GMs vs Devs vs Admins

[madimpossibledreamer]

persona 4 .hack inspired au

Aon:

CAGE MATCH!  WHO WOULD WIN?

            …jk.  My real post is, what is the difference between these?

 

 

~Admin Cieng:

I’ll weigh in on this to help people out because I’ve noticed a lot of conversation and confusion about this issue.  Not here, but in various places throughout the game and internet.

            This would be insider information, so technically if you place bets using this information, you'll get both me and yourselves in trouble.  ;)  Devs would probably win.  As much as I’d like to say I’m on the winning side.  They’ve got the most power in the game.

            Okay, the Admins are the forum administrators.  We’re not paid; we’re volunteers, which means most of us are probably masochists.  ;)  I’ve been a GM in other games, and seriously, you guys and gals are a joy to work with as opposed to ones in other games I will not mention.  ISO is slightly different in that different terminology is used for GMs and Admins (in most games, both are called GMs or the jobs are a single entity; I’ve seen some just called forum moderators or mods as well). 

            Admins can delete posts that are in violation of the Player’s Code of Conduct, though we have to put some sort of response in place to make sure that people know there was a post there to begin with.  (It also serves as a kind of check on our power, as it lets others higher up the chain review our actoins and make sure we’re not overstepping our power or not following the CoC ourselves by harassing certain players.)  We also stop arguments between players on the forums from getting out of hand and generally ensure that everyone’s having fun in the game which includes the official forums.

            GMs are the ones your support ticket usually goes to in the game.  They’re also volunteers, like the Admins, but their patrolling ‘territory’ is in game.  Most GMs only cover one server, and there’s usually some kind of schedule in place to make sure at least one GM is online at any time.  Admins don’t have this kind of scheduling and thus are on the forums when they feel like it/when they can be.  Sometimes it takes a bit to get one on, but usually problems in the forums are less immediate to fix. 

            GMs help organize events, and if asked can usually help organize your event and prevent trolling.  They can answer questions (though if they’re fairly simple questions they prefer you ask those in the forum or other players as they’re usually pretty busy when they can squeeze in time on the schedule).  They’re a general gofer when it comes to customer service, and may have the power to banish players for offenses against the Player Code of Conduct (in this game, generally not the case, though I’ve heard of senior GMs who have the power).  They can report players for offenses, and there’s some kind of tally system (like ‘three strikes you’re out although I’m pretty sure it’s more than 3).  Usually there’s a lot more report filing for them, and they’re occasionally given case by case powers to banish players or fixing bugs.

            The last guys.  Devs.  Devs are the gods of this world.  Seriously, they kind of are.  We’re lucky to have an awesome team, but the Devs are the game developers.  That should tell you what kind of powers they have.  In ISO, devs do actually have their own characters in the game, and these characters are usually important to the story of the game.  They don’t often log in, and each dev may have a certain schedule to do so (`Dev Kashihara, for instance, is seen once in the rare blue moon, while `Dev Kuzunoha logs in every Thursday for a couple hours, and `Dev Gouto usually only logs in to help with special events). 

            Most of the reason they’re not on much is that they’re too busy plotting giving us the game material we want.  They’re the ones that have created all the classes and powers.  They’re the ones that made the mechanics and every location and dungeon and mission and facet of our gaming lives.  Some are artists, writers, graphic designers, computer engineers, PR/customer support.  They may have modded their character with special powers.  They may have made their character as a test for new things they’re thinking about implementing.  A few hang around the test server a lot, for good reason—they want to see what’s working and what’s not.  Most prefer emails or forum topics about things that go wrong (the test server help emails go straight to devs).

            Though, like I said, you guys are among the best to work with, and usually when you’re being annoying you’re just kind of being silly, so it’s easy to shrug it off and not get in a bad mood.  That being said, Admins & GMs (sometimes) do the same for other games, and may not have as good experiences there.

            In game or out, you can easily tell a Dev/GM/Admin, at least when they’re ‘on duty’.  Each of these will designate a main character to receive the ~Admin, *GM, or `Dev title.  This will appear on all official forum posts, and they’ll be playing that character when on duty.  (You also get a pretty sweet cape, which is nice because capes are, uh, less practical in the world.  But still cool.  Capes are possible normally in the game, and not every one of these officials will wear a cape.  I just do ‘cause it’s cool.