Well, some of you may know that I’m a Game Master (GM) for a massive multiplayer online roll playing game. (MMORPG) Basically, this is a game that is played online via the internet thus forming a global community of people who play the game in a virtual and constantly evolving world. The game I work with is called “Risk Your Life: Path of the Emperor”.
Well, as you can expect, player support and community policing is a must in an environment such as this. So, you need GMs to police player conduct. “Bad” conduct is things like “griefing” other players, swearing in the main chat channel, selecting bad character names, etc. GMs answer questions, too, but the game I work with has “Guides” (normal players who volunteer their help) for that. My GM character is named “GM-Fantomman”. (Yes, there is a story about the name, but that is for another post, another time) All the GMs have the “GM-” tag on their names. Guides have “Guide-”. I’m telling you this because if you click here, you can see who’s currently moderating the game and you just might see “GM-Fantomman” there!
Anyway, it’s been a great experience. I’ve been playing the game for about a year now. I started with the malaysian beta version, and then discovered this american company, Planetwide Games, (PWG) that would be distributing it for North America. I then got into their community of players, and was selected to test the game out in a “closed beta” test. It was fun. Then when the game became “open” to other players, to test, I was selected to be a Guide. Following my good history, they selected me to be a GM in November.
GM’s get a few perks. GM’s get a free playing account ($11.95/month value), (though we are expected to put in the time as a GM). In game, we have “powers” so that we can police the community. Powers would be, teleportation, invisibility, loging out of players, muting players, 24 hour banning players, etc. As you can expect this is not just your normal situation. It is like a job. We are official volunteers for PWG, and thus it is a form of employment.
I “work” with about 30-40 GMs all in various states, countries, and time zones, and about 40-80 Guides depending on the recruitment cycle. You can imagine what my buddy list looks like! We use programs like, MSN Messenger, IRC chat, TeamSpeak, and online forums, to communicate outside of the game. Teamspeak is my favorite program, as it allows us to communicate verbaly.
You may ask, “Geez! This must take a lot of time!”. No, it actually won’t take any more time than I want it to. Our supervisor is Kyle (GM-x.factor). He is a very understanding guy, and will let us keep our own schedules as long as we are still effective. GMs take sabbaticals, take time off, and sometimes quit or are let go. I generally spend about 5-10 hours a week actually in the game either activly GMing or “on call” as my playing character. I spend other time when I can reading the forums and maybe a chat or two with my buddy list.
Basically, it’s a lot of fun, with a bunch of great people. Sometimes things get nasty in the game, but that’s what we are there for. In the MMORPG world, this game is fast becoming known for its player support and GM responsiveness. That and the $1million contest that’s coming!
Anyway, I hope that I havn’t bored you all with this info. It just seems that I tell this story frequently and so I’m assuming some of you would care to read about it from time to time.
PS: Here is a picture of GM-Fantomman
