To people who complain about GMs

Note, this is going to be a little rant I decided to type up after seeing quite a bit of ignorance today. I don't usually get involved in this type of stuff, but right now I've decided to just put my little opinion out there.

When it comes to seeing people hate on GMs, usually I tend to ignore it. And often times, it really gets on my nerves. About an hour ago I saw a person by the name of xellabella sort of put up a little complaining rant about the GM's not helping people and similar things of the sort. He/she smega'd this one particular line of text that truly, honestly, really got under my skin. I forgot what exactly he/she said, but it went along the lines of "The GMs are not doing anything to help". Xella, if you are reading this, tell me this. Do you have any intellect at all of exactly how many people are on this server every day? I've been playing for about a month now, and I've seen the amount of players grow significantly. On average there are over 500 people online everyday now. Over FIVE-HUNDRED. That's 500 people who have the potential to use the ~gm feature to report a problem. Now, I'm not saying that once there is a server-wide crash or something of the sort, 500+ people will instantly use ~gm. However I'm using the information of the playerbase to give you a perspective of actually how many people attempt to contact a GM. Do you seriously think a handful of people can instantly solve people's issues in a matter of seconds? No! And then you'll say they don't even care enough to respond back. Uh, hello? Put yourself in their shoes and just attempt to imagine the amount of ~gm reports they receive on a daily basis. And guess what? These GM's you're constantly berating? They are ACTUAL HUMAN BEINGS. So inevitably, they are going to have ACTUAL LIVES TO ATTEND TO. Wow, its crazy right? All kidding aside, these people have real life matters to attend to. Do you think when they were accepted into the role of the GM, mental status has to be hooked onto the server 24/7? Do you ever think these GMs have to, god forbid, SLEEP, HANG OUT WITH FRIENDS, OR EAT? Another thing that got on my nerves is when you said how being a GM was merely a "position name" and they had no obligation to help players. I'm not even going to explain on how ludicrous that even sounds.

So yeah. GMs sometimes can't get to you. But the reason why sometimes a GM can't get to you if probably because they are busy with plenty of OTHER reports besides yours. Oh yeah, that's another thing. How pretentious are you people to think that when you send a ~gm, it as if its some sort of god send complaint that ABSOLUTELY has to be answered to, or else the GM's "aren't doing their job". Also, these GMs are real people, guys. They have lives, again, god forbid.

So, that was my little rant and my general 2 cents. Lata
-Ngooyen

 

The fact that are 0 to 1 GM's at one point at the server makes me disagree with you, there's no way 1 GM can handle everything.
There has to be a few people that are qualified to be a GM.
@Matt seems to go with the approach of small but reliable staff, slowly recruiting GMs for this this server, and i don't blame him, but this micromanagement has it's downsides that are clearly showing. to me it feels like mapleroyals is ran like a small business.
I will disagree with you again when you say GMs have a life therefore they can't be there always, yes they do have a life (hopefully), and nobody is expected to be a full time employee, but there are literally 100s of players who will do that for free, 24/7, and will even kiss ass while they do it.
that's not the kind of people you want. but there gotta be at least a few of those 100s, that are legitimately qualified.
I do not know what is the risk involved with putting someone as GM, but it seems like they treat every applicant with such caution as if they were to come and delete the server as soon as they get the GM position.

 

This isn't a thread to discuss if the server needs more gm's, or discuss how the server handles staff applications.

 

She's entitled to her opinion, I guess? - Perhaps she doesn't receive any help from GMs, ever (bad timing when sending reports, ignored or whatever reason). Personally, I don't tend to use the gm command so I've received help from it twice out of probably eight to ten times since I joined this server. That one out of four/five ratio is bad, but I'm aware there's a big player base here so it doesn't really matter to me. Some others expect to get help in a more efficient manner, like some other smaller servers provide (for obvious reasons, they're smaller). If they think MapleRoyals way of handling problems is not that good, then what does that have to do with you?

This thread was made to continue the argument you got into, so the title is somewhat misleading.

 

There are very good reasons why the admins are hesitant to hire GMs. The temptation and possibility for abuse is very high with that level of power; there have been many instances where there has been GM abuse, some of which became public (Ashlee) and many more that didn't. So while I agree that we do need more GMs, I also know that it's MUCH easier said than done.

OT: When I became a GM the first ~gm sent my way was "help pls." No joke. Sadly this happened all the time too, and in some cases that message would be sent multiple times with a final message asking why no one helped them...

A good rule of thumb is, help the GM help you. Be as succinct as possible, be patient, and above all just be courteous and thankful that the GMs are willing to offer as much help as they do. They really don't have to, and in GMS GMs were basically invisible. So just be thankful that we have active GMs willing to help out as much as they can.

 

There'll always be unreasonable complaints in any game you play. Can't let them get under your skin.

 

I like to look at this as how fans react when a player on their favorite sports team plays like shit. That will person will get boo'd by the audience, get called nasty names and harassed non-stop on their twitter page by angry fans. But none of what gets said is meant to be taken literally or seriously, it's just how people react when they let their emotions take over during the heat of the moment. If anything this indicates that people are passionate for what they're getting upset over, and in our community the scapegoat just so happens to be our beloved GMs. They have arguably the most responsibility out of anyone in the server so it's easy for people to vent their frustrations on them.

Exactly this, don't let these people bug you too much.

 

Sorry that you feel this way, but I was simply voicing how I felt based on my own experience. I surely have ~gm about 10-15 times and I only received a response 2 times. Once from GM Mike, thank you again, and GM Jennifer and we only received help from her because the person in my party had to personally contact her outside of the server to get help. I have been playing this server for more than 3 months and I have not seen any progress concerning help from GMs. I do not expect immediate responses from GMs. I always wait about 30-45 minutes for a response until I log off. GMs have lives, I get it they can't be on all the time. I had my rant and here is yours.

If pointing out something that needs to be improved puts me in a bad light then I guess no one should complain.

XO
-xelabella

 

I completely understand your position and I'm sorry to put you in a bad light. You're entitled to your own opinions, but it's just that I'm constantly hearing berating against the GMs. In a way I was sort of angry against people who did that in this thread here. But hey, who am I do even care about these people? I guess in the end, I iust wanted all the angry people to know that although a GM may not get to you, he or she may be busy working with other people in your exact predicament or may have a ton of other work to do.

@Plenty I'll take your word and try to not let people get under my skin next time. I just wanted xelabella and others in her situation to know the sheer amount of work these hardworking GMs are putting into the server and that they aren't careless, inconsiderate goofballs who do nothing to attempt to make the server better.

 

Contacting a GM out of game or on their non GM character is an awful thing to do. Imagine if you were a GM and people constantly PMed you on the forums, on skype or on something else asking for a rewarp. It becomes rather annoying, especially since GMs do have other things to do! They can't be constantly available for people to harass them into warps. If they're on their GM character then ~gm will suffice, if not don't try to force them into anything.

There's a difference in pointing out flaws in a helpful and constructive manner and just being a jerk. I'm not saying you were being a jerk, I have no idea, but I see so many people acting towards the GMs in a way that comes very near harrassment. This has never been, is not, and should never be acceptable discourse. It is entirely possible to air your grivences in a constructive manner; unfortunately many people choose to berate people and lower the level of discourse to little more than childish whining.

 

I came to the word "rant", then I saw the wall of text and.. tl;dr

 

Did I miss something in the bold text? And yes I was as succinct as possible and patient 30-45 minutes each time I ~gm for help. Everyone has a limit to how patient they could be and my limit was at the 10th - 15th time I haven't received a response. I never ~gm more than once when I need help because I know you're getting my messages and getting 10 more from the same person for the same problem makes it even more difficult for you.

I would just like to point out this was not my idea to message a GM outside of the server. I was completely unaware of it happening until I asked the party if there were any GMs on and they explained their plans when it happened. I do agree with you that it is annoying and an awful thing to do.

 

I doubt this bothers the staff at all, they're probably doing their job properly, some people just don't have patience

 

I disagree with the OP. It's not just a position name, it comes with responsibilities, but no one is under any obligation to help or even be a GM.

 

Exactly. The GMs on Royals applied for the position (and responsibilities!), however there is always the option to leave the position (if they so choose to). Now with that being said, GMs are "supposed to help" they are not necessarily required to sacrifice their responsibilities outside of Royals just so you can have your ~gm request responded to. Now there is the issue of timezones, again, they're not required to necessarily come running when you need them at whatever-o'clock, there are nearly 500-600 users and less than 10 GMs, how can you possibly expect a response when their screens are being flooded by server input and other user issues and information.

GMs are important and should be respected, just as users should. Remember, every GM on Royals has once been a player and (most often) is still a player.
Give the GMs a break!

 

@Rob I think you misunderstood. Previous to this piece of text which I wrote and xela bolded: "being a GM was merely a "position name" and they had no obligation to help players", it reads "Another thing that got on my nerves is when you said how.." and so forth continuing with the stated bold text above. It was meant to be directed towards xela as a paraphrase of what she had said, NOT as a statement of MY opinion. Just wanted to clear that up since it appears above you thought that was actually what I thought, which in fact, is the complete opposite of my actual ideas.

Edit: I just completely realized that although the title of this thread is "To People Who Complain About GMs", my entire rant had been primarily focused on what xela said that day. However, I wanted to create an image of a group of people standing behind xela. This group of people, who instead of giving rational, reasonable opinions, merely berate the GMs as not being able to carry out their tasks. And to be frank, I didn't hear one good constructive voice from xela that day, which in the end just led to many upset, annoyed people in the smegas regarding the way xela was giving her outlook.

 

I just encountered a hacker in FM Ch1 Entrance, me and everyone else. he was sending packets and DCing people for around 15 minutes,
he went on to vac and got auto banned, he could have easily stayed there and continued to send packets till a GM would have logged in and banned him, but that could have taken as much as 30mins to 1 hour.
Alot of people indeed get DCed, including me, again having 0-1 GMs online has a big downside, because for those 15 minutes that 1 hacker made royal look like a joke, which it isn't, it's one of the most GMs like server iv'e ever played on, but could use more working hands.

 

To be honest, it's stuff like this that is what I simply think is a bad case of unfortunate timing. Because the GMs did not happen to be on, there's just simply nothing we can do. However, its cases like these that people tend to use as ammunition against the GMs for the purpose of labeling them like, "See? This is a perfect example of why GMs aren't hardworking enough and don't pay enough attention." In the end, I think its just misfortunate timing that a hacker happened to be on while most moderators weren't. I do agree establishing more GMs could relieve problems like this quickly, but I have read somewhere before that it's a very intricate process to determine who is worthy enough to have the position with that kind of power.

 

During that time, GMs taking care of other things and making their way to the hacker. There were at least two GMs on at the time this hacker was. I was part of a group helping feed them the information they needed in order to get said hacker banned. In fact, the reason that the hacker got himself autobanned was because he was approached by GMs and then said screw it and just decided to autoban himself.

People need to keep things in mind.

• 15-30 minutes is not a long time. You should assume that a GM is always already in process of doing something when they are online. Between getting on, taking care of things IRL, taking care of things in game, reading through the list of ~gm requests, checking the forums, etc. it hasn't been long for them.
• You at no point are EVER aware of what the GM is taking care of. There will always be more posts of people complaining about slow response times than those thanking GMs. Because of this, it perpetuates people's beliefs that the GMs are "never doing anything and are useless." People need to remember that they do not see what the GMs are busy doing. Whether they are busy with their own lives, busy taking care of someone else's request, or even busy relaxing and taking a break from life, they are busy people.

So please don't make their lives harder with floods of complaints. They understand that your game experience has been inconvenienced by ___ and are there to help. The best way to get said help is to use the Support Forums. It may take some time, but they will get to you. Meanwhile, there's plenty of other stuff you could be doing in game.

 

We have already established that people are stupid, immature, and will ~Gm for every little thing and expect to get a quick response. people are gonna be people. Having more GMs not only could, it will in fact will make a big difference in response time, it's simple logic.
let me go back to what @Plenty said, you can't let people get to you, it's a customer service position, not everyone is suited for that.
I did not in anyway criticize existing GMs, that was never my point, your first post is very poorly written as you quote other players without mentioning it. it looks like you are simply trying to imply that most people are complaining that the existing GMs aren't doing their work good enough and that's what made me reply in a topic that iv'e already discussed a fair amount.
Iv'e never said that current GMs staff aren't doing their job, they work like an understaffed McDonalds in a rush hour imo.

Please read my previous post too if you hadn't.
I doubt the hacker got himself banned, he probably saw how much he got away with and wanted to see how far he can get so he started Vaccing, also this is great that you were "part of a group that was helping feed information", sorry but i LOLed at this one.
the guy is sending packets in fm, and i'm sure there were around 30 reports, it's a simple ban that requires no additional information, besides GM wrapping himself to the map, and banning the guy, that brings us back to the topic of, current GMs are doing great job, we just dont have enough of them.

15-30 minutes is not very long at all, in fact it's amazing response time, for things like re wraps ,and that would be really nice if we could achieve that, but they are not as important as hacking/duping/exploits that are being reported and that's why 1 out 4 times you'll never get re-wrapped at all, you also have big amount of reports that should never get any attention because they are simply waste of staff's time or not detailed enough like "help pls".
but when it comes to hacking in fm1 entrance, I am still sure however there was no GM at the time that could respond, weather they had been doing something else, or weren't on at the time (which i had to assume, because when someone is hacking in FMCH1 Entrance, any GM would leave what they were doing(in game) and go deal with that real quick) and again Lila, like I said to OP I am not criticizing current GMs, they are doing great work and you can stop kissing ass.