it’s kind of interesting how everyone who wants to kick up a fuss about queue times, is hesitant to let anyone know what their issue is.
i mean… surely if it’s not something game-breaking, then it would make sense to get help from the playerbase, instead of waiting around to be told to use online resources?
I can think of a bunch of reasons that the player base couldn’t resolve that would require a GM to step in… scams, items lost, hacked, crafted an incorrect item, bugs etc ect
lost … how?
disenchanted or vendored items can be restored via self-help.
there’s nothing wrong with asking players about this.
while they may not be able to restore access to the account, they can still provide some solid information regarding account security, and the steps to take before recovering an account while they wait for their ticket response… so it doesn’t get hacked again.
that’s just bad luck.
GMs can’t do anything about that.
not preventing the person from playing the game.
logs are still going to be there.
a lot of what people think are scams, are just people participating in unsupported transactions… which again, a GM can’t help with.
We can solve more than you think.
What’s the issue?
draenei scared them away.
That’s my point there was a time when a GM could and would help you with all these issues
they shouldn’t need to hold peoples hands.
My point was GM used to be able to actually solve all issues players had. They could and did things today’s GM can’t or won’t. It is just automated responses, they just mark the issue resolved without doing anything to fix the problem. Nowadays they just say yep that’s an issue that sucks, gl and send me on my way. I’m not trying to get advice on an issue from anyone. I’m venting at the fact that current GMs don’t do anything more than acknowledge an issue and say they cant help. Which is a far cry to what they used to be like.
I’ve had an ingame interaction with a GM twice in my playing years. Once was a long time ago when I had a weird character-stuck issue and the other time was fairly recent, back in BfA. However the latter was due to a long-term latency issue on Oceanic servers which they were trying to trace and figure out, so it was more them approaching me than me asking for them.
that’s just not true though.
while they will initially send a pre-formatted response, it still gives you the option to request further assistance if it doesn’t solve the issue.
there are plenty of things which they can and will help with.
however, a lot of things which they used to do, are now available as self-help options… which means players can resolve the issues themselves, without the extended wait.
eg: item restore, mail return, character unstuck etc.
GMs are under instruction to be “hands off” when it comes to bugs, because messing with things can cause more issues.
If people have a bug which is preventing them from progressing, they need to wait for it to be fixed… and if something is preventing progression, it’s going to be a priority fix which will get pushed out as soon as possible.
…and a lot of things which players WANT them to help with, just aren’t a part of their job.
No, they’re not going to help with your homework.
They’re not going to do your taxes for you.
They’re not there so you can make a ticket because you’re bored and want to hear a funny joke.
It’s amazing how many people simply don’t understand their role, and will protest “I’m a paying customer, I should get what I want”.
…and then there are the super-snooty ones, who will also throw in “i’ve been playing since X and i’ve spent $this many dollars on Blizzard products, you should do the thing I want, because I’m clearly more important than all the other customers”.
Too many people are unfamiliar with the role of GMs, and get snippy when they don’t get their way.
(edited to add this link)
Last time I remeber was Wrath
We had a running joke about it then by the Argent Tournament grounds.
There was always this one lone blue beetle that wandered around there. We always joked thatvit was a GM in hiding.
Blizz claimed they stopped doing that because players started making toons with GM names and were pretending to be them so they stopped. That seriously is their excuse. I really do not think a single person ever fell for that trick.
My tickets are instant. All of them are. I submit one, less than a minute later I have either live chat or a reply. So I highly doubt all these nonstop myths about super long ticket wait times.
people would beg them to do weird or funny things like summoning a raid boss or turning everyone into chickens and apparently it would lead to a lot of competition among GMs to be the “cool” or fun one and players would get grumpy when a GM wouldn’t do the haha funny thing with their powers
Man, it makes me sad but if you want to see how far things have slid, and how cool things used to be, listen to this podcast (it’s Everquest themed not Warcraft, but the parallels are there):
Episode 8 - Living The Guide Life w/Bayho Part 1 - Everquest Revisited | Podcast on Spotify
Episode 9 - Living The Guide Life w/Bayho Part 2 - Everquest Revisited | Podcast on Spotify
Lots of insider info on what it was like being an in-game GM and the kinds of things that would happen. Really interesting stuff. Nostalgia overload if you ever played EQ back in the day.
They used to not only have in game GMs, but “guides” as well that were like less powerful GMs that would be in game actively helping players.
The saddest part is I don’t think these kind of gaming moments will ever exist again.
They know that enough people won’t actually quit, so, they save money by not paying people to do the job.
why are you defending a systum that is not helpful and dosent work? and your factual info is to just keep submitting and hope for the best? man what is wrong with you
They’re probably too busy dealing with the people that are offended by everything.
Like most companies, Blizz realized it was cheaper to make customers deal with automated systems than it was to hire real people.
I really wish we had the old system because my phone was stolen so now I cant log in because of my authenticator being on my phone…
Look at the WoW playerbase. Would you want to talk to any of us directly about anything ever? We can’t even post on the forums like normal humans.