GM Tamastara

So, one day I was a GM.

I think I was probably a GM all day. But I didn't realize it until I had finished up my dailies & decided it was time to play some BGs. After several unsuccessful attempts at queuing, I thought perhaps BGs were bugged & wondered if anyone else was having difficulties.

Apparently it was only me.

Immediately I was contacted --- no, not by Blizzard --- by various players asking if I was really a GM. OF COURSE I WAS NOT A GM. For kicks I whispered myself... & a yellow message explaining that a GM wished to speak with me appeared. When I clicked it, a separate dialog box popped up. It was like... like a petition actually getting a response. Completely unfamiliar.


Of course I decided to have a little fun with it. When I say "fun," though, I don't mean tricking people out with t8 or giving myself a panda. If I knew how I would have. At least the panda. I mean, that's what's important. Panda. No. I couldn't do anything even vaguely important. In truth, all I had was this blue thing in front of my name in chat.

If I just never said I word I wasn't even a GM! My GMness existed solely in chat! I was a Chat GM!

A couple of other players contacted me with suggestions regarding various GM-type commands I could try using, but none of these worked. Frankly if I couldn't get myself a panda I wasn't particularly interested in this GM stuff. I was serious about the Tauren dance though. Really. They should get something better. Poor things.

And I still couldn't get into any BGs.

Naturally no one in IHS was on at the time. I called Chad & told him, "Dude. You need to log in now. I'm a fucking GM." Once Chad got in, we staged a GM-player conversation regarding swine flu & Dick In A Box under the tree at Winter Veil. Frankly, in retrospect I could have thought of a lot funnier things to say, but the two of us were just laughing SO HARD on the phone it was tough to even type.

Everywhere I went in Dalaran other players found me & made a dance party around me. I couldn't really do anything since I was so busy typing & laughing at the same time, so they'd always find me no matter where I tried to hide.

In the end logging out & in removed the GM bug from me, although by that time I had to start getting ready for work already. Chad & I had our gag screenshot, & I was just glad that I could queue for BGs again.

I got a 48 hour suspension for this afterward due to some player reporting me for impersonating a GM. When I got the email from Blizzard somehow it wasn't upsetting; it only seemed to validate the experience. One could argue that it was Blizzard's fault for the bug, but frankly I didn't have to drag it on quite as far as I did. Since the WoW player base is predictably teeming with all kinds of repressed nerd rage, I should have known I'd be an easy target for a million other players' random malice.

Still, it was fun. =)