A few days ago, CipSoft announced their new plans for the Gamemaster, Tutor and rule enforcement system, and one of the most controversial points they brought up was the dissolvement of the gamemaster position. This has many Tibians up in shock, whether they support or are against this change, and we thought we'd get out into the streets to get a few Tibian opinions for our Tibian Opinion! [har har... get it?!]

Alright, alright, let's get to it. This week we asked players: What do you think about CipSoft's plans for the gamemaster system? Here are the responses!

Sun Bear: I believe the way that Cipsoft is heading with the Customer Support service is very refreshing as Tibia has been progressing so has the People within it. It is time to take off the burden of regular Joe's as Gamemasters to deal with everyday life in Tibia. This course of action drastically seem's like a good step into further developing a very nice and suitable place that Tibia could be. It seem's like this will take out alot of 'corruption' and alot of unjustified killing that has occured over conspiracies of Gamemasters and Senior Tutors. What we were experiencing before was people were taking matters into there own hands when thier voice was not heard. It will be nice to know that when you feel disturbed of what someone is doing by breaking the rules your voice will actually be hurd. It benefits Tibia, and it also benefits the community It's a Win, Win Situation in my book. That way Gamemasters, Senior Tutors, and Tutors, can focus more on helping new and coming people who travel to this beautiful World Of Tibia.

Phoenix John: Removing gamemaster from the game is totally insane, CipSoft have no time for practically nothing. Think: CipSoft headquarters work only 10 hours per day, you are fucked for 14 hours. It's crazy.

Etien: Ha! That's a good question... I like the idea, I had proposed something like in the past, and I am sure that I was not alone on this. I wanted a centralised system, which experienced players (aka tutor) were able to forward selected reports from the public channels to a big number of volunteer Gamemasters through an especial interface. Basically the GMs could be able to attend and process at the same time, just like a customer support... I am sure that active GMs would like this... But that I dislike, it's that feature article, which in few words picture all the volunteer team as corrupted people. I know very old tutors and very old GMs. Eg. Lady Rebel, which have been working as GM for years! and in my opinion, they deserve some of respect and honour. Now, I am curious how Cipsoft will manage all the reports. I am not talking about a certain number of report. I am talking about the kind of report. Eg. offensive statement in foreign languages. It's not a secret that too much tibians does not speak English. So, a regular player would to use the report tool in non-English... I am a helper, I will keep helping the community like always. I hope this new Cipsoft's vision works... and the price of Premium Times and Extra Services don't increase for they recruiting a certain numbers of customer supports. Only the time will tell the results, who knows?

Sahilian: GMs are part of Tibia's legacy, its story. Voluntary GMs are something unique, I personally have never seen another game with the same system. Those who truly want to help become a tutor and work to the top, and a special few (although not nearly enough, if you ask me) are chosen to become the rule enforcers in our community. It's not perfect, there are always a few bad apples and like us, GMs are normal players prone to mistakes and what-not; but it's still a great system. In fact, CipSoft's plan to make them the only ones dealing with rule enforcement doesn't really change much in my opinion... Members of CipSoft will still have slightly different opinions, even if they're all reading from the same rulebook, just like GMs. Members of CipSoft still play Tibia, and are prone to corruption - maybe not as much, since it's their job and they have something substantial to lose, but it's not impossible. If you ask me, the only advantages of CipSoft being the only GMs is the security of the GM accounts - but if CipSoft members log onto GM accounts at home, which I know that they can do at the moment, it doesn't make any difference at all. To put it simply, I'd rather go with a MUCH larger team than a bunch of false/little pro's.

Himura Kyos: Hmm, I think its a improvement as far as being able to process RV reports, its a big step in my opinion, but I also believe that gamemasters should still exist, gamemasters still play a big role in the game play, and maybe the new plans may not respond as quickly as gamemasters can as far as in-game details, such as dealing with players abusing bugs, investigating destructive behavior, etc. I guess GM's and tutors/ST will be all in 1 group, giving players the abilities to report just anyone for anything.. maybe giving them a bit too much power. Probably cant even say anything without offending someone...what they need to do is hire actual GM's to do what voluntary GM's do, only setting like 5 GM's per gameworld.

Sal Aby: Well, I think it is a good idea, because last system wasn't so cool (waiting for GM on some worlds takes days.) Those guys (GMs) were players also and that was unjustice. If this new team will do good work it would be nice idea of CIPsoft; but from the other side if they dont and there will be no gamasters any more.. then it would sucks twice more than it does now. xD

Tarlo Darkhalf: They have been removed for a long time already, taking away their most powerful ability, to ban botters. The new system, the way I understand it, will connect the players directly to the CMs which will hopefully be a faster, more efficient way to solve problems. No more need to go to the gm forum, or pray your report will be answered. Just the other day I reported a guy on gm forum and in game that was in thais dp spamming a hack link to sell tibia gold; a gm came.... 4 hours too late. It's hard to understand EXACTLY how they plan on working it, but i'm interested to see how it works and I do think it is definately another step forward.

Ellotris Guardian: We actually know almost nothing about CipSoft's future plans concerning GM system, so it's difficult to state any opinion so far. We just know that they plan to give rule enforcement power to the employees of CipSoft exclusively. People started to complain that it will be a downfall of Tibia, worst idea etc. but we in fact have no idea how it will work, so let's just wait till the changes are implemented or at least till we get some more information about it. We should keep in mind that GMs won't be removed any soon, Spring patch deals only with giving name reporting power to all players.

Molltar: I think its a lovely idea, but i wouldnt be surprised if they trashd it after a couple of days.. I mean, how often does someone in rook say "Reported", The cipsoft support people are gonna be flooded with nooby ban requests and spam.

It looks like everyone has a different opinion on the subject, although many players have similar opinions. It is important to remember that different players have witnessed different amounts of GM activity, depending on the world they play on. For example, one player who plays a world (ie Secura or Amera) where voluntary GMs are much more prominent may see voluntary GMs as a big part of Tibian-life, while another player who plays a world (ie Vinera or Iridia) where voluntary GMs are very rarely seen may think that if they could survive without voluntary GMs 'til that point, they can survive without voluntary GMs once they're gone. One thing's for certain, if voluntary GMs are completely removed from the game, it will be very interesting to see what happens next!

Tibian players also seem to differ on their opinions when it comes to giving run-of-your-mill players to report many more things. While some think that this will give ordinary players too much power, others think this will allow for much fairer gameplay. Whether giving everyone a larger chance to be part of the rule enforcement is a good or bad thing, is yet to be seen.

Remember to tell us what you think in the comments below.