GM Island

Skyscraper-tuskfyre — GM Island's picture on the Blizzard Europe Career Opportunities page.

GM Island was a mysterious place designed to serve as a hangout for Blizzard's Game Masters. It was located to the far northwest of Kalimdor—beyond Teldrassil— and it was surrounded by unmapped space between itself and the main continent, making it completely impossible—contrary to popular belief—to reach without exploiting.

Although there are many rumors and exaggerations about GM Island, it was simply a place for the game masters to login, logout, and then be able to teleport to some standard areas. GMs do not discuss the area.

The island was very small, with a mansion (using the model of Stormwind City's Command Center) surrounded by a unique wall and a graveyard.

Associated lore[]

Strangely, Blizzard does mention GM Island in some lore. In their recruitment section, on their official European website, the company explains how players from every race (Horde and Alliance alike) do their best to make sure any technical problems in Azeroth are resolved. The gnome "Ari" and the troll "Tuskfyre" are two of these inhabitants of GM Island.^[1] These characters are nowhere to be found elsewhere in-game, however.

Short story[]

The tall troll stifled a yawn as he stretched his long limbs. He was overlooking the bay from atop a small hill close to the wharf. The first rays of the sun were tentatively breaking the cover of darkness and it promised to be another fine day. He scanned the horizon, looking for the first signs of the ritual that took place daily at the same time. And sure enough, far in the distance, he saw the first dots materializing and slowly growing larger as they moved ever closer to shore. "Hmm, so the ferryman will be in time again, will he?" Ari asked, startling Tuskfyre as he seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Tuskfyre looked at Ari while the little gnome gazed through one of his strange devices which allowed him to see over vast distances. "He's more reliable than your little mechanical toys," Tuskfyre teased him good humouredly.

With a grating noise, the boat came to a halt alongside the pier. A sailor tossed a rope to one of the ghouls who slowly tied it to a bollard. Even before the boat had come to a complete stop, a merry crowd of the strangest company Azeroth had ever seen assembled began to jump ashore: fleet-footed night elves, brawny, heavyset orcs, sturdy dwarves, regal humans, chattering gnomes and powerful taurens.

"Alright, the day shift has arrived. Time to get moving," Tuskfyre said as he turned around and began to stroll down the hill. On his way towards the building, the undead of the night shift crossed his path as they were heading to their mouldy tombs where they would pass the daylight hours until it was time for them to rise again at night. Tuskfyre made his way through the main hall, which was now bustling with activity.

"Goooood morrrrrning!" the troll's voice rang across the room, calling the wild bunch to attention. "Reports indicate no unusual activity. The zombies have done a good job during the night, everything has been going smoothly. We'll take it from here; if there are any problems, you know what to do. Remember, everyone is counting on you. Don't let them down!" he said as he handed out the day's assignments.

The men and women of his team made their way to their workstations and began to operate the mysterious devices mounted to the tables. Trusting Ari to ensure the smooth running of the devices, Tuskfyre retreated to his antechamber and began to check through the reports of mass brawls, petty larceny and drunken gnome punting, assigning tasks to various members of his team and checking in with his colleagues to discuss some of the important issues of the day. When the sun had risen high in the sky, he allowed himself a short break in his work and walked over to the window overlooking the small port.

Beyond the sea there were hundreds of thousands of adventurers, all doing their best to find their place in this world. Deep in thought, the troll scratched his tusks. A long time ago, he had been one of them, an honest soul always looking for the next adventure, always an encouraging word for his comrades on his lips and a deadly arrow on his bow. How long had it been since he had put his adventurer's hat to rest and donned the robes of blue? It never failed to amaze Tuskfyre how quickly time passed on the island. Each day held a new challenge, and the troll loved challenges. Thinking back to his tribe, he couldn't help but smile his typically crooked trollish smile. If they could see him now!

A knock on the door and the sound of bony feet on the wooden floor took Tuskfyre back to the real world. Erynshar, one of the few undead from the day shift, stood in the doorway, shifting from one foot to the other uneasily. He had arrived only recently on the island. "Yes, Eryshnar, what do you need?"

"It is really rather embarrassing, master Tuskfyre," he began, "there is a young elf, a druid in fact... she is having problems talking to her trainer for a class quest. She is doing everything right and I can't locate the problem." "Ah the young ones, still learning the ropes," Tuskfyre mused. "Don't worry, these druid trainers sometimes don't know their left from their right. We will have this druid back on track before you know it. Here, let me show you how it is done..."^[1]

Prison chamber[]

Underneath GM Island, embedded in the lower structure of the island, is a hidden room. This room is completely textured with large white tiles and illuminated with one single light source, leaving a bright circular spot of light in the center of the room's floor. There are no objects in the room.

The prison chamber allows player to enter, but they are then unable to leave unless teleported out by a GM. The walls are made so that you cannot jump up them like other walls in the game.

In earlier versions, this room used to contain one single chair, but it seems to be no longer present. The chair is now back as of patch 3.3.3.

The purpose of this room is unknown to any GM, speculation within the company is that the programmers put it in for their own amusement similar to the room within Wintergrasp Fortress as a Moderator would not need to move a player to question them. The room is a good 100 yards below the surface of the island and has only been seen by a few GMs.

The chair's gameobject is called "The Chair".
Before patch 1.3 and the out-of-game chat interface, GMs would take offenders here to speak with about major offences.
Before patch 1.3, this area was scripted to make a character unable to be found using /who.

Notes[]

Before patch 1.8, players could add GMs to their friends list, and they would be seen to be located at GM Island. However, since patch 1.8, it is no longer possible to add a GM to friends lists.
- For a brief while in the EU servers, during patch 2.1.1, players could add GMs to their friend list. This was due to a malfunction in their title-system. After this was fixed, the GM stayed on your friend list. You could see them log in every hour at least and you could see their level and where they were.
Against popular belief, there is very little on the island. A small doghouse, a rowboat and a dock that connects to it, a single building, a few trees and a graveyard.
Due to changes on unreachable areas in many maps in patch 8.2.0, the island has been removed.