I didn’t know it was their main! Austin if I’m correct? A lot closer than Cali, but still far away 
Minimum wages in Texas are less than half of what they are in California. That is most likely the main reason. Even if they offered $15 back then, it would be okay there but wouldn’t be a livable wage in California.
I would have lost my mind. Probably would have said something that would get me suspended haha.
That stuff was too serious back then for that. Camps were a BIG DEAL.
1 Like
Yeah especially when the bosses were first come first serve and only spawned, what was it, once a week?
1 Like
They had GM staff in Irvine, CA too back in the day at least. I’m not sure if they’ve consolidated in Austin since then.
Because addicts can never have enough
lolwut
addicted to quality customer service?
I’m sure they are still there but go between several games etc and don’t interact with the players all that much.
I wish they would though it would be super cool.
This thread and half the replies are a good example of why blizzard should remove the forums next.
Care to explain, even a bit? What, specifically, about this thread and replies are bothersome to you or anybody else?
1 Like
Lack of funding probably , they tickets used to be answered pretty fast from what i can remember , now its like days
1 Like
I think people over estimate how many people would do this job for the low pay that would come with it.
1 Like
Given that actual GM interaction is required to enforce their social contract–which would dramatically improve this game’s community if handled correctly–I naturally agree very strongly with this.
By extension, assuming Blizzard continues to cut corners with their customer support (which, sadly, they almost certainly will) then this game’s community is very likely to continue deteriorating, or at the very least not improve in any way.
The argument that it’s not cost effective and won’t improve the game is false, but this is something difficult to measure in a quarterly report for stockholders so it’s not likely to change. Even now with Blizzard making efforts to make the game feel open and welcoming to a broader playerbase, very little has actually changed in game in regards to how the community interacts with eachother.
I should also add that I know a lot of people are okay with this, and that is okay to argue too. I simply don’t think this game has any chance whatsoever of growing without changes, and for many people (including me) this game is never going to be a practical option in the long term unless they make that effort.
Sorry, I know this isn’t entirely on topic ironically, but it definitely applies because GM interaction with players is absolutely vital for this game’s health, especially in the long term.
1 Like
This is correct–I don’t know how long ago it was, but it used to be that you would get a GM response from an actual human being in minutes. Then it became hours, then literally days, but you’d still get an actual human being when you did.
Now, no matter what you report (even if it’s a game breaking problem that requires very specific assistance) you are going to get a copy-pasted automatic response. Which is what it is, I guess… what makes it bad is that it still takes literally days for this process to occur. Only by extending the issue do you get human interaction, and extending the issue takes additional days once again.
This game’s ongoing problems require a lot of customer service support, yet instead of hiring more people and developing a better system Blizzard appears to have fired/laid off most of their customer service representatives (GM and otherwise).
Even now I simply don’t understand it. Of all the places to cut costs, this really is not where you want to do it if you want to nurture anything remotely close to long term customers that will continue to play the game, let alone after all the drama and criticism Blizzard has gotten in recent years from their incredibly bad choices.
The only possibilities I can think of are that they are either completely inept (which I highly doubt) or that they simply don’t have any faith in this game in the long term and are doing their best to maximize profits before jumping ship when Microsoft’s acquisition of Blizzard/Activision finally goes through.
Sorry, this post ended up a lot longer than I intended (again) but the TL;DR is that it’s gotten progressively worse over time regardless as to why, and dramatically so.
1 Like
The larger issue I see is that paying someone what they would need to be paid in order to get the service people here want…would not be cost effective.
A job mostly based around being a chat room monitor and playing silly games is going to be on the extreme low end of the payment scale. That is going to severely cut down the amount of people interested, and the quality of people interested.
Now factor in how we (the forums) would want those people to also be amazingly versed in every area of the game, and be a fountain of knowledge?
You arent going to find the applicant pool people want for the low wages that would accompany the position.
We might not be discussing the same thing and if so I do apologize. I assumed this topic was about actual GM responses to tickets, not sitting around monitoring chat. I don’t think there is any reason to hire people to do this–if people have an issue with chat they will report it and the GM can respond to it when that happens.
As for how much they pay people, GMs likely get paid minimum wage or close to it. A lot more people than you’d think are willing to do that for better or worse. I highly doubt being a GM or customer support in general is a lucrative job, even in an MMORPG or especially for this one, but there are still plenty of people willing to do it.
And being “a fountain of knowledge” is far from a requirement for being a GM. In fact GMs traditionally are not allowed to give in game hints, and in the case where they need to help very specifically I am sure they have technical support come in instead.
Either way, the question of how much they get paid isn’t really the issue here, it’s certainly an important issue but the fact of the matter is they simply aren’t hiring anyone. The only reason this would really be relevant here, I think, is if they are outsourcing their customer service to other countries so they can go cheaper than minimum wage. I genuinely do not know if Blizzard does this (though it would not surprise me).
That’s just my opinion though…
I feel this is true after seeing Omar during the stress test.
We’re probably standing right next to them. No need for a title or robes.
My reason for this comes from my first day playing and someone coming up to me offering a lot of help. Being patient with me figuring out how to whisper and then said something like welcome to the game, have a great adventure
Just seems so odd. Maybe it was just a random player noticing my achievements. Maybe not.
Had a live chat during the bugged Alliance Pandaria intro. Must have been high on the priority list. My tickets now go automated/closed or days before response.
1 Like
Yup. I’ve met some overtly bitter folk who hate on everybody else since they have to work 70 hours a week just to survive. "I hate everyone who works less then 70 hours a week! " Says no one, ever, except people stuck in crap dead end jobs with no future.
I think its a little bit of both, as in-game GMs were specifically mentioned.
Yeah but min wage is 15.50 in Cali. Where its pretty easy to find something getting more. And we already love to bash Blizzard for lowpaying its employees.
It is to a degree. Because in order to have people take the job that we would find acceptable…they’d have to pay well over the min wage. This would cause a domino effect in everyone probably getting a raise. Which I am not against. But I do think its a factor.
I just don’t think that’s the issue… but even if it was, I’m certainly of the opinion it would be worth it, especially in this day and age where Blizzard’s reputation is under harsh (and well-deserved) criticism. The least they could do is improve their customer support to make people happier and make some real attempt to improve the game and its community.
Sorry, not to sound overly cynical either, but everything Blizzard does comes off as fake and non-committal, so when there are core issues like a lack of GMs in game still ongoing in such a dramatic way it’s very difficult for me to see any positive outcomes from Blizzard’s choices.
As for the minimum wage being 15.50 in California, they have the option to move their customer support center(s) elsewhere, and even in California I am sure they could hire enough GM staff there as needed. Maybe I’m wrong–I’ve never lived in California so I don’t know for certain how things work there, but I am just a bit skeptical the issue is remotely as simple as this.