How'd You Become A GM? What's Your GM Experience Like?

[DavionFuxa]

We have topics for 'why be a Game Master', 'what it felt like to become a Game Master', and then the whole slew of topics from the Admins point of view of 'hiring a Game Master', and 'what to look for in a Game Master'. Well, how about a topic in regards to how the Game Master 'Became the Game Master'? What experiences did his job entail for him? And perhaps anything else that is relevant can be added to the answer if wished.

• How did it don on you to decide to become a Game Master; did you get approached by the Administrator, did you approach him, or maybe one day you just happen to be a Game Master? Was there a process involved or a grace period given to you; how would you describe your trials, or simply just the events that fell your way?
  
  
• The second part of the question: what jobs or tasks did you do, difficulties did you face, accomplishments you achieve, or however did your experience as a GM go?

In my case it was rather simple: Server needed Game Masters, I viewed a thread in the forums regarding becoming a Game Master, I sent Retro an email, we discussed it a bit, I eventually became a Game Master under the mentor ship of another Game Master, and after that I slowly drifted into my role on the server. As a Game Master I helped keep things orderly by helping to solve disputes are enact discipline where needed, all while helping to keep the server free of botters - sometimes during times when I would be normally asleep.

What's Your GM Story?

[Belldandy]

70% of the time I was approached; 30% of the time I joined just to become a staff, knowing I'd have enough qualifications to be one.

Most of the stuff I did was PR work, though. I like that kind of stuff. Tried to avoid troll servers, though, since I knew I'd regret even bothering. Don't fit in with that crowd too well.

(click to show/hide)

I think people just want my sig space here since it's great server advertisement lol! Just kidding >>

[Euphie]

Strangely enough, I was sort of tricked into GMing, the first time I did.

Rather, helpers on the first server I GM'd on had limited commands and used them through an NPC, but only accounts activated with a code via the NPC could become helpers. Admin there liked me, had me put in the code and bam, I was a helper. I honestly didn't know what the code meant til it was over, then I felt guilty for not helping out with the commands I had. So I began to mute spammers, and simple things like that, then before I knew it, he wanted me to GM, so I accepted seeing as their current staff was rather small / inactive. With a population of like 1k+, I found it to be a bit stressful, pretty much chained to the assistant npc helping people whenever I was online. It was certainly not the best unpaid job lol.

Eventually it came down to me and one other person doing most of the work (what we could do anyway) and it became too much, not to mention the corruption was insane. So I quit. A friend of mine had started a server though and asked me to help him out and I did, and that lead me to starting my own when he decided to close down his. After I met nevelis though, we decided to merge our servers and here I am today.

tldr
Corrupt servers are pointless to GM for.

[YuukiRune]

I'd played on the server I'm currently a GM on for about a year and a half. Was friends with most of the active GMs/in there RO family before they were even GMs. I helped out quite a lot around the server in the ways I could, then a few months ago, the Owner and the person who was basically the second in command (who ironically was my RO mommy) put me in a group chat on MSN and they asked me to be a GM. So basically, I was given the position because of my dedication to helping out and showing that I was a trustworthy person. It really made my day when it happened. ^^ I had to go though a trial period as a Sub GM for about a month just to make sure I didn't flake out or anything like that.

My duties as a GM range from holding events, making sure people don't break the rules, helping out with our new RP World, spriting, and other things like that. So far, it's been pretty fun. ^^

[Kensei]

Support GM. 90% of the time it's more boring than PvM because it's mostly questions which answers are actually on forum or common RO thingy. 10% are fun because some people are unexpectedly cool and because of the staff team itself was enjoyable to talk with.

How did I become one? Applied when bored. How did I get fired? Someone was vry mad @ me.

[Eurydice]

I decided I wanted to be a GM on a few servers because... THE STAFF IS INCAPABLE OF DOING THINGS. I wanted to be better than them. So I decided to apply when they're accepting GM applications, and I wrote a loooooong and very detailed application. And then I got hired. As a start I was an Event GM. Hosting events (other than HnS and QnA) and doing support.

The longest I've been a GM or a part of the staff/team is almost one year. I was hired as an Event GM, but quickly got promoted as the Head GM the next day, prior to my experience in the server side stuff and the Head GM quit. I liked being organized, so I created logs for everything. I'm always the creative one when it comes to quests, features and graphics. I suggested to remake all the quests, since it's all about hunting and collecting things which is very very very boring. Then I created the Wiki for that server and hired a couple of skilled  GMs. Then I got promoted as the co-admin. Since the admin is MIA a lot, the server pretty much relied on me. Fixing minor script mistakes, to ultra huge bugs. Then the admin decided to install eAmod which I was unfamiliar with, and disappeared again. So I had to force myself to fix things. Next thing I knew he was playing another game, spending and gambling the donation money. Then he hired a bunch of biased GMs, who trashtalks everyone and it's okay to him. So me and the better half of the team quit, and he banned me from the forums for no reason at all. His server died after a few days.

Major Responsibilities: bug tracking, fixing things, holding unique events, hiring GMs

[Frost]

Wanted to spread my art and also communicate and have fun with a large mass of players. It was a whole mass of headache though.

Players expect you to fix EVERYTHING even when it is not your concern. They expect you to do something out of bound at your current level, but not out of bound in their minds. They know they can push your buttons and if you retaliate they call you corrupt and evil. Your responses all have to be sugar coated or else it's considered mistreatment.

Not to mention one of my superiors was an absolute d*** that ruled with an iron fist. His sense of humor was only comparable to road kill, he was loyal and stupid as a dog. His only quality that I felt was worth mentioning was the fact his use of the English grammar and spelling were very professional. Needless to say I did not get along well with his Hitler attitude, too unmotivated to get things done and too anal to let you do anything productive.

[keben]

-the admin approached me
- i started as a GM in training and also a forum moderator then after my good works the admin promoted me as his Co-Admin and Forum Admin
-now i do item scripting, making the the forum useful and updated also the page
-i do test the items and skills, trying to balance them