Have you had this problem?

Okay, opinions on whether the Devs are doing their jobs or not aside. A previous post I made in another thread made me think, wonder and then decide to bring this up with the whole of the Virtue forum community..

Last year I was playing on Redside with my other ( boyfriend ) and we were doing the little quest-line leading up to Ghost Widow. As we took on a follow up quest after finishing another we noticed the little nav point ( that shows you where your quest is ) was pointing to one area and surprisingly it wasn't the quest ( the nav point was stuck ) so we kinda just went "whatever" and finished the quest ( via the whole "drop the quest to finish" thing ) so we got the next follow up quest and surprise surprise, it was doing the same thing.

So irritated, I looked at him and said "You want to contact a GM?" and he goes "Yeah.." so I sent in a ticket..

About half an hour later we finally get a response, we'd decided after the first ten minutes to just move on so we left the building the nav point was stuck on and began to randomly search around the city ( going from door to door to try to find where our quest was ) and surprisingly we finally found it.. So we did our quest and then received a response from a GM a full thirty minutes after..

The GM asked me what the problem was and I told him, you know.. We got a quest and the nav point was stuck so we had no clue where to go and surprise surprise surprise surprise (?) the quest AFTER the two we had just completed had the very same problem. So I told him this in great detail explaining how we had specifically completed two quests prior and that we were currently searching for the location of our third because the nav point wasn't working properly ( note that from the get go it was difficult to understand him, he clearly didn't understand or know how to speak English very well ), he asked us what the first quest that started this line was and I told him.. Then he says "retake it" and I'm like "Uh.. We can't, dude. We completed it." to which he responds "you have to retake it to me help you" ( I kid you not he typed like this ) so we went to the quest-giver thinking maybe he'd enabled it to be taken again and tried to take it.. Surprise, we couldn't.. So I explained to him again that we had already taken the quest and completed it and therefore couldn't retake it.. To which.. Surprise.. He said... "you have to take it again for to help you", at this point I'm rubbing my temples going "Okay, let me try this again." so once more I explain to him in great and painful detail the problems we're having and the fact that we have completed two quests in the line already and to this he responses YET AGAIN with "retake it" to which I just randomly exploded and went "AUUGH @#$! IT! asdfgas" and stopped responding ( I didn't actually send the whole @#$! IT ) and after a while the GM stopped sending me messages.

I walked away convinced this was my WORST experience with a GM to date. I was wrong, of course.. I've had worse since then but I won't go into detail about them..

Anyway.. After this they sent me to my email one of those "tell us how good we did" surveys and of course I didn't fill it out but due to the massive headache this guy gave me in trying to understand him I was tempted to fill it out entirely with just "YOU WAN FWIED WICE!?"

My question is this.. With the outsourcing of GM's ( which seems like a horrible idea because I mean, y'know. They're only working on U.S servers so why would they need something as silly as a knowledge of the English language? ) have you had problems like this? Understanding or dealing with GM's?

...Are you sure you didn't contact one of those chinese gold farmers on accident?

Anyway, my (few) experiences with GMs have always been positive. I suggest you take the time to fill out the survey form (truthfully and without malice) so that it affects the performance review of whoever you'd gotten stuck with.

You don't agree with how I handled it? Now you must be kidding me.

What don't you agree with? How I kept calm through the entire experience? How I explained to him in great detail three times my problem and ended up doing most of the work by trying to explain to him that I could not take the quest that he insisted I take again over and over? That I simply ignored him finally after trying for so long and explaining three times, by the way did I mention THREE TIMES my problem and still received the same response?

I'd say I was far too giving. I shouldn't have to explain anything three times to anyone, especially not a GM. Especially not in the great and painstaking detail I explained it to him and all the text I ended up entering that night to him in an attempt to get him to understand.

What would it have accomplished?

Not much.

But it would have made me grin which would have been something for the headache I ended up getting from this GM. The point is I didn't do it.

I find it interesting how so many people seem so offended by this little joke when I've seen much more offensive and explicit jokes made regularly on Virtue by all sorts of folk. Are only the hyper conservative flamer crowd on the forums?

...Wait.. Stupid question..

Yes, I have had a difficulty like that before with a GM. But only a few times. Most of my experiences with GMs are better.

I'm going to guess you were doing the Seer Marino arc, in Mercy. It's an arc that you get pointed to by all your contacts at one point, yet it is notoriously bugged and has been bugged from the beginning (or close to it).

The devs are aware of the bug, but don't fix it. It looks to me like it should be an easy fix.

Players cope with it much as you did, or just routinely skip the arc - which is what I do.

Hey, if the joke was funny, it'd be funny. Wouldn't matter how explicit or offensive it is. The problem is what you were thinking of saying just isn't funny, so in lieu of actual humor, all that's left is tastelessness. This is my opinion. I can't speak for everyone else and I'm sure a few others here might find it funny along with you, but.. I kinda doubt it.

I feel like you overreacted. Once you realized you were playing a losing game, you should've just stopped. You shouldn't have even gotten to the point where you typed everything up three times and eventually ignored him until he went away. If I had the misfortune of meeting that GM, as soon as it became apparent we couldn't communicate, I'd have politely said his help wasn't needed anymore, and then maybe if it was a big deal I'd have petitioned it again in the hopes I'd get someone different.

It's your own fault you got upset the way you did, I'm sure we can at least agree on that.

Pretty sure I said it was my opinion. At no point did I claim it to be fact. It's usually a good idea to read the post you're quoting. I'm also not surprised your boyfriend found it perfectly humorous, seeing as, you know, he's your boyfriend.

It's your fault because you had a choice. You could have pressed the issue despite knowing from the get go it'd end in bloodshed, or you could've stepped away before it escalated and moved on. You chose the former. I doubt anyone reading would be surprised at the eventual outcome, considering that. I know I'm not.

That "irritating retard" is also a human being too, by the way. I'm sure he's very sorry he couldn't adequately help you in a videogame. He doesn't speak your language, sure. He also isn't qualified to have the position he has, you have no argument from me there. But you lost your chance to show NC that you disapproved of this, by failing to fill out the form. Instead, you chose to come here and complain. One is constructive, one isn't.

I have, several times. Generally I just want them to complete a mission for me. I only contact them if I have used my complete, or I ran the mission more than once and think it is bugged. There are some who seem to have horrid English.

With that said, my wife is from Asia, and her English is far far better than the American that I speak. Many of the Asians that I have ever met have better English than I.

In every walk of life you'll encounter people who fail to perform to your expectations. The best way of dealing with this, if it reaches the point where you find yourself completely distracted from what you were attempting, is to give detailed feedback to those who have the ability to make positive changes. You'd be surprised at how much people who do any form of customer service actually care about their customers (except forum mods, those guys suck).

I've had good experiences with GM's, and not so good experience. In this and many other games. In CoH I'm able to give incredibly precise directions because I'm much more familiar with our current live bugs and our internal lingo than the vast majority of players. I've even directed gm's to note that their incident report should be sent to a specific developer for bug fix. Most get it, just like in everything else though some don't and I make sure to mention that in my feedback survey.