Do u think GM's should have their own WOE guild?

[bleu]

GMs, they are normally recruited from current players on the server. More likely than not, they are someone who has built up a good reputation in the community, have a good knowledge of the game/different classes, runs his/her own guild or a prominent member in a guild. Depending on the role of the GM, some may also be required to have a basic understanding of computer programming language. (Not all GMs are scripwriters and programmer, some may be purely in charge of maintaining Forums, hosting Events, etc...)

I know someone who recently made GM on iRO (mostlikely a sub-GM). Anyways, this is what he had to do. Disband his WOE guild. Hand over his guild to his appointed successor (i.e. make a new guild and start levelling again). He was never seen on his usual characters again. Most likely he got a name change or if he is using the GM Sprite, be invisible most of the time. Testing stuff, moderating on forums and other GM duties. I doubt he even "play" RO now. Its more work now. Well thats with a iRO population of 3000+ (combining all three servers) and strict guidelines of what GMs can do and cannot do.

Now, what about P Servers? Just glance through the Server Review section, and u will noticed there are a few tread on corruptions (I dont know- true or false allegations) Among the "alleged corruptions", one reason seems to point to the fact that GMs having their own WOE guild.

Question 1: Do u think a GM should have their own WOE guild? Since GMs are normally prominent players on their server, its most likely they have their own guilds (in their pre-GM life). Or perhaps the question should be rephrased, should GMs be allowed to actively participate in WOE?

Question 2: Maybe u think they should be allowed to be active in WOE? Maybe coz... the WOE population is too small, and by removing a prominent player from the WOE scene might be worst for the server. What pre-cautionery steps if any does your server take to prevent possible abuses - corruption, cheating, bianess, etc... ?

Question 3: Maybe the GM did nothing illegal or did not abuse his/her powers. But do the community "buy the story"? How important do u think is the "perceived credibility of the GM Team"?

Summary of Findings (After 60 posts and 1387 hits)

An overwhelming, majority of RMS users (70%) who participated in this thread do not approve GMs having their own guilds or actively participate in WOE. Some RMS users have sighted past encounters, where GMs who led in WOE or actively WOE invariably led to abuse of power. A few have even gone as far as stating that GMs should only be performing GM related duties and not playing the game on their server.

There is a small number of RMS users (30%) who supports GMs having their own guilds or be allowed to actively participate in WOE. Most supporters had strict conditions attached with their opinions, expressing their approval only if there are tight controls to monitor the actions of the GMs for any corrupt behaviors or other measures have been taken to sufficiently prevent and deter any temptations.

[Brainstorm]

Sure, why not? A little spice of drama is what everyone wants, even if they deny it to death.
Its pointless to even discuss 'gm X is corrupt', because if they dont woe, people will accuse of something else, even if the gms dont play, they still will find something to complain (lag, dupes, hacks, exploits that dont exist), so its pointless really.

[Descent]

Question 1: Do u think a GM should have their own WOE guild? Since GMs are normally prominent players on their server, its most likely they have their own guilds (in their pre-GM life). Or perhaps the question should be rephrased, should GMs be allowed to actively participate in WOE?

Answer: None of my staff(myself included) is allowed to lead their own WoE-active Guild. They are allowed to JOIN guilds under the premise that their legit is NOT made known to them. They are allowed to participate in WoE, but their performance is closely monitored, as are the logs. So far, none of my staffers have shown any signs of corruption or favourtism, and they are allowed to do anything they see fit with their own legit items.

Question 2: Maybe u think they should be allowed to be active in WOE? Maybe coz... the WOE population is too small, and by removing a prominent player from the WOE scene might be worst for the server. What pre-cautionery steps if any does your server take to prevent possible abuses - corruption, cheating, bianess, etc... ?

Answer: Participation in WoE is at their discretion. Both of my legits are in a WoE active guild, but I don't WoE. I have much better things to do with my time(read: Server-related and scripting) to spend two hours in a server-wide pissing contest. As always, staff is not allowed to be on any War of Emperium Map during WoE on their GM characters. If found, they are immediately terminated. Again, none of them have done it. This eliminates them using a GM as recon.

Question 3: Maybe the GM did nothing illegal or did not abuse his/her powers. But do the community "buy the story"? How important do u think is the "perceived credibility of the GM Team"?

Answer: My community trusts me and my team to the fullest. Even if they knew our legits, they know that GM characters are bound by a strict set of rules, even on their GM character, as follows:

- No hacked/illegitimate builds. No all 255s on all stats. Everything worn on a GM with the exception of "Staff" Wings(I don't use GM Sprites on the server, so you can tell a staffer by their wings) must be an obtainable item in-game. No Ahura Mazda, Angra Mainyu, et cetera. All GMs cannot exceed Level 255/70.

- Participation in PvP is not allowed on a GM character. Only ONCE have I engaged in PVP, and it was for an event where the whole server kicked my donkey all over the room.

I've been lucky so far with the whole "corruption" thing. Most of the time, "Corruption" is screamed on a server when somebody loses consistently in PVP and assumes that the person kicking their donkey is a GM's hacked legit.

[Anti-Static Foam Cleaner]

Sure, why not? A little spice of drama is what everyone wants, even if they deny it to death.
Its pointless to even discuss 'gm X is corrupt', because if they dont woe, people will accuse of something else, even if the gms dont play, they still will find something to complain (lag, dupes, hacks, exploits that dont exist), so its pointless really.

Thanks, now I don't have to write anything. Seconding all this.

[Rudolph Zyaber]

No. Nothing good can come of it.  If the guild does too well then your players will think you and the players in the guild are just cheating.  If the guild is too s*** and doesn't do well then there isn't much point is there.   

Even if it's all legit gears and characters and such, the player base will still feel distrust towards because it has GMs in it.

I suggest you play on another server if you want to WoE/PVP

[Xarale]

I have to say: NO.

Basically, if a GM plays a legit char leading a WoE guild, the temptation to cheat & @item yourself some gears will always be there.  Especially if your guild is having a hard time winning.  Sadly, I've seen GMs fall into this temptation on many servers, which just causes the server to gain a bad reputation & even die out.  Infact, I even wrote a lengthy server review here a couple of years ago regarding a well known server with an admin who couldn't resist that temptation to boost his guild in WoE.

Even if you DO resist that temptation as Rudolph said, players will always be suspicious of you, especially if your guild wins a lot.  You will get accused on a daily basis of cheating, and the more these rumours spread, the worse your server reputation becomes.

If you're an admin & you wish to WoE, it's best to maybe play another server on the side & WoE there.  Nothing good comes from a GM WoE'ing on his/her own server.

[Loki]

Even if they do play, make it discreet. Also, the admin should supervise GMs that participate. Check the database or whatever server owners do to check if anything was @item'ed.

[~~T~~]

They should, thats why I have @doommap hotkeyed.

[GM Faith]

Never, under any circumstances.

[asdfqwerty123]

I went into great detail on staff rules for my server to prevent this kind of thing.
My philosophy is that if you're a Game Master and you have time to play as a normal player, you're not doing your job correctly.
If you're a Game Master, you can't do a lot of things normal players can do.
I would recommend this as a guideline to any server.
Have a list of general staff rules for all staff members, and then more specific ones for higher ranked staff.
Lay out the solid rules, then give guidelines to help your staff get an idea of what you expect from them.
As you can see, I go several steps beyond just a WoE guild.

Additional Rules for Game Masters
Game Masters must follow the General Staff Rules in addition to the following rules listed here.
No participating in/or assisting in PVPing.
No participating in/or assisting in MVPing.
No participating in/or assisting in WoE.
No participating in/or assisting in events as a contestant.

Excepts:
You ARE allowed to monitor PvP for the sole purpose of finding rule breakers.
You ARE allowed to conduct events in an organized, timely, and appropriate manner (ONLY applies to Event GM's).

General Staff Guidelines:
These are guidelines that are not quite as strictly enforced because they should be done more as a courtesy.
Staff members should not go AFK in the main town(s) because it seems like they're not being helpful or simply ignoring players.
...

And so on for less strict things.

[bleu]

They should, thats why I have @doommap hotkeyed.

Glad that I am not on your server where GMs can use GM commands on WOE maps to kill everyone on a map. Will be really piss, if a GM single handedly take down an entire alliance defense with a single push of a button. What is the point of trapping? What is the point of setting up Loki's Veil? What is the point of pre-cast? What is the point of WOEing?

[Ansuz Isaz]

... xD I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic and satire-y, bleu.

In other news, I'm against GMs owning their own guilds. If they can be trusted enough, letting them play a legit on a guild wouldn't be too bad, at least in my eyes. However, for the sake of sanity and keeping accusations in line a little more if you would allow them to play WoE in guilds they don't run, make sure they're all in different guilds. o.o; Epic drama otherwise.

As a safety precaution, it'd probably be better to keep them out of WoE all together.

[~~T~~]

They should, thats why I have @doommap hotkeyed.

Glad that I am not on your server where GMs can use GM commands on WOE maps to kill everyone on a map. Will be really piss, if a GM single handedly take down an entire alliance defense with a single push of a button. What is the point of trapping? What is the point of setting up Loki's Veil? What is the point of pre-cast? What is the point of WOEing?

I'm not a GM.

[Silversleeper]

I'm personally against it, considering that every person is liable, and can be pissed off. if they want to pvp/woe, they can do it on their legits; there is no need to get players mad and have them leave because one of the GM's decided to woe/pvp. it would be too unbalanced.

[Scars]

Re: Do u think GM's should have their own WOE guild?

Simply no.