So What's the Deal with VIP Support?

Are GMs from NCSoft or Paragon Studios? ...or are they farmed out elsewhere?

My instinctive feeling is that the customer service reps we call GMs here are ace, but I've sometimes felt that there's a disconnect between what we type in petition and how they respond.

Some of the other replies to this thread make a lot more sense - in that they are tasked to respond to every petition in game live - a fact I was unaware of.

I guess that means by definition they don't get the meat of the petition - they just go in and ask what the problem is, which is fine, but if you've just typed it, then from the user POV slightly frustrating. However to mitigate that fact, the response times are wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy faster than before in my experience so the time spent in recounting the issue, isn't a huge problem. I guess what Dumpleberry is recounting is one of those issues where there's clearly a conduct issue, but it's very hard to demonstrate immediately. It's not like "Glowy broke - glowly no work when click" or "stuck in tree" - and requires a more informed and subtle response from the GM.

I've sent many many petitions over my time here and the only time I've ever had less than a perfect response was with a badge - but in all other cases I've felt that the GMs have bent over backwards to resolve my issue. Zwillinger, please pass my continued thanks to the CS team!

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

From my experience as a Gamemaster, taking reports of harassment went something like this:

I'd get the ticket. It would say "Soundso called me a ****"
As I was logging into the server, I'd pull up the information page of the person reporting the incident. If the name of the person being reported was on the ticket, I'd also pull that person's information page up.

I would contact the player.
"Hello, this is GM _gmname_, I understand you've been having a problem with harassment."
"Could you please describe the incident?"
"And when did this happen?"
"Okay, thank you. At this time, please /ignore the player. I cannot inform you of the results of the investigation. Have a good day, and enjoy your time in Vana'diel"

If the incident, as described by the player, was something we could act upon, we would then send a log request to the floor supervisior for the times specified by the player to verify the incident. I did not have the capability (or the authority) to look up chat logs on my own.

I will say that the queue for the tickets was not without bugs. It worked well most of the time, but sometimes things would happen wherein one ticket could get claimed by two GMs, and the player would end up saying "But I already told this all to GM _othergmname_" in those cases, I would yell across the room "Hey, Dave, did you talk to soundso?" to confirm.

I realize that your job is to attend to the forest and not each tree. I also think you do a fantastic job. I spent a few years writing for public relations departments, so I also understand how such a granular approach to the game's public image would have all the effect of one tree being petted in the Amazon (everyone picture Zwillinger petting a tree ).

What surprised me was having new knowledge that there is zero communication between your realm and theirs. I'm getting the image of an NCSoft CS manager, who has little or no experience with City of Heroes, making a decision that creates a small mess on your side of the street; a mess like now.

This change in policy is good to know. It sounds like if I need to petition behavior, I should automatically highlight and copy the body of the petition so that I can paste it into the tell when the GM asks me to repeat what I just got finished typing.

You know what? Never mind. What the heck. I'll give the new system a try, and see for myself whether it's even a big deal. Then I'll give actual constructive feedback.

i reported a name violation who was spamming help
happily playing when a gm sent a tell asking me if id spelt the name right and if the help text id sent in was right....

like others i honestily thought id hit the wrong button
and broke out in a cold sweat
i felt like i was wasting there time and done something wrong
(i genrally petition and carry on)


*edited to add*
i will however live and get past this trauma if issue22 comes out soon *cough*

Been dealing with support the last few days.

I got double charged on a purchase of Paragon Points, apparently the process to deduct them before issuing a refund is a bit wonky.

Ugg I can't buy anything and I'm down 50 bucks until they fix it.

Calgon take me away!