User:Zamujasa/Goon 2 Is Kill

It's gone, and that's good.

Why Goon 2 existed

During one of "the tides", Classic population was overwhelming. Over 100 players, often even higher. Goon 2, "Overflow", was opened, in hopes that it would split the population somewhat evenly -- two lightly congested servers, instead of one that was frequently lagging into Powerpoint levels.

What actually happened

People join populated servers. I know, fascinating lesson, but it's one that had to be learned. Even with additional prompts in-game and links to join 2 when dying, few people would join. After all, Classic 1 was where everyone was!

Why not just add a population cap?

See above: People want to play where other people are. In retrospect, maybe it would've helped, but it's impossible to say (and would likely have just driven some people off.)

Why Goon 2 was killed

If you have something that you let sit for a long time, it tends to decay and get worse. If you leave dirty dishes in the sink for too long, they start to smell, get really gross, and so on. That's more or less what happened. Most of the "incidents" and adminhelps were happening on Goon 1; with few people on Goon 2, there was little reason to give it attention.

Eventually, this developed into a small, but very strong clique, where a small handful of people started to effectively dictate the server's rules:

• Antags should be left to their devices, because antag rounds are rare and they should get to fuck around with their toys
• Everyone should be given AA at all times, regardless of server population or intent
• Disagreeing with either of these was against the clique's rules.

What did that mean?

It meant the server was basically being run by a mob.

Seeing how bad it was

I (yes, me, Zamujasa) would sometimes spawn in and interfere with the clique's rules. I would remove the captain's spare, or delete the ID computer, etc, and it made people furious. How dare they be interfered with! But it showed that the attitude was extremely prevalent and that they were willing to go pretty far to enforce their rules. Getting denied all access was a crime.

At one point, someone had actually written out a "code of conduct" for how they expected other players to behave. Literally creating their own ruleset.

The Sting

Eventually, the admins came up with an idea to do a sting operation:

• Several admins would be online, in stealth/invis mode, monitoring the situation
• The round was Extended, to ensure no antagonists
• I joined as Captain, and
  • Disabled the Head of Personnel job
  • Removed the ID computer access from my own card
  • Deleted the Captain's spare
  • Would refuse to hand out the spare or give all-access, pointing out that people had joined as a role

All of this ensured that no all-access was even possible.

What ended up happening:

• Several people consistently harassed / followed me around for it
• Eventually, this escalated to actual attacks
  • The AI at one point tried to convince me to just give people AA because it would end the harassment
• They eventually broke into security, used Sec equipment against me (Captain, remember), stripped my equipment, and used the stolen hand tele to send me to the radio station

All so they could get their precious all access... It was pretty funny when they tried to give themselves it using the Cap's ID, since, well.

Eventually, the shuttle was called. Perhaps the most egregious moment was one of them saying that, actually, the admins condoned this behavior, and were totally fine with it! I'm sure that person felt really good when The round end has been delayed by an admin popped up.

From this, a handful of people were outright permabanned and a few more were given very angry warnings.

It didn't get better

The problems with Goon 2 were more than just a handful of people, though. The server was still seen as the place to go to fuck around, basically a sandbox or other "admin-free" grief zone. One person I ended up banning had been speedrunning the debris field loot, for no reason other than to have it on them and prevent anyone else from getting it. I checked the logs and they had done this literally hundreds of times; it's just that nobody ever reported it, because that's how bad it was. It was normal behavior.

Goon 2 Is Kill

Goon 2 is gone, and anybody who laments its loss without also acknowledging how toxic it was immediately gets a red flag in my book. A nice place to experiment and learn is good, but that's not what Goon 2 was.

Goon 2 was a shitty mafia, and now it's dead and gone, amen.