Change GM Policies | Make GMs useful | Give GMs proper training

[Starcade]

I'd like to wonder when they're going to start enforcing their own damned rules myself...

[Soundwave]

Somewhat off topic but I must know and some of my friends who don't play the game anymore would like to know as well lol....

How is GM Luminous and is he still doing the GM thing?

[Byrth]

what that have to do with gms?

This is what it has to do with the OP:

This is completely rediculous. I once placed a call to a GM regarding the NM Genbu. Upon fighting him a few months ago I noticed that Genbu had gained the Counter trait, however his counter attacks were not appearing in the chatlog (All filters off to check of course). Now, either Genbu was meant to be able to counter and the issue was the counter-attacks not showing up in the chat log. Or Genbu was not meant to counter at all. Upon placing this GM call I was told "It's working as intended". Sorry, it's just obviously not. You're trying to dismiss the matter without actually looking into it whatsoever. I called out the GM on this and eventually he did look into it and finally admitted it was not working as intended and placed a bug report.

So the mob was broken, the GM finally acknowleged this and placed a bug report, however at the start immidiately dismissed the issue because there was no prior report of this. Isn't that somewhat rediculous? It didn't take long after he started to look into the matter to come to the conclusion that it was broken. The fact that he dismissed it immidiately at the start shows either how poor the GM training is, or how worthless and bad at his job that perticular GM is.

So he reported an error that people have doubtlessly been reporting since Sky was created and he was shocked that he didn't get an enthusiastic reply. Heck, he's lucky the GM even agreed with him that it was broken. "Working as intended" is probably the typical response for stuff like that.

[Cerelyn]

I sucessfully got 2 members of a rivil HNM LS banned for attempting to MPK my LS. (On multible occasions)
I was happy.

[Octaviane]

I have had mostly good experiences with GM's when I have felt it necessary to call one. I even got to dance with one in Bastok Mines once. The secret is to state your case calmly and treat them with respect. It is true that most of the time they do nothing or can do nothing about your complaint except refer you to the STF. Problem there is I never saw anything on that site that addressed any complaints that people may have made and there was never any feedback. One area I do think they need to improve on is taking immediate action when some one is being called an "effing c", "bitch", "retard" or having racial/other slurs hurled at them in /sh /say /t. The GM's can see these converstaions, and providing the recipient has done nothing to invite the hate language and does nothing to retaliate, these players should be temp banned and continual infractions should result in a violation being placed on their accounts. Freedom of speech is one thing, taking it to the level I have described is another.

[Unctgtg]

Hey I have spoken to you ingame before

[Octaviane]

Hello Folks,

I have reviewed this thread and as a Supervisor (Senior) for the Game Masters it saddens me to hear of your negative experiences with our staff and I can understand your demands for us to review our GM Policies.

We want you to know that all customer service feedback sent through the Support Center is reviewed by the Supervisors. Unfortunately, the forums are not the best place to voice your concerns about specific service issues because we cannot offer a public reply here. I’ve read over some of the concerns posted in this thread. I agree, it can seem like GMs don’t investigate issues. I want to explain why this may happen. There are times when investigations (for larger issues) take time, so action may not be immediate.

Our PlayOnline Privacy Policy (http://support.na.square-enix.com/ru...tag=polservice) is in place to protect our customers. We never discuss actions taken on an account with anyone outside the individual who registered the account in question, and sometimes actions are delayed. I know this can be confusing as it seems like nothing is being done, but there are a lot of things that are taken into consideration when deciding the appropriate action. We consider factors like previous violations on the account as well as the severity of the offense and because of that it’s not surprising that some folks think we’re being inconsistent.

If you should ever feel that one of our GMs did not uphold the GM Policy (http://support.na.square-enix.com/ab...php?la=1&id=20), we want to hear from you! To give you some insight, the Senior GMs review the feedback email that is submitted via the “Contact” option on our Support Center Site (http://support.na.square-enix.com/co...php?id=20&la=1). There we are able to review your call history and conversation with the GM. We will do everything in our power to make sure the GM staff has all the necessary tools and information to handle all the services we currently offer.

Regarding the Special Task Force concern mentioned, I will let you know that when you place a GM call with the names and a brief description of what is happening, we place reports to the Special Task Force on your behalf so logging out of game is not necessary.

I want to assure you that you are heard, my friends. Part of the reasons we employ Senior GMs is to make sure that GM team follow the rules and policies we’ve set for them. We want to offer you the best possible service and we encourage you to continue to submit feedback through our official Feedback email system. Here is the link for easy access: http://support.na.square-enix.com/co...php?id=20&la=1

Thank you,

-Senior Game Master Jhanaka

I really appreciate the response, and was aware that GM's make brief reports to the STF in our behalf. They also encourage us to back it up with more in depth detail through the STF. However, and although I realize you never discuss issues with parties other than the player who holds the account that made the complaint, surely it can't be that difficult to post at least an acknowledgement. If calling someone all manner of disgusting names and hurling racial slurs is not enough to get a player temp banned (as long as there was no reason to do so and no retaliation from the recipient), please give us some guidelines on what is unacceptable behavior. No-one can get away with that kind of behavior in real life without there being a consequence at some point, so why should it be allowed here?

[Anethia]

I have a couple examples where I know action was actually taken, but I know it through observation.

One instance was camping headlong belt (or hedgelong, I can never remember its name lol) for about 6 hours. There was already another player out there that I had noticed was filling the AH history with the belt. This would not have been an issue except that I noticed the price was increasing every 2 sales. So rather than buy I went to camp the NM. I watched the player in question for about 6 hours. I noticed they were Thf/nin and yet somehow always knew exactly where and when the NM was spawning. This indicated the use of not only a claim bot, but also another program that gives widescan to players that don't have it.

After observing this behavior for 6 hours I called a GM, they said they would look into it, but just to be thorough I needed to file a report to STF. So I filed the report, observed the AH for about 2 more weeks as well as doing sea all's on the name. After about 2 weeks I stopped seeing the character and the name stopped appearing on the in game AH as well as AH.com. So I know action was taken on that one.

Another instance was a player in my dynamis LS that admitted to using a third party program that gave them widescan even though they were Sam/thf. Within 3 days they were booted from the shell and reported to a GM, and within a month they were booted from the game. This same player ninja lotted some byakko's from another player just about a week before that, I believe cesil knows the person I'm talking about since she's the one who got the SS of it.

My point is that even though actions taken may not not be readily visible to the victim, close observation will reveal the presence of action. So try not to be as quick to judge.

[noodles355]

So he reported an error that people have doubtlessly been reporting since Sky was created and he was shocked that he didn't get an enthusiastic reply.

Actually, you miss the point on this issue. The problem was that the GM immidiately dismissed it as "working as intended" without remotely looking into it, but after a bit of persuasion looked into the matter, changed his mind and submitted a bug report. That sort of dismissal attitude, whilst understandable (as seen by the replies in this thread), is not good customer service.

To SGM Jhanaka,
Out of anyone to respond I'm unsurprised it was you. I believe there's quite a few very positive testimonials floating about FFXI message boards about you and your work as a GM.

I'm thankful for your reply, but do still take issue with a few points.
You cite the GM policies and post a URL. Following said URL seems to be nothing but a brief explanation of GMs essentially stating that it is possible to call GMs, and the means to do so. Following the link to the FAQ gives a brief explanation of how GMs handle harrasement, scams and MPK, but has no mention of the specific duties they can and can't perform, nor any mention of 3rd party tool related issues and contact with the STF.

I also have an issue with your statement that GMs forward on 3rd party tool usage cases to the STF, however I don't believe this actually happens for the majority of GMs. I believe some GMs do this, whilst others simply tell you to do it yourself. I think this is one of the biggest problems with the GM team: The lack of consistency. There seems to be a communication breakdown in the department. Different GMs respond differently. Some will immidiately come and observe an issue, a different GM with the exact same infomation will not. Some will report the issue to the STF, others will not. I think this is an issue. All GMs should surely follow the same guidelines and take the same actions.

Furthermore. I take issue with either A) The GM's ability to follow their guidlines, or B) The accuracy of said guidelines. I quote the harrasement section,

Harassment is not taken lightly under the User Agreements and Policies, and if confirmed, will be dealt with swiftly and harshly.
Insuring the well being of those being harassed is just as, if not more important to us than punishing the offending party. If the offending party does not desist from harassing the victim, then further levels of punishment can be introduced to protect the victim from any more unpleasantries.
If you are harassed in any manner, we ask if possible, for you to register the offending players' name in the Black List. If this does not stop the harassment, please make a GM call as soon as possible.

It seems out of this, the only thing actually done is asking the player to add the offender to their black list. That to me does not sound like the situation is being dealt with swiftly and harshly as stated in the FAQ. Yes, you are not permitted to let the victim know of the results, but that doesn't stop the fact that some cases are blindingly obvious that nothing has been done at all.

In closing I'd like to stress again that the inconsistency and lack of communication within the department is proving very detrimental. On top of this, the lackluster responses which essentially boild down to "That's too bad, sorry. Bye" which happen all too frequently do not fit in with the descriptions set out neither in the GM FAQ you linked, nor in your actual post. As I stated before, your last comment about GMs forwarding on 3rd-party-tool related instances to the STF, whilst that may be GM policy, it just doesn't happen.

[Megatron]

ive been playing this game since the NA release. and i have wateched the GM staff spirel into nothiness. they dont do anything. when the level cap was 75 i watched a RDM run around gather 20+ yags on him in campaing. and set there for the entire campaing fighting them one at a time and him never lose hp. not once but 3 or 4 times did i watch this happen. i reported it. others didnt belive me so i had friends come and follow the guy and watch and sure enough. he would gather all the mobs as they came in the area take them off and solo them one at a time till the campaign was over. they called GM after GM we did it on diffrent days. ther responce was the same old copy and paste "well look into it" heres a idea come to me right now and watch him hes doign it now. nada nothing. it not the first tiem just many of endless stories of old GM's who just dont care tehy jsut paste i nthe same old lines so they dont haveto talk or problem solve.

not policing your product is why people leave the game. when people walk all over you and can get by with using 3rd party programs in the open and no one does anything. they have no fear and thus peopel get upset and leave. SE should learn by now that the player base knows more then them when it comes to fixing things. look at ther beloved 14. its a beautiful trash can. and they offer it up as a free to play game and still no one likes it. why? they think they know best and what we want or think and maybe one day thell learn. to jsut lestion to peopel outside the box there looking at now. and get the ideas of people other then those who are costing them there butts now.

give the GM's back tehr power you took. explain to them if they dont do ther jobs.youll get people who will. i know its not hard to find willing people to fill those roles. and maybe when somoene sees a cheater and we see somethign done. you will gain some respect back you lose over the years when your lazy staff. stopped doing ther job.

im sorry im hostile over this subject but after 8 years of having to g oto diffrent websites, and talk to many people over a simple problem that a gm cold click and fix. and didnt my trust, respect are gone. time to get taht back SE your slowly bleeding to death. time to step up and save yourself. ove move over and let us do it for you.


open enrolement for player based GM's