You aren't the only ones who may show up in Cronus's head-lopping list - I've poked him about the questions too. Don't worry, Cronus hasn't forgotten the questions, and he probably hasn't forgotten who to go after.

Thanks for your patience while I sorted through these. It took me longer than I thought to get through them. Of course some of that had to do with me getting distracted by anything shiny. I'll try to pop back in here a few times if anyone has any follow-up questions.

Please note that this isn't a thread for folks to debate design decisions for the game , please keep those discussions for other threads . If you have a specific issue that you need support's help with, please file a request in game. I'd rather this be more of an informal chat :)

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What does it mean to be a "lead" Game Master, how did you become so and what do you do in quality of the Lead Game Master?
We use the term lead like other companies might use manager. So as the support lead for Spiral Knights, I'm responsible for the support team. I moved to this position when the former SK lead moved into another role within the company. Thalia is our billing lead, and is responsible for billing issues. So if you ever have a billing specific issue, odds are it will be one of us answering you.

Typically you'll find me addressing issues that have been escalated for a second or final opinion, tackling general managerial type activities, helping to facilitate communication between developers and support, looking into policy decisions, handling player's billing related problems, and looking into any concerns a player has about how support has handled an issue. I also work on duty as a GM, so you'll often see me responding to general requests or helping stranded knights.

Who gives you more trouble at work?
Eury...er... no one, they're all fantastic!

What is the most common issue you help knights with?
The most frequent tickets that enter our queue are complaints regarding chat violations or requests with a question about the game itself.

What's your funniest experience with a knight in Spiral Knights?
I had no idea that The Ban Stick (http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Ban_stick) could actually injure players on a charge attack. So while chatting with some folks after I helped them move beyond a stuck gate, I whacked one of them and dropped him to one bar of health. Thankfully the player was understanding especially when other GMs came in to point and laugh.

How many types of armors, weapons and/or accessories do you have access to that normal players do not and are there any you'd like to see be released to the general population? I ask because I remember seeing you and your GM armor was sporting Indigo Dragon Wings, a color that you cannot obtain in the game at this point.
Apart from the known GM items, I can't think of many. Sometimes we use items for testing that players don't yet have access to. We try to avoid wearing items (apart from GM items) that players can't have. We don't want to spoil any surprises! I've never worn indigo dragon wings, and a color like that doesn't exist. I currently have divine wings, but the purple glow ring that GMs get probably made it look like indigo.

How do you view your boss? Does he mistreat, torture, humiliate, banish, utterly destroy, become furiously and hellishly angry, or gives donuts with no frosting to you guys like our boss? What is your opinion on your boss?
Provided you have the appropriate chocolate bribe, she's great to work with.

How do you usually go about answering a problem you cannot solve?
We're all issued magic 8 balls the day we're hired. Actually, we have a GM chat room where we can ask questions if we need a sounding board or we may leave tickets open for another GM to look over. We can also discuss things with a developer if the issue isn't something support can tackle alone.

What would you do should a snipe invasion occur?
Prepare the grill and grab a knife and fork.

Other than OOOs games, what video games do you play?
I lean towards more casual games because I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to gaming. So at the moment I'm playing things like TF2, Tribes Ascend, Minecraft, and Orcs Must Die. But I'm a big fan of franchises like Diablo, Mass Effect, and Final Fantasy.

How did you originally join onto the Three Rings team?
I was hired in 2008 for the support team for another game, Puzzle Pirates (http://www.puzzlepirates.com/), after being horribly addicted to it for a few years.

How do you feel about players confusing you with a developer and asking you development issues?
It's understandable. I also think we GMs could be a little more clear about our actual role. You should be thankful I'm not developing the game, we'd all be riding around on rocket propelled snipes.

Do you drink on the job?
*hic* Only when playing the GM drinking game. *hic*

You've also worked in other OOO games, like Y!PP. Have you noticed any differences in the number or type of support requests in the two games?
Yes. Both still get requests (or in YPP's case, petitions) asking basic game related things. Spiral Knights tends to have more technical issues questions because it demands more from your computer than YPP does. YPP tends to have requests (petitions) that have more to do with the social side of the game. Because YPP has been around longer, it has a rich social puzzle yet is rather gentle on your computer.

There have been a lot of questions about the support and issue tracking process lately- can you describe how the different roles fit together? For example, how does a GM/lead GM/community manager handle reports of issues that affect gameplay? Is there a system that automatically flags old bugs, or is there a benefit to reporting the same issue again?
We have specific shifts set up for GMs to work on bugs and technical issues. This gives them the time to test issues and sift through your bug reports. Similar bug reports are then put together so it's easier to investigate what's causing the problem. Then depending on the nature of the problem, GMs will forward the bug reports, forums posts, suggestions, and testing results to a lead GM or the developers. On duty GMs will also see technical issues come in particularly after a recent release. If there 's something that needs immediate attention, they'll escalate the issue to a lead GM or to a developer. Keep in mind that while all this is going on, the developers are also keeping an eye out for potential problems.

Reporting the same issue more than once is helpful if you're reporting a separate instance of it happening. This way we can look through both logs to see what was happening in both to cause it. Problems aren't always captured in the logs or they may not be obvious. Sending in a report each time the issue happens allows us to have a better chance at identifying it, yet sending 10 reports for the same incident isn't necessary.

Did you pick your own GM name, or did someone pick it for you? If you could have chosen your own name from mythology, what would it be?
I picked it when I started working for Three Rings because it was easy to spell and wasn't taken. Plus I thought the mythology surrounding him would work well for events and other things.

Do you have a favorite piece of music that Henry Mack composed? If so, what?
My favorite is Spiral Knights Main Theme (Disk 2 Track 1). (http://www.amazon.com/Spiral-Knights-Main-Theme/dp/B005J49ZO4) When you listen to the whole thing together, it's fantastic.

What's your favorite Spiral Knights boss? (Can be boss from any mission or clockworks)
The Royal Jelly. I especially love the stages before him where there's just a massive room of wiggling goo. My favorite monster was the giant green jelly that broke into a bunch of mini-green Jellies. He's no longer lurking the Clockworks, but I miss him. Long live the Lime Jelly.

What is your Favorite Weapon in SK?
Ash of Agni. I love setting the aforementioned wiggling goo on fire. I don't personally worry myself about DPS, I just pick weapons I seem to enjoy. For example, I'm too impatient to deal with slower swords, so I tend to lean towards faster ones.

Can you explain the process of banning a player?
Banning a player isn't something we enjoy doing, but can sometimes be necessary. Below is our basic process. Complex cases can take quite a bit of time to investigate and document.

- Investigate the issue and collect evidence including records, server logs, etc.
- Consider how severe the infraction is. Some things will always result in a ban while others may result in a warning or suspension. We use the support history for the player to determine what course of action we'll take.
- Review the support history of the player. Has he or she had other warnings/suspensions on any of his accounts?
- Document everything related to the ban including the information we pulled from the records. This way another GM can review the notes if needed.
- Ban the player using our support tools outside of the game.

Do you guys ever browse the forums for interesting topics then forward them to the Dev Team?
Yes, we do. Discussing important topics that come up on the forums with the developers is part of our regular duties and meetings. This includes suggestions and discussions from our non-English forums. We even pass along fan art for others to enjoy. Keep in mind that developers regularly read the forums, so they're already aware of a lot of what's going on anyway.

Do you hide in bushes and secretly spy on other players?
That's what the snipes are for.

Do you have a non-Game Master account that you play under for fun?
Yes. As surprising as it sounds, it's really boring to play through the game with GM gear that allows you to one-hit enemies. I prefer more of a challenge. Plus I still have plenty of items I'm still working on crafting with my knight. With that being said, GMs will never reveal the name of a knight they might play as. Anyone who claims to be an alt of a GM should be reported for impersonating game staff.

Why is your avatar a yesman, when you are the head GM?
We all answer to someone. Plus, he's lime green. SK needs more limes.

Do you like Pie, or pi?
Pie. Pumpkin or Pecan please.

Where are my surgery drinks?
They took off and eloped with my ability to spell.

@Rangerwill

I'm sorry for the delay. I needed to squeeze this in between my other tasks and unfortunately some of those things needed to take priority. Hopefully it was worth the wait.

Wasn't someone worried that the poor little snipes would burn their tail feathers? Can't have that.

Metaalpha: Awesome thanks for answering some of my questions! Surprised AoA is your Favorite. You bomber?

It depends on my mood, but I probably enjoy playing as a bomber or playing with a friend who is a bomber the most. What can I say, I just like to hear the big booms.

Adoboflavor: What is your favorite SEGA game?

If we don't count the games OOOs has a hand in, I'd go all the way back and pick Virtua Fighter.