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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast 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 6 of 6)
TheChao Apr 30th 2009 1:13PM
Just so you know, there are different levels of GMs.
Most of the people answering tickets are the desk GMs that literally sit at a desk all day, answering stupid tickets and telling people they can't just give you 1000g for being nice. Pretty much all they can do is teleport anywhere, teleport YOU anywhere, check your inventory/quests completed/account info, and maybe despawn the occasional mob (but not spawn anything). Since most of these tasks dont actually require them to be ingame, they would use the text interface with all their magic GM buttons. If a ticket calls for something more extreme, they have to call in someone with more power.
Higher GMs can do anything the lower ones can, but can also spawn mobs, give or take skills/spells to players and usually show up in person. Such as the good old days when they would banish a group of wall walkers to the middle of ocean.
Master GMs are the ones we all fear. They can give or take items at will, change your faction, or even your name. Maybe even plop you in GM prison.
Anyway, you should know, they dont patrol trade for one reason: its a waste of time. The reason you can report people is to report them. GMs dont watch chat channels at all unless there is a reason for them to be in the zone (fixing a players problem). If you expect them to always moderating the trade channel, of both factions, 24 hours a day, across who knows how many servers...
thats all i can think of to say.
Lapsus Apr 30th 2009 1:28PM
I would just wipe everyone that is alive dead. (if that was possible) just kill everything in the world of warcraft. and loot me a timeloss proto drake and call it a good 5 minutes.
George Apr 30th 2009 1:48PM
Nope, but I can tell you are on crack.
Bridgelurker Apr 30th 2009 1:49PM
I would force in game popup windows for url's of single's hook-up websites to roleplayers. Just on the off chance that even one of them would meet someone in real life and end up getting laid for the first time. Perhaps then, there would be one fewer roleplayer on the servers. And that alone, would be worth the infinite powers of a GM.
VrakeBrae Apr 30th 2009 5:53PM
I'd ban all the people like the guy above, and enforce the rules of the RP realms actively. If you play on an RP realm you agree to the extra terms. Anyone who does not agree will have characters moved, and would be treated the same way as they would if they committed an offense on any other realm, anything up to a permanent ban for aggressive anti-RP behavior.
Auraeus Apr 30th 2009 1:57PM
Being on an RP server...
-Ban (or warn/force name change) on those with unnacceptable names. (Namely, phuta, futaa, and all those other ERP names)
-Enforce the trade chat rules (Goodbye murloc/anal)
-I'm not sure if ERP is against the ToS, but I find it immature to cyber in a VIDEOGAME, so I'd take action if it was against the rules.
- And of course, I'd get rid of anti-RPers.
-And finally... free beer for everyone!!! :D
Alliminaro Apr 30th 2009 2:29PM
Me? I'd give Donna her dolly back so that she will shut up about William stealing it D:
Namy Apr 30th 2009 3:09PM
I agree! If I was GM I'd make all the NPCs in major cities say something else for a change. Also I'd make some huge beast jump out of SW canal and eat those fishing boys... yes you did hear something, raaaa!
Matchu Apr 30th 2009 2:45PM
Teleport everyone, including NPCs in SW to Org and vice versa. That'll confuse them ¬¬
Amun Apr 30th 2009 7:46PM
My brother in law is a GM. He plays AoC in his spare time. =/
vazhkatsi Apr 30th 2009 3:30PM
rename trade to commerce to clarify that in a morketplace/barter type society, conversing about things other than prices and who sells what is important and part of trade.
Ramsey May 1st 2009 2:39PM
walk down the hallway and punch ghost crawler square in his pee pee
Moo Apr 30th 2009 3:54PM
(I haven't read all the comments so stop me if you've heard this one...)
I'd probably interact more with the players (without tainting things). One story I ran across in Guildwatch yesterday was pretty cool. A GM named Leayre had been helping a guild with an instance glitch during their Immortal run. She then showed up during their next Immortal attempt to root them on, and even supplied a fireworks show when they finally made it.
I thought it was a nice story.
There's a blog on it here: http://www.unbearably.net/2009/04/13/my-immortal/
Being able to do stuff like that for players from time to time would be fun.
Mognet T Apr 30th 2009 4:20PM
I'd nerf locks again, just for fun.
Rakeesh Apr 30th 2009 5:03PM
Hunt down the people demanding unreasonable changes and beat some common sense into 'em....and camp them.....every single one of their characters at once....none would be safe! NONE!
Ensoulled Apr 30th 2009 5:45PM
In addition to the standard GM duties, I’d:
1) One a week, I’d spawn a world dragon in a low level area. The mob would be “nerfed” to various levels and only characters of that level (1-19 ; 20-29; 71-80; etc) would be able to hit it. The mob would drop either an item from a raid boss or an especially crafted item. Anyone who did damage or healed someone who did damage during the fight would be eligible for the loot. I’d act as master looter so that no one could ninja. There would be a lock out zone put in around the mob also. That way no one could show up for the last hit point and get the loot. I wouldn’t announce it until 30 min before the creature spawned; thus, encouraging players to already be logged in in order to be able to participate in the spontaneous events. I’d vary the times and days so that people who play during different shifts would have their chance. This type of event would encourage more account activity beyond the people who log in just for their raid times and would give players who aren’t in raid guilds the chance at a high quality (for their level bracket) item.
2) I’d encourage Blizz to do weekly town invasions of the scourge. Imagine people rushing to Org or Stormwind to defend the city from NPC’s! (Similar to the invasions of SW harbor before WotLk came out.) There would be mobs of various levels who would be immune to damage done by anyone who was eight levels above them. The event would lead up to some type of mini boss. The GM (or GMs) would act like the master looter.
3) I’d show up in battlegrounds.
4) I’d offer people the chance to duel me for an Emblem of Conquest.
5) I’d set up a gallows where once a week an effigy of a gold seller or account trader would get hung.
Oh man, I could brainstorm these ideas all day!
taar Apr 30th 2009 8:23PM
Azeroth would be doomed if such a privledge was granted. I would place every single raid boss in the game, spread throughout every major city, along with mass numbers of ghouls from the world event before WotLK in as many zones as i could in those 5 minutes, preferably alliance zones. :P
Poggg May 3rd 2009 4:10AM
What would I do? Well, I would probably go solo Black Temple and wait for the right time to say "WHO ISN'T PREPARED NOW? AHAHHAHAHHAHAH". Then probably have fun with NPCs and random spawnings of bosses.
Assuming of course this is if Blizzard miraculously allows any of that.