8th October 2004 - NC Interactive's GMSylvia

It's been a few weeks now since I got to speak to Kyzah back at NC
Austin... I thought it was about time I went and bothered someone
else.



Anyone who knows me from the game, or from my blog, knows that one of my favourite things about Lineage is the people in the game itself... both players and staff. Ahhh... you say... that's right... I'm talking about our in-game monitors. I have always felt a lot of sympathy for the NC crew working inside the game - from where I stand it seems like a very demanding role - and that's just from watching the "Monitor wis me now!!!!" lines on global chat! You can imagine my delight when Kyzah mentioned that GMSylvia wanted to speak with me... Well okay...I had NO idea who this GMSylvia person was, and embarrasingly had to ask Kyzah!!

Rooella	Hi there GMSylvia! How are you? Hmmm... Do I call you Sylvia or GMSylvia?
GMSylvia	Sylvia is fine unless you want to get formal then it's GMSylvia. :)
Rooella	Hmm... well Roo is kinda scared of you... so we'll stick to GMSylvia :D So... for our readers who i'm pretty sure, just like me, have no idea who you are... can you tell us abit about yourself and what you do?
GMSylvia	I am a Lead GM with NCsoft Customer Support. I am in charge of all Lineage I GMs and Monitors on the North American servers. I work with the whole of the Lineage I Support Team, including our Technical Support Team and our Billing Team to get resolutions to different support issues. I am also liaison to our Customer Service Manger GMRock as well as the Lineage I OCR Team, Quality Assurance Team and local Development Team. It is rare you will see me in game however I am there!
Rooella	Ooooh... How does this differ from GMRock's role?
GMSylvia	GMRock oversees our entire customer support operation in North America and has a role in all North American NCsoft titles. I focus all my time and attention on Lineage!
Rooella	Everyone knows that Roo likes to talk with the Monitoring team... can you tell us all more about them? It seems like we get a new one everyday... Where do they come from... and more importantly where do they go??
GMSylvia	We've had a few people change positions in a very short time. This is because they've gone to different positions within the company. NCsoft has been growing at a great pace and this has given its employees a lot of opportunities to grow within the company and get experience on other teams. When this happens we find candidates with strong customer service skills (and good personalities!) that are really enthusiastic about the game. They then go through a very long and involved training process in which they are tested and critiqued on all points of customer service as well as Lineage game knowledge.
Rooella	I'm always careful not to bug them... they always seem so busy and hassled. Why are they all so umm.. generic and robot like? I've always been given the impression that NC Interactive likes to be *very* careful when having real-time conversations with its customers....
GMSylvia	I think the key word here is "professional" more than "careful". At NCsoft, professionalism is very important because we are aware that our customers are paying for a service and therefore deserve professional interactions with our staff. We strive for professional interaction with players without seeming cold. Chat and email are great, but in using them you don't hear the tone of voice or don't get the full context, which makes it very easy to be misunderstood. We go out of our way to make sure that the intent of our communication is clear, to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.
Rooella	Okay.... I'm drifting a little from the point here :) For the kids at home... What is a Monitor & what do they do?
GMSylvia	A Monitor's main function is to actually monitor the in-game environment and to monitor the server processes for proper functioning as opposed to just answering whispers from players. The most efficient way to report any issue as always is to contact customer support via email or the website.
Rooella	Some people feel that more in-game involvement from NC staff might be a good thing. What are your views on this? It must be very hard to maintain professionalism sometimes.
GMSylvia	We feel that the in-game environment should be primarily driven by the players with as little interference from our staff as possible while still allowing for contact with our Monitoring Team as needed as well as occasional GM appearances.
Rooella	What happens when a member of the Monitoring team discovers a problem with one of the servers or processes? Presumably there are some strict protocols on reporting these issues to the players inside the game?
GMSylvia	Any potential service issues noticed by our Monitoring Team are immediately reported to the Support and Network Teams for further investigation and resolution; our Community Team is also made aware of these issues so that they can share the necessary information with our customers through the website and/or forums. In-game announcements are not generally made unless the issue demands a server reset or server downtime.
Rooella	How do game monitors assist the support team in cases such as catching 3rd-party program users - such as bots etc?
GMSylvia	So as not to endanger our efforts to remove these cheaters from our service by making them aware of our processes, we cannot share specific information on how this is accomplished.
Rooella	Booo! hehe I do understand tho... No-body likes a cheater :) What is the best way for us to assist them with this task?
GMSylvia	The best way to assist us in this is to follow the reporting method outlined in the official forums with Kyzah's "Who Should I Contact?" thread; contact Support through e-mail or the website and be sure to include server, character name(s) involved, approximate time/date of the incident, in-game Monitor(s) contacted (if applicable) and time/date of contact, and a description of the incident/behavior you feel to be in violation of our rules. We also appreciate your patience during our investigation after receiving your reports; we often need to "build a case" in situations such as these and it typically takes time for us to do so.
Rooella	That's great... for the kids at home, we've put a copy of Kyzah's guidelines for speaking to the right person here... aren't we nice? Of course you can view NC's one here too! Thank you very much for agreeing to talk with us today! I look forward to finding you one day somewhere in Aden :) I do have one more question for you tho... Who would you put your money on in a fight? Valakas or Antharas?
GMSylvia	CaptSturm!! :)
Rooella	Hmm... Did you even hear the question? o.o Hello? Oh dear... it seems I've scared her away! Thanks again Sylvia.... errr I mean GMSylvia... It's been a pleasure talking with you!
GMSylvia	*door closing in the distance*