User talk:Gaile Gray/Archive Support Issues/Jan - Mar 2009

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Dishonor Bans As A Result Of Inadvertent Disconnects

Hi Gaile,

As a longtime GW player, I have a question related to this support ticket: #081221-001569.

I ran into a really bad disconnect situation in the last couple of weeks as described in the support ticket. The disconnects alone in the middle of AB matches were very frustrating in and of themselves, but since the disconnects ocurred in two consecutive matches, I also got a ten minute Dishonor PvP block to boot. Is there ANY way to improve the Dishonor system so that it can tell the difference between a player who voluntarily and deliberately leaves in the middle of a PvP match and one who, through no fault of their own gets d/c'ed multiple times? It seems terribly unfair to penalize a player for a situation that is completely out of their control. I realize that a ten minute block is not the end of the world, but if it happens to me, I'm certain that it has happened many other times to many other players. So this is not a QQ about my particular block, but a general inquiry about a situation that potentially affects the entitre community.

Thanks and a very Happy New Year to you and all at ANet! AnClar 20:55, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Bleh, the whole dishonorable points system is a mess. I think it was implemented with good intents, to stop rage quitting, but quitting a PvP match can happen for reasons other being disappointed with one's team. Disconnects are one thing, quitting when your entire team is dead is another...I'd rather have no system then one which bunches everything together. On another note, Happy New Year as well =P-Warior Kronos 20:25, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Back in the day, I was a StarCraft beta tester. When we first started testing, each of us had a win/loss record. After a few weeks, that changed to win/loss/disconnects, because people were cheesing the system and simply disconnecting or unplugging their computer when it appeared they were going to lose. We testers learned quickly to avoid the people with numerous "disconnects" on their record, because whether the person really was having system or ISP related disconnects, or was intentionally disconnecting, the likelihood that he would finish the match was substantially reduced over those players with a lower disconnect count.

Years ago, I asked the co-founders of ArenaNet (who had worked on StarCraft, of course) why they couldn't just make a determination about what went wrong, and categorize intentional "pull the plugs" from accidental ISP- or system-related disconnects. And they told me then, and I believe it to be true now, that the server on which we play has no way of knowing why you're no longer connected, only that you are not. And if you think about it, there's no way of knowing that a disconnect will happen until it does, and when it does, there's no way to ping the player's system to see the reason behind it.

Long answer: See above. Short answer: No, the system cannot tell what happened after the fact. -- Gaile 07:23, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

If you have connection issues, don't do PvP. It hurts your team if you DC or whatnot. If you don't care about your team, please don't do PvP. If you do, you should do what best and limit your PvP. However, it sounds like you usually don't have connection issues. A ten minute PvP ban isn't that bad. Just review your gear and build during that time, or edit GWWiki. StatMan 16:26, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Leechers In Luxon side of Fort Aspenwood

I quit the game 6 months or so ago, but recently started playing again to help relax on my few nights off work. I love doing Fort Aspenwood, and I'll generally spend my nights off if I'm home, there on the Luxon side. But for the past 2 weeks or so, its a guaranteed Luxon loss 90% of the time due to leechers. Originally it was only 1 leecher every round, and everyone reported them immediately. Now, its to the point where last round I did, I had 4 leechers. People are sick of it, and no one even bothers to report them anymore because we all see it doesn't do anything but take them out for 10 minutes or so. When you do report them you get dishonored because no one else waste effort to report them. I've seen the same leecher for over 2 weeks now, still leeching, and for the first week, everyone reported him every round. Same goes with several other leechers, everyone knows they've been leeching for over a week, with no consequences Something needs to be done, to alter the current system, or implement a new one to dissuade people from leeching. Its getting horribly out of hand, and don't give me the reporting people for leeching works answer, I've watched FA for 2 weeks, and seeing the same person for 2 weeks, leech, and being reported every round, pretty much indefinitely proves it does shit, and no one looks at the reports. GosuDeath 10:28, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

I am currently discussing this with the team because it comes in often through Support tickets as well. This is not a dead issue, and the devs are keenly aware of the interest in and concern about this matter, believe me! I can't offer you suggestions on changes, nor if changes will even be made. But I do want you to know that this is a known concern and that the devs will continue to review it. -- Gaile 20:36, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Gaile... Leechers are lazy by nature and usually end up standing around doing nothing (*hint - typically not moving at all). Here is an idea for a leecher solution to any mission that has this issue...

Can ANET track a player's activity during a mission? i.e. You don't get a faction reward for being on the winning side unless you have done something to participate in the mission. Perhaps a point system where you get points (not faction, just personal score in mission) for doing some of the three basic things that must occur in every mission that can be leeched like this... For Example ~

• getting points for being within shout/agro/radar range of a fellow player when they make a kill or kills (covering those who only play support roles).
• getting points for being within shout/agro/radar range of a teammate during a capture.
• getting points for capturing a control point solo.
• and of course making a kill or a number of kills earns you a number of points.

...at the end of the mission any player who earned significantly less points during the mission thus proving their participation or lack of... would receive no faction rewards for the mission. So, no activity in mission equals no faction reward equals no leechers. This in addition to the report measures already in place (with some better enforcement and more severe punishments) should reduce the number of leechers in that area.

• Pros
  • leechers don't need to be reported. They will simply get zero reward.
  • a player's activity during any mission could be tracked over time, their final score could be recorded thus used as a punishment guide (very low score every time plus being reported by your teammates multiple times should result in more severe punishments over time)
• Cons
  • leechers will still affect team performance overall by reducing the active number of players on each side until they learn that they are just wasting time.
  • leechers may learn to just follow their teammates all over the map instead of standing around doing nothing in order to earn enough points in the mission to gain the faction reward. (thus requiring people to /report again)

Elric 21:35, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

The biggest problem I've come across is many players in these areas don't know how to report. I'd love to see a little floaty text saying "To report abuse by a player, select the player and type /report" before the start of these missions to raise awareness. I reported some players hundreds of times now and it gets annoying to see them back - in fact, I often have to stop reporting them just because too few people are reporting them and I don't want to be dishonorable. Another problem is reporting is not very visible, especially when busy defending shrines or attacking - it appears in normal text in the text box. Reports should stand out more (like vivid yellow with a slight glow). However, I think a better answer would be to give them, say 10s to leave the base or move when standing at a rez shrine, and if they are still inside the safe zone or haven't moved, give them 0 faction until they do the required action. Even if they just move back and forth at least they can't be AFK (and still allow /report for people that move back and forth). --Falseprophet 00:38, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Suspension

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Gaile, i know this isn't really your subject to deal with, but i have a general complaint. I recently received a 136+ hr ban for use of offensive language. Now, i don't expect it to be lifted or removed, but i do have a MAJOR gripe. First of all, the people i used it towards were egging me on and being annoying in general. Still this doesn't constitute using words like f--k, s--t, etc, etc. But what is bugging me THE MOST, and is actually a legitimate gripe (in my eyes at least), is the subject of the Chat Filter. Guild Wars has a built in chat filter, that is ON be default and has to be manually turned off. The people who reported me clearly found my language offensive. However, if they find swear words offensive then they should have their filter on. Otherwise it is their own damn fault. If a person can't handle reading the 'f word' then they EASILY have the means to censor that word from the game. In fact, it is set like that AUTOMATICALLY. These people TURNED OFF their chat filters, and doing so forfeits the right to complain about offensive language. Once again, i know you aren't the person that deals with these types of things, but i didn't know where else to voice my gripe. Also, add an announcement next to the sign in box reminding people that if they cant handle vulgar words that they should turn on their filter or otherwise get over it. Sorry to bother you, but this is really bothering me... 70.22.216.74 00:36, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I have the filter turned ON and I have to agree here. I don't like bad language, and 99% of the time I don't get it :) 218.214.126.215 00:55, 12 January 2009 (UTC) (someone help me with the formatting please!) done. — Why 02:01, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

They retain the right to complain and report as long as it is against the EULA (or was it the customer conduct?) that you accepted forbids to use such language. Ɲoɕʈɋɽɕɧ 01:19, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Aren't the stasi /reporters fun?? This is why the power to be hyper politically correct should not be in the hands of ignorant hormonal twelve year olds. On a side note this is why my allchat is permanently turned off and I use hero/hench 99.9% of the time when I play. On yet another side note...if its really such a huge violation Noctarch, Temple of Balthazar D1 anytime after the kiddies come home to use it for their personal AOL chatroom would be totally empty for all the language and sexual content suspensions. Gird your loins and go check it out sometime. 98.219.48.111 01:51, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

You'd be surprised how creative people can be when it comes to avoiding the chat filter. And I have to disagree with you here. Just because there is a chat filter doesn't meant that you have to act that way. Try treating other people a little better first, and then you'll notice you won't get any bans anymore. Now, I know this is the internet, and people have less manners because they're (partly) anonymous, but I see no reason why the people who wish to civilize it shouldn't be allowed to do so. If you disagree with that, then please leave GW. 145.94.74.23 09:59, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I agree. If you didn't do character substitution to get around the chat filter, then you shouldn't be punished for using words that are filtered. I think it is very, um, something-ish (stupid I think), to turn off a filter, then complain that you are reading filth. However, if you are excessive in swearing, maybe thats what got you. If you don't like the heat, stay out of the kitchen. StatMan 15:10, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) The length of suspension tells me that this is not the only issue that you've been involved with within the last few weeks. More importantly, the word filter does not give anyone a "license to swear." The filter is a form of safety net, a means of trying to prevent people from getting hit with offensive language, racism, etc.. However, its use is not required, and acceptable behavior is required, as something to which you agreed when you installed the game.

You have a lock on the door of your house. Do your "forfeit the right" to keep people out of your house if you do not use the door lock, or if the lock wasn't strong enough to keep them out? No, of course not. So why would you suggest it is acceptable to use offensive language because there is a word filter? Pointing to others and saying "They did it, therefore I can do it," or "They made me do it," or "You didn't action Person A, so you should not action Person B" would be wrong-minded thinking. (Come on, folks! If an area has people using offensive language, don't empower them to shape your game experience -- report them!)

You're welcome to discuss this with the Support Team. I imagine they checked the chat logs of the others involved, and if the others also used offensive language, they will also have been given a time out. -- Gaile 20:46, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Although I agree with your point in general Gaile, I would be interested to see what your home insurance company would tell you if you informed them that all your stuff got stolen because you had choose to unlock the door and leave it like that. -- Salome 10:56, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

My neighbor left her house unlocked. The insurance company paid in full. I guess there was no "stupidity clause" on her policy. :) -- Gaile 20:34, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

LOL! :) -- Salome 19:01, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Reporting Leeching

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

I keep reporting leechers in Fort Aspenwood, and at certain times of the day you have have over half your party be leechers here. When there are that many leechers it's not even possible to report them all without getting the penalty. The current report function only works if everyone does the right thing, which never happens, and only works if the number of leechers isn't too great, which is also unfortunately not the case. If you have 4 leechers in your party, if you report them but everyone else doesn't, you will get 4 dishonour added to you and these leechers will likely continue to enter the arena for a couple more hours before enough people report them to get them the hex, and only for 10 minutes. Something needs to be done about leeching, the current method of reporting does not work, especially in the most frustrating circumstances. There also needs to be greater consequences for repeated leeching, there have been leechers there consistently for, without exaggerating, years. They have been reported through the website, even before the report function, and they continue to leech without having their accounts actioned in any way. The hex for reporting needs to be removed, too many people refuse to report because they will likely get hex points - they do add up. I myself will be hexed at least 3 times a week for reporting actual leechers when no-one else does. I spend more time with the dishonour hex than most of the leechers do and there are several others who report who can relate to the same thing.

Are there plans to increase he penalties for repeat offenders? Is it possible to change the reporting function for leechers in FA and JQ to be more friendly to reporters and more aggressive to leechers? The current break points seem to hurt reporters more than help them. 122.111.17.191 10:03, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

The report system is designed to prevent abuse. "If, however, a third or less of your team reports that player, you will also be given 2 dishonor points for issuing an unsupported report. In other words, don't make false reports and you won't get dishonor points. The game would be much worse if players were allowed to report without abuse prevention measures. Many players already abuse the system by reporting out of spite and other ridiculous reasons, so no the hex for false reporting needs to stay. False reports are just as bad if not worse than leeching. Leeloof Esp 16:51, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Except that the spite reports happen regardless, and the leechers are largely untouched for it. You don't see 5 leechers that often, but honestly, nobody reports them since nobody else does. Kelvin Greyheart 23:36, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

I did JQ few months ago and I tried to report every leecher we had. People usually went missing for the first 8 minutes and then started to play or not at all. Problem is I was indeed the only one reporting 3-5 players so I started getting dishonor and stopped reporting. Of course nobody reports - because they get the dishonor points. Bad system, needs a lot of TLC fast ..-- Karasu (talk) 11:15, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

I haven't tried that map in forever, but I was just wondering if anet had made it possible to explore that area without doing the PvP mission? Not that this explains or excuses most leechers, but I bet alot of those running off are just trying to get as much of the map as they can for the cartographer title.--209.194.208.116 23:52, 14 January 2009 (UTC)it is time a/net band acc's for constent leaching and not just for a day or two also deduct faction from the guild that they are members of.

No, the mappers are actually quite rare compared to the faction leechers. We see them from time to time, but they are a minor problem after leechers, quitters and botters. The ones who run off and park are placing themselves out of the way to avoid getting tagged with reports. Mappers by contrast are easily differentiated because they tend to immediately start scraping the walls after entering the mission. -- WarBlade 02:03, 15 January 2009 (UTC)for me leechers are the more of a pain than all the rest mapers I have no prob with as it is the only way to open that part of the map but what gets me is when i get taged for reporting leechers A/NET needs to strip all faction from any leechers title track who gets reported more than say 5 times for leeching

I've grinded to rank 9 Luxon in FA, mostly before the faction buff, and I can say that I have only seen more than 4 people report a single leecher when that person is an infamous leecher such as Jum Rock or Stock Numero Six. Those are the only people who seem to get reported more than 4 times, otherwise only one maybe two people report. Like the above poster said, teams don't report and people who do get the dishonour hex before the leecher does. Say you have two leechers, one person gets pissed off and leaves, only 4 other pple left to report other than yourself. One of them won't report unless three others report first. Now it's three. Considering the random nature of FA and the inexperience of many players there good luck getting all 3 people left over to report the leecher. You report the two leechers, maybe one other person does. The match ends, you have 4 dishonour points, they have 4 dishonour points and the other reporter has 4 dishonour points. If you enter the next match and come up with the same two leechers but no-one else reports, they both have 6 points and you now have 8. Who is going to get the ban first WHILE playing a miserable match with two leechers, KNOWING you are getting penalised for it, and they are losing nothing? Now imagine doing this ever since the report system was introduced. A year of getting banned from the arena while the leechers not only cause you to lose the match due to less people helping, but also get rewarded for doing so AND now give you a hex for reporting them as leechers. Now imagine you see the exact same leechers in the arena for MONTHS AND MONTHS, every single day, leeching, even with many reports, consistent leeching and support tickets taken out to name these people not a single one of them has been banned and the measures against them are actually causing you to get hexed instead of them, while they continue to come back. You not only get upset with the leechers now, you also become upset with your own team who don't report the leechers, even when they say they know how because they are waiting for 3 reports first. The system sucks, it needs to be fixed. People who are going to grief report do it on the spurr of the moment and do it even with the penalty, they do no damage and don't even get hexed. 58.106.154.116 10:02, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

<reset indent> A screen shot I just took, click to enlarge: . I can take more, I'm sure they will be back. Note: I also got dishonour just after this for reporting both the leechers before people left leaving me with 3 possible people to report them other than myself.LeechersSuck 10:31, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Just posting another screen shot to show how pointless the reporting system is currently. . Notice I explained how to report and told them they needed four reports for it to work and still no report. Notice also it's the same leecher from the last match (which was 10 minutes before because I had to sit out with dishonour hex from reporting). LeechersSuck 11:10, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

As I said above in another section, the game should maybe keep track of player idling after being declared a leech rather than requiring a certain number of reports and punishing the reporter. If the declared leech moves or uses a skill, they will not be reported unless, say half the others also report them (more of a no harm, no foul plan, as in I thought they were leeching, but maybe they really had connectivity issues at that time and are in now, but also allowing for groups of players to report someone that is not AFK, but not participating in the game, either). If they idle for a certain amount of time, they earn dishonor points and don't get faction. Don't tell the reported player that they've been reported (they should find this out the hard way after the game ends). --Falseprophet 00:56, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

This is another example of when leeching has ruined FA. Here have not one, not two, not three or four but FIVE leechers in one match. I had taken a break from GW and came back to play a few rounds of Aspenwood and decided to stop playing again right away because clearly this arena has been taken over: . In it you can see that if I had reported the people who were leeching I would have received the dishonour hex from just one game even though I was only one of three leechers. Thus every one of the leechers got away with 0 reports and the next group the enter will get them again. Notice also two of the characters were deliberately designed to leech by using a name with a combination of i's and l's to make manually typing their names to report them more difficult and hiding at the back, far away from the action to make selecting them also difficult. I routinely add these people to my friends list and see them month after month after month, frequently online and frequently leeching. Either their bans are too short to notice, or when they do get bans it doesn't happen for several months of leeching. These people don't make the arena less enjoyable or more difficult; they ruin it. With five leechers you WILL get them again if you re-enter after the match ends, likely even before that happens. You can not play this arena with 3 real people, 3 random people would likely not even kill Gunther without a team of Kurzicks in the way, let alone with one. Long term unhappiness with the futile situation (with little done to fix it) left in Aspenwood and Quarry over years is my reason to not buy GW2. LeechersSuck 13:34, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Harassment In-Game

Hi, a friend of mine (both ingame and in the real world) has been having problems with a few players pming her constantly with sexually explicit comments and proposals. I thought she was over-reacting until I saw the kinds of stomach churning comments being sent to her. She's reported these people and even lodged cases with support including screenshots of the commentary. The only response she's thus far received is "that's what the ignore list is for". The problem: her's is full. When she unignores someone, that person starts back in with her. I don't want to see her quit (she's great on a vanquish) and I think that the lack of support she's received thus far has been sub-par and unacceptable. Is there someone on aNets side who we can tell her to contact before she quits the game? 24.188.207.20 01:59, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Welcome to NCsoft support - subpar and unacceptable. -Auron 14:16, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

...Hard working, appreciated, and like the rest of us capable of lapses in judgement and mistakes. :-/

IP 24. See if you can obtain the support ticket number, then post it here. That way Gaile can look into the discussion your friend had with Support. ;) -- WarBlade 20:54, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. I'm going to see if I can get my friend to post it here herself. 24.188.207.20 01:43, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

It would be really good to see that incident number; I'm happy to take a peek and see if we can resolve this. We take reports of in-game harassment seriously and will directly deal with those who are found to harass other players. I might say that sometimes we see issues with reports where both parties are pretty guilty of ugliness towards one another. Somehow I think that is not the case here, and I feel confident we can help with this, so I'll look forward to getting that number so I can do so. -- Gaile 23:32, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Just an update - I saw my friend this weekend but completely forgot to mention this to her. I'm going to shoot her an e-mail now about it. Sorry for the delay. 24.188.207.20 02:17, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

blocked with 045err

I am a Chinese player living in Australia.Now I got A trouble.Days ago,My account has been hacked.After supportting,i get it back.Unluckily, all of my items and gold has been stolen. This is not my whole nightmare. After I went home for Christmas holiday, my account was been blocked with code=045. GW official said I did golden selling,but im sure i did not.. I swear I just logging in game few minutes during those days.I explain and appeal so many times but no effects. Plz help me! I have no ideal what i can do. My support ticket is #090105-001433.Thank you very much!

Hello. I will look at this. The research seems very detailed and accurate, but I can see if there is more to learn. -- Gaile 04:26, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Waiting for your news~!

Account ban

Hi Gaile, I was just contacted by one of my guildies about her account having been banned. I sent her to support, and she filed a ticket (#090119-001371). Seems she has been helping someone for several days play through Nightfall, and when they finished, he gave her 300k. Her account has now been banned for rmt. While I can vouch for her honesty, not to mention I don't allow any rmt in my guild, I would like to ask you to take a look at that ticket and see if she can't get her account back. Thanks for your time! -- Wyn 22:29, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi Wyn. This incident is sort of a tutorial for what not to do. That old adage, "If it looks too good to be legit, it's probably not" comes to mind. Apparently, your guild member assisted a person whom she had not met before. As it turns out, the person she was assisting was (without question) directly involved with an RMT company. Therefore, your guildie was assisting an RMT in getting access to high-end content (or whatever else motivated the RMT player to move through the game in that fashion).

I feel sure that her assistance of the RMT company was completely innocent, but nonetheless, it did result in the exchange of ill-gotten gold. You will find that your guild member has been reinstated after a careful review of the appeal. The gold was removed from her account, as I'm sure you, she, and I would agree is proper, considering its source. And incidentally, the RMT person with whom she interacted has been permanently banned.

I feel this is a fair and reasonable outcome for this situation and I hope that you and the guild member will agree. If you'd like to discuss further, please do let me know. I'm here to help. -- Gaile 03:33, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I agree, and thank you Gaile. I told her it was almost certainly more to do with the other player's history/behavior than hers. I know she would never knowingly do anything to jeopardize her account. Thank you for your prompt assistance. -- Wyn 04:32, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

It's a bit worrying when it comes to "Don't help people you don't know", though. :-( Biscuits 10:03, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Actually, I think it's just "don't accept copious amounts of gold from people you don't know." Also, does anyone know how those bots get enough money to just throw it away like that? Whatever they're farming, I need to get in on it. --Jette 10:10, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh, Biscuits, you know I would never say "Don't help a stranger!" What I am saying is the game equivalent of taking candy from a stranger. :) -- Gaile 00:51, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

So if I helped a random and they then opened trade and gave me 250 ectos or something silly like that, I shouldn't accept it? Isn't that akin to telling peeps to not have faith in the kindness of others? Seems a tad on the harsh side. I understand that its following the same lines of logic as handling stolen goods but even that requires a degree of mens rea to be guilty of it. I'm also now somewhat worried as to what happens if you trade with someone for a high-end item but the gold they traded with was gained from RMT? Does that mean if actioned your account gets in trouble and you lose the money given to you and you don't get your item back? EDIT: Also what if I agreed to run someone (which I used to do often) from Ascalon to the desert and then through each of the ascension missions, which i used to charge a hefty amount for (before assassin and dervish runners made it peasy). Normally a runner only has to worry about being paid, but now it seems you have to be worried about the source of the income as well, which you have no legitimate way of knowing. Please note here, this isn't me taking pop shots at Gaile or support just interested and slightly worried about whats allowed and what isn't and what can happen to your account and currency even if you yourself are completely innocent of wrongdoings? *stress stress stress* -- Salome 10:42, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

The person did not lose her account, she only lost the gold that she was paid -- in extraordinarily high amounts -- for a service she rendered. The person who was associated with the RMT did lose his account. Consider a real-life analogy: A guy comes to your door and says "I have a brand new laptop in my car. You can have it for £10." If you accept it, and it is found to be stolen material (which is about 100% likely), you're going to be charged with a crime. We're not charging anyone with a crime here. We quickly revoked the suspension on the runner's account once we learned the details through appeal. However, we're not going to allow that person to keep ill-gotten goods, essentially accept stolen property.

I would boldly suggest that players should truly look at what they're offered with clear eyes and a cautious mind: If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. If you're being grossly overpaid for a service, consider who you're servicing and why they may be able and willing to pay you far more than the going rate for such a service. -- Gaile 20:32, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I wouldn't buy the laptop for £10, thats like 50,000 dollars american now with inflation --adrin 10:03, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

RANDOM POINT OF THE DAY: The dollar is actually stronger against the pound now since the economic crisis. Making £10 roughly $14-ish dollars at the mo, rather than the $20 dollars it would have been worth a year ago. -- Salome 06:22, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

She didn't lose her account but she lost all the time she spent running that person. It's like me spending hours saving up to buy a perfect bone dragon staff and then selling it to a RMT. If I lose the money I honestly worked for and traded for because they were a RMT I would be very unhappy. I know several people who have played the game for a long time and have amassed LARGE amounts of gold in game and are very generous sometimes. Nightfall is a HUGE campaign and to play through the entire thing with one person would take a long time - and is very rare these days. I know of at least 4 people I wouldn't be surprised if they gave away a similair value item or gold to someone as thanks for such a large amount of help. It's this kind of banning that freaks out many people I know who play from being generous and even helping people. My guild recently raised a large amount of plat to give to one of our guildies on their birthday so they can buy tickets for the Canthan Festival. We decided to go with something else because of this kind of thing. LeechersSuck 13:14, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I have to agree that aNets action here (removing the players gold) is unethical. By this logic, if I grind Balth faction for zkeys and sell them in the Great Temple of Balthazar to someone involved in RMT for 5.5k or 6k each, I could get banned and have the money I rightfully earned removed from my account. Or if I'm a runner who offers HM EOTN dungeon runs and charge players 30k per dungeon, I run someone I hadn't met before who is, without my knowledge, involed in RMT, through 4 dungeons for 120k plus tip, aNet could temp ban my account and take the money earned from me. Neither of these scenerio's is a far leap from what happened here and I feel that anyone who plays this game should have a major problem with that. Two wrongs don't make a right and having cases such as this as precident is a very unhealthy place for GW players to be in. While I understand that the money paid to the player in question came from someone involved in RMT, aNet has admitted that this player was not involved in such actions by restoring her account. What's next? Will aNet start regulating the amount of platinum people will play for more collectable items via agreement on sites such as the Guru? If some schmuck decides to offer me 140e for a mini Mad King Thorn, is aNet going to ban me for accepting that? Are we expected to ask people if they're involved in RMT and expect an honest answer? Sounds totalitarian to me. 24.188.207.20 02:58, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Can I get an official response to my previous remark in this thread? 24.188.207.20 02:42, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

JQ Bug

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

for more weeks now than I'm happy with there is a bug in JQ even when in control of green (lux side)the turt will stop moving and not leve the base the only way to get it to move is to let it be caped and retake many times now this as cost the game it gets reported over and over but nothing gets done about it Gaile you are my last hope to get this bug fixed.Shao Lin San one more day with this bug plz plz tell them to get thier fingers out and fix it

Hi there. I think this sounds really interesting, and I did submit a bug report on it. However, in talking with Mike (our QA Manager) I learned that we would love to get more details from you, and in fact, if you could put it on the AI Bug Report Page, it would be super helpful to do so. So we would like to ahve (1) more details and (2) the bug reported on the AI Bug Page. Oh and hey, the advantage of using the Bug Page is that you can track updated info, such as "known issue," or "resolved" right there. Thanks! -- Gaile 22:20, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Barrier's and Eyes

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Hey Gaile, long time. :P Anyways, we have a problem to which I'm sure QA is already aware, but it involves the models of the christmas decorations not disappearing completely in the Eye. The one of the tree is creating a space in the centre of the town that is unreachable. :) Cheers! Drago 16:35, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi, Drago. I just went to Eye of the North and I'm not seeing a single decoration. I think they would have gone away as of the build in earlier January. Are you still seeing them? Have you been dipping into the Wintersday Egg Nog? ;) -- Gaile 20:31, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

No, QA was not aware! I see what you are talking about. Even though the big tree isn't visible, you still can't walk in the area. I'll pass that along to the designer for you. Thank you for mentioning it. -Kim Chase 20:47, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Hey Drago -- this just goes to show, that handy Miscellaneous Bug Report Page would be the best place to put this sort of thing. Our QA Team reads that page very regularly, and they'd catch such a report there even more quickly than I could send them a note. (Yeah, they're that good! :) ) The various Bug Pages -- which you can identify on the ArenaNet Portal Index Page -- allow you to track updated info, too, so you can see things marked as "known issue," "resolved," etc., right there. Thanks! -- Gaile 22:25, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Just Checking

Am i breaking any rules by buying materials at the trader, going to a artisan and crafting a rare material, then selling them for a profit at the rare material trader? (about 10-15g profit each time) Sweet Escape 05:21, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Nope. Aba Malatu means Forbidden Truth 05:44, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

This is considered to be part of the system and is not a cheat or exploit. I guess if we learned that someone could gain XX plat per hour doing this, it might be a tad unbalanced. But in this case, it's just fine. :) -- Gaile 20:14, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

I believe people call this "Crafting Runs", well, the guild I hang around with calls it that. Aba Malatu means Forbidden Truth 20:26, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

This sort of thing is self balancing. If it becomes overly popular, the price of materials goes up, so the profit goes down. Sadie2k 21:53, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Good point, Sadie. :) -- Gaile 22:56, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

hi! gaile

Happy new year!--Black cat 02:13, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi Black Cat. Happy New Year to you, and soon, Happy Lunar New Year, too! :) -- Gaile 03:33, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

XD But! there occurred a little unpleasant things, I might have here involves RMT network, resulting in my second account is locked,i have Representations!do not know whether can get back to my account, but can be sure that my account did not RMT!I am sorry to let you hear me unpleasant things!have a good day to you!:)--Black cat 06:56, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I discussed this with the team, but because of the long history associated with the accounts involved, and based on some detailed research, they feel that it would not be appropriate to reinstate the account. I am sorry. -- Gaile 00:50, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

cuz it said that has done a cash transaction , but i swear i never did these . yesterday my networck had a problem, so i only could play in Amrican dis ,couldnt change other dis to play , then i used VPN.i think there were some awless persons did cash transactions with VPN , so i dragged! :(--Black cat 01:27, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I am sorry, Black Cat, but I must defer to the Support Team members who did the research. There are definitely ties of some kind between you and an RMT. I have discussed the matter with the team during our weekly meeting, and based on the data that they can see, they are unable to return the account to you. -- Gaile 20:23, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

i wanna ask u ,can my IP continue to play GW,if not , i will give up GW--Black cat 04:59, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

They block accounts, not IP's. Thus with a different account I suppose you could still play GW. -- Salome 22:28, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Scared or badly instructed Support GM's?

Are support people even trained to do the job. How insulting to close 081231-001048 without a proper feedback or even reading the question properly in the first place. I will reopen the issue and hopefully get a decent answer without the propaganda of standard responces.

I really think there is a serious quality issue here in how a support department needs to work.--Silverleaf Don't assume, Know! 16:14, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Support is generally a difficult job. Sometimes so many similar questions can get asked, it's easy to mistake some issues as the same category, and to send a standard response. It's annoying to be on the end of, but it's an easy mistake to make. :) As you said, you can always re-open it. Biscuits 22:37, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

To start, and with every intention towards the good, I would like to ask that you keep your comments on this page as constructive and neutral as possible. The term "scared" (frightened?) and an unkind question related to the team seem neither necessary or appropriate. Thank you for understanding that.

I have reviewed the ticket and have requested additional details be provided to me. It seems several tickets were submitted on this issue; referencing another person's unrelated issue on your own ticket can further decrease focus. I need help with one element from you: You mention an account closure, and later mention someone "buying an account." Was the account that was closed a resold account? That is, was your friend playing on an account of which he was not the original account holder?

Secondly, scamming is very difficult to prove, as I have noted on these pages. I regret if we were not able to gather enough details to prove that you were scammed. However, it is possible that the scamming was proved and that the account was actioned, not with a ban (bans are permanent) but with a block, a temporary suspension. Temporary suspensions are more common than account terminations. You absolutely did the right thing in reporting the incident and in providing screenshots.

On both of these issues, I will make no assumptions and await information from you and from the team at NCE. Thank you. -- Gaile 00:42, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I did further research. The person whose account was closed was playing on a used account. You, as an experienced player, will know and I'm sure understand that we cannot support an account being passed from person to person, no matter what the reason. I notice that the person in question did get the same response from support twice, and I agree, that's an error and I'm sure the agent who did that regrets it. But at the core, the account was closed for a good, just, and legitimate reason: The person playing on it was simply not the original owner and did not have rights to use the account.

There really is no argument that we should support resold, traded, or transferred accounts. Please consider this: We do not charge a monthly fee. The only way we obtain support for this game and future development is for each player to buy a new game to place on his/her account. That's the only way that ArenaNet and NCsoft receive a single penny to pay for servers, staff, updates, future development, and more. As a company, how can we pay for those things if we are not paid? One person = one game = one user.

If someone needs to be pointed out as the cause of this unfortunate situation, it is the company or person who gave your friend the used account in the first place. And it is with that seller that your friend should discuss the issue and from that seller that your friends should seek compensation. I truly hope that he will, and I regret any discomfort that either of you experienced as the result of that person's misdeeds. -- Gaile 01:51, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Now there is a solid answer about the account selling part, we did and do understand that like stated in the EULA...BUT...the core of my question is not adressed by a long shot. I refrained from stating the real issue here before but submitted ticket(s). The core question was why a "proven scammer" (support ticket of the initial report and several screenies provided) is able to return to the game WHILE on the opposite this harsh do-not-trade-away-accounts policy is being enforced so vividly?

To my friend it is like; You-are-not-allowed-to-play-on-bought-accounts-and-enjoy-yourself while he knows that you-can-scamm-robb-and-dishoner-fellow-players-in-game-and-that-is-sanctioned-by-the-company.

That is injustice in my eyes too. Or favourisme to an american player that owns his I-am-owning-this-game-to-hurt-truthfull-players? I get robbed and the player who did that gets his account returned to him to scamm other of my fellow players. He (my ex boyfriend) buy's an account to enjoy the game and gets it taken away from him without any reply as to why in the first place?

I kept fighting till now to get this scammer out of the game. We do not care about the bought account. We want equel and fair treatment of similar offences against the EULA. Support didn't respond to the asked questions and is reluctant to adress the more serious answers. Closing a support question just to get rid of it is not adviced to any company.

If it is not understood that I fight for improvement of service, equal justice and prevention of scamming in-game by this player of my fellow players then I will once again bow my head to the balance of this world shifting to the not-so-nice part. --Silverleaf Don't assume, Know! 10:09, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Silver I empathize with you (on the scammer bit not on the buying used account thingy as really you can buy them new from amazon now for next to nothing and anet deserves the extra income for each new user as they aren't highway robbers like some companies we could mention and their monthly fee milarky)

I've been scammed myself once or twice and I have to admit its annoying to not get any feedback telling you that the person has been banned etc... However their are legal constraints imposed upon Anet and NCS under protection of information etc.. which means they cant divulge details of other peoples accounts, even if that person has wronged you in some way. It sucks but Anet's hands are tied really on this one. I have to admit though it is galling to see griefing, trolling scammers allowed back into the game after a short ban but then I suppose everyone deserves a second chance. Without the finite details however I can only make generalities about whats going on here though so I might be way off the mark. One thing however I do think would be more helpful from support, is extra more human information from them. This is a subject that has come up alot, but the standard responses really can be quite offensive to people who are emailing with a question with the expectation of getting a proper answer. But then on the flip side, they probably have alot of requests for support coming in which needs to be dealt with as efficiently as possible, so swings and roundabouts really. -- Salome 10:31, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Ahhh Salome..as ever you see my point. And it is not knowing the name of the person/scammer. It is just to never see the account pop-up as active and online again. So fellow players are saver. --Silverleaf Don't assume, Know! 10:49, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

would loved to have my r9 dryad bow back but thats just game material--Silverleaf Don't assume, Know! 10:52, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) You want the scammer gone, forever. I understand. But we as a company do not feel that this is the appropriate action to take on a first report. Depending on the particular issue and the player's history, suspensions -- sometimes long ones -- may be given instead of an outright account termination.

You want your item back. Again, I understand, but we do not and are not able to offer that service. Beyond the significant risks in adopting such a policy, we do not even have the ability to do it.

You are upset that you were not told about the investigation. Well, since I came on board as Support Liaison, we have moved towards giving players more information about their reports. We now share outcomes of many support investigations with the person who reported the incident. I think you'll agree that's an improvement in policy, and it's one I'm very happy we've adopted.

You suggest some sort of regional favourtism. I've worked with the company for more than 8 years, and I can assure you that in all we do, we focus on showing equal respect towards all players. To be quite honest, I find such a suggestion deeply offensive.

I am sorry you're carrying such a high level of anger now, 9 months after your bow was taken. I truly understand that certain policies and practices do not conform to your expectations. But by holding onto your anger, you are not doing yourself or anyone any good whatsoever. With all due respect, there is no "cause" here; the person will not be banned simply because you demand it. I would suggest, with all friendly intent, that you let the matter rest now. -- Gaile 20:15, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Ok..yes...I am still angry about criminal behavior...even though this was just in-game for no real money whatsoever. I am still angry about the attack on America too. Mystified about some elections (twice) and upset about certain rules and policy's, foreign or domestic.

This is not a consuming anger though. It is a personal view about justice and common sense.

I do believe in justice still. Some will come one way or another. The evidence I presented was without question in many opinions and it was less understood why actions are limited.

I love this game though. It saddens me that players hurt players and little can be done about that from a players point of view. Not withstanding all the (unknown) efforts of support.

I apologize if I unintentionally hurt or offended. Never intended other than a business point of view and from a well know human tendency.

Thank you Gaile for your answer. Opposite points of view will never unbalance the respect I feel for all your hard work and the friendship I offer as a player and person. --Silverleaf Don't assume, Know! 09:11, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Trading Ingame

Something that happens much more these days are people who say: 'He I want your item and when they trade after this they put golds instead of platina and accept'. Some people dont read for long and accept, but since those people already accepted your trade. The trade is over. And those people leave the district so that other people can't report them. And the same for not accepting if they see you wait 10sec or so. They leave the district because maybe you are reporting those people. It happend me one's I wrote a support ticket. But what do I get. He we can't do anything for you it is about a transaction between two people and when you accept. Thats the trade. I think this is not a good way to solve this problem and my lead to other people who go think: 'Oh so if I trade I traded and cant get banned for it because we accepted both.' This leads to more people who scam ingame and it is getting worse last weeks. For example the other day I almost got scammed again. And I didnt trade that much with people. I hope you look into this. I know solving this issue is hard. Only thing I can think of is, after accepting it takes 20sec before trade finishes that way you got 20sec to cancel the trade. Then no people can be scammed anymore. Owh and maybe have a look into my support ticket: Reference # 090116-001057 (if you need more answers or need other information just ask, I don't bite ^^, owh and sorry if you can't read what I write :D)(I'm dutch and dyslectic) Death Sligher 22:07, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Death Slighter... You are not going to like this... but, I think you are going to get a standard response no matter what you say or how you report it when it comes down to trade issues such as what you are reporting. If you are trading with someone, there is no need to click accept until you are completely sure that the items and the money being traded are correct. If the other person is in too big of a hurry to let you verify that the trade is exactly what was bargained for then it is very likely they are attempting to scam you by "rushing" you. If you are in too big of a hurry to verify the trade and just click accept because you "assume" that the other person has added things to the trade window properly then you are the only person at fault in a situation like that. Adding a 20 second cancellation window to every single trade is not only a bad idea, its a very bad idea that would completely change how people traded in GW and not for the good. It's not fair to punish the rest of the GW community because of your impatience or your inability to properly deal with someone else's impatience. Learn to examine your trades BEFORE you click the accept button and you will eliminate all of your trading issues. Elric 22:34, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I agree but if you see 100 you can think owh ofcourse 100k you accept and then you see it was gold. Instead of platinum. But anyway alot people try to scam in this way. Mmm I think 99/100 of all people who scam. And one more thing I wrote alot in that ticket but I dont want to repeat everything I said their. And I dont think that is okay because there are names in it. Anyway their must be something what we can do, can't we? And otherwhich adres that this issue is getting worse is also a reason that I post this. Death Sligher 22:55, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

As I said before, the best and also the easiest way to deal with this issue is to pay attention. Double check and do not let anyone rush you. ESPECIALLY on trades that involve a large sum of money. Ultimately, if you get cheated in this game during a trade it is likely to be because you assumed that the icon you saw was the item you were trading(they show the name of each item in the trade window to eliminate this) or you assumed that 100 was 100platinum not 100gold. Either scam involves you making an assumption. Stop assuming that people are going to be honest and start double checking every trade for yourself so you and you alone will know that you got the deal that you agreed to before you click accept. Don't burden the rest of the world with your impatience. Elric 23:14, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Hi DS. Unfortunately, there are only so many steps that we can put in place to assist in the reduction of scams before we start penalizing legitimate players with offensive layers of confirmation, delay, and general nuisance. (And I strongly disagree that 99% of traders are scammers, if I read that correctly!)

I do understand the plat and gold issue, but we made an interface change long ago that addressed the issue. We added the "This trade has changed" warning, too, to address concerns about this issue. Most of the problems that arise come through player haste or inattention -- and no matter what we do, some of those would exist still. I would be very, very cautious of all trades, and would walk away from someone who seems at all suspect. I would take screenshots while conducting trades, to capture both the trade windows and the chat. And I would report immediately if a scam takes place, send the screenshots, and give as many details a possible so that the team can track the scammers. We cannot replace items, but we can extract justice on those who scam, up to and including termination of the account. By doing that, we make the game world a better place and provide a strong warning to others who think they can get away with it. -- Gaile 00:50, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Owh but they dont change trade they just put 100gold in it accept and wait 10sec and otherwhich leave district. For screens look into my support ticket. DEATH SLIGHER 62.133.217.85 10:23, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Well DS, exactly like I said. The best way to deal with this is to defend yourself by paying attention to the trade. The situation you are describing is probably exactly what you think it is. The people putting 100g in the trade window instead of 100p and then zoning out when you don't accept are most likely trying to take advantage of the trusting human nature and our common lack of time to spend doing menial tasks like trading when we would rather be doing something with a lot more adventure. These kind of scams have been going on through out human history and will never stop as long as there are people in this world who are too lazy to do things the honest way. There is nothing further that Anet or anyone else can do about this. They have already made as many changes to the trade system as they are going to meake. You are responsible for your actions. Defend yourself by paying attention and not being in a hurry to get things done. Elric 16:05, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for your comments, Elric. I think they sum up this matter very clearly. It is sad that we must protect ourselves from bad people even in a game environment, but as long as there are humans on earth, there will be human misdeeds. We need to show a reasonable amount of caution in protecting ourselves from that, just as we review our bills and our paychecks, put locks on our doors, and take the key out of the car's ignition. -- Gaile 20:20, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I meaned 1 at 100 of the people who trade are scammers I guess. But maybe that was wrong information sorry. Death Sligher 17:05, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

But there are really lots of people doing this for example i started gw 4min ago and found this person with this in trade. He says WTB 20ecto/20zkeys for 100k and gives 100gp. And as you can see he is lvl5 so i guess after a trade he goes offline and deletes this character so that noone can report him:/ http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/4606/gw744hb9.jpg 145.53.242.142 17:54, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

HI GAILE (account blocked by mistake 045)

i am a chinese player. My account is the demo account about(10hours/14days)and that cant be deal with anybody (PS:the demo account have restriction with the deal that i have no chance to break the rules) so Incredible! i dont deal with anybody because the demo account don't be allowed for anybody's deal. oh Gaile,PLZ.i want to the know the real reason about my blocked account.

account blocked by mistake 045 [Incident: 090120-000631]‏ Waiting for your good news. THX

Just as a very quick question before Gaile gets here, but are you sure you haven't played for 10 hours already? It's very easy to lose track of time on this game. :) -- Salome 10:32, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

i sure i am not and there are two hours time.so i am very sad about it and thank for your(Salome) help.

I would imagine that the support team has already answered this question, and has told you that the reason that the account was blocked was that it was in some way related to sales of gold or items for real-world money. Keep in mind, we block anyone involved in RMT, on any level. That does not give trial accounts immunity from a block, because they can certainly be involved in assisting RMTs in advertising, sales, botting, delivery, or several other disallowed activities. Since the team has reviewed this and declined a reinstatement, I will respect their decision. Thank you for understanding. -- Gaile 20:17, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Run Scamming/Leeching.. Is it acceptable?

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

So this sounds like a ridiculous question at first.. But I'm curious is there anything against agreeing to pay a runner for a run and then not paying? If you stop and think about it, you aren't really stealing anything like in a trade window, or picking up a drop, you are merely breaking an agreement with another player. Reason I ask is I use to make money buy running dungeons but I stopped because it got to the point there were so many different scammers or "leechers" that it really became less profitable and more of a waste of time. Now I think it's pretty bad when you can go to a town, say Doomlore Shrine(where just about all eotn dungeon run begins) and you just mention a few names of these "leechers"(players who so happen to need to go afk at the end of a run until everyone leaves.. every single time) and half the town knows them as scammers, having been scammed by them personally. I know they have been reported on several occasions and had reports filed thru support but nothing seems to ever be done, they are on the following days and sadly they still find more people to scam as you see them yelling in town not to run the same old names.

Now if its not acceptable to scam other players how would you properly report a scammer? Its not practical to take a screen shot every time you start a group and make them profess an oath that they will pay you XXX amount, for yet another screen shot. Its also impractical to not finish a dungeon because of 1 or 2 scammers as you will be losing more money then they are costing you. And by the time you realize you have been scammed what are your real options? Ask your team to report them, take screen shots of the afk player as they begin to run towards the chest, as you ask them to pay you.. to no response with your trade window open, only to have them get the end chest and zone out? They aren't going to talk to you and if you send these various pictures in to support they will say there is no evidence of any wrong doing so what exactly are you left with option wise? Besides watching the same occurrence happen over and over to other runners. I am just curious as to what your thoughts are on this matter thanks in advance --O Frost O 22:56, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

My opinion? You mean my personal opinion that scammers stink? :) No, I know that's not what you're asking for, Frost, and I'm going to see if I can answer. At one time, Support's response to scam reports was that the team could not intercede in private agreements between two players. Over time, though, we saw people taking advantage of that hands-off policy, so we started accepting and investigating scam reports. But scams are very difficult to prove, even having the tools the team has, like game logs, etc. I don't know that you need to take massive numbers of screenshots because the team can pull records, but a screenshot or two attached to the ticket would be nice; it can help pinpoint the details that you'd like to offer.

The fact is, what one person sees as solid proof of a scam, the team may view as not offering quite enough evidence. I've seen some of the peskier ones and sometimes it is hard to tell what was agreed to and what the scammer did at the end. For instance, did he leave or did he have an ISP-related boot? Was the agreement so clear-cut that an impartial person can see the agreement and the failure to meet that agreement?

Providing with the date and time (and time zone) and with character names and a brief outline of what took place, the team will review the records and see if it can establish that the scam took place. We are not in the practice of "letting scamming slide," when we can establish that it happened. Does that help at all? -- Gaile 23:22, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for your quick response, I think I'll quote the "Gaile said scammers stink!" line next time someone gets scammed :D But I do realize how difficult it is to actually determine if something happened or not, and what in fact actually occurred. At least now we have a better idea of what to do in the situation if it arises again. --O Frost O 16:15, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

if you feel thats what theyre doign drag multiple monsters to the area of the chest andthe player that way they cant reach the reward it works nicley if done right, one mob at chest one at res shrine that way they cant get the reward they tryed to scam you out of. devious yes, mean yes, acceptable i liek to think so(insert maniacle laugh)

Consequences for Fake Reporting

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Hi Gaile,

I played a game of Random Arenas the other day, and I was teamed up with three members from the same guild. They were obviously syncing. For whatever reason, they didn't like me/my build on their team and demanded repeatedly that I leave before the battle ended. I just ignored them and did my part to win the battle, and one second before the end of the match, all three of them falsely reported me for leeching even though I participated (healing/attacking/forgot what build I used that day) throughout the entire match. Can anything be done about this type of behaviour? These players were abusing the /report system and making me get the dishonor hex even though I helped them win the battle. And let's not forget the fact that they were syncing in Random Arenas. And since they formed a majority, they got no dishonor points at all even though all of them filed a false report.

I would like to know if you are working on ways to stop fake reports and if you do actually punish people who abuse the system by submitting fake reports. I thought people who abused the report feature were supposed to have their account banned as stated in the red-lettered WARNING text for the /report system. "WARNING: Abuse of the report feature may lead to your account being banned." Thanks for your help! Yu5cef 05:43, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

wait, so reporting someone for bringing the worst skill in the game is wrong? how about when they bring incredibly broken skills or broken weapons? --adrin 05:55, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

What does that have to do with Yu5cef's issue? --fraught · (talk) 07:26, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Wait...what are you talking about adrin? Kelvin Greyheart 17:50, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

If you bring Resurrect you are clearly hurting your team and should be reported. Like how when I Arcane Echo Aura of the Lich then Illusion of Weakness myself to death, causing my minions to attack my own teammates, I get reported and it's perfectly valid. They need to add a category in the report feature that says "F A I L" --adrin 22:43, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Yet what does this have to do with the above commentary? Also, Res is not actively hurting your team. It is not performing optimally, but it is hardly actively hurting. Not to mention, do you seriously report people for using a scythe, PS, xinraes weapon and other things? Please clarify what you are talking about. Kelvin Greyheart 00:52, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

@Yu5cef: Honestly I don't know what can be done about this. /report in this instance is an automated system. I will ask what remedies we have for this sort of situation. -- Gaile 01:19, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

@Adrin: Yes. Reporting someone because you don't like their skills, their play style, or their choice of hairstyle is dead wrong! The system is intended to be used only for reporting issues such as leeching and harassment. Playing foolishing (or dying your armour unwisely ;) ) is not against the game rules and is not something on which Support will take action. No one on the support or development teams would judge gameplay, weapon use, skill choices, etc., and players should not misuse the system for reports of this type. In relation to Yu5cef's concern, if someone conspires with his teammates to use /report for reasons other than a breach of the User Agreement, that's abuse of the system. If proved, such abuse may result in far more than a simple hex. -- Gaile 01:19, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

So it's ok to intentionally grief other players (as in the case where adrin makes minions, then kills himself), which isn't against any rules, EULA, or ToU. However, intentionally exploiting bugs (examples include synching and using bugged skills) IS against the rules, why are people not banned for that?

On the OP's issue, it sucks that cheaters report you specifically because you follow the rules, an anti-synching fix has been overdue for 3 years, and the dishonor system was a semi-moronic idea to begin with, crippled by an even worse implementation. ~Shard 02:09, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

You asked if you can use the /report system because you don't like someone's skills, or the way they play. I said "No, that is not what the system is designed to address." It's like using the Littering Hotline to complain about someone's driving. Please consider: If you hit /report for such things, what are we supposed to do? Magically "play back" a movie of the match and say "Oh, wow, that guy has a less-than-perfect bow, out he goes?" The system is divided into the types of offenses that the system can address, and "griefing" or even "stupid gameplay" are not included. :)

It is your assumption that synching is a bug or an exploit. It is not. Synching is simply one of many gameplay mechanics that players have come to use. At this time, a synchronized entry of a map is not considered an exploit, nor is it based on the use of a game bug. However, the dev team is keenly aware that many players (perhaps the majority) are unhappy about synching, and the designers are discussing the possibility of addressing synching in some way in the future. What they will decide and when any change may be made have not yet been determined. Broken skills are pretty much our fault, and those should be reported via the Skill Bugs Page so that we can fix them. The use of exploits -- such as the Mallyx Exploit or, say, Duping -- is against the UA and the RoC, and such actions are the player's fault and do result in account termination. We would greatly appreciate those being reported to support so that we can take action on exploiters. -- Gaile 21:07, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

"The system is intended to be used only for reporting issues such as leeching and harassment. Playing foolishing (or dying your armour unwisely ;) ) is not against the game rules and is not something on which Support will take action. No one on the support or development teams would judge gameplay, weapon use, skill choices, etc., and players should not misuse the system for reports of this type" I got dishonor because my skill choices were Arcane Echo, Aura of the Lich, and Illusion of weakness (before my RA match started). Is that an abuse of the reporting feature? --adrin 04:52, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes that is an abuse, but how did someone get that through the system? Did they look at your skill bar and encourage everyone to /report you? I would say that's very unfair and an inappropriate use of a system designed for pointing out leeching, harassment, and other such issues. Once given, the Dishonor Hex is not something that Support can amend. (And of course it lasts such a short time, it's not a huge penalty in any case.) Although at this point Support doesn't have the means to amend such situations, we are looking at improvements to the system that will allow us to do so in the future. -- Gaile 06:11, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

XTH account problem

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Hi Gaile, I created an XTH account, but accidentally used the same email account for registration confirmation email to be sent to as is used for the guild wars account itself. The problem is that the email account isn't accessible any more; it works fine for GW, but obviously I can't access the email to check it to complete the registration. It's now saying when i try to remake the ?XTH account, that I can't as it is already registered. I sent a ticket to support a while ago, and they asked me to send the correct details which I've duly done, but I still can't get in, and have received no confirmation or no word as to whether they'll be able to change the details. With the XTH deadline coming up so soon, I was wondering if you'd be able to help in any way? 86.148.188.134 17:44, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Hello, 86. Yes, we can fix that for you, and I think perhaps the request was misplaced in the system or it would have been done earlier than this. Could you give me the Incident (ticket) Number so that I can ask someone to review this request? Thanks. -- Gaile 18:41, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Incident number is 090121-000575 86.148.188.134 19:41, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for that information. I have taken a peek at that ticket, and I see that our UK support rep routed it to someone at ArenaNet, although I believe this is something that the Support team may be able to address directly. I have written three folks on two teams to inquire. :) I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get this resolved before the voting period ends. I'm real sorry for the delay! -- Gaile 01:59, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

And I had just said I'd never go back to Blizzard...

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

For several months I had been working on my drunkard title...had maxed several titles prior to that, and was told in Kamadan to download an auto click program to make the timing easier...I was told that it's not a bot, and ANet looked at it like Texmod. I spent the next three days auto clicking my drunkard title after asking around and being told that that's how most people get maxed.

After that someone said that you can max your Luxon and Kurz titles by entering missions...just auto click the enter mission and go afk.

Came home last night with an error code =045 and a perm suspension, so I sent a request to see if I could be given a steep warning and never go that route again. A few minutes ago, I got a canned email stating that there was nothing that could be done, thanks for writing.

Your Guild Wars Account has been closed for using an illegal third party program. We want you to know that we use great care when analyzing accounts prior to termination. We are both diligent and conservative in determining which accounts are using these programs, and we only take action after we are able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that such use has occurred.

For additional information on the User Agreement and Rules of Conduct, please visit the below links:

http://www.guildwars.com/support/legal/rulesofconduct.php http://www.guildwars.com/support/legal/user-agreement.php

Regards, GMLemoncobra The Guild Wars Support Team

I use the auto click program and my keyboard for several things and didn't realize it was going to get me banned...well...after three years of game play and this sudden of action while I watch people break the eula agreements in Kamadan constantly...I'm starting to wonder if I should just go back to Diablo and wait for Diablo 3 release?

Be warned, ANet doesn't accept sorry...I didn't think it was considered a bot as an excuse. You'll get banned and everything you've worked for in the last three years will be wasted. Actually it's sad...this was the first time I went with ANet/NCSoft...because of the canned phrase email and not even being given a chance...I'm thinking about moving on. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:65.50.21.87 (talk).

You honestly heard that using a third party program was OK? I think you might need to rethink the kind of people you ask about thinks like that. It is blatantly against the rules, and while you were treated harshly, I don't think there is any other way Anet can go with things like this. There is always the temptation for players to do what (most of us) do when we get frustrated at the seeming "grind" of a single player game - cheat. However, it is important to note the Guild Wars is not a single player game, and so we need to respect other players and the developers by not cheating. Ashes Of Doom 00:03, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) Sadly, you were lied about the program. As soon as you start using something to automate a process (ie. auto-clicking every certain amount of time), then it becomes a bot. A different story would have been if you used a program to trigger an alarm so you could click manually, but you leave pretty clear that this is not the case.

Everyone would bot if Anet were "giving chances". You made a mistake by listening to someone instead of to common sense, the mistake had its consecuences. Life goes on after that.--Fighterdoken 00:06, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

"[Using a third party program] is blatantly against the rules" ... what about TexMod, gwx2, bunches of others that are less known? Pretty sure those aren't illegal by a long shot. Vili 00:08, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Anet makes a pretty clear distinction between permitting (reluctantly) the use of programs which make the player's life easier (such as texmod and gwx2, both of which I use) and programs that actually give an advantage to the player. I just don't see how someone who has read the Guild Wars EULA (or whatever they want to call it) could not make the distinction. It states pretty clearly that using a bot to perform tasks automatically is disallowed. ...including but not limited to the use of 'bots' and/or any other method by which the Service may be played automatically without human input. Ashes Of Doom 00:13, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

So Gw team builder that automatically inserts skills in your bar would be considered a bot also? I'm not sure how entering a mission while I was afk is considered an advantage? the experience points I recieved were unimportant considering I had over 1.1k points I never used, if you call getting 2k gold every four hours an advantage...you never have got very far...and I thought title farming was title farming. What's the difference between something keeping the game up on 9 rings, drunkard, inserting skills or entering a mission? --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:65.50.21.87 (talk). '

Keeping the game on 9 Rings does nto require a special program, just you AFk, you having to program minimized, or you just not moving your character. Not much else is different between the others, besides what specificaly they do, as they all do something for you, and I'm pretty sure you can get banned for all those as well. — Jon Lupen 00:34, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) A few comments:

• The response you received from Support was written and sent by a real person, not a bot. I work with LemonCobra, and he's a good and diligent associate who carefully reviews tickets before responding. While the phrasing may be formal, it is so by necessity, to make it perfectly clear what our stance is on this matter.

• Didn't know you couldn't use an automated system? Did you consult the wiki? Did you consider the ArenaNet pages, asking a staff member, submitting a query to the Support Team (we receive a few a week about this), or reviewing any number of forum posts, wiki posts, even Dev Updates about the matter?

• @ Vili: The difference between TexMod and other programs is that TextMod does not intersect with the game server and does not give advantage to a player using it. A player that cuts the "work" out of "working on a title" is being given an advantage. To state the obvious, it's downright cheating!

• I'm not sure if this applies to what you did, but entering parts of the game as a party member -- with or opposing other players -- and then going AFK is considered leeching. Leeching is against the rules of fair play, against the Rules of Conduct and the Event/Tournament/PvP Rules, and normal, decent standards of sportsmanship. You're not only taking advantage of a cheat for your own gain, you're putting your party members at a disadvantage and adversely impacting the play experience of others.

• On the "Everyone does it" comment. Nope, not true. I'm 8,000+ into Drunkard, and I clicked every single jug, bottle, flask, or stein. And I would warrant that a large number of people with the title did that, as well. Those who didn't simply did not earn the title.

• On the "other people cheat" comment: Yes, they do. But we don't stop taking action because we cannot action everyone, any more than the police stop giving tickets because they can't catch all those who speed, drive recklessly, or break other laws of the road. If you see breaches of the User Agreement report them and they will be researched and dealt with, as appropriate. But using "you didn't action the naughty name" as justification to cheat is monumental illogic.

• Basically, what's the point of getting a title if you don't -- you know -- actually get the title? What sort of "accomplishment" did you achieve, in cheating your way to a meaningless title?

I am responding to this because I see a very real support issue here. I see the Support Team being criticized for doing the right thing, for taking good, reasonable, prudent action on the account of someone who was repeatedly exploiting the game. I see the team being called to task for doing their job, for enforcing a policy that we, as a company, and all legitimate players endorse. Your problem is decidedly not with the Support Team, for they most assuredly did the right thing. -- Gaile 00:42, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

I did all my drinking in FoW lol...well, at least 2000 or so of my 4400 mins. My ele has very little of her liver left...--*Yasmin Parvaneh* 00:13, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

That's just it Gayle...I see their point...because you guys allowed other programs to run that weren't considered bots, I didn't think this would be an issue. The exact area was Amatz Bastin, and I was solo pve. I was not leaching, or anything else...I was simply reentering a mission. I'm not questioning the action taken, but thought that the appology for a first time offense after three years of play would be a different story other than just sorry, buy a new key and hope to see you in GW2. I'm not questioning the actions taken...if I was in violation, I needed to be told so. I'm not angry, and I'm not trying to put down you or your staff...I did enjoy my time playing guild wars, but banning someone for using a click program? The only reason I used it was because someone told me they had a few titles maxed on it, and ANet didn't care. Seems you'd get less people banned off stuff like this if people didn't just get straight off banned...because the guy who told me it was ok was never given that warning...I told several people I know about maxing drunk using a click program...now you'll ban them too and nobody playing has any reason to say...hey...don't do that, here's my story. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:65.50.21.87 (talk). '

(Edit conflict) Correct me if I'm wrong Gaile (or anyone else) but Arena Net policy is as follows: aside from no longer being supported and frowned upon, no negative action is taken aginst peope purly on the fact that they are using 3rd party programs. Texmod and GWx2 both make the game easier for the player in their own way, but they only modify the ingame appearance, or providing visual assistance. You start to run into problems when you're botting, or running 3rd party apps that are playing the game or doing things for you. Texmod and GWx2 may make the game easier for you, and so do bots, but they do not do anything for you, unlike bots. — Jon Lupen 01:05, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

@IP: Less enforcement of rules makes violations run wild. You may have fewwer consiquenced dealed out, but you will only have more people breaking the rules. Click-botting is still click-botting, and botting is a violation of the rules, hence standard punishment for botting. — Jon Lupen 01:10, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) Nice response Gaile. I had never realized this was such an issue either. I see you have a support FAQ, maybe you would consider adding a couple of points about 3rd party programs to it? I would have thought it was obvious, but if so many people are having trouble, it might merit a section. There is an often quoted remark of yours about non-harmful mods (something about an if it eats your refrigerator don't complain policy?), and a couple of the points you make above that might be useful to have in a relatively prominent place. To the OP: Basically, Gaile is saying that "other people did it" isn't an excuse. It is very clear in the EULA - which you should have read before playing the game - that all 3rd party programs are forbidden, but especially bots. Support has been kind enough to tell us they have a slightly different policy on certain non-harmful programs, but if you do use those ones, make sure (from a reliable source) that it is ok. Giving 2nd chances seems like a nice idea, but it is completely unenforceable without a lot more work on the part of Support - how would they keep track of warnings, etc? As far as they are concerned, you broke the rules, even though you were told about the consequences ahead of time. Ashes Of Doom 01:13, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Yea, I understand that part, and I'm very happy that Gayle responded herself without the canned phrase of copy/paste the EULA. I made a mistake, and would like others to benefit from it. If I was a little different though, I'd buy another key and advertise links to the autoclick programs...but I still think after three years of play and one instance was pretty harsh. I'm not selling gold on ebay, or trading rune scape accounts. Actually because of GW, I was able to prevent someone from comitting suicide a month or so ago. My last session couldn't be validated, but I'm sure Gayle remembers the incident with Jaypac. Side note, the state police found her on the bridge and she's safe now. I'm not the next Charles Manson, I just made a mistake by listening to a few people that said they had used the program and nobody cared. No, I didn't check the agreements because of Texmod and Teambuilder. I didn't think to ask support if they minded auto click...I wasn't farming ecto to bring down the price of anything, and I wasn't leaching, so I thought the people who told me it was ok were telling the truth. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:65.50.21.87 (talk).

Remember, kids, don't use drugs. Even if your friends say it's cool.

Sometimes nothing happens. Sometimes you get into troubles. Sometimes you die. Game over.

You took the risk. You got busted. --NIN37 04:05, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Saw the new log in screen with third party program warnings. Hopefully people using auto click will take the time to read it. Tried the 10 day trial of WoW...it's not Guild Wars, and the people in game seem a little immature...guess I'll find something else to do for a while. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Cross78 (talk).

Entering and exiting and entering and exiting an area while afk using a macro/computer program to do this task for you while you are not at the computer in a repetative fashion is definitely 100% the absolute definition of "botting". If there is any doubt, the definition is: "a term for a third-party program that is designed to play the game in lieu of the player. The idea of a third-party bot is simple: a player can activate a program which will farm or leech in-game rewards for the person while he or she sleeps, works, or otherwise goes about life outside of Guild Wars. In this manner, a player can accumulate large amounts of gold or faction with little to no effort." What you did was no different that the 70+ people named Wyututut Wghftrutu, Qetretet Oerteetetr and Utyutuityi Netrdedgbcb going in and out of the zones in Grotto, Gates of Kryta, the Troll Cave in Droks & Arborstone lagging up the servers. I see nothing wrong with Anet's action of banning/suspending you, and Gaile's reply was professional. Do not expect sympathy on this wiki when you were clearly breaking the game's rules. --*Yasmin Parvaneh* 00:06, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

I honestly feel that this click thing is less of an issue than TexMod. While TexMod may not intersect the game servers, the mapping mods applied by this application do give the player a very real and quantifiable advantage on all cartography titles and the master of the north title. If a player set up an analog device that would tap the mouse button twice every minute to use an ale, allowing a user to complete the drunkard title while afk, how would that figure in since it's not a computer program or macro? 24.188.207.20 01:44, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

A click-bot, without taking into acount how damaging it actualy is to the game, it's still a bot, which is against policy. Texmod is not a bot. While it may make mapping much easier for the player, it neither actualy does something for the playing, nor is it against any policies. Support is not given to those running Texmod or such for problems encountered while running said programs is all. — Jon Lupen 01:51, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

I find myself offended when people compare my cartography mods to botting. While it's true it does give the user a slight advantage over someone who's not using it, there is a huge difference between this and someone running a bot.--Pyron Sy 03:45, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

...and it's not like "zomg! me legendary cartographer now! finally i can print customized maps and sell'em for big profit!", hehe. :P

Sure, other than the total absent of impact in the economy (which isn't even an issue at all), TexMod does not change the fact that the player who wishes to get Cartographer will still need to, you know, explore the whole map (and look dumb while running towards hills, walls and other clearly impassable obstacles just to uncover a small tiny bit little area that belongs to an adjacent map...). :P

And it's a passive client-side application: it does not directly interact with the server (like clicking somewhere, hitting buttons at a given interval of time, talking to the merchant to dump loot from farming, etc). --NIN37 10:08, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I cannot agree. TexMod grants a significant advantage to players especially when working on the last 5% of a cartography title. While there are not in-game economy impacts and, yes, it is not a bot, it is a 3rd party computer program that grants an advantage in reducing time and effort required to complete these titles. While aNet support may not see a problem with this, comparisons of the mapping fog both with and without TexMod modifications apply clearly spell out the significance of using this tool (I would dare say it qualifies as an exploitative tool in this context) for individuals pursuing these titles. It definitively spells out exactly where a player needs to scrape where the normal map would be otherwise ambiguous. I fail to see any argument that could defy that.... now as for my question about using an analog device in the aforementioned context, can I get an official response to that? 24.188.207.20 18:10, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Yet, with Texmod, you still have to actively play the game to get the title. With a clicker, not so much. That's the difference. Either way, Anet says you can't use programs that automate anything in your playing, so that's pretty much it. And I also remember Gaile stating an analog device is using something that automates your play style too, and is a bannable offense.

Not that sure about that statement anymore, but I found an answer from GW support, basically saying the same. --Arduinna 18:40, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

It's really not that confusing. It depends on the severity, and the bot-like behavior. Texmod carto requires you to be in front of the computer playing. There's no negative impact on others. You still have to do the work of walking to places. Bots take away that work, and often also promote behaviors like leeching which negatively impact others. At the least, botting faction reduces the value of faction, which is linked via zkeys or trade or town control to other in-game perks. So large-scale botting has a negative impact. Botting for drinks might be in the gray area, because let's face it, there's not much of a negative impact.

Usually, those defending botting are those who cannot see the consequences of their acts. Or don't care about them. But just like garbage on the streets, every piece adds up, and eventually people stop caring.

@24: botting is wrong, because the user is not playing the game. Using gaming devices to automate certain aspects of the game is tolerated, as long as the game is there, playing the game. -- Alaris 18:50, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Hmm.... The drink bot I'm srprised about. As not really sure how clicking that over and over is in anyway disadvantaging others or for that matter how its an achievement to click a button once every minute. Simply put that title is annoying and fiddly and to be honest just plain old badly designed. It impacts peoples play experiance in a negative manner and really drunkard should be changed so that its the same as the party and sweet titles and be spammable as the true achievement in these titles is gaining the required amount of items for it, not boring reptitive mind-numbing clicking. I myself have not and nor will I use a third pary program for gaining a title in this manner as personally I don't want a title i havent worked for, but honestly this title needs rethought to make it more viable for the player base to attain in a manner which isn't so numbing and unenjoyabe (watching 10,000 mins of generic faux-drunken effects, loses its novelty factor mighty quickly). -- Salome 19:10, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

If you don't agree with a title, then petition for it to be changed. Personally, I too think Drunkard is unecessarily painful to gain. It'd be better if you could have an auto-drink option, or if drinking above the limit counted directly to the title. But.... looking at that person's complaint, it seems he was kicked when he started botting the missions, not when he was botting the drunkard title. IMO, botting drinking is a minor offense at best (temporary ban at best), but botting missions is bannable. Looks like that's how ANet reacted too. -- Alaris 20:21, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) The Support Team does not have a varied reaction to the use of bots, such as saying "This bot is bad, immediate ban," "This bot is not so bad, we'll look the other way" or even "we'll give that certain bot a reduced penalty." You're not "a little bit of a botter" any more than someone can be "a little bit pregnant." I spoke with our Support Team lead, and he confirmed bot = ban. It's really that simple. -- Gaile 21:09, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Gaile. Good to know (not that I was ever planning to bot drunkard). -- Alaris 21:17, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

If I have absolutely no life at all, and I click the drinks at a specific interval(~+-1 second) for more than 10000 minutes in a row, would I get banned or misunderstood as botting?Pika Fan 21:27, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Pika Fan, I'm pretty sure you know that there are a lot of different ways in which we identify bots. It's not just "This player played for a gazillion hours straight." There are about 20 other means to see, "Yep, that's a bot user." So if you were online for 10,000 straight minutes and hit every single drink container spot-on for timing to get your title, I highly doubt you'd be blocked for botting. And if that rare, rare situation arose, and if you did get blocked in error, you'd send an appeal to the Support Team and they'd do a prompt review and reverse the error. So, lifeless drunkards are free to carry on. :) -- Gaile 21:32, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

I found a way to make my drinking less broing, my hubby Adrin saved up to get me the everlasting Vekk tonic, now when we drink at the GH we chase each other in a very blurry Vekk form. That or I turn off the "effects" and drink in long missions/fow/ha...true its not as fun if it isn't blurry, but at least you can do the title without it being as tedious.--*Yasmin Parvaneh* 21:38, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Just to clarify my post, it's not that I agree with the OP's actions, as I agree with being banned for farming faction via a bot, however in farming the drunkard title I undertstand his sentiment though not his actions. I do think the title needs changed, as alaris said bonus drink points should be added to the title when one is at max drunkard, that way one could simply spam their alcohol if they wanted too and reduce the amount of time/loss incured by trying to click alsohol once a minute in an almost painfully dull lifeless manner. However as Alaris said, that change would require campaigning and it's unlikely anet will invest a change in a title which has existed for so lond in its current form. -- Salome 22:52, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

To be honest guys, its not that hard to create a drink bot that would probably pass Anet's scrutiny... If I really wanted to, I could probably come up with one in an hour or two that looked convincingly human (I can't be bothered, don't morally feel that it's ok, and wouldn't want to risk my account on the off chance they did catch it.) The thing is, that's not the point of the game. You may consider it a badly designed and pointless title (and I'd be inclined to agree in some respects), but you have the option not to complete it. Even if you are dead set on getting GWAMM, you don't need drunkard. That's the beauty of having extra titles. As far as texmod goes, it is not doing anything for you that a good pair of glasses isn't already helping me with- it simply enhances the difference between blurry grey that hasn't been explored and blurry grey that cant be explored. It is not playing the game for me. Ashes Of Doom 23:19, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Its a great title because it is so ridiculously absurd. I wanted it for the lulz of my blond ele running around in her go-go dancer luxon armor. But then, people were telling me "no way, you can't get it, its too expensive, it takes too much time"...oh when I'm told I *can't* do something...I spent 70k on 4456 mins. thank you to everyone who donated the booze btw--Purge, Shard, Adrin, Klug, Pwni, Zikum, Leon, Armond & Shun--and if you do it like I do, it really doesn't feel like I've spend that much time. Thankfully my guild takes about an hour to set up for HA/GvG so I need something to click, other than the ground to make my char run in circles around the GH.--*Yasmin Parvaneh* 23:36, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

@Salome: just like they're not likely to change titles like Wisdom or Treasure hunter or Luxon or Kurzick. Oh, wait... they did change them. For me though, it's a moot point, because as Ashes said, it's not required for GWAMM, and as Yasmin said, it's a great title because it's so absurd. I've made my mind and went for other titles, there's enough choice out there. -- Alaris 00:46, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Hey guys. I invite a continuation of this topic, but I realize that it really would be best on the Support Issues Page. I'm going to move it, with a redirect, and you're invited to continue the conversation there. Thanks for your understanding. -- Gaile 04:25, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

I know I'm very late in posting this but I feel pretty strongly about this sort of thing and want to give my two cents. I always thought it was extremely stupid to attempt to use any sort of 3rd party software that you add to the game. I didn't touch textmod for my Legendary Cartographer title and about the worst I did for that title was the old fashioned photoshop trick but that thing took some skill and good eyes. If you have to be convinced by someone that "no one gets in trouble" for using X third party product, stay away from it. You gotta use your gut with these things. Though, since someone up there mentioned a support FAQ page, would be nice to have a "good" list and a "bad" list. That will help people who are horrible at judging if something is right or wrong. Though, I believe in the concept that if you aren't sure, don't do it. Katherinezoltin 06:01, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

I think there's never going to be a "good list" or a "bad list" for 3rd party programs. It's been stated before that they can't officially approve of any 3rd party programs- they want to remain universal in saying "just don't". They may not ban someone for using Texmod, but that doesn't mean they really approve either. There's some tricky aspects to such lists, too: If kept on the wiki, someone with malicious intent may choose to edit the page to display bad things on the good list if the page were unprotected. If the page were protected, however, there is still the risk of unreliable mirror sites and "tweaked" versions of the so-called good programs popping up. Just because the original version is benevolent, doesn't mean that someone can't stick a keylogger in their own version and put it online. I don't think that's the kind of can of worms ANet wants to get involved with... -- Elv 11:05, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

IMO all clickfest titles need to be removed so crap like this doesn't happen. Or stop using JaGex as inspiration for the rule violation system.

To all titles grinders: you are so bored since you are a god among mere mortals that the only thing left is another title with so much grind that the only reasonalble way to get it is another bot ? Be happy: i got the solution - go get your title without consumables, invulnerability skills and bots. I promise, you will have a game content you never saw before. A whole brand new game for your godly skills ! Yseron - 90.48.133.21 06:56, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

I 100% totally uneqivocally agree with Yseron's observation. I challenge anyone who plays GW .. if you cant do the missions without boosters then you dont know how to play and deserve to be bored. Maybe there should be a title for those who complete all missions without the use of any boosters or runs etc .. just plain old builds and perhaps a pinch of luck .. after several attempts I was finally able to get the bonus on Dunes of Despair with no boosters used and no tricks (like necrotic travel) just 2 human players ... and we nailed it .. no better feeling than that in the entire world--Ahrzahni 19:48, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi Gaile

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

plz ban Remember Lots Wife, he's been botting fort aspenwood for like a month and i must've reported him over 9000 times but he's still there. good thing he's on luxon side now, still annoying. --Cursed Angel 16:52, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

How do you know he is botting? (user:ixillius 16:57, 29 January 2009 (UTC))

Set motion pattern, failure to reply to comments directed at them (local, team or whisper alike), and a number of other things are usually decent clues. If a character goes through the exact same motions and skill patterns every single match, that's pretty much a dead giveaway. -- Elv 18:08, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

he really is a dead giveaway, never respond, never do anything else than running down to gunther and spam all his ritu heals on recharge all day, from beginning to end even if luxon never breaks in at all. I've heard alot of ppl call it a bot (it really is that obvious), but mostly not more than 2-3 report him each match (mostly cuz ppl don't care as 1/3 of each teams are leechers and not enough ppl report anyway so ppl get tired of getting dishonorable for reporting), and i keep seeing him like every third match or something. --Cursed Angel 20:12, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Ah i see. Maybe we need to get some hard evidence to stop him, record a few runs, some diferent people. Maybe have a GM check it out. BTW i forgot i signed with ip soz. (Ixillius 21:49, 29 January 2009 (UTC))

This has been attempted in the past. I've submitted a couple of tickets on this account back before the character used was switched to a primary Mesmer (081012-000555 for Gaile's reference). -- WarBlade 22:51, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Leeching is very frustrating, I agree. Members of many ArenaNet teams are actively talking about this subject at the current time. I'm not sure if changes will be made to the game, the report system, or the way that we support either of them. If changes are made, though, I imagine you will see such information in a future Dev Update. -- Gaile 03:32, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

He's not leeching, it's a third-party bot some guy have in fort aspenwood all day. --Cursed Angel 14:00, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

He's leeching with a bot.152.226.7.213 05:22, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Another leecher QQ

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Gaile, its only getting worse. Yesterday and today in fort aspeenwood [lux] ive had teams with 5 leechers. The other 2 active people just leave and it leaves me alone. I then leave because its a waste of my time. Cant something be done? Like get a GM to monitor every once in awhile [since no one will use the report system =( ]? I know a lot of players would gladly help in any way. Its killing many players enjoyment of competitive missions, and only creating discord between players and anet. I know linsey has said she can look into it but we've yet to hear an answer. can you shine a light on this? Sweet Escape 02:06, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I was one of the unlucky ones that got caught with.....7 leechers. I was the only human on the team. Under normal circumstances I dismiss this as bad luck, but ever since this incident I've really started to question what can be done. I like the report system, but when five, six, and (in my case) seven leechers are up....well, hard to report them :P. Still, I hope something can be done, if anything. While I don't play FA much, the times I do are rather...frustrating. -- Wandering Traveler 02:27, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

I was just going to mention that the Live Team has been discussing this very situation, but I notice that SweetEscape mentioned he had seen Linsey's comments earlier. All I can say is that the subject is being discussed and that the team is keenly aware of issues involving botting, leeching, and the /report system. I know when there is something new to share, we absolutely will do so. Until then, I'm sorry that I do not have any additional information or suggestions. -- Gaile 02:42, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Even worser then having soo many Leechers is that you cant even report them without having yourself timebanned from PvP as you cant meet the 1/3 of your Team Requirement for LeechReport. --SilentStorm 02:50, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Which is why I go make myself a cup of green tea if I see more than 2 leechers. Relax, have a cup of green tea.152.226.7.213 02:58, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Now thats a philosiphy I can live by. I've all but stopped FA, but I still enjoy myself even when there are only 3 people there :) -- Wandering Traveler 03:02, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

I think the report system would have been a lot better if arenanet put any thought into it beyond "let's make an abusable report system." One thing they NEED to do is to only give dishonor points to the first person leaving a match, because right now the system punishes the people who aren't leeching. ~Shard 03:25, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Yes, it's frustrating to not be comfortable using the system because you worry about a mark against you-- a legitimate player -- for reporting the leechers and botters. :( That's not a good situation, and it's something I know the team will try to address. I've seen some of the discussions, and the devs really do see the drawbacks. The challenge is finding a better system that is feasible to introduce and doesn't present a new set of problems. It's rather more complicated than it appears. -- Gaile 03:53, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Why not GMs? People who play the game and can do things like, say, review trade/chat logs (past matches, similar to the observe function?) and assign dishonor/bans, sort of like the sysops on this wiki. I can think of several people who'd do it for free. Raine - talk 04:04, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Attune yourself with nature, enjoy the wonders and health benefits of green tea. Om nom nom nom152.226.7.213 04:19, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

They'd need a lot of GMs to monitor just those PvP areas with mass leechers. Though, 'spot visits' would be nice. Random times through the day/week. Catch a few leechers and stuff, never know when they're coming. Wouldn't require a mass GM presence, that and updating the system so legitimate players aren't slapped for doing the right thing. Aba Malatu means Forbidden Truth 05:47, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

That's what I was thinking. GMs would just play the areas as normal (no dedicated "moderators", just players who moderate), then when they saw a leecher (or other problem: spam, scamming, etc.; they'd be able to cut down on a lot of things), they'd slap Dishonor on them (or chat suppression, or whatever else may be appropriate for whatever reportable offense). A GM system could kill a lot of birds with one stone, if you will. And again, it would (could) cost Anet little more than it cost to put in sysops for the wiki. Raine - talk 06:40, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

I vote for making me a GM ;D. All i do is FA when i play GW anyways, so why not have synergy?! ;) Sweet Escape 07:10, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

I think trying to remake the report system is one option and giving random in-game players GM rights is the other one. The abuse factor on both is really high. The current report system doesn't work because it punishes you for "abusing" it. Abusing seems to be reporting some one while the rest of your team doesn't bother. Reworking it to leaving a marker on a reported player works better, I think. The marker will become the Dishonor when more players mark the same leecher / spambot within the next 30 min. It will not backfire on the one reporting the leecher. It will only punish the reporting person when it leave more then 10 markers in 30 minutes. So spam reporting will still be punished. (The numbers are adjustable.) It's just my 2 cents. But giving ideas is still better than just plain bashing on people/systems. Cobra 07:27, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

What if you have 5 leeches in one round, then 5 in the next? =/

I like the idea of GMs because players can exercise judgment under different circumstances (What if someone HAD to AFK on short notice due to, say, something on the stove setting off the smoke detector? I can't imagine that it'd be pleasant to come back to find that you're dishonorable, too). And, again, they'd be effective for more than just leeching.

I can't say that "giving random in-game players GM rights" is a good idea, just like making random people sysops wouldn't be a good idea. There should definitely be some selection criteria. Raine - talk 01:11, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, like i said, you can adjust the numbers in my part. If you have a lot of leechers in one match, there is not much you can do about it. Only a GM can prevent that. But you will need a very decent selection criteria before you give someone these extra game rights. It will still have the human factor, like a referee in a soccer game Cobra 20:36, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) As I have said, the issue of leeching is under discussion, and the team is keenly aware of your concerns. In fact, so current is the topic that my team meeting notes of this very week include reference to the issue. The idea of placing genuine GMs (i.e., support team members) in the various leech-prone areas is something that might be on the table as a point of discussion, I do not know. However, it seems to me that covering all matches would be incredibly expensive from a staff hours standpoint and I don't know of any game -- including those that charge a monthly fee -- that would offer that level of overview. GM presence in a random sampling of matches is something I've suggested. But there are drawbacks with random overviews, too.

Using volunteer GMs isn't feasible, for giving non-employees access to the current GM Tools would create enormous risks that the company would not care to take. Now, I love volunteers! I have worked with volunteers both on the Internet and in many real-life situations. In the past, I lead a team of 20+ on an extremely busy website and forum set. I managed the Guild Wars alpha test for many years. Today, I manage three teams that total about 60 volunteers for a major arts organization. But in my opinion, the authority to appraise behavior, interaction, chat, names, trade transactions, and other support-related functions is something that must and should remain with staff members, for a variety of very solid reasons. -- Gaile 21:27, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

I have a list of names that I have been keeping .. should we start posting that list since the report system is a bad idea? Seems to me it would not be difficult to determine who is participating and who is not .. computer code is funny that way .. if it happens .. it can be tracked .. those who go into a zone and dont take any damage, attack, heal others, or even move around, etc ... no faction and automatically get reported and cant access pvp for 30 minutes.. --Ahrzahni 14:05, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

I am full of stupid ideas so here is another thought about FA and JQ ... instead of letting people pick an entire team of 8 (as suggested by others .. that might not be so desirable .. people could really stack the deck) Alter these areas to require teams of 2 people. I dont think most people would choose to invite a known leecher. And as for the reporting system make it known that someone has dishonor points when in the outposts. You can choose to invite people with the "black aura" or not .. but at least you would know what characters to leave behind.

Bots could still team up and go into battle .. so make a teleport circle to enter battle that moves to random locations in the outpost before each battle. When you want to enter battle and you have a team of 2 you must step into the teleport gate. I believe it just might be difficult to script for that.

--Ahrzahni 16:36, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi Gail, I want to add to the requests that something be done about the leechers in JQ, (and FA, though I have not played it) and soon. For what it's worth, the leechers I've seen and reported in JQ were not afk. As soon as they're reported they'd begin moving, or make some mocking comment. I think many of them leech not for faction but to get attention, cause grief, and make the team lose. A small change that may help is to take out the announcement that that they've been reported. This would deny them the chance to fool other players who may have been thinking of reporting them, and it would deny them the gratification that they've been noticed as well.

Honestly, I think the only way to fight this is to have a GM. He or she doesn't have to attend every match, just a few random matches a day, and observe and note the leechers, bots and griefers, and deal with them directly. I think this will catch many of them, and put the others on notice. 69.143.111.122 23:06, 7 March 2009 (UTC)KB

Tournament house glitch

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Someone somewhere messed up. I logged into GW before the recent build and collected 80 tournament points as I expected, and turned em into zkeys as I always do. Within a couple minutes, i received the new build message, and logged out then back in. Someone in the outpost mentioned that they had got double tournament points, so I ran over (like every other person in the district!) and talked to the agent again. Sure enough, he awarded me with a further 80 points! Are these mine? Am I exploiting a glitch? I' say the dev team should know about this ASAP, though the anger is pretty much over now... it only seems to work if you did it before and after the build. Just thought you should be aware, as I'm sure you will be getting a nice pile of support requests wondering about the free money. Ashes Of Doom 01:59, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

There was an issue with the key distributions today, yes. I understand from Regina, "Some people may have received extra Reward Points due to this technical problem. This oversight will be corrected with next month's build." I hope that's helpful information. -- Gaile 02:13, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Fair enough, i can understand that. Does this mean it's gonna get subtracted from next month's? Ashes Of Doom 02:24, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Indeed. Some of us snapped up the earlier build pretty fast and we don't particularly want to run afoul of concerns over whether or not we have been taking advantage of an exploit. -- WarBlade 02:29, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Scratch that, I can read... So this means, if you've incorrectly received extra points this month, next month's update will remove the points that were incorrectly given to you. Ashes Of Doom 02:30, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Let us hope the people who got their keys the first time, but not the second time, aren't getting axed the next month. --Arduinna 22:08, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi, Arduinna. I feel pretty comfortable saying that such a thing won't happen. You see, we'll run a "differential" of the points earned versus the points gathered (in the two combined builds) and therefore, only those who picked up twice will get points deducted. I put myself in the line of fire by picking up on my account twice, as a test. So I'll be watching with interest, but I really think the process will go ok. :) -- Gaile 00:51, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Okay, thanks for the explanation! --Arduinna 14:20, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Xunlai Tournament Points for January

Alright here is the problem. Last month I made my predictions in the xunlai House, and waited for the tournament to pass. after I saw the note on the wiki I checked to see if I had received any reward points, however None were awarded. I found this strange because I usually win at least 50 or so points so I decided to check and see if my predictions really did come up all zeros. However I did not ever finish checking all my predictions when I noticed that my prediction for Dangerous Pumpkins was only off by one place. So I may not have won a lot of points, But I should definitely won Some Points, However still no points awarded on my account. I sent in a support ticket and they said that there had been glitches and to check again. But just thinking about it now, I realize that I did change my account email address this month so that might have caused this problem, but I still did make the predictions and came out with some correct answers so I Hope that I would still be able to receive the points somehow.

Also I have noticed that for the past few month whenever I look for Rebel Rising in the list of potential winners they never are on it, but they always seem to be one of the winning guilds so I would like to know why I am not allowed to vote for them. Thanks. Kraken 17:39, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Rebel Rising typically don't qualify for the tournament until later in the month. If you want to put them in your winners list, make your predictions later in the month. Misery 17:42, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

The nice thing about the XTH is that you can make a prediction any time, and update when you desire, until predictions close each month. So don't hesitate to make an update, if you wish, once certain guilds make the list... or as other guilds rise in points and you see they may do very well. -- Gaile 00:52, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Yes I know that and usually I vote the day before voting closes, but every time I check the winners, I had the option to vote for rather few of them. Just wondering if this is a bug or something. Kraken 19:25, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Guild Wars Guru notice

Hey this is not really a problem with the game itself, but the last time I went to log onto guildwarsguru a google warning popped up that guildwarsguru had been listed as an attack site for trying to install malware onto it's users computers. I just thought that anet might want to know about this as I don't think that they would want to recommend that kind of site to it's players as the place to leave feedback about the game, especially as one of the 3 elite fansites. Just thought I would let you know. Kraken 15:07, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

This might be because of their ad serving technology. I dont think they're using one of the more industry standard systems, which really isnt the problem, but some of the ad creative recently has been somewhat... iffy. Google tends to flag sites for such things (they are the leader in online advertising) as ad creative can actually be used to install malware on a pc. 24.188.207.20 04:57, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Yup did not really look into what the problem was but I thought that Anet might want to know if they are directing people to a site with possible keylogges/spyware or other malware, and if it is just an ad program then Guru might want to consider finding a new contract. Kraken 05:44, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

My Account Ban

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Dear Gaile, sorry, Im not tech savvy so dont know how to make a new section - but I had to send something to you through support about my having an account banned for using h/h in amatz basin. I hope you can find it and deal with it quickly please. Oh, the ref is : 090210-000012. Not sure why it doesnt sign me auto either as Im signed in - Miss Drops Az

Here, let me assist you a bit here — Jon Lupen 00:25, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

thank you <3, I am angry atm considering they do nothing about all the bots in FA/JQ yet I get a ban for playing the game. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Miss Drops Az>

Please let me give a little info about my role and this page. My role is Support Liaison; I am not a customer support agent and do not generally work with individual tickets. If the Support Team needs my assistance, they will ask me. If you find that you do not have an answer in a day or two, or if you feel there has been some error in process, you may contact me here, of course. But it appears that you wrote me immediately upon submitting a ticket, and it would be most appropriate to give the Support Team an opportunity to answer your questions and help resolve the issue, as they so capably do for many players every day. Thank you for understanding. -- Gaile 09:17, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

the fact is there HAS been an error in process, that being banning me for use of third party programs when no such programs have been used and anet have NO evidence on which to base this assertion apart from the fact I was on for an extended period of time. Also it takes them less than 6 hours to consider and ban the accounts, yet I have to wait up to 2 days for a response? If theyd actually checked my flagging, they would have seen its done manually as I flag in the general area, not using texmod or anything.

Am update, support have said I used a third party program, but I have NEVER used any such program with guild wars - I entered the mission manually and then flagged the henchmen manually - there is no automation. So yes, the process is flawed and I do need your help here Gaile ref: 090210-000012. Again, this is appalling considering nothing is done about the FA/JQ leechers/bots for weeks on end and the people who ACTUALLY USED BOTS doing HFF got a 2 week slap on the hand, yet I get accounts permanently deleted when actually here and playing the game myself!!!

I quote "We do not provide details on the methods used to pinpoint offenses or the exact dates/times that they occurred. This preserves our ability to track and monitor the offending activity. We stand firmly in our policy to never allow use of third-party software within the game for any reason, at any time. Our decision in this matter is final and any further questions regarding the termination of this account may not be responded to, as we feel that we have investigated and addressed the matter appropriately."

So you find me guilty of something I havent done, but when I dispute this and ask you to prove it, you deny me that chance??Also state that anything further will be ignored also? From your page, it says you are a players advocate - then this is the time for you to shine Gaile. The only thing these three accounts have done is the dragons nest weekend, HB ATs and amatz basin faction farming in a long while. I have today been out to obtain an affidavit stating that I have never used any third party software while playing guild wars. This is basically stealing $200 from me plus all the time used to collect the items stored on these accounts. At this point, unless I get some review by yourself or senior staff, then I have no alternative but take this as far as I can with the BBB, Attorney General and small claims courts - I will not allow anet to take this from me on principle when I am innocent.

I would prefer a response from you through the support ref, rather than do this here, but havent received anything there apart from format responses. - Miss Drops Az

I don't see a flaw in the process that requires my intervention. You have appealed the account terminations; the team has reviewed the data and confirmed that the accounts will remain terminated, at least at this juncture. The fact is, the team does not feel that it is possible to play Alliance Battles on three computers simultaneously. They do not believe that it is possible for anyone to play nearly 40 hours without interruption, on three computers, while doing spreadsheets on a 4th.

You ask why nothing is being done about leechers. Perhaps I'm missing something, but isn't that pretty much what you're doing if your "farming teams" are partied with real players? I don't see how you could be actively playing -- actively contributing to the team playing Amatz Basin -- on three computers. I mean, even with Heroes and Henchies, are there not 12 members on the teams? Yes. And can you ensure that your teams are always with your other teams, therefore not affecting other real players? No, you cannot. You're flagging the henchies and leaving -- is that playing? Not to my mind's eye. Moreover, you're doing that for more than a day and a half without interruption and yet say you're not using a program to help you do that?

If you feel that you can provide information that will help in reviewing this issue, you're free to contact the team. Please use the same ticket -- do not continue to start new tickets, for that will only slow down the process of answering you. Please do not ask to write the head of the studio, for there's little point in that since he will ask me to review the matter and I already have done so. Seeing the data (and there is more to which I'm not referring), and knowing how it is derived, I don't see how there is room for error here. However, having said all that, you may continue the dialogue with the team, you are welcome to present any additional information that you can offer in defense of this situation, and I will be happy to review that new information at any time.

I sympathize with your distress, but I honestly do not see how I can assist at this point in time. -- Gaile 20:33, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Dear Gaile, I will respond to this via that ticket, and hope you will read it as there are obviously some misunderstandings here. At least you gave me something which is better than "any further correspondence regarding this issue will be closed without response." that I received from support on the ticket.Is there somewhere I can send emails with ref to this though as the support page is very small to write all I need to and when I send I find it constantly times me out.

Just a couple of things, no in amatz Basin challenge mission, it is 1 team of 8 (me and 7 NPCS)so no, I am not leeching and affecting other players in any way at all. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Miss Drops Az>

Doh! Right you are! I was seeing "AB" in my head -- Amatz Basin, the Amazon Basin guild for which it's named -- and muddling it with the AB of Alliance Battles. My apologies.

Support asked that correspondence/discussion about this remain on the ticket, rather than separate it out into emails. So may I ask that you use the ticket? I understand the issue of timing out, and I have this suggestion: Type and save your message in Notepad or another program and insert into the ticket, rather than trying to "beat a timer" in the ticket itself. I wasn't aware that tickets would time out, but that seems a likely workaround in this case. -- Gaile 01:24, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

I posted on the support ref (took two posts though) I hope you will review this with your compatriots. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Miss Drops Az>

(Reset indent) Dear Gaile, This is the response "As previously stated, this account will remain closed. It will never be reopened." I do not see any reconsideration here but just stubbornness based on false assumptions and as has been proved above, there is no evidence that I used anything at all - only that I spent long lengths of time online. At this point, I will be seeking legal guidance. This is why I required the person in charges name at Belle Vue as they will be the ones names on the legal papers along with arenanet, which is why I was letting you know about this situation at an early stage so you could inform the senior management to stop it getting to this stage. Just letting you know as if that is the final word, then extra costs will be incurred that I will be seeking to reclaim. The fact is your support havent even had the time yet to look at and consider the evidence provided. As I can no longer be sure of fair treatment from arenanet any longer, I am going to consider reclaiming the cost of all 30 accounts also as I no longer feel safe to play the game without the risk of retribution. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Miss Drops Az>

Certainly you are welcome to pursue this as you feel you must. I do not see any form of "retribution" in the actions of the team nor predict that any would occur in relation to your other accounts, unless the other accounts were found to be involved in similar activities.

Several different members of the team have reviewed the data very carefully and have come to what they feel to be a logical decision: Based on the data, these accounts were using a third-party program. One point of reference is the sheer number of consecutive hours played without a break. However, the aggregate information on accounts involved in third-party programs does not involve simply how long someone plays, but what they do, how and where in with what method they do it, etc. The team does not feel that any other conclusion is possible in the case of your accounts.

I will ask the team lead to review your additional notes and will discuss the matter with him again. I am traveling next week, but will be checking emails and tickets while away. If you wish to suspend a decision concerning further action for a few days, that would be great. Of course, the choice of whether you proceed immediately or await an update is up to you. -- Gaile 02:09, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Gaile, thank you for the reply. as it is Friday evening here, I will be preparing papers over the weekend. the fact that your colleague made such a final statement though in his reply, leaves me little leeway but to follow through with my action as much as I dislike to. This being for the cost of the accounts + the time to re obtain all the items on these stoarage accounts + costs. Again, I make the statement that I have an affidavit that I have never used any third party program while playing GW and have statements from my wife and son in law confirming the amount of time played and that they have not seen any third party software being used. These statements have been made under oath and are facts - your collegues are making conclusions - I know they cannot stand before a court and state that third party software was used because it wasnt and therefore is no evidence of such. I can and will stand before the courts and make my statement as at this time I am being accused of being a liar too by your staff.

I hope you have safe travels and a Happy valentines Day to you. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Miss Drops Az>

Thanks for your kind thoughts. I hope you have a very nice weekend as well. -- Gaile 03:22, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Although I am preparing my case, I will await an update from you. Needless to say, this situation has soured me to GW to the point of ruining my enjoyment of the game when I sign on. Miss Drops Az 23:31, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Leeching Resolution?

This is a possible way to stop leeching in areas like JQ and FA, this does not resolve balance issues in FA. Currently, Team Arenas supports a partying system where you can enter with 1,2,3, or 4 people and it will match up to a team of 4. This logic should be applied to JQ and FA as a resolution to Leeching. Active players will seek to create optimal teams, ensuring no leechers on their team, while making the games more competitive and strategic... instead of an orgy of crap. Also, leechers can still exist, but if leechers get paired with leechers, they will not win matches nor receive faction... resolving their desire to leech for easy points. I must imagine that the code for party creation in TA can easily be copied and applied to FA and JQ? FA will still have some map balance issues, but JQ will at least be competitive and resolve alot of the leeching issues. -- jys 13:14, 10 February 2009 (EST)

I'd like to bring attention to this as well. Several players -- I'm not going to say any names because that's not what this is for, but believe me when I say that there are many -- have actually leeched their way to rank 12 Kurzick or Luxon titles. Entirely. The current anti-leech system is ineffectual and often harms those who report leeches more than the leeches themselves. There needs to be a better way to handle this problem because it really hurts players who actually enjoy those arenas, both by making it extremely difficult to win for sides with 3-4 leeches (this is common, occurring in as many as 1 or even 2 in 4 games) and making the game very boring for players on the opposing side. There has been absolutely no action taken against these leeching players. I am of the opinion that they should simply be subjected to scaphism to end the problem once and for all, but seeing as how this is most likely beyond ANet's legal means of recourse I'd really like to either see some prominent leeches banned or there be an effective system of reporting them, preferably one that resulted in a more permanent solution in the case of serial leeches. 66.232.102.157 07:07, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

I have a solution to these bot leechers. They are not guild affilliated (no guild tags) Make these areas accessible only to guild members. That will take care of the bots. Leechers who are a member of a guild can be easily tracked back to their guild. An occurance system could be put in place. Individuals who repeatedly get reported for leeching might cause a guild fine or even a guild lock. When a Player gets kicked from that guild, a Tag is placed on that player to keep him from infecting another guild. But a quick and immediate fix to this problem would be to allow only guild members into FA and JQ and let the report system work the way it was meant to.

I've seen a lot of leechers with guild tags, even more than those with no guild tag. Making this areas accessible only to guild memebers is not a good idea because everyone can create their own guild, it costs only 100g. The best idea that I've met so far is removing factions from their allegiance title (10k, 20k, 50k or more) connected with temporary bans on PvP areas (1 day, 2 days or more) if that players are repeatedly being reported for leeching. Adequate penalty should make leeching unprofitable. cinus 18:15, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

It works for the federal government. When something is legal, but not good, tax it until it becomes unprofitable, then it falls out of favor. See: Tobacco Industry. Accounts suffering leeching reports on a consistent basis (so many times a day, or so many times a week) should suffer heavy penalty. It's unlikely that false positives would slip into a daily or weekly total requirement. 131.128.161.196 20:54, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Reporting

When people do soemthig nagaisnt the rules and leave we cant report unless we take the time to get a screen and send it to anet, now its easy to get it when someoen does this in a town as there are multiple people but in zaishen elite were alot of people farm soem factiosn each day for z keys that thye then sell it gets rough when your doign a full run(maxing it out to daily cap)and half way through someoen who is a key component leaves and we cant report them for leaving/leechign cause there already gone, also JQ sicne HFFF was nerfed most do that but 6 rounds out of 10 i get one with mulriple leechers and multiple leechers, and after waiting 10-15 min for a chance to enter we dotn want to leave is there a way to filter the leeches, also i left cause one trip everyone was afk i nthe base leeching i was the only one not afk and i left i loaded back at the outpost and notice I got dishonorable, why when i left cause they were leechign and nto at the comp i get dishonorable each time but if someoen leaves for no reason and a minuete later there back in the fight, can you explain how the dishonorable and stuff works cause its pretty odd when it works this way.--99.182.83.171 03:01, 18 February 2009 (UTC)disco monk of funk

Here's a link to the explanation of dishonorable stuff: Dishonorable 145.94.74.23 08:24, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Reporting a Leacher and Rude Player

hay Gaile

i was in JQ ond day when guys what, we had some leachers, so i reported both of them bit as the match was comeing to a end, i couild see that one of the people that i reported had moves so he was next to a base deffender, so it was harder to be seen by the people on the team to report.

this then looked like a bot so i told the peole on the team to report as a bot, but the player then started to talk.

he told me the shut up and just fight, so he can just leach points, i then asked him why he was standing there and what he was doing, he then shouted at me saying that i get the hex as the report system does not work and to top it all off he ended up calling me a nazi.

now i reported this to NCsoft support [Incident: 090218-000533]‏ sending 7 screen shots of what was said, and they then said that he done nothink wrong, so does this mean that we can go round calling people nazi and leaching points, i hope not.--Thedreadlordpie 08:58, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi. I reviewed the ticket, and I note that the team felt that, although the player was rude, he/she did not do something serious enough to warrant account action. A single slip of the tongue, as in one instance of name-calling, isn't usually cause for an account block. Exceptions may happen, of course, but normally action is not to taken for a single incident.

Leeching is frustrating for players. It's frustrating for Support, too. As we've said, the issue is being reviewed with the possibility that changes can be made to prevent it or to take action against those who leech. -- Gaile 04:34, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

so i can leach faction all i want in JQ, ok thanks good to know.--Thedreadlordpie 22:34, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

That sounds a bit like this analogy: "I reported a person for speeding and the police were not able to detect that he was guilty, therefore, I now have permission to speed whenever I want." It would be assuming that if in the one instance the police took no action, there's a tacit statement that anyone can do it, anytime. I'd call that a huge leap over a very wide and dangerous chasm. :)

Those who are leeching know it. I'd say they're taking a risk. I would not suggest for a minute that there's any sort of "all clear to leech" message in anything we'd said. -- Gaile 22:56, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

first i am jokeing i never leach points at all, but why don't you change the aggremet to have a part on leaching faction points in PVP? or is that too hard.--Thedreadlordpie 09:02, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Support Issue, Account Termination, Mass Griever Reports?

I am writing this message after a recommendation from guildmate Gorani after suffering account termination yesterday 2/19 at around 3pm PST for error code 045, usage of third party programs. At this point, I have submitted an initial ticket and received what appears to be a form letter response from a support GM, to which I then composed a more elaborate response requesting personal review. I have yet to hear back from that message, hoping for the best, as over the last 7 months I have come to greatly enjoy the company of the people I have met through the game.

The main reason for putting this message up is to ask an open question to anyone else who reads this. To ask if they have suffered similar fate in recent days; and if so request that they post their story too. I have been using my new assassin in ToPK to farm ectoplasm in recent days (FoW Guild Event coming up and was hoping to forge run at the same time), mainly staying in international districts but moving to American districts inadvertantly after helping a few guildmates with random quests and missions. I suspect that a griever may have reported me, as I do not see any other reason why my account would be flagged/banned. I'm not going to get into details here since that is best left for the support ticket and I hope to keep this as private as possible as this is not the right place to assert my innocence. Support Ticket Ref# 090219-001299 Modus 13:10, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi, Modus. Thank you for the depth of information that you provided in your support ticket; it was very helpful. I checked into this and noted that you are clear to go at this point. As I've said in the past, there are the rare occasions where the multiple points of data seem to indicate the use of a third-party program, but where a special review clears up the points of concern. In your case, a second review of the data establishes you're in the clear to return to the game, with apologies for the inconvenience, of course.

I'd like to add that I really do understand how frustrating it can be to a player to have such an issue crop up on his account. Truly, in a game with 5 million accounts, the occasions of "false positives" are quite rare, but when it happens to you, it's significant! The fact is, RMTs are extremely clever at modifying their processes to try to work around our detection mechanisms. So we have to set a number of means to check for bot use or RMT activity in order to catch them, and then we have to frequently adjust those parameters to avoid their detection. For if the RMTs know the 20+ parameters, and which are most heavily weighted, etc., they'll simply adjust their programs to avoid getting caught, like a giant game of cat and mouse. The bottom line is that occasionally a real player is caught, and again, we are very sorry when that happens. Thanks for your patience while this got resolved. -- Gaile 20:44, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Appreciate the work you folks do, and I am glad that things were set straight in the end. Thanks! Modus 22:27, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Everlasting Mischievous Tonic bug

Can something be done about this and the people abusing it punished? It currently allows a person to max party points just by using the everlasting tonic repeatedly. This really cheapens the title for people that actually earned it. 67.159.5.99 13:36, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure about this?

Tonic page states that

• Regular tonics have one use, are stackable and add 2 points towards the Party Animal title when used.
• Everlasting tonics can be used an unlimited number of times but do not give points."

Where did you get info about people getting infinite points from an everlasting item? --NIN37 05:49, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

It was a bug, and was fixed in the most recent update (the one that talks about the crash). On guru you can probably see all the details about the issue. 76.30.79.54 06:06, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Agree -- fixed last week. And -- excuse the editorializing -- shame on the people who exploited it. :( -- Gaile 00:10, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

I second that. I've heard a lot of complaints directed at Anet (again, sigh) but in a lot of cases, it's the players that misbehave. It's like an unlocked car door: an unlocked car doesn't give you the right to steal something. An ingame bug or exploit doesn't give you the right to blame Anet for the actions of players. 145.94.74.23 07:54, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Well put, and thanks! -- Gaile 02:05, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Shame on those who abused the exploit, of course. But bugs invite exploits, so of course, it's also the gaming company's responsability to put enough effort in avoiding exploitable bugs or fix them quickly. I have no complaint here, ANet is very good at keeping the game running smoothly, so I can tolerate occasionnal bugs/exploits seeping through (nobody's perfect). -- Alaris 03:30, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Atleast it was for Party Animal title earning, and none the worse, or damaging. — Jon Lupen 03:35, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, "double-click to earn 5 fame" would be kinda... :\ Vili 04:44, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

...obvious, with an added 20 r15's a day :) --Arduinna 22:27, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi,gaile! I think I am a Unlucky Children!!

my account with the same modus account,usage of third party programs!i Swear, I did not use!!GM does not check my account!(Reference#090219-000368),dear gaile, many times of trouble you, I am very sorry!--Black cat 04:38, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi, Black Cat. I will ask about this, but I asked last time, and I was told that you are playing from a location associated with Real Money Traders and that means your account is in danger of being blocked and is extremely likely to be closed. I am sorry. -- Gaile 04:36, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much!! Dear Gaile!I will look for the new network, re-play guildwars!!But I do not know my new account can recover it?I swear, I not usage of third party programs!--Black cat 05:29, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

XTH

Note: This has nothing to do with the recent hacks.

Hi Gaile!

A few months ago I posted a question on this page about the XTH, but now I have a follow up question.

Is it possible in any way to delete a XTH account? My email is nonexistant anymore, I forgot my PW, and the resend PW thing either gets send to the same email as my account, or to a different one, but then that one probably doesn't exist anymore, either :\

If it is possible to delete an account, who do I have to contact, and what proof do I need that it actually is my account?

Thanks, and sorry if I'm troubling you if you're busy with the recent hacks :) Mini Me 14:41, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi, MM. Yes, the team can help you! Head over to support and submit a ticket. They'll be able to make changes, after proper verification. -- Gaile 04:28, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks :)! Wasn't sure if I had to contact some special person on here or something, so that's why I cam eto you :) Mini Me 15:25, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Happy to help, and good luck with the reset. It should be relatively simple to make that adjustment, and you'll soon be good to go. -- Gaile 20:08, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Time to Support the Players and Not the Leechers

When will we see something positive done about leeching? Is a question often asked? And the answer always runs along the same lines we are looking into this/we know it is frustrating/the team are talking and so on. “As I’m not a programmer I have no way of knowing how hard it would be to implement something along the lines of this.

No faction from game (fist 3 times reported) Faction remover from title track (for continued abuse) Ban from pvp (time frame) Permanent ban from all pvp parts of game (if leeching remains on going)

ps after 4 years I still love the game how much (well 6 accounts over 7k hours just on 1 of them may give you an idea how much)True Arrow San[MODs]

This is something we are actively talking about, as you know. I will share your suggestions with the team, and thanks for your efforts to make a positive impact on the problem. -- Gaile 04:37, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Yes, and leeching has got me banned too. Because I had leechers in a team, I got angry and started using abusive language towards other members.

Also, is there anything you can do about the language report system so that you can report anyone, anywhere, rather than having to have them in the same town? People can just Private message you from their guild hall or a non outpost area, so you cant report them. It saves people having to file tickets to the support team. --Burning Freebies 20:06, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Recent Account Hacks

As you may have become aware through a thread on a fansite forum, a few players have had their accounts accessed without their consent. If you are one of those people, I'd like to speak with you. Please note this post in the forum, and if those details relate to your account, drop me a line at SupportLiaison@Arena.Net and let's chat. (We can also chat via email, if you prefer.) Thanks a bunch. -- Gaile 05:58, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

Rather than sending you to a fansite forum, I thought it might be best to simply repeat the post here:

We’re currently investigating this specific series of incidents. The more data we are able to put together, the more information we’ll have to get to the bottom of this, so we would like to get in touch with the players who were affected. This request applies ONLY to players who were affected by this recent incident. Unless you match these criteria below, please go through the support ticketing system:

• Your account was affected on February 22 or February 23.
• You were able to login (your password was not changed).
• You had gold and/or items removed, or items added to your account

It would really help the support team know the following details when you write:

• The outpost your character was in when you logged in.
• Whether any characters were deleted.
• Exactly what was removed and/or what item(s) may have been deposited on the account by someone other than yourself in the last two days the February 22/23 timeframe.
• Any other details of note, no matter how small.

If you believe you were affected by the incident, please email supportliaison@arena.net, and provide your real name, account name, and a telephone number (along with the time you could accept a call about this matter and your time zone).

I won't be calling everyone involved, and if you are located outside North America, I almost certainly won't call. However, I will review all emails and will follow up via telephone or email with those who contact me.

I want to mention that not all those who may have experienced account issues in the February 22/23 timeframe were involved in the incident I'm researching. I should emphasize that a relatively small number of players were involved and that concurrent to the incident would be other issues, such as account theft by RMTs, issues arising due to a lack of account security (such as sharing an account, revealing one's password to someone else), and so forth. Also, as you know, we're not able to roll back the game or restore items. However, we greatly appreciate any help we receive in getting to the bottom of this issue. -- Gaile 20:03, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Agreed completely with what Gaile said in the above post. It's not hard to prevent yourself from getting hacked. Just

• Don't use third party programs.
• Don't visit gold-selling/scam websites that will install keyloggers.
• Don't share your account, since your friend could change the password and run away with it. Or your friend could get another account and transfer all of your items to his second account.
• Don't fall for password scams of any kind.

Ban Time

Hi Gaile,

I understand I have been blocked fairly for abusive language, probably from my being in a Jade Quarry match. However, please could you reduce the ban time? My router broke last week, so I had to spend a 4-5 days without the game. I am on a very serious farmign schedule for a project that I have promised for the community. These delays are ones I could really do without. Im not asking for a complete wipe of the ban, because I know i deserve some sentence, but could you please shorten the ban to a time before 6pm GMT on sunday?

Thanks for your time,

--Burning Freebies 20:02, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

I'm really sorry, but that sort of request needs to go to Support. If I were to just jump in and start reducing time outs by request, I am sure I would really irritate the guys on the team. :) While I understand what you're asking, and why, I must defer to the team for this one. Thanks, and good luck. -- Gaile 20:06, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Ok, thanks Gaile. --Burning Freebies 20:09, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Fort Aspenwood

hey gaile, i want to ask you something. Are the dervs working on something to lessens the leeching and the imbalance in fa on the Luxon side. I'm Luxon but i always play on the kurzick side because its so easy especially with a bonder or even a ritu healer. Last time i fought, the luxons had 7 leechers, the game before that 4 and the game before that 8! leechers. it's not even fun anymore because i play fa for balth faction wich you get for killing players (who are leeching in their unreachable base)and because i like how fa looks (more green). As a result waiting times of half an hour on kurz side are not unusual because we (luxons) don't dare to enter anymore on the luxon side because of the imbalance, leechers and bots. I really hope anybody finds a solution because i love fa. Rhonin Soren 23:11, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

This isn't really a question for Gaile, and Linsey already answered it: User:Linsey_Murdock/FAQ. — Poki#3 13:59, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

i know but i don't know where to post it anymmore and i'm becoming a little bit desperate because the leeching is really escalating. I used to have 2-3leechers everey time. now 6-7 leechers, 1-3 leavers aren't uncommon anymore. and Linsey didn't answered it, she just said they are looking into it. thats like saying: "we might do spmething about it, we might just drink booze take drugs and (insert hetero male fantasy here, lol)." I do know that Anet is doing their best tough but some word on how far they are on a solution would be nice (ofcourse a solution would be even better). Rhonin Soren 20:05, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Personally, I feel Arenanet needs to actually get off it's collective hands and actually make proper statements on issues. Now, I know this is a foreign concept: saying something and actually meaning it, but this issue needs a formal address and formal action needs to be taken - I know things take time but this is just degenerating to whole new levels, I tried Fort Aspenwood before my computer throw a fit and out of the 10 match ups I managed to get into over half had 2-3 leechers, there was one where I saw 5 leechers on my side, people on the other side were complaining about leechers as well. That's just terrible. I'm trying to mix up my game, especially since that title update they did, there are more ways of getting factions now and people are more into the Fort Aspenwood like places but this whole situation is just terrible. Way to maintain the game, Arenanet. Sure, peoples are acting the goat but you're encouraging it by not addressing issues.

I know no one listens to rants or listens to people who ask for Arenanet to take accountability for the game, so I'll call by saying "I'm discussing just how badly Arenanet is managing their game and a decision on whether I'll start calling them bad names will be address in the near future. At the moment I can only say I'm aware that I want to call them bad words but apart from that I can't say.". Good luck. 000.00.00.00 02:12, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

i was gonna say something about how much they already know about this and how gaile is the ArenaNet Support Liaison. but aspenwood is getting critical... --Cursed Angel 10:00, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Than you know how i feel about this. I just wanna see this solved. Rhonin Soren 13:29, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

And I know how you feel about this, too. I sent an email less than an hour ago discussing tools the Support Team needs to be able to handle leeching issues on a variety of possible levels. The decision about how this matter is addressed will be made by the Live Team. I want to say that although this may sound like a straight-out cut-and-paste (it's not, I promise!), the fact is we really are still looking at this situation on many levels. Truly, this is not a dead or forgotten issue! -- Gaile 00:08, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

we arn't thinking that this is a dead or forgotten issue. we know that Anet knows this and that you DO care. it' just that Anet knows this for a verry long time know and that it is still not solved. The report/dihonorable-system was a great system on paper and did work in AB and RA but not in FA and JQ because the leechers hide in the base in FA on the luxon side and the luxons never rez in their base and most of the time are fighting in the castle so they don't see the leechers and in JQ the leechers hide next to a base defender so you have the same issue there. a simple (temporary) solution would be to make the base more like AB where you are able to see the leechers very easily. ever since factions came out leeching has been an issue in JQ and FA and it's about time it get's solved because this can't go on any longer. if there is an issue with GvG or HA like an OP-build that's dominating HA or a skill that makes it able to cheat in GvG eg. Signet of Ghostly Might (PvP) it would have been solved in less than a day. this issue has been here ever since GW came out and first started escalating when factions came out. every day this keeps going on is less people that will buy GW2. because if you can't solve it now, how will you solve it in your next game? I hope it gets solved so that i can buy GW2 without doubt because now i just don't know if i will buy it. good luck Rhonin Soren 16:49, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

One thing you should consider is that the inherent flaws of GW1 are the whole reason they're making GW2. GW2 will basically be a 'learned from GW1's mistakes' + more. Don't worry that they don't know the player's concerns, people on this wiki have made a fulltime job out of 'reporting' them. Personally, I think GW2 is gonna be great. 145.94.74.23 08:07, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

unfortunately i don't share your optimism. people rarely learn from their mistakes, yes they make sure it doesn't happen in the same way but the same will happen again but in a different outfit. If they can not solve it in GW, they will not be able to solve it in GW2. If you don't believe me than ask yourselve this: "if they cannot solve it now, how can i be sure they will solve it tommoroww?" we can only hope they find a solution (the Americans can pray too if they wanna). its not because they know the problem that they automaticly know the solution. if my sink is clogged up and i know what's causing it i will still have to call a plumber. Rhonin Soren 18:35, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Fortunately, I don't share your pessimism. Some people learn even from other people's mistakes, and make sure to bring the product to a new level through innovation. Not everything can be solved in one go, solving these problems is often iterative. While other companies have been happy repeating the problems and cashing in, ANet has shown itself innovative in providing solutions. Is your sink ok now? -- Alaris 22:33, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not pessimistic and i know that Anet is innovative (the entire GWgame is proof of that) and altough anet makes mistakes sometimes *cough*Ursan*cough* they improve themselves. Im' not pessimistic just giving critique. eg. para's where great but OP in full para teams now the only viable PvE skill bar is the imbagon (there are other bars but this one is the strongest one). And if it would take almost 3 years for my plumber to fix y sink i would hire another. that's why GW loses a lot of members. the only thing whe can do right now is wait and hope. only time will tell Rhonin Soren 16:35, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Gaile, one question from me is answered and i have good hope for the leecher problem. But my second question remains unanswered concerning the imbalance in FA. one of the causes are the leechers but there are more causes to it. Will the dervs find a solution for the imbalance in favor of the kurzicks? Rhonin Soren 08:17, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, balance changes are another department... third door on the left down that hallway. :) Seriously, any discussion about upcoming balance changes should be addressed to Linsey. Thanks. -- Gaile 18:30, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Okay Didn't know who to post it to so thx for the detailed road-plan

This User uses Gaile as his personal GPS

Rhonin Soren 19:03, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

My pleasure. ;) -- Gaile 01:47, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi Gaile I want wonder if it would be possible to bring to your attention a player thats been 'leeching' continuously on the kurzick side of Fort Aspenwood. I have been really active in Aspenwood for the last 3-4weeks & despite almost every member of the team reporting this player for leeching at his/her every appearence nothing seems being done about him/her. There are also sad occasions where its quite apparent that a player is leeching/a leecher but nobody bothers to use the report function. Im sure you as well as the Dev team have already had an earful with people constantly complaining about leechers in PvP but thats why great people such as yourself & the Dev team exist :) to irradicate 'unsportsman' like as well as abusive players etc etc.

the Players name is 'Xx Catherina Xx' he/she plays as an assassin. belonging to a guild [Oo] or something. thank you :) 78.144.247.81 01:29, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Really Bad Lag

Around 9pm AWST today (2nd march) alot of my friends and buddies on my friends list including all of the alliance reported having crazy lag around 7,000ping. i was wondering if this was a server issue or what, but most of us are australian and we are pretty annoyed since we were in the middle of a HM dungeon which took us from 8.30pm. would be greatful to know what it was, DarthD 12:03, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

I had terrible lag as well at some time in the mid-morning to the point where my reconnects were failing and I couldn't log back in for about five minutes. I'm in the Netherlands. --fraught · (talk) 16:44, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Hey guys, would it be possible for you to translate your time (and date) in your local time zone into GMT for me? I can send a request for info, but it would be super helpful to give local time and GMT so that whomever looks at it has the exact global time in mind. Thanks! -- Gaile 00:52, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Hiya, would've been roughly 11:18:00 a.m. Tuesday March 3, 2009 GMT time. By local time do you mean our local time (I live in Western Australia, Australia and i am on +8GMT on Daylight Savings) or PST? but there is the GMT time anyway -121.215.148.154 11:54, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

GMT is great, thanks! I don't have specific info on that "server burp" but I'll check these pages in case it repeats itself. -- Gaile 02:49, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

List of Bots in JQ

Ok, maybe the third try will be the charm. If it's not, I humbly ask where I can bring this.

The following characters are pvp characters, have a single class (with one exception), use the default skill bar of a pvp character of that class (Charge!, sever artery, healing signet for warriors, for example), only use the yellow portal, only target the nearest enemy, never take evasive action, never speak, and start and stop moving randomly. I believe they are bots, and I am tired of getting dishonorable for reporting them as leechers.

Choice Rider [LOST] Get Tsunami [LOST] Thors Revenge [LOST] Gray Men [LOST] Htc Center [LOST] Dsl Mo [any] Heid Nec [any] Rap Sp [any] Schoc Wave [bear] Prod Ge [bear] Cpu Future [GoPK] Lord Voldemortes [mue] Bearcat Bill [acm]

76.84.34.210 00:39, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

It's a fair question, and I am sympathetic with the fact that you're trying to better the game and yet are suffering negative consequences on your own account in doing so. Let me discuss this with one of the team leads. Thanks for the information. -- Gaile 00:50, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

There are some others you've missed that I see there all the time too, though I'd imagine that it shouldn't be too hard to find as they are all in those same guilds (GoPK, LOST, any, bear, etc.). Ultimately, I think if one account is suspected of botting in JQ, or anywhere else for that matter, the entire guild needs to be looked at. --Seventh 22:36, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Looked at, yes, but of course not blocked in a sweeping "Yer all outta here" sort of move. I do agree, birds of a feather flock together, and a lot of cheaters and exploiters hang with others of their kind. So looking at guilds, if a high number of people associated with the guild have already been caught, isn't a bad idea. -- Gaile 02:42, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Since I wrote this Choice Rider and Get Tsunami have moved to [year]. And here are some more bots:

Magi Fixx [mue] Lux Powaa [bear] Officer Quarz [LOST] Hf Game [GoPK] Eleniel Lujza [mue] Theme Ma [mue] Kleio Aline [mue] Anna Les [year]

Any character with guild tag [AssA]. This is seemingly a one person guild and the character name is changed often. I will go back home and post the bot names here. Nuisances done by these people made me leave the arena for now. It is unbelievable how bad it has gotten now. A great arena, kudos to Linsey for her thoughtfulness and hard work, is completely ruined by a few people. Botters and Leechers on Luxon side completely moved the crowd to different places (mostly vanquishing. Will really appreciate some tougher rules. --Vel

Got the bot's toon name. Im Takin Ur Soul [AssA]. He changed toon name again. He was reported several times by several folks. Another one is O T T E R. That one is a leecher. --Vel

There's one person who continually goes into Jade Quarry (luxon side) and leeches, named "Funny Farm Of Point". Normally I don't feel the need to report leechers here, but this guy continually syncs into my games and I usually get dishonor for reporting him when enough other members don't. --Seventh 07:08, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Macros in PvP

Hi Gaile

There is some guy using an interrupt macro (a script that reads the skill codes from the server and automatically triggers interrupts) in TA for the last few days/weeks. I reported him several times for botting but obviously this function is widely ignored by the support. However, this is not a farm bot or leech bot that may be annoying but actually nobody really cares about. It's a script that can shut down 3 or more players at the same time completely and therefore wins games by itself. I shouldn't have to mention that people using this kind of stuff completely destroys PvP. So, do people actually have to win a tournament with this for you to take action? Feel free to prove me wrong here. That guy's name is "removed" btw.

Thanks for reading. Vortex ™ 06:29, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the report -- we'll check it out. -- Gaile 02:47, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

you are just another QQ, your accusation is based 100 percent off suspicion. You have not one fact in this whole report only speculation, of how or what this person is doing. First off if what you say is true you are not describing a "macro" macros only allow short sequences of keystrokes and mouse actions to be recorded and repeated to make normally time consuming actions be done faster. what you are saying is a very large step from the most logical explanation. I will explain, you say that someone was able to shut down 3 people on your team, well this is not impossible too do at all first off a good interrupted in a gvg can interrupt key skills on at least 3 targets with only 2-3 interrupts on his bar by simply listening for activation sound or "target stacking where u have multiple targets pinged by multiple players on your team so as to switch fast". if you pair that with extremely good ping it is not impossible to keep a ta team almost completely shut down. ive seen the person that you have mentioned and have played more then once with him he is annoyingly good at his build but shows not even one sign of being inhuman, it sounds to me that you lost to someone good and decided to try to start trouble. honestly get a life or some proof. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.117.169.167 (talk • contribs) at 19:42, March 29, 2009 (UTC).

Stop trolling. Vortex ™ 08:07, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Hi gaile I've played dozen of times against that interupt mesmer in RA(inter district),he's playing on his character but obviously using some program to perfectly interrupt everything that has a casting time >1/4s, it seems that he is using something that "reads" what skill you are using and interupts it at 1/10(I just mean its very low) of its casting time. He is using 7 interupts and 1 rez signet in his build and here is what I noticed : he doesn't interupt 1/4 skills and when you use a " skill" or "spell" or "signet" he always use the good interupt on it(complicate on signet etc,interupts warrior's shock,toucher rangers) and your skill is interupted at 1/10 of its casting time. So I tried to use then cancel my skills : I used guardian 3 times and canceled it instantly, everytimes he tried to get it almost at the same time i was casting it THIS IS NO HUMAN REFLEXES even top #1guild mesmers badly miss their interupts and this guy can interupt 2monks and a ele spaming at the same time. I'm almost glad7 and it's very annoying to meet people like that.I wanted to talk about the botting searing flames eles in Inter district alswell wich are botting since a very long time(glad4+ fully botting*sighs*),but i don't see them anymore so i guess you've banned them even if I have no clues on that part.I don't know if i have to post his name btw. See you,(sorry if my english isn't correct)

JQ Bots.

Should we be writing down and regarding who is blotting time after time? and be putting that info on your bot watch page? and do you find that info useful? personally i have stopped reporting people for both blotting and leaching in Jade Quarry because 90% of the time the system thinks that i am abusing the system. where in fact i have gotten on teams and i am the only real person/only person who is there. its annoying because its always the same bots over and over. and these bots have yet to be banned or get dishonor. so what can i do to get these bots out of jq? because reporting them dost seem to be working. how i know they are about is 3 fold 1 most of the time they have no secondary, they follow only one other person usely the person in spot one, and normally they just use the bar given to them via pvp toon. i was told to post here via Linsey http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User_talk:Linsey_Murdock#JQ_bots im not the op but i share his/hers frustration with that area.75.172.46.207 06:06, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks a lot for asking. (I'll go bean Linsey about her referral now. J/K! :) ) I am going to ask the Support Team lead how best to gather this information. I did relay a list of bots that were reported to me just yesterday, and I now need to learn from him how his team can service such reports. Give me a bit of time to get the answer to this, ok? In the meantime, I want to say that I respect your interest in making the game better by trying to reduce the cheaters and exploiters. -- Gaile 02:04, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

no problem as of right now i am still compiling a list of bots for you/your team. but if you went in played on the luxon side you would quickly see how many bots and leachers there are and just how game brakeing it really is. also take your time! 75.172.46.207 13:43, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Question (Mouse Software)

After reading the above articles, I have a question to ask you Gaile. I have a mouse that uses software which enables you to assign a combination of keystrokes to your mouse buttons. I currently use this function to do /zrank with my middle mouse button. My question is: is that allowed, or is it against the rules? 145.94.74.23 08:00, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

It gains you no advantage, so no problem at all. I have my mouse set to target nearest/next enemy and target nearest item, plus I have a couple of keys on my G15 set to /age and F12-C - absolutely no problem. What the issue is here is with macros/scripts that generate whole series of events, thereby totally automating a character's actions. That's the no-no. --snograt 08:12, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Exactly - while that mouse does give you potential to cheat, you are not doing it. If it was set to do {C_SPACE_1_2_4_3_8} or something, that might be considered an advantage. As far as I can tell, /zranking someone easily doesn't give you an inherent advantage, other than very quick responses to outpost stabs... Ashes Of Doom 23:05, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Using macros is still not a reportable offense as far as I know though. Even if I have combat worked out to 3-5 different macros or something, you still run into three problems, one: It's a little hard to tell when someone is macroing, two: it may require the use of a 3rd part program, but it won't be specificaly for Guild Wars, and three: it's not botting and nor does it take the place of a player. Arena Net doesn't see anything wrong with macros as far as I can tell, until they start to become advanced and complicated enough to replicate bot-like functions. Correct me if I'm wrong Gaile (or anyone else) but I'm pretty sure Arena Net has no policies restricting macro use until they become bot-like. — Jon Lupen 23:23, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

What you're doing is "hot keying", which, to my knowledge is permitted by Anet. I do something similar, I set certain functions for my heroes to hotkeys--such as setting their flags, or making them use a skill I have clicked shift over so they don't use it unless I want them too (like meteorshower or a res sig). Because you are actively "playing" and "controlling" these functions, it is not botting. Botting is when you are afk and the program actually "plays" the game for you. You should be just fine.--*Yasmin Parvaneh* 00:10, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Just a side note, and some spliting hairs here, but you don't have to go AFK while you run a bot XD — Jon Lupen 00:16, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Gaile, this is an interesting topic. Can we get an official response to this? 24.188.207.20 01:32, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

She usualy gives one at some point, sooner or later. You'll just have to wait for her on that. — Jon Lupen 01:34, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Well, as said above, I don't see how hotkeying a rank emote could be seen to "give an advantage" or "negatively impact the gameplay experience for others?" I mean, hey, emotes have no impact on gameplay. Well, unless someone is really touchy about getting ranked ;) -- Gaile 02:00, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply. I just wanted to make sure, since most answers on similar questions were pretty vague. Thanks a bunch. 145.94.74.23 22:06, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Just an Idea

I know that players have asked about having GM’s come into pvp areas of the game to help stop leeching and I understand why you say that it would be impractical to do this. “But would it be as hard to include? Something like a Game Worden/Game Ranger or whatever name you like”. Someone who as no special privileges other than the ability to enter pvp areas of game and have the ability to flag lechers’ and bots. This can be done as a two stage flagging a yellow flag over chars head to indicate that they are under scrutiny for a time period this will give them time to involve themselves in the game. Then a red flag over chars head to show that a ban is now in place (and not just a 5 or 10 min ban make it something that will hit home). The only reward that players acting as GW/GR would get would be to know that they are helping the gaming community. True Arrow San[MODs]

Any time a player is given special rights, privileges, designations, or abilities, certain negative issues can arise. Some of those concerns include ones related to public perception, divisions within the community, potential corruption, staffing to monitor the volunteers, and even, in some cases, legal complications. This idea has been brought forward many times, and thus far, ArenaNet has not chosen to implement such a system, for the risks of giving special in-game rights to players have historically been perceived as higher than the benefits. -- Gaile 02:47, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Support Issue Mail

Hey Gaile, around thursday I've send you an email about an issue with my account, I'm just wondering if you got it or not, as I'm really concerned about this.. Let me know when you've found the email, Dutch Sunshine 14:26, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes I received an email. It arrived on Friday at 3:30 PM. Which means just a few hours before the end of the business day and the start of the weekend. Please keep in mind I receive more than 100 mails a day, that I manage several email accounts, and that I am active on support tickets, intra-office messages, conference calls, the wiki, and forums every day. I will email you back, but I beg for a bit more time to do so in the future. -- Gaile 21:38, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Windows Media Center

gaile, every time i close GW WMC starts automalicly. i have Vista. I think it's home edition. WMC always stands on TV-recording. Where do i post this problem because i have it on both my computers and it's very anoying. thx Rhonin Soren 11:34, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi Rhonin. That sounds like something our Technical Support Team would love to get their teeth into for you. :) Could you kindly submit a support ticket by following the link on the support page? Thanks. -- Gaile 04:23, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

ok thx Rhonin Soren 08:25, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

support works really fast. don't have a solution yet but i do have an answer yet :) Rhonin Soren 09:00, 8 March 2009 (UTC)~~

LOL this is a easy quick fix! Just right click the Guild Wars Shortcut (on the desktop). Click properties. In the target remove -mce. This happens in W7 also. So its a feature, not a bug ;). Dominator Matrix 02:14, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Well if you don't know that its kinda hard to find isn't it? support just said it to me to. but thank you to Rhonin Soren 18:30, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

I am glad you got the help you needed, Rhonin. But DM, are you saying that's a feature of GW or of Window? (I wasn't aware of that at all, in either case, so thanks for that info.) -- Gaile 04:10, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Really both for features. Dominator Matrix 20:30, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) I mentioned this to our Technical Support lead, and although I believe he said this is a WMP feature and not a Guild Wars feature, he's going to look into the matter and see if we can add a handy Knowledge Base article or something of that sort, so give Guild Wars players this information as quickly and easily as possible. Thanks again for pointing out the situation. -- Gaile 19:25, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

As I've said this is an automatic thing for Windows 7 (at least for the beta). This could be troublesome for new users. So by then a FAQ/Bug section on the site would be a must. Seen here and ArticleDominator Matrix 00:36, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

This is a vista thing too. Vista just feels it needs to add the -mce tag or whatever after the run part. Just remove it and you'll be fine. Be sure to tick "read only" on the properties page, so it doesn't re-apply itslef. ~Zaw

Report System

Hi Gaile,

Could someone at ArenaNet please provide information on why the report system does nto allow you to report people outside of your district for abusive language, which most abusers use to their advantage to stop you from reporting them? Thanks, --Burning Freebies 20:06, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

If you have issues with players outside your district, a simple support ticket will prompt an investigation and, when appropriate, the Support Team will take action on the account involved in abuse, racism, harassment, or other inappropriate behavior. The /report system is one means to get in touch, but in a sense, it's rather one-dimensional. All reports through that system are reviewed and the appropriate action is taken, of course. But a support ticket actually gives the player much more latitude on who, when, how, and what he reports. A ticket lets him give details, and those details are often what makes it possible to see what happened and take the appropriate action. So I encourage players to report abuse or harassment issues via tickets in cases beyond, say, a passing incident observed within a district. -- Gaile 20:14, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, fair enough. Thanks for your reply.--Burning Freebies 16:13, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Do you mind if I quote that on the report article, Gaile? Biscuits 21:06, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Sure Biscuits, if you think it's of value. It's just some straight info on how Support is able to address issues, and honestly, I recommend a ticket for harassment or abuse in any situation when it's possible, because it's far more likely we'll be able to see the full picture with a ticket and the details a player provides. -- Gaile 23:06, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

OK, I've added it in. Feel free to edit it if you think it could be any clearer. Biscuits 08:45, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

what about people that buy accounts, that jump all over the districts so they can not be /report what shouild they be reported under?--Thedreadlordpie 12:59, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

There are a lot of options: Using "scamming" might be good, because the people doing this are trying to steal accounts through bogus "I'll buy your account / let me put the gold on your account / watch me steal your account" process. You could also use "disruptive behavior" or a general drop-down and then get specific in your message to the team about these district hoppers, UA breachers, and would-be account thieves. -- Gaile 00:13, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks a lot gaile, next time i am in kamadam and see someone try to buy accounts i will report them with /report take a screen shot showing if they are jumping around the ditricts and send a ticket about the buyer, as they always put there message up in local chat and not trade.--Thedreadlordpie 17:10, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Is this matter being looked at for GW2 ?

File:User Serge Yseron dishonor real efficiency.jpg

Yseron - Serge Yseron 13:36, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

WOW! O.O--Unendingfear 14:49, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

It seems that Guild Wars 2's World PvP will completely avoid the problem by making the battles longer and removing or raising the team size cap and letting players join or leave at any time. -- Gordon Ecker (talk) 23:19, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) First, please don't put screenshots on these pages -- put a URL to link to one on your own user page, or put a link to a screenshot on a hosted page. Secondly, we are not discussing Guild Wars 2 and its game mechanics in any greater detail than has been relayed through earlier announcements. The team is -- as I have said many, many times -- well aware of the issue of leavers and aware of the concerns of players about this matter, but we don't have any announcements to make at this time about either potential changes for Guild Wars, or about future design plans for Guild Wars 2. -- Gaile 00:17, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

I modified the screenshot to link instead of fully displaying; hopefully that helps matters. -- Wandering Traveler 04:25, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

That does help, and thanks, WT. :) -- Gaile 23:59, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Alliance battles - Vampiric weapon leecher + Lags attacks

Hello. For I have had my share of vampiric weapon leechers and lag attacks i no longer believe in network problems. I wont ask to anet to fix anything, I wont submit a support ticket that lead nowhere. I will only wish the network and security team a nice day, because that's all wa are allowed to say when we are fucked. But i will make a present to a specific player before i leave you:
Yseron - 90.9.251.2 14:20, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Lags have disappeared has they came, along with the leecher and the players that were able to immediately target laging mates. Back to normal pwnage. Yseron - 90.15.53.5 17:44, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Apparently luxons still experienced heavy lags, at grentz frontier. But this time it was to our advantage cause i was on kurzick side. Yseron - 90.15.53.5 21:17, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Kurzicks now also experience lags, i ran the diagnostic utility and only the following ips had 100% packets loss:

 0                                           ordinateur [ "dont hack me" ] 
                               0/   3 =  0%   |
 1   46ms     0/   3 =  0%     0/   3 =  0%  "dont hack me"
                               0/   3 =  0%   |
 2  ---       3/   3 =100%     3/   3 =100%  10.125.25.14 -------> see post about RIPE database*
                               0/   3 =  0%   |

(...)

 5  ---       3/   3 =100%     3/   3 =100%  193.252.161.174 
                               0/   3 =  0%   |

(...)

11  ---       3/   3 =100%     3/   3 =100%  nc-interactive-gw.ip.tiscali.net [213.200.86.18] 
                               0/   3 =  0%   |
12  ---       3/   3 =100%     3/   3 =100%  206-127-156-82.plaync.com [206.127.156.82] 
                               0/   3 =  0%   |
13   66ms     0/   3 =  0%     0/   3 =  0%  206-127-145-228.plaync.com [206.127.145.228]

Yseron - 90.15.186.26 22:21, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

*I dont know if it can help or if it's normal but the RIPE database specify that:

IPv4 Blocks for Private Internets The IPv4 blocks

10.0.0.0        -   10.255.255.255  (10/8 prefix)
172.16.0.0      -   172.31.255.255  (172.16/12 prefix)
192.168.0.0     -   192.168.255.255 (192.168/16 prefix)

are reserved as private address space, specified in the RFC 1918. This means everybody can set up an internal network using addresses in these blocks, but packets originating from those addresses should never appear on the internet.

Consequently, the administrators of those internal networks are not obliged to register themselves with a whois database such as the RIPE Database.

Thus, if you have received packets originating from these addresses, there is either a misconfiguration somewhere or the packets that you received contain a spoofed IP address, or they have been sent from within your own network. RFC 1918 can be found at ftp://ftp.ripe.net/rfc/rfc1918.txt

Yseron - 90.15.186.26 22:28, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Need GM Help

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

I cant find a gm to get help from. They r always offline, any ideas Gaile?74.173.107.209 13:37, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Try support. -- Brains12 \ talk 13:48, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

No, i have a bit of a bug issue, or at least my friend does. I need the Gms to figure out what the issue(s) are.74.173.107.209 15:12, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Guild wars has no Anet cannot afford traditional ingame GMs. Try support, and if you can't get anything out of them, contact Gaile directly. Ashes Of Doom 17:08, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Although please keep in mind that support seems to have been hit by redundancies recently, thus they are taking some time to get back in touch with people. -- Salome 17:13, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Bug issues can be reported here on the wiki too. --Silverleaf Don't assume, Know! 17:25, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Our Support Team is not available for in-game discussions of issues. Please have your friend write support and relay the details of the issues he is experiencing: date, time, time zone, detailed description of the issue -- all will be helpful. He will receive an automatic reply instantly, and a reply from a team member within minutes. If the issue needs escalation, that will happen right away and the issue will be addressed as the team member is able. The time taken to address escalated issues varies, based on the person to whom it is escalated, the other matters they're working on, and so forth.

And no, the Support Team has not been hit with recent "redundancies" nor staff reductions. As far as I know, the turnaround time for responses has not increased, keeping in mind that different issues require more or less time. For instance, bugs or exploits routed to the Live Team may be reviewed by multiple people, even tested for verification, so such a response will take longer than normal. -- Gaile 19:21, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

I think what Salome meant was that people are asking the same questions over and over again, but aren't getting the different answer they're expecting to get. 145.94.74.23 08:02, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

He said his friend has a bug to report. I don't think there's any reference to asking questions at all -- his friend needs support, and can get it by writing support. -- Gaile 08:29, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Thnx A load Gaile!74.173.107.209 10:34, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Account Help

Gaile, I was playing this game today farming for raptors and decided to afk in town while I was running to town doing RL stuff. When I came back home to play some more I was disconnected. After I had signed back in I got a message that said my account was terminated due to using a bot. I don't need a bot to play this game which I have over 3,000 hours in, and almost 16 maxed titles. Please help me get my account back. I have not done anything other than enjoy this great game even if I have some disagreements about some of the portions of the game. I have opened a support ticket but I fear the event that is dropping the clovers will be over before I get this cleared up. If you find something I did wrong just tell me and please give me back my account and I will not do anything in that matter again. I play this game way too much for it to just be taken away. How much luck do I have getting my account banned the day before st. patricks day. :(( -- CynMod

Hi CynMod. I need to point you in the direction of the support team. You say that you've submitted a ticket -- that's great. A Support Team member will review all the records and figure out what took place with your account. -- Gaile 23:59, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Gaile, this is very insulting. I spend all this time in that game that I spent over $200 for and the best that I receive is an automated message about how the GM's take care to look over accounts? Please gaile, I was not using a bot. Last thing I did was add a new mini pet to my hall of monuments. I come back home to find myself banned. How can I use a bot if im not even home. This is unjust. I feel as if I have been a victim of just throw him away to stop further trouble with this automated email that many people have said they received. This game is what I turn too when I want to get away from my life instead of drinking or drugs. Please don't take this account from me. Farming raptors repeatedly does not make me a bot just cause I can do it for long periods of time. That only means im dedicated. Support ticket is 090316-001275 -- CynMod

You have not been sent a form letter. You have been sent a letter that was reviewed for accuracy and applicability based on an extensive examination of game logs. Now, your game logs are extremely interesting. When you're shown saying such things as, "hit escape to close the bot," and when the other parameters align so clearly with bot use, what else is the team supposed to assume but that yes, you're not only using a bot, but teaching others how to do so as well? -- Gaile 02:16, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Well there again, that does not prove that I actually "Used" a bot just cause I knew how one worked. But that's fine. I moved on but I would like to make one last request. My account was the guild master of my guild. Can you please make one of my officers by the name of, "The Plainsmen" as the new guild master. I won't bother you any more other than to look and see if I can be granted this last request. -- CynMod

Helping other players use bots is also against the Rules of Conduct[1]. See point 22.

"You may not use any third-party program (such as a "bot") in order to automate gameplay functions, including playing, chatting, interacting, or gathering gold or items within Guild Wars. You may not assist, relay, or store gold or items for other players who are using these processes."

By the way, the Guild Leader position is automatically inherited by the most senior Officer if the Guild Leader doesn't log in for 60 days. -- Gordon Ecker (talk) 07:10, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

ok thanks. I didn't know that about the guild. -- CynMod

Not sure where this would go but you're my favorite so...

I was scammed today I have screenshots and stuff, but whom do I email or whatever? I don't really know where this should go so I'm asking my favorite ANet employee. ^.^ Thanks in advance for anyone's help. Invincible Rogue 01:31, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Just follow this link [2] and click on Fill out a support ticket. All the information and the screenshots that you have can be added there. I did this a while back when my account got hacked into. I got the account back, but now my graphics card has turned my laptop into a T.V. tray! I wish Reversal of Fortune was real. =] (Terra Xin 01:55, 21 March 2009 (UTC))

Oh, IR, I'm so sorry to hear about that. :( That link just above is the right place to go, it's true, and the screenshots can be included in the ticket itself, if you like. (We also pull extensive game records to investigate these kinds of issues.) I wish you well on that matter, and believe me, we do take scammers seriously and we don't hesitate to give them blocks, even bans, once the research is complete. -- Gaile 02:00, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

That's always interested me. The amount of information you folks have to keep on every aspect of the game... mind boggling...

Oh, and IR, I once had a problem with someone (somehow) changing my password. I'm not a moron who used "password" or whatever, so if a very small way, I couldn't help feel impressed that they got my password, and for that matter, e-mail. But let me tell you, as someone with experience, Support are very helpful people, exceedingly polite, and exceptionally helpful. I got the automated response, real person response, I got escalated several times. Now, when it was happened, I was shocked. Also, my userbox says 6.4 hours a day, so as you can guess, I was extremely worried about loosing my account. But Support always have someone (or people) working with you, somehow no matter how worrying it is, they'll make you feel like it's okay and they'll get it solved very soon and very easily.

And remember, you've a very easy thing to solve. If you were scammed out of something, it's quite easy for them (I imagine, I do know they can do it... I presume it's easy...) to simply swipe it out of the account and hand it back to you. So don't worry mate, it'll be okay, give it some time. --> A F K When Needed 11:14, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

AFK, please don't give out false information like that. Support cannot and will not replace lost, stolen, or scammed items. It's been this way from day one. If they can't save items from an account that's been completely cleaned out, they aren't going to do it for a simple scam. The backlash from such an act would probably be enormous.--Pyron Sy 11:19, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Sy, please explain why Gaile Grey, that person who happens to work in ArenaNet, told the scammed person to go to Support? To hear they won't do anything to help? --> A F K When Needed 11:34, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

*Gray* Sorry =/ --> A F K When Needed 11:49, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Punishing the scammer and reimbursing items are 2 different things. 145.94.74.23 11:58, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

They say that it is really difficult to return lost items or characters, so you'd never really see them again. (Terra Xin 12:13, 21 March 2009 (UTC))

It is extremely unusual to find that we're in a position to return stolen items, because they are often sold or traded, often to unsuspecting, innocent players. So, someone scams a bow, sells it to a second person (who thinks the person he's dealing with is legitimate) and uses the gold to buy some ectos from another perfectly legitimate player. The honest trader who bought the bow then decides to exchange it for a sword offered by a guild member, and the guild member then moves that original bow to his second account. From whom do we take it? The person who bought the bow? He'd be out the gold. The person from whom the scammer bought the ectos? No, that'd be wrong, too. The guild members, both of whom exchanged the item in good faith? You can see it gets complicated, and quickly, when dealing with thieves while not wanting to inflict harm on innocent players.

Scammers (and especially account thieves) seldom keep the items they steal, and there are often many "hops" of a single item between a lot of people, the majority of whom aren't in cahoots with the scammer, but are legitimate players making what they believe are honest trades, sales, or purchases. And that is why it's so difficult to simply take an item of an account (again, whose account?) and give it back.

As for why I told IR to go to support, well, I figure IR would like to know that the person who scammed him is dealt with. Giving details of the scam can help Support find the records, confirm the scam, and put the scammer out of business, often on a permanent basis. -- Gaile 18:21, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I filled out a report. Invincible Rogue 23:15, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I filled out my report, and even with blatantly obvious screenshots documenting what happened they still didn't do anything... I had a screenshot of the scammer explaining that he was scamming me and his demands and still... Oh well. Thanks for pointing me where to go. If only my request didn't end up in vain. =( At least the people on the wiki try to help. =) Invincible Rogue 23:41, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

What's your incident/ticket number? -- Gaile 02:05, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

090321-001606 Invincible Rogue 15:50, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi. I've read the ticket and viewed all the screenshots twice. I will speak to the two team members who have responded to the ticket, so I can get a better understanding of their decision. Your explanation, coupled with the screenshots, seem to be in complete accordance, so I confess I am surprised at the decision, at least at this time.

However, the team reviews much more than screenshots in determining the outcome of a ticket. They review actual game logs -- and in this case I believe two team members did so. The details from the game logs are much more revealing of what transpired, to they're important to consider before making a determination on a ticket. As I said, I will need to discuss this with the team members involved, and I have sent an email to set up a time to talk about the issue. Since this is Saturday, it will likely be at Monday before we can do so. Thanks for your patience. -- Gaile 19:49, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Gaile. I knew I could count on you to help. =D Invincible Rogue 20:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi, IR. I talked to one of the Support Team members tonight (yes, it's Saturday, but we keep in touch). He said that he was going to actively review this ticket and consult with the other agent. I imagine you will hear quite soon. -- Gaile 03:40, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Need help fast!

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

I tried support, their not helping at all, so I'll try you. I just got suspended for typing 卍 in all chat. According to you, from a chat a long time ago; this symbol is fine. Plus I got suspended on a Saturday... which I didn't even think was possible!--67.240.81.210 01:58, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

You probably offended the wrong person. That symbol did represent a group that killed millions of people. (Terra Xin 02:08, 22 March 2009 (UTC))

Context is everything. It's not so much what you use, it's a lot more of how you use it and when. — Jon Lupen 02:32, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Of course misbehavior is address on Saturdays! Sundays and holidays, too! We have 24/7 coverage for reports, tickets, and reviews, although escalated issues generally take an extra day or two.

But about your block: The symbol is benign and harmless, it's true. And that's what I've said. However, players have often used it in a negative way, and we'll never hesitate to take action against those who use it offensively, as a means to shock, hurt, or offend other players. -- Gaile 06:40, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Well done Gaile Five-0. Yseron - 81.251.23.209 10:37, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm sorry!

Yes - I know this is not the first time someone annoyed you about the Drunkard Title.
No - This will not be the last time someone annoys you about the Drunkard Title.

The costs of the Drunkard Title and Sweet Tooth Title are on par with one another. Party Animal tends to be somewhat more expensive, but it doesn't matter, I just want the one compairson. Now, the way you achieve the Sweet Tooth Title, to me, is gethering all those sweets, and eating up an insane amount of money in the name of allowing a dentist to retire a rich person, while you get a Title to show that you managed to gather and munch a whole load of suggery goodness. So, as previously stated, since the costs of getting far too much alcohol / sweets that can possible be good for your poor character are about the same, surely it's worth noting that one is much more difficult often described as "painful" to achieve.
Now, by all means, if I'm missing something with the Sweet Tooth Title, please do point it out. But I'm rather astounded as someone finally working on becoming a God Walking that there is such a visible gap in the difficulty level of what can only be described as two otherwise very similar Titles.
I'm not trying to test your patience - and I'm sorry that I probably am - but since ArenaNet understandably want a black and white standpoint bot and you're outta here, is there any supported way e.g. one we max the Title without loosing the Account of somewhat... making the Title more managable?
I am in awe of those, including yourself, who say "it's an achievement, and thus I wish to achieve it"; but I'm addicted to playing the game. I cannot play the game while staring at a clock; my parents would loose the plot after less than half an hour of an alarm constantly going off.
I know this has all been mentioned before, but here's the fundamental difference: I know you won't support drinkie drinkie bots, so is there an alternative method? As far as I can see, the number of times you've been asked about the Drunkard Title and the number of times people have moaned at you about bots are one and the same. So, I thought I'd ask if you know a way in which we can lessen the burden of the Title, while still playing the game.
I'm sorry to annoy you, but for me, there is no way in which I can play the game what you want by your no bot policy and max the Drunkard Title (playing the game...). Now, I would truely love to have a God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals this'll sound absurd, but I feel I deserve it, I need it, after 6.4 hours a day, I want something to show for my time, but the idea of maxing a second account based Title is exceptionally unattractive due to the time involved. So thank you for reading this, and I would love to know of any methods which are considered fair to help with the Title. --> A F K When Needed 14:30, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, you're out of luck. It annoys me as well (After almost 4 years of playing, I'm at only 2,300 drunkard points) but there's no legit way of doing this any faster. Apparently Anet did something to prevent the zoning trick many players used to max out their drunkard title faster. – Barinthus 15:50, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

well you can always do what i am planing to do to work on my drunken title, i am going to drink the alchol when i am getting COF HM runs, now the reasion why i am working on the title this way is for a couple of reasions, one i will be getting vanguard points when the run is finshed, i be getting 2 points to my Deldrimor title, i will also be getting gold drops from the monsters and raw gold rare materils and lockpicks from the hidden treasure. and the runs only cost 2k each, but the best part is that after you gotten over 500 gold worth of drops you will start to earn money as well, as the quest reword is 1.5k.

so to top it all off, if you want to work on your drunken title get COF runs and work on 3 more titles and earn more gold at the same time, so what couild be better?--Thedreadlordpie 16:48, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanx guys, but I am hoping there is a legit way. Because ArenaNet's stance on it is you can't use a bot; you have to play the game. My stance on it is, to do this; you cannot play the game. --> A F K When Needed 17:27, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Did it the "right" way and got the titles...it takes ages, in-game gold and a lot of effort but is doable....--Silverleaf Don't assume, Know! 17:46, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Silverleaf, I don't want to offend you in any way, so I really don't know how to put this. I respect what you did, but don't necessairly want to repeat the experience. In many ways, a God Walking is one last achievement, one last interest that Guild Wars holds for me - when you play for 6.4 hours a day, updates will never keep up with you, you will get bored of the game.

Now, I've every intention of buying Guild Wars II let me be a Mursaat - I'm begging you, or a seer, or a phantom, if it floats I'll take it but Guild Wars is just... I dunno... it's not as fun anymore due to the fact I've relentlessly played it so often, that's not a jibe at anyone in anyway I certainly don't think I'm known to ArenaNet, but I'm certainly happy with them and, like I said, can't wait for GW II. Trying to keep my interest in the game is... tricky. Trying to keep my interest in staring at the clock, clicking a button, staring at the clock, clicking a button, staring at the clock... you get the idea. When you've an ever declining interest in a game no matter how amazing the game it you just don't have the willpower, patience, and frankly can't be arsed working on the Drunkard Title the way it is. --> A F K When Needed 18:28, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

It's not a problem to discuss this here, and I'm not irritated at all. :) The only thing I wonder about is whether this is a support issue, and if maybe the discussion would be better on my main talk page, I'm not sure. (If you want me to move it there, please do let me know.)

The answer is: I don't know of any plans by the Live Team to make getting this title easier. I feel they're happy with the original process because when people were exploiting, doing a cheap, unintended ;) work-around, that exploit was shut down. That tells me -- as a player -- that the Devs would like this title to be acquired the way it was written. Yes, it's costly and it's time-consuming, but no more so than several other titles and far less so than some.

Remember, as others have said: A regular player can turn off effects and play missions and quests while clicking the drinks. (I am impressed with The Dread Lord Pie's plans -- very clever!) Sure, the timing might be off if you're running an area and engaging in combat when a drink expires, and you might waste a few points here and there, but many friends have told me it can be done. (Since I'm going for max Drunkard on a character I don't want to level, I'm playing my own mini-game: Guild Hall Guzzling. :) )

All the best and good luck with the title! -- Gaile 04:13, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Far less than some: yeah, PvP Titles probably, which, as they can contribute to the People Know Me Title any number of times, are rightfully the longest to max.

My point is that the Drunkard Title is the Sweet Tooth Title. With considerably more work, for the same money. That strikes me as a bad deal, and I'm surprised similar Titles are not more... even.

Clicking the drinks, yes, but that means staring at a clock have fun killing Shiro glancing at the screen every 2 minutes or using an alarm not possible for all players. Dread Lord Pie's plan many people do, but I am using that to work on Survivor / Ebon Vanguard / Delver / making money, so I don't want to waste money on someone who could as yet be deleted and remade. I am NOT blaming the Drunkard Title for that, that's a result of me working on the Survivor Title, and I realize this. However, forgive me, but I would argue, standing well out of aggro, where you don't fight or anything, is not playing the game, to the spirit if not to the letter.

Yes, it can be done. Winning The Nobel Prize can be done. Then again... Point here is I wouldn't waste a few minutes. I'd gain a few minutes, and would end up paying for much more than the Devs intend me to do so to max the Title.

One last point. Leaving it the way it is largely and making just one little way of easing the burden is all I'm asking. Ergo, you could say to unhappy people the "original" way can be done. Make everyone happy, give people the choice. All I'm asking for.

All the best: Thank you =) --> A F K When Needed 17:20, 23 March 2009 (UTC) Sorry, I didn't address something. Yes, a Support Issue, because I refuse to give up hope this is the way the Drunkard Title will be until GW II

Have no fear, I'm still here!

Gaile, I think you will agree, ArenaNet have made several things easier, so that everyone can achieve what they want to before people largely leave the game for GuildWars II. People complained about Ursans and Permas, but I saw it as giving everyone a chance to achieve whatever they want, e.g. Obsidian armor. I'm probably wrong, but if I'm correct, I certainly agree with, and indeed admire, that notion. If you ArenaNet here, not Gaile Gray want people to achieve what they want God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals, Obsidian Armor, whatever why should the Drunkard Title not be in line with the other... ideas? --> A F K When Needed 17:25, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, I would disagree with your basic premise. I do not believe that ArenaNet has changed things so that everyone can achieve what they want to. I think some things were changed -- perhaps made easier, yes -- because they were unreasonably difficult. But there's a difference between adjusting to a more-reasonable level and intentionally making something real easy. I hope that makes sense. :)

I don't think titles were intended to be easily won. I think that, with nearly 6 million accounts, there's still an intention that titles will remain meaningful, that we don't come to the point where everybody has all the titles, or even a lot of titles. (And I disagree that there was ever an intention that everyone have Obs Armour, too. ;) ) So the Drunkard Title may be adjusted or it may not be, but I don't think any adjustment will be made to make getting a bunch of titles a straight-up cakewalk. -- Gaile 19:06, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

All I have to say is that a worthy Drunkard should know the taste and effects of their drinks - after some drinking practice I can recognize the level of intoxication for different kinds of booze by just looking at the changing visual effects. Yes, I play with that turned on. No need for other help here, just some drinking practice and a lot of playing time. But people will always want easy mode and autowin buttons everywhere, including using scripts for autoclicking on stacks of ale.--Yawg 21:10, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I have on thing to add to this. EVERYONE remotely considering this title would very much appreciate if a status indicator was added for your drunkenness level. All sweets and party items that have a time-based effect have one, alcohol should too. A simple square with a number matching your drunk level would be fantastic. It is very difficult to play the game with post-process effects on while your character is drunk, and so far I've resorted to watching my Drunk title ticker, drinking an ale every time it increases. But that is still very distracting and puts a lot of strain on your eyes and mind, as well as obstructs the game screen with the titles panel, even minimized to only show one title track. It's just a simple effect icon that reflects what the graphics rendering is already doing for you anyway (blur, emotes, quotes), nothing fancy, nothing new. Rose Of Kali 22:17, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

new network can play GW?

hi dear Gaile!I have back home,This is my new network, I don't know whether to play GW, please help me check my IP!I love GW. :)--114.236.36.34 03:06, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

i'am black cat!!:)--Black cat 03:08, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Help:Ask a game question might produce faster results. -- Gordon Ecker (talk) 08:51, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Please contact Support -- they can do that for you. -- Gaile 18:21, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Thought I'd post it here too since Regina's been inactive for 9 days (no trolling intended)

Complaint about player's in-game chat

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

wasabi calls my wife a cackling fat witch and I get banned. forget it who cares, sorry. admin can remove this if they want. I'm gunna go play starcraft --adrin 15:48, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Why would we remove this post? It is a support issue and thus this is the correct page for it. Their are no policy breaches in what you have written, your tone just seems a tad annoyed but that's perfectly permissable. We only remove stuff that breaches policy Adrin, you know that. EDIT: anyway I hope Gaile can help you with your issue, although I'm assuming theirs slightly more to the issue than what you have stated, for example in response to Wasabi's comments did you calmly report him or did you fly off the handle and call him names back as in GW, as in life, two wrongs don't make a right. -- Salome 17:15, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

nah i just mean that i sent it to plaync and they don't care so i just want the post removed thats all. --adrin 18:10, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

The Support Team researched this issue and concluded that a breach did not take place. They then reviewed the incident again, at your request. You then asked them to escalate the ticket to me -- even while you were saying, in the ticket and here, that they don't care. On the contrary, they research every incident of this kind carefully, because it's our goal -- individually and as a company -- to be fair, responsive, and impartial in all such issues.

Keep in mind, this is not the Support Issues page, that you've already requested a review in the ticket in which you've already been answered multiple times. If there is more to say, I will respond on the Support Issues page, to which I will be moving this post. -- Gaile 19:33, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

In looking at the original post, I see you were asking about your recent account block. (I'd sure like to have the original post title here, instead of this one. :( ) In answer to your question, you were blocked for linking to a video (not of your making) that contains unacceptable language. Reviewing that (second) ticket, you seem to understand why that block was placed, so I'll consider this issue closed. -- Gaile 19:43, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Adrin's just upset that I got dragged into the--whatever happened between them. Anyway, thank you for your time and response Gaile, it is appriciated.--*Yasmin Parvaneh* 22:00, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Bans

Request to expand Wiki article

Hi Gaile, could someone at aNet provide more detail to this wiki's "ban" article if they have the time? It would be really interesting to see how the process works provided that discussing the process in more depth wont impede the execution of the process. 24.188.207.20 02:05, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi. Some years ago, I wrote up the Conduct Breaches and Outcomes document. To date, I don't think we have a more in-depth outline of how our Support system works. That document is linked from the ban page, along with the User Agreement and the legals pages. I'd say the resources we have and are willing to outline are all available to players through those links. -- Gaile 06:44, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

I revisited the "Ban" article this week and, upon second thought, found it to be inaccurate in so many ways that it really needed modification. I did a rewrite and the page now more accurately reflects our policies and practices concerning account suspension and terminations. -- Gaile 17:00, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

I've just been banned for over 70 hours for a character name. The only one I can think of which would result in this is I Use S T D Curses. Now, I can't see how it violates any agreement between me and ArenaNet / NCSoft / whoever, but frankly I don't really care.
I've no problem being punished if the name does break the rules, but please tell me how to determine if the character has been deleted? I have my best stuff on that character and don't want to spend 3 days waiting and feeling very worried.
I never meant to insult anyone, all I wanted was to create an amusing name, I have no problem whatsoever renaming him. Please do help me find out.
Thank you. --> A F K When Needed 22:19, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

I didnt think they deleted chars as standard, I thought after your ban they allow you to log back in and change the name of the char. However I think it renders useless anything which has been customised for that char along the way such as armour and weapons. -- Salome 23:00, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

We do not delete your characters, nor make your items unusable. You will be able to rename the character after the time-out. Items customized for that specific character may be used by the newly-named character without any problem. And yes, we consider references to Sexually Transmitted Disease to be offensive, just as we will action references to AIDS. These are simply words and references we do not feel are appropriate for our game, particularly since names cannot be filtered. -- Gaile 23:37, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Pr0tip from a pr0grammer: The term "std" can be an abbreviation for "standard" as in "stdio.h" and "stdlib.h" from the C programming language. Oh wait, that's right, you guys at Anet program everything in an early dialect of FORTRAN (all the people who can actually comprehend C/C++ are working on Build Wars 2), complete with gotos, and that's why your game is broken, buggy, and it still sucks after 3 and a half years. Your engine built on the same bad structure must be pathetic since no one on the dev team seems to want to update it. Perhaps spend more time working on updates like you're supposed to and less time imitating JaGex from 5 years ago with the wild ban hammer swinging? --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:72.71.209.90 (talk).

As standard, no, but I had heard it's an option which they can choose to exercise, which would appear just to be a rumour. However I still feel lost, I don't doubt for a second that I have spent hundreds of hours playing different Necromancers all with the same name. Either a truely tiny amount of people have a problem with the name, or else in the past ArenaNet have found it to be acceptable.

This does not state that my name is in any way a breach, while I clearly did the maths wrong considering these two.

Now, I would recommend changing that significantly, as it just makes NCSoft's position on naming blurred, and personally, I'm not feeling the "good deal of latitude".

When I read that I tried to put the two together, and basically came away with the notion if I'm not insulting someone, it should be okay. Why talk about latitude when anything which can be seen to break the rules will be picked up on?

To avoid being vulgar is exactly the reason I went for initials, and like I've said, it took quite some time for me to meet someone who has a problem with my name. I don't doubt zealots exist who would find a lot of Monks names offensive as they would be seen to be making a mockery of their religion, some cultures such as the Muslims do not appreciate comments about their religion which are intended to be amusing, and I've seen some names including Allah. Oh I'm sorry, what's that? Nobody cares? I guess you have to be a paying customer to count and NCSoft will wait for an offended Muslim who owns an account before reviewing such names.

My point is that a lot of names may offend a truly small group of people, and are allowed. Please do find out how many hours I've spent logged on as "I Use S T D Curses", and you'll see I must have been seen by a huge amount of people, the vast majority of whom found it humourous, did not find it particularly funny, or simply didn't care about it.

In any event, I would strongly advise you to ask that the above be edited, I may be bias, but I feel it's simply tempting people to use names they otherwise would not, which I would say gives NCSoft a marginal amount of the responsability for the name being created.

And personally I am astounded that you will allow people to use Nazi symbols in Guild Wars, and yet find my name so disgusting. My name is a joke. What the Nazis committed, and what that symbol represents, is no joke. In this you, like NCSoft, are wholly inconsistant.

I previously suggested to you an idea of using Reward Points to change your pet as well as armor, weapons, etc., which you said you liked. If you want that to be implented, then I would ask you to mention it yourself, by all means take the credit for it. After this judgement I have become disilluisoned with NCSoft and want to limit any contact I have with them for a while. Oh, and GM Sandy was considerably less personal than the RightNow SmartAssistant. --> A F K When Needed 10:59, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Errr... they dont allow the use the swastika, they allow the use of the symbol for temple, I think its Korean, which bears a resemblance to the swastika. Also it should be noted that anyone found to be using the term to mean nazi gets the same treatment as you, in that they are made change their name. Also just as a side note, "Other people break the rules so why can't I?" = Faulty Logic. The fact your name didn't offend anyone really isn't the problem, the problem is that it falls foul of anet naming criteria due to it referencing something that they don't want referenced. I'm not sure that I would agree that its a vulgar name as really it isn't, but I suppose all that truly matters is that anet doesn't want it on their servers. -- Salome 12:49, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

I didn't think Anet knows what references are or how to use them. All of the good programmers and designers are on BW2 and the remaining team probably is using the function prototype "void exchange(int a, int b)" and still figuring out why it doesn't work. Oh, and remove this quest, I find it offensive. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:72.71.209.90 (talk).

Errr... they allow the use of the swastika.

Gaile: The symbol is benign and harmless, it's true. And that's what I've said. However, players have often used it in a negative way, and we'll never hesitate to take action against those who use it offensively, as a means to shock, hurt, or offend other players.

Needless to say I'm quoting her talking about the swastika, that is what the symbol refers to.

Also I beg you, please someone make a character called Duncan The Black and time how many seconds it takes to have the name blocked. --> A F K When Needed 14:19, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

If you don't believe me, look at #17 Need help fast!, on this very page.

Gaile herself said that they have no problem with that disgusting symbol.

Edit: Oh, thank you. You see, that's my main problem. Like I stated I'm willing to be reasonable and rename the character - no problem. The name is not vulgar, it is not discriminatory or any of the rest of it. It's just they won't like it.

I have said it before, and I'll say it again. I never intended to offend / upset anybody. I meant it to be amusing, that is all. Upon learning for the first time that someone had a problem with it the ban I didn't mind renaming the character although more than happy to debate if it is indeed wholly inappropriate.

With this in mind and all things considered, I think I have been very reasonable. I was shocked and worried about rumours which I had heard, but ultimately my real gripe is that, despite never meaning to hurt anyone, and being more than happy to co-operate with the preferances of the staff, I have been blocked for three days. --> A F K When Needed 14:21, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

The swastika in itself is not an offensive symbol. It predates the nazi movement by millenium. What you're arguing is somewhat akin to saying they should also ban the letters "N","A","Z" and "I" due to their use in WW2. Everything is about context. Your name was about giving people STD's, how is that in anyway appropriate to a computer game? However if you want to argue about perceived double standards maybe you should drop the swastika reference as that's a lost cause and focus on the Ritualist skill Pure Was Li Ming. Which is a somewhat obvious reference to the Stanley Kubrick film, "Full Metal Jacket". I'll let you work out the rest for yourself. Although again this reference is different than yours, as it only references something in a manner that only those who already know the reference would get the joke, where as yours didn't really have that tongue in cheek aspect. -- Salome 15:10, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

IIRC that symbol was used in some place in Asia way back before it was given a bad name in WW2. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:72.71.209.90 (talk).

Yes, I know, the symbol used to be on the floor of God-only-knows how many temples. But few would argue, and fewer again successfully, that the symbol has stopped being used for that purpose. It has, in effect, become a symbol of Nazism, and very very little, if anything else. None can look upon the symbol and not think of Nazis - first - and therefore, the symbol can easily offend and / or hurt many people. And yet is is allowed to be used if you're sly with your context. --> A F K When Needed 16:45, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Let's get back to the point: You were blocked for having a nasty name. And you would be blocked again for that name, as would anyone else who uses it if we become aware of the use through /report or through observation. That is our right, and that is our responsibility. Pointing to "But they did that other thing!" doesn't mean you get a free pass to offend. The "He hit me!" "But he stuck his tongue out at me!" argument belongs in the back seat of a car, and should be reserved for those under the age of 6. -- Gaile 02:14, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

There are two symbols referred to in this thread: the symbol for "temple" and the symbol called the Swastika. Now, I have never referred to the Swastika as a benign symbol, for even though it has been around for a few millennia, it cannot be disassociated from horrific events in the 20th Century. The symbol for "temple," on the other hand, is benign, and it should not be seen as offensive unless it is used with the intent to offend. And, sadly, it usually is.

The Swastika is disallowed in Guild Wars; the use of the temple symbol is allowed but is something about which we're very sensitive. As I have said previously, although the temple symbol is acceptable, it's generally put to use in unacceptable ways. We will research and take action on such misuse. FYI, a player was blocked just today for using the symbol in an offensive manner. Repeated abuse of that kind -- just as repeated racist talk, repeated offensive chat, or repeated selection of offensive names -- can result in permanent account termination. -- Gaile 02:38, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

No one should ever get permabanned just over offensive language. less QQing and butthurt please. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:72.71.209.90 (talk).

I was in fact making the point that inconsistancy is a bad thing, but I give up. One last thing. When I was unceremoniously booted, I did happen to be in the middle of a CoF run. I do imagine I would be immune from being in anyway punished for leaving the run early without paying, yes?

I am not trying to keep an argument going btw, this is a legitimate question--> A F K When Needed 18:33, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Hmmmm .. I recall seeing someone who had a guild with the initials as STD .. but that was a long time ago .. is it still in existence perhaps?--Ahrzahni 19:59, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

I saw [STDs] on... Saturday, I think, possibly Sunday. So yeah, still floating about. --> A F K When Needed 11:55, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

It would be super helpful if you happened to remember the guild name. With the tools I have at hand at this hour (and I apologize I did not see this sooner) knowing the guild's name would allow me to check this very quickly. Thanks! -- Gaile 02:25, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Sorry for the late reply

Nope, I don't know the name, I just saw it mentioned so I thought I'd put in that I'd seen the tag. But I don't know the name, I'd just seen someone on a CoF run with it after their name, sorry.

Do you know was the Zaishen Menagerie planned before I suggested the idea, or...? --> A F K When Needed 12:54, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I suggested the Menagerie (I called it "a pet stable") before the Alpha Test. I'm sure many of us had the same good idea, and I'm equally sure we're all thrilled it's coming soon! -- Gaile 05:40, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

RMT

Is this a problem? I'd guess so! Ɲoɕʈɋɽɕɧ 00:15, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

That's called gold selling. You can thwart Anet's attempt to stop it by putting a single piece of wood in your trade window. --71.229.253.172 00:22, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Also "Up to 5%. However, because ArenaNet recently implemented new policies in Guild Wars, we suggest you change ECTO to Gold in game after buying. This is to protect your account." >_> Ɲoɕʈɋɽɕɧ 00:32, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Hey, at least they care for their customers.... :p Vili 00:36, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Is there a way to nuke this swamp of corruption? I mean.. err.. legally. I want to hear the answer from you, Gaile :D Ɲoɕʈɋɽɕɧ 00:47, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Is it wrong that I clicked on the 24hr Support Chat Online icon with the attractive woman on it? But, they have a lady with a headset on, how can it be a bad thing? :P 000.00.00.00 00:53, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

I forwarded the link to the team, and also mentioned the "If you exchange, you'll be fine" note. Aye, right! That sort of comment is designed to build some feeling of "false security," but RMT sellers and buyers aren't going to fool the system by taking that step. -- Gaile 01:05, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

000, I know it's a tough statement on our times, but beware those particular "attractive ladies with headsets." :D -- Gaile 01:05, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

But she said I looked pretty... in a manly way, of course. Why would she lie :P ^_^ 000.00.00.00 01:10, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

*considers explaining he's the 194th person to whom that headset-wearing vixen has said the same line in the last 24 hours *

*decides not to burst anyone's bubble* ;) -- Gaile 01:14, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Ah-ha! Take that you 193 sods before me [swiftly kicks them all in the nutz] She doesn't like you she likes me! grrrr hehehehe Ohhhh, too much sugar :P 000.00.00.00 01:17, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Gaile, is lawsuit type action possible? — Jon Lupen 01:07, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, I'm not a lawyer, but I believe that a lawsuit would need to be brought in the country of origin, and nearly all of these sites are outside the United States. Most RMTS are in China, where I believe (and again, I'm no expert) the sale of virtual goods is not prohibited. (Maybe it has something to do with how countries uphold copyrights? I have no idea.)

I will certainly ask our legal counsel about this sometime, but it's my belief that if they could be stopped by legal action, that would have happened years ago, and that such sites wouldn't have increased so massively in number. -- Gaile 01:12, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

RMT seems to be 'serious business' this user would like to point out he doesn't know the internet version of serious business that is often said by people both younger or older than himself. 000.00.00.00 01:15, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Gaile, Legal action came ot mind, but I was never sure about it either. It would be most appreciated if you kept us posted on that. Thanks again! :) — Jon Lupen 01:16, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

On a legal point, Gaile is right. Simply put most of these sites are in China. In china the way in which copyright and intellectual property is considered to operate is quite different to the western markets. Thus legal action can't really be taken. However it is not the legal impact or even the economic impact one must consider in these instances, it's more the human rights concerns as the working conditions of the people employed by these "companies" is often terrible, with 16 hour shifts 7 days a week not being unheard of and for very little pay, in hot and squalid conditions with little to no respite. I accept that as far as anet is concerned, it's bad for business, but from a Human rights viewpoint, its also very bad for the majority of people involved within the cyber-farming industry, with a great range of health related problems being reported by those employed in this sector. A very interesting article on the subject can be found in the Guardian. If you are interested in the issues surrounding goldfarming i would recommend reading it, as it puts the issue in the context of the real world. EDIT: oh further to this, if it helps anyone at all, the Xunlai Tournament House has made goldbuying in GW unviable. This is due to the fact that one can get discounted copies of prophecies now for between £7-£9 each. On goldselling sites, to buy 500k's worth of gold it costs £30 roughly. One could just use that £30 instead to buy 3 copies of the game and with semi-accurate predicitions and selling zkeys at 4k a piece, one can make the 500k while at the same time gaining alot of storage space, new birthday minipets (over time) and no risk of having ones accounts banned. Thus Anet in a way have sorted the problem accidentally. -- Salome 01:30, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

semi-accurate predicitions kills that part of your comment, there will always be a drive for RMTs for the sheer fact it's faster to go through a trader than to buy multiple account, wait for the whole process with the predictions to finish itself, then to wait longer for Arenanet to actually release the points because they stuff it up somehow. This doesn't take into consideration that a person's predictions could be wrong etc and so on.

Or, which would be funny, Salome's idea is how the RMTs make their in-game gold now [shrugs] :P 000.00.00.00 02:56, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Well they dont even need to farm/bot for there money, on those sites now a day they just try to buy accounts from people for 300k and make xunlai prediction and there they get there 1000k and more. Or have you done this so that people buy accounts to get money sort of Anet is selling gold not by giving ectos to people but by giving zkeys to people. And yes I still think this ruines the economy. Why not customize those zkeys from the predictions. Or just go sell ingame gold in your own gw-shop.(that shop is a joke but i still feel like this about it.) Death Sligher 16:05, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Legendary Defender of Ascalon & ArenaNet

Why is it that you, ArenaNet seem to delight in making me want to quit this stupid title? I set up a death levelling session yesterday afternoon, and shockingly six of the seven groups were shamanless, so I pulled them all. Around 13 hours later I've killed two groups which have already reached my level and two are close, but it's late at night and I'm tired, so I go to bed.

In the morning my worst fears are confirmed as you guys have, as usual, chosen to kick me from the game just in time to add as many extra hours as possible to my quest for the title which you put in the game in the first place. (Before anyone jumps on me, as I'm sure Gaile is well aware, if not the majority of the population of the internet, the you here continues to be the corporate you, ArenaNet, not the personal). This has happened on more than one occasion; I do not understand why I'm being punished for playing the game and legitimately perusing a title - I bought the game afterall, I reserve the right to play it.

And no, I did not have any internet problems, network issues, problems with my router or ports, this wasn't caused by my firewall or by windows. I'm sure.

My ISP regularly interrupts their service at approximately 2am in the morning for 1-2 minutes, causing whatever I am doing to disconnect. This is probably true for you. I highly doubt it is an issue with anet's servers, much as I would like to blame them for it, since I have personally rang up my ISP to confirm that they do, indeed, perform small server checks at the wee hours of the morning which disrupts their service. Pika Fan 10:09, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm sorry that happened to you. As Pika Fan said, though, I really do suspect your ISP because I have the same problem at my house, except it not on a schedule, it's just happens once in a while, generally at least once a day. I could be wrong, but generally if there's a server issue, it affects a lot of people and a thread appears on a forum or on the wiki. That's not to say that it's never us, but generally when I get booted, my first thought is "Thank you [insert ISP here]; I really appreciate that." -- Gaile 05:26, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I recently finished my LDoA, after deathleveling nearly 24/7 for about 2 months, and did not have disconnect problems for the most part, except a few unrelated DC's. So I can confidently say that Anet is not "out there to get you" (except for the following incident). ^_^ One time I had a strange "rollback" where I killed 2 leveled charr, pinged 87% to my next level, picked up drops, then attacked the third enemy and DC'd. After all that, I showed back up in Ascalon with my armor off, the drops missing, and back at 85% to my next level. I shrugged in surprise, raged for a few minutes, and then set up another deathlevel and moved on. Rose Of Kali 08:07, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Is this reportable?

A day or so ago, I was in Kamadan. There was some guy selling the Claws of the Broodmother for ten platnum! I know that, that is not reportable, but what he said I'm not sure. I told him the price was way too high, and he said it was a new skin! I have screens too.--Unendingfear 02:53, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

He might have just been a new player and didn't know. DarkNecrid 03:04, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

He was not new, I could tell.--Unendingfear 23:27, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Intentionally misrepresenting the value of something is a form of scamming. Yes, the team would like to hear from this because it appears pretty sketchy. If you submit a ticket to support you can include your screenshots, too. Or you may give the day and time (plus time zone) and they can check game records. Thanks for caring -- we'd rather straighten someone out before he scams rather than afterwards! :( -- Gaile 23:32, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Ok, I submitted a ticket. =)--Unendingfear 02:03, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

So can we say "power trading" against the rules then? The players buy things for super cheap than they should be, then sell for prices higher than they should be. ie. Buying an eternal sword for 200e then selling for 350e. Is that scamming? Sounds like it. --adrin 03:25, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't see powerselling here. If the screens indeed show that he was trying to advertise a "new skin" and pawn them off for 10k, then yeah, thats definitely scamming. But then again, I don't see powerselling a common dagger; only high end weaponry, like that Eternal Blade you just mentioned. -- Wandering Traveler 03:42, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I've just always thought that people making money by ripping other ppl off price wise is a form of scamming. do you agree gaile? --adrin 03:46, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't have a simple yes/no answer to that, because asking a high price can be part of bargaining and the other party can always say, "Nope, too high." But someone saying that he has an item that's a new skin in the game, and marking it at an exorbitant price, doesn't sound like bargaining to me, it sounds like 1st Degree Attempt to Scam. :) Don't you agree? -- Gaile 05:20, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I agree with the "new skin" scam. It's factually false. What I see a problem with is people making thousands of ectos by playing the market. It's not what Guild Wars is about. They can go play Maple Story Wall Street Edition =P. It may be how the power trader prefers to play, but it's damaging the economy at the same time. I think i'd be pretty upset if I sold my sword to a guy for 50k then I see him advertise selling it for 100k right after that. --adrin 09:23, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Arenanet allows players to determine price so you'll always have power traders doing that kind of thing, or cons, or situation where you could sell something for 50K then see it sold again for more. If Arenanet had a full market place (think of the Rune trader etc that run off supply and demand) it might be fairer, less chances of people getting conned or screwed over and also allows Arenanet to step in if there's market manpulation that's hurting the economy. I always find it odd how when a new thing comes out and someone/a group decide what the value it is and people follow suit. Allowing players to determine value just leads to unnecessary problems in my eyes, but clearly I'm missing the bigger picture because Arenanet thinks it's a swimmingly awesome idea. 000.00.00.00 10:19, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Here are the screens I took about this. |--Unendingfear 12:56, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I might be jealous of people making money off the market, but I wouldn't say it's against GW rules, or even unethical. The fun of having a live market is playing the market. I did it a few times, traded some patience and wise choices for some cash, and it was fun. Besides, prices are set mainly by supply and demand. Reselling higher only works if there's a demand for it, and if there's nobody selling lower. I've actually lost money by trying to sell too high, and I've learned something about the market that day. Zkey value is dropping, and no amount of market manipulation can prevent that. -- Alaris 14:25, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

@ Alaris: Zkey value dropping is a direct result of the market flooding with them over the last two updates. Like you said, it's supply and demand: when everyone has twice as many zkeys as they'd expected to, the supply exceeds the demand, and so prices drop. Where this would've been largely corrected had the people who received double rewards been penalized, the problem was instead made worse when more extra zkeys were dumped on the market the following month. Though the market would be expected to eventually correct itself, perception will stand in the way of that. That is, when everyone is "WtS"ing zkeys at 4 plat, anyone attempting to sell higher gets largely shut out - while the actual value may return to what it originally was when the extra zkeys are removed from circulation, the perceived value most likely won't follow suit. =/ Raine - talk 15:46, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

!!!I got the ticket back, and it was no violation!?!?!?--Unendingfear 17:01, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

What is the ticket number? Thanks. -- Gaile 17:21, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

I think this is it: 090330-000164--Unendingfear 23:25, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) I've asked the team to review the ticket about the WTS for the item. I'm asking more about our policy on situations like this so I understand what sort of evidence the team would need to establish a scam or attempted scam. I will post when I learn more. Thanks for submitting that ticket, Unendingfear, and for your patience while I see if I can learn just a bit more. -- Gaile 04:11, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Ok, it's no problem! =D--Unendingfear 12:22, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Pictures say more then words [[3]] Didis 17:20, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

I witnessed a similar incident (about a month ago now - too late to do anyhting about this incident most likely) in which two players appeared in the trade screen with WTS Crystal Snowflake 50k, and WTB Crystal Snowflake 100k + 20e, or something similar. Obviously in the hopes that player would buy for ridiculous price and then they would both disappear. Sounded dodgy so after finding out that the crystal snowflake was a worthless quest item from EotN I submitted a ticket including screenshots of the party search entries. No violation was found to have occurred, with the GMs stating that basically 'it looks fishy but nothing can be done until a scam actually occurs'. Is this the case or should I be more persistent next time?--118.90.21.132 22:36, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

RLT

hay Gaile, just a quick questiong about real life tradeing rules

one of my firends in guild wars pays for a vent that i use. and i was thinking of getting him a set of FOW armor as a thank you for paying for it for over 2 years. so i am asking is it ok for me to give him the FOW armor as he spends his hard earned cash provideing the vent server for us. or is that breakeing the rules and couild risk us getting baned

plese answer when you can.--Thedreadlordpie 20:11, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

It's a tough question, because there's two ways it could be seen. Are you paying a monthly fee to use the Vent? Or are you simply giving your host a nice "thank you gift?" I see it as the latter, and there's nothing whatsoever wrong with that. He's doing something nice; you're doing something nice in return. However, paying XX per month for the Vent would be wrong, just as I would imagine that someone paying for his rent or pizza deliveries with in-game gold would be a little off, and might make him look like some sort of odd RMTer. ;) -- Gaile 00:41, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Provided you give him the materials and money to craft it himself and you don't craft it for him that is. :) — Jon Lupen 01:15, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

no i am not paying anythink for the vent, he is paying for it all and i just wanted to give him a gift. and yes lupen i am giveing him all the materials and gold for the armor. so thanks gaile for the quick answer.--Thedreadlordpie 06:54, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Hello, Gaile

Account Terminated for Botting

You helped me a couple of weeks ago, so I'm really sorry to bother you again, but I just wanted something clarified. I got a Code 045 three days ago for botting, which is perfectly understandable, I am completely guilty of that, my intention was to buy armor for my girlfriend. GM Cykor, you may know him, gave me the impression that all persons guilty of botting are banned from GW forever on the account in question, yet I find online threads where Cykor is removing permabans simply because something in the game is difficult. Is that not the reason that all botters do what they do, excluding the ones that are there to sell GW money for a profit, those real world trader people? What gives, somewhere else you said that botting = banning, yet I keep finding instances of reinstatements. I'm going to try and include the links, and my support ticket number. If I do something out of protocol please excuse me, I'm still learning the ropes of this reply thing. My ticket name and number is My Account [Incident: 090325-000290]. Cykor seems to just want to parrot me verses from the support page, and I did get short with him, I apologize for that. Gaile, you were extremely helpful a few weeks ago and I hate to ask you for it again, but could you help me?

[4] This is the link where Cykor revoked a permaban, because faction farming was difficult. You're looking for the right hand column, titled Ban Appeal, written by Mike.

[5]This is a link from an old archive page, you're looking for the one almost halfway down, it's a quote originally posted by Valium in a Hallway. A first time botter has his/her account reinstated, simply because it was only their first time.

[6] This link concerns you yourself, about halfway down, you explain that there are no double standards for botting. You say that the Support Team does not have varied reaction to bots. This is a direct quote, 'The Support Team does not have a varied reaction to the use of bots, such as saying "This bot is bad, immediate ban," "This bot is not so bad, we'll look the other way" or even "we'll give that certain bot a reduced penalty." You're not "a little bit of a botter" any more than someone can be "a little bit pregnant." I spoke with our Support Team lead, and he confirmed bot = ban. It's really that simple. '

Did Support not give the kurz/lux faction farming botter, Mike, a reduced penalty? Did support not Support look the other way for the first time botter? I understand that I have had my faults, but after 36 months of playing, I have only ever done this one thing terribly wrong. I know that I have insulted Anet before, and have been unhappy with some of their policies, and that I am not perfect, but neither was Mike or the first time botter, up there. Where was my warning, why was my punishment so much more severe, without any chance of appeal? Thanks for helping me a few weeks ago, I was extremely satisfied, and I do apologize for what I did, because it hurt not only me but my girlfriend, who is now being punished for my mistake as well. I apologize to the rest of the community as well, for making forums like these necessary. Please answer my questions, I don't mean to be a bother.Tha Reckoning 00:36, 29 March 2009 (UTC)AJ

In #1, we made a decision to reduce the ban to a block for a significant number of players who were involved in a botting incident involving faction farming. This wasn't a single team member's spur-of-the-moment decision to go easy on a botter. Mike may have posted about it, Cykor may have been the agent to send over that particular ticket update, but many dozens of players were shown the same mercy because it was came through a corporate decision that we explained, in depth, at the time.

In #3, a system glitch caused erroneous blocks for those who were not botting. We reviewed the accounts and removed the blocks from those who were blocked in error. Again, this was publicly explained at the time (case in point: my post) and the reasoning behind it was solid: They were not botters.

You'll have to send me that exact post link for #2, because "halfway down" relates to a user's personal settings and how many posts s/he views per page. I have never heard of us saying "Oh, you only botted this one time, go forth and sin no more." If we did discuss adopting that policy, you can be sure I would argue against it vociferously. So in this particular case, I imagine that is not what happened, and that there were other mitigating circumstances -- perhaps even a corporate decision akin to those in Examples #1 and #3 (although such instances have been very rare) -- that prompted the reversal of the ban.

So, it does not appear to me that the team, or anyone on the team, is making unilateral decisions that forgive certain folks for breaching our anti-botting policies. You have played a long time, and you may wish that Support would look the other way and reverse the ban on your botted account. But consider this: The people who care about the titles most are usually the long-time players, and those are also the people who best know the anti-botting rules. Longevity doesn't earn anyone a "get out of jail free" card, and we could not and should not offer a free pass for breaching the User Agreement. It helps the first time automatically ♦become the last time when the account is banned. -- Gaile 02:21, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

I am sorry, but one infraction lifetame bans are an amazing policy to lose a LOT of devoted customers and players. Soon there won't be many old players left, if you permaban them all for one mistake. I am sorry that you aren't a bit more forgiving, but it seems my time here is done. Thanks for replying, Gaile, gl and hf.--Tha Reckoning 02:33, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Anet's probably just permabanning you so that they don't have to pay for the server bandwidth used when you log on. In fact, that's probably why they're trying to alienate the fanbase as quickly as possible. With that aside, a better solution would be "botting = 1 week suspension, but RMTing = instant permaban". Botting is considered problematic because it fuels RMTing, but some players bot for personal purposes and don't deserve a permaban. Oh and BTW, Build Wars is crap anyway. You aren't missing out on anything. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:72.71.209.90 (talk).

They only perma ban instantly for bots and exploits, both of which are neither things that are going to cost them lots of devoted customers because their devoted customers aren't going to use bots or exploits. Other things against the rules do get multiple infractions with incremental bans, generally because those things only harm a few players, whereas botting and exploiting technically hurt the whole game. I don't agree with their reversing of the faction farm bots at all mind you, but I think a strict policy on bots and exploits are the right ones to have. It sucks that you got caught, but you should have known better and just got the armor for your GF in normal play, there's no need to rush that stuff honestly. Good things come to those who wait, those who don't, well... DarkNecrid 02:58, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Btw Gaile, the direct link you asked for doesn't work, nearest way I can tell you is to count the word "Quote" as you go down the page, its the tenth one down, posted as I said by Valium in a Hallway.--Tha Reckoning 03:01, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

NVM, I misread (edited my comment). Just take a screenshot of what she wants if you can. DarkNecrid 03:10, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

No, please put it back, it worked lol, that was perfect, took me right to it, thanks--Tha Reckoning 03:11, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

You should have purchased Build Wars gold online instead. Since only bots and exploits get permabanned, worst case you would have the gold removed and your account gets suspended. (sarcasm) Anet knows nothing about fixing bots and RMT. {{subst::unsigned|72.71.209.90}}

OK sorry Reckoning, I got confused with the numbers since your first link had a [2] by it and she said #2, lol. http://guildwars.incgamers.com/showthread.php?p=4222229#post4222229 is the working link. Sorry about that. DarkNecrid 03:13, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks again, and my name is AJ, all this Reckoning stuff gets confusing. And by all accounts I suppose I can't go by Tha Reckoning anymore, as it's been permabanned with no chance of appeal.--Tha Reckoning 03:17, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Suppose I could hope that Gaile is off talking with support, but we know what happens to those poor souls who dare to hope.--Tha Reckoning 03:38, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Gaile, is the discussion over, should I stop checking back here?--Tha Reckoning 03:49, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Faile probably fell asleep at the desk. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:72.71.209.90 (talk).

(Reset indent) I'm not far from that myself.--Tha Reckoning 04:00, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Been over an hour and forty minutes, guess she doesn't care to reply, I'ma stop checking. Goodbye Gaile.--Tha Reckoning 04:14, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Have a bit of patience, not everything can be solved within the hour :). I'm sure the topic will get resolved in time. -- Wandering Traveler 04:19, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Bit of reverse psychology never hurt, and I am getting impatient, been awake for 34 hours and ice cream and caffeine are getting scarce here lol. I do apologize for my impatience, but I cannot allow myself to sleep, because my account is still on the line, even if the line is very thin right now. I hope I'm not kidding myself that it is on the line, cause that would not be cool if they're not even considering the possibility of reinstatement, and they're just on a long lunch break, or have gone home for the day. That would be a lot of time and research wasted.--Tha Reckoning 04:27, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't see them staying at work past 10 cali time to resolve my little issue, they've gone home now.--Tha Reckoning 04:49, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

I would be rather surprised if your account came back, botting/exploits are 99.999999999999% of the time permanent, and the only non-time has been in cases of a) mistakes where someone didn't actually bot (you admitted you did) or b) a rather special case where the title was so stupid to achieve it caused LOTS of people to bot for it (getting armor is relatively mundane). I wish you could get your account back cuz it sucks super hard, but I doubt you will, if only because if you get it back, every person whose botted ever is gonna ask to get theirs back too. DarkNecrid 07:58, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Also to add, the faction thing IS different. Back before the title update and such, it took an eternity to max out and it's generally used for GWAMM. A large portion of the player base going after it went to botting, it's not that they're treating botting itself differently, they just find it fair to action players that ArenaNet themselves figuratively "baited" (not the best word, but you get what I mean) into botting. They have tons of warnings not to bot (the license agreement you have to agree to to play, the title screen has a news thing about botting and has for years, and so on), that is the warning you get. It generally works, I think. DarkNecrid 08:07, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Gaile said it herself, botting is botting and it's supposed to be a lifetime ban for everyone. They shouldn't go easy on the other guys just because Anet has a fault in the way they handle something, that's no excuse. That's on Anet, and letting some people get away with breaking the rules for ages while banning a guy who only botted 2 or 3 times for life isn't right. Besides, that title was just fine where it was. Like 300 faction and 150g every minute, and you can take 2 people along with you and make a little more money while it's still free for them cause of the quest reward? Sounds good to me.--Tha Reckoning 15:58, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

I just want a bit of closure, to know whether or not there is a chance, and if I should give up hoping. Even though sometimes it's hard to let go and give up hope. I'm having trouble doing that right now, so a concrete answer would help a lot, even if it's not the answer I would like to hear. --Tha Reckoning 17:30, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Gaile, are you going to answer again? It is a bit maddening to go without information or answers. --Tha Reckoning 00:08, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Hello again Gaile! This is Lia, Aj's girlfriend. He really is a good guy and really generous in the game, the only reason he was botting to get me armor cause he's nice like that. Are you sure there isn't any other way to get our account back?Lia La Belle 01:45, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) First, dealing with individual tickets isn't my primary job; nor is handling first-level appeals; nor is working on weekends. Anything I do on the weekend -- wiki, forums, in-game, emails, support interactions, etc. -- is a gift; please don't see it as an expectation, because that would not be fair.

If you truly believe that the company should not have made the earlier exceptions regarding botting, then asking for another exception yourself is like saying "You did the wrong thing. Do it again!" Or "Two wrongs do make a right." I've carefully explained why the specific adjustments were made in those unusual situations. I am not going to defend those decisions; I am simply telling you why they were made. The policy about individual cases of botting hasn't changed, and isn't likely to change.

Please note that I am again answering you on my own time. And in answering you, as gently as I can, I am asking that you talk to Support about this matter, for it is to them you must address your appeal. -- Gaile 02:05, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I am sorry for not familiarizing myself with your work schedule, but as GW is played over the weekend, I logically assumed that you were in at work then as well, that is my mistake. As for your idea about going to support with this, I did, hence the ticket number. Conveniently enough, support has the luxury of deciding to whom they would like to respond, and they have kindly decided against responding to my posts anymore. I am not here to bother you, you were the last hope in a lost fight, I went to support and to Regina before you, neither were able to assist me, although Regina was much more courteous than support itself. All support did was parrot me a few verses from the webpage, and send me the links. They accept no appeals, and the nearest thing to customer service was that Cykor claimed they regret the necessity of terminating an account. They may regret the necessity, but they do not regret the action itself.

Of course, as I am no longer a customer, I suspect that is why I cannot get a concrete explanation from anyone I have been able to contact. As support believes they have adequately explained by reciting the rules to me, and intend to close my posts without response, I suppose there is nothing to be gained by asking any more. Support claims to be protecting the Guild Wars community by banning me. I did nothing to harm the community, and I refuse to continue to be affiliated with a corporation that allows the selfish rule breakers to go free, while the ones who had a decent reason to do it are punished. I was not selfish, I did not sell Guild Wars money, and if support really did perform the in depth analysis that they claim to, they would know and understand that most of the money I came to make during my time at Guild Wars, legitimately or not, was given away.

Due to the violations committed by my account, I have been banned for life. Do not think of me simply as a botter, only because I did it. My intentions were not selfish, and the only thing I am truly guilty of is attempting to give a girl a present in time for her birthday. Thanks to support's swift banning action, that cannot be realized. If support would permanently ban someone for that, then frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way. --Tha Reckoning 04:23, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I understand you comments, although obviously I do not agree with them. AJ, think about it: Someone says they bot for a friend. They get a "free pass" and soon everyone is "botting for a friend." It's really sad, some of the stories people can tell (although yes, I do believe you). People can go to great lengths, sometimes, to tell a whopper. You know, years ago, I actually had someone lie about a death to try to manipulate the company I worked for at the time!

The team and I do listen to the things we're told, and we do truly regret some of the actions that we have to take. I am sorry that you are unhappy, but honestly, given the nearly 6 million accounts in Guild Wars, our ability to customize decisions is limited, because fairness is a real factor. Not to mention, having a bunch of different decisions about infractions is confusing for the community of players, and hard for us to explain. Let's take a scenario: All of these people were botting: (1) this player was trying to get a birthday gift for his g/f (2) this player was trying to get his 25th title; (3) this player was raising money to donate to a guild member who had accidentally deleted his armor. One of them has had two account marks for bad language, one has been caught three times for spamming, the third has had one bad name. One of them has played for 44 months; another for 22; and a third for 30. One's a guild leader, two are not. One plays 5 hours a month; one plays 5 hours a day. Now, do you want to try to build the check-list on who gets reinstated and who does not? Or do you suggest that all of them get reinstated, under a "bot once, it's ok, we'll only block you if we catch you botting again" policy?

Given the global nature of our game and the wide variety of people who play it -- different nationalities, genders, cultures, ages, etc. -- the best, fairest, and clearest answer is the simplest answer: Botters are banned. If, occasionally, the company has reason to un-ban someone, so be it. But by policy, we are as clear and as consistent as possible. Again, I'm very sorry that you and Lia are unhappy, and I wish you well. -- Gaile 05:17, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

IMO, Gaile deserves a better place to work at than the failure that is Anet.72.71.209.90 12:14, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

She doesn't even deserve what she has. --71.229.253.172 12:23, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

What do you mean? Build Wars was a LOT better with Gaile handling community relations. Back then we actually got update notes more than 1 day before an update. Anet fails for their stupid policy, Gaile is being used as a sockpuppet by Anet.96.233.10.68 21:10, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I think that is enough of Anet bashing for one section :P.

@Tha Reckoning - There are many many ways to acquire armor "in time" that do not include breaking a major rule that has the potential for getting your account permabanned. You could have asked your guild to help, or friends. Instead you made the choice to do something you knew had the potential consequences you have suffered. Your argument here is completely without merit. -- Wyn 12:34, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Not bashing ANet, just Gaile. --71.229.253.172 13:08, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Thats very close to an NPA breach Mr 71.229. How about you back off or be more careful in the future? As for The Reckoning's posts, in regards to botting, excuses for doing so are completely by the by. Botting is botting, the end, regardless of who and why. Another thing which has continued to confuse me throughout. How does your ban, in anyway disenfranchise your girlfriend, also why are you referring to the blocked account as "ours"? -- Salome 16:43, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Good find. It looks like Reckoning's argument and story just fell apart.96.233.10.68 21:10, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I refer to the account as ours because it is just that, we share it. The only reason I have fought this far is for her, because she is suffering for my mistake just the way I am. I offered an idea that support restore the account to her only, and ban my IP address, but they wouldn't have it. As for those of you judging me and leaving snobby remarks, you know nothing of me. I do not do anything without a concrete reason, so don't waste your time and mine speculating about why I did what I did. Do not think it makes me a certain type of person, just because I went against your rules. Suffice it to say that I do not have the finances at the moment to give her a present in real life, so I decided to give her something not so real. And if botting was truly botting, as you say, then I would not find account after account being restored online, simply because of a fault in the way Anet does their job. Neither myself nor Lia are interested in the account any further, because of the double standards we have seen. Gaile and Regina have been more than helpful, and we hope that they do not take this as a personal insult, we are very thankful for the assistance. And to Anet: keep our account, but you cannot regain our respect. --Tha Reckoning 21:25, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't question your income, but simply put if one wishes to buy a present for a loved one, then surely its the thought and effort that counts, thus taking the time to farm yourself is key to this. I too am a bit on the skint side at the moment, as many of us are, and I gave virtual presents to friends in GW, of armour and the like. However I did this the good old fashioned boring way of actually sitting at the computer and farming, it was however this self same sacrifice that made the present meaningful as without any effort a present isn't a present. Further to this the reason why I asked about the "our" comment was to find out if more than one of you were making use of the account. As your admission has just made the whole issue of "botting" redundant anyway. According to the EULA or whatever agreement they are calling it now, sharing an account is expressly forbidden and to do so habitually, such as in your case and as you just admitted is again a perma-ban worthy offence. So not only did you break the agreement through the use of a Bot but you also both broke it through sharing the account. Thus she is just as liable for breaking the standing rules as you are and both of you deserve the perma-ban. In closing neither one of you are victims, you have breached the agreement you signed up for REPEATEDLY and over an extended period of time, thus personally I think Anet's stance on this issue has been appropriate and fair. -- Salome 21:47, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

You can shoot down my argument all day long, but do not question what I have sacrificed for her. I will not sit here idly and watch people speculate about what I have or have not done for her, and the meaning of the things I do for her. That is between she and I. --Tha Reckoning 05:10, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) We're not here to question your feelings for your girlfriend, nor do we want to or would we receive any personal gain in doing so. All anyone has done is "shoot your argument down," which is all that needs to be done in order to justify your account ban, which you've already admitted was your own fault. Your initial message was along the lines of, "These are the facts, Gaile, and I'm not sure what you can do, but any help would be appreciated--if nothing can be done, thanks for trying." However, both Support and Gaile have told you that your account will not be reinstated multiple times, yet you still pester both, indicating that you're not looking for an answer and will only stop when you've gotten what you want. You say that you see people all the time that have accounts restored, but have only presented three concrete examples, all of which have been explained to you. Maybe you don't agree with some of them, and that's certainly your prerogative, but you're playing under someone else's rules (the game's and ANet's ToS), which you've admitted to breaking. ANet is not perfect--they're flawed, you're right. But all human beings are (you, included), and it's irrational to expect anyone to be 100% consistent all the time (look at the many court systems and economies of the world--things much more important than a CORPG). So for you to find one single case that you don't agree with and demand that the same be done for you is also irrational.
Oh, and it's "That is between her and me (or "me and her). And no, I'm not trying to be facetious, just educate. :D --★KOKUOU★ 05:48, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Correct me if I am wrong, but I swear I just got through saying that I am exhausted of your snide remarks. I did not come here for your take on my situation, nor do I care. I came here to ask Gaile a question, which I have done. Drop the subject. Oh, and grammar genius, your spell check became disfunctional early on. Perogative. --Tha Reckoning 06:27, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Okay this wall of text has really gone on for a long time. As stated by yourself and everyone else, you've asked your question and got your answer, so I agree with you, that this subject should just be put to rest now. Also apologies for any hurt feelings, I was not attackign your feelings for your girl friend, just simply querying your motivations for such an action. Just one quick side note however as people correcting correct spelling irks me no end, Prerogative is the correct spelling, it stems from the Latin and literally means "to ask before". Just for future reference, it is probably best never to correct Kokuou on language things, as he does tend to ALWAYS be right on them. -- Salome 08:56, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't think I believe what Reckoning is saying after he admitted that he shared his account. He bots to farm, then tries to cover it up, and admits to sharing accounts. Now he's definitely going to stay banned -.-

That's interesting, about the spelling bit, I will remember that, you learn something new every day. As for the anonymous comment above me, like I said, I didn't come here for your take on this. What's done is done, let it rest. I'm not going to respond any further, if you want to bash me about my account, go to my talk page so it stops cluttering Gaile's. --Tha Reckoning 21:28, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

"404 Not Found"

Support Page not available

I'm trying to file a support ticket via this link, but getting the above error message - is there another way to go about it? Raine - talk 17:48, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

If you had actually bothered trying plaync.com main Site you would've noticed that they are doing some maintenance and thus the servers are down --SilentStorm 18:24, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

That's informative, but doesn't answer the question at all. Thanks, though. ♥ Raine - talk 18:59, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Anet probably can't afford decent tech support anymore.96.233.10.68 21:13, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

That link is working just fine for me. Did you still find it's out of commission for you? You could try support and see if that heads you in the right direction. Please let me know. -- Gaile 02:23, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Site was down today for maintenance. Its back up and working. Dominator Matrix 05:16, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

I've successfully submitted my ticket, it just took a bit longer than I expected it to. =x Raine - talk 07:34, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

I am appending the error message here, so I can shorten the title: "The URL requested was not found on this server. Server id: 16->9" -- Gaile 02:34, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

WTF and using the F-word

I apologise if this is not the right page to post this issue on.

Recently a few Guildmembers of mine were discussing a ban of someone. They said the person in question was banned for using the abbreviaton 'WTF'. Most people who use internet know that WTF stands for What the 'F-word'. Obviously everyone (at least I assume everyone) knows using the F-word is against the rules. Maybe WTF has lost its true meaning a long time ago because it is used so much but I was wondering if someone could be banned when they use WTF. If this is the case, shouldn't it be clearer that it is against the rules to use these kinds of abbreviations.

Thanks in advance - Vy is back 18:17, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

It means what the freak, right? I'm pretty sure that is what it means... DarkNecrid 19:01, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

WHAT THE FUCK dude. (onoes bad words halp halp) Mini Me 19:20, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

AMG, I'm being serious about this and all you do is making funnehs!? WHAT THE FUCK!?Vy is back 20:31, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Wow... Someone at Anet is obviously ban happy. IIRC, using a vulgar word in an abbreviation is not really considered to be that offensive. What's next, suspend accounts for using the old abbreviation "snafu"?96.233.10.68 21:12, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, if people report you for saying WTF, there's always the chance you'll end up with a ban. --Arduinna 21:17, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I will check on whether we block for the use of "WTF." I did not think so, so either (1) the use was reported by someone who was truly offended or, perhaps more likely, (2) the person was blocked for far, far more the "WTF." I get an awful lot of appeals where someone says "But all I did was say 'Oh shuckie darn!" and I see game logs that include one line of "Oh, shuckie darn" and 4,291 lines of #*%(&#) and ]$(*%*@^(^, not to mention the always-popular @*%^&^@(^(^~.  :) -- Gaile 05:20, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

LOL. I was banned for 3 days, a few years ago now, for saying "I like nuts, they taste nutty". I'm quite proud of that ban personally, as I think it might have been one of the most abstract statements resulting in punitive action on GW, so yay me. Oh and as they say context is everything, my statement was in response to someone saying "Lick my nuts". At the time admittedly I wasn't happy about the ban, but these days I kinda like the fact that I got banned for such an odd statement. Anyone can get themselves banned for being offensive and swearing at all and sundry but I managed to get myself banned by publicly conceding that I like a certain food group. I think that makes me pretty leet! ;) -- Salome 08:28, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Last time I checked you can say "WTF" on Runescape and it didn't get filtered (about 2-3 years ago, don't know if the filter got updated).

So what is the point of the language filter then? Seems to me that if you "could" get banned for using WTF or overtly using the real words ... why have a language filter in the first place? Maybe the first response to someone for getting offended is to tell them to turn on the language filter .. or perhpaps add WTF as a filtered text string?--Ahrzahni 20:05, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) I just checked with one of the support team leads, and his team does not block for the use of "WTF." I will check with the GW Specialist in the other office to see if his team follows a different practice. But looking at the original post, what sometimes happens is that someone is blocked for unacceptable language or behavior, and then puts a spin on it by saying "I was banned for [insert trivial reason here]" when in fact he was blocked (temporarily suspended) and he was blocked for something entirely different (and far worse).

Unless I had the ticket number of his appeal, I couldn't be certain about this particular situation. But I might be willing to wager a week's worth of bagels and Nutella that the facts of the block are different than the story being told about it. :) -- Gaile 18:58, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

NVIDIA 8600GT Driver issues with GW

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

I dont get the problems that yasmin does, but i just saw on User:Vili's page that he gets the same thing. The screen turns all fuzzy. It's not an overheating problem, I think it's a NVIDIA 8600 driver issue with GW because when u minimize out, it stops the problem. We have never gotten this problem outside of guild wars. My 9800 doesn't get a problem. We both use windows vista 64-bit. she has home premium i have home basic. Here's a link to the pick of vili's screen, ours is identical. --adrin 23:39, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I get this too, I'm pretty sure it's an overheating issue. Nvidia made the 8600 GT with substandard materials, so it overheats very easily. Vista 32bit. --71.229.253.172 00:33, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Looks like overheating to me, too. Overheating is something I've very familiar with, as my computers have had their share. (Don't even get me started about the overclocked processor tossing me out of StarCraft every two minutes. Grrrr!) However, I've had some really weird things happen when my power supply was about to die, too. You're more than welcome to write Tech support about this sort of thing -- they love researching the issues and figuring out the causes. -- Gaile 00:38, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

it's not overheating from what i find, i checked her gpu temp as soon as it happened cuz it's what i thought as well. i've gotten artifacting before from killed heatsinks, but that was weather i had the game up or not, and it was a different card. her gpu temp was 45-55 degrees so it's not a problem imo. whats tech's page i can write to? is it thought ncsoft's page? --adrin 01:02, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

I would head here: http://help.ncsoft.com/ and submit a ticket. Also, consider calling in -- there are tech available for telephone consultation. Check that page for the numbers. Good luck! -- Gaile 01:06, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

If you contact support, can you post the outcome somewhere? I'd be interested to know if they have a good idea of what's going on. --71.229.253.172 01:15, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

It could be an Nvidia conflict, as Guild Wars does not play well with SLI (almost always problems here) or Nvidia cards occasionaly. A friend of mine was running a 7950x2 for quite some time and always had graphic glitches with Guild Wars. — Jon Lupen 01:20, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, this what it looks like, just like Vili's. Its annoying and happens at the worst times, like when I'm in halls or gvg.

--*Yasmin Parvaneh* 02:50, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Nvidia 8500 GT is working great. That probably doesn't help anything but, figured I'd contribute it just in case Pkohler01 05:40, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Here's a screenshot from my old, broken 4200Ti: click. Right now I'm on a 8800GTS with no trouble thankfully, but I hope you'll get your problems sorted out, because they can be really annoying -_- — Poki#3 11:41, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Has anyone with this problem try using a 3rd party drivers, such as http://www.omegadrivers.net/ , just to see if the problem replicates? Also try running other graphically intense programs as the problem is most likely in the ram on the video card. --Dunyas 17:40, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

No problems with my 8600GT, though it is passively cooled (may spike up to 76°C at times) and I'm running 32 bit XP. --Arduinna 18:02, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Could be driver issue, try reverting to last one that worked. Biz 18:35, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Artifacting can also be caused by memory overheating or going bad, as my laptop reported GPU temperatures in working range and similar issues and after testing it a bit, I found the artifacts only appeared when texture memory was used (being a programmer that has worked with graphics cards, I played around a bit). --Falseprophet 19:18, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) . Graphic artifacts are do to a card being abnormally hot. It could be OC's a bit to high, or your vents could be hindered with dust. What temps do you get with this?. Minimize puts much less load on the card and it cools. If support can't help you, is it still in warranty? If so replace it. Dominator Matrix 23:45, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

I have had the same issues with my 8600 using the recent drivers, but NVidia's 169.xx drivers work fine. If I use the newer 178+ drivers I have random corruption similar to the screenshots. It's not an overheating issue. Both Xp and Vista drivers do the same, but no problems with 169 or older. Nvidia's drivers are by far the worst made, and have lots of issues with CPU's with more than one core.

I have a 8600GT too and mine works fine. Never encoutered any problems not even after 8 hours of play ~ Kurd 17:37, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Interestingly, this week's Tech Support report (which I incorporate into a larger report on all branches of the Support Team) mentions that the the highest volume of tickets is related to crash issues with causes that include system overclocking, overheating, and outdated drivers. My computer's overheating issues displayed themselves with really strange visual glitches (like "stretched" black rectangles on the screen) and, of course, crashes. I hope those of you having these sorts of visual issues will get in touch with Tech Support so they can help you out. -- Gaile 18:28, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

its pretty annoying when half way through a gvg the screen freezes and a few seconds later all the colours are distorted and yes i have a 8600(thankfully it has blown up now).88.108.85.206 16:20, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) With all this discussion, I'm still unsure if everyone with issues, or anyone with issues, has contacted Technical Support. If you have done so, please let us know the outcome. If not, I feel it would be to your benefit to do so. -- Gaile 18:57, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

As has been said, this problem is definitely not rooted in Guild Wars- just about anything graphics intensive will cause it (or in worse cases, just about anything that involves graphics, like movies). It seems to be related to the combination of Nvidia graphics cards and Windows Vista- the problem is incredibly widespread (30% or so of reported vista crashes involved nvidia graphics cards) The biggest issue is that the solutions to the problem seem to be as numerous and varied as solutions to the hiccups (and just as ineffective, too). My only option has been to play in the second lowest graphics setting, otherwise I risk crashing mid-battle. Things I've heard that actually work include: getting a new graphics card that wasn't made by Nvidia, downgrading to Windows XP, or abandoning Windows altogether for a different OS. Rayala 22:45, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm noticing a trend between all my friends using Nvidia cards, their average life span is around a year, after that, they die completely, or get VERY buggy. Windows its self is sound now (a bit of a resource hog) but not the problem. I would buy a non Nvidia card, preferably an ATI 4000 series. — Jon Lupen 22:52, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Just wanted to send a note of thanks to Adrin for choosing an excellent topic line that helps with a current conversation and with archives. *thumbs up*

Oh, and I'm still not sure if anyone reported to Technical Support. Folks??? -- Gaile 01:35, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm sorry, normally I would jump all over that, being the hardware geek that I am, but it's very hard when you're not in possession of the afflicted hardware. :P — Jon Lupen 01:38, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm about to call Tech Support with similar issues, I have an NVidia 9800M GTS vid card, and GW crashes for me quite often :(. The few snippets I managed to gather from error logs and such is that the driver stops responding for some unknown reason. No overheating or anything here.

Once I'm done talking with Tech Support, I'll try and post what they said about the issue. :) - Minami Kaori

That will be great. I'm not sure when you posted this, but I do hope you'll keep us all up to date. :) -- Gaile 05:40, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Hi Gaile, please don't think I'm being condescending here, just trying to help =)

If an anon posts a message without including a timestamp, just go up to the top of the page and hit the "History" tab. It shows who did what so that you can easily tell who posted the message in question and includes the time / date. If that's not enough, spending a few minutes comparing versions will help you deduce which edit is the one you're looking for.

I know you shouldn't have to go through that, just making sure you know you can. --> A F K When Needed 11:27, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Just adding that this happens to me too and User:Mr J. I have been dealing with my computer supplier trying to fix it for months and have gone through 4 graphics card replacements, a motherboard replacement and multiple heatsink replacements. I might try contacting NCSoft support about it and see what fun ideas they have! Misery 11:34, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Two cents here I happen to service computers, & I have seen this before with a few NVIDIA cards. If I was checking this system. I'd first make sure the power supply was up to snuff, to be able to work with the card. There are two voltages here, one is the main supply voltage, the other is a 5 volt node lead, to the graphics card. In most cases the 5 volt node is running under 5 volts and causing this. If the power supply checks out ok Or is new, I would make sure all contacts to the card are clean, and fitting tight. If that seemed good, I would move to the boards. If it was only happening during intense graphic operations, and the processor is cooled correctly, You need to look for a heat sync. This would be a 3 or 4 legged standing transistor, resting inside a standing metal shield. To test the sync you can by cold spray at R. Shack. Just turn it on and when it happens chill the sync. If it gets better, You found the problem. You may not have to replace the whole thing. Allot of times the RTV goo on the back of the transistor was done badly. Just pry the two apart and place some new RTV in. Also note these same symptoms can come from the same thing, a Heat sync, inside the power supply as well. That's really what this looks like to me, a Heat Sync issue.

Also for those ppl that hear high pitched squeals from their monitors or computers, that's the same thing. Squeals mean bad RTV, just re-glue with rtv anywhere you hear it, and that's fixed..

PS. Also make sure you have the latest Direct X drivers loaded, and screen refresh rate set correctly, most good monitors are 75 hrz. or higher.. *these things can make a graphics card work harder if not set right.. ( Hope that helps, just my 2 cents ) Xiena 10:51, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Very nice explanation, I've had power supply issues before, and it's very frustrating. I would just like to point out one thing: it's not a Heat Sync (sync=synchronization), but a Heat Sink (it sinks heat away from the chip). Rose Of Kali 17:28, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Xiena -- Thank you for sharing your thoughts. -- Gaile 02:32, 1 May 2009 (UTC)