Blizzard Activision charges a monthly fee of 14.99 per account to play the game, because being a Game Master is actually a paid position with a desk, a supervisor and all the trimmings. This isn't something people do for free. It's a real job with hours, a salary, etc., including mandatory OT when expansions and major patches come out. The servers Blizzard use require constant maintenance and upgrades to handle the traffic of 10 million plus players.
These Game Masters work long, hard, thankless hours and have to behave themselves when some whiny asshole who thinks s/he's somehow entitled, petitions in for a character restore claiming his or her account was hacked. Trust me when I tell you that a GM can see the IP addresses from which your account has logged into the game. It's easy to see accounts where people are paying for leveling services, or when an account is being shared. Those are all permanent records. A GM can search an IP or chatlog from quite literally years in the past. It can be so edifying and downright hilarious, too, because so many players mistakenly think they're cleverer than the person who will address their petition.
Right.
There's nothing like seeing some braindead jackass player admit in his guild chat or privately to some buddy that he accidentally leveled his twink, deleted it, and planned to petition in claiming the account had been hacked, wanting to have the toon restored AND rolled back in level to the previous level. The GM'd see where the player had been lulz'ing with his friends ingame over how it would be so easy to fix the issue.
Ain't gonna happen, Buckwheat. This is a game designed to level a toon, not reduce him or her in level, and no amount of yelling on your part is going to make the GM roll it back. If the player doesn't want his or her toon to level, they need to use the option to freeze their character's level. You can arrange for that with your in-game gold.
Contrary to popular belief, a Game Master does not play their own toon while they're working. In fact, if they do, Blizzard will take away their account and escort the now-former Game Master out the door, leaving that person free to try to find another job in this shitty-ass economy.
Game Masters have a work account that they don't actually play. They don't gear their toons or anything like that. It's nonparticipatory. It's pretty much just a placeholder for if the Game Master has to check something in-game. Otherwise, it's all text-based Game Master support and they rarely have to enter the game, itself.
And miracle of miracles, Blizzard hires American citizens and doesn't outsource to foreign countries, so they are, in fact helping the US economy. There aren't many companies anymore that have what amounts to their customer service department on US soil. I make a point of supporting companies that support American workers (apologies to any offshore board members -- it's just a bear to find a job in the States at this time). If you're a gamer and are interested in trying to find a job at Blizzard, go to
http://jobs.blizzard.com They have all manner of jobs listings there, and each listing will tell you where the particular position is based. They're over 40 miles south of where I live at this time, so it's not cost effective for me to apply there.
Also...
Starcraft II? That came out a few months ago. Where've you been? I had great fun playing the beta before the game went live.
As for computer, console and gaming experience:
In the 80s, I was playing fun computer games like The Bard's Tale, and Might & Magic, with my ridiculously inadequate monitor.
But, before that...
I got my first game console in the very early 70's with the Odyssey gaming system. You knew which game you were playing by the particular sheet of plastic you'd taped to the front of your television. From there, I went to a base level Atari, then the Atari 2600 (it was stolen in an apartment break in in 1982 - they took the tv, too, as they apparently felt it would be easier to use the Atari that way)
I've gone from consoles to a mainframe at the high school I attended, where I learned flow-charting, BASIC and how to program a Packard Bell punch card in my computer science class. I had fun building what would later be called a MUD.
My first computer beyond the Crapintosh I borrowed from a friend was a Trash 80. Yay for tape drives! I went from the Trash 80 to my 8088 "turbo" computer with 640k of RAM, two 5.25 floppy disk drives and a 20mb hard drive. When I decided I wanted to upgrade my RAM, I disovered it had tbe run paired, and that it was about 160 bucks a megabyte. We had all the incarnations of the Nintendo gaming system and console games for the Wii and the PS3. We're getting an XBox and Kinect when we can. They look lovely on a 55" 3D Samsung set.
So shiny.
I've played Diablo and Diablo 2, and am looking forward to Diablo 3. I've played Guild Wars, Civ 3, Civ IV, Black and White, Dungeon Keeper, etc.
When cable internet came to the very small and rural town in which I used to live in about 1995, my daughter had to show the technician how to install it. We were the guy's first install job when cable internet finally made it to cow country. For months thereafter, whenever he needed help, he'd call her. One day, the owner of the cable company came by to talk to my daughter and get advice.
There's something particularly sad about a tech not being able to find the modem's MAC address information, and it's nothing short of surreal when the business owner comes by to pick your brain.
My daughter started screwing around with my old 8088 when she was about 5 and I was graduating from an IBM 386 to a custom made 486 box. She was building custom systems by the time she was 10, and started her own computer repair and maintenance business by the time she was 12. She was doing things with a computer that the local computer "gurus" said wasn't possible.
My first MMO was Dark Age of Camelot, and I went from there to WoW when it came out in 2004. I started PvE and ultimately went PvP so I could play with my daughter. I still play WoW, and belong to what can best be described as a "family" guild started by husband and wife truckers. They're friendly, helpful and thoughtful.
Oh, and as a final addendum to those who think it's cool to buy gold:
Blizzard does pay attention to where the gold is coming from and where it's going. If you've bought gold (against the game ToS) and it never arrives, don't petition in asking where the gold your "friend" (who you can't name) is, as it never arrived and never will. The Game Master will be able to see exactly where that gold is, and isn't going to be giving it to you. In fact, you may lose your account because of your attempt to cheat.
Anyhow, all the previous information is to let you know that I have considerable computer and gaming experience, both on and off the internet.
I'll add in closing that I'm just glad that I'm a friend of moot and not on his bad side. You may understand the reference.
Oh yeah.
The Game.
