Are devs able to spectate any player as they play?

derpsticks

Can they? Doesn't seem like it would be hard to do. They could watch first hand all the bugs players encounter.

At the very least I imagine an invisible gm watching players derp about. I wonder if the gms lag out in cyrodiil too?

Nestor

It would be interesting to hear the story of "The Day in the Life of a Game Master" perhaps with a video of them doing what they do.

I would have to believe, based on the War Room photo the look over the last year article, that they have stats that can show most of what is going on in the game. But, individual bugs on players might be harder to suss out. I would also believe that the Devs have a Template they can apply and roll a character with to play in the game. So, maybe that guy your Ganking is an Art Director or something.

On a side note, I would like to see the stats on the game like the proportions of the various classes, what skills are used more so than others, amount of Gold Tempers in the Economy, things like that. They could even strip out the raw numbers and just give us percentages if they want to keep mum on the subscriber count (as they seem to want to)

IrishGirlGamer

Nestor wrote: »

It would be interesting to hear the story of "The Day in the Life of a Game Master" perhaps with a video of them doing what they do.

Funny, I thought of this very thing on the train ride to work this morning. I don't know if Zeni would ever go through with this as it might be too big of a reveal, but it would be fun to see what tools they have at their disposal for controlling the game and tracking how people play.

Can they increase spawns? Increase drops? Drop specific items?

Or is it more like a TARS unit doing whatever it wants ...

derpsticks

I'd like to think I've played with a dev in secret. That or killed or been killed by one.

Id love it if there ever came a day when the dev revealed themselves.

Armitas

IrishGirlGamer wrote: »

Or is it more like a TARS unit doing whatever it wants ...

Honesty set to 90%. I have not seen a movie that amazing in a long time. I have a lot of interest in cosmology and cosmogeny and was just geeking out and thrilled with the story the whole time.

stewhead2ub17_ESO

Years ago there was an article (back in the day of magazines for you kids!) in Pc Gamer where they followed an EQ GM around watching what he dealt with daily. Was very interesting.

Armitas

From the last eso live it looks like Brian plays in Cyrodiil. From the story he gave about the barn burning I think he plays AD or at least on that day.

Dekkameron

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY

KhajitFurTrader

I have encountered two occurrences where I got it straight from the horse's mouth that, yes indeed, employees of MMO companies are watching their customers play. The first one was the video Blizzard released for WoW's 10th anniversary. There's a section introducing the NOC, and it's stated that they can virtually tune into every active play session and see what the client sees. This is often used for watching raids.

The second occurrence is an ongoing thread in an alternative LOTRO community forum, where an ex-employee stated that quite a lot (but apparently not all) of development and QA personnel (himself included) play actively on private accounts, in addition to frequently watching the world(s) with specially prepped clients (avatars being invisible to others etc.). The poster in question claims not to work in the industry anymore, and indeed would be ill-advised if he still does, because "spilling the beans" is being considered as bad form and as a breach of etiquette, to say the least.

You'll notice that I refrained from posting direct links to my sources. This is because I think they can be googled quite easily, and of course none of this does concern ZOS and their particular practices, should they have any. This whole topic also touches the very sensitive field of prosecution of possible miscreants and enforcement of the terms of service. So, simply put, they don't have to admit to doing anything, and I think it's understandable why.

derpsticks

I just find it odd that they always ask for player provided videos when this seems like such a viable option.

Danikat

It wouldn't surprise me if at least some of the devs play the game in their own time.

I know a few people who work or used to work on other games, both MMOs and single/regular multiplayer ones and most of them play the games they work on as well. But they usually do it on private accounts with nothing to identify them as developers so they're not constantly being mobbed with questions and requests.

I would guess that for testing things like drop rates, mob HP etc. (or any kind of testing) they have a private server like the PTS where they can change things whenever and however they want. Doing it in the actual game would be too risky, unless they only test things in solo instances it would cause chaos every time someone came along (and make controlled tests impossible).

Armitas

KhajitFurTrader wrote: »

The second occurrence is an ongoing thread in an alternative LOTRO community forum, where an ex-employee stated that quite a lot (but apparently not all) of development and QA personnel (himself included) play actively on private accounts, in addition to frequently watching the world(s) with specially prepped clients (avatars being invisible to others etc.). The poster in question claims not to work in the industry anymore, and indeed would be ill-advised if he still does, because "spilling the beans" is being considered as bad form and as a breach of etiquette, to say the least.

Lol they were probably the ones fight clubbing in the moors.

Elsonso

derpsticks wrote: »

I just find it odd that they always ask for player provided videos when this seems like such a viable option.

Tamriel is a big place. Which of the thousands of people playing do you monitor?

Forestd16b14_ESO

..... There watching ..... There always watching...... Help .....

derpsticks

Lol nice pic. If I were them I'd always be watching certain players in pvp. Going through their builds and figuring out what works and what doesn't.

Gilvoth

derpsticks wrote: »

Can they? Doesn't seem like it would be hard to do. They could watch first hand all the bugs players encounter.

At the very least I imagine an invisible gm watching players derp about. I wonder if the gms lag out in cyrodiil too?

i was
i had a problem that i was stuk in loading for cryodiil and could not get out of it, i told the dev that i could not even use way shrine nor enter dungeons and he asked me to show him.
so then he asked me into group, i did not see his arrow and infact never saw him at all. he said he was underground. i looked for him and he was not there so i just went to the shrine and then i tried to enter a cave, he immediatly said he saw it and then he left group and fixed my problem, he was very nice to me and treated me with respect and was a pleasure.

but yeah, he was invisible and located under the ground he said, and he could very clearly see me. i know cause he told me so.

Froggmann5

derpsticks wrote: »

Can they? Doesn't seem like it would be hard to do. They could watch first hand all the bugs players encounter.

At the very least I imagine an invisible gm watching players derp about. I wonder if the gms lag out in cyrodiil too?

Yes, it is. They can teleport to any player on any faction at any given time and become invisible whilst doing so. They normally only do this if you have some technical issue in-game.

s7732425ub17_ESO

Yes. Most games have an admin mode where they can literally see exactly what a player sees in real time.

prototypefb

where do you think we are getting lags from?
it sure are devs abusing infrastructure, getting all the fresh juice from servers, 0 ping, no bottlenecks, priority!!!
xD

Grunim

s7732425ub17_ESO wrote: »

Yes. Most games have an admin mode where they can literally see exactly what a player sees in real time.

Yep, we even had the ability as admins in the MUDs I played 20 years ago to see every keystroke a player made in real time as well as what they saw. We also had the ability to monitor a player's every action to review at a later time. These are important tools for game admins.

Ranique

In most situations when GM's do GM business, they will likely use tools and methods invisable to us. They don't see the world as we see, but they have a log-file showing data bout the skills we use and positions we where in. There are likely tools that translate this to a format more easy to cope with. It will not be a spectator mode though. The first reason is that the person might have been lagging. The second is that it is a recreation of the events and not a recording. So it is a visualisation of what happened, based on the gamelogs, and not a true recording.

Let's take your example bout lag. Lag is not recorded in the game file. It happens purely on the client. on the server you can recognise lag cause someone is suddenly casting 5 skills at the same time, but it is impossible to see exactly what happened on the player screen, just by looking at server data. So it is always an interpetation of what happened.

So..no they don't have recordings or spectator mode, but they do have log files and likely re-enactment tools to visualise the data.

InvictoNZ

I've had a GM ask me to stand still, so I assume he was spectating.

Soriana

When the bots were alive and well and swarming the quest hubs in Riften for the cheap gold, I was running by one of the NPC's when I saw bots running up, interacting with the NPC, and then dropping dead. I typed something in zone asking if I was the only person seeing this. A gamemaster appeared right next to the NPC, turned to me and waved, and disappeared just as quickly as they appeared.

It was awesome!

runagate

I was really embarrassed for 2 GMs in Stonefalls about 6 months ago when they were running around invisible but forgot to put their mudcrab pets (very much visible) away before turning on their GM powers.

Gidorick

I would like it if they were more "active"... I suggested a ZOS Developer Events concept back in December but it never got any traction.

Anyway... if anyone is interested: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/143464/in-game-zos-developer-events-concept

Gilvoth

runagate wrote: »

I was really embarrassed for 2 GMs in Stonefalls about 6 months ago when they were running around invisible but forgot to put their mudcrab pets (very much visible) away before turning on their GM powers.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

stewart.leslie76b16_ESO

InvictoNZ wrote: »

I've had a GM ask me to stand still, so I assume he was spectating.

Nah, his mate was in the other faction and lining you up for a balista

runagate wrote: »

I was really embarrassed for 2 GMs in Stonefalls about 6 months ago when they were running around invisible but forgot to put their mudcrab pets (very much visible) away before turning on their GM powers.

I would rather if they were visible, it would show the players that the devs are in game. Could be part of the job training for new employees, spend some time being a gm in game. Hell, I'd do it for 5 crowns an hours

runagate

stewart.leslie76b16_ESO wrote: »

InvictoNZ wrote: »

I've had a GM ask me to stand still, so I assume he was spectating.

Nah, his mate was in the other faction and lining you up for a balista

runagate wrote: »

I was really embarrassed for 2 GMs in Stonefalls about 6 months ago when they were running around invisible but forgot to put their mudcrab pets (very much visible) away before turning on their GM powers.

I would rather if they were visible, it would show the players that the devs are in game. Could be part of the job training for new employees, spend some time being a gm in game. Hell, I'd do it for 5 crowns an hours

Oh, they're hardly ever around. If they actually paid people to ehlp players with the huge amount of issues we've encountered over the last year, instead of waiting a patch or five for things to get resolved, you'd have heard about it from in-game acquaintances. ROI and middle management will yet have their revenge on their talented employees while defending their silos.