Staff Items

[Nyn]

Hello!

Earlier today, I had two scarfs and one other item taken off of me because they were Staff Items which I was not allowed to keep.

I understand this completely! But the three of these items never said anywhere that it was a staff item, and so I assume I was allowed them. I payed 15k for one of the scarfs only to have it removed and now I'm out of pocket. The other two I got for free, but that isn't the point of this thread. A friend of mine also PMed saying that they had just had some of their scarfs taken away, that costed around a total of 400k!

400k worth of item was just taken away, and it isn't fair at all. I suggest you simply make it more CLEAR that it is a staff item so that people don't lose money over these. It really isn't fair. If it specifically says this is a staff item and a player does have it, that's their fault. But if it doesn't say it's a staff item it's isn't necessarily the persons fault, and they have most likely lost a lot of gold-worth from that.

Thanks!

 

[Samuel]

u should get your money back

 

[WillWah]

Sorry to say but i do totally agree with this... I understand you take it away since its a staff item, but if someone doesn't KNOW its a staff item and they also payed 15-400K for things, then either return the item or return the gold.

 

[TastyAnna]

This really sucks! A lot of your and your friends' money went into it, and yes, its understandable that staff items get taken away from non-staff, but if they paid for these items, and if they did not know about the items being staff items, it would be nice if they got the items back OR their gold back.

 

[HektorTM]

The player you bought those staff items from couldve informed you that those are staff-only items.
I don't see a reason for this post really and I don't think that we can do anything about that.
And if somebody has 400k gold worth of staff items the player shouldve know that those are items that are not allowed.
I can definitely see your point but i dont think we can just give 400k gold away.
~Hektor

 

[Nyn]

The player you bought those staff items from couldve informed you that those are staff-only items.
I don't see a reason for this post really and I don't think that we can do anything about that.
And if somebody has 400k gold worth of staff items the player shouldve know that those are items that are not allowed.
I can definitely see your point but i dont think we can just give 400k gold away.
~Hektor

In this thread I'm just trying to say make it more clear - I was PMed and told that new staff items have a staff category, but these were older and didn't do it isn't our fault if we didn't know.

 

[FlatJambo]

I think a reimbursement would be nice in this case. As a staff member, I feel like there should be a bolder line between items like this. I haven't heard anything like this before. Maybe it's because I have never thought about doing this myself and no other staff members I know have either; but if you want, DM me on discord and I could give you some gold to compensate, as I feel this is unfair.

 

[Somnambulist]

Would be worried that a staff member would abuse this sort of reasoning and tell an unwitting player that the item that they have is a staff item, when it isn't, and just confiscate it from them and save it for themselves.

How can this be handled so that the player who bought the collectable item doesn't get ripped off when it's removed from them for being a staff item? Collectables are usually priced high, especially scarves. I think that you should have been refunded, but knowing how things go around here, they'll probably say they can't pay you back or that you need screenshots of the transaction -- maybe tell them to look up the trade data if they are able to do that? Either way, you should have been refunded.

Also, who pays 400k in scarves though?!?!!

 

[aaron ♡]

A few months back I had lost one of my staff items, and another player managed to pick it up and sell it, not knowing that it was a staff item. Most staff items such as robes and tba items are categorized with "Category: Staff" or "Category: TBA" - However, the majority of the staff items I received as gifts when I was a team member (pls dont come for me) were uncategorized. Back to the incident; I had noticed my item was missing and the person who picked it up happened to commission me for a build on their housing, and while looking for blocks in the chests I saw the staff item I had lost. Even if it wasn't mine, they still shouldn't have that item. But, in their defense, it wasn't categorized clearly. I asked a head staff member to handle it since it wasn't my place to take it back. The player was pretty upset since they claimed to have spent quite a bit of gold on it. However, the head staff member who handled it actually checked the trade history (I didn't even know that was possible at the time) and refunded the gold.
Solution wise, if the staff team worked to update the items that aren't categorized to have a category, I think this could definitely help avoid these situations. If you've ever held on to a quest item, if you hold it, it then disappears. This is also the case with items that were slightly modified, it simply changes to a different description item or a different model or name. Obviously there are quite a lot of staff items so it wouldn't be beneficial to staff's time to update every single one, but going forward, Inquisitors could be mindful when creating the items.

 

[Sunnya]

Hey there!

I am extremely sorry about this situation and I apologize for the confusion & frustration. I know that you've been in contact with Leads+ about this, but I do want to reiterate that you (and your friend especially) can reach out to a Head Staff member and we will try to get this sorted & reimburse you if able.

All staff & team members (new & old) were made aware that items given to them while on our teams are not to be handed out under any circumstance (this applies even after they leave the team). If you or any other individuals spend large sums of gold on these items, we are able to reimburse you. The best way to reach us is by making a Support Ticket here, but you are free to message me personally on Discord as well (I don't mind).

The old items, as you mentioned, unfortunately, do not have the formatting we use today. The main reason for this being that the tech we have now didn't exist and the standard for it was not enforced. We are able to track any items with the formatting, but we are unable to do so with the old items. This is because they were not made using our current tech. If we wanted to, we'd have to manually find them and modify them, but we aren't aware of what the items even are. The same applies to Aaron's idea above as it's not possible.

As for this thread itself, I'm not sure how the Poltergeists will handle it. On one hand, it is to be accepted as we will be ensuring these situations do not happen again (we still need people to report it to us). On the other hand, the suggestion of tracking these old items is not doable and would be declined,

Again, I apologize for this entire situation and how this has impacted multiple players. If issues like this arise please be sure to contact us directly (preferably via Support Ticket).

- Sunnya

 

[Ivan_]

Would be worried that a staff member would abuse this sort of reasoning and tell an unwitting player that the item that they have is a staff item, when it isn't, and just confiscate it from them and save it for themselves.

How can this be handled so that the player who bought the collectable item doesn't get ripped off when it's removed from them for being a staff item? Collectables are usually priced high, especially scarves. I think that you should have been refunded, but knowing how things go around here, they'll probably say they can't pay you back or that you need screenshots of the transaction -- maybe tell them to look up the trade data if they are able to do that? Either way, you should have been refunded.

Also, who pays 400k in scarves though?!?!!

Since this tread is getting a lot of attention, I will put my thoughts out. First, I am the other guy who lost "400k" worth of stuff - several items, not just scarfs. Some of those items I had for 4 years now, so ofc I didn't pay as much as theyre worth now, I traded items for some of them and I paid about 200k+ for the most recent scarfs. I will try to not call out any names and I want to mention that this is still a thing in process, I still might get some of the items back or gold. The items in question are mostly scarfs (8 of them). 3 of the scarfs had names, the other 5 were nameless. The staff who took them isn't abusing, and I am not "a unwitting player" where this sort of thing will just pass on. There are several things that are bothering me 1. I bought a big portion of those items from a CURRENT staff member 2. Other people have those same items DISPLAYED and somehow nobody took those away from them 3. One of the items that they took is bought from your own shop Psycho, and there is no way to tell that that was a staff item 4. I was told that having glitched scarfs is okay but having the staff ones (that had no name) isn't 5. There is no criteria to what is a staff item and what isn't a staff item, I will give an example. One of the scarfs that I had is a Blackfyre scarf, there were 5 made and they were for the members of the Blackfyre family (which were staff members yes, but that doesnt mean this is a staff item), now what about SPAGs owner scarfs. It's literally the same scenario, there were 3 made for the owners (also staff members) of SPAG club. So why is a Blackfyre scarf a "staff" scarf but SPAGs owner scarf isn't? I think that at this point, some of the items are so old and have been passed on from a player to player that it makes no sense to take those away. And what makes it even worse is that some players had those same items displayed for months in item frames and still they are there so I'm sure there are thousands of items that are just sitting in player chests and vaults and it's impossible to track them, including the items I had in my chests. After all why is it a problem if we have outdated staff items? I was told that theyre being sold for a lot and could ruin economy - but that's because theyre old and rare, not because theyre a staff item. I haven't paid for those scarfs any more compared to non staff ones which I still have. And it's not players fault that we can't tell if an item is a staff item or it's just rare. I think that we should be able to keep all the items that are not directly connected to a staff position. So for example, a Prefect scarf is obviously a staff scarf and that shouldn't be allowed but a Blackfyre/SPAGs owner scarfs which aren't technically staff scarfs should be okay in my opinion.

 

[Somnambulist]

One of the items that they took is bought from your own shop Psycho, and there is no way to tell that that was a staff item

What item was it? Cause I know that I'm not remotely close to any staff or have made any direct trades with them recently. All I can remember is running around the old Hogsend and Vertick shops buying stuff that interested me. I'm guessing that it's an item that says a staff member's name?

 

[luckiestblock]

Yeah this is something that has always annoyed me. I never understood why they have to differentiate for staff items in the first place, its not like they are that special and to be brutally honest the division between staff and player items is not that strong. In my anectodical experience there are a lot of staff items in student hands (though I don't have any obviously). If they don't feel like removing that distinction than they should at least inform the public that this system exists via an added rule. (most people don't even know there are such things as "staff exclusive collectibles" so they get tricked into paying large sums for items they think are just "very rare"). Yes this is not an issue for (most of) current staff but for ex-staff and normal players who managed to acquire them is a whole different issue that people should know to avoid.

EDIT: Also yes, please clarify what defines "a staff item" like Ivan said, it just feels like the whimsy of some random staff member from like 5 years ago and makes the situation that the public is already in the dark about even more confusing. Even when I make a ticket and ask before I buy "Is this is a staff item" most staff who respond are like "idk maybe, maybe not"

 

[Volt]

What is the logic behind not being able to sell/trade staff items? Like does anyone actually care if a prefect sells their scarf to make a bit of extra gold?

 

[Ashh]

Hello! Thanks for taking the time to bring up this issue on the forums! We appreciate all the opinions of those who responded to this thread too. I'd like to give a bit of an explanation about what would be considered a staff item and why we do not want these items sold or traded.

Firstly, the specific issue and concern that was raised in this thread has been handled and resolved. The main issue here was to do with old items given to staff members. Since 2018, most (if not all) staff only items have a specific category that labels it a staff item. These items should not be given out to non-staff. Since old items that were given out before 2018 do not have this category, we will not be punishing non-staff players for having them. However, if an old item mentions an ex-staff member's name or IGN or has the word 'staff' in it, then it is not to be given out to non-staff players. If a non-staff player is found with one of these items, they will be taken from them. If the player is able to show screenshots/evidence that they bought the item, then we will be able to compensate them. As Sunnya mentioned earlier in this thread, we are unable to go back and change a lot of the old staff items, but we hope the above explanation makes things a little more clear.

As for why we do not want these staff items to be sold or traded, they are not something players can obtain and are given out at special times to staff members as gifts. They have earned it and it is theirs, so they should keep it. Additionally, because they are not able to be obtained by players, this makes them very rare and valuable, and players who obtain these items can sell them for high values, when the item was not bought for anything in the first place. This can effect the economy.

I hope that makes sense and clears up any misunderstanding! Due to the above explanation on staff items and because this specific situation has been dealt with, I will be marking this thread as completed. Please feel free to reach out to a member of the Leadership Team if you have any specific questions or concerns about this or if you are unsure about specific items you come across in the future.