Staff Interview ~ chickenputty

Hey there, as apart of my life-long mission to recover information that I should've gotten before MCPVP shut down, I recently ran into an old series done by thenerdswife on the MCPVP blog-page and realized how much I got out of reading some of those, and asked chickenputty to take some time and answer some questions.

Enjoy.


Q: What is your favorite memory on Brawl?

A: There are so many possible answers to this question. But, I have to fall back on the first vivid memory I remember; that being when I was helping orange451 prepare MineStrike for release. While he was working on the internals for the plugin, I was creating the spawn map. Since we didn't have any kind of build team or anyone that was known to be good at building, the immediate response was just for me to plop in what we needed, wrap a building around it, and call it good. While I don’t claim to be @MrOhs, I think I did a pretty good job at creating the spawn (it’s still being used). I wasn't even aware of the concept that servers have build teams and players specialize in building spawn maps just for servers. It’s crazy to think of how far Minecraft has developed in that sense.

Spoiler: Old screenshots

Q: What is the hardest part of your job as an admin?

A: While performing a task, I could have 3 staff members attempting to contact me, a player on TeamSpeak messaging me, and others in-game trying to get my attention. My priority lies on that task, but people are very time sensitive so they have to take presence over what I am doing.

With that said, the hardest part of my job has to be managing my time, keeping organized, and staying positive. While these aren’t role defining parts of my job, I have to easily declare these first because the actual actions I have to perform are usually fairly easy.


Q: What is your daily routine like?

A: When I log onto my computer and open Chrome, my home pages are my personal email, Brawl support email, Brawl bans email, my school email, Brawl Twitter, Brawl Facebook (linked to my personal Facebook).

So after I take care of all of those emails and notifications, I head to the forums to answer forums messages and notifications. I usually then browse around the forums for any other outstanding issues that need to be taken care of.

From then, I open up Slack and TeamSpeak to resolve any staff related issues. A few messages here and there and that’s done.

Now from here, I usually have all my pressing issues done with which means I need to find something to keep me busy. This is usually very easy as I gather a todo list which seems to be infinitely long. Keeping the servers up and yelling at people for not working take up most of the time though.

While I continue though the day, I have to maintain all the previous things I mentioned as people are there are issues that need attention throughout the day.


Q: Besides Minecraft, what is your favorite games to play?

A: According to Steam: Garry’s Mod, Counter-Strike, Terraria, H1Z1, and Rust are the top 5. I would have to say H1Z1 is the current favorite out of those though. Although, I do not really like to play games all that much as I would rather be doing something more productive and beneficial with my time.


Q: Is there a task you really enjoy doing as an Admin?

A: I like the freedom that being an Administrator at Brawl allows. King @Chap has blessed me with a heavy hand in permissions which allows this freedom. I am able to span myself from dealing with simple player issues to messing with the source code of the plugins. I can’t imagine any other place that would ever allow me to do this. The freedom has allowed me to further my skills in many different areas.

A certain task though? Uhh... I’m currently enjoying slapping my code in wherever I can. Shoutout to airdrops on WarZ.


Q: Is there a task you really don’t enjoy doing as an Admin?

A: Any repetitive task that consumes a lot of time. Although, at this point I’ve either automated these or passed them to others. Thank you to the staff who deals with reports, appeals, and Queen @Cuddled who manages everything staff (papa bless, honestly). I often delay in responding to long and detailed forums PMs, but I muster up the courage to reply eventually.


Q: If you could take one thing back as an admin, what would it be?

A: Lately I have been regretting the ways I’ve been speaking. My professionalism peaked a few months ago and I’ve just been slopping funny or short replies for matters that I don’t find to be serious, but others may. I intend to correct this well before 2016 is over. I can’t think of any past regrets right now, but I’m sure there are some.


Q: Is there anything you see yourself really looking forward to, coming to Brawl soon?

A: I’m just ready to get some of these gamemodes and updates pushed out so we can begin polishing the network up as a whole. The lobby and other backend infrastructure really needs it. Also, I’m trying to convince a developer to make a game library so I can pump out dumb minigame gamemodes.


Q: What's your favorite Brawl server and why?

A: WarZ. The gamemode seems so well suited for Minecraft and it isn’t a lame minigame. I can’t wait until a developer is free so we can work on the next version. I may be biased though as H1Z1, DayZ, and Rust are some of my favorite games.


Q: What makes Brawl different from other server communities?

A: While our player average is fairly large, we still have a tight community when it comes to the terms of the forums, TeamSpeak, and regulars in-game. Our unique gamemodes are a pain in the ass to keep maintain, keep up, and update, but they are well worth it because they are full-on gamemodes and not just minigames. It’s not easy hosting huge maps and dealing with sensitive player data.

Make sure you give Putty a hand for taking the time to do this :^}