I have only ever seen them personally twice and heard rumour of another epic appearance that I wished I had seen!

These three occasion would have been in 2014 for sure.

My twice was both times a character dressed in white robes, quite priestly in appearance, aiding people with broken main zone story quests that impeded progression, one was in Reapers March one was in Cold Harbour.

The rumoured one I wish I'd seen was a Gamemaster wielding a ban hammer removing Bots, the story goes all actual players were warned to leave the area before the hammer was used...... bots were horrific back then, even if it isn't true, it would've been Epic.

Unfortunately I suspect Gamemasters no longer exist.

They exist, you could have one right next to you and not know it because they don't always have a character model. With the staffing cuts, I'm guessing there are less of them around now though. There must be some around to investigate reports though, probably heavily understaffed vs the report spams.

freespirit wrote: »

I have only ever seen them personally twice and heard rumour of another epic appearance that I wished I had seen!

These three occasion would have been in 2014 for sure.

My twice was both times a character dressed in white robes, quite priestly in appearance, aiding people with broken main zone story quests that impeded progression, one was in Reapers March one was in Cold Harbour.

The rumoured one I wish I'd seen was a Gamemaster wielding a ban hammer removing Bots, the story goes all actual players were warned to leave the area before the hammer was used...... bots were horrific back then, even if it isn't true, it would've been Epic.

Unfortunately I suspect Gamemasters no longer exist.

There's a YouTube video with a game master removing a bot train in a delve.

freespirit wrote: »

Unfortunately I suspect Gamemasters no longer exist.

They hide among us, waiting for their moment to strike and bring ruin to all of Tamriel!

SwordOfSagas wrote: »

I still get those load screen messages saying (game masters have a Z next to their name don't be fooled by imposters!) I've been playing on Xbox NA 10+ years and never seen one.

I think that message is there mainly to make it harder for players to fake it. If no one ever saw a GM and ZOS didn't tell us how they would be identified if they existed anything believable might work, especially since they'd mostly target new players.

In other games I've seen scammers use things like knowing how to insert symbols into chat or change the font or colour of their text to convince people they're a GM with special permissions. Or even using obscure titles or cosmetics, telling newbies it's something only given to GMs.

Back in ye olde days of the late 90s my sister (who was 7 years old at the time) managed to pull a "wallet inspector" scam on newbies in Ultima Online just by telling them she was a GM and needed to check they had all their starter items. Amazingly people would just hand them over! (Then she teleported away and sold their stuff.) She was only doing it for a bit before my brother and I found out and put a stop to it, but it did teach me how gullible some people are.

Syldras wrote: »

Gabriel_H wrote: »

They hide among us, waiting for their moment to strike and bring ruin to all of Tamriel!

Are you sure that's the purpose of having mods?

*Gestures at all of ESO* ... Just saying.

Orbital78 wrote: »

They exist, you could have one right next to you and not know it because they don't always have a character model. With the staffing cuts, I'm guessing there are less of them around now though. There must be some around to investigate reports though, probably heavily understaffed vs the report spams.

There's really no need for this kind of thing anymore. You can log in to a terminal, execute commands from a menu, and read various logs without ever touching the game. And it's faster, easier, and less prone to issues both internal and public. The only reason in-game avatars were ever a thing is because way back in the day guys like Richard Garriott loved playing their own game so much that they wanted to actually be a part of it.

My opinion: do gamemasters actually exist? Not anymore, I have never seen one since I started playing in 2017. Different question: do any ZOS employees play ESO? Yes, I think that some do, based upon what I have read online and seen in live streams.

I would love to have devs in general more involved in the game. Just seeing them around would be very beneficial. Would be even cooler if they could interact, give "boons", or other things. Like: a Dev forcefully spawns the Hammer, gives someone a 50% speed buff, porting a group to a spot on the map. Imagine them giving out quests like the NPCs at the home bases. Go harvest x number of this, or bring me the soul of a Grand Overlord. The only limit would be you imagination.

I agree that they don't need to be visibly standing in a zone to fix problems, and it's likely an inefficient way of doing things, but I also agree that it would be fun to visibly see ZOS staff in the game more often.

In Guild Wars 2 staff have a badge they can turn on to identify themselves and they'll often be seen on release days hanging around where the new stuff is and chatting to players. They're usually not GMs and can't fix problems directly (likely because those teams are working behind the scenes to fix problems) but its fun to see them in the game, playing and talking aboht the new stuff. There's also achievements for playing various game modes with them, which I've heard can be a fun surprise for some people when they keep the badge off until just before the end, then suddenly everyone gets a bonus achievement.

Wonder what the game would be like if the devs committed to 50 or 60 hours in game, in groups with players. Players sign up, devs group with them, take feedback. 15 min to 2 hour blocks. Solo and Group. Setup a public/private signup list. Players list their name, primary activity and hours available. Devs pick anyone or anything that sounds interesting...Devs ID in group is private.

Wonder how that would turn out? 60 hours over 12 months. I wonder what influence that might have.


Gamemasters exist, I've been in group with them but it's been a very long time. Too long.