OP.

-Wind

[lionel23]

Wind I was a part of the team, and there were strict rules set in place when that incident happened and I brought it up internally to complain about people breaking the rules.  I should know because I WAS a team member and we were told what the expectations and guidelines on these accounts were.

[3rdCondor]

Wind I was a part of the team, and there were strict rules set in place when that incident happened and I brought it up internally to complain about people breaking the rules.  I should know because I WAS a team member and we were told what the expectations and guidelines on these accounts were.

So the issue was enforcing the rules? That could be fixed too I suppose.

[TheWindCriesMary]

So why are they still memebers of the balance team. The test accounts should not have been removed, the Balancers violating the rules should have been, and the people who brought on the balancers and make the decisions (other then EIRRMOD) should also have been replaced

And there is such a thing as a bad volunteer

Well said Spartan.


-Wind

[TheWindCriesMary]

Wind I was a part of the team, and there were strict rules set in place when that incident happened and I brought it up internally to complain about people breaking the rules.  I should know because I WAS a team member and we were told what the expectations and guidelines on these accounts were.

Lionel I was a Balance Member at the time of this incident, and had been an EiR team member for a considerably longer time before and after you.

The expectations and rules laid out on these test accounts were vague, uninforced, and covered little to no abuse protocols. They had NO oversight to appropriately prevent abuse.
 
Worst of all the people supposed to enforce the rules were the very ones abusing it. They only got banned when Smokaz used one against you and you complained (rightfully so) against them.


-Wind

[lionel23]

Ahhh well I did not know you were part of the Balance team at that point, I do remember there were arguments between the different internal teams, where our Team Leader would say these were the rules as set by EIRRMOD himself and then other Team/Dev Leads arguing that EIRRMOD was wrong; it got to the point we had to ask the big guy himself to step in and I would have preferred not to drag him off his more important work for this mod (Ie. the warmap and such).

I agree with Spartan that those people should have been looked into, but that isn't ever going to happen sadly.  Good luck with your proposal Wind, if it brings good chance then more power to you.

[skaffa]

Change, yes we can !