The role of the Gamemaster was once familiar to almost all MMO players. Today, this important position has almost been forgotten.
As a child, I wanted to become a Gamemaster, I remembered this recently when I thought about why MMOs don’t fascinate me as much today as they did back then.
I clearly remember my first encounter with a Gamemaster. As a new player in Metin2, one of the Gamemasters stood on my server with the glowing GM sign above his head in the city.
It didn’t take long before he spawned a few monsters and stirred up the marketplace quite a bit. Like a herd of sheep, he was surrounded by a crowd of players who followed him everywhere to probably snag some reward.
As a nearly-teenager, I was somehow excited about the role. Not only did you get to have such a cool sign above your head, but you could also do all sorts of cool things that distracted from the tedious grind back then in Metin2.
Over the years, I encountered more and more Gamemasters in other games, and each time it was a positive experience. Whether it was a bunch of bots being banned right before my eyes or a cool event led by a Gamemaster, I could always count on them for questions and problems. It became clear to me: “When I grow up, I want to be a Gamemaster.”
Here you can see why loot has the colors you are used to:
Gamemaster was once an important role
The role of the Gamemaster was quite special. For MMORPGs, they served as the first point of contact for players with various issues.
They kept an eye on the players and punished those who did not follow the rules. Bots and cheaters could often be banned shortly after being reported to the GM.
As a result, players felt that something was happening here, and they were not alone with their problems. They were an essential part of the game and irreplaceable for most players; yet today, they have disappeared from most games.
Technology and automation make Gamemasters obsolete
The fact that there are hardly any Gamemasters left today has many reasons. The most important reason is the better anti-cheat systems that automatically detect cheaters and bots, making it unnecessary to ban individual players (via keywordsstudios.com).
Gamemasters were unpaid players in many MMORPGs (via gamigo.com) who did it all just for fun. Similar to how mods work on Discord servers today. However, since GMs were not paid, the quality of their work varied greatly, and new Gamemasters often needed training.
The means of interacting with the community have also changed with the rise of Discord and social media. Discord itself still sees gaming as a focus topic (via theverge.com). Developers no longer have to hope that their players look at the forum to receive their feedback. Every change is now quickly commented on and immediately categorized by content creators.
Events that used to be led by Gamemasters now usually take place as programmed quests or are simply announced via Discord or the game’s website.
In general, it can be said that the role of the Gamemaster has simply become increasingly irrelevant for developers, and they have been replaced by a variety of tools. The remaining Gamemasters today can mainly be found in older MMORPGs. New titles usually do not have these roles at all.
Personally, my dream of becoming a Gamemaster never came true. But I admit, since then I have also had several other career aspirations that came as quickly as they went. In my first MMORPG Metin2, I was really bad: Metin2 was my first MMORPG, and I was really terrible at it
