SAO-RPG Staff Team feedback

[Shark 0]

Good day players of Aincrad,

Multiple people have been contacting me about their feelings and concerns of players on the staff team. The Admin's have been discussing ways we can improve the site as well as staff-player relations. We have decided that taking a poll involving the community and gather feedback on the staff team. If you think that changes need to be made, I ask that you send me a PM including your thoughts. 

If you have an idea that doesn't fit either of the choices available, please comment down below. This topic is for Admin's to gather feedback for improvements so please refrain from debating with others in this topic..

Thanks for your feedback 

[orhalimi 0]

I don't know most of the GM's (the one who helped me the most left). 
I really appreciated the time they are putting on us as a community, but my personal feeling is that it's really hard to get a listening ear from the staff.

for example, I didn't know that I needed to put an empty post and then roll and edit (Let's leave the fact that it sound a bit strange..) with the perma roller. Lucky me, I got rare item that denied because the link of the roll was one post above my post. So I PM the member who denied it and ask him why, he didn't even respond. I was needed to hear from the skype chat what was the reason. I will just say that this rule is really not explained well (Or maybe I missed that part?) but I sent him another message to ask him to reconsider it after I explained. Again, he didn't even bother to answer.

Another example, I asked about some unbalanced combat issue on the forum. Even when a lot of players agreed and responded none of the staff participated until I personally used @ to added them (feels like I forced them to answer). 

That's what personally bother me. Maybe it was because the lack of their time, but that's my feeling anyway. 

It's a small issue that can easily be solved with communication, it's definitely not a good reason to switch the staff (Yet :D).  The most important thing that I want to see from the staff is the ability to make stories for the community and give others main roles in their story. So far, no complaints on that part.

[Opal 0]

haha where do we begin? 

Lets start off with PSTs answering questions in Support Tickets for players that need answers.Since questions are rarely answered here, this area is just a Q&A and conjecture form for players where staff idle and look but never answer. Therefore I have sent a few PMs to a person I will not name and had my questions completely ignored and never answered. Legit questions about players and cheating rolls in the boss fights WITH Proof of such things. This leads me to believe there is universal corruption in the staff community for some of these players that are watching the back of others. 

If you plan on being in Staff, you need to be completely unbiased upon principle. However there is a huge bias game going on and some people looking out for the others so the baby's dont cry and get upset and throw hissy fits like immature children. Stuff like this would not happen anyways if the rules were thoroughly thought out and explained well. There are so many broken skills in the game, that have already been brought up at the moment, its mind boggling how there is only a single form a player can excel in and dominate in. Balance is broken. Not everyone here wants to play a Tank. 

I believe as part of Staff, you should give Uniques to players who wish to attempt the Quest first. It is selfish to create a unique that fits your build and then take that unique as your own because you are staff and you already have the knowledge of how to obtain it. That's a little underhanded, and for building a community for other people, you have selfishly given yourself a power because of meta gaming which is to believed against the rules. But who reads those when everything is so poorly written and unreadable in the first place?

There is also the question of the Main Chat on skype how friends of staff get a free ticket when involved with a dilemma. You are creating a biased environment and leaning towards a select few people and this causes more corruption in the game. "My good buddy here just made a sexual harassment joke at a new player, but that's alright. He can get away with it because he's my friend. We don't want new players joining the community anyways."   

Whenever something is asked to be looked it seems Staff turn the other cheek, they don't want to help, they don't care to help, they don't have an active role on wanting to help players, they just ignore it until it builds up steam and then "Oh, we have a problem." Instead of ignoring things or people, how about they actually start listening to what the players want? This is community for people, staff are here to create rules, games rules and to make sure things are running smoothly. None of this happens, ever. There is no decorum or respect from these people because nothing is ever answered, or the rules change on the spot to FIT another player because they decided to act like a cry baby and whine to their friend: The Staff Player. 

I have no ill will against Staff but if you are asking for hardcore, raw, unrelentless feedback, this is as pure as you are gonna get. I just hope some people other than myself have the balls to stand up and say what they have on their mind. 

I realized I now painted a big target on my back and I am ok with that. But its better to be heard and to be targeted for assassination and fighting for what I believe is right, than opposed to saying nothing and allowing this corrupt policy to stay in place any longer. If you take this out on me IC, it'll just prove everything I have said is true and your community will see it first hand what it means to be truly corrupt. 

Edited April 6, 2016 by Opal

[Nikodemus_Blackwood 1]

I do not know if this is something that has been spoke about or not, as I am fairly new and all, and so I figured it would be better to bring it up incase it hasn't, and if it has, someone will say they have mentioned it. But basically, I think that if there is an issue between players and staff, it is something that should be answered via a straw poll. You simply make a poll listing all the Staff members names and then the adress it as either: A). Who in this list do you think does a good job as staff? or B). Who do you think is abusing the position of Staff? Leave a simple box for people to explain why they feel that way.

 

Make it annonymous and only allow the main staff team see the results. It will pinpoint the issues and allow everyone to do so in a way that cannot be biased by others/results, and will allow for anonymity to protect the players/staff who speak out. Just my thoughts though.

[Baldur 0]

I haven't had any direct interaction with staff since my return (I'm sure you're well aware of my opinions on how things are run), but I will say there is some seriously weird stuff going on with the rules. I asked a PST for clarification and got told two different things, then find out staff is changing the rules, but only mentioning them in skype? I did a search and (for example) was told "Vulturing is against the rules" but the word had literally never been used on the site anywhere other than as a monster. However the dice dropped for Dom, that was some weird rules lawyering acrobatics that went on to save Dom, but no one had anything to say about a member of staff walking into a thread with new players (not even just new characters, new players) and just killing them for the lolz, and then staff apparently went out of their way to invent rules for him to stay alive because he was going to rage-quit. That may not be how it went down, but that's sure how it looked.

The guides on the site haven't been changed since I was a PST, except in small bits and pieces, meaning we have contradictory rules all over the place. Some things haven't been updated to reflect major changes (like having a tiered gear system). It's like the only rules the staff pays attention to are the ones that effect them personally. And it's definitely the case that the best toys are the ones that the staff hold.

In spite of the fact that we're about to take on the level 15 floor boss, the unique skills have made all other players irrelevant. As is, Tristan could solo the entire tower by himself and never lose health (are we trying to say he's Kayaba? Cause that's the only explanation I can think of (sorry if that was a spoiler)). Having both he and Zel in the fight makes everyone else irrelevant. And I don't think I've even seen Zero RP anywhere, but if you were to add him to the raids, then they could probably go fight the floor 100 boss right now and just end the hole thing.

A year ago I joined PST because I thought this site had a lot of potential it was squandering, and while a lot has changed, I still feel like that's the case. I don't know what you could do to correct the course of the ship, but it seems like the current Staff are inconvenienced to intercede here. Maybe you need to find players that still enjoy playing here and want to make the site better, rather than absenteeism.

Sorry Zero and Tristan, but it just seems like you guys aren't enjoying the site anymore (at least form what I can see), and there has definitely been an us (staff a friends) vs them (the rest of the players) atmosphere going on. I've been shown screen shots of the main skype chat because I wouldn't believe what some people were saying was going on there, especially about people I used to call friends. What is allowed to go on in there is disgusting, but it's Zero and Tristan that enable those kinds of things to persist.

[Lessa 1]

I echo the concerns stated above.

But I also want to note that I do not feel valued as a player here. With a flawed system and overpowered uniques, a handful of players are all that matter anymore. I don't wish to discredit their hard work, because I know how many posts these higher level players have made. But the system itself needs to be revisited. I've said this countless times, and the response has always been "we aren't going to cater to newbies." Which reads as "we are concerned about ourselves only, as we are the most powerful players." I apologize for being blunt, but it is disheartening. I have no desire to continue writing here under the current staff. Either a change of attitude or a change of staff needs to occur.

Please excuse the edit, but there is one more thing I would like to emphasize, and that is an issue Baldur noted. The community here is toxic, and unfortunately, there is no other way to say it. I've left the Skype chat because of it, but I've been shown screenshots, and I know how it was when I was in there. I do think it stems from elitist behavior, probably fueled by our flawed system. But it is disgraceful. Also, this has only really come about within the last year or so. I won't point fingers, because it is something we could all work on. But if we plan to bring on new members, or even keep the ones we have, something needs to change.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Lessa

[Calrex 0]

Just a heads up I might be updating this post intermittently, mainly because I'm doing this during work, and as well more things might come to mind as I get going on this. Also, I will try to keep this as cordial as I can, but of course if for some reason or another I happen to slip on that part I apologize.

First and foremost, I feel the way things are worded can be a bit too cut and dry. It can be seen as either, "We're fine with the staff we have." or "We need a purge." I appreciate everything that's been built so far, because of course without the staff there wouldn't be a system for all of us to enjoy an adventure in Sword Art Online within. However, as with all systems, nothing is perfect, and at this point if I continue to simply remain quiet and easygoing, I feel like nothing is really going to improve or change.

Let me start by addressing some of the things that have already been stated, and see if I can add some more of my own knowledge to them. Orhalimi brings up a good point about asking staff for concerns. It is understandable that this isn't a work position, and that all of the time given by the staff is volunteered by them to assist people. This being said, the staff is also the face of the forum, so taking ones time replying to player concerns is something that shouldn't happen. This of course can be remedied by either bringing more people to help with that load, but at the same time the staff themselves are responsible for replying to these questions, no matter how outrageous, as long as it relates to the system, correct?

Moving on to Opal's statement, I would sadly have to agree. This applies to both the forum, as well as the main chat on Skype. There have been more than enough times I have witnessed blatant actions that would make it clear there is favoring from people in high positions, which is something that should not only be blocked, but also enforced to a strict degree. I unfortunately did not take the time to actually record any proof of doing so, but of course searching Skype history is not something impossible to do. Some violations of this would be things like inappropriate content, verbage, and language. Among friends, I can understand this is acceptable, but there is always the chance that someone who is not of age can be in the chat as well. It is something that is a lack of respect on the part of those that choose to do so, as well as those who choose to defend them for "ruining their fun."

I won't touch on the unique skills as Opal has expressed, as to be honest I don't have any knowledge more than what each of the uniques are. Obtaining them and similar information is something I do not have access to. However, as coincidental as it seems, I cannot help but suspect there is some unfair advantages in place. However, I will refer you to here, if you choose to take a look: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FakeBalance
This, from what I've seen of in-character progressions, I believe this to be true. While there should always be the possibility of messing up your character's build beyond repair, no one "class" should be favored over another. A good system would be closer to these descriptions: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CompetitiveBalance

As for Nikodemus, while it might help with narrowing down the potential origins of any particular issues, that method could be taken as unfairness due to them to some level being directed attacks against staff members.

My main concern about what has occurred so far seems to be that the overall culture of SAO-RPG is becoming more exclusive than inclusive. It seems more like the community, which overall amazing, has a few reputable individuals who are more likely to take in those they like or are of like mind and remain intolerant and, to be kind of frank, abusive to other members. This is something that can be seen in status updates, the main chat (as previously stated), and even to some level within actual roleplay threads. As for what instigates the attacks, from what I can tell, it could be as simple and obnoxious as "This person's journal rubbed me the wrong way." I can understand that some journals don't appear to meet the same mark in terms of overall writing quality as some other players, but that can be for many reasons outside of this forum that we are aware of. Sure, they are accepted if they meet the requirements, but when the community that welcomes them is more vicious and bully-like (I can probably expect some people will chuckle at this word, but hey it does exist -_-U).

More than once have I heard similar terms like "salty, git gud, etc." thrown out there like a piece of garbage. I find these to inhibit and improvement or good that can be done to the forum and the system, because it reverses the blame onto the person filing a complaint. Complaints and issues are meant to be brought up in order to help assess, refine, and better an established system. Reducing an argument to some "witty" phrase simply because it is inconvenient will never result in anything becoming overall better.

To sum things up, I would like to see some changes made. Whether the current staff merely undergoes some changes, or something more drastic is taken, I will go with whatever decision is made. However, if my main concern is not addressed, I'm afraid that that SAO-RPG will become a significantly less welcoming environment, and more than likely I would lose any real reason to stay here.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Calrex

[Takao 0]

The main reason I resigned from my PST position was because I felt that Tristan and Zero were blatantly abusing their positions as GMs, and I didn't want to support them. Some of the conversations that went on in staff chat about players were also kind of terrible. I remember a specific conversation about how a journal was plagiarized and a staff member sent their friends to attack the player for it, and they didn't seem to have a problem with it. A staff member should never be okay with attacking a player at a personal level. That's just no beuno.

I really hate to bring up the unique skills again, but its such a major point in all of this that I can't help it. The entire ordeal was so sketchy and so shady. The only time you could inquire about a rumour is when Zero decided to get on the account, and the only time Zero decided to get on the account was in the middle of the night when all his friends were online. Then they were all getting their uniques by the morning. I can't read their private messages so I don't know exactly what happened or if it was truly malicious, but it sure does seem like it. Tristan even managed to get his unique skill, a tanking unique skill pursued by somebody with laughable damage output, by challenging the unique NPC to a one-hit duel. That's just so convenient it hurts. Then, much later, I found out that unique weapons automatically tier up and normal weapons don't? Like... what benefit does that give? The gap between regular weapons and unique weapons is already vast, why does that gap continue to widen? Another point that I want to make(and already has been made) is that Tristan, a GM, has literally been made invincible-- and not by his own devices. Surely he's put in work and to that I cannot discredit him, but that's not what makes him broken. Achilles, by design, is terrible. Not only does it mimic parry in terms of brokenness but its also passive and has no drawbacks whatsoever despite him having put literally no work into it. Then there's holy blessing, which is something that activates automatically no matter what. The site seems like its been balanced around him and his build. This entire situation isn't benefiting the community, its putting a select few people on pedestals. It feels like the GMs intention was to make a few people the main characters of the site and everybody else is just there to ogle at them.

The whole situation with Ssendom and killing the players was an absolute PR mess too. It seems liked staff was willing to go to any lengths to save him, eventually stretching and bending the wording of a skill into some ridiculously convoluted manner that involves pausing damage in the middle of dealing damage for him to heal, and then resuming damage. Battle healing procs on the healing player's turn, the regen enhancement procs on the healing player's turn, first aid procs on the first aid user's turn, holy blessing procs on the healing player's turn. No other form of healing does that, except for the one that conveniently saved a staff member's life. Additionally, it's a nightmare to calculate. (damage - mitigation - 0.75% of damage = hp + 0.25%(of max) - remaining 0.25% of damage = final HP)

Another problem I have is that the GMs seem incapable of being proactive with problem solving. They would rather let people break the rules and fix them afterward than nip it in the bud. Less than a month after I was added to the staff team, I'd been telling them how broken parry was. It was either ignored or it was swept aside. After that, I brought it up several more times, and still nothing came of it. Only after I exploited the problem and benefited from it was the problem fixed.

I joined the staff team because I wanted to help make the SAO-RPG community better however I could, but I absolutely hated how it was turning into an exclusive old boys network. I've seen so many forums go down the abusive GM route, and its honestly disappointing to see SAO-RPG heading in the same direction.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Takao

[Nikodemus_Blackwood 1]

@Calrex I can see where this could be an issue, but as many have mentioned already, there are problems and by anyone, from Opal, to Takao, to even you, bringing them up, whether names are used or not, the "offenders" will know and it will cause a target to be painted on you and can cause more friction. A summary staff change is needed for some people, I can agree with this sentiment. I as a new player have seen my fair share of issues and such, but I find that the issue is that either problems get skirted because of a fear of "Attacks of character" or the problems are boldly stated and then players target one another and cause a lot of friction that can be felt in by us all. As one of the players who was killed by Ssendom (Eibon1307), I do not know why I or the other player were killed, and I see where the breakdown of the thread happened and the culminating issues that came from it. The Staff "reset" the thread and killed it, awarding everyone 1 sp and some Col, and my alt and the other player were allowed to continue playing with those characters, but I had already made this acct and didn't wish to move back as I had started a couple threads with people. Ssendom apologized to me for the issue and offered to help with quests and such for his actions, so I do not hold him responsible for killing my alt. But, the breakdown in the thread caused Ssendom to step down, people to begin distrusting staff more, and the current friction we have.

 

Then, there was the Floor 14 Boss thread incident. Azide was killed due to a misstep on the GM's part, and he was allowed to live, but due to the Dom issue before, some people felt like that the issue was a repeat of that. Azide let his character die and I would guess he continued on with a new character. But because of the previous issue a few days before hand, and then that issue there, it seemed to cause a greater rift between players and staff.

 

But, as has mentioned, the cut and dry "Everything is fine" or "PURGE THE UNCLEAN" vote here is either not going to get the real issues fixed and cause more issues, or else nothing will change. If staff members who are being abusive of power are made to step down, they can still take revenge on anyone who has spoke against them and claim it was in the interest of their RP and not meta-gaming. Sure, many will call BS, but the damage will be done. Do we then ban them from the site? Take away their special skills? How do we fix it?

 

Going through this, I can see the pros and cons of every argument (And the large cons of my first statement), but the issue will remain, How do we fix it?

[Baldur 0]

10 minutes ago, Nikodemus_Blackwood said:

Then, there was the Floor 14 Boss thread incident. Azide was killed due to a misstep on the GM's part, and he was allowed to live, but due to the Dom issue before, some people felt like that the issue was a repeat of that. Azide let his character die and I would guess he continued on with a new character. But because of the previous issue a few days before hand, and then that issue there, it seemed to cause a greater rift between players and staff.

That's not actually true. Azide was legit killed, the problem was that there was a typo, and no one bothered to actually investigate. All they had to do was pull up the last roll Rohk made, and it would have confirmed the roll that was posted (killing Azide). Instead, a typo in the roll ID number made everyone jump to conclusions.

[Lee 0]

I actually, in all honesty do not have a problem with the majority of characters that have Unique Skills as, in the anime and in pretty much anything, game or otherwise, you have to be strong in order to get something special and all the people that have unique skills fit that bill. NOW, the problem is the skills themselves. They are supposed to give you an edge, not a full blown hack to the system. Take a look at the anime and the two main unique skills it brings up.  Duel Wielding and Divine Blade. You get an extra sword with one and you get to attack with a shield(basically). I hear that their was massive favoritism involved in the distribution of the skills and their might have been but, all in all, would the outcome really have been much different otherwise? 

Posting. Dear god how I actually HATE this aspect of the forum. I hate that this has happened to everyone at some point or another. They post a topic and either it starts going and so long as it gets done in the day or two and you are set or, and this is the kicker, people forget and it gets pushed back into the annals of oblivion. It would be good if there were more sub-forums to keep things from getting too lost. Have main pinned threads for the towns. Then have threads for different areas and within these you would have the topics that people would make their topics in. And have a single topic for quests that everyone can go to in order to post their quests instead of a clusterfuck of more topics. The last idea may or may not seem logical and I don't know but the mass of new topics daily and having to constantly remind people that there is a topic they need to post back too every-time it gets pushed back past the third or fourth page means there is something wrong.

Spoiler

Town of Beginnings [Safe Town]
Earning A Living[Quest]
-Field of Beginnings
--{Topic 3}
--{Topic 1}
--{Topic 2}

 

I think that there is also something that needs to be done with people who leave topics while others are in it. I think that not only should they be able to be booted out but they should not get anything from the topic at all. No items, no col, no SP. If you don't put in the work, you shouldn't get anything. The whole sudden change to SP being a players level is also something that I don't understand or like. I don't understand why this was done or who's idea it was but I didn't see anything wrong with the post count system. Nothing really changed for the better. The people that were high level were still high level and the reverse was true for the starting players as they had to go through topic after topic after topic in order to really try and do a quest for a mere 2-3 more points, if that. 

As it has already been stated, something needs to be done with the rules overall. Not saying that it is all bad, it is just that I have seen a lot of players with stats that they shouldn't have and that it is a major problem. I can link to a site I was on that had structure and understandable rules that were easy to follow. 

I don't have a real problem with the current mods though I do feel that, for the most part and everyone seems to feel this way, that they aren't really ever 'there'. I think that there needs to be basic jobs for all mods but for the most part, the responsibilities need to be rationed out. Because whatever the roles are, they don't really go beyond 'if you see it, do something if you feel like it.'

And the one last thing. Why is Skype Chat still a thing? Why not just have a quick chat on the site? The chat is more for just talking and bulls*itting around so why not just put that on the site anyway? I personally am not a fan of skype and to login to show that I have missed 2435 messages and not being able to do anything until it goes through said cluster is annoying and time wasting, this along with all the problems that have already been stated about the skype chat in the first place. At least with a quick chat on the site, everything would already be set.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Lee

[Takao 0]

14 minutes ago, Nikodemus_Blackwood said:

But, as has mentioned, the cut and dry "Everything is fine" or "PURGE THE UNCLEAN" vote here is either not going to get the real issues fixed and cause more issues, or else nothing will change. If staff members who are being abusive of power are made to step down, they can still take revenge on anyone who has spoke against them and claim it was in the interest of their RP and not meta-gaming. Sure, many will call BS, but the damage will be done. Do we then ban them from the site? Take away their special skills? How do we fix it?

Presumably by fixing what's broken? You can balance existing mechanics without removing them entirely, you know. How would they take revenge against players who spoke out against them? It's not like they can take the site down. There'd be no reason to ban them either. You seem to argue that one extreme or the next isn't the solution, but then all your questions only involve one extreme or the next.

You're asking how we should fix it, but we've already given our answer. Trim the bad fruit and balance what's broken.

[Shark 0]

1 hour ago, Lee said:

Why is Skype Chat still a thing? Why not just have a quick chat on the site?

to address that, we had one but it is against the hosting company's policy and slowed down the site since it takes up memory and slows down the site to snail speed. 

Skype is free and doesn't take up any memory on the site.

[Baldur 0]

Just now, Shark said:

to address that, we had one but it is against the hosting company's policy and slowed down the site since it takes up memory and slows down the site to snail speed. 

Skype is free and doesn't take up any memory on the site.

How long ago was that? IPS now hosts the chats themselves for this reason.

[Shark 0]

1 minute ago, Baldur said:

How long ago was that? IPS now hosts the chats themselves for this reason.

this was using the phpBB software but it's not the software company but where the website is hosted. I believe the IPS one cost more money though.

[Baldur 0]

13 minutes ago, Shark said:

this was using the phpBB software but it's not the software company but where the website is hosted. I believe the IPS one cost more money though.

That could be, but IPS now has a chat function that they host all the traffic on their side cause they noticed that website hosts were banning the feature.

[Nikodemus_Blackwood 1]

@Takao I actually do not advocate anything harsh. I just posited the theoretical issues behind it. Again, I'm a new player and have only experienced the issue with Ssendom, and then general issues as mentioned by Opal and Orhalimi with asking questions to some certain staff and being ignored, but other staff answering themselves, or having actual players step up and answer the questions. But the main issues I am hearing/reading is balance issues with both normal mechanics/skills, and unique skill issues and staff positions. This can be fixed like you and others have posted. This I don't doubt. But the method of the poll is only focusing on broad aspects and if people like you the others here who voiced concern, people like me and other newer players will only voice the minor issues like getting feedback/answers. the broken system and abuse of staff privileges wouldn't be ignored, or the wrong staff could get punished. That whole, 1 bad apple to ruin the bushel bit and what not.

 

I do not advocate not changing things, just actually getting to the nitty gritty and fixing the issues once and for all, not just giving a blanket fix and hope the problems get smothered by it. All mentioned fixed by you and others sound great, but with the question of "Is the staff fine or does it need to be changed" vote doesn't fix all the issues, and may cause more. The whole discussion needs to be abit more involved between multiple staff members and players and the whole issues, including the friction with staff, site mechanic issues, and so on need to be addressed as everyone has been saying. 

[Shark 0]

3 minutes ago, Baldur said:

That could be, but IPS now has a chat function that they host all the traffic on their side cause they noticed that website hosts were banning the feature.

Good to know, I'll bring that up with Erron

[Ratatosk 0]

Not to mention dual blades is completely BROKEN. If you were present at the easter boss, you'd see Zelrius do 1k damage to that boss with only T2 Uniques while people without unique skills (Everyone else) would normally only do around the hundreds with their strongest sword art. Lots of the unique skills are imbalanced like Takao said (Berserker, Dual Blades, Achilles). And Calrex has a pretty good point, when I first joined here it didn't seem that welcoming. Many people are starting flame wars and the staff don't even intervene or they just let it go. Do you know how many uniques Ssendom and Zelrius have? How many uniques do the rest of the players have? Everyone has brought this up before, it's as if the system favors a few people rather than being fair and balanced. I don't hate Zero or Tristan, but it's like they have a bit too much power here.

Btw: Who is Azide's new character?

 

[Takao 0]

He doesn't have a new character.