I was 12 when I first joined BYOND. For as long as I have been on BYOND, people hop into games and the first thing they ask for is GM. I have long wondered why they ask this. At first I didn't know what GM even meant! Turns out GM means "Game Moderator", "Game Master", "Giant Monkey" or something of that sort. The answer is almost always no, so I wondered why these people thought that it'd be worth asking. I guess it works some of the time.

Then I began to host games, and sometimes the people would ask what it took to get GM instead. Here's the evolution of my answers.

1. Why do you think you deserve GM?

Usual Answer: Because I'm responsible and I know the game pretty well.

I once experimented and gave them minor mod powers. Immediately they wore these powers like a badge of pride! Then tried to lord over the other players.

2. When you earn my trust.

Usual response: When is that going to be?

You can immediately see the path this is going. These people who ask are immature, and really cannot be trusted with a position of responsibility.

GM has become a position of authority and rank within games, rather than the "Police Officer" job that it was intended to be. In fact, some people are advertising that their game is better than another game because "They have better Staff" rather than "They have better content!" This is what my post is addressing.

I believe that a total rework of what "GM" actually is is in order. GM is not some position to control the game like a tyrant. It should be an impartial position, it should be, "a job," essentially. Here's the rework to the GM system.

A GM should have 2 saves.

Save 1: The player. If you are playing some Bleach game, this should be your casual player. The one you use to interact with the players. There are no GM verbs on this character whatsoever.

Save 2: This should be your GM save. This has only GM verbs + the verbs to speak to the world.

The point of the 2nd save is to stress the fact that GM should have no effect in the gameplay. GMs should not have "Destroy Enemy" verbs or "Draw Blue Eyes White Dragon Now" verbs. They should only have what is necessary to police the server (As their job description says). If you want verbs used to debug your game, these should be given to testers, and this should be done in a private server so that no you can address these issues immediately.