Game Masters - what good are they?

Hello all

I just wanted to discuss a topic around game masters. When a player raises a ticket and a game master gets in touch… Majority of the time, it feels like they just don’t want to help. I tend to feel when I need help with something or a bug has occured ‘What’s the point in raising a ticket… they won’t do anything’ - That is my general thought about game masters these days.

So a guildie of mine had an issue this week. He completed a full vision but he didnt receive one of the pages… the chest simply opened and shut so quick and snapped his hand off and kept the page lol. So he raised a ticket… this is the reply below:

*"Game Master *Edited ** here, and I understand that we weren’t able to loot a page after completing a Horrific Vision, and want to get our Vessel refunded. I’ve had issues like this in Visions before as well, so I know how frustrating these can be.

First thing’s first, I went through our bug report database to see if the developers have been able to identify any issues with this quest. So far we have not received any other similar reports like this that we have been able to confirm. This means as far as we currently know, this quest is working as it’s supposed to."

He literally said he had the same problem and completely contradicted himself in my eyes!! they couldnt give him the page or give him a vial to re do the vision. I have now lost a guildie due to this so thank you Game Masters for your lack of help once again haha!

Note - I know on certain occasions they probably do help players - but its not as often as it should be in my opinion.

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Game Masters are not owners of ActiBlizz, they have their rules and even if they think exactly like you, they must give you generic answer to not lose the job, this is making those unnice situations, like the one you described. As far as i see they are pretty helpful, one day i deleted leatherworking on my rogue, which disabled my crafted items on me, yeah, stupid me, i made a ticket and after 12 hours i had my full LW restored, i don’t have bad experience with GMs, and i think they will gladly help if only they have permission and power to do so.

Yeah, they’re completely hopeless.

Every single time they perform a faction merge they break a whole slew of different things.

I ran into a lot of this, and I contacted a GM asking if they could fix a few things up and make some restoration.

They told me to reset my UI and file a bug report. It was a hilariously long reply with no content of value.

Here’s a list of what went wrong: The bugs start showing up at point 4.
GM’s were unable and/or unwilling to help with any of it.

There used to be a time when GM’s would show up in blue robes to actually sort bugs out. That was the difference between a GM and a generic support representative, and it was one of the reasons we paid €15/mo.

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This always frustrates me … people assume that, as someone works for Blizzard, they are able to develop a game, draw the artwork for a region, run the servers, make the accounts and restore items.
GMs are GMs. They work for the customer service department. They cannot sort things out that either they don’t have access to or are fobidden from doing.
They are not allowed to refund vessels. They have not been allowed to do so since the start of the patch. They do not have anything to do with joining servers and only have limited abilities to fix things that are broken as a result. Make a bug report which will go to the people who actually can do something about it.

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That frustrates me.

The term “Game Master” comes from the term “Dungeon Master” in D&D. Yes, I’m sure, because I asked one of the vanilla designers about it. Like Dungeon Masters their purpose is to be all-powerful such that they can fix problems or make changes to the game world when the campaign, in WoW’s case the game data and programming, has a defect that causes a very poor experience until an official fix can be developed.

They are not your ordinary run-of-the-mill service representative.

So yes, they should have the ability to restore items lost as a result of the server crashing. They should have the ability to fix a raid lockout when they can actively see it and confirm it’s there and broken. They should have the ability to delete and undelete characters to fix them if they’re broken (even the player can do that! But they might be nervous to). They had the ability to restore any item until the item restoration program was established as well. They even have the ability to go inside a boss-room and kill everybody when they detect an exploit in the world first race, and they have been known to do so.

I absolutely disapprove of the premise that Game Masters are just service representatives meant to give you some BS non-answers. I don’t need them - they are useless. They are without purpose, nice as they are. Might as well fire or reallocate the lot of them if this is how they’re used. Ideally though, their purpose should be found again.

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Actually I agree with most of that … it would be good if they could still do things like that, but that’s how it is at the moment. To try to change it would mean going much higher up the chain as I presume it’s a management decision and not just immediate management either.

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There is a difference between a Dungeon Master and Gary Gygax. Dungeon masters had a set of rules and they should have followed them, even if it meant the death of a character or an important item wasn’t won on a roll. They were usually given a chance to get it again, like your friend.

And “Issues like this” is not the same as “I have had this issue”, they obviously have rules to follow and one is they are not allowed to give out certain items.

Yes, they used to be able to do a lot more but have had their powers lessened.

Yes.

That’s why I’m saying it here and not to their face. :slight_smile:

No. A Dungeon Master’s word is law when playing D&D. He is only answerable to his players saying “You suck, cba” and leaving.

He can change the death system or any number of other systems. He can invent worlds, invent enemies, invent items, add NPC’s, remove NPC’s, change encounters. He is literally the master of the game. To him, the rulebook is nothing more than a guide. Which is good, because it’s massive and nearly impossible to follow in full without a lot of experience.

Now, I’m not trying to imply that Game Masters should run amok. Not at all. But if the game actually breaks, like it did for me those few weeks ago and like it regularly does for many others, then they absolutely should have the power to fix it.

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They will receive instructions on what they can and can’t do from the US middle managers, effectively tying their hands. You can’t get in touch with them to complain about it.

No, they follow the rules set down by the maker of the game, Gary Gygax, their dungeon may be their own creation but the rules in the book should be followed, otherwise it’s not D&D.

If Blizzard’s “We read your feedback and pass it on” promise means anything it means that this is the place to do it.

I’m not sure where I have seen that quote, or even if I have.

Also you are thinking about them incorrectly, think of them as glorified Tech Support not game writers and as such they have rigid guidelines to work within.

Every interaction I’ve ever had with a Game Master, except one, has been positive.

The one that wasn’t, when I reopened the ticket, I was actually apologized to, explained why the original GM told me what he did (he misunderstood my request), and given a free mount from the Blizzard store for my trouble. Although I do have to point out that this happened in the WOTLK Era.

But then, I understand that GM’s aren’t there to bend over backwards, and that they have rules and restrictions that even they must adhere to, and that they are not there to fix my mistakes (not saying this point applies to you, but it certainly applies to a lot of complaints I read about on these forums).

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my guildie had another reply… Game Masters are useless!

"This is Game Master edited by staff.

From what I can see here you’ve decided to unsubscribe.

That is your descision.

Wishing you luck and hoping you have a good day.
Gromnaskod."

Clearly they don’t care about gamers experience whatsoever.

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Ive never seen a GM thread that does not contain you saying how good and amazing they are while all the rest say the exactly opposite.

I dont think you convince anyone in your desperate “lawyer” attempts buddy.

As said above, they are not allowed to refund vessels for whatever reason. These are the rules given to them and, if they broke the rule, their job would be in jeopardy. How hard is that to understand?

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Obviously they threated to quit if they didn’t get it, the GM was replying to that, I also doubt the posters friend was nice about it either. I think the GM showed restraint.

Doesn’t using the GMs name count as breaking the rules?

I’ve had nothing but good replies from GMs, I may not have gotten what I asked for but they have always been nice about saying no.

Good for you.
While i got strife essence on that monk and not on the priest, they tried to convince me it was a bug i took it and it was OK that my priest did not take it.

The first 2 replies was an automated copy/paste message that they didnt even read my reply, just title. Because if they did they would know i got it in one player and not in the other.

The 2rd time i asked nicely they politely threatened me that they should take the essence off my monk instead of giving them to priest.

I was capped.
I was over the requested rio
They where bored and full of excuses.

Now i see you replying here, i remember seeing you acting like Trovlak fully supporting these poor GM’s in each and every thread. You really think your posts can convince us while GM’s gave 0 damn’s about the problem?

You should not.

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I think you are wrong about that. They have rules to follow just like any employee of any company. The thing is that most customers think, and it’s common among the uninitiated, the customer is always right, in fact the majority of the time they are wrong.

You also have to remember not every GM knows everything about the game, they probably support all the Blizzard games as well.

Rule are copy paste the same message and me having to wait for a 3rd ticket for them to read what i already wrote: I GOT IT IN ONE CHAR stop BSing me.

I should have got that essence piece, i wasted my time inside arenas for it. Im not wrong, they are wrong not giving it to me and you are even more wrong supporting them blindly.

Then they should not be GM’s because they become the not useful GM’s people talk about here and you plus that DK supporting them and wondering why :joy:

GMs may have been that once, long ago, they are ingame CS now and don’t fix anything, that’s what the Devs do, it seems you are getting hung up on the name and it’s historical references.

If they do give stuff out it could break things they don’t know anything about, which is why they have rules to follow. The GMs are not useless but have their hands tied and cannot do certain stuff.

They can’t take peoples word for what happened and use the internal logs to support or deny a request. If it’s not in the log or the wrong character looted something, they can’t move it around unless a strict set of rules are followed.