Post by Morreion on Mar 16, 2010 7:39:57 GMT -5
Player Perspectives: I Can't Be Cool (MMORPG.com)
GMs used to be cool. I don't mean that the current GMs across the world of MMOs are all dull, lifeless drones in small cubicles with no love for gaming. I mean that, in the majority of cases, game masters have been stripped of the ability to have fun and do the things that players can love them for. While the people behind the specially marked names may be awesome gamers, often they must suppress their inner geek and put on a suit of cold professionalism.
It didn't used to be this way. There were days when GMs were generally loved by a server's populace because the greatest among them were able to do great, fun things for their server's and game's community. GMs had the ability to run in-game events unsupervised, the ability to teleport at will, to chat with players outside of problem solving, to have a public presence to let their personalities shine and offer a new dimension to the game. There were, of course, the spoil-sports of the GM world: the cold professionals who played by the rules and wanted nothing to do with “the customers.” There were many more, however, who made names for themselves.
It didn't used to be this way. There were days when GMs were generally loved by a server's populace because the greatest among them were able to do great, fun things for their server's and game's community. GMs had the ability to run in-game events unsupervised, the ability to teleport at will, to chat with players outside of problem solving, to have a public presence to let their personalities shine and offer a new dimension to the game. There were, of course, the spoil-sports of the GM world: the cold professionals who played by the rules and wanted nothing to do with “the customers.” There were many more, however, who made names for themselves.
...GMs became invisible beings, only present to answer petitions and rarely showing a public presence in chat channels or in-game. Scripts became standard with customer interactions. The casual GM atmosphere became modernized to the rest of the customer service world: clean, efficient, standardized. There's little doubt that in many ways, the customer service aspect of our gaming improved. Abuse was reduced, favoritism was crushed, and GMs had the training to process every help request effectively.
At the same time, a great deal of the fun and personality of customer service interaction was sapped away. Certainly gamers wanted petitions answered quickly and properly, and wanted to be treated fairly. The life that GMs brought to games previously (personalities, creativity, and that 'personal touch' of assistance) was gone. GMs had become a faceless, nameless entity, there simply to do their job and be forgotten.
At the same time, a great deal of the fun and personality of customer service interaction was sapped away. Certainly gamers wanted petitions answered quickly and properly, and wanted to be treated fairly. The life that GMs brought to games previously (personalities, creativity, and that 'personal touch' of assistance) was gone. GMs had become a faceless, nameless entity, there simply to do their job and be forgotten.
