Originally Posted by
Lagomorphica
I will preface this by saying I do not possess the CO whitelist. I have, however, played with J.D in a few rounds, and wish to give my input regarding his abilities and what I think of him as a player, as little as that opinion may mean or as biased as it may seem. For that reason I also won't vote since I don't believe I can nor do I feel comfortable doing so. I will, however, provide my opinion on the kind of player J.D is, and my experiences with them.
(I also assume this doesn't breach Rule 6 as I feel it is constructive feedback and personal anecdotes of my interactions with them.)
SQUAD LEADING
I have seen J.D/Kuusday, who I will just call J.D from here on out, as Squad Leader multiple times. In all of those times, I have noticed a few traits that I, personally, consider important in a squad leader - those being decisiveness of action, independence, and inspiring loyalty in those around him.
In terms of decisiveness of action and independence, those are obviously important traits for any squad leader to have. I very distinctly recall a few rounds involving this - for one, a round on Solaris Ridge, during which the majority of our backline was wiped out due to a lack of proper communication from the XO regarding this. The XO, in general, was relatively absent throughout the operation - and while I believe we lost, if I recall correctly, J.D still lead the surviving members of his squad carefully and with attention to detail, and most importantly, an attention to the battlefield around him. This also involved him manually attempting to rout xenomorphs along while evacuating others back from the frontline at North Marshalls back to the FOB and to the Bar.
I genuinely believe that as Squad Leader he would inspire other privates to play the game again with moments such as this and his ability to independently lead the operation from the front in such a way, and his ability to adapt to rapidly changing situations such as the collapse of the frontline and potentially useless subordinates.
For inspiring loyalty, well.. that I can touch more on in my roleplay section, but he IS a well known figure, and that reputation definitely lends itself to others listening to you - however, he also does not take suicidal orders. I believe he strikes a middleground between being aggressive and too passive - taking actual calculated risks and attempting to do what is best for the enjoyment of everyone around him. I also feel this lends in to how he roleplays his character, which has been almost nothing but positive in almost all of my interactions.
EXECUTIVE OFFICER
I will admit, I have seen J.D less as Executive Officer than Squad Leader due to my own timezone - I typically sleep roughly an hour before he is on and have university or am asleep during those times when he is on - however, in my experience, they have lead competently and effectively. They do not fall prone to the trap that many a SO or XO occasionally fall in to of tunnel visioning and beginning to spam abcd - or at least, not as much as many others I have seen. They are also highly capable of running CiC solo, with few staff officers. I distinctly recall an event on an LV-624 round involving this where, after a failed push in to caves when we got repelled. I do not recall if we won or lost, however their WAS an effective maintenance of cohesion among squads and fast relaying of information; and I do not believe that a single moment went by where the position of the queen was not known.
Overall, I also consider them to be an exemplary Executive Officer, from my opinion of playing as a corpsman under them - they are capable of fast and accurate information relay without bloating it, can adapt to situations and understand the limitations of marine forces from playing as squad leader, but most importantly, I feel like their is one factor more important than both aspects of their skill.
ROLEPLAY
J.D Bishop is very HRP, and this message was not sponsored by Pepsi Cola.
On a more serious note, though, J.D does roleplay well. I have experienced roleplay with them in a myriad of roles; with them as PFC, SL, or any number of ranks, and me typically just playing LCpl or some other support role. They roleplay with almost everyone in a squad, though - attempting to initiate it and doing so even during 'dead air', and remaining in character with their mannerisms and similar. They have requested, for instance, that my character makes a squad wide prayer in order to protect those in it, and in a more recent memory, accurately followed rules of engagement for an unidentified hostile target. They did not fire or engage on it until hostile intent was determined, and in my mind, handled the small, end of round event incredibly well, and exactly as I would expect from an actual marine. Their was also another instance of them taking ultrazine, and organic roleplay - no matter how small - is far superior to any long-form story in my mind. The small back and forth dialogues regarding drug use, them requesting my character to recover objects and burn them from under their bunk - and their responses to my character being upset that they have taken a potentially lethal drug - cement in my mind that they are more than capable of roleplay.
I have seen them be somewhat concerned of the potential of them being denied due to their supposed 'PFC mindset' - but I personally do not see it. What J.D does possess, however, is the knowledge of when to drop frivolous roleplay that is non-essential - for instance, when to not give roleplay orders - in order to prioritize the enjoyment of others.
I have also, more importantly however, read another story they have written involving their character J.D - and have seen traits demonstrated in the story demonstrated in game. Also, the fact that they're a predator council member is pretty strong credence to the fact they're capable of roleplay, no matter how hard people may wish to shit on the predator whitelist or any whitelist in my opinion. I respect many a CO and players for their roleplay ability - 50rem, Quickload, Nautical, Grub/Woob, Maxina, many other non-CO whitelisted players or players with other whitelists - and would definitely consider J.D to be up their in terms of both gameplay ability and how they roleplay.
OVERALL
Their are a lot of people I consider good players in CM, in so many ways - some in how they roleplay, or how they game, or what they know, and many that I cannot remember off the top of my head, or who are not whitelisted - TheeBiggest, SpartanBobby, Quickload, etcetera.
I definitely consider J.D to be one of them - in both a mechanical sense, a gameplay and knowledge sense, and a roleplay sense. Despite the fact that I don't possess a whitelist and am a relatively unknown member of the community in my own opinion, I genuinely do believe that they embody all of the aspects of a good leader.
Also I read Sun Tzu's The Art Of War once and it said something like "J.D Bishop bring victory" I donno it's been a while.
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