Game Moderation Survey

[Dajoji]

Knowing what the community thinks about our work as Game Masters and how we can improve it is very important for us, so please take a few minutes to answer the following survey:

Click here --> Game Moderation Survey <--Click here
(Estimated time to complete this survey: 5-10 minutes)

Feel free to add comments and elaborate on your experience with Game Masters in this thread but please note that:

1) This thread is for the discussion of the current quality of Game Moderation only, not GM Events. That involves: enforcement of the naming policy, disruptive behavior management, botting, bug exploits, helping players with the game, harassment and other player-player issues, quest testing, etc. Posts addressing GM events will be removed from this thread. We will cover other aspects of GM work in future polls and surveys.

2) This thread is not to become a GM, dev or player flamefest. Feel free to post your experience but do not comment on any specific member of the PS team. If you wish to file a complaint, contact Kerol, the GM Leader. Rants and non-constructive posts will be removed from this thread.

Thank you

[Raa]

I think there needs to be closer moderation of Game Masters. Once when I was logged in (not sure who the character was), some GM whose name started with a K (wouldn't say the full name if I knew it) began to harass me... It went completely unnoticed, despite the fact I reported him/her (the char was a she, but you can never tell these days) several times, and I think I made a petition. He/she told me no one would care because he's/she's with the team and yadda yadda. Somehow that totally ruined my day and everything fell apart, lolz.

...Corruption? 

[citizen]

I think there needs to be closer moderation of Game Masters. Once when I was logged in (not sure who the character was), some GM whose name started with a K (wouldn't say the full name if I knew it) began to harass me... It went completely unnoticed, despite the fact I reported him/her (the char was a she, but you can never tell these days) several times, and I think I made a petition. He/she told me no one would care because he's/she's with the team and yadda yadda. Somehow that totally ruined my day and everything fell apart, lolz.

...Corruption? 

Me had some affair not with GM, but some lower level stuff i think. I dont want to write ingame spoilers so not mention what bothers me, but the argument what were used is incompatible with PS world. And the same will be reported bullshit.

[Mordraugion]

Firstly if you do have a complaint against the GM team go here and read, we'd much rather you made a formal complaint so such issues can be cleared up than wait til details are forgotten and the issue festers.

Secondly as Dajoji mentioned this thread is NOT intended to be a GM flamefest if you have a genuine issue report it do not make vague allegations, the idea of the survey is to discover if and where we need to improve, we cant do that if we're continually being undermined by vacuous rumours of wrong doing.

[Prolix]

Referring to the survey I have particular issues with questions 6 and  8 but not especially serious ones.
Question six: relative difficulty with contacting GMs really depends on how significant the issue is. I do not often have a need for a GM, the last time was when I fell under a sewer waterwheel and did not fancy dying to get out. There were no GMs online at the time so I went on irc #planeshift-gmtalk This channel seems to be dead anytime I go there and the policy to mention a gms name specifically is a little intimidating. Nevertheless, I made a generic request as there were 4-5 nicks listed and shortly after started prompting them by name not knowing who might have been listening the keenest or least busy. This worked fine for me I got a response then another one and then 'met' the first responder in the game and was pulled out of my prison.

Most of the time I have contacted a gm was for a bad character name for which a petition sufficed. Once or twice I have /who gm /tell gmname like the time I reported the item painting above the pass archway where I could not get at the items. This worked well too but only because there was a gm online at the time.

So my answer to #6 was I don't know because it was too general.

Question 8 working together I would have preferred to pick I don't know but it was not available, instead I chose C. I have seen a few events but nothing recent and they seemed generally well run. Other than that I have seen little that required teamwork. I do have one suggestion and it ties in with question 6; that is, in the gm channel have an indication of order of preference for gms to contact. Set up some kind of number system appended to the nick to indicate who is available. An example system might be thus: idle - ready to help = nick_1; somewhat busy with other things but still available = nick_2; busy helping player - form a line = nick_4. Not a complete system but enough to get the idea.

[Anumesa]

Here are just my thoughts on the questions

1.) I know, and/or have had contact with, quite a few of the GMs and every single one that i asked for help was able to help, or find me someone who could help. If there was an issue, he or she was kind enough to explain it to me, and i have never been left in the dark so to speak feeling confused on why they took a certain action.

2.) As far as i know, all the GMs follow the rules and policies. I have never encountered an instance of a GM abusing their power/authority

3.) I would like to think they have improved over time as well...there have been surveys such as this one, and im sure the results are going towards improving the team.

4. and 6.) I do think GMs are kind of hard to get ahold of when you need one. I feel like it is kind of a crapshoot..either there are 3-4 online at once, or none at all. This is more then likely due to time zones and i realize it is hard to have 24/7 moderation, but most of the times that i have needed a GM ingame, there was not one currently logged in to ask for assistance. Luckily i know about irc, so in most cases i was able to locate one through the gm channel, but i feel like the entire process takes ages and a lot of times if (for example) someone im helping on the help channel is stuck in the tutorial, they may get very frustrated waiting for assistance. That said, 9 times out of 10 i was eventually able to get help, i just think it would be nice if the gms were more available.

5.) I feel like the GMs are very helpful whenever one needs assistance ingame. Of course im sure there are petty squabbles and /reports and /petitions where the situation can get quite ugly, but for the most part i feel like they do a great job keeping it fair.

7.) I honestly have no idea...a bunch?

8. and 9.) I think that with any team you are going to have people who butt heads, but that it can turn into a constructive situation and doesnt necessarily have to be bad. I dont think any conflict within the GM team has ever hindered their ability to successfully manage the game and aid the players.

10.) I gave you guys a 4 because from my experience you have done a great job

Anyways...this is based solely on what i have experienced ingame and also talking to GMs on irc and it is merely my opinion. The GM team could be in a massive evil plot to take over the world for all i know.... 

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

Raa the person you mention has been removed and had all power stripped from them for the abuses you mention as well as others.

[Dajoji]

Please don't forget to fill in the survey if you haven't yet. It's important for us to know what the community thinks. Thanks.

[eldoth_terevan]

This house cleaning was a fine and long overdue idea. Enough said. Good work.

[LigH]

I am quite happy to be in contact with Kerol (GM leader), so my survey may have been slightly biased; at least, I really have to tell you, from my point of view, that most concerns are already known, and they don't enjoy sitting in any ivory tower. Furthermore - I, personally, believe that formerly (or still) rather active players can make good GMs, as they will know the needs and wishes of the players too, but are not safe from biasing on the other hand... Roleplaying means to be able to imagine a different character. Being able to understand another player is not far from that, I hope. And "constructive" GMs can also be good event leaders, from my experience.

Excuse my unsorted thoughts today... my summary: Our GMs are not the worst, most are quite engaged. Respect to their chosen job; I wouldn't wish to take it, though, my playing time is already short.

[Sen]

Hello,

Im trying to split the questions up a bit

enforcement of the naming policy, disruptive behavior management, botting, harassment and other player-player issues:
I  actually didn't have much gm-contact concerning these issues. I noticed that the naming policy enforcement seems to work; the disruptive behaviour of others is for me mostly a short term issue... if a gm would be around to take care of such immediately it would be great, for the rest it's either too late or hopefully handled by gms in the background.

bug exploits:
I liked the offered possibility of avoiding a ban last time; this was indeed very player-friendly. The same time Im strictly against the automatic 1year ban without even having talked (I think) to the players of the current issue.
If there are smaller issues of bug exploiting I just don't know how they are handled by gms and thus cannot give an opinion.

helping players with the game, quest testing:
Great from my experience, this includes some devs who are also very helpful (e.g. Rizin)

Summary:
I personally had only good experience with gms, thanks to all for their work. A wish would be more presence ingame (and irc?) for immediate help or reaction (Saying this independent from chance of realization).

Sen

[Taniquetil]

Awesome idea with the survey. Surveys are always good.

What i would like to know is when and what did the GMs do to make everyone see them as evil? My experiences with GMs, as well as everyone else in the game, has been great. The only explanation i can think of is that people don't like power, but usually that feeling is not universal like it is here... In fact, the same is true with the devs....why?

[Caarrie]

Awesome idea with the survey. Surveys are always good.

What i would like to know is when and what did the GMs do to make everyone see them as evil? My experiences with GMs, as well as everyone else in the game, has been great. The only explanation i can think of is that people don't like power, but usually that feeling is not universal like it is here... In fact, the same is true with the devs....why?

some people just dont like the gms as they do try to hold up the rules and can be harsh to certain people depending on what is going on. But overall the GM's are on the side of the players that are doing nothing wrong, GM's just want to make sure all can have fun and have no one keeping them from that.

[CrazyYlian]

Have only had 1 GM experience (outside of events) and that was quite positive.  Can't really comment on how the team works together because I have no information (and that question on the survey does not have an 'I don't know' option... it really should.)  The only times I've heard complaints, the complainer was lacking (IMO) credibility, so I tended to think the GM was probably on point.

Only thing I notice is they seem to be spread pretty thin.

[Tuxide]

Hrm...I should probably mention that using the Help channel should not count as a GM experience, because non-GMs can become advisors.