Game administration

[belgianpanda]

I've been lurking through the forums here, and I think the subject area I have the least experience in is the actual administration of a web game.  I've read a couple users write about administration panels, and that got me to thinking--what are the most useful or valuable functions you need to be able to address as an admin or community manager?  I run some other websites which are used by people who are probably also gamers, so I'm used to dealing with attacks and objectionable content, but are there things that need to be managed more closely with a web based game?

I'm really curious to hear your experiences and opinions.  Cheers!

[MystressNyx]

Well, since no one else has replied, I'll throw my 2 cents in. The elements needed in an Admin panel vary a lot based on the game type and how you choose to run it. For example, if you're a stickler for catching multi accounts, you need to be able to see each player's vitals such as name, password, e-mail, IP addy, etc. as well as have the ability to search for each of those elements and compare them side by side. You should also have the ability to see interactions between accounts such as item / cash transfers, attacks, etc. Again, the details really depend on the game elements themselves.

As for monitoring the game itself, you need to be able to see each main section of the game that a player can, but with all of the background info an Admin would need to determine if something were amiss. For example, in one of our games we have the ability to sell hardware. While the players only see that the item is for sale and its price, from the Admin panel I can see who is selling it, who buys it, and how much it went for. This allows me to keep an eye out for items being transferred for ridiculously high prices for the purpose of pumping another account up.

I could go on for days about the many elements we track in each of our games, but hopefully this will give you a nudge toward the right track in developing a useful Admin panel. Remember, the more details you have, the easier it is for Admin to do their job efficiently.

[jannesiera]

Well, since no one else has replied, I'll throw my 2 cents in. The elements needed in an Admin panel vary a lot based on the game type and how you choose to run it. For example, if you're a stickler for catching multi accounts, you need to be able to see each player's vitals such as name, password, e-mail, IP addy, etc. as well as have the ability to search for each of those elements and compare them side by side. You should also have the ability to see interactions between accounts such as item / cash transfers, attacks, etc. Again, the details really depend on the game elements themselves.

As for monitoring the game itself, you need to be able to see each main section of the game that a player can, but with all of the background info an Admin would need to determine if something were amiss. For example, in one of our games we have the ability to sell hardware. While the players only see that the item is for sale and its price, from the Admin panel I can see who is selling it, who buys it, and how much it went for. This allows me to keep an eye out for items being transferred for ridiculously high prices for the purpose of pumping another account up.

I could go on for days about the many elements we track in each of our games, but hopefully this will give you a nudge toward the right track in developing a useful Admin panel. Remember, the more details you have, the easier it is for Admin to do their job efficiently.

Thanks, this is important information for starters.

[Chris]

It depends on the game size, game type and your personal preference. I have seen games that use automated scripts for almost everything and games that have huge staff with everything checked by humans. Some games might promote cheating (market feature, gift feature, etc) while others might maki it almost pointless (no way to send struff to others, no way of stealing things). The game size is important, if you have only a few hundred active players you can do almost everything yourself, when you have thousands it might not be possible anymore. But most of all it depends on your personality I think

Anyway, you probably need to cover these positions (you might be able to automate/outsource/ignore some of these):
- support (answering players questions)
- forum/shoutbox/chat/IRC moderation (delete posts/ban users from using it)
- tracking cheaters (scan for IP/transactions/etc)
- punishing players (jail/ban/remove goods/delete account)
- communication (post ingame announcements)
- payments (dealing with payments/donation issues)
- emergency (usually someone with full admin rights to do everything)
- staff management (add/remove helper/moderator/admin rights, staff forum management & other inner communication organisation, inner problems ressolving)
- misc (testers, promotion, artists, coders, hardware admins, etc)

Tools of the trade (in order of importance, IMHO of course :-D):
- staff structure (who is responsible for what, who is allowed to do what, chain of command, rules, code of conduct)
- your personal time investment (you will need huge amount of this)
- people (obvious )
- staff forum (I have 2 active staff forums, one made by me, second made by helpers themselves, I think their forum sux but they seem to like it better )
- moderator/admin panel (it is crucial that it has various levels so not only moderator/admin but various levels of these)
- your interpersonal/leadership skills