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Where have all the Gms gone?

F

FelixxBlack

Guest
Are there actual GMs left in UO? I have placed multiple tickets and all I ever get back is a polite message telling me to go to the knowledge base. What happened to the days when a GM would appear and actually talk to you? I have just recently started playing again. This issue was one of the reasons I stopped playing before. Most times when i place a ticket I am number 11 or less in the que which means they aren't all that busy. I pay money to play this game and when I ask for help with a problem I would like to talk to a person about it. I don't think its alot to ask for. Anyone else had this problem?
 

AzSel

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Are there actual GMs left in UO? I have placed multiple tickets and all I ever get back is a polite message telling me to go to the knowledge base. What happened to the days when a GM would appear and actually talk to you? I have just recently started playing again. This issue was one of the reasons I stopped playing before. Most times when i place a ticket I am number 11 or less in the que which means they aren't all that busy. I pay money to play this game and when I ask for help with a problem I would like to talk to a person about it. I don't think its alot to ask for. Anyone else had this problem?
Yes this is a known issue at least to me. I rarely get a gm to come help me, and most often get a link to the useless knowledge base. Altho one time I paged a gm on account of having too many resists on character(even when naked) the GM came within a minute and nerfed me back to normal. I dont think they care too much if youre having problems, but when youre having something of the oposite...they come running.
 
F

FelixxBlack

Guest
Lol that is funny so they come when you have a bug that could actually help you but they won;t come when you have a problem that they might be able to help with. My current problem is a house that I can't seem to commit the design on. I have checked and rechecked it like 50 times and there are zero orange tiles and every time it says its not structurally sound and I should check for orange tiles. I asked for help on this twice and all they do is send me too the knowledge base. I have spent hours on this and I am about ready to just move on and try to find another spot.
 

T-Hunt

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
There are no GM,s any more..

I just sent in a request to put the rewnoned pixie back to were she belongs...

She was at the Rat dump spawn area killing all the scorps..

The GM,s responce was to file it with there Bug department...

And nothing will be done till then...
 
U

UOKaiser

Guest
There are no GM,s any more..

I just sent in a request to put the rewnoned pixie back to were she belongs...

She was at the Rat dump spawn area killing all the scorps..

The GM,s responce was to file it with there Bug department...

And nothing will be done till then...
Wait a minute wouldn't you just kill the renown pixie instead of bothering with a gm in the first place? I've only paged a gm once in the last 3 years and that was just to get my ressit unbugged. Most other things a player can fix themselves. Just curious why would anybody bother with a gm unless it was something impossible to fix on there own.
 

RaDian FlGith

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Not that I approve of the situation, but... get used to it. Pretty much all of the online games have crappy service with regard to "immediate" answers or helping you out with general knowledge issues. If it's an emergency, UO's pretty decent sometimes... better than WoW's ever been, I'll say that much... But from experience, pretty much everyone responds to your page with an email if you log out before they get there, and if you're in game long enough, your issue will get dealt with or get a message if it's something they can't (or won't) help with.

Yeah... it's a sad state... But then, yeah... None of them have a good customer service record with GM pages these days.
 

RaDian FlGith

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
There are no GM,s any more..

I just sent in a request to put the rewnoned pixie back to were she belongs...

She was at the Rat dump spawn area killing all the scorps..

The GM,s responce was to file it with there Bug department...

And nothing will be done till then...
Yeah, uh... that's not exactly something a GM should be handling. That's a perceived bug (ie: the playerbase perceives it as a bug while it may be working exactly as the design team intended).

Which, of course, leads to the reason that GMs (at least partially) are so slow to respond to semi-serious situations... People paging them for stuff that they really should not be dealing with.
 
U

UOKaiser

Guest
Lol that is funny so they come when you have a bug that could actually help you but they won;t come when you have a problem that they might be able to help with. My current problem is a house that I can't seem to commit the design on. I have checked and rechecked it like 50 times and there are zero orange tiles and every time it says its not structurally sound and I should check for orange tiles. I asked for help on this twice and all they do is send me too the knowledge base. I have spent hours on this and I am about ready to just move on and try to find another spot.
Commit one floor at a time then go back in and try the next one. Make sure each floor has a support in the bottom. Also make sure there isn't a lockdown or secure that might be blocking placement. I usually remove all items I placed from a home before I do any changes. Some items span multiple floors. Hopefully most items go into house secure but there are some that stick around during remodeling. They work fine when in regulart mode but in housing mode they will mess it up.
 

RaDian FlGith

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Lol that is funny so they come when you have a bug that could actually help you but they won;t come when you have a problem that they might be able to help with. My current problem is a house that I can't seem to commit the design on. I have checked and rechecked it like 50 times and there are zero orange tiles and every time it says its not structurally sound and I should check for orange tiles. I asked for help on this twice and all they do is send me too the knowledge base. I have spent hours on this and I am about ready to just move on and try to find another spot.
I'd follow Kaiser's suggestion...

And also, keep in mind... A GM can't see your attempted design. They couldn't help you with that if they wanted to.

As far as your problem goes, do you have any teleporters in your design? If so, make sure they're not under walls. Also, view each floor with floor displayed only and make sure that there aren't any errors in the floor design.

But yeah, as Kaiser suggested, try placing one floor at a time. Easiest way is to backup your overall design, and delete the top floors (yeah, it'll take some work, but hey, it might show you what's wrong eventually), and place first floor. If it goes, try again with first and second... This'll narrow it down for you.
 
T

The Fallout

Guest
My ingots fell under my house. I called a Gm and he came right away and moved them for me. I was on Catskills.
 

Maplestone

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I pay money to play this game and when I ask for help with a problem I would like to talk to a person about it.
I think you would be shocked how much it costs to equip and staff a customer service pit.

*wonders how much of my subscription fees are eaten by other people wasting GM time*
 
F

FelixxBlack

Guest
I think you would be shocked how much it costs to equip and staff a customer service pit.

*wonders how much of my subscription fees are eaten by other people wasting GM time*
Yeah well UO support used to be 1000% better. And UO has a very high fee for a game of its type in todays market so money really shouldn't be an issue. And there is no wasting GM time lol thats their job. If you call them at home for a game issue THEN your wasting their time. Anything you contact them ingame with is their job and they are being paid for it. Also if I am number 11 in the que that means theres hardly anyone asking for help so whatever gm is working is mostly just sitting back drinking coffee and eating donuts. I don't think it is too much to ask for at least a real time chat for a few minutes. If it is then they shouldn't bother having any gms at all. They could just have an auto message that sent everyone to the website. It is almost like that now. Don't make excuses for lazy, unhelpful gms or poor company policies.
 

RaDian FlGith

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Yeah well UO support used to be 1000% better.
Yeah... when they had Counselors answering questions... those days have been gone for nearly a decade now, and the Counselors were simply other players helping you out. They weren't paid.

And UO has a very high fee for a game of its type in todays market so money really shouldn't be an issue.
Not compared to the other games on the market. Sure, maybe compared to the "free play" games like DDO that are supporting themselves with micro-transactions... but I defy you to report back to me that DDO's GM service is stellar.

And there is no wasting GM time lol thats their job. If you call them at home for a game issue THEN your wasting their time. Anything you contact them ingame with is their job and they are being paid for it.
Actually, their job is NOT to answer every silly question that everyone puts in front of them. Tell you what... call your local police department and ask the officer to come to your house to talk to you because you don't like the color your neighbor painted their house. You pay their taxes after all, so answering your questions MUST be their job, right?

Their job is to assist with pertinent in-game issues that are actually affecting the game world and game play. I won't say they do this perfectly, but what I will say is that it's not a GM's responsibility to teach you how to play the game. If you don't know how, either figure it out on your own or come here to ask others who can more readily assist you.

Also if I am number 11 in the que that means theres hardly anyone asking for help so whatever gm is working is mostly just sitting back drinking coffee and eating donuts.
So you think. First off, we all know that there's an issue with the queue reporting the correct number of people in it (much less advancing frequently... how long did you stay as #11 in queue?). And... yeah... your presumption as to how they're spending their time is ludicrous. I know the GM service has failed to act appropriately at times, but I seriously doubt anyone is being paid to eat donuts.

I don't think it is too much to ask for at least a real time chat for a few minutes. If it is then they shouldn't bother having any gms at all.
Why? Because they won't come hold your hand? Seriously? Real-time chat for a few minutes about something they can't assist you with? Yeah, you're not unreasonable in your desires at all.

They could just have an auto message that sent everyone to the website. It is almost like that now. Don't make excuses for lazy, unhelpful gms or poor company policies.
They are not poor company policies. Issues where I have had a legitimate need that could be assisted with by a GM have been handled professionally in most instances. Yeah, it would be nice if they took bug reports, but then, since I'm going to have to tell them about the bug and they're going to have to then report it, I might as well cut the middle-man and report the bug myself.

Other situations, such as monsters stuck in walls, stuck stats where there was an identifiable issue, and situations that warrant GM intervention have been dealt with. Once in awhile, I get a GM who isn't any good at what they do, but here's the test...

Right now you wanted a GM to come and talk to you, to hold your hand while you designed your house. First, a GM can't do anything for you. He can't tell you any more than the housing system did: The structure is unsound and can't be committed. He can't see your planned design, so how's he going to review it for you? He shouldn't be spending his time looking over your design anyway. If you have an issue, send in a bug report, or try the suggested steps to test it. So in the end, you just wanted someone to comfort you, to be on the receiving end of your ludicrous demand, and to what end? Is the GM going to force the housing system to commit your design? No. Should he? No. There's a reason the system is saying your design can't be committed. Maybe it's not obvious, maybe it's even a bug, but forcing a system to believe something it's been programmed not to is always a mistake.

So in the end, what exactly did you want? Someone to talk to for a few minutes? GMs are not paid to come talk to you just because you want someone to complain to. Contrary to popular belief, the GMs are NOT the complaint department... they are the department that fixes issues that can be immediately addressed. They are not programmers.

You might want to lower your expectations.
 

Sarsmi

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I pay money to play this game and when I ask for help with a problem I would like to talk to a person about it. I don't think its alot to ask for. Anyone else had this problem?
It sounds like you need a friend, not a GM. The GMs are not here to hold our hands or hang out with. The knowledge base is extremely helpful, have you even ever tried to use it? It's there to help you with your (in-game) problems, maybe give it a shot next time.
 
F

FelixxBlack

Guest
Yeah... when they had Counselors answering questions... those days have been gone for nearly a decade now, and the Counselors were simply other players helping you out. They weren't paid.

Not compared to the other games on the market. Sure, maybe compared to the "free play" games like DDO that are supporting themselves with micro-transactions... but I defy you to report back to me that DDO's GM service is stellar.

Actually, their job is NOT to answer every silly question that everyone puts in front of them. Tell you what... call your local police department and ask the officer to come to your house to talk to you because you don't like the color your neighbor painted their house. You pay their taxes after all, so answering your questions MUST be their job, right?

Their job is to assist with pertinent in-game issues that are actually affecting the game world and game play. I won't say they do this perfectly, but what I will say is that it's not a GM's responsibility to teach you how to play the game. If you don't know how, either figure it out on your own or come here to ask others who can more readily assist you.

So you think. First off, we all know that there's an issue with the queue reporting the correct number of people in it (much less advancing frequently... how long did you stay as #11 in queue?). And... yeah... your presumption as to how they're spending their time is ludicrous. I know the GM service has failed to act appropriately at times, but I seriously doubt anyone is being paid to eat donuts.

Why? Because they won't come hold your hand? Seriously? Real-time chat for a few minutes about something they can't assist you with? Yeah, you're not unreasonable in your desires at all.

They are not poor company policies. Issues where I have had a legitimate need that could be assisted with by a GM have been handled professionally in most instances. Yeah, it would be nice if they took bug reports, but then, since I'm going to have to tell them about the bug and they're going to have to then report it, I might as well cut the middle-man and report the bug myself.

Other situations, such as monsters stuck in walls, stuck stats where there was an identifiable issue, and situations that warrant GM intervention have been dealt with. Once in awhile, I get a GM who isn't any good at what they do, but here's the test...

Right now you wanted a GM to come and talk to you, to hold your hand while you designed your house. First, a GM can't do anything for you. He can't tell you any more than the housing system did: The structure is unsound and can't be committed. He can't see your planned design, so how's he going to review it for you? He shouldn't be spending his time looking over your design anyway. If you have an issue, send in a bug report, or try the suggested steps to test it. So in the end, you just wanted someone to comfort you, to be on the receiving end of your ludicrous demand, and to what end? Is the GM going to force the housing system to commit your design? No. Should he? No. There's a reason the system is saying your design can't be committed. Maybe it's not obvious, maybe it's even a bug, but forcing a system to believe something it's been programmed not to is always a mistake.

So in the end, what exactly did you want? Someone to talk to for a few minutes? GMs are not paid to come talk to you just because you want someone to complain to. Contrary to popular belief, the GMs are NOT the complaint department... they are the department that fixes issues that can be immediately addressed. They are not programmers.

You might want to lower your expectations.
Lol don't be stupid man. I played UO for 6 years and had 2 accounts before I took a break. I know how to play and I have customized 20 or so homes and NEVER had this problem before. And No the gms can't be compared to the police lol. The police are here to protect and serve not answer questions. Though if you ask them politely they will almost always answer to the best of their knowledge. The gms job is to help people with ingame issues and this housing issue is not the only time or type of thing I have reported and gotten back only an automessage. And yes indeed if they aren't there to answer our questions then why bother even having them. I don't need anyone to hold my hand. I need a simple question that he may have been asked 1000 times before answered. I was number 11 for about 10 minutes so que listing problem or no there werent too many other people asking for help. 13 bucks is quite high for a low end graphics game in todays market. DDO had 3d graphics lol cannot be in any way compared to UO's 2d 1 angled world. I like UO and have supported it for a long time but if they are going to cut services they should also be cutting the sub fee. For the housing issue they may need to rework it if all they can tell you is to look for orange tiles. If there are none then by their own system everything should be fine. But it's not. So thats one more thing broken that they need to work on. I would have been happy with a message from the gm saying hey this is a known bug we are working on it. Thats all. 3 seconds worth of typing. So don't talk down to me. You don't know me at all. I am not being unreasonable. If your computer stopped working and you called a tech service that you were paying a monthly fee too and they said hey go check out our knowledge base website and fix the problem your self would you not have a problem with that? If not your among the minority.
 

Maplestone

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I should add a disclaimer that I spent a few years on a technical helpline back during the wild and chaotic aftermath of the dotcom bust, so threads like this do tend to reflexively stir up a lot of old empathy for people on the other end of the line.
 
F

FelixxBlack

Guest
I should add a disclaimer that I spent a few years on a technical helpline back during the wild and chaotic aftermath of the dotcom bust, so threads like this do tend to reflexively stir up a lot of old empathy for people on the other end of the line.
Yeah I am not really mad at the gm. I am sure he or she is doing what they have been told to do. What makes me mad is that when they raised the price of uo, it was in its peak and things were great. You'd regularly see gms in brit helping people. And if those were unpaid players then where are those people now? Why don't they still have unpaid players helping out as gms? Instead the service has gone down. Theres long running bugs and not even unpaid gms to help anymore. So as we are getting less service we should also be paying less. Even 9.99 a month would be great. Back to the price I started playing at. I have played free games where you could ask for a gm in world chat and they would contact you and help with your issue or tell you they couldnt help. And man in the free shards where theres bugs galore and people taking advantage of them. you can get a gm in seconds lol. So how come the UO I 13 bucks a month for cant even provide the same service as a free game?
 

AnneNomilly

Sage
Professional
Governor
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Campaign Patron
Felixx, I'll also tell you what I suggested to someone in another thread. If you are trying to build the house in the enhanced client, switch over to 2D for the design. There's an issue with the EC where tiles which you think you erased aren't always really gone. There were also some issues with roofs, stairs and teleporters that caused the problem you are describing.

If this is the problem, using the 2D client should fix you right up. And yes, I LOVE the Enhanced Client for almost everything but house design. :)
 

Viper09

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Yeah, maybe the reason that GMs are rarely showing up are because of ridiculous questions and problems that GMs cannot help you with. GMs are not devs, if it is a bug then it needs to be submitted. Some might be surprised if they actually read that list of what GMs can and cannot do.
 
F

FelixxBlack

Guest
Yeah, maybe the reason that GMs are rarely showing up are because of ridiculous questions and problems that GMs cannot help you with. GMs are not devs, if it is a bug then it needs to be submitted. Some might be surprised if they actually read that list of what GMs can and cannot do.
Yes I can imagine there are some ridiculous questions but whether they can help or not we are paying their salary with our subs so they should be available to answer questions when they arent too busy. If you go into a store you can ask the workers there anything you want thats related to the store. They dont just hand you a catalogue and walk away without talking. Even though theres only a few workers to every bunch of customers. Its common courtesy in the service industry.
 

Viper09

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Yes I can imagine there are some ridiculous questions but whether they can help or not we are paying their salary with our subs so they should be available to answer questions when they arent too busy. If you go into a store you can ask the workers there anything you want thats related to the store. They dont just hand you a catalogue and walk away without talking. Even though theres only a few workers to every bunch of customers. Its common courtesy in the service industry.
Sure, if there are no real pages that they can help with it would be nice. But we don't know if they are busy or not. Also UO is not the only game they are working on. Chances are they are usually always having to respond and fix real pages. Question like yours is not exactly a real problem to a GM. Willing to bet you were overlooking a very obvious mistake in your design.
 

T-Hunt

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Wait a minute wouldn't you just kill the renown pixie instead of bothering with a gm in the first place? I've only paged a gm once in the last 3 years and that was just to get my ressit unbugged. Most other things a player can fix themselves. Just curious why would anybody bother with a gm unless it was something impossible to fix on there own.
Well number 1 it was stuck on the roof...could not reach it..

And i wasent on any fighter char at the time..

But i would like to know,, how the hell did she get there??

Long was from silver sappling area...
 
F

FelixxBlack

Guest
Sure, if there are no real pages that they can help with it would be nice. But we don't know if they are busy or not. Also UO is not the only game they are working on. Chances are they are usually always having to respond and fix real pages. Question like yours is not exactly a real problem to a GM. Willing to bet you were overlooking a very obvious mistake in your design.
Well you'd be obviously wrong lol. You shouldn't assume anything. It turned out to be that the enhanced client blows for house customizing its bugged and doesn't show many of the defects and also doesnt erase alot of things. Some one with some actual "helpful" information responded here. Nice to get some help instead of a bunch of jerks trying to make me feel bad because I needed some help from people I am paying who wouldnt help me. Regardless of whether he could help me, I am sure he knew of this bug and he could have just told me in a message. Would have taken a few seconds and would have solved my problem instantly.
 
U

UOKaiser

Guest
Well number 1 it was stuck on the roof...could not reach it..

And i wasent on any fighter char at the time..

But i would like to know,, how the hell did she get there??

Long was from silver sappling area...
You have to ook at stygian abyss dungeon as 1 large battlefield. Nothing is static. Creatures follow players from one side to the next or wonder around or whatever. It's just one large battlefield in place to make the game more dynamic probably taken from the previous comments of players wanting creatures to pop up places they don't expect. As well as the stinch about cretureas aleways poping out in the same spot. The design for abyss is that monsters are not limited to one place one spot. The only problem I see is they didn't give the renowns loot that would make a player want to kill them.
The reward doesn't justify the time it takes to kill them.

It being stuck on a unreachable spot is a long time bug with flying creatures. Usually if you cast paralize on it it will move at least thats one of the tricks to fix that.
 
A

Arch Angela

Guest
Yeah... when they had Counselors answering questions... those days have been gone for nearly a decade now, and the Counselors were simply other players helping you out. They weren't paid.

They weren't paid but did receive FREE lifetime accounts!


Not compared to the other games on the market. Sure, maybe compared to the "free play" games like DDO that are supporting themselves with micro-transactions... but I defy you to report back to me that DDO's GM service is stellar.

It is expensive compared to other games with this level of limited graphics! Even lotro is available for 9.99 per month when you pay 3mos at a time!



Actually, their job is NOT to answer every silly question that everyone puts in front of them. Tell you what... call your local police department and ask the officer to come to your house to talk to you because you don't like the color your neighbor painted their house. You pay their taxes after all, so answering your questions MUST be their job, right?

Their job is to assist with pertinent in-game issues that are actually affecting the game world and game play. I won't say they do this perfectly, but what I will say is that it's not a GM's responsibility to teach you how to play the game. If you don't know how, either figure it out on your own or come here to ask others who can more readily assist you.

So you think. First off, we all know that there's an issue with the queue reporting the correct number of people in it (much less advancing frequently... how long did you stay as #11 in queue?). And... yeah... your presumption as to how they're spending their time is ludicrous. I know the GM service has failed to act appropriately at times, but I seriously doubt anyone is being paid to eat donuts.

Why? Because they won't come hold your hand? Seriously? Real-time chat for a few minutes about something they can't assist you with? Yeah, you're not unreasonable in your desires at all.

They are not poor company policies. Issues where I have had a legitimate need that could be assisted with by a GM have been handled professionally in most instances. Yeah, it would be nice if they took bug reports, but then, since I'm going to have to tell them about the bug and they're going to have to then report it, I might as well cut the middle-man and report the bug myself.

Other situations, such as monsters stuck in walls, stuck stats where there was an identifiable issue, and situations that warrant GM intervention have been dealt with. Once in awhile, I get a GM who isn't any good at what they do, but here's the test...

Right now you wanted a GM to come and talk to you, to hold your hand while you designed your house. First, a GM can't do anything for you. He can't tell you any more than the housing system did: The structure is unsound and can't be committed. He can't see your planned design, so how's he going to review it for you? He shouldn't be spending his time looking over your design anyway. If you have an issue, send in a bug report, or try the suggested steps to test it. So in the end, you just wanted someone to comfort you, to be on the receiving end of your ludicrous demand, and to what end? Is the GM going to force the housing system to commit your design? No. Should he? No. There's a reason the system is saying your design can't be committed. Maybe it's not obvious, maybe it's even a bug, but forcing a system to believe something it's been programmed not to is always a mistake.

So in the end, what exactly did you want? Someone to talk to for a few minutes? GMs are not paid to come talk to you just because you want someone to complain to. Contrary to popular belief, the GMs are NOT the complaint department... they are the department that fixes issues that can be immediately addressed. They are not programmers.

You might want to lower your expectations.
I think he's write and you were being extremely defensive..gee are you a gm? They don't show up anymore...not even for a stuck monster! I know because I recently had that happen and got referral to web site. There is no reason they couldn't compensate elder players to help with this, or reinstate a counselor status again, as it was so much more useful than a data base. The data base may have a lot of info, but some people don't have the time to search and research only to NOT find their issue! Customer service, for ANY company should be number 1 focus...any decent company should know that. He never asked for anyone to "hold his hand."
As for lowering expectations, that is how crappy work is rewarded. DUH.
 

RaDian FlGith

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Lol don't be stupid man. I played UO for 6 years and had 2 accounts before I took a break. I know how to play and I have customized 20 or so homes and NEVER had this problem before.
If you have played for so long, then you know your current expectations of the GMs are ludicrous.

And No the gms can't be compared to the police lol. The police are here to protect and serve not answer questions. Though if you ask them politely they will almost always answer to the best of their knowledge. The gms job is to help people with ingame issues and this housing issue is not the only time or type of thing I have reported and gotten back only an automessage.
I wasn't comparing the GMs to the police. I was extrapolating a comparative example of the ridiculousness of your belief that you have a right to expect GMs to just show up to chat with you, all because you spend $12.99/month on a game.

And yes indeed if they aren't there to answer our questions then why bother even having them.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say to help with valid, in-game issues such as but not limited to:
- Removing a player physically stuck in the terrain
- Fix a character that has an identifiable issue
- Move monsters that are stuck outside of the playable area
- Police harassment
- Et cetera...

I don't need anyone to hold my hand. I need a simple question that he may have been asked 1000 times before answered.
I'm going to guess that you put this question into the page for the GM. If he knew the answer to the question, he'd have sent you the response. Clearly he didn't. He did send you to a knowledge base, which you are clearly upset about.

I was number 11 for about 10 minutes so que listing problem or no there werent too many other people asking for help.
You're making an interesting presumption there. That counter has been faulty for YEARS. Tell me, is that 11 people on your shard? Or 11 people across the entire game? Because GMs don't service one single shard.

Also, they prioritize calls... if you have one that is of a more emergency nature, they tend to go answer those first. You honestly have no idea what was going on, but you still insist on the fact that the GM (who you believe to be lazing about eating donuts) had plenty of time to come and chat with you because -- in your opinion -- that's his job.

It's NOT his job to come talk to you.

13 bucks is quite high for a low end graphics game in todays market.
Yes, clearly games are charged for by their graphics, not their content. *sigh*

EverQuest Online Adventures (PS2 only...) : $14.99/month
EverQuest :
EverQuest II : $14.99
Star Wars Galaxies : $14.99
World of WarCraft : $14.99
...
Point is, lots of games still have subscription rates.

DDO had 3d graphics lol cannot be in any way compared to UO's 2d 1 angled world. I like UO and have supported it for a long time but if they are going to cut services they should also be cutting the sub fee.
It's very curious that you've been playing UO for only 6 years and somehow believe the GM service was better than it was today. Trust me, it's been replete with not being able to assist with things you are expecting them to help with. Most of us have figured out quite well what something a GM can help with is and is not.

Not saying they don't ever fail to answer a proper call properly, but then sometimes it depends on what a person pages with too.

It sounds to me more like your problem is that you expect a LOT more for your $12.99 than you're ever really likely to get.

For the housing issue they may need to rework it if all they can tell you is to look for orange tiles. If there are none then by their own system everything should be fine. But it's not. So thats one more thing broken that they need to work on.
I'm going to guess you haven't actually tried to solve the issue on your own, right? Did you try to commit one floor at a time? Because while you're completely sure you're not missing anything, maybe you are. And hey, in the process of doing this, you might actually identify a valid bug that you could then submit the information on and help get the situation fixed for everyone.

I know... you probably don't spend $12.99/month to submit bugs.

Well, guess what... even the most professionally programmed programs have bugs. They're a fact of programming life. Unexpected things happen.

Rather than spend time complaining that a GM wouldn't come and hold your hand while you tried to build a house, maybe you should spend your time productively.

I would have been happy with a message from the gm saying hey this is a known bug we are working on it. Thats all. 3 seconds worth of typing.
No, no you're clearly not going to be happy with that. They sent you to a KB entry that didn't please you. You seem to think that they already know of the bug. GMs are not the bug submission tool for the game. And really, you haven't identified a bug. All you've done is said, "I have a perfect house, and the game says look for orange tiles." Why don't you try to identify the problem and submit a proper bug report?

So don't talk down to me. You don't know me at all. I am not being unreasonable.
I don't have to know you to know that your stance on this is unreasonable. You are making use of a communication channel, and you are communicating your unreasonable expectations quite clearly. I'm not talking "down" to you, I'm simply telling you that you're off base with your expectations.

If your computer stopped working and you called a tech service that you were paying a monthly fee too and they said hey go check out our knowledge base website and fix the problem your self would you not have a problem with that?
Well, first off, if my computer stopped working, I'd have myself to blame since I build my own systems... And believe me, I'm quite capable of fixing my own problems.

However, going with your analogy, believe me, I'd be paying more than $12.99/month for premium technical service on my computer. And if you thought my police analogy was off, yours is even more so.

This is a game. You are paying a monthly subscription fee for it. Now, if you have a problem with the game not functioning, there are TECH SUPPORT avenues for you to investigate. This covers your game not functioning, your game not loading, and so forth. Certainly you wouldn't be paging a GM if your UO stopped functioning. And if you did, that'd be odd.

What you should really be comparing this to is calling your computer repair help center because your copy of The Sims won't load. They might help you out with it if you get a nice tech, but most of them are going to tell you, "That's not covered under your policy."

If not your among the minority.
Well, yes, I am among the minority in your example, because, again, I build my own systems. But then again, if I have a problem with my house committing, I take the time to figure out why it isn't committing. To this date, I've not had a problem with it that couldn't be solved by working through it.

And that does not put me in the minority.
 
A

Arch Angela

Guest
However, going with your analogy, believe me, I'd be paying more than $12.99/month for premium technical service on my computer. And if you thought my police analogy was off,
Well, yes, I am among the minority in your example, because, again, I build my own systems. But then again, if I have a problem with my house committing, I take the time to figure out why it isn't committing. To this date, I've not had a problem with it that couldn't be solved by working through it.

And that does not put me in the minority.
Um yah...if you been playing more than 6 years it DOES
 

GarthGrey

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I just paged on a UM'r less than an hour ago. It took the GM less than 30 minutes to respond and haul him away...
 

RaDian FlGith

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
They weren't paid but did receive FREE lifetime accounts!
Funny... I used to be a Senior Counselor. I assure you, I didn't get a FREE lifetime account. There was a period where you received a free account for serving as a Counselor, yes. And believe me, they were -- in most cases -- well deserved.

Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed answering calls from players, and even if I got a player who was so pissed off at the game that they were ready to quit and became abusive in their tone, I weathered it because as a player, I understood the frustration.

Personally, I'd love to see Counselors return, and if they ever did, I'd sign up tomorrow. In fact, I would PAY Mythic for access to a Counselor account because frankly being a Counselor was a very rewarding experience.

Understand that the Counselor system was put in place to allow players to directly help other players. The program ended because someone decided that rather than quit the program, that they instead deserved to be paid for the time they put in because UO couldn't function without Counselors.

Now we live in the post-Counselor era, and UO's gone on for almost a decade just fine without them. It was a loss to the game, yes, but it didn't end it.

Those "lifetime" accounts were not "lifetime" accounts. Yeah, someone's expiration date of their subscription was set to a very far off date (a hundred years or so as I recall), but believe me, when those accounts stopped being free, we all had to put our CC info back in.

It is expensive compared to other games with this level of limited graphics! Even lotro is available for 9.99 per month when you pay 3mos at a time!
Yeah, and UO's available for $9.99/month when you pay 6 months at a time. It's silly to believe that EA will reduce the price simply based on the graphics being outdated. They're not going to. And frankly, if you don't believe you're getting your bang for the buck, you know how to cancel your account.

I think he's write and you were being extremely defensive..gee are you a gm? They don't show up anymore...not even for a stuck monster!
No, I'm not a GM, and you're right... they don't show up for a stuck monster. They simply move the monster. I know... I personally paged four times on Navrey Nighteyes, and amazingly, within fifteen minutes, she was returned to the playfield and voila, the game moved on.

This, by the way, is what GMs are there for.

I know because I recently had that happen and got referral to web site.
And how did you page? Did you indicate that the monster was stuck in the terrain? I don't know how you paged, so I don't know how the GM might have interpreted your request for assistance.

And as I've said numerous times, I'm not saying that they never make mistakes. I simply said that an expectation that a GM is going to come talk to you every time you page is ludicrous.

There is no reason they couldn't compensate elder players to help with this, or reinstate a counselor status again, as it was so much more useful than a data base. The data base may have a lot of info, but some people don't have the time to search and research only to NOT find their issue!
I'd love to see the Counselor program return. Yes, it was more useful, because most of us Counseling were knowledgeable players, and we communicated with each other to help get answers if we didn't have them ourselves.

But, sadly, there are numerous reasons they can't bring the program back, and at this stage in UO's timeline, it's highly unlikely that they could overcome those issues, because it would involve paying Counselors on a level that simply would make the program detrimental to the financial needs of the game.

Customer service, for ANY company should be number 1 focus...any decent company should know that. He never asked for anyone to "hold his hand."
But what is "customer service." There are people who believe that "the customer is always right." Those people are also the ones who tend to try to look for any advantage or loophole in customer service to be downright asses about stuff in order to get what they want.

Prior to my career in web design, I spent a decade in various forms of customer service from sales person all the way up to regional manager, and I would bend over backwards to help out a customer. I can tell you that some customers are impossible to please because their expectations are far too lofty.

As example, a customer waits six months to return a video game that's been opened and clearly played. Store policy is "Sorry, you can't return that." But I get a sob story about being out of the country, the game never worked, my son didn't like the game, and so on. The game was a $29.99 game, and in those six months is now selling for $9.99. Still, I offer the customer a store credit for that $29.99. Fair? Yes. Very fair. In fact, more than fair. Above and beyond store policy, and frankly, above and beyond what most reasonable people would do for a customer. Still, I wanted to make the customer happy... go ahead and find something else. Oh, no. That's not enough. Customer wants his cash back. Now, from your stance, and that of the OP, I'm going to guess you believe the proper reaction here would be to refund the money. I'll tell you, that's not how it was handled.

Similarly, I watched a man at Best Buy hold up the customer service line at Best Buy to try to return something he'd bought four months prior. They offered him a store credit. He was offended, because he wanted his money back. Threatened to take his business to Circuit City. They probably could have used it, to be frank, but honestly, it's this type of "the customer is always right" expectation that first gives a bad name to customer service (better believe those people go and tell their friends, but they leave out important details), and second wastes valuable resource time on ludicrous expectations (I had to wait until this irate man finally stormed off with his "offensive" store credit, which means customer service couldn't help someone with a valid issue).

As for lowering expectations, that is how crappy work is rewarded. DUH.[/B]
Interesting if melodramatic representation. If you've set your expectations too high, then clearly it must be crappy work if you have to lower them to reasonable levels, right?
 

RaDian FlGith

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Um yah...if you been playing more than 6 years it DOES
What does? I don't understand the context of your response given what you quoted of my post.

However, going with your analogy, believe me, I'd be paying more than $12.99/month for premium technical service on my computer. And if you thought my police analogy was off,
Well, yes, I am among the minority in your example, because, again, I build my own systems. But then again, if I have a problem with my house committing, I take the time to figure out why it isn't committing. To this date, I've not had a problem with it that couldn't be solved by working through it.

And that does not put me in the minority.
How does any of that relate to me having played for more than six years?

By the way... I've been playing since October 23, 1997.
 
F

FelixxBlack

Guest
If you have played for so long, then you know your current expectations of the GMs are ludicrous.

I wasn't comparing the GMs to the police. I was extrapolating a comparative example of the ridiculousness of your belief that you have a right to expect GMs to just show up to chat with you, all because you spend $12.99/month on a game.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say to help with valid, in-game issues such as but not limited to:
- Removing a player physically stuck in the terrain
- Fix a character that has an identifiable issue
- Move monsters that are stuck outside of the playable area
- Police harassment
- Et cetera...

I'm going to guess that you put this question into the page for the GM. If he knew the answer to the question, he'd have sent you the response. Clearly he didn't. He did send you to a knowledge base, which you are clearly upset about.

You're making an interesting presumption there. That counter has been faulty for YEARS. Tell me, is that 11 people on your shard? Or 11 people across the entire game? Because GMs don't service one single shard.

Also, they prioritize calls... if you have one that is of a more emergency nature, they tend to go answer those first. You honestly have no idea what was going on, but you still insist on the fact that the GM (who you believe to be lazing about eating donuts) had plenty of time to come and chat with you because -- in your opinion -- that's his job.

It's NOT his job to come talk to you.

Yes, clearly games are charged for by their graphics, not their content. *sigh*

EverQuest Online Adventures (PS2 only...) : $14.99/month
EverQuest :
EverQuest II : $14.99
Star Wars Galaxies : $14.99
World of WarCraft : $14.99
...
Point is, lots of games still have subscription rates.

It's very curious that you've been playing UO for only 6 years and somehow believe the GM service was better than it was today. Trust me, it's been replete with not being able to assist with things you are expecting them to help with. Most of us have figured out quite well what something a GM can help with is and is not.

Not saying they don't ever fail to answer a proper call properly, but then sometimes it depends on what a person pages with too.

It sounds to me more like your problem is that you expect a LOT more for your $12.99 than you're ever really likely to get.

I'm going to guess you haven't actually tried to solve the issue on your own, right? Did you try to commit one floor at a time? Because while you're completely sure you're not missing anything, maybe you are. And hey, in the process of doing this, you might actually identify a valid bug that you could then submit the information on and help get the situation fixed for everyone.

I know... you probably don't spend $12.99/month to submit bugs.

Well, guess what... even the most professionally programmed programs have bugs. They're a fact of programming life. Unexpected things happen.

Rather than spend time complaining that a GM wouldn't come and hold your hand while you tried to build a house, maybe you should spend your time productively.

No, no you're clearly not going to be happy with that. They sent you to a KB entry that didn't please you. You seem to think that they already know of the bug. GMs are not the bug submission tool for the game. And really, you haven't identified a bug. All you've done is said, "I have a perfect house, and the game says look for orange tiles." Why don't you try to identify the problem and submit a proper bug report?

I don't have to know you to know that your stance on this is unreasonable. You are making use of a communication channel, and you are communicating your unreasonable expectations quite clearly. I'm not talking "down" to you, I'm simply telling you that you're off base with your expectations.

Well, first off, if my computer stopped working, I'd have myself to blame since I build my own systems... And believe me, I'm quite capable of fixing my own problems.

However, going with your analogy, believe me, I'd be paying more than $12.99/month for premium technical service on my computer. And if you thought my police analogy was off, yours is even more so.

This is a game. You are paying a monthly subscription fee for it. Now, if you have a problem with the game not functioning, there are TECH SUPPORT avenues for you to investigate. This covers your game not functioning, your game not loading, and so forth. Certainly you wouldn't be paging a GM if your UO stopped functioning. And if you did, that'd be odd.

What you should really be comparing this to is calling your computer repair help center because your copy of The Sims won't load. They might help you out with it if you get a nice tech, but most of them are going to tell you, "That's not covered under your policy."

Well, yes, I am among the minority in your example, because, again, I build my own systems. But then again, if I have a problem with my house committing, I take the time to figure out why it isn't committing. To this date, I've not had a problem with it that couldn't be solved by working through it.

And that does not put me in the minority.
Man you are really great at nit picking. I do have a valid point and only a previous gm would ever think someone asking a simple question was too much lol. I knew you were being ultra defensive about my point and now I know why. I bet you spent most of your time eating donuts! GMs ARE there for customer service. I wait for my turn in line like everyone else and all I want is an answer to my question. I used to get personal gm attention all the time for pretty much every page i made which granted wasnt often but still. I understand that theres probably 1 guy working all the shards but thats not my fault thats good ol EA shaving the work force to make a buck. And who wants to pay for a game 6 months in advance in this economy? The price should be lowered as the service is lowered. And all those games you mentioned with 14.99 subs well hell 2 bucks more a month for brilliant 3d graphics and a huge world to explore in those 3d graphics makes them very easily worth the extra 2 bucks. Thats what makes UO feel so expensive with its sprite graphics and nice flat world. Even in the 3d client when you zoom in all it does is get super pixelated. Plus yes when theres tons of absolutely free UO shards to play on I do expect a little more for my 13 bucks a month than i could get for free. And if you bothered to read I had already stated that I have customized around 20 homes in uo and I have NEVER had this problem before. AND someone who'd rather not beat me up for asking a question answered it and it solved the problem. And doing it your way would have made no difference what so ever because the tiles were not showing as orange. I wish they would have been able to publish ultima 2. It looked pretty cool. The gm system was great until about the last year i played. I guess thats when they got rid of the counselor system. So I was absolutely right about it being alot better before. I think its funny how people try to make themselves sound intelligent by putting down other people. Try saying something constructive instead. That way you seem like less of an antagonistic jackass. Thanks for playing.
 

Xenobia

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I know this may seem trivial but you really have to be careful in how you WORD your GM requests. It's like typing on these boards...If you do not get the point across when you think you have, you may be flamed to hell and back. I paged a GM the other night and asked him to remove "stew" from the ground. I got a message back stating that they could not change the land lol I then resubmitted the help request and explained that it was a residual from a house falling and I could not place another house over it. After a few minutes, poof!, the house blocking stew was a thing of the past. I really have not had a problem with GM's lately. As long as it is a valid request (and something that they can actually take care of) they show up and take care of it. It's the waiting process that is a bit ridiculous, but it's not like the old days when they could pay a whole room full of folks to sit around and wait for us to call on them. I wish they would bring counselors back into the mix! Free tech help? Why not take it?
 

RaDian FlGith

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Man you are really great at nit picking. I do have a valid point and only a previous gm would ever think someone asking a simple question was too much lol. I knew you were being ultra defensive about my point and now I know why. I bet you spent most of your time eating donuts!
I can guarantee you that I have never been a GM for Electronic Arts, much less any other game company. A webmaster for another well-known game company, yes... never a GM. Interesting the logical leaps you are making here.

GMs ARE there for customer service.
Technically, yes, but their role in that position is not Q/A. Their role is in-game issue support. You didn't have an issue they could assist with, and you didn't like their answer, so now you're coughing up a storm about how you have a right to have a GM come and sit and talk with you. You don't. That's NOT their job.

I wait for my turn in line like everyone else and all I want is an answer to my question.
They gave you one. Just not the one you wanted. You wanted a personalized GM to come, show up, and in person recite to you the same stuff that they sent you a KB link to. Or you wanted the GM to come and force your house to commit. Or you wanted a GM to report the bug for you. Or maybe you wanted the GM to reprogram the game right there on the spot and correct whatever issue was wrong with the housing system at that very moment. NONE of these things, however, are in their job duty.

I used to get personal gm attention all the time for pretty much every page i made which granted wasnt often but still.
Perhaps in the past you were paging on something that they could assist with. I guarantee you though, this silly "GMs must come talk to me about everything and they suck if they don't" mantra has been going on since 1997.

I understand that theres probably 1 guy working all the shards but thats not my fault thats good ol EA shaving the work force to make a buck. And who wants to pay for a game 6 months in advance in this economy? The price should be lowered as the service is lowered. And all those games you mentioned with 14.99 subs well hell 2 bucks more a month for brilliant 3d graphics and a huge world to explore in those 3d graphics makes them very easily worth the extra 2 bucks.
I seriously doubt it's one person covering all the shards, except perhaps late at night. Describe it however you want though, yeah, GM service is going to go down with the subscription dollars coming in. It's funny that you seem to think you're paying TOO MUCH for the service, and yet, the only way they could viably increase GM service would be to RAISE the price of the game. You seem to think that graphic quality is directly related to the amount of the cost of the subscription for the game. Again, you're being ludicrous in your expectations. So your current equation is you want BETTER customer service and you want to pay LESS for the game because the graphics aren't part of a lush 3D world (and boy... if you're calling EQ lush, you might want to get your eyes checked).

As for paying six months at a time in this economy, uh, frankly, it's this economy that makes it make sense. I mean, unless you're considering quitting tomorrow (which frankly, I might suggest given your expectations), if you think you're going to be playing for the next six months, you'd end up saving yourself $18 over the course of that six months. Now, I suspect that your response is going to be, "Big whoop, it's $18... if you can't afford it you shouldn't be playing," which, of course, is going to be contrary to what you just implied with "this economy," but I digress.

Thats what makes UO feel so expensive with its sprite graphics and nice flat world. Even in the 3d client when you zoom in all it does is get super pixelated.
Really? The graphics are what make it so expensive? I mean, first off, for the game play value you get out of $12.99, you're getting a hell of a bargain regardless of graphics. That's less than the average cost of a night at the movies for one person including snacks. But clearly there's not going to be any arguing this point with you because you have an illusory correlation that's stuck in your head. It's illogical and only furthers that your expectations are quite lofty.

Plus yes when theres tons of absolutely free UO shards to play on I do expect a little more for my 13 bucks a month than i could get for free.
Oh, there's a beautiful line of extremely flawed logic. You do understand that those free shards are 100% ILLEGAL. That if EA wanted to, they could issue cease and desist orders across the board. They don't, and the free servers should be thankful for that. However, your argument that because you could technically play UO for free you should get personalized GM service because you pay a subscription fee is the most ridiculous argument you've presented to date.

And if you bothered to read I had already stated that I have customized around 20 homes in uo and I have NEVER had this problem before. AND someone who'd rather not beat me up for asking a question answered it and it solved the problem. And doing it your way would have made no difference what so ever because the tiles were not showing as orange.
Really? You're right... I didn't read. I've been mysteriously responding to your posts, completely out of context, not answering section by section, point by point. Instead, I've just quoted everything you said, and then put cute, quippy answers down at the bottom. No, wait... that's you.

I'm glad you solved your problem. Did you log in on the 2D client? Doing it one floor at a time wouldn't have helped? Really? Wow... Listen... I get that you have customized a house before and never encountered the error before. That's great. You could still have narrowed it down to what floor was causing the problem and slowly but surely have figured out what the issue was, and in doing so, you could have identified the problem and submitted a bug report about it.

Instead, you came here to complain that the GMs didn't personally come and give you step by step instructions to fix your issue.

Funny part is, you came here and apparently got your issue corrected, and you still seem to feel that a GM could have fixed this issue for you if he'd just have come and talked to you. Except, of course, that GMs don't necessarily have 100% experience in every aspect of the game, and your better bet honestly was to come here and find out if anyone had experienced similar problems and seen if there was a solution you could implement yourself.

However, I'm sure that you're going to say, "Well, the GM should have shown up, looked on Stratics, asked for me, fixed it for me, and I'd have been happy."

I wish they would have been able to publish ultima 2. It looked pretty cool. The gm system was great until about the last year i played. I guess thats when they got rid of the counselor system.
The Counselor system was removed about May of 2001, four years after the game was released. The subsequent pink-robed whatever they were called were not nearly as good as the Counselors because they were representatives rumored to be from India who had no knowledge of the game itself. It was one of the lowest points in EA service history, but again, it was brought on by a disruption in the Counselor system by a few who forgot why they had volunteered in the first place and saw the almighty dollar sign flash in their eyes.

What's funny, and perhaps ironic, is that if I had been a Counselor on duty when you paged with this, I'd have bent over backward to try to help you through it. What I think you don't understand is that was the purpose of Counselors -- people who play helping others who play. GMs are not now nor have they ever been there to help people play, nor are they there to help you even understand why a bug is occurring. They are simply there to help maintain the daily playability of the game. I understand you don't like that, but that's the way it is.

So I was absolutely right about it being alot better before.
No, you're not, but continue to believe so. History is replete with complaints about the GM system from the day the game launched, and most of them are quite similar complaints to yours: The GMs didn't come and answer them about something they couldn't have helped you with anyway.

I think its funny how people try to make themselves sound intelligent by putting down other people. Try saying something constructive instead. That way you seem like less of an antagonistic jackass. Thanks for playing.
I think it's hysterical that you think I'm trying to sound intelligent by putting you down. I'm responding to your unreasonable demands of the GM system, and that's "putting you down." Yet, I think you'll find that in your responses, it was you who has been far nastier than I. I am sticking to the thoughts and ideas presented in your thread. I've stuck to what you've said and presented and based my arguments around that. You, on the other hand, have insinuated that I'm a lazy, donut-eating ex-GM. Curious.

At the end of the day, you yourself said that you wanted a GM to come and personally answer a question that he had probably already answered 1,000 times before. It's curious that you do not indicate what page you sent to the GM... did you page with "I'm trying to commit a house, I see no orange tiles, but it won't commit," or did you page with "Come talk to me, I have a problem?" Either way, whatever response you got was the one that the GM felt was approrpriate, and based on what your expectations were in regard to the issue you've presented here, frankly, this was a better place for you to ask in the first place.
 
F

FelixxBlack

Guest
I can guarantee you that I have never been a GM for Electronic Arts, much less any other game company. A webmaster for another well-known game company, yes... never a GM. Interesting the logical leaps you are making here.

Technically, yes, but their role in that position is not Q/A. Their role is in-game issue support. You didn't have an issue they could assist with, and you didn't like their answer, so now you're coughing up a storm about how you have a right to have a GM come and sit and talk with you. You don't. That's NOT their job.

They gave you one. Just not the one you wanted. You wanted a personalized GM to come, show up, and in person recite to you the same stuff that they sent you a KB link to. Or you wanted the GM to come and force your house to commit. Or you wanted a GM to report the bug for you. Or maybe you wanted the GM to reprogram the game right there on the spot and correct whatever issue was wrong with the housing system at that very moment. NONE of these things, however, are in their job duty.

Perhaps in the past you were paging on something that they could assist with. I guarantee you though, this silly "GMs must come talk to me about everything and they suck if they don't" mantra has been going on since 1997.

I seriously doubt it's one person covering all the shards, except perhaps late at night. Describe it however you want though, yeah, GM service is going to go down with the subscription dollars coming in. It's funny that you seem to think you're paying TOO MUCH for the service, and yet, the only way they could viably increase GM service would be to RAISE the price of the game. You seem to think that graphic quality is directly related to the amount of the cost of the subscription for the game. Again, you're being ludicrous in your expectations. So your current equation is you want BETTER customer service and you want to pay LESS for the game because the graphics aren't part of a lush 3D world (and boy... if you're calling EQ lush, you might want to get your eyes checked).

As for paying six months at a time in this economy, uh, frankly, it's this economy that makes it make sense. I mean, unless you're considering quitting tomorrow (which frankly, I might suggest given your expectations), if you think you're going to be playing for the next six months, you'd end up saving yourself $18 over the course of that six months. Now, I suspect that your response is going to be, "Big whoop, it's $18... if you can't afford it you shouldn't be playing," which, of course, is going to be contrary to what you just implied with "this economy," but I digress.

Really? The graphics are what make it so expensive? I mean, first off, for the game play value you get out of $12.99, you're getting a hell of a bargain regardless of graphics. That's less than the average cost of a night at the movies for one person including snacks. But clearly there's not going to be any arguing this point with you because you have an illusory correlation that's stuck in your head. It's illogical and only furthers that your expectations are quite lofty.

Oh, there's a beautiful line of extremely flawed logic. You do understand that those free shards are 100% ILLEGAL. That if EA wanted to, they could issue cease and desist orders across the board. They don't, and the free servers should be thankful for that. However, your argument that because you could technically play UO for free you should get personalized GM service because you pay a subscription fee is the most ridiculous argument you've presented to date.

Really? You're right... I didn't read. I've been mysteriously responding to your posts, completely out of context, not answering section by section, point by point. Instead, I've just quoted everything you said, and then put cute, quippy answers down at the bottom. No, wait... that's you.

I'm glad you solved your problem. Did you log in on the 2D client? Doing it one floor at a time wouldn't have helped? Really? Wow... Listen... I get that you have customized a house before and never encountered the error before. That's great. You could still have narrowed it down to what floor was causing the problem and slowly but surely have figured out what the issue was, and in doing so, you could have identified the problem and submitted a bug report about it.

Instead, you came here to complain that the GMs didn't personally come and give you step by step instructions to fix your issue.

Funny part is, you came here and apparently got your issue corrected, and you still seem to feel that a GM could have fixed this issue for you if he'd just have come and talked to you. Except, of course, that GMs don't necessarily have 100% experience in every aspect of the game, and your better bet honestly was to come here and find out if anyone had experienced similar problems and seen if there was a solution you could implement yourself.

However, I'm sure that you're going to say, "Well, the GM should have shown up, looked on Stratics, asked for me, fixed it for me, and I'd have been happy."

The Counselor system was removed about May of 2001, four years after the game was released. The subsequent pink-robed whatever they were called were not nearly as good as the Counselors because they were representatives rumored to be from India who had no knowledge of the game itself. It was one of the lowest points in EA service history, but again, it was brought on by a disruption in the Counselor system by a few who forgot why they had volunteered in the first place and saw the almighty dollar sign flash in their eyes.

What's funny, and perhaps ironic, is that if I had been a Counselor on duty when you paged with this, I'd have bent over backward to try to help you through it. What I think you don't understand is that was the purpose of Counselors -- people who play helping others who play. GMs are not now nor have they ever been there to help people play, nor are they there to help you even understand why a bug is occurring. They are simply there to help maintain the daily playability of the game. I understand you don't like that, but that's the way it is.

No, you're not, but continue to believe so. History is replete with complaints about the GM system from the day the game launched, and most of them are quite similar complaints to yours: The GMs didn't come and answer them about something they couldn't have helped you with anyway.

I think it's hysterical that you think I'm trying to sound intelligent by putting you down. I'm responding to your unreasonable demands of the GM system, and that's "putting you down." Yet, I think you'll find that in your responses, it was you who has been far nastier than I. I am sticking to the thoughts and ideas presented in your thread. I've stuck to what you've said and presented and based my arguments around that. You, on the other hand, have insinuated that I'm a lazy, donut-eating ex-GM. Curious.

At the end of the day, you yourself said that you wanted a GM to come and personally answer a question that he had probably already answered 1,000 times before. It's curious that you do not indicate what page you sent to the GM... did you page with "I'm trying to commit a house, I see no orange tiles, but it won't commit," or did you page with "Come talk to me, I have a problem?" Either way, whatever response you got was the one that the GM felt was approrpriate, and based on what your expectations were in regard to the issue you've presented here, frankly, this was a better place for you to ask in the first place.
More nit picking lol you are a master I give ya that. But the problem has been solved. So I'll leave you to nit picking other peoples posts lol. Hasta La Vista.
 

Black Sun

Grand Poobah
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Yes, GM's do appear and talk to you. Its all a matter of how you phrase your page. If it's not clear they will usually send you to the knowledge base. Earlier this year I got stuck on the roof of a building and the help I'm stuck feature thought I could get down. I had to page a GM, who showed up and teleported me down.

Just a few weeks ago I had to page again because one of my characters was bugged and couldnt secure containers in his house. The GM had a short conversation without appearing, but solved my problem and sent me on my way.

They're out there, just have to find the right wording to get them to show.
 

RaDian FlGith

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
More nit picking lol you are a master I give ya that. But the problem has been solved. So I'll leave you to nit picking other peoples posts lol. Hasta La Vista.
Yes, clearly you had to quote the entire post just to say that.

It's not nitpicking. I've made valid points. You simply have your own exaggerated idea of what your $12.99 is worth, how much UO is valued at, and what you can expect from a GM.

Of course, you and I both know why you're calling it nitpicking and have resorted to answers that make no sense. You've realized you're wrong.
 

Xenobia

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Yes, GM's do appear and talk to you. Its all a matter of how you phrase your page. If it's not clear they will usually send you to the knowledge base. Earlier this year I got stuck on the roof of a building and the help I'm stuck feature thought I could get down. I had to page a GM, who showed up and teleported me down.

Just a few weeks ago I had to page again because one of my characters was bugged and couldnt secure containers in his house. The GM had a short conversation without appearing, but solved my problem and sent me on my way.

They're out there, just have to find the right wording to get them to show.
Exactly. You can't just say "there is something on the ground blocking me from placing a house" You need to say "A house fell 5 hours ago and now there is a round thing that says "stew" laying on the ground and blocking me from placing a new house" They will come and destroy the item for you. It's all in how ya say it :)
 

RaDian FlGith

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Exactly. You can't just say "there is something on the ground blocking me from placing a house" You need to say "A house fell 5 hours ago and now there is a round thing that says "stew" laying on the ground and blocking me from placing a new house" They will come and destroy the item for you. It's all in how ya say it :)
Which, of course, comes from them answering all kinds of pages like, "I can't place a house here, help me!" and "There's something blocking my house, can you move it?" (when that something's a static tree), and stuff like that.

Sadly we've sort of programmed them to need to look for specific wordings so that they aren't wasting time on stuff they can't help with. Which is particularly important now that there are less of them.
 
G

GreySteele

Guest
I think you would be shocked how much it costs to equip and staff a customer service pit.

*wonders how much of my subscription fees are eaten by other people wasting GM time*
When people contact customer service it is because they are paying for a service and either 1. experiencing an issue they feel there is a problem with; or 2. feeling they are paying for something they are not receiving. It does not matter what industry you are in, nearly 100% of the time, when a person contacts customer service, their call will fall into one of those two categories.

As a customer, one expects a certain level of product for what they are paying for. When that expectation is not met, then a person contacts customer service to either 1. fix that issue or 2. to be educated (answer their question or point them in the right direction of where to find the answer (in other words, passing the buck sometimes)).

If it were not for customers, then those who "serve the customer" (i.e. customer service agents) would not have a job. It is ethical for any company to have customer service for any customer who has the first two issues, even if it seems trival.

What it costs for GMs (not EA CS) is I am sure very minimal of your subscription fees. Your subscription fees are being mostly used to develop the product, produce the product, and promote the product.

The two problems that I see with UO, from a service level, are the product is being released after without adequate testing and then it not being supported properly. "Bug" updates are solving one problem however, they are causing other problems. But this is nothing new in the 12 years UO has been out, but it should not be, after 12 years, but that is not the GMs fault either.

The big problem that I see with GM CS, is the wait time in the queue. I know the GMs can read the incoming help requests and decide which ones to choose first however, it seems there are never enough GMs to answer ones "call" in what I would call a suitable time period. Being number 16 in a queue for over an hour, and not moving up the queue is an issue. However, if one calls about not being able to place a house versus being a ghost trapped somewhere, your housing request will be a lower level response than the trapped player.

Also regarding wait time in the queue, it is how you word your help request. If you come across using language that you know you shouldn't, or being argumentative, accusational, or saying "FIX IT NOW", you're probably not going to get help. Simply state your problem as accurately as you can, and remember the magic word, please. It goes a long way.

Why do I rant about this? Because I was an executive level trainer for a Fortune 100 company before my health took a nose dive. Trust me, you can get more flys with honey, than you can with vinegar.

And have I ever seen a GM in the past six months? Yes, he "magically" appeared in front of me like a flash of lightning, and he was very very helpful.
Have I ever been "in chat" with a GM in the past six months without actually seeing the GM? Yes, to figure out why something would not lock down.

Do the GMs answer my call/question adequately? Sometimes, probably 80% of the time.

Do I always get the answer I want? No.

Do the GMs answer my call in an adequate time? No, generally wait time has been 45+ minutes with one time even being over 2 hours, and I was still in the queue when I signed off and then had to make a help request the next day because I still had the same problem.

There are two GMs however, that do seem to answer any request I have made, even if it is a simple question, within 10 minutes and I always give kudos to them via the feedback link. Honey with sugar will get you more flys than vinegar.
 
D

Dolphoenix

Guest
Couple of weeks ago I had to call a GM twice in one day.
Both time I got the canned response.. BUT both times the GM ALSO corrected
the issues.

The Moral : Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.
 

Taylor

Former Stratics CEO (2011-2014)
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Alumni
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Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
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I had to call a GM last night. When I paged, I was placed 6th in the cue. 1 hour and 40 minutes later (I was still 6th in the cue), I received a response. This seems a bit slow. :(
 
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