Player GMs

Niliu

This may be a daft idea, but I'm going to put it out there anyway.

To help combat bots on the front end, why not have player GMs who have the ability to ban the accounts of any gold spammers or bots they encounter in the game. That would be the only GM power these volunteer players would have, and they would only be able to ban spammers/bots. Any Player GM caught banning an actual player would have their GM privileges stripped, and their account banned.

Further to this, you can have player forum mods who can respond to the plethora of threads demanding CSR attention, but let's face it, CSRs just can't handle the sheer volume of threads, and not every thread needs a response from a paid employee.

In-game GMs would hopefully cut back on the amount of bots players encounter, and free up ZoS employees to find more permanent measures to end the bot nuisance.

Forum mods would allow players to get responses to issues that may have already been addressed by ZoS in another ticket, and allow the CSRs to focus on more important issues.

Thoughts? There may be issues with my idea, feel free to suggest changes to the plan.

Lox

The only people that should have the power to ban accounts are ZOS employee's, its simply not worth the risk and potential issues that could ensue.

I don't think there is any place for a GM that isn't the employee of the company, in any game any more.

AlexDougherty

Niliu wrote: »

This may be a daft idea, but I'm going to put it out there anyway.

To help combat bots on the front end, why not have player GMs who have the ability to ban the accounts of any gold spammers or bots they encounter in the game.

Because everytime it's been done it's ended it disaster, some companies got sued by people who thought they should be paid for what they volunteered for, some found player GMs abusing their position. All in all, they it's not worth the risk for Zenimax.

Phantax

Lox wrote: »

The only people that should have the power to ban accounts are ZOS employee's, its simply not worth the risk and potential issues that could ensue.

I don't think there is any place for a GM that isn't the employee of the company, in any game any more.

Agreed.
I do however like the idea of GMs having deputies. No real power as such, but these players know the identity of GMs (in game only obviously) and can report directly to the GMs should they see bots/exploiting/whatever.
At which point the GMs can deal with it.

Audigy

Only employee´s should be able to ban, but they could have some MVP´s for sure. That said, selecting MVP´s is not always working out that well. A lot people who become MVP´s in other games start to act like special snowflakes and then are more a burden than a helping hand for the Forum Mods.

Dita

I want to become a bot - seems a more popular choice this days . . .

Jim_McMasterub17_ESO

How about for starters, that the GM's that already work for ZoE don't Ban accounts of bots they've found?

Giving players any sort of power in this regard would leave them open to that player coming here saying
"Hey, for sure now we know what's going on behind the scenes & why this isn't being dealt with.."
Even with a non-disclosure agreement, most people with a paycheck looming are far more likely to help a company hide it's dirty laundry.

Give transparency to the people-at-large? ..well..then someone would have to be accountable now wouldn't they?

You see how that's worked out politically of late. So do they.

Niliu

Phantax wrote: »

Lox wrote: »

The only people that should have the power to ban accounts are ZOS employee's, its simply not worth the risk and potential issues that could ensue.

I don't think there is any place for a GM that isn't the employee of the company, in any game any more.

Agreed.
I do however like the idea of GMs having deputies. No real power as such, but these players know the identity of GMs (in game only obviously) and can report directly to the GMs should they see bots/exploiting/whatever.
At which point the GMs can deal with it.

I like this. If you don't trust players with ban privilages, give them the power to report to GMs.

Another idea I just thought of, Trusted Reporters, people who have a good record of reporting actual bots/spammers will have future reports made a higher priority because you know they'll be worthwhile.

yodased

I'll be your GM

Dita

yodased wrote: »

I'll be your GM

I'll be a bot . . .

AlexDougherty

Phantax wrote: »

Agreed.
I do however like the idea of GMs having deputies. No real power as such, but these players know the identity of GMs (in game only obviously) and can report directly to the GMs should they see bots/exploiting/whatever.
At which point the GMs can deal with it.

Been suggested before, I would support it.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Saerydoth

The ONLY way I could see something like this working is if the players were given NO power on their own, but given a "red phone" hotline to GM's, for things like bots and gold sellers.