So What's the Deal with VIP Support?

It's the /help channel. I hang out in there from time to time dispensing wisdom, inf. (lots of it!), and generally helping any people I can. There are a lot of other forum regulars in there as well, doing the same thing. The other night, I pretty much walked someone (via /tells) through the entire Incarnate system. I enjoy helping people. I like seeing people enjoy the game as much as I do.

But as we all know, much like Atlas /broadcast, bad things happen. The smart player knows to report these few bad apples, and to /ignore them. Makes the game a better place for everybody. Except that might not be worth doing any more.

The other night, I encountered two individuals characterizing gay people as child predators, molesters, and pedophiles. Crazy talk that is easily dismissed, but not before the old-school /petition and /ignore. /help is seen by everyone, from VIP to F2P. It's important that we keep it as quality as possible for a great first impression. It takes two seconds, and you can get back to enjoying the game.

Within an hour or so, I got, "Hi, this is GM-A, what seems to be the problem?" But there wasn't a problem. I've reported RMT folks, power-leveling companies, exploiters, racists, sexists, bigots, etc. before--but I never had a GM show up. And what did they want? Well, they didn't seem to know. Maybe they had my /petition and they just wanted to hear what happened again--but that was pretty frustrating. /help chat moves pretty fast. I had to scroll back quite a ways to find the offending parties. So yes, I patiently explained and repeated everything all over again. Who were they? What were the globals? What did they say? Where did this happen? Everything I had put into the petition. The GM was polite, but clueless. "May I put them on your ignore list?" Seriously? I included that bit in my /petition as well. I know how it works, and it was clear by now that they hadn't read any of it at all. "You should really put them on your ignore list in the future." Um, okay? "I have placed them on your ignore list, thank you!" Fine, whatever. "Thank you for taking the time to contact the City of Heroes Support Team. We will use the information provided to determine whether a violation of the rules has occurred." Yes, I know. That's how it used to work. I'd just get that e-mail in the morning. When one player complains about another, you just get, "Thanks for the info, we'll look into it, but we can't let you know how it turns out." That's fine. That's fair.

When suddenly, "Hi, this is GM-B, what seems to be the problem?"

Are you kidding me? I had sent a /petition with the relevant data for each offender. I was now dealing with two GMs simultaneously? And again, "...what seems to be the problem?" Head, meet desk. It was a rundown of everything I'd experienced not moments ago. Now I had to scroll back even farther. So yes, I patiently explained and repeated everything all over again. Who were they? What were the globals? What did they say? Where did this happen? Everything I had put into the petition. "Is it okay if I place this player on your /ignore list?" *bonk bonk bonk* "Okay, they are on your ignore list, thank you!" *bonk* So by now, of course, I'm tired of this. I tell them, "Thank you for taking the time to contact the City of Heroes Support Team. We will use the information provided to determine whether a violation of the rules has occurred." Yes, moments later, they responded with the same thing. I deserved that, they're just doing their job.

Later, I checked my e-mail. So as not to quote anything, because they don't like that, the e-mail explicitly states that petitions will now summon a GM to file out, basically, an incident report with you. They want all the information all over again, in the interest of "accuracy."

So if you have nothing to do, help clean up the game by using /petition and get rid of people who ruin it for the rest of us. Wait for your CS rep to show up, because they will.

But if you want to keep playing, hit /ignore and just don't bother. :/

Wow...That's a bit....backward? Like, much?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

A buddy of mine reported a Drizzt clone a few nights ago and got a GM as well. We just figured it was a slow night...

I'm honestly saying, "If you see someone violating the TOS/EULA for the game, and/or otherwise ruining the play experience, just /ignore or /ignorespammer and keep walking. Do not engage CS."

Well THAT'S frustrating...

I wonder if they've been getting spam petitions FROM spammers or ignorant jerks like the ones you originally reported, people who are less likely to pay attention to details, and thus not get their story straight if a GM (as in this case) happens to contact them about what happened.

It almost sounds like you got a bot.

My only petition I ever sent that I heard back from regarding an exploit I'd found had a GM appear with 'What seems to be the problem?' too. I was so shocked to see a gm message me at first. I felt it pointless to explain the issue that I'd already written in the petition, so I said 'Well I'm not too sure what to say other than what's already been written in my petition, so I don't know what more needs to be added' and they said "Hmmm I understand how that can be a problem" and then got back to me regarding everything I'd said slightly after and eventually said they'd sent the issue to a higher person who is better dealing with the issue(not because they were hopeless but because the other people are better for dealing with technical exploits than a GM).

Proving for the FIFTH time this month, from forum posts alone, that the GM's are absolutely clueless.

I emailed a bunch of influence to one of my heroes. I hit Claim and *poof!* it all vanished.

I did not delete the email, hit /petition and spelled it out. What typically happens is that I would later get an email or two and the problem would be fixed.

So there I was, engaged in a furious firefight with the Council in a mission, when I realize that a Police Drone had appeared and I was being hailed by a GM! After I dropped the last Council goon, we then went over every detail I had already provided in the /Petition. And then he went his way, I later had a couple of emails and the Influence was restored.

So apparently a GM will respond in-game to every /petition, regardless of subject matter, and have you repeat, word-for-word if need be, what you already told them. This is apparently a response to a problem that I was unaware existed, but no harm, no foul in my case. In Dumpleberry's case, THAT will teach you to do the right thing!

I guess that if a GM shows up and starts to bug you, you could always /petition them.


On a more serious note, I wonder if this means a GM would be willing to show up and listen to other witnesses that saw someone misbehaving. A person can spam powers and direct pets through people trying to RP without ever showing up in a chat log, but being able to get witnesses to back up your story to the GM would be nice.

I'm going to go with one of the following (feel free to choose with me):

1. This new policy is inefficient, inconsistent and impractical and needs to be changed.
2. The GM's need a better understanding of the game and/or better training.

The degree of your participation in the petitioning process is entirely up to you, as the player and VIP. So this is no reason to fully stop participating in a collective process of reporting that has improved on the game for years. It only makes you sound just as unreasonable, and it prevents your protestation from ever being heard.

It is entirely acceptable to create a form response of your own for these situations, as long as that form response is informative (generally speaking) and polite. After all, you may be in the middle of a trial when a GM responds to a simple IP violation petition. Or you may simply have very limited time to play that day. Save any passive aggressive childishness for General Forum posts, and email a polite form response to your global email so that you can copy and paste from it.

Kindly remind GMs that they have access to your chat logs, and invite them to use that valuable resource, if they choose. Politely decline to participate further in the petitioning process, and thank them. Cut off responding after pasting something like this, "I trust you'll respect that my playing time is valuable to me, and thank you for allowing me to assist you in a limited manner this evening."

If any staff read this, please understand that I characteristically wouldn't suggest head-butting the policies of GMs that have worked so well with me on countless occasions. However, my fear in this case is that you may be unintentionally warding VIPs away from filing petitions whatsoever. To the contrary, I do not plan to cease filing petitions, especially if I think I might be helping to improve the game. My suggestion above provides a way for us both to communicate with each other politely and efficiently, but with as little real human interaction as possible.

Just want to add, the idea behind my suggestion is to "hit all the marks" of a successful petition, allowing it to be forwarded on. The in-game GMs most likely aren't reading your answers anyway, unless it's a harassment petition. You just want to make sure your petition gets filed. Without scrolling back through your own chat logs, your opening statement could still briefly reiterate the incident in a sentence or two. After that, each answer could just be a simple form response, made to satisfy the responding GM's requirement of 'VIP answered my text with some text'.

Sounds like next time I need to petition someone, I should do it right before I log for the night.