Community need for Game Masters

[Livio]

I've read both game rules and Game Master guide but I still don't understand why this game need more GMs than before.
And more things are unclear to me right now, so I have some questions:

1) Are most rule violation committed during non american timezones?
2) Is the server able to limit bots and players unusual activities by itself?
3) Can a GM gather informations about game activity even when he/she was offline?
4) How game changes after a GM is elected? Does he/she have to use another account without GM privileges to play the game as the other regular players?
5) Is Game Mastering possible using mobile devices or other kind of clients?
6) Can a GM search all in-game chat log for verbal abuse or forbidden nicknames or use a profanity filter script to prevent it?
7) Are Game Masters enabled to moderate forums chat even if they belong to a guild?
8 ) Are Game Masters banned for inactivity?
9) Can a bot be elected Game Master in order not to expose GM's player account to useless flamewars since some players will take rule enforcing as a personal matter?
10) Can a Game Master be replaced by a Developer for a short amount of time under exceptional circumstances?
11) Can a Game Master be a Developer at the same time?
12) Can a Game Master be aware of huge money transfers in order to check for scammers compromising game economic balance?
13) Can a Game Master move NPCs or map items?

Thanks for your attention!

[prsm]

we currently have one active Gm, so adding another is a good thing!

1) Are most rule violation committed during non american timezones?
i have no way of knowing this
2) Is the server able to limit bots and players unusual activities by itself?
no
3) Can a GM gather informations about game activity even when he/she was offline?
no
4) How game changes after a GM is elected? Does he/she have to use another account without GM privileges to play the game as the other regular players?
historically, they are to use the alt that was voted in
5) Is Game Mastering possible using mobile devices or other kind of clients?
never tried, so i dont know
6) Can a GM search all in-game chat log for verbal abuse or forbidden nicknames or use a profanity filter script to prevent it?
i have no idea
7) Are Game Masters enabled to moderate forums chat even if they belong to a guild?
all gm's, once elected must join the gm guild, so yes
8 ) Are Game Masters banned for inactivity?
no, but they can be stripped on gm level 60
9) Can a bot be elected Game Master in order not to expose GM's player account to useless flamewars since some players will take rule enforcing as a personal matter?
even if a bot passed the vote, i would reject a bot being gm
10) Can a Game Master be replaced by a Developer for a short amount of time under exceptional circumstances?
only a gm can be a gm
11) Can a Game Master be a Developer at the same time?
its never happened in the past
12) Can a Game Master be aware of huge money transfers in order to check for scammers compromising game economic balance?
we don't have that capability
13) Can a Game Master move NPCs or map items?
never tried, so i don't know

[jesusalva]

Lemme just complete this with a longer info.

Some of your questions are within “what is TMWT? What's their scope of authority? etc.” group, so I'll leave here link to the Constitution. It is the imperative post which overrules everything else.

That aside, "Longer" is about two pages of printing. So be mindful before opening the spoiler tag.

Spoiler:

2) Is the server able to limit bots and players unusual activities by itself? no

3) Can a GM gather informations about game activity even when he/she was offline? no

5) Is Game Mastering possible using mobile devices or other kind of clients? never tried, so i dont know

6) Can a GM search all in-game chat log for verbal abuse or forbidden nicknames or use a profanity filter script to prevent it? i have no idea

8 ) Are Game Masters banned for inactivity? no, but they can be stripped on gm level 60

9) Can a bot be elected Game Master in order not to expose GM's player account to useless flamewars since some players will take rule enforcing as a personal matter? even if a bot passed the vote, i would reject a bot being gm

10) Can a Game Master be replaced by a Developer for a short amount of time under exceptional circumstances? only a gm can be a gm

11) Can a Game Master be a Developer at the same time? its never happened in the past

13) Can a Game Master move NPCs or map items? never tried, so i don't know

2) TMWA no, but rEvolt have some minimal protection, which will make the server start ignoring a few commands (specially the ATTACK command) if it thinks you are a bot.

rEvolt also have support for automated botchecks, but it is usually too disruptive to gameplay. Unless we have a viral case of botters and other bad people, we'll probably keep manual moderation.

3) No. A server admin, however, have access to a few logs. In TMWA, they have access to map log, which will record every battle action ingame (monsters killed/etc.) In rEvolt there's only picklog, a huge table which tracks every item ingame from creation until deletion. (There's also a few other logs in rEvolt which are less meaningful, except for debugging)

These logs are massive but can be used to aid a GM investigation.

5) Techincally, you can use ManaPlus mobile, as long that your virtual keyboard work. But ManaPlus Mobile is too clumsy to use so I would not advise it.

6) No. In neither servers. Both servers have a configuration to enable global setting, and we had a flamewar years ago (like, really long ago) where we decided that we can enable full chat logging (general + private + party + guild + IRC + whatever else you can use to chat) and keep these logs for 3 days at most if we ever have a pandemic of verbal abuse.

Currently, though, we don't have any "pandemy" going on, so we don't log chat for privacy reasons.
Be warned that M+ logs, though, so if a GM is online they have, besides the screenshot, a log file, in case they forget to screenshot.

(They do not serve as proof on Court House)

7) By the way, Constitution says that a GM can moderate forums, game, and wiki.
So not only the forums, but wiki too.

8 ) If they are offline/inactive for more than a year, they are moved to adviser status. During this time, their GM grants should not be accessible.
But the charter also explicity says that they only need to show activity to be reinstated at their former position. (For developers it involves opening a merge request, but I'm not sure what it would involve for a GM. Past tradition was to run a small poll)

But as Prsm said, they can be stripped of their grants. If they abuse their powers, they'll be kicked from TMWT, and being kicked from TMWT will also kick them from GMs.

9) Quoting ex-literis:

To become a Game Master, a person must be voted in by the player community

Emphasis is mine.

10) An admin can act in moderation duties to defend the server health.
This means they could temporaly ban you if they deem to be absolutely needed, but usually they'll refrain themselves to logged warnings + screenshots and use Court House like other players.

Do you remember the bug where using #kaflosh would lag players? That's a case where an admin could act in GM stead and temporaly ban or kick players abusing it, or even act in DEV stead and forcefully remove the spell.

Otherwise, no. Moderation and Rule Enforcement are exclusive grants for GMs, and all GMs must be voted by the community, belonging to TMWT under any title is not enough.

Note: It's known that at times, GMs have delegated a few moderation tasks for non-GMs. This delegation does not implies in the person with the tasks being a GM, and is a rare exception. (TMWT must be aware and OK with such delegations. This is more common for Forums than game, though.)

11) It never happened in the past.

But no, there should be no problem in someone being an admin, a GM, and a Developer, as long that they pass all bureaucracies and met every requisite for the roles.

This means being elected four times (GMs must be elected twice); It never happened before, though.
Historically, TMWT is conservative against people trying to hold too much power over their hands, we had some bad experiences in the past.

Currently, we only have cases of DEVs becoming ADMINs and retaining both roles. See 4144 and me, for example. There's also cases where a GM received ADM grants, like veryape ingame, and I think this happened in forums to someone else, too. However, I don't recall any case where the GM formally took both titles. (See also #10)

Reason for that is simple, though. An admin is responsible for server maintenance. This requires some degree of techinical expertise, which is more likely to be present within Developers than GMs.
In other words, this happens because statistic.

13) In TMWA, GMs inheir every command which DEVs and Event Coordinators can use.
So, uh, I don't remember; But if a DEV or EVTC can do it, then GMs can do it too.

Did you try "@npcmove" or something to see the numeric level? Anyone can use @help to see what GMs can and can't do, ya know.

[Livio]

Thanks both of you for your answers!

[EJlol]

QOAL might have been a DEV and GM at the same time, though I don't remember it exactly anymore. This would have been ~10 years ago.

[WildX]

The Dev & GM argument has been going on for a long time. IMO there is no reason to restrict anyone's ability to contribute to the game's development. Mistergrey contributed some really cool stuff (Mask of Blinking Evil, anyone?) while he was also a GM.

I don't see having both roles as "too much power" (as Platyna used to argue). If somebody wants to get more deeply involved with the game and they're passionate about both community management and game development, good! We need more people like that.

[jesusalva]

The Dev & GM argument has been going on for a long time. IMO there is no reason to restrict anyone's ability to contribute to the game's development. Mistergrey contributed some really cool stuff (Mask of Blinking Evil, anyone?) while he was also a GM.

I don't see having both roles as "too much power" (as Platyna used to argue). If somebody wants to get more deeply involved with the game and they're passionate about both community management and game development, good! We need more people like that.

Too much power which I've said, is because I've changed the question I was answering to holding all three titles. That would be too much, as the person would be able to:
1. Decide the rules (Dev)
2. Enforce the rules (ADM)
3. Judge the rules (GM)

Essentialy, developers are like the pairlament, Admins are like the executive (the president), and game masters are like the supreme court if we make an analogy to a presidentialist system (like Brazil and USA, more like USA though).

And yes, this analogy works well and I would not be surprised if it was built with this in mind; Game Masters do outrule admins when they are judging stuff in Court House. An admin would need to appeal to TMWT if they wanted to outrule the Game Master.

Likewise, who determine how much damage you deal, where you can or can't go, etc.? The devs. "rules" here are not “thou shalt not sit on me” or “thou shalt not bot”, rules here are “fighting with a setzer is better than fighting bare-handed” and “the Banshee bow shall take away your HP every hit on a 1:15 ratio”.

And of course, the game server doesn't updates on its own. An admin need to put these rules to effect by rebuilding engine (if needed) and updating the server with developers' commits.


Thus, like any country, holding all three offices would be quite powerful (but not almighty, as TMWT can still overrule the person).

[jesusalva]

Essentialy, developers are like the pairlament, Admins are like the executive (the president), and game masters are like the supreme court if we make an analogy to a presidentialist system (like Brazil and USA, more like USA though).

Please don't call an admin "president of TMW", our only president is Tezer <3

[Hello=)]

I've read both game rules and Game Master guide but I still don't understand why this game need more GMs than before.

There is just Prsm left. The diehardest of all GMs (I guess Constable Bob got his appearance in honor of that). He surely haves his limits. At which point I'd say there have to be more GMs to keep gameplay in check. I had few occurences when I can't even get bot banned in timely manner. Sure, I had my own fun on few bots to make it up for it, but at the end of day its better to be handled by GMs. Well, that's a purely technical assessment as to why I think game needs more GMs from player's point of view.

[Livio]

Well, that's a purely technical assessment as to why I think game needs more GMs from player's point of view.

There's no Asian or middle east player left for that?

[Hello=)]

There's no Asian or middle east player left for that?

Well, I don't really care much where players from or something, for me it's person and their actions what matters. All I care in this context is if they could/would do what have to be done, whether I think they could do these duties reasonably and if I think it could/would do any good to project&community and so on.

So it as simple as that: realistically there is just Prsm left and it clearly too much burden for 1 person - demanding someone doing like fulltime duty without even being able to offer compensation for that ... quite ugly of us all. At which point I tend to agree with statement game needs more of active GMs. I don't really care if they are asian, middle east or even martians, as long as it gets things done and brings no major troubles.

I explained my ways of thinking but still have problem answering original question.

[Livio]

I mean... The earth is almost a sphere, no?
People cannot be in front of a device doing game mastering all day so during some time they are forced to go offline.
Prsm is a reference in my example and lives at 0°.
Since he is the only one he cannot cover zones at 180°
To the opposite side of America there's Asian continents and people.
So two GM can cover both 0° and 180° at the opposite site of the earth.
But, as I said before, people don't live inside the machines so it they can be online for four hours they can cover 15°*4h so only 60° of the earth.
Both Prsm and Asian candidates are probably not enough to cover the earth.
So the best is, in my opinion, to have minimum four people living at the maximum distance between them.
At least 60°*4GM can cover 240° of the world. Since there's a lot of salt water in some earth zones a 2/3 GM covering should be enough...
And online time can be slightly moved to cover or overlap a bit some zones whenever possible.

[WildX]

1. Decide the rules (Dev)
2. Enforce the rules (ADM)
3. Judge the rules (GM)

I don't think this works. GMs are rule enforcers who use their own judgement to interpret the rules. Devs, Admins and GMs all decide the rules together. A state government comparison does not work in this case. If you wanted to force one, GMs would be both the judiciary and the executive while TMWT as a whole is the legislature.

In practice, all power is centred in the Team as a collective so that no one person can have authority over others. This means that should someone be both a Developer and Game Master their "power" would essentially be unchanged as their Team membership is still one and they have one vote in any and all matters.

[jesusalva]

1. Decide the rules (Dev)
2. Enforce the rules (ADM)
3. Judge the rules (GM)

I don't think this works. GMs are rule enforcers who use their own judgement to interpret the rules. Devs, Admins and GMs all decide the rules together. A state government comparison does not work in this case. If you wanted to force one, GMs would be both the judiciary and the executive while TMWT as a whole is the legislature.

In practice, all power is centred in the Team as a collective so that no one person can have authority over others. This means that should someone be both a Developer and Game Master their "power" would essentially be unchanged as their Team membership is still one and they have one vote in any and all matters.

It's an anlogoy... Analogies are limited to a scope and only serve to portrait something.

That's why in Devs part I was not speaking about soft-rules, but about hard-rules, like, the maximum level you can reach, the maximum experience you can get, where you can or can't go, etc.

Also.
As I said countless times before, TMWT is a bureaucratic structure of a non-profit organization.
This means there is only so much it can do.
For example, if TMWT decides “we will have fairies ingame” and no developer steps up to add them, this decision is as good as a void piece of paper.

So even in paper TMWT is the most powerful entity of TMW (as it should be), as this is a non-profit and developers aren't paid, their real power is quite limited.

But, as I said before, people don't live inside the machines so it they can be online for four hours they can cover 15°*4h so only 60° of the earth.

A Game Master on TMW serves from six to eight hours. It's almost a full-time job, actually.

Also, it is only a coincidence, but admins usually connect at totally random times. I admit that sometimes I connect at 03 AM, and other times at 15 PM.
Ideally there should always be some staff on to be able to help players and fix doubts, but well, we do have a lot of people with "DEV" tag right after their names for that, no?

As for “game masters on different timezones”, I don't believe it to be even relevant when choosing a Game Master - as long that current ones can every once in a while login at "odd" times and carry surprise botchecks, it should be fine (you never know when this will happen).

[WildX]

I honestly understand absolutely nothing that you are saying on here. No idea why you're so angry either...