#2 - March 19, 2007, 6:22 a.m.
It is clear that you've experienced no small amount of frustration as a result of your previous correspondence with our department, Bullstalker, for which I am truly sorry; there do appear to be a few misconceptions in this thread, however, so I shall do what I can to dispel those in turn. :)
Q u o t e:
1. there is not enough space in in-game ticket area to put full discriptions of complex bugs given your slack GMs a easy way out not to help by saying they need more info
While there should be ample space to describe most issues sufficiently, further improvements or optimisations for our in-game petition system are always possible, and shall be examined for potential implementation in the future. In any case, your belief that our Game Masters use the character limit on petitions as an excuse not to address players' issues is borne of a lack of perspective. Having worked in this department for some time now, I can assure you that, despite our best efforts to address all issues as thoroughly as is possible, sometimes the player simply doesn't include enough specific information regarding the matter to act upon, and not because of any restrictions on space. It
does happen.
Q u o t e:
2. GMs will jump on a ticket if d/c for a sec and send cookie cutter e-mail to free their que up a bit and barely even read tickets lodged
Given that the vast majority of your recent petitions -- particularly those concerning the "Through the Dark Portal" series -- have not only been addressed while you were online, but given a great deal of attention by both the Game Masters who originally received them and the Character Specialists to whom they were eventually forwarded, I'll presume you're not speaking from personal experience. We make every effort to speak with players online, as it goes a long way toward expediting whatever assistance we can provide, but sadly it is not always possible to do so.
Q u o t e:
3. GMs constantly use "Can't give game hints" to avoid doing anything, when bugs are clearly pointed out. BUT why should we be 100% aware of quests we are not meant to have done yet when they bug on us. Thottbot should not be madatory when asking a GM to fix bug.
You appear to have an extraordinarily negative perception of our department, Bullstalker, but it may help to understand what "game hints" entail and why it is not our practice to provide them to players. In short, Game Masters are present to assist with whatever in-game issues arise in the ever-changing environment of an MMORPG like
World of Warcraft, but occasionally players will report "issues" that have not been found to exist, whether out of a genuine lack of knowledge or a deliberate attempt to eke out information from the resources available to our department.
In either case, our role is not to be relied upon as a "guide" of sorts for general gameplay; it is often more prudent to simply ask one's fellow players if one is unsure as to how a quest or item should operate, or, if one so chooses, consult third-party informational aides. In your particular situation, it is possible that some misinterpretation arose as to the nature of the issue you were reporting, and thus it seemed as though you were asking for help with an issue that was not known to occur. If that is the case, I do apologise on behalf of my department for your distress.
Q u o t e:
4. Repeated escalation of bugs to specialist, repeated same error occuring and your GMs and specialist still half the time say is some UI bull#@#@ instead of sloppy coding left and right that Blizzard have written,
You do not appear to be aware of the massive scope of a game as vast as
World of Warcraft, Bullstalker; rather than simply blaming "sloppy coding," it may behoove you to consider the sheer size of the undertaking of which we are all a part, and the likelihood of minor issues arising in the natural course of development, troubleshooting, and implementation. Our Quality Assurance team works ceaselessly to find these issues, test them to ensure that their extent and reproducible steps can be defined, and take steps to devise resolutions appropriately; do not think for a moment that any of this is a simple task, however, or that it is but the work of a moment. Time and, more importantly, patience are needed.
Q u o t e:
I have had about 10 GM tickets and 3 specialist escalations relating to my bug with "journey to thrallamar" 1st #%%@ing questline in BC and almost 2months later still isn't fixed, and ya lazy/ slack GMs still don't acknowledge it half the time.... please quality control ya in-game staff (and that means more than just feedback emails)(takes so long for anything to be fixed who can remember who lazy / slcak GMs where unless they sent ya email showing their slackness)
In addition to our feedback e-mails -- which carry far more weight than you believe, but no matter -- there
is, in fact, an extensive Quality Control process in place to make certain that Game Masters are operating within acceptable parameters, and that our customer service standards are maintained. Our Quality Control representatives carefully analyse the work that GMs do, and identify potential problem areas to suggest how future conversations can be improved upon. This process is constantly in effect, and insufficient service is found and addressed accordingly.
To close, it would appear that you currently have "Felspark Ravine" as a quest in progress, which is farther down the line of which "Journey to Thrallmar" is a part; while I cannot speak to your issues with the earlier step, you seem to have progressed just fine. What still isn't fixed? :)
