HKO wouldn’t be anywhere without the GMs, the Game Masters. We see them in-game, helping us, answering questions, and just being there in case of trouble. How many times do we see them, with out realizing what little we know of them behind-the-scenes? They are real people, doing real work, somewhere in the world. Meetings, coding and debugging, all the stuff we end up taking for granted. We see them at all hours, at all days. They’re the first ones we blame when something goes wrong. But it seems like we rarely acknowledge them when things are running smooth.

So here is an alphabetical tribute to the GMs I have met, or at least seen, in-game.  If you are a GM and you are not listed here, please do not feel slighted. It just means I did not actually see you in game. I suspect those GMs whom I didn’t see very often (or at all) may have a role in the more out-of-game issues. There are many more GMs than I realized, who may have been online at times when I was not. But a full list can be found on the forums.

Please also beware that this is kind of image-heavy!

According to her forum siggy, Abby’s title is the HKO Community Manager. She appears to be the one who manages the official website, the events and news blogs, doing public relations. She’s also the sweetest person you’ll ever meet, so say nothing bad about her else I shall hunt you down. It is no secret (anymore) that I adore her from afar, and at her command, I would be on a plane to wherever she is, so that I may adore her at her feet. The crime is not in admitting your affections but rather in not trying. One must take a risk, else one has nothing to gain. Better to suffer the slings and arrows being ridiculed, rather than pine away in silence. I hope I do not embarrass her nor cause her grief with this.

I’ve not run into AVA very often. I suspect his hours were of a schedule opposite of mine. As I posted in an earlier blog, he stopped by to visit my farm one day. He made fun of my dead crops.

I did not run into Bacon too often either. I have him added to my buddy list, and while I would see name as being on-line, I did not actually run into him. I wonder where the GMs hide when they’re online? I know they can be inviso. Makes you wonder, the next time you might be just sitting around having a causal chat?

I only saw BogChong once, and that was when he was AFK in London, when I grabbed this screenie. He did broadcast a hello message during the start of Happy Hearts, but he was another elusive GM.

Cal’s schedule appears to have been more compatible with EST timezone, which is my local time. When I logged in, after work, usually around 2pm, he was often sitting around the Harbor, and I think he would logoff around 6pm. I would try to visit him when I could. Cal was the epitome of calm. During the period when we were having server issues, he would not break under stress, always remaining polite and courteous.

I did not run into Dark at all, so I SS’ed this one on the final day. Sorry Dark :(

Headphone was another GM I did not see except during the last day.

Layla dropped by to visit us during ripplecloud’s photoshoot. She looks like Miyaw’s twin! We did not get to chat very long, and she blipped out after a brief period. Oh the busy life of a GM.

Miyaw changed her hat near the last few days, but this is such an adorable outfit, I just had to use the image, even if it is out of date. Isn’t she cute? Every time I see this, I just want to squeeze her and make funny noises. After HKO’s opening to the public, she was often in the Harbor, and a few of us would go and visit with her. She was usually in a monster form, a spider or a ‘dillo. But after a few days, she  stopped spending most of her time there, so I did not see her too much near the end :( She was kind to open her farm for visitors during those last few hours, and I think many players took the opportunity to do just so. She has an artistic eye for decorating her farm. Talking to her, and reading her blog, I get the feeling that she is a ball of pure energy.

I only saw Neverender once in game, and that was in the Harbor after the opening to the public. I wanted to get a SS of him, but every time I walked close to him, he would walk away from me. (sniff), was I having deodorant malfunctions or something?  I have him on my Buddy list as well, and only saw him online briefly, and did not see him at the good-bye party. I wonder if he was the GM that was gleefully hovering his fingers over the “shutdown” button? Since I did not actually get a screenie of him, I shamelessly swiped this image from Ripplecloud, so I hope she does not mind (http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn10/ripplecloud/HKOarchive/the-GMs.jpg)

Another elusive GM. I am sorry T-Rex, that I did not meet you nor chat with you.

Zel is also on my Buddy list, and he was on at hours fairly opposite of mine, so yet another GM with whom I did not interact very much. While most of the other GMs were wearing their “banana outfits”, Zel appears to be rebellious and only wearing his McDonalds helmet. During the final day around the farm manager, he was apparently hanging around in invizo mode, and when he appeared, he was totally invading my personal space. Either that or he was trying to lift my wallet.

I don’t rightly know who Kev is. We’re all familiar with his name, the Kevent, the multiple Kevs that periodically run around. He appears to have an official position within HKO and/or Sanrio (not entirely sure how their corporate structure works), but remains an enigma. He appeared once while a few of the other GMs were hanging around in the Harbor, but he didn’t stay very long.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 6:37 am and is filed under HKO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.