GM Malpractice, The Hand of Ragnaros, and Meatgrinder

[Raerity]

He needs to be permanently banned and so should the GM but that’s just me. They both knew what they were doing and joked about getting the items back. 7 days ban is like putting a toddler in the corner for 15 minutes.

[Russ1anrenegade]

Who got the other items Kestral the interaction needs to be made public for the Zebra & Ironfoe.

[Derektm99]

While I don't expect all behind-the-scenes events to be public, I really hope there are strong discussions and guidelines being set in place (with strict consequences) to further dissuade other GMs from being overtly friendly with specific players/guilds in the future. I know it can feel good to come into world chat and have everyone glazing you, but that type of stuff goes to people's heads quick (as we just saw), and even the slightest hint of favoritism will put a sour taste in the mouths of the regular playerbase.

[Celso]

I guess each of these cases should be evaluated individually and not take a general rule, but in this one specifically I do think a permaban is warranted because of the treachery afterwards basis (he “naively” asks a not-so-bright GM, and when he sees he gets his way, he takes even more advantage, and then when caught, hes still more worried about what he’s going to gain / recover out of it).

I find it more important to publish the GMs questions, and some form of api or transparency mechanism so when this happens again (because is inevitable), you actually caught it in time.

This has been “easy” because is a relatively small realm, and progression is tracked between guilds / players. But if the realm grows to 2-3K simultaneous, good luck following the trail.

TL;DR:

Permaban, publish GM selection questionare, make each GM permission and/or actions auditable.

[Igzee]

What's wrong in deleting that account ?

- Everyone involved - at least at upper management in <PANDA> - knew about the shady move,
- You showed to everyone that griefing legendary item results in a simple hit on the whist,
- You were not even able to detect this without complains from other players.

The community wants this game to be fun, not just a money grabber, and ask for the destruction of this account; and any IP related account.

We will also remember how <PANDA> and its leader JXX were /dance in SW while we kept asking details how they could obtain 8+1 ingots while Golemagg where not even killed enough time (accross the server) to drop those ingots.

[Kestrel]

Luckily we are not in a rush to decide as we have at least a week to get the community's input.

We are 100% sure that this was not an incident of the guild "sneaking" a GM into the team. We have reviewed chat logs from the guild and other members and found nobody involved in this other than these two. Neither wanted others to know the truth.

You don't have access to their discord. There's more conversations going on than in guild chat.

Trust me we know XD this was not exactly a mission impossible type heist. There is a 0% chance this was something that was planned out. We will always strive for transparency, but will never disclose things like IP's or potential IRL addresses/names/information to the public.

[Magerbummer]

I do fear these situations are the type of things that turn the GMs and their powers to the ones that were present in Turtle WoW. They were very rarely useful in my and my friends experience. Very often redirecting complex situations or bugs to public discord channels that did not resolve the situation.

I'm very thankful for the GMs and how helpful they've been, and I want that to remain the case throughout OctoWoW's Life.

Why only 7 day ban?

Why is this only a 7 day ban? You guys need to make an example of this situation.

The player who's begging a GM for items, knowing how wrong it is, is just as guilty as the GM who's giving them the items.

Agree, why only 7 days? While I'm happy with the transparency, it should honestly be a permaban, no excuses for that behavior.

Also, if I might suggest anything Kestrel, when possible I think you guys should make this auditing script output publicly avaiable somewhere on the website. At least the part that involves item, gold and octotokens creation/trading by GMs.

This would show you're committed to being transparent and avoiding any kind of favoritism or RMT done by GMs, and also signal to any new joining GMs that they aren't free to do shady stuff, because the community will be looking at everything they do regarding items/gold/octotokens.

I can imagine this being a pain point like current changes released to the game by the lack of detailed changelogs. If the system exists where GMs have to justify/write a comment on a ticket on what they generated for the players, then I'd imagine this system would be easier to make

[Kestrel]

Who got the other items Kestral the interaction needs to be made public for the Zebra & Ironfoe.

The other items were given in such a way that we don't believe the players receiving them had any ill intent or even requested the items. In light of this and the potential reputational damage it could cause them, given this was ultimately my failure (I onboarded this GM), we do not want to subject them to the same public repercussions as Meatgrinder.

[Aubreykun]

After some thought, I think that at least a 1 month ban after the 7-day is in order, if the staff feel a perma is a bit harsh.

Reasoning:
He wanted to cheat (at least, since Golemagg does not drop an ingot each time) 5 weeks of raiding. So he should be banned for 5 weeks. The same amount of time as he tried to skip.

[Kestrel]

While I don't expect all behind-the-scenes events to be public, I really hope there are strong discussions and guidelines being set in place (with strict consequences) to further dissuade other GMs from being overtly friendly with specific players/guilds in the future. I know it can feel good to come into world chat and have everyone glazing you, but that type of stuff goes to people's heads quick (as we just saw), and even the slightest hint of favoritism will put a sour taste in the mouths of the regular playerbase.

We already have these guidelines in place and have sense the beginning. All GM's have access to see all in game messages, ticket history, and even Item history of each other and all players. This event was not caught by a regular audit but by in game players reporting it and a GM using these tools to audit BushDocta, then forwarding the evidence to me.