"What will you do if you lose the election" and 5 Questions for FTX

Per my final post in the council debate thread (aka Hell on Earth) I would like to discuss what I will be doing should I lose the election, and ask 5 questions to FTX. The questions were going to be what is discussed in a live, voice debate, which unfortunately never happened.

What will you do if if you lose:

1. First and foremost, mapping is and will always be one of my favorite contributions. I need to write a "Morax's Maps" post in the new message board similar to the old: https://forums.faforever.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=13090 .

I plan to make A LOT of TMM-relevant maps like Adaptive Crateria that uses a 20x20 map size but with a 15x15 "gameplay area."

As part of this, I will offer any help / review of maps to help new and experienced mappers learn the tools.

2. I will be helping run and advise for TMM and Average Joe-related events per this thread: https://forum.faforever.com/topic/1733/annual-tournament-proposal-in-reply-to-swkoll

3. Support the board/association with any advice/requests they deem helpful (vague I know, but why not help this?)

4. Avatar creation for events(a rare art for FAF)

5. Not official, but I do train people or help out in learning how the community functions, how to play the game, and who to talk to about concerns.

5 Questions for FTX:

1. Over the next year you will be graduating from university and getting a job. In current, you have tasked yourself with so much time for the Player Council role and irl commitments, how will you be able to handle the workload of what you have worked to define when faced with real-world job duties?

2. It has become very obvious that you have been engaged in some rather intense discussions among current council members and the idea of the association/board. How will you handle yourself should the council, board/association deny you funding for events or other desires?

3. Why do you play the game so little yet work so hard on it? If you were not PC, would you play it frequently again or move on?

4. FAF Live brought together viewership and has begun to bring in some fresh cash for the community. It was stated that you hope to engage in some sponsorship utilizing this entity. Can you give an idea of what is up and coming? The most recent word is that the FAF Live account makes money off a few Amazon Prime Membership subscriptions. Are there any real sponsors in current or just some generous members?

5. Have you ever donated your own money to a FAF event? Why or why not?

@morax said in "What will you do if you lose the election" and 5 Questions for FTX:

5. Have you ever donated your own money to a FAF event? Why or why not?

No comment on the rest but why do we care if a college student is donating money to FAF? Hell why would we care if anyone, college student or not, is donating money to FAF when they clearly put time into it? For all we know he’s broke as hell, and if you know he’s not it’s still kind of a strange question if he’s putting a lot of time in anyway imo.

Suppose that’s a fair point. The intention was to find out if he has experience watching an investment lose out hard , but you are right in that it’s not really a good question for the election.

That is for another matter...

I’m going away for the weekend so I don’t intend to answer any of this until like Tuesday or Wednesday.

Question 5 was not nearly specific enough, nor provided enough information so here it goes:

5. Recently I made a post requesting efforts to support and fund events other than high-level 1v1 here. It gives the impression that if you had control of FAF funds you would for the most part bias funding for these, yet I am curious: what will you do for other sectors of FAF? This is a tough questions as Penguin, yourself, and I do not know what the board will allow for dividing up the funds, but can you estimate how much you would use of the FAF patreon for such purposes? The reason you were asked about personal investment is that there is a big difference between someone funding something (FAF, irl, etc) with other peoples' money verse their own. Can you explain all the expenses for FAF and whether or not your desire for funding events will not eclipse other needs? Perhaps there is some software the devs could use which would enhance the experience which might eat into a large amount for tournaments. For example, it is a slippery slope, but the idea of paying TDs has been tossed around. Maybe we should give some to trainers, devs, etc etc. This might reduce the funds for events, but it would show a lot more appreciation and give a community-wide boost. Also, let us say that you cannot get that much for events, how will you explain to the player base that actively engages in events with cash prizes this is no longer possible?

I thought those were good questions and I for one would have liked to hear the answers. Now it has been almost a month of deafening silence, and the vote is almost over. Some answers were even promised.

Pretty disappointing, to put it mildly. Is this sort of stuff what we can expect from FtXCommando, should he get re-elected?

@adjux tbh, he probably forgot

I know I did

Yeah, same.

1. I intend to delegate what I do not have the time or capabilities to do, just as I do now. Odds are when I get employed full time I'll end up resigning. My hope was to be replaced by a dude around the same age I was when I first took the spot, so basically starting out at university, as this is the type of dude that is going to have the freetime to properly invest into the position.

2. I'll expect a good explanation on why I was denied the funds. Hopefully FAF also expects it because whatever response I get is what I'll tell other people when they ask why X or Y isn't funded. Not my job to know about where funds come from, who gives them, why they are given, and when they are given out anymore. Direct your concerns to Sheeo.

3. Why does it matter? I find managing the infrastructure around a community and seeing it grow to be more fun than playing the game. Same reason I spend my time managing FAF rather than swimming or playing the newest Call of Duty. Same reason some people enjoy tutoring in their spare time or gardening. I don't really get why it matters to anybody why I do what I do, the point is that I do it and want to keep doing it.

4. Sponsorships are not subscriptions. Since I'm not allowed to even do anything with the FAFLive account without talking to the Board first, I don't even know if I have the liberty to talk about any plans I have or if I'm even allowed to have plans. Would be cool if I could stop getting roadblocked from the Association for no real reason so I could actually discuss things but instead I'm stuck in perpetual petty drama keeping everything in stasis for zero reason.

5. This question is built to not be answered. I cannot make a budget breakdown for FAF because I do not know every single minute detail about what FAF currently has, needs, and could conceivably get. I have tons of things I would love to fund, one of the main ones being the funding of some designer that could be made responsible for updating the models of the units in the game so that they look they were made in like 2015 or 2016 rather than 2008. Games like Empire at War have done this and it makes it so much easier to market FAF on social media sites and on streams and casts. This is especially true with some of the newer maps by authors like Jip.
   Don't have a problem with funding this, funding development, funding tournaments, funding Petric's NEET lifestyle if it means we now have a dude that could be casting/streaming full time. It all comes down to prioritization and where funds can induce additional motivation to improve FAF.
   Funding trainers? Sounds like audit hell. Let the free market decide it. If someone is worth paying for, they can demand payment for their training ie JaggedAppliance and his Patreon. I absolutely have zero interest in doing some top-down regulation where I need to go and contact 429041 300 rated dudes to figure out whether they just stopped playing, didn't get trained, or are simply incapable of improving.
   Funding TDs? Don't see this as a necessity. If I funded any TDs it would be the ones hosting the long term, difficult tournaments. Which are basically me and Swkoll. And, no idea about Swkoll, but I don't intend to take money for my work. Since Swkoll is already donating his own money to his tournaments, it would make zero sense for him to pay himself anyway. Actually, that is basically how most tournaments go, dudes put their own money in alongside the hours they invest into hosting. Paying them is just some really bureaucratic solution to say FAF is sponsoring more $30 tournaments or whatever.
   I do not see any need for me to address a question on not being able to match the money I give. The last 3 years under me have had more money given out in prizes for tournaments than the rest of FAF combined. Any failure to continue the trend is going to be a result of other people blocking me or a more efficient use of the money coming into play.

@ftxcommando

perpetual petty drama

Please note that passive or actively aggressive comments like these are the petty dramas.

Your attitude when things don't go the way you like seems to be the entire cause of these dramas. Nobody wants to constantly read seething posts or comments. The answer is not for the board to just give in under those kind of pressures but rather to resist toxicity. Nobody is ever going to miss not having to read an inflammatory post.

I hope over time you reflect on how you present yourself to others and have an epiphany of sorts and begin speaking non-violently.

begin speaking non-violently.

Please note that passive or actively aggressive comments like these are the petty dramas.

Seriously. I don't see how there is any violent speech here.

Yeah nah, if attitude was a problem I can go ahead and dump a metric ton of examples of current association (and some Board!) members doing the exact same things I’ve done. I hope you have an epiphany about the sudden reason certain Board members care about making a big deal about it.

Definitely not because my attitude confronts inaction instead of just shitting on people trying to work on FAF.

And I don’t know what you’re even trying to accomplish by turning this into “ftx is blaming the board.” I was considered competent and trustworthy enough to be PC for 3 years, got approved again for this year, but I can’t be a lowly association member. This means I get zero say and insight into anything related to large scale FAF decisions related to things like finances. So the answer to anything related to finances is that I don’t know, don’t care, if you do go hope to get an answer from Sheeo.

FtX applied to be an association member in the beginning of June. As far as I know there has been no communication why he was not approved yet. Saying that he is solely responsible for the drama, because it's toxic when he gets mad about the lack of communication seems a bit unreasonable to me.

@ftxcommando said in "What will you do if you lose the election" and 5 Questions for FTX:
” I was considered competent and trustworthy enough to be PC for 3 years, got approved again for this year, but I can’t be a lowly association member."

Are the election results out?

No the public results are still not out yet. And FTX also have no access at the moment. What he means by approval is the ability to actually run in the election itself.

After all if you wanna run for the position of PC not only you have to make a proper agenda and have a plan, but most importantly you need to be allowed to do it by the currently governing body. Best example being the removal of Suzuji and Feather from the elections, they might have not have that high of a chance of winning yet they still got denied the possibility due to their past.

Are the requirements for PC that led to the removal of candidates not made a mockery of, by the recent leaks by nine, which was subsequently broadcast to the whole playerbase on the client?

I really wanted to vote for Suzuji, he's a good guy.

@blackyps said in "What will you do if you lose the election" and 5 Questions for FTX:

FtX applied to be an association member in the beginning of June. As far as I know there has been no communication why he was not approved yet. Saying that he is solely responsible for the drama, because it's toxic when he gets mad about the lack of communication seems a bit unreasonable to me.

His attitude and behaviour is being observed until a later date.

@broken said in "What will you do if you lose the election" and 5 Questions for FTX:

Are the requirements for PC that led to the removal of candidates not made a mockery of, by the recent leaks by nine, which was subsequently broadcast to the whole playerbase on the client?

I really wanted to vote for Suzuji, he's a good guy.

What you think about him doesn't change the fact that by all means he should be permabanned for all the abuse he have caused and all the other shit.

He and others might have received second chance but by no means does it mean that their past is forgotten. They had no trouble being way more toxic than FTX ever was, going so far to ruin games and in some cases use racial slurs on daily basis.

If that is not a reason to remove them then I'm not sure what is considering that if not for the grace of moderation giving them second chance they would be long gone from the community after all the bans that culminated in them getting permabanned.

locking that for 6 hours with a frinedly reminder that this is supposed to be Ftx responding to questions and not the rerall to the drama fest we've already gone through.