Axar

Hey guys, I know I'm late to this post, but I'd like to take this opportunity to discuss why myself and a group of my friends left the server. First and foremost, I'd like to introduce myself. I'm sure some of you if not most of you know me, but others may not. Well hello there, I'm Axar, or Atark, or others. In the past, I was a Community Member from 2018-2022. Almost 4 years, just minus a few months. I have been a loyal patron and put in hundreds of my hard earned dollars into Synergy. I have devoted myself to the Staff team three times, once to Admin, once to Admin again, and once to Veteran Admin and GMO. In 2018 I was prevalent in Naval and SO. 2019 - CG. 2020 - I floated around. 2021 - CG and 212th. 2022, 212th Naval and Jedi. I worked to the Senior Officer ranks in 212th. Knight in Jedi, and at my peak, I was Rear Admiral Tarkin under Alfa then Boutineer. Oh the good ol days. So now that I've established myself, let's discuss first what kept me here. At first, I tried to find a server that was well established, but not so popular that it was bloated. Synergy was this. With other servers I joined and didn't feel welcomed. Waiting extended periods of time for trainers or any sort of help. Not on Synergy. I was trained right away, the staff team were active, when I first joined actually it was in the middle of an event and instead of sending me away, they gave me a gun and let me fight. I quickly found friends and after a while set myself in stone here. I felt free to do what I wanted as long as it fit. I was even allowed to make my own squad in SO. I didn't come back because I had to. I came back because I wanted to. I took a few breaks around 2019-2021, but I always returned. In fact, in 2022 I had some of my most fun, but the year 2022 is also when I left. Where did it go wrong? Before I continue, I feel the need to remind anyone who may read this. This is all my experience. This is all why I personally left the server. This is not calling anyone specific out, this is not a solution, this is not a reason anyone else left. This is all my point of view. The entire point of this is to give a glimpse as to why one loyal community member left, in a hope to give clues to the overall reason people are leaving. In 2022, I had the best experiences on Synergy. But also the worst I've ever seen. The decline started within the Staff Team. I worked my way up to Veteran Admin and Game Master Officer. On my way working up I had pushed myself so hard just to achieve a position on a game. Once I achieved Veteran Admin, it almost felt like there were factions within the High Staff team and I was finally seeing enough to get a glimpse at this. There was little unity overall. Certain groups were supporting eachother while hoping to get rid of competition. I myself felt after time that I was victim to a certain "faction" wanting to get rid of me, and although I tried to report some of the people within it, and had evidence against them, nothing was done to fix it, which is what overall lead to me resigning from staff. Although the Staff Team ruined a lot of my love for the Server, I would look elsewhere. Navy, Bounty Hunters, Jedi. And for a time, this really did make my love come back again for Synergy. Myself and a group of others from 212th formed a Bounty Hunter Clan, "Euphoria" and it was some of the most fun I've had on the Server to date. We kept coming back as a group, we would get on, cause chaos but also fun for everyone, and our numbers were rising. But as we grew, we also had members joining who didn't care for the rules and just wanted to cause chaos. We were warned about this and each time a member broke a rule, they were warned or removed. We always communicated extensively with Guild Leadership and were more than cooperative. But that didn't solve it. One last member caused an issue, and we were essentially told, either disband your faction, or kick everyone out that isn't leadership. Due to this, our group was disbanded, and the last sparks of love and joy for Synergy, were gone. Myself and other patrons and loyal members left that same day. And it almost seemed like nobody cared. Obviously people did, but the Staff, the Leadership, they just dumbed us and laughed it off. After both the Staff Team, The Bounty Hunter stuff, and some other stuff I didn't mention (Drama in 212th, BS in Navy), I had finally had enough. So, now let's sum this up. How I went from playing constantly for almost 4 years, to leaving the community and giving up hope. - First, the Staff Team. Not the actual team and the members on it, but how it works. At some point or another most community members would give a hand at staff, but once you join Staff on Synergy, it becomes a job. An obligation. And with that, goes the fun. The endless quotas and requirements, forms you have to fill out just to take a week off, rather than just a quick message to high staff that could be communicated. The fact that Staff were forced to be a part of the GM team and were expected to start pushing out events. With that came the unfortunate side effects, poorly trained GMS, rushed out events, and overall a huge decline in fun and well though out events, and a GIANT increase of bare bones shoot em ups and incoherent events. From 2018-2021 I can't remember a single time I complained about an event. In 2022, I can think of at least 5 FULL BLOWN events that drove me and others crazy. (That doesn't include the hundreds of shoot em ups) - Second, the High Staff Structure. Although some members of the High Staff team genuinely cared and had love for the community, others just cared about the title, the position, and the shenanigans they could cause. And unfortunately, these few members within the High Staff team, were too well known and "powerful" to have anything done about it. Whether it was a Founder, Director, or HA. I can name at least one in each position that has broken multiple of their own rules and nobody blinked an eye, but if others did the same, they would be booted. - Third, Leadership within certain aspects of the Server. It almost felt as though you weren't allowed to have fun unless it was what the leadership viewed as fun. I mean this in regards to Bounty Hunter, and other factions. Our bounty hunter group for example, although not particularly "by the books" and like other guilds, promoted fun and consistent roleplay for the server. Multiple of our antics turned into full blown events. But because leadership felt threatened due to a few incidents that occurred, and although we did everything we could to fix it, we were forced to shut down. Whether it was for their reputation, or because they were upset we weren't following their rules to a tea, I'm not sure. But I can assure you that just because leadership didn't have fun, doesn't mean the players didn't. But it's synergy, that doesn't matter does it? - Fourth, a certain part of the Community. The part of the Community that when they hear a complaint, they click the dumb reaction so fast and so hard you can hear the sound barrier breaking. The part of the Community that swears by their mothers grave that Synergy and it's players are all that matters to them, but as soon as genuine criticism is posted, they dumb it, they laugh at the Founders "OK cope seethe" response, and they call you out for not being as active as them. Alright, now you know why I came, and why I went. I don't play the server anymore obviously, and I peak at the forums probably once every 2-3 months. So do with this what you will, whether its inquire about it, discuss it, or be a typical Synergy "chad" and dumb the shit out of it. Because that's what you "synergy chad oldhead ex director head admins" do. You ignore the issue and you dumb things and act like you are now the coolest most badass person in the world. You aren't.

1/10 This event proves that planning is vital. It had no story, and overall little thought, my complaints are - Dooku randomly appears on ship and is taken prisoner and seemed to have no motive other than to insult jedi How did he get there? Why was he there? - The hangars started opening and closing randomly I heard the was a miscommunication, this is why planning is neccesary - You spawned vultures and droids on top of the ship, but didn't allow pilots to take off If you aren't going to let people fly, don't spawn things that require pilots to take care of - Drop pods came out of nowhere Put a ship or something above the skygate instead of randomly launching in drop pods - After like 4 droids were spawned, 2 random commandos came out of nowhere and both died instantly Give them actual orders or objectives, its not fun to just kill commandos | ejs with no motive - The CIS tracked us through hyperspace (which is impossible in this era) and left as soon as they got to our fleet If you are going to have them track us, at least give us a battle out of it, instead of them just leaving Overall, this shouldn't even be logged as an event for how lackluster and short it was. It was more or less just passive RP

8/10 always fun having an event at midnight lmao. Overall brainless event and I like not having to think :)

6/10, was fun to pass some time. Was a little lacking on length, story, and direction, but overall still better than a shoot em up

After seeing your answers to Donos questions I will +1

+1

8/10. I had good fun, my first deployment I went to in like a month :)

Thank you for your answers I will be +1ing this! Also I legit just read what I randomly copied and realized none of them are questions lmao

Tease me

Glad to hear it, I loved working with most people, I don't want to cause any drama though, I don't know if I was being singled out or not, nor do I care too much. Shit happens, probably just miscommunication. But it kinda made me realize how much un-needed stress being a VA was causing on a GMOD server lmao. Anyways, thanks again :)

Name: Axar Steam ID: STEAM_0:0:210264683 Staff Rank: VA Are you VIP?: Yeah Date: 1/22/2022 Reason for leaving: Not my cup of tea anymore, just wanna have fun, too much stress

Easy +1, only way to get a jetpack right now is to obtain LT and not everyone wants to be a LT just to get a jetpack. It makes sense for at least some BHs to have jetpacks

I will +1 but I also don't see many people using this, more of a for fun thing. There is only ever so many (not a lot) of bounties against jedi, if im not wrong there is two right now, one for mace windu, one for anakin. My problem is how expensive it is to only be able to use during jedi bounties. Its weird cuz it makes sense but at the same time will take so long to get (or just really rich people can buy right away) just to use for maybe 10 minutes a day. If we could refine it a bit to be able to use it more often and not just during the 2 active bounties I would be more enthusiastic about it. But I also might be misunderstanding this idea, who knows. Regardless, like I said, reluctant +1

-1 after seeing those pictures lmao.

8/10, had a lot of fun my friend