In a blog post, Fractured Online is looking for voluntary moderators and “Game Masters”. Players are expected to take on the role. There, they plan and organize events for the players, but they will not be paid for it anymore.
What exactly are the developers looking for? Fractured Online is an open-world MMORPG set to be released in 2022. In a blog post, the operators now announce that moderators and “Game Masters” are being sought for the game.
Players are intended for the role of moderator and “Game Master” who will then act as a link between the community and the staff. They are not permanent employees and must adhere to the rules just like other players.
This is essentially a kind of “intermediary” role. Players should intervene in disputes or conflicts. As “Game Masters”, they also have limited rights such as muting or banning other players.
Fractured Online explicitly seeks voluntary, unpaid personnel to take on the mentioned positions. For them, this is meant to be a stepping stone into the gaming industry. This is unusual because traditional “Game Masters” usually received payment for the work performed.
Have Game Masters been paid before? Here it is worth taking a look at former Blizzard “Game Master” Marcus Winterscheid. In an interview with MeinMMO, he spoke about the positives of working as a “Game Master” and reported on mostly open-ended contracts.
Furthermore, he told us that the “Game Master” is designed as a permanent employee. This is not the case with Fractured Online.
Anyone who wants to read the full interview with Marcus Winterscheid can find it here: WoW Interview: How to Become a Game Master at Blizzard
The “bridge between the community and staff”
What is the workload for players? The responsibilities of a moderator and “Game Master” include, among other things:
- Planning and organizing events for the players.
- Answering questions about the game and technical issues.
- Mediation between different parties in case of disputes and harassment.
- Passing player feedback to the community managers
- Reporting bugs and exploits
These positions are thus the first point of contact for support inquiries within the forums. There is plenty of room for significant workload, although it is not a full-time position.
The page does not disclose how much time exactly needs to be spent on work. It states in the description of the “ideal moderator and Game Master” that they spend “a good part of their time” helping their community.
How does the blog post describe the work? In the blog post from Fractured Online, the emphasis is on the voluntary nature of the work. It additionally highlights that moderators and “Game Masters” are regular players.
The blog post further states that moderators and “Game Masters” are bound by the terms of use and are liable for the time they are not active for Gamigo. It gives the impression that Gamigo consciously draws a dividing line between actual employees and the moderators as well as “Game Masters”.
We asked publisher Gamigo for a statement on the matter. As of now, a response is still pending and will be added to the article as soon as it is available.
Working in the gaming industry would surely be a dream for many players. Voluntary moderation is also not a concept that is entirely new. Many multiplayer games have similar roles.
For example, FFXIV has a mentoring system, where these players have a purely advisory function. They cannot ban anyone or send feedback directly to community managers.
Would you work unpaid to get into the gaming industry?
