Meet the GM Leads

What do you do for Champions Online?

JG: I’m Jim “GM Jaydeegee” Garner.

NH: And I’m Noel “GM Destra” Holmes.

MK: Markus “GM Villarigor” Kraus.

JG: And we oversee the day-to-day operations for our in-game customer support staff (Game Masters) for Champions Online (and eventually Star Trek Online).

What do you do on a day-to-day basis?

NH: 99% of what we do is sort through bugs that the players submit. Players have been submitting about 1200 bugs per day, and we end up going through those, and seeing if they’re valid, or if they’re working as intended, or are known bugs. We spend the majority of our time working through those, and calling up designers and asking them what’s actually going on with each bug. We anticipated doing a lot of in-game moderation, but the crazy thing is that the player base has been so nice and friendly that we haven’t really had to do much. The three of us came from another large MMO company, where we were used to seeing hundreds and hundreds of harassment reports per day. While here, we see maybe three or four.

JG: Throughout live operation our primary focus will be on helping players who are having issues that might be preventing them from enjoying the game. That could be another player bothering them (we hope this is never the case) or a creature getting stuck that prevents them from completing a mission. We are here for the players, really.

Do you find that designers are receptive to bugs and feedback that players report?

NH: We have the ability to report how many players are affected by a bug, because our bug system allows one to search for open tickets and “subscribe” to them by clicking, “I have the same issue!” If enough players subscribe to an issue, we point that out to the designers and producers and they’re always on top of it.

We tend to see a number of internal emails going around saying, “This is now your number one priority,” which is very, very different from other companies I’ve worked for, where a lot of times developers and producers have a vision and their own priorities and what the players say isn’t really important to them. Here, it’s almost like the players are controlling development. The players are definitely influencing the direction of the game by their feedback. The Melee mechanics have changed sixteen thousand times because people have submitted valid feedback, and so Melee has been tweaked to meet those needs.

Do you find yourselves dealing with angry players a lot of the time, when things don’t work as they should?

NH: Since we're not deep into our live service, we can talk about the beta community. The beta selection process we did for this game has been really good. Pretty much everyone in the beta has been really patient and really understanding, and they really get what a “beta” is and is supposed to be. I’ve played in a lot of betas before where people would say, “How do they expect us to play in this game if it’s broken?” Here, the players understand what testing means and how to be a good tester, so they’ve been really good about being patient, about filing bug reports, and about leaving their frustrations at the door.

MK: So, no, we haven’t had a whole lot of angry people.

What are you most looking forward to in the game?

NH: Definitely the PvP. I'll go in with a new build pretty regularly and try to “own” as much as possible. Most of the time I die, but I always email the PvP designers and say, “This is what I did. My record was 15 and 0 this time around.” Or, I email the Community team and say, “Sorry if you get complaints from players because I was winning too much.”

JG: I’m looking forward to the Nemesis content. The whole concept of randomly being reattacked by a recurring character is great. Something I love about comics are the recurring characters. It’s nice to be able to say, “This is my Nemesis,” and he’ll actually turn up multiple times. You’ll be teamed up with someone, and you can say, “Whoa, who’s that guy?” and they’ll say, “Oh, that’s my Nemesis. Just give me a minute to take care of him.”

MK: PvP. That’s what I enjoy the most. Not sure whether Noel or I are the better PvPer, but we'll soon find out.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to break into the video game industry?

JG: For me, start a fansite for a game you like, stick with it, meet the developers of the game. Customer service is always a good foot in the door. Fansites will get you at least behind the velvet rope in a lot of cases, to see if it’s something you want to do.

NH: Definitely the fansite/volunteer route is a good way to go. It helps you start to understand the industry a lot. There’s always school, of course, but any entry-level job will help, too.

MK: And, of course, play a lot, so you know what you’re getting into.

JG: Yeah, there's nothing worse than interviewing people applying for GM positions here and they just don't know anything about video games.

NH: If you show a two-year commitment to fansites, it really will help a lot. It’s all about the consistent effort and dedication.

Anything else you want to tell the world?

JG: We shouldn’t end without saying something nice about our managing directors. We’re working under their vision. The ticket system, where you can subscribe to someone else’s issue, really stems from them.

NH: Make sure you learn how our ticket system works, since it’s a unique system, and it’ll really help us out.

JG: And read the patch notes! There’s nothing sillier than getting a ticket that’s in the first line of the patch notes.

MK: Enjoy launch!