Your Rights, or "GMs Are Here to Serve YOU"

First of all, I will acknowledge that there are some GMs who do not understand your rights as I list them here. These are the GMs who did not pay attention in GM school. Most of them should do their job the right way the first time, but if you get a rare dense one, just explain things to them the way I've explained them to you and cross your fingers.

1) You have the right to play unmolested.

Verbal harassment is prohibited on all servers. RP servers have a special rule about "not harassing the RP players." PVP servers are the only ones that allow physical harassment, as it's considered a facet of PVP, but if someone is killing you over and over or dragging mobs onto you (aka camping and griefing) on a PVE server, your player rights are being violated.

2) You have the right to click on stuff.

I'm not talking about the zerg on the quest giver after a WG. I'm talking about that one guy on the mammoth who stays on the quest giver for ten minutes while taunting you, or who stands on the mailbox or even a street vendor and actively refuses to move in order to hamper your gameplay.

3) You have the right to police your server.

From name violations to behavior issues, you are the police force of your server. GMs take care of several servers at a time and don't know or care what's going on in your immediate vicinity. They only care when you ticket them to enforce your rights as a citizen of Azeroth (and paying customer). (This right does not extend to bossing people around or trying to enforce your rights on your own.)

4) You have the right to play without player-caused lag.

If there's a team of twenty mages spamming their aoe's in a city full of people, and you can only move five millimeters every five seconds, that is a compromise of your rights as a player. This right is to avoid intentional lag caused by other players, not the lag caused by the ordinary crush in cities.

5) You have the right for a fair game.

The guy who gets across Warsong Gulch in two seconds due to a map bug? Yeah, he's cheating. GMs take cheating more seriously than anything else, though the correct term is "exploiting."

6) You have the right to avoid advertising and scams.

Those "Buy Gold" people in the cities named Xfrwtyfasfg? They're not supposed to be there. Nor are the people whispering you with misspelled offers of a spectral tiger raffle. Blizz does what it can about these people, but they keep finding work-arounds to get back in.

7) You have the right not to be offended.

If someone has a name, guild name, pet name, or comment that is racist, sexist, hate, or otherwise super-offensive, you have the right to report it. Mania had a great idea I wish I'd thought of in my last reporting post: if you're reporting a name, put the person on your friends list and make sure it changes to something non-offensive. (GMs do not check back to make sure the new name is good, though some will rename a player themselves.) This way, you can keep reporting them if they keep picking bad names.

8) You have the right to report infractions of your rights.

To start a ticket with a GM, click the red question mark at the bottom of your screen and click the appropriate section. In the given field, you should put a succinct description of the infraction and guilty party.

Try to include all of the following in your ticket:

1. Offender: Name, Race, Class, Level. If there are any "special" letters, point those out specifically.
2. Time: The exact time the infraction took place.
3. Location: Where did the infraction take place?
4. Channel: Which chat channel did the infraction take place in, if at all? (Whispers, say, yell, general, trade, etc?)
5. Infraction: What exactly did they do wrong? Give exact words, spells cast, or mount as it affected the situation.
   

If you have to log off before a GM can respond to you, they will still look into your ticket, so you want it to be as thorough as possible.

For long-term situations, try to be as exact as you can for each incident -- the farther back GMs have to wade, the harder it will be for them to find the incidents you mention, and they have other tickets besides yours to take care of.

Screenshots (PrintScrn) don't hurt, either.

9) You have the right to privacy.

This means that if you have a ticket opened against you for something you did, the GM won't air your dirty laundry to the people who reported you. The reporter does not get to find out what happened as a result of his or her ticket.