Breakfast Topic: If you could be a real GM what would you do?
by Lesley Smith 
Apr 30th 2009 at 8:00AM
Gamesmasters have been in WoW news a lot recently. We've had reports that a GM mistakenly sent Martin's Fury out to a player leading to pwnage in Ulduar. For the last twenty four hours, my inbox and those of the rest of the team seem to be full of screenshots showing a weird new bug where player characters suddenly become GMs, if only cosmetically (they get the little Blizzard logo next to their names, but none of the power).Since I started playing back in 2006, I've been fascinated by the Blues. Players speak their names with reverence. They exist unseen throughout Azeroth and have amazing abilities. Like many other players, I've opened tickets and engaged them in-game. I've even met a few in real life as well at the Darkmoon Faire and last year's WWI.
Now I know the life of a GM is not all roses, that their powers are kept in check by rules and regulations, but if you had the chance to be a real GM for five minutes, what would you do? Personally I'd go hang out on GM Island or walk into the hardest instance and smote everything before me. So come on, readers, if you had the chance and the power, what would you do?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Eleris Apr 30th 2009 8:06AM
Make priests able to dwield and equip the Twin Blades of Azzinoth!
Axolotl Apr 30th 2009 8:06AM
GM Island (allthough not much to see there) and maybe summon a couple of raid-bosses into an Alliance startertown
Axolotl Apr 30th 2009 8:25AM
I'd go completely powermad in game, forget Elune, from then on it would be Temple of Axolotl :D
But since the work of a GM is mostly in the background, I wouldn't wanna do it (but I'd appreciate one-shotting everything in the world)
Ferarro Apr 30th 2009 10:08AM
There's more to GM island than most people realize, by the way. =)
Marc Sadowski Apr 30th 2009 10:21AM
I'm surprised no one posted links to Penny Arcade yet:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/01/10/
and
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/07/22/
Brian Boitano Apr 30th 2009 11:49AM
I'd make a plan and I'd follow through. That's what Brian Boitano'd do.
Zeplar Apr 30th 2009 6:11PM
Someone in my guild just logged in as a GM. Pretty cool.
Vandar Apr 30th 2009 8:07AM
I would actively police Trade chat. Most nights on Proudmore-US, it is a vile cesspool of asshats. People go on there just to make trouble...cough Canteezy cough.
Balius Apr 30th 2009 8:22AM
This.
Angus Apr 30th 2009 9:35AM
Trade Chat: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Thyz Apr 30th 2009 9:45AM
@Angus: Ever been to 4chan? That's the bottom of internet's society these days.
BulletzBill Apr 30th 2009 9:39AM
That.
Wolftech Apr 30th 2009 9:42AM
I'm glad to see I am not the only Proudmoore citizen who hates seeing trade polluted. If only the GMs assigned to PM weren't so smegging useless.
Wolftech Apr 30th 2009 9:55AM
@Thyz
Proudmoore trade chat is like 4chan /b/ without the pictures.
Ishunu Apr 30th 2009 9:56AM
mVandar, if you think Proudmoore trade chat is bad, you should see Archimonde! PM is tame in comparison...
Stages Apr 30th 2009 1:46PM
This is exactly what I would do. 3 hour bans for anyone who uses the wrong channel to spam things, permabans for anyone who participates in the "anal [whatever]" game.
vazhkatsi Apr 30th 2009 3:27PM
ah, fascists, you guys are great. you have your rules and every single person has to live according to your standards. and if they don't? you get rid of them. freedom of speech unfortunately doesn't mean you have a right to censor and ban whatever you feel is inappropriate.
Aykwa Apr 30th 2009 4:34PM
Feedom of speech was installed by the founders not as a way to harass other citizens, but as a way to ensure that citizens could speak freely about the government. Remember that the Bill of Rights is made up of things to protect the people from their own government. Has nothing to do with being able to say what you want to another citizen. In fact, if you do so today, you will can still be punished for harassment or threats or "fighting words" that instigate others to violence against you or anybody else. Freedom of speech is our freedom to speak against government, nothing more, and anyone who doesn't understand that is sorely ignorant of both history and (to a lesser degree) the legal body since then. My right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins, and that is no less applicable in speech.
Luckily, WoW is a private enterprise, and can allow whatever it wants on its own servers (as long as it is not illegal). I think what irks people is that they have these TOS rules, and it seems like they're not enforced. Either they should remove such things from the TOS, or enforce it. Otherwise you have rules that seem arbitrary and leave much room for favoritism and apparent persecution. For example, if nobody gets punished for a certain TOS violation, but then a GM sees a player that he thinks is annoying doing it, he could then use the TOS as a weapon against that one player, while he/she was doing nothing different from anyone else. That is certainly Blizzard's right, but that's why people complain. If Blizz either enforced its TOS aggressively OR removed those items from the TOS completely, I think we'd see complaints about it go away completely.
And as for fascists... since Blizz is not a government, there can be no fascists. Private companies may ban what they wish (long as they stay legal), and doing is is capitalist by nature.
Avan Apr 30th 2009 8:09AM
Spawn all of the faction leaders in Dalaran during peak hours.
king0lag Apr 30th 2009 8:11AM
I'm so tired of people claiming a "weird new bug" where they become a GM or get the tag. If a GM has to hop on your character to fix something, and you either log on when they are on it, or they forget to remove the tag, you get it. It's not a bug, it's just a silly mistake on the part of a GM. I can't imagine how many times I've seen some idiot on my server get the tag and spam trade only to receive a nice 72 hour ban.
If you get the tag, report it to a GM to fix. End of story. You mess around acting like your a GM and you'll take a nice Blizzard sponsored vacation from WoW.
No one cares, you're not an elite hacker.