This is what your first line of customer support (guides) was just told. Read it for yourselfs and then ask a few of those that played SWG (Star Wars Galaxies) what sort of help they recieved and how long it took them. YOU as a paying customer of SOE have the power of change. If your for this "take a number and get in line" sort of help then you should be happy. However those of you that have been helped in the past and those of you that enjoy speaking to a Guide so you know something is happing, YOU need to step up and let your voice be heard!
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Greetings,
Nearly five years ago, Sony Online Entertainment opened the doors to the magical world of EverQuest. Over time, we've seen EverQuest grow and change. We've seen Norrath gain new continents, we've seen the planes of power, and we've even seen a moon. We've also seen the addition of the bazaar, raid channels, customizable GUIs and more. All of which were designed to enhance the game.
SOE as a company has grown and changed as well. Now they not only offer EverQuest, but they also offer Planetside, EverQuest Online Adventures and Star Wars:Galaxies. In the near future they will be offering EverQuest 2.
During the past five years the Guide Program has changed as well. We've seen our structure evolve with the addition of the program level teams and the addition of the Guide level coordinators. We've seen evolutions in our tools and our capabilities. We've had changes to our practices and processes to reflect the evolving world we support.
Customer service processes for SOE, EverQuest, and the Guide Program have changed over time as well. We've seen changes in the way CSR were staffed to servers, we've seen changes in what customer service would help with though the addition of the Play Nice Policies, and more recently we've been seeing SOE bring in additional CS staff in India and the United Kingdom to support all their game offerings.
Right now SOE is working to improve the customer service tools in EverQuest and make them more consistent in capability and function to the customer service tools used with their newer game offerings.
This past weekend SOE informed the Elders of the extent of the upcoming changes to the petition queue and what the impact would be to the Guide Program. While we were expecting changes to the queue, we were not expecting changes to the extent that will be coming.
EverQuest will be gaining a "ticket" system much like the one used in Star Wars Galaxies. The ticket system is designed to give players a better ability to track their issues and to provide additional information, and will replace the current petition process that is in place now. We're being told that the implementation will be occurring in approximately three months.
As the front end to the petition system changes, the back end will change as well. The queue... The queue will cease to exist. The queue is being replaced by an offline-only java based system for the CSRs. Unfortunately, it is not possible for the Guide Program to access this tool.
SOE has stated that they continue to value our efforts in support of the customers in Norrath, and they have requested that we, the Guide Program, continue helping in the world of EverQuest. As our role with the petition queue changes, they ask that we do more in the way of questing, persistent characters and events. They ask that we do more community related activities, and yes, they have also asked that we continue to help provide some aspects of customer service.
During the coming weeks we will be defining our new role in EverQuest and discussing what can be done to empower the Guide Program for success in light of this change. As we move away from the petition queue as a responsibility and focus on questing, events, and other activities, we will also be looking at possible additions to our in-game abilities. We will also be reviewing our processes and rules with the various teams to make our new focus and direction easier.
As necessity changes our focus from the queue to other activities, we will be looking at how to make those other activities easier to accomplish, and more clearly defining those areas of CS that we will still assist with.
As an example of empowerment for Guides, the Guide rank will be receiving the /become, /height, and /emotezone commands. With these tools more readily available, quests will be dramatically easier to coordinate and run. We are also looking at extending a few additional commands to Apprentices, and reviewing quest and event policies so that they may participate in them more easily.
Persistent characters will be more readily available and we will be working to streamline the processes required to make them available and place them in Guide's hands.
We will also be looking at more ways the Guide Program can positively impact the in-game community, and how we can better communicate with the customer.
With these changes there will be new challenges. Not the least of our challenges will be the acceptance of the change to the queue itself, and the way that the change will impact each of us and our interaction with the customers. As we endeavor to accept these changes, think about the opportunities we have. Think about the positive impact quests, events and our other activities have on the game. Think about ways that we can help enhance the game environment, and ways that we can continue to help.
Over the next few weeks the various program-level teams will be discussing and communicating more details. Please direct your questions, concerns and suggestions to the Teams, to your SMT, and to the Elders, Your thoughts, comments, and ideas are appreciated.
The Elder Guides
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Customer help is a thing of the past !Follow
If this actually leads to more events beyond "Big fish in a little zone" stuff, I'm all for it. The amount of times I've actually needed a GM for time sensitive stuff is maybe once in the past four years. Even now, everyone knows that if you need a GM now you're pretty much SOL. So no big difference to me there. On the other hand, I haven't seen an event in ages and I haven't seen an event with more depth than "zerg kill the dragon attacking East Commons" in three times as long.
Not that I believe this will lead to more events, but whatever...
Not that I believe this will lead to more events, but whatever...
Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
As the front end to the petition system changes, the back end will change as well. The queue... The queue will cease to exist. The queue is being replaced by an offline-only java based system for the CSRs. Unfortunately, it is not possible for the Guide Program to access this tool.
so basicaly the guides will become worthless in reality like they are now. nothing changes except SoE is making reality match the current perseption of NO CSR in game at all to speak of, thus basicaly leaving the players to fend for them self.
great go SoE, you are looking to lose 2 accounts if this goes live and there is no CS. ill not pay to play a game with absolutly zero in game support.
so basicaly the guides will become worthless in reality like they are now. nothing changes except SoE is making reality match the current perseption of NO CSR in game at all to speak of, thus basicaly leaving the players to fend for them self.
great go SoE, you are looking to lose 2 accounts if this goes live and there is no CS. ill not pay to play a game with absolutly zero in game support.
Anonymous
I have to laugh my *** off at posts like this, not at whomever it is that risked posting this kind of thing, but at the idiots that either ignore it or post saying what is the difference.
When is the last time you saw a GM on your server not a Guide, try the /who all GM and see. I have seen 2 guides since November or so. I have seen NO GM’s in at least twice that long.
There are 150 quests and 25 events that guides can run, there are 10,000+ in game, how many do you really think you will see on your server. Sure there will be a few until customers that think help in game sucks and attack these guides with tells until they quit, or until they have completed all of them allowed in that time frame. Oh, and don’t forget the Uber Lewt on those quests. I remember one we did that took a group of 6 players 2 hours to finish, the reward? 50 Plat to split among them, when they really complained we got them a couple of jewels.
From what I remember of my guide days, and it was not that long ago that I quit (because they fired all the American GM’s (well not all there are 12 left) and guides cant even get help) let me see if I can help you out here.
Guides catch the kill stealers, trainers, people shouting crap or spamming, move people who block doors to banks and passages in some dungeons, they rescue your lost corpse, rez you from falling deaths, and summon you when you zone from the bazaar overweight. Sure they are slow there are 55 or so servers with 3,000 players each and only 1,000 or so guides.
GM’s are the ones that walk out your stuck character, restore your lost items, restore your deleted character, find the hacker that stole all your lewt, restore your character when the corpse has rotted, create Guild’s.
When is the last time you have gotten any of a “GM” only thing done? Hell I have a friend that has been waiting since the first of December for a simple guild tag.
Your blaming the Guides, you better wake up and realize that at least there are a few of them around trying to help, how much worse is it going to get with them gone. Imagine waiting a month for your falling death rez then, oh, well your corpse rotted, I’m sorry that is another department or you will have to resubmit this problem as a separate incident.
Think of it this way, the average time to get a GM online to help you is about a week to as much as a month right now. How long is it going to take for your kill stealer or trainer to be busted now? What are they going to do if they stumble on one anyway?
Don’t blame the guides for SOE’s *****-ups, before I left there was one guy we had busted at least 15 times training other players and SOE did not do a dam thing, the guides kept busting him, promising the customer that we would make SOE aware of it, we did, and he is still there. Last I heard he is still training and laughing his *** off and players were still screwed.
Enjoy it while it lasts
When is the last time you saw a GM on your server not a Guide, try the /who all GM and see. I have seen 2 guides since November or so. I have seen NO GM’s in at least twice that long.
There are 150 quests and 25 events that guides can run, there are 10,000+ in game, how many do you really think you will see on your server. Sure there will be a few until customers that think help in game sucks and attack these guides with tells until they quit, or until they have completed all of them allowed in that time frame. Oh, and don’t forget the Uber Lewt on those quests. I remember one we did that took a group of 6 players 2 hours to finish, the reward? 50 Plat to split among them, when they really complained we got them a couple of jewels.
From what I remember of my guide days, and it was not that long ago that I quit (because they fired all the American GM’s (well not all there are 12 left) and guides cant even get help) let me see if I can help you out here.
Guides catch the kill stealers, trainers, people shouting crap or spamming, move people who block doors to banks and passages in some dungeons, they rescue your lost corpse, rez you from falling deaths, and summon you when you zone from the bazaar overweight. Sure they are slow there are 55 or so servers with 3,000 players each and only 1,000 or so guides.
GM’s are the ones that walk out your stuck character, restore your lost items, restore your deleted character, find the hacker that stole all your lewt, restore your character when the corpse has rotted, create Guild’s.
When is the last time you have gotten any of a “GM” only thing done? Hell I have a friend that has been waiting since the first of December for a simple guild tag.
Your blaming the Guides, you better wake up and realize that at least there are a few of them around trying to help, how much worse is it going to get with them gone. Imagine waiting a month for your falling death rez then, oh, well your corpse rotted, I’m sorry that is another department or you will have to resubmit this problem as a separate incident.
Think of it this way, the average time to get a GM online to help you is about a week to as much as a month right now. How long is it going to take for your kill stealer or trainer to be busted now? What are they going to do if they stumble on one anyway?
Don’t blame the guides for SOE’s *****-ups, before I left there was one guy we had busted at least 15 times training other players and SOE did not do a dam thing, the guides kept busting him, promising the customer that we would make SOE aware of it, we did, and he is still there. Last I heard he is still training and laughing his *** off and players were still screwed.
Enjoy it while it lasts
"Customer help is a thing of the past"
As long as I have been around (about 3 years) Customer Service has rarely been a thing of the present.
The blame falls on the shoulders of SOE. Not guides.
Edited, Tue Jan 20 08:48:17 2004 by Grimfar
As long as I have been around (about 3 years) Customer Service has rarely been a thing of the present.
The blame falls on the shoulders of SOE. Not guides.
Edited, Tue Jan 20 08:48:17 2004 by Grimfar
Guides have had very little power in game as far as resolving issues goes for a very long time now. Pretty much all they've been able to do is escalate the problem anyway.
If they're oursourcing customer service, well, maybe they'll be able to add more techs.
I doubt we'll see a big change in game. The only thing that really sucks is the occasional corpse stuck in a wall bug - guides were good for that, at least.
And if more Guide events are added, I hope players receive them with some appreciation.
In the mean time, if someone is training you or whatnot, it looks like you're on your own. Of course some of us have always felt that way.... Guides have said forever that they had to witness certain behaviors before they could do anything about them.
If they're oursourcing customer service, well, maybe they'll be able to add more techs.
I doubt we'll see a big change in game. The only thing that really sucks is the occasional corpse stuck in a wall bug - guides were good for that, at least.
And if more Guide events are added, I hope players receive them with some appreciation.
In the mean time, if someone is training you or whatnot, it looks like you're on your own. Of course some of us have always felt that way.... Guides have said forever that they had to witness certain behaviors before they could do anything about them.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
Quote:
Don’t blame the guides for SOE’s *****-ups
Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
I feel for the guides, they seem to pretty much just be the Customer's whipping post. All SOE gives them is a Hot Key that says "Sorry....." Most of the guides I have met have been pretty cool. Some would hang an shoot the breeze with me while I waited. The only time I needed a GM was years ago when there was a bug with trading. I paid several kpp for an item that was in the trade window and after we clicked trade I did not get the item. The dude was a scammer and the GM got him and gave my plat back.
I think that most people have stopped trying to petition. I lost level 15 the other day when shadowhaven crashed. When the server came back up I was at the begining of level 14. Rather than spend hours/days waiting on a GM to restore my character, I just went back to the grind.
I think that most people have stopped trying to petition. I lost level 15 the other day when shadowhaven crashed. When the server came back up I was at the begining of level 14. Rather than spend hours/days waiting on a GM to restore my character, I just went back to the grind.
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