Purpose of GMs

[Katze]

We have the rules made by Platyna and she says: These are your rules, end of discussion.

doesn't really seem to help here.

@Platyna:
I'm not questioning the rules. I am merely saying that what Inkweaver is suggesting doesn't seem to help in our case.

[Platyna]

We have the rules made by Platyna and she says: These are your rules, end of discussion. :roll:

doesn't really seem to help here.

Huh?

@Platyna:
I'm not questioning the rules. I am merely saying that what Inkweaver is suggesting doesn't seem to help in our case.

But he is right. Your have showed blatantly that you ban people just because they said something you, GMs, doesn't like.

Regards.

[The Brao]

If you need a guide, you are not supposed to be a GM at all.

You missed my point. The GM guideline should (if i understood what Doulos meant) be made for players aswell (and obviously i'm not a GM, am i? ). I see no games where each rules is stated with only one sentence of five words.

I wrote this in another thread (before i knew the GM guidelines had been created):

It's time to write the rules book, IMO.
I mean, a locked article in the wiki or a thread in the "court house" where the community member can find :
- All rules, explained, detailed, on what is tolerated and what is not. Else you will always have issues with players who misunderstood, circumvented or drifted rules.
- Your global policy on global problems : abuses, lag, scammers, hackers, etc...
- The sanctions (type, duration) associated to each rule, to avoid GMs power abuses.
It would also be great if this "book" could be written with the help of the whole community, an occasion for players to get involved in this awsome project. Maybe creating polls?

Anyway, while GMs are humans, with their pride and personnality, they WILL do mistakes (else please hire bots ). When players are complaining about GMs, firing some of them is a short-term solution. No need to revolutionize the old system, just enhance it.

[Katze]

But he is right. Your have showed blatantly that you ban people just because they said something you, GMs, doesn't like.

Regards.

well...I love to have unity, but I'd prefere to use the term "some of us" in this case.

[Doulos]

If you need a guide, you are not supposed to be a GM at all.

You missed my point. The GM guideline should (if i understood what Doulos meant) be made for players aswell (and obviously i'm not a GM, am i? ). I see no games where each rules is stated with only one sentence of five words.

I wrote this in another thread (before i knew the GM guidelines had been created):

It's time to write the rules book, IMO.
I mean, a locked article in the wiki or a thread in the "court house" where the community member can find :
- All rules, explained, detailed, on what is tolerated and what is not. Else you will always have issues with players who misunderstood, circumvented or drifted rules.
- Your global policy on global problems : abuses, lag, scammers, hackers, etc...
- The sanctions (type, duration) associated to each rule, to avoid GMs power abuses.
It would also be great if this "book" could be written with the help of the whole community, an occasion for players to get involved in this awsome project. Maybe creating polls?

Anyway, while GMs are humans, with their pride and personnality, they WILL do mistakes (else please hire bots ). When players are complaining about GMs, firing some of them is a short-term solution. No need to revolutionize the old system, just enhance it.

to clarify
#1. My first question, posted in this thread, concerned the GM GuildLINES. I then looked over the GM GuideLINES and found them to be little more than a repetition of the rules given to players. When I posted my thoughts I somehow managed to use the word "Guide" instead of "Guideline". Crush & The Brao both caught this and even used the word GuideLINE. My original post has been corrected to reflect this.

#2. @ The Brao. The GM guideline is indeed meant for players and "the powers that be" as well as (clearly) for the GMs. We lowly players should be aware of what we're getting into. If a clone server says "GMs can ban freely based on passing whims" ... uhm ... I won't play there long.

Here's a specific entry that was added recently. Thread: [Ban] Get Whity:

I agree we need to work out the guidelines for punishments, with which you are free to help out. See http://wiki.themanaworld.org/index.php/GM_Guidelines

Other than that, there is no need to discuss this ban, which doesn't look objective to me.

**** Objective and consistent bans are but one benefit of a Guideline/Code of Conduct/etc.

#3. How the document is put together is not an issue to me. But players do need something a bit more detailed than:

1. Do not abuse other players (insults, swearing, and the like directed to a particular person or persons)

Punishment: ...

According to the Guideline (as it stands) the punishment for abuse to another player is "...". (joke -- spammers, take a chill pill, please!)

[Wombat]

There has been a number of rulings in the past few months that have detailed some depth with the guidelines and how they are enforced. Reading, cleaning up and developing these guidelines could be a great benefit to both GMs and Players on what is expected of their conduct. I'll put some effort into gathering them together with proper linking when I get the free time. Most of them deal with handling abuse from the player end, handling language barriers and handling technical threats to the game.

GMs are not able to create new rules on a whim (which was ruled on not too long ago), but they are to use their judgment to make rulings which sometimes may not be defined at the time. Interpreting "drop parties" as a technical abuse of other players is a ruling that was made not too long ago, but wasn't widely exposed. I hope that by gathering together previous rulings and the reasons why those rulings were made, it can help form a more detailed list of guidelines that are more coherent to players and GMs without any major changes to how the rules are currently interpreted.

[wolf_pack]

Yay my 1st post!!!!!! *ahem* =P Honestly I think the GM's are doing their jobs very well as far as I've seen. Other than 'accidently' banning my account once(not mentioning any names =P). I've heard so much griping here lately and I don't understand it. Noone likes to be banned, but most everyone doesn't mind when they see someone else being banned for breaking the rules(even if they're not in the 'rulebook'). The bans don't last that long most of the time so I think everyone should just suck it up and be all the wiser for next time. Anyways just wanted to put in my opinion know it's a bit late by now =P

Wolf