How do you become a GM?

[Aeolus.3615]

GM is a set of feature/roles that is given to companies employees playing their own game or given a support role towards the community management.

Study hard, and then send CV to Anet :)

 

@ProtoGunner.4953 ive seen quite some of them, and sometimes been ganked by some ._. i hate them lol...

[Gaile Gray.6029]

What some call GMs -- who are in fact our Customer Services reps -- usually come from a customer service or support background. They may have had experience in another game, or in a different type of work environment, but generally they have worked pretty extensively with the public. Good writing and problem-solving skills are a strong feature of the role. In the CS job descriptions I've seen (and have sometimes written for Anet ;) ) a background in game security is not usually listed, although that could be a helpful thing to have. CS Reps are different than community managers, although we communicate with one another daily.

 

One question that comes up a lot is, "Can I work as a GM from home?" And the answer is that we hire agents who will work on-site, not from home. Another question is, "Do you have volunteers or player-GMs?" And the answer to that, also, is no. All CS Reps work as employees.

 

Oh and as for playing the game all day (which I saw in a comment), CS Reps are busy helping players and seldom have time to play the game during work hours. Other folks who would be more engaged in "playing the game" -- which is really more testing the game and fixing bugs -- would be members of the QA Team, but they, too, seldom just laze around playing, but are in the game for a purpose.

[Fremtid.3528]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> What some call GMs -- who are in fact our Customer Services reps -- usually come from a customer service or support background. They may have had experience in another game, or in a different type of work environment, but generally they have worked pretty extensively with the public. Good writing and problem-solving skills are a strong feature of the role. In the CS job descriptions I've seen (and have sometimes written for Anet ;) ) a background in game security is not usually listed, although that could be a helpful thing to have. CS Reps are different than community managers, although we communicate with one another daily.

>

> One question that comes up a lot is, "Can I work as a GM from home?" And the answer is that we hire agents who will work on-site, not from home. Another question is, "Do you have volunteers or player-GMs?" And the answer to that, also, is no. All CS Reps work as employees.

>

> Oh and as for playing the game all day (which I saw in a comment), CS Reps are busy helping players and seldom have time to play the game during work hours. Other folks who would be more engaged in "playing the game" -- which is really more testing the game and fixing bugs -- would be members of the QA Team, but they, too, seldom just laze around playing, but are in the game for a purpose.

 

You do have CS reps who work in Europe though right?

[Ashen.2907]

Get bitten by a radioactive G?

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

I really enjoy mentoring on low starter maps. Do it almost daily for the last couple of weeks/month. But.. I wouldn't want that as a job. Or do customer service.

 

I work for an... educational business. Our customers are from the lower 10% of society. And it is soul crushing. I imagine working in QS in a gaming company must be worse.

[Tatwi.3562]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> One question that comes up a lot is, "Can I work as a GM from home?" And the answer is that we hire agents who will work on-site, not from home. Another question is, "Do you have volunteers or player-GMs?" And the answer to that, also, is no. All CS Reps work as employees.

>

Glad to hear both of those things. Customer service is a job. Jobs are work. Do work, get paid. Real simple! :)

If I lived in the area, I would apply, provided the wages covered the insane cost of living in your area. I've read housing is pretty awful out your way.

 

Keep up the excellent work, eh!

 

Sincerely,

Former "Cable guy" and tech support agent for an HP contractor.

[Algreg.3629]

I think you have a wrong idea about GMs and the gaming industry. Being a GM is more or less a mundane deskjob in CRM - and that field can be one of the more soulcrushing ones. It probably does not differ much from working CRM for a real estate corporation or online retail. In general, the gaming industry is far from being all fun. Having a PR/marketing background myself, all I have heard from these fields it must be hell with insane deadlines and always a kitten-storm lurking behind the next corner. I imagine in other departments there will also be a LOT of pressure. A fun product does not necessarily tell of a fun industry.

[Novahh.7426]

Id just work for anet to command as anet driver and claim middle castle in wvw.

[Artemis Thuras.8795]

> @"Fremtid.3528" said:

> > @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> > What some call GMs -- who are in fact our Customer Services reps -- usually come from a customer service or support background. They may have had experience in another game, or in a different type of work environment, but generally they have worked pretty extensively with the public. Good writing and problem-solving skills are a strong feature of the role. In the CS job descriptions I've seen (and have sometimes written for Anet ;) ) a background in game security is not usually listed, although that could be a helpful thing to have. CS Reps are different than community managers, although we communicate with one another daily.

> >

> > One question that comes up a lot is, "Can I work as a GM from home?" And the answer is that we hire agents who will work on-site, not from home. Another question is, "Do you have volunteers or player-GMs?" And the answer to that, also, is no. All CS Reps work as employees.

> >

> > Oh and as for playing the game all day (which I saw in a comment), CS Reps are busy helping players and seldom have time to play the game during work hours. Other folks who would be more engaged in "playing the game" -- which is really more testing the game and fixing bugs -- would be members of the QA Team, but they, too, seldom just laze around playing, but are in the game for a purpose.

>

> You do have CS reps who work in Europe though right?

.

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> we hire agents who will work on-site, not from home.

 

I think this part suggests not. All work out of anets office in the US.

At least that's how I interpret this statement.

 

[CJH.2879]

About 22 years ago I helped a friend of mine on a discussion forum that he created, yes he was a programmer (among other things), he gave me GM status & I will admit the task was not an easy one. It essentially involved going through every single topic/message that was posted & keeping an eye out for any kind of toxicity (discrimination/racism/flagrant swearing ect ect). One thing I did learn was that its something you have to stay vigilant on, things can spiral out of control very quickly & I always tried to approach the task with a "firm but fair" attitude. Its also a case of trying to separate your personal feelings towards a subject from the requirements of the job you are doing + all of thats involved with it. You'll come across people from all walks of life & there are times that a ban or deletion of a specific account do come into play. In the end its all about finding the right balance & recognizing if a person has overstepped there mark or if everything is ok. The work I did at that time on another forum wasn't paid work, it was just helping out a friend when internet was just first appearing in the world (along with bulletin boards, private servers & the old modems that made that annoying screeching sound lol). =)

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

There is a LOT of improvement Anet can benefit from. I'm curious about the process and the oversight of those hired to handle this kind of job.

 

In my years of customer service, especially game support, I haven't met very many with good problem-solving skills. Quality control also fails when you can't report terrible service either.

[Ben K.6238]

> @"starlinvf.1358" said:

> Just to add an air of caution, to realize that this is "Customer Service" job, and that this type of work REQUIRES the ability to deal with all kind of different people. And by "all kinds" I mostly mean rude, uncooperative, and sometimes belligerent people. You have to be thick skinned, level headed, able to tolerate some really stupid policies and/or management decisions, and a level of interpersonal communication skills that rival that of a crisis negotiator...... For without them, it becomes the most soul crushing of soul crushing jobs, when 80% of your interactions are with customers who are, or are about to be upset about something You had no involvement with until that moment.

>

> I've done phone support, enterprise support, user admin, technical support and did a stint as a field tech...... and in that time, my bar for the average human being has been lowered substantially. And its not so much that people are bad (even though they are)..... but you are very much exposed to the lower half of the average, and prolonged exposure leads to some philosophical and existential crisis. But if you can get past all that, then the only thing you need to worry about is minor depression, with an increased academic interest in the principles of natural selection.

>

> Cheers!

 

But at the same time, you're there to try to fix those problems and make unhappy people happy wherever possible. The only ones that really suck are the ones where someone's broken the EULA badly enough to lose their account, and there ain't no coming back from that.

 

The list of skills is pretty accurate, but missing one: you need to have impeccable written communication. Bad grammar or typos get interpreted as signs of incompetence really easily.

 

Policies do have quite an impact on the job as well. The... shall we say, unpopular ban on matchup threads in the WvW forum is actually a very good move, as it saves a *lot* of work that could be much more productively spent on solving more important problems.

[Nate.3927]

> @"Artemis Thuras.8795" said:

> > @"Fremtid.3528" said:

> > > @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> > > What some call GMs -- who are in fact our Customer Services reps -- usually come from a customer service or support background. They may have had experience in another game, or in a different type of work environment, but generally they have worked pretty extensively with the public. Good writing and problem-solving skills are a strong feature of the role. In the CS job descriptions I've seen (and have sometimes written for Anet ;) ) a background in game security is not usually listed, although that could be a helpful thing to have. CS Reps are different than community managers, although we communicate with one another daily.

> > >

> > > One question that comes up a lot is, "Can I work as a GM from home?" And the answer is that we hire agents who will work on-site, not from home. Another question is, "Do you have volunteers or player-GMs?" And the answer to that, also, is no. All CS Reps work as employees.

> > >

> > > Oh and as for playing the game all day (which I saw in a comment), CS Reps are busy helping players and seldom have time to play the game during work hours. Other folks who would be more engaged in "playing the game" -- which is really more testing the game and fixing bugs -- would be members of the QA Team, but they, too, seldom just laze around playing, but are in the game for a purpose.

> >

> > You do have CS reps who work in Europe though right?

> .

> > @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> > we hire agents who will work on-site, not from home.

>

> I think this part suggests not. All work out of anets office in the US.

> At least that's how I interpret this statement.

>

 

it really depends, are customer service working from Anet offices? or from NCSOFT offices? or a combination of both? If it's one of the latter two, I can imagine NCSOFT would have an office somewhere in Europe, so they might have customer service reps that are based in the European office.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

ArenaNet CS Teams only work for ArenaNet at the ArenaNet offices. NCSoft Support has their own teams, in their own offices.

[Yannir.4132]

> @"Nate.3927" said:

> it really depends, are customer service working from Anet offices? or from NCSOFT offices? or a combination of both? If it's one of the latter two, I can imagine NCSOFT would have an office somewhere in Europe, so they might have customer service reps that are based in the European office.

 

NCSoft and ArenaNet are associated VERY loosely, NCSoft basically has 0 interaction with Anet and their games on a daily basis. The only time NCSofts name pops up is when there's some sort of advertising of another NCSoft property. Anything and everything directly related to the game is handled by ANet.

[Fremtid.3528]

I'm pretty sure I remember an ad on twitter from Anet looking for someone who was bilingual to work in Europe that's why I was asking. I don't know maybe I imagined it.

[Nate.3927]

> @"Yannir.4132" said:

> > @"Nate.3927" said:

> > it really depends, are customer service working from Anet offices? or from NCSOFT offices? or a combination of both? If it's one of the latter two, I can imagine NCSOFT would have an office somewhere in Europe, so they might have customer service reps that are based in the European office.

>

> NCSoft and ArenaNet are associated VERY loosely, NCSoft basically has 0 interaction with Anet and their games on a daily basis. The only time NCSofts name pops up is when there's some sort of advertising of another NCSoft property. Anything and everything directly related to the game is handled by ANet.

 

that doesn't change what I say. My company's original CEO (now retired) is the father of a different company's previous CEO (not retired, but working elsewhere now). The two companies' businesses do not intersect in any way. We have absolutely no relationship on a business level and yet both companies' HQ is located on the same floor of the same building. The bigger company officially rents the entire floor and then legally sublets a portion of it to the smaller one. If NCSOFT has an office in Europe(I don't know if true), there's no reason why they won't let Anet put customer service staff there.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

ArenaNet does have (or used to; I think they still do) Community Managers that work in Europe; but, those aren't Customer Support Team members nor in-game GMs.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

Our CS agents are US-based. But we hire native speakers in each of our supported languages, so a German-language CS Agent would respond to tickets submitted in that language, etc. This allows us to best understand each player's needs and help them with the appropriate outcome.