Game Masters

What is a GM? 
They are employees of Sony Online Entertainment that are responsible for helping players with their in-game issues. The GM staff is in office 24/7 and is always available to help someone with an issue. 

What can a GM do? 
GMs are capable of handling the Following:

• Answer basic in-game questions, not including spoiler information.
• Summon corpses out of geometry if they are stuck.
• Resurrect you if you have died due to a verified bug.
• Document anomalies in the game for the SOE Testing Department.
• Assistance in providing feedback for new game functions or modifications to existing function.
• Create Guilds online, as long as they have been approved. 
• Assistance in corpse recovery when a player cannot see their corpse.
• Creating and running dynamic quests in the game.
• Can kick players that are having connection issues, error 1018.
• Investigate abuse or harassment of players.
• Investigate bugs and exploitation issues. 

What can I do if a GM is not willing to help me? 
You can email eqcs@soe.sony.com to make a formal complaint. Please make sure to have proof of your claim, such as logs or a date that you have done a /report. We take these seriously and will follow up on each claim. 

What is an exploit? 
Exploitation is defined as abusing a weakness or anomaly in the game system. An exploit provides advantage for one or more players with the intention of profiting from them in some manner.

Examples of Exploitation:

• Duping - creation of money or items from nothing, or anomalies within the game, or possession of such money or items.
• Farming - using broken spells or specific spell effects to kill, drag, or lure monsters, thus gaining experience/loot from them.
• Safe Zones - using areas of bad data in the game that have monsters behaving erratically (such as running in place, running around, standing still, or any other behavior that has the monster not defending itself) to kill said monsters with minimal or no danger to the attacker.
• Price Gouging - finding items that have anomalous pricing and abusing them, such as items that sell for more than they cost to buy.
• PvP Switch Avoidance - using in-game methods to work around the PvP switch and allowing non-PvP players to kill other players, such as hall blocking, dumping of monsters, or spell effects that cross that boundary due to a bug.

What is considered abuse? 
Abuse is defined as any activity that is exercised with the intent of disrupting the over all play environment of one or more players.

Examples of Abuse:

• Hate Mongering - participation in or propagation of Hate literature, behavior, or propaganda related to real-world characteristics.
• Sexual Harassment - untoward and unwelcome advances of a graphic and sexual nature.
• Attempting to Defraud a Customer Service Representative - Petitioning with false information with the intention of receiving benefits as a result. This includes reporting bug deaths, experience or item loss, or accusing other players of wrongdoing without basis for it.
• Using Threats of Retribution by GM Friends - attempting to convince another player that they have no recourse in a disagreement because favoritism is shown to one of the parties by the Sony Online or GM staff.

What is considered Disruption? 
Disruption is defined as any activity that is disruptive to the game play of others, though not necessarily with the intent to do so. Disruption has been sub-categorized into major and minor types.

Examples of Minor Disruption:

• Non-Fantasy/Offensive Names - Names that are not appropriate for the fantasy genre of EverQuest (See Naming Policy).
• Excessive Spam - Continued overuse of /ooc, /shout, or /auction over time such that many players complain.

Examples of Major Disruption:

• Foul Language - excessive use of foul language in an inappropriate context, including swear words, real-world racial slurs, and other language that is not consistent with the fantasy environment and designed to hurt.
• Stalking/Harassment - following a player around after that player has asked to be left alone, continually bothering and kill stealing from the same person, and in general focusing unwelcome attention upon another player over time.

Sony Online Entertainment reviews records of these incidents on a daily basis. Sony GM's will then take disciplinary action based on the severity and nature of the offense, and/or the number of warnings, subject to their discretion. This may include but is not limited to, temporary suspension or permanent banning from the game. Disciplinary action may also include editing of the character statistics, item inventory, or experience. Sony Online Entertainment may take other forms of disciplinary action at their discretion. Be advised you may not receive any warnings prior to disciplinary action being taken. Players who repeatedly exploit anomalies in the game or disrupt the gameplay of others will not be tolerated in EverQuest.

How can I handle verbal harassment by another player? 
The best course of action is to immediately use the /report "playername" command. It is a player's most powerful tool in these instances. If the harassment continues in another form, (the person follows you throughout the game attempting to injure or annoy you), /petition your incident immediately. 

What is considered a verified bug death? 
A GM's has several tools at their disposal to verify bug deaths, researching each incident on a case-by-case basis.

Some examples of causes of death that are considered verifiable bug deaths:

• Falling through the world for massive damage (corpse is found 10,000 feet below the world).
• Becoming trapped in a bugged patch of water, such that the character is unable to leave and drowns.
• Being crushed by a ship. 
• Falling off a boat while zoning, drowning, and leaving a corpse is at the bottom of the sea.

In each of these cases, a GM is able to determine if the death is legitimate through use of their tools and the data collected.

This is a courtesy service provided by the GM's in an attempt to compensate for the loss of experience and inconvenience caused by the character dying to an anomaly in the game. Attempting to defraud a GM by filing false claims will be handled as a case of abuse, and reported as such.

"Linkdeath" is caused by client or network issues that will exist well after release and can not be compensated for by programming. "Linkdeath" can never be proven and can actually be used by players to purposely avoid dire consequences of their actions in the game. Consequently, dying while "linkdead" is not considered to be death by a bug, with the one current exception of players going .linkdead. On boats and drowning in the ocean.

Common Gameplay Questions

What is the proper use of the /ooc, /auction, and /shout channels? 
These channels are provided as a courtesy for players to communicate with one another in specific methods. The /shout command is for players to use in-game character speech. This is used for role-playing, asking for help or directions etc. The /ooc channel is specifically for Out-Of-Character speech only. Tech questions, game issues, and other such non-role-playing questions are commonly used in this channel. The /auction channel is for the buying and selling of goods and services, and can be in character or not. It is important to remember that these channels are a courtesy for players, extended conversation need to go into /tell. Players who continue conversations far and beyond this, are considered to be "spamming, or flooding" these channels and are reminded they are under the same rules and regulations in game as they are when in EverQuest's chat rooms. Players should not have to turn off their /ooc, /shout, or /auction channels because some players cannot follow or respect policy and other players.

What is "linkdeath" and what happens when a player goes "linkdead"? 
"Linkdeath" is defined as a player who loses their connection to EverQuest, usually from their ISP going down, or Internet congestion has caused that player to "lag out".

When a player goes "linkdead", he or she in essence basically becomes an NPC for all intents and purposes, this gives control over to the server, and the Mac will attempt to defend itself like an NPC should a monster attack it or choose to harm it. The "linkdead" character remains in game approximately 30 seconds to a minute and then is logged off automatically by the server or given over to the player should they log before then.

If you are still having problems after visiting this support section, you can contact our Technical Support Department Monday through Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm PST. Call us at (858) 537-0898 or 858-537-0898. Alternatively, you can send us an email (EQMac@soe.sony.com).