Yes this started being the norm right arround the time of chaos week on the pts and has not changed since then. Rumor is that they changed /gmlist function so you could not see the names anymore. Supposedly, ppl were trying to pm the GM's directly using the names. But alas this is all rumor. To me it just suggests that the support team doesn't feel that the players are worth the time and money to have live GM's on the servers anymore unless it's a true emergency that's filtered through an automated system. I could be wrong however and actually hope that I am. Would like to know there are GM's ready to respond instead of a computer with automated responses.
Certain 3rd party proggies were rumored to monitor the /gmlist.
As a result, they no longer list themselves.
Realistically though, even if you see a gm on the list, that guy isn't a first tier GM anyhow. 1st tier is probably just a help desk somewhere that filters the BS. Who knows how many people they actually have staffing that desk.
I do know that back in the day it used to take from 30 min to an hour or longer just to get unstuck. These days, it seems I get an answer to a petition within 15 minutes.
Realistically though, even if you see a gm on the list, that guy isn't a first tier GM anyhow. 1st tier is probably just a help desk somewhere that filters the BS. Who knows how many people they actually have staffing that desk.
How do you know all of this Bighands. You basing this on your assumptions, read this somewhere or do you have some source of reliable information?
It's based on 7 years of Network Admin experience and 4 years of customer support experience and help desk experience for a wide variety of products and services.
You will notice that I said probably. That is because what I stated is industry standard for how customer support is done.
My speculation is also backed up by observation.
ie.. First Tier support is typically someone who can breathe and copy/paste, usually they know pretty much nothing about the product they support and are just there to filter the BS.
Second Tier support knows about the product, but typically they go by some type of script. These guys have usually had training on their specific product or service, and they can usually answer about 90% of the questions that get to their level. These are the guys who I would expect to be able to appear on the GM list, and they most likely have some limited ability to do things in game, like fix broken quests and such.
Third tier is the pros. These guys know the insides and outside of how [censored] works. Typically they are closesly related to the dev's for the product. We call them HGM's. 3rd Tier support typically hates to deal with the customer, and you almost never actually speak directly to them. If you've ever called support and gotten to the second tier guy, you ask him a question and he puts you on hold... he's talking to the 3rd tier guy. ;)
oh.. and it depends on the support company what order they put the tiers in. Sometimes 1st tier is the top and sometimes it's 3rd tier.
As for the listing and unlisting by the GM's themselves, I think it was HGMSpam who gave some details on the GM's listing themselves or not. If you really want, I'll go get the link. He did not say anything about ye ole 3rd party proggie reading the gmlist. That is purely speculation based on what I know of 3rd party proggies combined with the GM's suddenly not appearing on the list any more.
The last part.. the help desk part..
Well I can say that I have made a couple of petitions lately, and I have gotten an answer, yet there were no gms on the list. So someone must be out there answering them.
My question would be, if they were so interested in placating us through semantics, read 'Heavy Traffic' server status instead of 'Full' after the last update. Why cant they make sure there is always someone listed in /GMlist?
It is frustrating.
Maybe this is what we needed to do, let them know it bugs us.
To me I could give **** if someone is on the GM list or not as long as my problem gets solved in a timely fashion.
I would expect that we will start seeing names on the list before long, because it appears that people want to see them on there. LOL or who knows maybe they will just remove the /gmlist command. ROFL.
I have a pretty good idea that this is how their system is working though.. let me give another example.
At the last siege, our GK in the throne room wasn't working, we figured it out right after the initial fighting to maintain the siege field. I gave the order for everyone in the alliance to petition it all at once.
The first few people got the cut/paste reply about GM's not being able to answer in game questions, see the help file etc etc. blah blah.
Then a few minutes later, we started getting different responses about The GK's only working for people on the defenders list or in the alliance that owns the castle. While the response was cut/pasted to multiple people, it was a custom written response, not a canned one. I assume at this point that a second tier GM had gotten involved. The first tier guy had escalated the ticket.
Then a few minutes later, we started getting yet another custom response... it was.. the Castle Lord himself needs to petition in order to get the issue resolved. This was definitely a custom response and it was copied and pasted to several members. I would almost bet that at this point a third tier GM had gotten involved in our case.
It is worth noting that the Castle Lord himself was busy at the time, and he had not petitioned yet when that response went out. He petitioned and within a very few minutes got the answer to the problem. My guess is that he was answered by the second tier GM, most likely with an answer that the second tier guy had gotten when he escalated the ticket to the third tier guy.
I would actually give NCSoft high marks for customer service on this issue. From the time we started petitioning to the time we had a real answer was less than 20 minutes, and probably would have been sooner if the castle lord had petitioned faster.
Lick. You are correct though, NCSoft may not follow the industry standard for support. They could have come up with their own special way of doing it, but from observation I would say they are doing it like everyone else.
One last note. It is very common place to outsource 1st tier support, and frequently second tier support. 3rd tier is almost always someone who works directly for the company. Judging by the canned responses and scripts that we get from 1st tier support, my guess is that NCSoft has outsourced it. That is 100% pure speculation though, and is based solely on the fact that 1st tier at this point appears to be 100% scripted (ie.. copy/paste)
Good post Bighands, I wanted to see if your talking out your *** or atleast had an educated guess. 2 points++
Thanks ;)
In this case it's an educated guess.
Not to say I never pull it out of my ***, but this time I have to admit I spent way to much time with my feet up on a desk reading off of a script. About 6 months of that and I got to make [censored] up as I went along and try to get ahold of the 3rd tier guy who was always out golfing.
Was a good job though, got to play with some very high end goodies. For anyone breaking into the computer fields, I do recommend a help desk job as early as you can get into it. Most of em, you can get in on 1st tier while you are still in school. It's a good place to learn some communications skills, and knowing how support works will definitely help when you get to your real job and are needing support for something.
Big well done. A few months ago i found an interview that explain from NCSOFT the exact prcedure your talking about. I am trying to find it and re-post but I dont remeber were I read it at. But none the less GJ.
aww geez.. I am dealing with Alienware support right now.. you guys want to talk about support that sucks? These guys take the freaking cake.
For starters you have to have an account to log in to the website to get the [censored] drivers. What kind of [censored] is that? I'm working on the owner's daughter's laptop, of course she lost the CD's. Now I have to call support to get access to the **** drivers via the website.
So I finally get in there, and the [censored] isn't the least bit organized. Nothing by model or any of that.. how the feck am I supposed to know which of the 12 different cryptic motherboard models this laptop has in it?
It's ignorant. Don't buy an Alienware. They might make nice computers, but if it ever breaks or you have to work on it, you're [censored].
Awww I feel your pain, that system sucks ... register or call helpdesk to get drivers? WTH?
Anyway if you have ever tried to call AT&T's high speed services helpdesk ... automated "trying to voice recognition" system FTW >.< you argue 10 minutes with that machine just trying to spell your name and phone number and never get to problem description because your adrenaline just boils your blood LoL
Awww I feel your pain, that system sucks ... register or call helpdesk to get drivers? WTH?
Anyway if you have ever tried to call AT&T's high speed services helpdesk ... automated "trying to voice recognition" system FTW >.< you argue 10 minutes with that machine just trying to spell your name and phone number and never get to problem description because your adrenaline just boils your blood LoL
ROFL. Brighthouse has that same automated crap.
If the voice recognition worked worth a [censored] I'd be all in, it's just asking you the same first few questions that the moron they would normally hire for 1st tier is gonna ask. I'd rather talk to the machine than the moron, but only if the machine understands me :(
Of course, these days about half the time, the moron who answers the phone seems to understand me about as well as the machine. lol
What I wish not see happening is see people sending in stupid pepitions on small gliches or lag spikes that doesnt HAVE to be solved. Therefore relying purely on getting a answer from a GM they don't stop trying to pepeition the GM's. Thats how we get the note- We are sorry for inconvence but you have to wait for at least 24 hrs to get a responce because of the high demand in pepitions. Geez only if people didn't worry so much.
The castle seige problem is a important issue to try to resolve, but sending a pepition for the bug falling in the water before you enter the catacombs or necroplis is stupid. Just deal with the low hp, it regains. Anyway you would probably regain your full hp before you even get a party or to the mob.... lol