Gaming Staff

Gaming Staff
Current Staff:	View Here

Overview

Gaming Staff were a branch of Total War Center Staff responsible for operating competitions, tournaments and other activities on the site. Centralized in the early 2010s to capitalize on an expanding market and later to try and find new avenues for site growth, they were finally classified by the Hexagon Council as inactive and shut down at the beginning of 2024.

Gaming was not a fully centralized branch, instead consisting of various staff-sponsored activities with a director or overseer for a particular section. The recognized ones at disbanding are listed below, but previous Gaming initiatives included TWC Clans, a chess competition, a Minecraft Server & Site, and at least in theory, the Discord Staff position which was created under a standing Gaming Hex. In general, Gaming as a branch was propped by its administrator for new efforts, though existing ones would run themselves autonomously for the most part.

Though Gaming was lead by various administrators over time and early on had the direct intervention of GrnEyedDvl, some notable Hex included Pontifex Maximus, Poach, Hader, Flinn (particularly for awards) and closing out as the final Gaming Hex, lolisuck.

Departments

Total War Hotseats

The Hotseat Staff were the largest and most self-sustaining group at the time of Gaming's closure, and have had a storied history of running multiplayer hotseating over time. They had been responsible for maintaining the Hotseating section, supporting new people interested in getting into the game, and offering competitions with site-level incentives and rewards.

Related links:

• TW Hotseat Campaigns forum

• Getting started FAQ

Dux is the earliest known Gaming Director for hotseating, having seen it through the early 2010s. The leadership slot was vacant for a time, later filled by SoulGamesInc. Despite administrative skills his leadership became controversial, leading to Hex intervention and a brief schism in the community. The schism later repaired, with General Dragon. becoming the new Director and serving in this role through the 2020s until the Hotseating section became inert in mid 2023 due to the hotseating community finding greener pastures through Discord.

These were the Hotseating Staff at the time of closure:

• General Dragon. (Gaming Director)
  • BerryKnight
  • Mergor
  • Jadli
  • themzr

General Competitions

The General Competitions over time sponsored various forum games including the Total Guess Competition and Post of the Fortnight. This area was run by self-sufficient Gaming Staff who prodded an administrator to hand out awards from time to time. TGC's last official actions were in late 2021. PotF followed in early 2022 following the resignation of Septentrionalis, for whom no replacement was found.

Related threads and sections:

• Total Guess Competition main thread
• Post of the Fortnight forum section

TGC's staff at department closure were:

• Kilo11
• King Athelstan

Play by Post RPGs

Play by Post RPGs were a long-running area provided by TWC for roleplaying games, having been a part of the site in one way or another since the very early days. The RPG community including its Gaming Staff were the first of this list to depart from TWC in the late 2010s, finding their own way on Discord and through other mediums. The section is still accessible with the direct link: Play by Post RPGs

The last known RPG Staff were:

• Lucius Malfoy
  • General Brewster
  • Gandalfus
  • please expand if you recall

Site Awards

Main article: Site Awards

The Site Awards are yearly events organized by non-staff volunteers and an interested Hex (previously the Gaming and/or Awards Hex). There are two of them: the Modding Awards and the Members' Awards. This has become a more general feature with the closure of Gaming Staff. The Modding Awards have seen skips following difficulties in getting a broad enough event together, but the Members' Awards remain consistent each year to date.

Gaming Color & Badges

Gaming Staff had orange color and the following badge:

Gaming Directors were also orange, but have the following badge instead:

Gaming Emeritus

The Gaming Emeritus are former staff (typically Directors and active/trusted participants) who have left office, but can still participate in Staff as advisors. There are still a handful of these, mainly from the Hotseating area.

List of Gaming Emeritus
Dux[edit list] Flinn

Gaming Awards

At this time Gaming Awards are mostly unobtainable, though exceptions can be made under one of two conditions: if a game is hosted that would naturally fill the conditions and make members eligible, or if a game is specially authorized by Hex with prearranged incentives including one of these awards.

Firstly there is the Gaming Competition Sword, awarded for winning an official Gaming competition once, three times and six+ times respectively:

Bronze List of Holders	Silver List of Holders	Gold List of Holders

These are most frequently seen on victors of officially hosted Hotseat matches. Gaming Competition Sword info thread on TWC (not updated but the gist holds)

Gaming Staff receive the Gaming Chess Piece for their service as members of Gaming Staff, based on time served and contributions to the department.

Bronze List of Holders	Silver List of Holders	Gold List of Holders	Emerald List of Holders	Ruby List of Holders	Amethyst List of Holders

Finally there are the Gaming Service Shields, awards given to users who ran a certain number of hotseat games successfully. Gaming Shield info thread on TWC

Bronze List of Holders	Silver List of Holders	Gold List of Holders

History

Gaming Staff was formed in 2012 around the need to maintain and grow a number of site initiatives which included an official minecraft server, clans and tournaments wrangling multiple games, and the integration of RPGs and Hotseating into the site staff structure. It was overseen by Poach until 2015, when GrnEyedDvl being involved both in setting up and eventually replacing Poach. After downtime and issues, the Minecraft Server and the split community were no longer maintained. GED oversaw another reform of Gaming structure. Hader became the Gaming Hex for many years overseeing primarily RPGs and Hotseating.

The late 2010s were a rough time for Gaming, with RPGs finding their own way in 2018 and Hotseating having a crisis of management in 2017-2018. This was also a time when Hader (involved in the site since 2006) was unable to be as active as he once was, as well as GED. Still, Hotseating persisted for some time and a handful of forum game competitions were formed. These competitions were greatly assisted by Flinn, the then Awards hex who assisted with Gaming when needed.

Gaming entered a fatal spiral after the pandemic as the forum games lost traffic and the Hotseating community pursued new horizons on Discord. Near the end of 2023 the idea to wind down Gaming was brought up, and resulted in the Department's closure at the beginning of 2024. The department is "more dormant than deleted", with the option open for revival in the future if possible.

See Also

There is a Gaming-related TWC publication called The Gamer's Gazette, providing all sorts of stuff ranging from reviews to videos!

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