Ask a CM Thread

Q u o t e:
As CM's you all maintain your own characters in game that you have played as fairly as everyone else. What has been your most humorous situation to happen in game? In regards to the fact that people may be rude to you and be completely oblivious that you are in fact the CM's on the forums?.

There was a guy in my first guild who hated eyonix with such great and terrible passion, but at the same time, genuinely liked me. He'd rant to me, some of my most awful things I'd ever heard, about some devil named eyonix.

Q u o t e:


I thought the others choose their avatar for them?

That might have been a rumor.

Naw, we choose our own avatars.

Q u o t e:
1. To many of us its known that Bornakk and Zarhym are actually close friends *and that they work right next to each other*. So to continue on that, when did you both first meet, and what were your first impressions that caused you to become such good friends?

We first met each other when I joined the community team. We didn't know one another very well until we had to work together more often. Our friendship mostly stems from sharing similar job responsibilities, hanging out while working at various gaming conventions, our close proximity as far as seating in the office goes, and guild raids.

It's one of those cases where two very different people end up getting along quite well. If you saw the picture Bashiok posted of the community team, we're a fairly diverse group of people. We have vastly different personalities, points of view and interests, though sharing similar career responsibilities brings us all pretty close together. It's part of our job to keep the community engaged, so we're pretty good at working through our differences internally and maintaining a tight-knit support structure. ;)

...except for Eyonix. Dude's totally weird. :p

Q u o t e:


Shhh! He's in here <_<

No, it's true -- I'm broken.

2. I've been very very busy working behind the scenes a bit. ;) Don't worry, it's all good.

3. I had no idea, but I had 11 years of thinking, "that would be the best place to work ever" before I actually did. I can attest that it is indeed the best place to work ever. As a child, I had wanted to be a Veterinarian, Pediatrician, or get into genetics and even was certified as a lab assistant at the age of 16 before changing course.

4. I had a similar experience as Eyonix. They didn't like me (Neth) at all and were sure I couldn't PvP out of a wet paper bag, but would pvp with me (my character) on a regular basis in game. ;) It didn't bother me and if anything just gave me a laugh.

Q u o t e:
I have a question: If you could go on vacation for a week anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Personally I've always wanted to visit Mykonos Greece ( probably spelled that wrong ). i hear it's beautiful.

*spins globe*

All the way around here... Fiji. You can't get any further away before you start coming back.

Q u o t e:
Have you ever, as a CM, gone to the development team and been like "Hey, so I have this idea for a dungeon/quest/whatever, yada yada yada. What do ya think?" And then have them say, "Oh yeah...it's good. <stick under a pile of papers>"

Not quite, though we have shared general ideas. They give it to us straight if the idea isn't good: "this is why this wouldn't work," or "this is why we wouldn't want to do something like that," or "that'd be cool, but it'd be low priority given the resources we have dedicated to X feature."

Q u o t e:
4. As CM's you all maintain your own characters in game that you have played as fairly as everyone else. What has been your most humorous situation to happen in game? In regards to the fact that people may be rude to you and be completely oblivious that you are in fact the CM's on the forums?

The realm I'm on right now has a lot of people with very... colorful... personalities. I joined a 25-player pick-up group last week to kill Razorscale for the weekly quest. There was a guy in the raid with a ridiculous name and I made a joke about it before the raid began 'cause someone asked him if he was there. He and a few other people spent a good five minutes tearing me apart with as many insults and profanities as they had the patience to type correctly -- well, mostly type correctly. I laughed it off, and told him to relax and that I was kidding. I spent a good portion at the beginning of the raid politely mocking him, especially when he reset Flame Leviathan by accident by kiting him past the back barrier (who does that?). By the end of the raid we were the best of friends.

Between pick-up raids, the Dungeon Finder and Battlegrounds, I've had my fair share of interesting interactions with people in the game. I always give people the benefit of the doubt and respect them from the start, but for some of the more abrasive people, I'm not quite so restrained as I am on the forums. ;)

Q u o t e:
I think it was Zarhym saying his favorite class was a Warlock.

Any CMs admit to their favorite class being a Death Knight? I've always enjoyed the concept of a necromancer class, and the DK is the closest thing to it.

My warlock was my first character ever. It holds a special place in my heart. Based on my current gameplay focus though, I'd have to say my favorite class right now is the death knight. I wasn't very familiar with endgame melee gameplay before getting my death knight to 80, so it took a bit of adjusting, but I love the class style. It's a remarkable melee complement for those who like playing warlocks.

Q u o t e:


Have any of you guys had one of those moments where you just lose it? When you wipe for the 5th time after the healer steps on the blight bomb, or work stress gets to you, and you just completely go on nerdrage for a few seconds while throwing things, spasming, shoving small children, etc?

Not possible! I'm so calm it's inhuman. :p

Q u o t e:
I HAVE A QUESTION I HAVE A QUESTION!!!

What, exactly, is the role of a CM?

We do a lot of behind the scenes community work, planning contests, coordinating with all departments at Blizzard to make sure we have the right messaging to provide players when applicable, work closely with all of our developers to work up previews of upcoming content for all of our franchises, edit and compile the patch notes, coordinate web and forum messaging with our counterparts in all other regions, interact with fans at gaming and trade conventions, etc. We're sort of a jack-of-all-trades department within public relations.

Q u o t e:
do you have much authority in blizz hq? or do you just chill in front of a keyboard?

Authority? Our department manager definitely has the ability to pass direct feedback or proposals to our executive managers. We have a direct line of communication with the developers.

I played Guitar Hero with Mike Morhaime a few weeks ago at a fellow employee's birthday party. Does that count?

Q u o t e:
also i would like to hear you say this...
Is GM island real? And if so what the heck was the point of making it?

Yes. The game masters who respond to you in the game are doing so through a separate chat/support tool. They're not actually using the game client to whisper you, however, logging into the chat client means the character they use to contact players with is logged into all of the realms they need to. While GM invisibility exists, it makes it safer and easier to have a simple storage/port point to keep all of these characters out of the normal game world.

Q u o t e:
Well, i've never had a blue answer me before, but I might as well try.

Question: Come Cataclysm, will you be rolling a Worgen or a Goblin first?

That's a tough one. My Horde guild is currently much more active, but I really want a worgen druid. ;)

New Zealand - I always thought it seemed like a beautiful place to visit.

I'll create a goblin and worgen both to see the starting areas, but plan to play the goblin.

I talk to everyone not just the "cool" kids. :)

Q u o t e:
Am I cool Neth?

As cool as you want to be.

Q u o t e:


So you are saying I'm not cool???

As we all know, 'cool' is in the eye of the beholder

Therefore, you are saying you speak to some who aren't cool

Because of this, one may derive that you are stating that someone in this thread does not fall into the 'cool' classification

Clearly you are a judgmental person

Like all my posts, it makes perfect sense if you DON'T think about it.

Circular logic ftw ....this comment makes almost no sense at all

I don't like labels. If you rip them off really quick like a bandage, it doesn't hurt as much.

Q u o t e:
FOOLISHNESS!!!

All of these questions are meaningless drivel! They let us know nothing but pointless personal information!!!

That being said, what is your blood type neth?

Cold. It's so very cold.

Q u o t e:


<3 Zarhym. You guys ever gonna hop on the current ptr btw?

We might very well be there tomorrow: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23425633874&sid=1

BTW, in case you missed this, I thought I'd share it here:

From the Blizzard Community Team - http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt243/bashiok/CMTeam.jpg

We also have a few more fun pictures on our Warcraft Facebook page.

Q u o t e:
Dig the red frames, Neth (if that's you!).There's also another demographic that is sadly a little absent. =[

Yep, that's me with the red frames.

Yes, I've role-played before for many years. I haven't had as much occasion as of late (been busy), but have spent much time in the past writing stories and progressive stories with other people.

Q u o t e:
How many of you play female blood elves?

I have a couple of alts.

Q u o t e:
If you could be any superhero or villian, who would it be?

Tough one. When I was a kid Wonder Woman (hey Linda Carter portrayed her on the show!) Later? Maybe the White Queen from the Hellfire Club.

Q u o t e:
Favorite non-combat pet and why?

Currently, the corehound pup. C'mon... it's cute!

Q u o t e:
Best experience with other players?

Hrm.. tough one since there are a lot to choose from, but from a PUG viewpoint, it would be running a PUG through Halls of Lightning with people who were still trying to get geared up a bit. I had to work at it to try and keep everyone alive and everyone (despite not knowing each other) was really patient with each other and kept a great sense of humor even when it involved wipes to things due to mistakes etc. I don't think we managed to finish it.

Q u o t e:
I'm getting all excited for the next expansion now that we know what happens with Arthas, so I want to know, what are you CMs most looking forward to in cataclysm?

I swear this isn't a copout when I say, everything. I love where the story is going. I love the changes we have planned for zones. I love the inclusion of goblins and worgen. I think it's going to be exciting all the way around.

Q u o t e:
Are you guys completionist in game? We all know there is a lot of different style of people playing WoW. Any of you strive to get most achievements possible, collect mounts, titles? Any of you participate in high-end raiding or PvP? What kind of players are you?

I'm not a completionist at all, but the Achievement System has made it easier for me to track all the cool things I want to do so I hop from one to another until it's done now. I'm raiding in Icecrown in regular 25s for now. I haven't done as much PvP as of late as I'd like, but plan to get back into it soon. I'm the player that's all over the place. I'll do dailies one day, forget about them the next and jump in battlegrounds, hop into the raid another night, then remember that I should probably use my profession a bit and make people things to be helpful, and then another time, hop on an alt to level it a bit more. I try to keep myself doing a variety of things and get bored otherwise.

Q u o t e:
Are you a roller coaster fan or do you prefer the rides that spin you around really fast so you get stuck up against the wall?

Rollercoaster. I like the first seat. I don't like big first drops, but love the speed.

Q u o t e:
1. What is your favorite raid instance and dungeon instance to date? What factors about these choices make you choose them over others?

Shadowfang Keep and Karazhan. I just love the encounters and the atmosphere.

I know someone asked why a candle, and I've actually answered this one before. It's a symbol of many things both light and dark. It gives light and casts shadows at the same time. It is often a symbol of knowledge and a symbol of secrecy both. It means many things to many people and is used in celebration and in mourning. So I guess I should ask you, why not a candle?

Getting into Blizzard: It's highly competitive, and yet, if you look at our job listing, we really need talented people that fit in with who we are as a company. We genuinely like each other, we make each other laugh, we work hard, and we play hard. We trust each other, rely on each other, and need to have personalities that fit. As Zarhym said, we have our differences, but we also all have our commonalities that make our team (in particular) a great one. We make each other laugh every day.

Q u o t e:
Hi Neth! Do you know if Zarhym works today? :D

Of course I know.

Q u o t e:
1) Can I get a hug?

Sure. I've given real ones at BlizzCon before. /hug

Q u o t e:
As i'm sure you've thought many times in your very meaningfull lives, how much cooler _______ would be if it had a score!

You mean the music in my head isn't real?

Q u o t e:
Do you guys ever find yourselves reading threads and really, REALLY wanting to say something, but being unable to ?

Sure. We are human after all. Sometimes I'll even type something up and then delete it. It's knowing when less is more, or in poker terms, knowing when to hold 'em or fold 'em.

Yes, I'm the one with the red glasses in the front. Yes, I need to hit the gym again more for health than anything. My time is limited, but I'll find some to slip in somewhere.