Darkpaw Games is Hiring!

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Veteran_BetaTester, Mar 15, 2022.

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  1. Sissruukk Rogue One

    Having GMs was fun, but there was more to it than that. When they had the guide system running (and guides, like today, were volunteers from the gaming community) in conjunction with the GMs, there was a flip side to it. They handled things like, "So-and-so just kill-stole from me," and "I turned in all my quest items, but didn't get anything back," and "I left my computer for 2 minutes to go use the restroom and another group took my camp." It was a headache from the guide's/GM's position. People knew you were on, and you would receive direct tells from people about these complaints, and believe me, they were nearly non-stop.

    So yes, the GM heyday was great, but it had it's flip side as well.
  2. Benito EQ player since 2001.


    Weren't there accusations of GM favoritism or "corruption" in the old days? GMs would give items to friends or guildmates. (I mean those rumors/accusations pop up on TLP from time to time).

    Having fewer people (GMs) to oversee helps.
  3. Lawyer Augur

    It's sad that the dev positions don't seem to allow remote work, but I guess that's probably par for the course with game development.
  4. Brontus EQ Player Activist

    Actually, dev positions are now open to those who would like to work remotely. The pandemic had a silver lining. :)
    Skuz likes this.
  5. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    I heavily suspect that there was a massive over-exaggeration at play there, there definitely was one GM caught being "naughty" but by & large it was just not worth losing a fairly good job over, integrity mattered & they had some good oversight & logging tools to catch anyone being devious on the company side. When you consider that tehy at one time had over 400 GM (looking after the 250,000 ish players) & we now have like 3-4 who never really have server interactions with players like they used to they had relatively little corruption.
  6. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    Wait. EverQuest had over 400 GMs? Source?


    Fewer GMs means less oversight (on a per person basis) required. It is also easier to standardize and maintain quality control in terms of service (not training dozens of people).
  7. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    I would assume that management gets reports on what commands the GM's run during their work and they will be able to spot if they are doing things that they should not be doing. I know the guide program is told that a lot of what they do command wise or tool wise is logged but can't say how true this is.
  8. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    I question the 400+ GM number.

    But even with - say 40 GMs, you have to do a cost-benefit analysis of day-to-day or week-to-week oversight just because someone wants to run around as a werewolf in East Commonlands.

    It may be logged but you are taking away management time (CM or higher) with this additional responsibility. At some point, [bloated oversight] becomes inefficient and even downright unnecessary.
  9. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    If management is getting a report of what the GM's are doing on a daily basis it doesn't cost more depending on how many there are it will just take more time to read the report each week. And I am sure they look at different actions more closely then others.

    Also I never mentioned how many GM are or have been employed at the company so not sure why you are directing that 400 number question to me.
  10. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    My memory was a bit defective, I recalled "more than 400" being active but it was actually "500 individual GM's came through customer service" & active at one time it was 130 - at least from the interview with Michelle Butler, and CS was outsourced sometime after she left the EQ team.

    Video link & timestamps below:

    https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1081445679?collection=PPnhu9f-Fhab2A

    15:00 - "Guides averaged 1200, topped out around 1600 guides at one point"

    16:45 - "Around 500 individual GM's came through customer service while I was head GM"

    17:15 - "We had 130 active GMs when I moved over to EQOA"

    It's a great video by the way, well worth watching the whole thing if you have time.
    niente likes this.
  11. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    The 400 number was mentioned by Skuz and you quoted me so I assume that you agreed with that number. It lends to concern about my point over bloated, unnccesary oversight if operations can be streamlined (from "GM events" to brass tacks item recovery).

    In most jobs, employees knows what a "report" means (euphemistic but bureaucratic waste). And rarely is it an "easy" facet of the job.
  12. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    I think there may be confusion by Butler. Shawn was a bit off balance by the number.

    Guides are volunteers (most were unpaid; I believe lead guides were paid long ago). They are highly restricted and not usually involved in substantive Customer Service.

    GMs are part-time/full time paid employees with broader powers with the full suite for Customer Service.

    Ultimately, even if the 500 number is clearly delineated by the above definitions; all 500 were not employed at the same time (as implied/assumed).
  13. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    That is a bad assumption to make as I was just quoting you on the oversite part which can easily be done by simple reports listing what actions the GM's take on a day to day basis. I don't know or care how many GM's we had in the past.
  14. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    Oversight*

    In the future, you can delete the dicta when you quote someone. If you quote a person, it is assumed that the relevant section is to be refuted or assisted by your arguments.
  15. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    My post didn't mention anything at all about the number of GM's and it only mentioned over sight by reporting. I am not sure what is so hard to understand it was talking about the reporting side and not the number of GM's. Sure I could have deleted it but I didn't and since I didn't mention anything about numbers I think it was safe to say I wasn't talking about that quote.
  16. Benito EQ player since 2001.


    Relax, man. Take a deep breath.
  17. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    You are the one that seems to be getting upset over replying to the wrong person about a comment someone else made.
  18. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    Read my responses without assuming that it is a personal attack or "I'm out to get you."

    You have a pattern of disproportionate responses in other threads. Take it easy.
  19. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    You keep responding which would suggest you are upset about this.
  20. MasterMagnus The Oracle of AllHigh

    OK kiddies. Raise your hand if you think SOE/Daybreak/Darkpaw were ever in the business of sending out $2 checks. year after year after year

    ...............

    ................

    what company would do that?
    Skrab likes this.
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