Just an quick idea about GM's

I was watching some old videos of WoW where GM's would interact with players in the game and it really threw me into a bit of nostalgia. But it also made me have an appreciation for that time in gaming. Call it rose tinted glasses or whatever but having a team of GM's at the publics disposal was some next level customer service imo.

That being said, how awesome would it be to have GM's in ashes? Its definitely a lot to ask of a company to supply for any game, but it would be incredible to have that service again. And some other ideas occurred to me when playing a certain new MMO release that shall not be named. Just going to list some ideas I had in regards to GM's being implemented into an MMO and the benefits theyd have.

- First and foremost. You could have GM's almost exclusively hunt down bots quickly and efficiently. It would be so easy to have a person assess a group of "kjhgadslfgal" named characters all spamming a resource despite it not being there or a obvious multiboxxer, or just a gold seller spamming in chat. It would be able to be dealt with relatively quickly.

-relatively immediate reviews of automated reporting. So if an entire guild spam reports a player out of spite, a GM would be able to catch this and properly assess the situation and unban/punish anyone as needed and accordingly.

-Exploits could be monitored more efficiently and GM's themselves could either advise players against doing them or just act as deterrents or damage control. Hell I would personally rather have an area be closed with a temporary instant kill effect than leave it accessible for a few days for some exploit to level faster or get a ton of resources quickly. Plus it would be kind of cool to see the GM's Being the ones doing it.

-I am fully aware of the responsibility it takes to become a GM and know that they are only human, and thus capable of abusing their role, so I figure why not have a log for each GM's actions and communications. That way there is always an ability to check their decisions if need be.

-it could also be viable (although admittedly extremely risky) to allow players to volunteer their time to play as GM's after proper training and evaluation. Sounds a bit far-fetched but its just an idea. It would have to have plenty of checks and balances to prevent the wrong people from attaining this ability. And that would likely be too much for the company to keep track of unless they treated it like a legitimate job position. But still, its just a thought.

-Gm's provide opportunities for great player interactions directly with the studio, which can range anywhere from helping players stuck in a bugged area to just a random appearance to psyche some players out.

All in all this is just me rambling at my computer while im feeling under the weather and thinking that GM's in MMO's all in all make the games way better than just an automated system that takes days to deal with as an individual player and it gets abused since it can not think or assess as a GM would.

Would you all want to see GM's in Ashes?

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Comments

Sweatycup

It would be nice to see GM's for events that have story. So maybe there is some magical wizard somewhere in the story and the GM(s) could play it giving it intelligence a normal machine can't replicate. It also helps mold stories together. They used to do this in Asherons Call, all if not most the characters in story were eventually played in-game by a GM leading to a event or opening of some kind. Favorite event was Martine who was a antagonist of peace towards Asheron. Was a huge pvp event think like fighting a boss, just a intelligent boss played by a GM. Still memorable 20 years later.

daveywavey

Jhoren wrote: »

I appreciate the volunteering sentiment, but I think it opens things up to abuse of power, preferential treatment and liability issues for Intrepid. So, paid IS employees only please.

Yeah, I agree. But I'd still be willing to do it!

Okeydoke

I remember in Ultima Online they had GM's who wore red robes and Counsellors who wore blue robes. Not sure what the delineation between those two were, but the GM's were definitely more senior.

I don't see why there couldn't be a volunteer "counsellor" force with very limited powers to help deal with the more mundane things like players getting stuck and other various things. They could escalate what they're not equipped to deal with up to GM's. And the paid GM's would have more time to handle the heavier stuff.

I dunno on second thought if a counsellor had teleport powers he could conceivably use his ability to port around to give intel to his friends. Just sucks you can't trust people for shit. You just cant.

JesterLo

If we are to have GMs that are being paid, they could be limited to play on servers where they were not working as GMs.

Merek

I want as little interaction between myself and GM's as possible. Dealing with bots is fine but parading around like a community server admin? No thanks.

maouw

I think it would be cool to see the GM's spend ~80% of their time in ghost mode, and 20% playing the game themselves - that way they also have insight into the player experience of things that are happening in the server.

Evorith

I remember GM's in UO and EQ1 and 2. We even had Dev's come and join our EQ2 raids when we where clearing raid zones both in the beta's and when it went live. I got to know a few very well. A good relationship with the player base is a great idea. From what I have watched over the last few days it feels like they do want to listen and are very active with this!

I also remember being a guide in EQ 2 for a while too.

As long as there is good communication even if you don't agree with what they are saying I would rather been informed.

It seems they are hands on ATM.

KeeperBrGO

yes kinda, just not too much

Dolyem

Jhoren wrote: »

I appreciate the volunteering sentiment, but I think it opens things up to abuse of power, preferential treatment and liability issues for Intrepid. So, paid IS employees only please.

Yea it is definitely a huge risk but it doesnt have to be as simple as clicking a button and attaining powers. It could be treated as a job without requiring compensation if people are willing to go through the training and agree to the terms of taking on the responsibility as well as the consequences for abusing it. It would be lovely to have everyone doing it get paid but I have no idea how realistic it would be to have an army of GMs that are being paid.

Voidwalkers

I'd rather the GMs focus their time & effort on enforcing the EULA / rules and banning RMT, botting etc. And more importantly, I think we all hope GMs will wield their GM powers FAIRLY.

Allowing a GM to have frequent (non ticket-related) interaction with players (or worse, have players volunteer as GM) might lead to the GM forming a bias and favoring his/her "friends" - As it has happened multiple times in some eastern mmorpgs that were run poorly.

I mean, here in Asia we've seen scandals about a game's GM going rogue and roflstomped other guilds/players with his friends

maouw

Voidwalkers wrote: »

I'd rather the GMs focus their time & effort on enforcing the EULA / rules and banning RMT, botting etc. And more importantly, I think we all hope GMs will wield their GM powers FAIRLY.

Allowing a GM to have frequent (non ticket-related) interaction with players (or worse, have players volunteer as GM) might lead to the GM forming a bias and favoring his/her "friends" - As it has happened multiple times in some eastern mmorpgs that were run poorly.

I mean, here in Asia we've seen scandals about a game's GM going rogue and roflstomped other guilds/players with his friends

Yeah, I can see that happening

Noaani

Voidwalkers wrote: »

I mean, here in Asia we've seen scandals about a game's GM going rogue and roflstomped other guilds/players with his friends

I am always somewhat suspect of claims like this. While I know it does happen, it is rare among AAA games.

A GM doing something like this isn't putting their game account in jeopardy, they are putting their job - and potential career - in jeopardy.

As a concern, it is about on par with being concerned that a game developer may purposefully introduce a bug that they can exploit in game. Sure they are both possible, but any developer worth a shit would see it happen and fire the person responsible (even in areas with laws tilted towards employees rather than employers, this is something you can be immediately fired for - you are bringing the reputation of the entire company in to question).

I also find the comments about GM's enforcing the games EULA a little amusing - that is the single most inefficient way it can be done. Investigations against botting and such are far more effective using server logs than in person observing. GM's often just do this because it is a bad look if you have many people telling a representative of the company that botting is going on, and instead of looking in to it they hold an event or party or some such.

And at the end of the day, that is what an in game GM is for, being a representative of the company to the players.

Voidwalkers

Noaani wrote: »

I am always somewhat suspect of claims like this. While I know it does happen, it is rare among AAA games.

A GM doing something like this isn't putting their game account in jeopardy, they are putting their job - and potential career - in jeopardy.

This depends on what kind of ppl they hire as GM, which in turn depends on pay i.e. resources invested into this. Some random part-time GMs certainly wouldn't mind putting their job at risk ...
But yes, it's probably rare among AAA games and hopefully will not be an issue in Ashes, hopefully.

Noaani wrote: »

I also find the comments about GM's enforcing the games EULA a little amusing - that is the single most inefficient way it can be done. Investigations against botting and such are far more effective using server logs than in person observing. GM's often just do this because it is a bad look if you have many people telling a representative of the company that botting is going on, and instead of looking in to it they hold an event or party or some such.

Well I never said GMs alone are sufficient for enforcing the policies, with the number of players nowadays policy enforcement is likely impossible without backend log / data analysis. But at times you still need a human to investigate, otherwise you end up with cases like the guild-war ban-hammer-exploit in NW.

Flag suspicious activities with algorithms, investigate / handle appeals with GMs.

Yuyukoyay

As long as they don't abuse their power as I've heard GMs can be known to do in the past.

I'd rather have them than not having, but it gives them a lot of power to openly cheat in the game to maintain the balance of the server. If they play the game then I'd like them to have to use a separate account.

Also so they wouldn't be allowed to use that power to benefit their main playing account in anyway.

As long as that is upheld then I have no complaints.

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