Feedback talk:Gaile Gray/Support Issues

Guild Wars Support Issues Page
This page is intended to offer help to players with issues surrounding their Guild Wars game account(s). Please post after you have contacted Support and have received a response from a Support Team member, or after at least 3 full working days have elapsed. I will need your 12-digit Incident Number to research issues. Thank you for understanding, and I look forward to being of help to you. -- Gaile 01:44, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Bot Ban Details Page
If you have questions about the bot bans of May 26, 2010, or if you're just curious about how the support process works in a general sense, you may find the new Bot Ban Details FAQ of interest. -- Gaile 19:32, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Fake Beta Sites
I've said it. We've all said it. But dang if it doesn't break my heart when yet another player loses his account to a thief who gets his mitts on account credentials by offering a pretend, fake, phony, not-gonna-happen, bogus, #*%O&#*@! "Guild Wars 2 beta test position."

As the Community Team has told you, we don't have openings. We aren't accepting applications. We don't have a page or a form or an email address to apply. When we do, it'll be on the official Guild Wars 2 website. Until you see it there, please, please turn your back on the fake offers. Thanks for reading! -- Gaile 05:08, 17 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the heads up... I also noticed these kinds of posts on less than reputable game forums, scammy newsfeeds, malicious twitter feeds etc... in addition to being sent as spam as a fake invite for beta test by email. --Lania  [[Image:User Lania Elderfire pinkribbon.jpg]]23:53, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

Account issue
Hi Gaile,

Sorry to come and nag you on your talk page - but I was wondering if you could give someone a little nudge for me? I opened a ticket (ref 110316-001526) last week, yet since it was escalated on the 18th to senior support staff I've heard nothing at all. I guess I'd just like some reassurance that it is being looked into, as I'd very much like my account back at some point in the near future! At the moment, the lack of any new response at all for 4 days now is putting a downer on what has so far been a pretty decent support response in a rather unpleasant situation. Thanks for taking the time to read this - and I hope 4 days is a long enough of time frame for me to not come off as totally impatient with this! yger talk 14:39, 22 March 2011 (UTC)
 * They don't work on weekends, which is half the time right there. [[Image:User_Felix_Omni_Signature.png]]elix Omni 15:23, 22 March 2011 (UTC)
 * That makes all kinds of crazy sense! /doh. I'll get back to waiting. :( [[image:User_Lyger_SignatureText.png‎|User_Lyger_SignatureText.png‎]] yger talk 15:32, 22 March 2011 (UTC)
 * 4 days doesn't necessarily give off the impatient vibe (for some) but Gaile prefers waiting a full week until support hasn't responded to contact her about it. --ஸ Kyoshi [[Image:User_Kyoshi_sig2.png|19px]] 17:08, 22 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, I was going off the what she wrote at the top of the page - where she states 3 days. But hey ho! Got a response back. My account was well and truely raided, but it's nothing I can't work on getting back. At least I have my characters. I'm more miffed that whoever raided my account reset my UI! Please consider this issue sorted, Gaile. [[image:User_Lyger_SignatureText.png‎|User_Lyger_SignatureText.png‎]] yger talk 18:37, 22 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Dang, Lyger, sorry to hear. But I admire your good attitude, and as irritating as it is to have that happen, it's great to just buck up and move on. :) -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 05:46, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

Problems in EU Guild Halls
Yesterday a problem crept up where players were experiencing wonky behavior with their Guild Hall when they they accessed the GH from a European districts. (They were fine if they accessed from another region.) The problem was diagnosed as a cross-Atlantic connectivity issue, and it cleared up after a few hours. However, it's baaaaack. Please be aware that the team is aware of the return of this issue and they've routed their notes and observations over to a network team that will look into the matter in depth. Thanks for your patience. -- Gaile 19:07, 25 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for keeping us up-to-date. — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 19:11, 25 March 2011 (UTC)


 * It seems to be more extensive than just European districts. For both my accounts, there's no access to the GH from European, American or International districts. Further, appearing in a European district removes the guild tag from the characters completely, and has no guild roster info available either. The guild was originally created as a European guild (before the ability to freely swap regions) so I suspect that's why - but it is affecting all districts for us, not just European ones. Connecting from Australia, if that matters. 210.1.195.174 00:58, 27 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the additional information. I will apprise the Network Team of these new details. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 19:12, 28 March 2011 (UTC)
 * It affects all aspects of the European districts as it seems that this is where the issue is, either on that server(s) specifically, or as Gaile said a few days ago, or from the communication issue. Jumping to a US server, which I was able to do the other day temporarily fixed the problem.
 * However, friends are commenting on Code 13 errors, which is the wiki is to be believed may be a server side issue. I'm directing as many people as who tell me about this issue to send a Support Ticket, however, as I'm sure Gaile is aware most people just like to jump up and down and fling their poo (excuse the phrase) than actually do something to try and help the situation. 000.00.00.00  19:31, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

Update: 28 March 2011
As you can see above, there were issues with the guild server(s) last Thursday related to cross-Atlantic connectivity issues. Those corrected themselves within a few hours. However, some Guild Wars players have continued to see problems related to guilds since that time. The server team just restarted a couple of key servers, and they believe that the restart will clear things up. Please let me know (or update your support ticket) if you continue to have issues. Thanks. -- Gaile 19:29, 28 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I'll keep an eye out. Nice work.  000.00.00.00  19:35, 28 March 2011 (UTC)
 * New update: Network Engineering has identified an issue with one of our peers. We don’t control the routing, since it’s not directly to us but rather using external providers between data centers (as is the norm). Network Engineering has opened a ticket with the team for their attention, and we hope they will be troubleshooting this issue ASAP. Thanks for your continued patience. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 20:43, 28 March 2011 (UTC)
 * We had access to the GH from US districts last night (with some error 13's earlier in the day), but have lost it again this evening (currently 10pm). I'm assuming the Network Update means you know there's still an issue, but just in case...the server restart hasn't fixed anything for us. Travelling from a US district to the GH via the Guild window again results in an empty GH with an invitation to create a guild, and no Guild roster/tags. I haven't retested travelling from a European district...but since that was failing worse than the US districts on the weekend (no GH to travel to & no Guild roster/tags at all), I figured that the US district failure was pretty indicative of the GH not being usable at the moment. ;) 210.1.195.174 11:09, 29 March 2011 (UTC)


 * We've had an similiar problem. As soon as we went to euro dis the guild would dissapear. This does not happen in int or american. I made a video showing it here: 82.95.65.117 16:53, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

Update: 29 March 2011
The team noted tickets coming in still about this problem, so our kind server fellow -- Stephen -- reset the guild system yet again. Please let me know if you continue to see problem. We're really sorry about this continuing issue, and are hoping the new reset clears everything up completely. If not, it's back to the drawing board for more research and the trying of other things. -- Gaile 05:33, 30 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry to have to say that the restart has not helped at all. Still no Guild roster/tags/NPCs when I travel to the Guild Hall from a US or International district, and my character's don't recognise that the guild exists when I'm in a European district (so can't travel from there). When travelling to the Guild Hall from a US district, the GH is loaded through server ip 206.127.146.59, and just offers Guild Creation options. Oh - and it's the "Isle of Meditation" guild hall, for a guild that was originally European. 210.1.195.174 09:06, 30 March 2011 (UTC)
 * For me it is fixed, even in european districts. Kinda weird. Guild is european aswell i believe. Same server as he has ^ 82.95.65.117 11:41, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

Update: 30 March 2011
Ever creative, our network team has enabled a work-around that we hope will stop the connection issues that players have been experiencing for the last four days. Since the team is aware that the problem is sourced with a particular provider, they're rerouting traffic from the Frankfurt data center to the US center using a different provider. Sort of like taking an "alternate route" when there's a traffic jam. :) Please do continue to update me, folks -- I'd like to keep the team apprised of what you're experiencing. Thanks a lot. -- Gaile  19:08, 30 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Our GH & roster is working properly here (from both US & European districts) tonight for the first time in 4 days (the second time in 6 days - we did get one day where it worked from US districts). It's looking much better - and I'm crossing my fingers that it'll "stay" fixed this time. I hate having to deal with intermittent issues myself - they're so frustrating to debug, and can be hard to tell if they went away because they were fixed or were just intermittently working again. ;) Cheers. 210.1.195.174 11:18, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Its doing it again, I had to break from PWI just to check and tell you, the band aid didn't work >_<. 000.00.00.00  04:00, 1 April 2011 (UTC)


 * I just saw it for the first time. I had played earlier with player based in Europe, and met them in an EE District. When I logged on later, all looked okay until I moved to the GH, after which, no services, no guild chat, no guild roster. Switched districts (to Asia/Korea) and then switched toons to get everything back to normal. — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 04:04, 1 April 2011 (UTC)
 * now my hall is effected from every district euro, american, aisa and international, not all the time i must add but ive decided to try and avoid GH for a while, hope this can be sorted soon.Spark-TBa 13:44, 1 April 2011 (UTC)
 * ok HZH is completely messed up ee1, got lux npc's in it, and a guildie here cant leave euro districts for some reason, we got any new info on this situation.Spark-TBa 14:40, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Update: 4 April
Ok, we're all about tapped out with this pesky (and mysterious) issue! One of our server programmers let me know today that he and an IT Team member, who also works with our servers, discovered: "The guild server is disconnecting from the EU game servers about once a minute." I don't know about you, but my first reaction was, "Well (#&%, that's can't be good!" :)

The good news is that they completely rerouted the system that were using that server and rerouted them to servers that we know are fully functional. In more than 1/2 hours of steady observation, things look much better now. Could you please give it a bit and let me know how things look on your side? As always, if you report a problem, it helps me tremendously if you tell me: Date, time (and GMT time) plus your general location. Thanks! -- Gaile 23:22, 4 April 2011 (UTC)


 * As on your Facebook I keep getting Code=040 on 206 servers. Now, after a few minutes of checking servers the 64 servers are doing exactly the same.  Guildies here in New Zealand get the same, and guildies in the states are experiencing the same thing.   Guild Wars was unable to complete the operation. Please try again in a few minutes.  (64.25.39.47:6112) (Code=030).   I would imagine this is a connection issue, but it's getting rush, like a bad rash.  lol 000.00.00.00  06:42, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Ok, the 64 server issue seems to have just been a hiccup. Working now.  000.00.00.00  06:45, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
 * After a few hiccups as well we are back in the Guild Hall. 007 and one other codes multiple times.  My guild hall home is Europe based even though I'm in the USA.  Previous to 4-4-11 we were still getting spotty issues with the items in the GH missing.  I have also updated my ticket with Anet.  Raminator Chick  [[Image:Pain Inverter.jpg|25px]] 06:59, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, darn it! Ok, thanks for these reports. I have passed them along to the Network Team. They are on duty 24/7, and I'm sure will prioritize this issue. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 07:17, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
 * It's interesting how it's spreading to both 64 and 206 servers, today was not so bad, only 15 minutes of issue for most of the people I talked to, however there were lots of people who didn't experience the issue. What troubles me is that people in America connecting to 64 servers were also affect (a number of my guildies mentioning it - we had vanquishes to do and they simply couldn't get anywhere with GW regardless of character, and location).  It will be interesting to hear what the issue is.  Someone needs reminding the internet is not a big truck, it's a series of tubes and those tubes can be filled.  000.00.00.00  12:06, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
 * the guild hall bug is back, i just logged in on my sin straight into gh, only things there were hench and it said i was out of guild, mapped out to gtob and im back in my guild,i think it may have something to do with server issues from virgin media in the uk but cant confirm this atm.Spark-TBa 17:50, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Update: 5 April
I've a flurry of emails in my in-box signaling that all hands are on deck in addressing this latest permutation of the EU guild server issue. The server folks feel that this may have been cleared about 2:00 AM Pacific time, which is a few hours after these reports came in. However, at this point, I'm not holding my breath. :)

From our IT server specialist comes a request for steps to reproduce this issue, should it arise again. He has tried entering the GH from game servers in both territories several times today and an issue has not shown itself. So consider yourselves "Honorary Bug Testers" if you're willing, and submit a report with the following information:


 * The time/date of the incident (don't forget time zone)
 * The IP address of the outpost/map you were in before trying to enter their guild hall; type /ip in chat or hover over the lag indicator to get that info
 * Indicate whether the UI does anything when you click to enter the Guild Hall (For example, do you get the splash loading screen or does the game just sit there until an error window pops up or an error pops up in chat?)
 * If you get the loading screen, what’s the IP address in the top left to which you are referred for your guild hall?
 * If you get an error code, what is the full message? (For accuracy, you could snap a Print Screen and then type it out when your post here.)

Thank you, once again, for your continued patience and good will as we work to resolve this problem. -- Gaile 20:25, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I'll pass this info along to those who keep me up to speed with this. A lot of people are getting impatient, hopefully it's just one of those internet flus that passes quickly :P  000.00.00.00  20:35, 5 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Will you also adress the issue that Heroes' Ascent was practically removed? --numma_cway 20:34, 6 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Unless what you're bringing up is related to networking or connectivity issues (it doesn't sound like it is but I apologize if I'm wrong), you'd be better off asking about that somewhere else, particularly a user feedback page. --ஸ Kyoshi [[Image:User_Kyoshi_sig2.png|19px]] 21:53, 6 April 2011 (UTC)
 * As far as I know, Heroes' Ascent is still on the map, still in the game. :) Kidding aside, please feel free to ask questions about topics other than connectivity issues of this thread in a different thread. But please keep in mind, I am ArenaNet's Support Liaison, and I generally don't get involved in discussions about design decisions. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 01:38, 7 April 2011 (UTC)

Update: 6 April
Well, our server team just made a significant change to routing that should utter stomp this bug. Note that this is a different routing change that the one that was attempted a few days ago. The details persuade me this could utterly stomp the bug, but only time will tell. In the meantime, please be sure if you do make a report that you let me know the specific time, so we can gauge if it's before or after the most recent change. Thanks. -- Gaile 01:50, 7 April 2011 (UTC)


 * hopefully that will be the end of that then <3 thank you so much Server Team (And Gaile for letting us know!) --Firadesunna 02:04, 7 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I do believe, so far, that this has fixed it. I haven't seen a problem in the last 2 days.  Thank you all for your support and diligence on this issue. Raminator Chick  [[Image:Pain Inverter.jpg|25px]] Talk  19:38, 7 April 2011 (UTC)
 * That's super good to hear! I appreciate your thanks, but want to give it back, double, for all the patience that players have shown with this pesky bug! -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 03:16, 8 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I myself don't have any major issues any more, at least not related to this. But some friends of mine still receive errors 007, 015 and 040 today (21:00 GMT) while playing Random Arena (during map switching). It's apparently difficult to play more than five matches in a row. Currently we're also a bit concerned about the GvG tournament this weekend.. I'll update my ticket with any significant information when available. --[[Image:User_Karasu_sig.png|19px]] Karasu (talk) 21:21, 8 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Still having connection issues ticket raised with support ticket on 12 April 2011 no 110412-002800. I have two accounts that connect to districts starting in 64.25.39. I can log in ok sligh delay on char screen then loading to the district screen just stays and then comes up with 007 error. Could you look into this Gaile, many thanks in advance User: Robin Da Poor 15th April 2011
 * Hi Robin. To my understanding, the guild hall issue was corrected some weeks ago. )(Around the date of my latest update, April 6.) However, we have had a new issue appear, which I made a new thread about below. That issue appears -- cross fingers -- to have been corrected with a routing change made late last night. However, if you (or anyone else) is still having connectivity problems, please do post in that thread and let  know, as well. Thanks. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 19:07, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

Deleted Account Login
I attempted to change my GW account login address a year or so ago, around the introduction of the anniversary storage slot, and the issue was never solved. This would likely be due to the fact that the address the information was sent to (the address I'm currently stuck using to log in to GW) had been deleted after being hacked, before the attempt to change the GW login. Do you know of any way to fix this? The only way I know to verify I am who I say I am is by logging into the GW account connected to the deleted address, myself, and providing any information that would prove useful. If, by chance, you know of another, I'm all eyes. Teddy Dan, yo. 10:54, 26 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately, I'm no longer in possession of the incident number or the memory of such. If you'd like me to sign another ticket, let me know. Thanks. Teddy Dan, yo. 10:56, 26 March 2011 (UTC)
 * You should probably make another ticket; they can likely fix it (assign a new email address to it, maybe?) if you confirm the account is yours. --ஸ Kyoshi [[Image:User_Kyoshi_sig2.png|19px]] 17:38, 26 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes please, Dan. If you can outline what happened, and mention your previous ticket along with the approximate date you sent it, the team can look into the archives and help you out. They will need verification, but it sounds as if you are prepared to offer that, so all should resolve nicely. Changing the log-in isn't possible if you're bound to an NCMA, but you can change your contact email address. Best of luck. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 19:27, 26 March 2011 (UTC)
 * The log-in is what I'm worried about. And... I do believe it is linked to an NCMA... that I don't remember. Bah, there goes that idea. Here's another thought, though... Do you know if it's still possible to unlock the free anniversary Xunlai Storage pane, if you can prove you were an active player during its introduction? If so, would I be able to unlock it after changing my contact e-mail? Either way, thanks for helping. Teddy Dan, yo. 10:38, 27 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Sorry, the free storage pane isn't available any longer. It had to be retrieved during the time of the anniversary celebration. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 19:31, 28 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I thought as much. Thanks, anyway. Teddy Dan, yo. 11:08, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
 * You're welcome, Teddy. Sorry I couldn't give you better news about the storage pane, but I'm pretty sure the team can get you back on the account if you get them the info they need. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 05:42, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

Language choices (unlock vs restore accounts)
I'd like to offer a suggestion on how ANet/NCSoft support communicates with owners of hacked accounts about regaining control. As I understand it, (after credentials are proffered) Support currently writes, "we will restore your account", which leads some people to assume (wrongly) that the contents will be restored. A less misleading phrase might be, "we will unlock your account". It would be better still if, in that same email, Support were also able to set expectations by reminding folks of the policy, e.g. "Unfortunately, we cannot restore any of contents that were removed from your characters."

Obviously, there's nothing much that can be done to make getting hacked less than a horrible experience. At best, though, we can avoid making it worse by being careful in how we speak to those recently victimized. — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 04:55, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Just insert "control": "We will restore control of your account". The word "unlock" has its own connotations that may not be appropriate here. I do agree with informing people from the get-go that they will not be made whole. -- FreedomBound [[Image:User_Freedom_Bound_Sig.png|19px]] 11:53, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I concur. Teddy Dan, yo. 12:22, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
 * This is very good feedback. And I think I made this suggestion to the team a couple of years ago. ;) "Restore" sounds as if it will return in untouched state, and sadly, that seldom happens with hackers and account thieves. I will pass this input along. But first, "restore control" has a vague Outer Limits sound to it. "We will restore control of your television to you" is a pretty direct quote. Don't you think, "We will restore your access to your account" or even "Reset your account so that you can regain access" would do it? -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 05:37, 30 March 2011 (UTC)
 * "Reset your account" would cause panic and mayhem. People would think their entire account was wiped. [[Image:User_Felix_Omni_Signature.png]]elix Omni 06:20, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

(Edit conflict)
 * That was why I preferred unlock. (Although, Outer Limits, the original was a great show!...and you guys do control the vertical and the horizontal ;-)


 * I think any short phrase is liable to misinterpretation because anyone hacked is hoping for a silver lining. So, the best strategy might be to make sure that the email is very explicit (and yet gentle) in explaining that items will not be restored. (Something akin to what you have written above and so many times before.) The idea is to set expectations so that it's very unlikely that anyone is surprised to return to an emptied account.


 * Gaile: since you have brought this to ppl's attention before, is there anything that we can do to help convince the powers that be that the language does matter? Thanks again for your attention. — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 06:22, 30 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I have looked at this many ways:
 * We have ensured that you now have access to your account.
 * We have re-enabled access to your account.
 * We have re-enabled your account.
 * We have reconfigured your account so that you will now be able to access it again.
 * We have returned access of the account to you.
 * We have reset your account. (Point taken, Felix. :) )
 * We have restored access to your account. (The flow there includes "access to" with "restore" which my brain tells me really is the valid word. Not "We have restored your account, but "We have restored access to your account. I honestly feel that's the best option.


 * Certainly I agree that something along the lines of, "We regret that we cannot restore any items or characters that may have been impacted by the unauthorized access, but you will be able to access your account and play now" would be good, followed by security info, like "please reset every password you've ever had... ;) ) I'm just weighing the merits of the several options above. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 19:21, 30 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I should explain that "unlock" as the word in this usage seems likely to raise unnecessary questions, like "Why was it locked?" "Who locked it?" When was it locked?" or "If it was locked, why did I lose items?" and possibly more. Where "restoring access to your account" seems to make it clear, someone else accessed your account, we plucked the account from their grasping clutches and are now restoring access to the account to you, the rightful owner. :) -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 19:24, 30 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Any of the six ideas above work better than what folks have reported to me that they have seen (I haven't seen the emails myself, though). And I also like your we regret... phrasing (plus the reminder to close the doors to all your other barns, too). — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 19:50, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

According to our Account Support Team lead, this is the verbiage used:
 * “We are resetting your NCsoft master account password. An automatically generated e-mail containing the temporary password has been sent to…”
 * “Your Guild Wars password has been reset. Please use the following information to log in…”

Each account holder is also given a link to a page about account security. No mention is made of missing items, because that does not always apply. If the account holder writes back to ask, of course their ticket is responded to, after a review by another team, so that they know the limitations of account "resets." This verbiage has been given several reviews, and I personally don't see where someone would assume that "reset" means "restored to its original status" nor "rolled-back to a period preceding the hacking incident." Do you think those strings are a problem? -- Gaile 01:23, 2 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for providing the specific language. I agree with you that resetting your password is extremely clear; it's hard to imagine how ANet (or another company) could word it any better. Perhaps the experience of getting one's account burgled is just too traumatic that there's no phrasing that is going to prevent people from expecting a more positive outcome.


 * For what it's worth, one of the players with whom I spoke about this issue is very meticulous about their own word choices. I am sure that they saw something in the email that gave me them false hope about what to expect. (As they reported it to me, that was more devastating to them than the actual loss of items.) Under the circumstances and given the actual text above, I am not sure whether any rephrasing would have prevented this outcome.


 * In which case, it comes down to whether the Account Support Team should wait to be asked about the limitations of password resets or if they should warn people of what to expect upfront. I suspect, from your various postings on the topic, that ANet already revisits this question from time-to-time. Both options have merit and, unfortunately, neither will be best for even 90% of the players who are victims of this type of theft.


 * Thanks again for taking the time to review the issue. — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 04:04, 2 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Welp, I took a look at a different type of ticket, and I did find the use of "restore your account" so your friend was probably spot on in his observations. I've polled various team members here at ArenaNet, and am currently penning a note to the support team manager to ask about changing the current wording -- "Your account was blocked because it was accessed by gold sellers. We will be happy to help you recover your account..." -- to something like, "We will be happy to help you regain access'' to your account."
 * Thanks, TEF, for letting me know about this. Communications, words, and messaging are passions of mine, and I like things to be the best they possibly can be. :) -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 23:27, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I still think you guys should implement a difference-based revision control system focused on account item/gold status like what they've got Mercurial running on so you can do full recursive account restoration. I'm just a paranoiac, though, so maybe it'd be overkill. –Jette 23:36, 4 April 2011 (UTC)


 * @Gaile: wow; interesting. That sounds like an excellent result, under the circumstances. I appreciate you taking a fourth look at this (effective communication is also a passion of mine ;-). I'll let the player know that their shock and disappointment &mdash; and subsequent venting to me about it &mdash; had a silver lining. (They didn't feel they got much traction raising the issue to support.) — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 23:50, 4 April 2011 (UTC)


 * The team manager was very receptive to my comments about the language and my suggestions for positive change. As of this morning she will be routing suggestions for verbiage changes to her team. Those changes should make it clearer what we can and cannot do in relation to getting folks back on their stolen/hacked accounts. We're also discussing adding a bit about our limitations as far as item or character restoration at the same time. (I believe that, too, would be a very valuable addition as we deal with this sensitive issue.) Thanks again for a helpful discussion. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 20:32, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Heads Up!
Hi Gaile, this is Felix Omni, bureaucrat of GuildWiki. Occasionally players mistake the GuildWiki administrators for ArenaNet staff and come to us with Guild Wars support problems, so I try to route them through to the correct channels. In this particular case a player has a long-standing account issue but would rather not make it public by posting here, so I told her to e-mail support and ask to be put in contact with you. The player's name is Lea so you'll know who to look for if you're so inclined. Hopefully I didn't make too much extra work for you guys. elix Omni 18:55, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Hi Felix. That ticket was escalated to me, and I have already responded. Thanks for letting me know. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 00:32, 2 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Hi again Gaile. The person in question contacted me again yesterday and said she was still hoping for a personal response from you. I don't know any of the details, but if you could please re-examine the matter for loose ends it would be great. [[Image:User_Felix_Omni_Signature.png]]elix Omni 19:57, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Removing Account/Resetting Accounts
I was wrongfully banned and I've tried Support with no success. I lost alot, but almost everything is regain able, so after the initial shock, I do not mind. What I'm wondering is if ya'll can remove accounts so that character names are reusable, and so that I won't be labeled as a 'botter', because everyone who knows me will see me on a new account and assume thats why my old account was banned.Magicoverdrive 19:03, 31 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Well for one, if you feel your ban was wrongful you can appeal it here to Gaile. As for names, I don't think they do that, though I don't know whether "can't" or "don't" is more accurate. --ஸ Kyoshi [[Image:User_Kyoshi_sig2.png|19px]] 00:27, 1 April 2011 (UTC)


 * We do not remove accounts nor free up names. I don't really understand what you're asking. If your account was banned, then that name isn't available, so neither you nor anyone else will be able to use precisely that name. If you create a new account, I don't see how someone would tie your new account to one formerly banned for botting. Perhaps you can make that more clear for me. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 00:49, 2 April 2011 (UTC)
 * "We do NOT remove accounts nor free up names." You're busy, so I fixed it for you. Teddy Dan, yo. 18:22, 3 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Dan. I fixed the above. :) -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 23:30, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

Abuse of report
Hi, Gaile

My account just get suspended for spamming, according to logon screen notice. If Anet consider guild recruit message for spamming then I will accept the suspension, however I have screenshots of someone threatening me that he/she has emailed to Anet and my account will get banned and I also have screenshots of this person's alliance members trying to get me into a fight/argument by pm'ing me in game. So I believe that they have abused /report function( by asking alliance members to report my name) & report me as spamming although I do NOT spam guild recruiting message (I do post messages every a few minutes or so which I don't see as spamming.) I don't believe this is acceptable when Anet doesn't check the sources of /report then just suspend/ban player account based solely on number of /report they received. Is there a way to prevent this? --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 99.106.6.127 (talk &bull; contribs) at 22:10, 29 March 2011  (UTC).
 * Asking alliance members to report someone for spamming does sound like abuse (though the criteria for that seem hazy to me), and trying to get you to fight is probably some kind of harassment, which is also a punishable offense. You might want to create a support ticket on the subject or maybe report the players who were fighting you, for the harassment if not abuse of the report system. --ஸ Kyoshi [[Image:User_Kyoshi_sig2.png|19px]] 23:01, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
 * sorry for not signing(I don't know how), I wasn't sure if they asked alliance to report, but based on screenshots I have I am assuming that is the case. Because I know that I post guild recruiting message every a few minutes or so NOT spamming, sometimes I even go afk for hour before posting again. Btw how do I sign & how can I email to Gaile? 99.106.6.127 23:13, 29 March 2011 (UTC) ah I think I know how to sign with ~


 * Add four ~ to sign. And see support for how to create a ticket (start with that; Gaile won't be able to review until after support takes a look.... and you might be pleased with their review). If you can, stick to the facts and let the team draw their own conclusions; they've been doing this a long time and they are pretty good about spotting folks who are trying to incite others...if they have the time/date/location/toon-names (and the screenshots will help, too). — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 23:30, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
 * By all means, if you feel you were targeted by another player or group of players as the victim of harassment -- and if you feel you were not spamming -- then submit an appeal to . I feel it is highly unlikely that the Support Team would say, "Oh, gosh, we have 10 reports, let's block this player!" I think instead they would say, "There are a lot of reports, let's see what the player is actually doing," and then take action (or not take action) accordingly. IOW, I do not believe that someone will be suspended for spamming simply on the basis of reports. Instead, the reports prompt us to look at the activities of the reported player, to see if he's going overboard on in-game chat (i.e., spamming). Support can let you know their findings, if you get in touch. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 19:31, 30 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I will do just that (and more, will also be emailing to BBB etc.) if I get suspended again because this time I will have more screenshots, and I have an idea on which players were abusing it. So I will wait with patient for more screenshots/proof. Again my goal wasn't to get other people account suspended, but to prevent from people abusing /report system which in imho is a broken system anyway.99.106.6.127 00:34, 1 April 2011 (UTC)
 * You're free to make your own choice, but I respect the BBB and I'm aware of the heavy workload that that fine non-profit organization endures. Why would you involve the BBB? If you feel the mechanic is ineffective or is broken, by all means contact Support. But asking an outside agency to get involved is like complaining to the BBB when you don't like the sales offered by your local grocery store or feel that a certain stretch of road is not properly patrolled by the police department. For matters like that, you work with the company or agency involved. The BBB is not the answer to every complaint and I believe you should weigh carefully what they could or would do with such a complaint. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 20:17, 1 April 2011 (UTC)
 * My comment on BBB is not about broken system nor using BBB as my first choice of solution, but rather it is allowing players to abuse it. Most of us know that /report system is ineffective.

Ok, as I have suspected, another suspension this time for disruptive behavior? For posting guild recruitment messages and letting the players know that I have been taking screenshots? I did make a ticket on harassment before I realize my account has been suspended again. So do I make another ticket to fight suspension, or just update to current support issue. I can give support ticket# here __99.74.79.182 22:46, 1 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Baiting (i.e. "letting the players know that I have been taking screenshots") is disruptive behavior. You'd be better off serving out your suspension and then be more careful about what actions you take in-game in the future. You can bet that after an account was recently suspended then un-suspended, the support team did not take the decision to assign your new suspension lightly. -- FreedomBound [[Image:User_Freedom_Bound_Sig.png|19px]] 00:26, 2 April 2011 (UTC)


 * If it's the same account that is now under a (new) suspension, then I suggest you update your recent ticket. But it sounds to me as if you're not getting suspended because of reports. You may be getting suspended because people are complaining about your messaging, perhaps viewing what you're saying as antagonistic or threatening. With situations like this, the team is asked to review chat records of those involved. They are very sensitive that some small number of players might trying to grief another player with false reports. This means that even if a dozen people reported someone for "spamming," there would be a review of the relevant chat records before anyone was suspended.


 * Can you give me details, such as what you're saying, in what chat channel, and how often you're posting it in a given zone? I've learned over the years that there is a wide range of opinions about what constitutes "spam" and what does not. Where one person might say "One message per minute is ok" another would say "I don't think anyone should post the same message more than 4 times in an hour in the same zone." We have data points for our agents to use in defining spam. We also keep a close eye on chat that is really harassment, griefing, or "baiting" of another player (as Freedom Bound mentions). I would like to know your messaging habits and I can discuss this with the team and review the actual game logs involved in these incidents. Thanks. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 00:31, 2 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Ok here is the ticket number 110401-003002 if you want to take a look at screenshots ..... as far as accusing of baiting... I DID reply pm & warned not to pm me again or I will report with screenshots if PM'ing continue ..... the same person however switched to different character set to offline and pm me again PRETENDING to be a different player. screenshots I have included in support ticket has three other accounts I don't know those accounts are the same player or different players but used same tactics (using different characters and with each character pretending to be completely new player until I reply them with the fact I took screenshots.... after that they show the fact they are intentionally pm'ing me.) So if you consider baiting as "when I pm them saying the truth about taking screenshots," what do you call this? They KNEW what they are doing, by switching different character hoping that I am stupid enough not to realize and fall into their trap........... As for suspension, I've expected that will happen again since these player(s) pm me & threatened me before my FIRST suspension. So I was sure they would do it again. And my issue here is NOT about my suspension. I will accept the suspension if support team see it as violation, BUT MY ISSUE HERE IS THESE PLAYERS ABUSING THE SYSTEM to get other player suspended that they don't like or whatever the reason.-- 99.74.79.182 01:01, 2 April 2011 (UTC)
 * First of all I want to express my symphaty for being suspended. I also want to express I don't follow your logic. You are accepting your suspension when the support team sees it as a violation, but you are doubting the way they found it. After reviewing the logs the supportteam found you did something that wasn't ok in their opinion and they suspended you. They look at the whole conversation, so also the person(s) the conversation was with, but they won't tell you the opinion bout the other person(s). Who knows, they might be suspended as well if it wasn't ok in the support teams opinion. Second I want to stress out this game is free to play. You buy it and then can play it for years and years. Still you have a free support system with reasonable fast response times. I think considering what we pay to play (I'm playing for bout 1,50 us dollar/month when I recalculate time spent/money spent) you can't expect it to be perfect. The times I had dealings with support I was surprised by the quality of them. Last of all. I had some situations that other players where provocing me in the game. I decided to ignore them and do what I came online for (having fun in playing the game and socializing with my friends).Rumian 09:11, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
 * When I said I will accept the suspension, "IF my action regarding to reply and saying that I took screenshots of their pm's" AFTER I told them to stop annoying with pm's.... If they consider this action as violation. Because I have never realized that warning other players that I will be taking screenshots of their pm could be a violation after I pm them to stop... As I have said before I knew these player(s) will do again after first suspension & I wanted to get screenshots which I have posted above, so I can report support team (also to BBB & others, if necessary). And that was what I did between first & second suspensions... But I did pm & warned not to pm me anymore or I will report with screenshots.  -- 99.180.192.55 11:58, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Sometimes the best thing to do when harassed is to just add the person's name on your ignore list. Trolls will eventually go away when they are ignored.  If that doesn't work, then contact support without telling anyone that you are contacting support.  A hostile or even a neutral reply to harassers can be seeing as "feeding the fire" as they say and only serve to aggravate you and please the trolls even more. --Lania  [[Image:User Lania Elderfire pinkribbon.jpg]]18:53, 04 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for continuing to work with the team on this. One of our Support agents is actively looking into this matter and is discussing it with you. Please let me know if you have continuing questions after you've heard back from the agent and the team has provided a resolution to your questions and concerns. -- Gaile 23:14, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks Gaile for looking into this matter, the agent said after first suspension "you continued to intentionally harass a guild and many of its members" direct quote from email reply... I didn't pm anyone to join my guild I only send invite if the player is not in any guild or if they pm & asking for invite. I did post recruit message because I want to get guild members!!! after first suspension I was very careful NOT to spam it, here is what I posted as recruiting "[guild tag] recruiting...there is no such thing as noobs... join us even if u failed fowsc under 3 minutes ... etc" "we teach a leeeeeroy way in GW too not just WoW"as a funny way of letting players know that anyone can join my guild noob or not... because I wanted players that doesn't go around town/guild/alliance calling other players noobs... I did make jokes if I see other guild recruiting also such as "[guild tag] is too pro they req 4+areas come join my guild," and so .... as a joke not as an insult to anyone or any guild. So makeing a funny guild recruitment is disruptive behavior? I am sure that no one uses or considers leeeroy joke as insult in any online game, correct me if I am wrong about it.-- 99.180.192.55 23:45, 4 April 2011 (UTC)


 * I believe that the people who were seeing your jokes were not realizing you were kidding, and they were upset by what you said. I practically live my life communicating in text, and I can't count the number of times that something that seemed super clear to me, as the writer, was interpreted differently by the reader. Someone can see a simple comment and, depending on "the voice" that he/she hears when reading it, may perceive the comment entirely differently than intended.


 * My advice to you is to not refer to other guilds when recruiting, take care to not post more than 2 or 3 times in any given district, and avoid interacting with others when you sense there is tension. If you feel that you should use /report to let know about an problem related to another player, do so, but resist the impulse to say or whisper that you've filed a report. Just let the report ride on its own merits and move on. In fact, since it takes no time at all to move to a different district, that is what I would suggest that you do to avoid altercations and to reduce any sort of stress. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 02:00, 7 April 2011 (UTC)

Account Issue: Merge/Character Moves

 * Issues involving Disappearing Accounts, Characters moving across accounts and Support

So Gaile, you've been around for a while, The user in this post most likely is not going to know how to contact you correctly. If you want the basics of the situation, while he was gone an account on his NCSoft Master Account was merged with an additional account. He wasn't responsible for this and the account was restored after he presented NCSoft Support with his Serial Keys. However the issue is the character his Wife played is now on his account instead of the account that his wife uses which was left characterless after the restore.

This is a family of Six players that are trying to enjoy Guild Wars and NCSoft support has essentially told them to go eff themselves, they refuse to look into the situation and have claimed the following

"neither GW people, NCSoft people, nor anybody else - can possibly move characters between accounts!" the user in the post goes on to explain a bit further as to what NCSoft Support has decided which in my opinion is not a suitable response. "Their implication, earlier in the communications mentioned by NCSoft, was that my wife and I shared accounts and thus we had each created characters on the other's account. This was not so...we never shared accounts."

This persons story is honestly not what ArenaNet / NCSoft has been known for in the past, the lack of service and the full-out lack of customer support being delivered to this individual is somewhat embarrassing. The user doesn't want to put the time forward to fight this and push this forward but I have nothing better to do so I've taken it upon myself to see if I can help get this resolved. Baddock 14:28, 4 April 2011 (UTC)


 * This is a really interesting question. I'm looking into this now. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 20:02, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I cannot identify this incident based on the information that I have at hand. Please ask the player in question to contact me and provide me with his 12-digit support incident/ticket number so I can look into this further. He can do that here on the wiki, for his convenience. Thank you. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 23:00, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I've let the user know that you're looking for his 12-digit Ticket Number, when he updates me with it (I also gave him this talk-page URL) I'll edit it here or he'll do it himself.Baddock [[Image:User_SirBaddock_Sig.jpg|15px]] 14:41, 5 April 2011 (UTC)


 * I hope I'm doing this right...never tried this before. The incident number is as follows: Incident: 110321-001558. I'm not sure I can add anything to what's there. I'd like to clarify SirBaddock's comment that our family of six is trying to play. In fact, we six played for a long time, and when Lord of the Rings Online went free-to-play, have been playing that as a change of pace. Recently, I went back to GW with the thought of returning to it, at least with my wife since she finds it less difficult for her to play than LotRO. It's possible that the whole family would return. However, when I ran into this problem, it was clear that we probably wouldn't because the characters we prefer to play are now on the same account. I'm prepared to drop it at this point, but since SirBaddock stepped in, figured I might as well make this last effort. Thanks for your time and effort. It's nice to know there's some place to appeal when the usual support process fails to resolve an issue.Optiker 00:28, 6 April 2011 (UTC)Optiker


 * Gaile has been around for a while, people don't give her enough Credit when it comes to the amount of work she does as the Support Liaison. (I believe that's the title you were given but I haven't really checked up on where you are in the last few years). she's helped me a few times. Anyway, thanks for updating with your Incident Number. Stay tuned to this page for future updates. When signing your name you only need to use four ~ which will automatically add your signature. Hopefully everything get's resolved, this doesn't sound like the support I've dealt with in the past. Baddock [[Image:User_SirBaddock_Sig.jpg|15px]] 01:51, 6 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for bringing this up, Baddock. I'm probably not alone amongst Guru'ers interested in the result of this ...glitch? There, but for the grace of insert-deity-here, go our accounts! -- snog  rat [[Image:User Snograt signature.png]] 15:05, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

Hey all. I appreciate your patience as I looked into this. It allowed me to have some visits with a few programmers, and they're folks I like a lot whom I don't often get to chat with, so that was a nice opportunity. I have an answer, and I have a few theories which I offer here:

It is not possible that characters from two accounts were merged. I sat with a programmer who has been here for years, and I could see the wheels turning in his head. He took a lot of time thinking about the matter, and discussing it with me, and he said he could not see how it was possible, in the remotest way, for characters to up and move from one account to another. I then moved to a second programmer who has been with us even longer, and he, too, said that character's couldn't move between accounts. It's the way they're coded, the way they're "plumbed" if you will, that disallows a shift between accounts. Back when we expanded the number of character slots available per account, we got a lot of requests to merge accounts or move characters from multiple accounts onto someone's main, but we literally could not accommodate the requests because, again, of the coding. Think about complexities like storage, like HoM achievements, titles (character- and account-based), etc. How do you move a character? With items in inventory only? Do you split out storage? Who takes the titles; who keeps the levels, how do you coalesce a character with one /age with a character of a different /age? What if the character was "born" (has an anniversary date) before the second account was even made? It is just not going to happen!

I then asked both programmers (and a server team member was also active in the discussion) "Could a bug have caused this?" And they pointed out that none of us have ever seen such a bug report before. So while we cannot say "It absolutely, positively, without-a-doubt cannot be a bug that caused this," please consider this: There are more than six million Guild Wars accounts. If a weird bug appeared, what are the chances of one player's account -- out of 6+ million -- getting merged with someone else in his household? Answer: spectacularly minuscule, extraordinarily tiny. Put another way, you'd be more likely to win the Lotto than to have this happen IF such a bug developed. And absolutely nothing confirms the existence of such a theoretical bug to begin with.

So I have a few theories:


 * Given the span of time since you played Guild Wars, you may have simply forgotten whose characters were whose. I have done that myself. I think "I'll go play on (character name) and realize, "Err, nope, that's his/hers/its character, not mine." :)


 * You were partying together and chose to make similar names.


 * You may have had a character on the account in question and deleted it so that your family member could use the name. Say you have Fred Knight, and your wife or child says, "I want to use that character name." You hit delete, and exactly 24 hours later, your family member can make a new character with that name. I believe this isn't likely, but hey, it's a possibility! (Actually, one of the agents looked at character creation dates and this seems pretty unlikely, based on when characters of a similar name were created.)

I've read the ticket in full, and although I know the team members didn't give you the answer you wanted, they were 100% truthful. We don't have the capacity to move characters, therefore no "hacker" has that capacity, either. Therefore any concern that a hacker moved characters flies out the window. And as pointed out, if your two accounts were somehow mangled, merged, or cross-corrupted through a bug, many other players would have also experienced the same thing, and we've not had a single report of this kind.

You can be sure we will be watchful for any more reports of such a situation, but so far there have been none and we do not anticipate that we will receive any in the future. I apologize for the length of this reply, but I hope this level of detail helps you understand that we truly cannot move the characters to different accounts, and why that is so. -- Gaile 03:56, 8 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Gaile...thank you very much for pursuing this. Obviously, from what you've found, it's not likely that the accounts were merged. As a former scientist, now retired, I understand and appreciate statistics, and from what you've said, there's a higher probability that my geriatric neurons have let me down than that the accounts were merged. I remain fairly sure that we never shared accounts, but the respect folks have for your role in looking into such problems and the findings you've described are beginning to weaken my certainty. I'm ready to lay this whole fiasco to rest.


 * Totally random theory but a cosmic ray might have swapped the character blob pointers while they were partied up? ;o Still doesn't explain why his wife's account was *deleted* though. I would really be interested in an explanation.
 * (Oh and for those who don't notice it, the part about the cosmic ray is sarcasm; and while possible in theory, there is no way this would have happened since ArenaNet likely uses ECC RAM in their servers)--141.70.81.135 10:11, 8 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the Reply Gaile, the only other theory I can think of besides all this is that the user who was having this issue had their account compromised and the person who compromised it deleted the characters. After that the accounts were merged somehow (as an empty account to his wives account which is why he saw her character). That is all I can think of. Regardless, thank you for the update, that's the type of support I've known and enjoy seeing from ArenaNet/NCSoft. (PS: Forum Topic was updated to also add your response). Back to doing work now, Baddock [[Image:User_SirBaddock_Sig.jpg|15px]] 20:08, 8 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I understand the theory, but again, merging isn't possible. Each account has an individual identifier that wouldn't make that possible. It would be like trying to "merge" a Ford and a Chevy. ;) It is a perplexing puzzle, to be sure. I'm thinking there could be some element of a hacker deleting characters (although they seldom bother to do that, instead just focusing on taking items). But yes, if characters were deleted, that would free up the name(s) for creation on the other account. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 20:22, 8 April 2011 (UTC)


 * It's easy to test that theory by checking the /age of the characters (it also seems unlikely since it would take a lot of energy to grow the toons to L20 after re-rolling them on the second account, which seems unlikely in a case of hacked accounts). — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 20:27, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

Gaile, I might be wrong here, but I seem to recall that you had said before, back when the character name requirement was added, that when people e-mailed support, one thing that would help confirm that they were who they said they were was names of deleted characters. I assumed this meant that there was some sort of record of who existed on an account at any given time. If there is such a record, couldn't it be checked to verify whether this character swap happened?--Res 12:48, 11 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I don't recall saying that the names of deleted characters could be used to verify account ownership, but yep, we do have access to such info, so I imagine as a last-gap measure that might work. :)


 * I have asked someone to check deleted characters. I believe that was reviewed at the time the ticket was active, but I'll confirm. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 21:04, 19 April 2011 (UTC)


 * We've looked at all the records available to us, and there's no trace of such a character deletion/re-creation. I spoke with the team lead and while none of us discount the remote possibility that database corruption could take place -- we'd never say "never" -- the chances of it taking place and the corruption then resulting in the creation of an identically named and identically-spec'd character on someone else's account (and someone in the same household) are extremely remote. As in getting struck by lightning. Twice in the same day. Those of us who have looked at all the details truly believe this is a case of account-holder confusion, which seems even more likely when you consider that the accounts hadn't been accessed in more than two years. And once again, there have been no other reports of this kind whatsoever, further bolstering the original determinations. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 21:29, 19 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Best of luck to Optiker, then. Gaile, you'd mentioned that the deleted character names could be used here.--Res 05:25, 20 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the link, Res. Yes, I do recall making that comment about deleted characters. In that context I didn't mention the limitations, but there are a few. For instance, a character that was created and deleted back during E3 for Everyone may not help in verifying account ownership. :) Still, any info is better than none, and it's amazing how we can piece together the full scope of data we need from bits 'n' pieces. I encourage players to "tell all" to Support and we'll do our best to help. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 05:30, 20 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Oh, hey: "telling all" must be understood to mean we will never ask for a password, and if someone does, you should absolutely decline to provide that info. I worry that what I say may be taken too literally, but I think those folks who read this page know the skinny: We won't ask for your password. We'll keep your information private. We'll ask you a bunch of questions, but we do not necessarily expect that you'll have all the answers. We'll work with what we have and diligently do our best to ascertain ownership of the account in a way that protects the legitimate owner while not tossing up so many hurdles he/she cannot get onto his own characters. :) -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 05:34, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

Can't believe GM is not allowed to help
Hi, an accident happened and made me horribly upset. My character finished WiK questline and I was looking forward to exchange my medals of honor for the green Toriimo Toch staff. When my character entered the LA Keep I double-clicked the Grahame npc, all else was out of my control. My character ran to npc, the npc opened his window and... the choice was made, it was so fast that I did not understand what happened. It was Isaiah bow that fell into my inventory. Now imagine the situation I'm in, my character and all the heroes are casters, the bow is 60k gold worth, with no chance to be sold (who will buy a 60k+ worth green bow when there are oppressor's weapons?).

I contacted support team, ticket 110409-001048], asking to replace the bow with the Toriimo staff or to remove the bow replacing it with 10 medals. They refused. Why can't I get Toriimo instead of the bow now? How must this tiny modification affect or harm gameplay? If Gm's do not help in such trivial cases what are they for? The only one who has disadvantage here is me, I earned those medals, I indented to choose Toriimo, I did nothing wrong in fact, but im terribly screwed now... --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 95.25.188.75 (talk).


 * There is a difference between unwilling and unable to help. Guild Wars, at its basic level, does not allow for people outside of the game to generate items or gold. In this situation, Support is unable to help, though I'm sure they sympathize with you, and may wish otherwise. G R E E N E R  14:42, 9 April 2011 (UTC)


 * The difficulty here is that whether Support can help or not is also a decision that the company itself makes. A customer asks for help and Support says they cannot help because there are no options for them. Then the customer says, well, I think you should have options and Support says, well, go to the Wiki because we do not talk to the developers. It is complicated by the fact that other game companies do allow for Support in cases like this and that makes it hard for Anet/NcSoft to defend their point of view, because whenever they say we can't, the customer says, why not, because others can do it... I see it as a process where Customer Support has to grow up and become adult, because in a lot of cases they are lagging behind in comparison to the size of the business. Shortly put: The answer that Support cannot do it, explains it but doesn't make it ok. Et In Gehenna Vixi... 09:16, 14 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Although you could debate if this request should be fullfilled, I don't think that support is unable to help. Bout two years ago my neighbour with whom I started playing this game did the last mission in prophecys for the first time ever. King Jalis didn't give him the Deldrimor Talisman. He did the mission bout 3 more times before contacting support. After discussing with them for a few mails and given some proof, he logged in one morning and had the talisman in his inventory (and offcourse an email from support explaining that they resolved the issue). Rumian 09:54, 14 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Pics or it didn't happen. -- Briar  User Briar Sig 3.jpg  The Spider  09:58, 14 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I agree, pics or it didn't happen. Sounds like your friend already had it and just missed it, or maybe it was in the overflow item list or something. I've never heard of Support generating items for any reason. Anyway, for the "The answer that Support cannot do it, explains it but doesn't make it ok." How doesn't it make it okay? Something like this cannot be done because GW1 was never designed for it -to- be done. Yeah, it sucks. But, what is our alternative? Re-writing and re-coding absolutely everything related to GW1? I don't think so. It's a shame things like this cannot be done, but life goes on. 24.182.4.202 12:41, 14 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Rumian -- I can assure you that Support did not add an item to his inventory. I have theories about how or why it may have seemed to "magically appear" in his inventory, but I will promise you that a team member didn't spawn him one and put it on his account -- that truly, truly is impossible. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 20:43, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

How about this scenario(Im not saying this is what happened with the op here): a guy uses his medals of honor for the green weapons before they decided to make the oppressor compatible with the HoM, he will ask for a "refund" of his medals so he can get the oppressor and correct his mistake. After that, all the people who did that will be asking for the same thing don't you think? Either if he made a mistake, the computer moved on its own, or just didn't liked the skin and want to change, I don't think is something that must be done, and yes, I lost a lot of stuff selling like a bunch of black dyes selling them at 1g each when the lag made me think i was selling other stuff, so I think I understand the dilemma, but either way ( if support is unable/unwilling) I don't think is something they should do so lightly --Batousai 14:25, 14 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I do agree that care should be taken and strict lines should be drawn in any return policy. What I have been told every time this issue came up by Anet/Nc is that they simply do not have any tools to return anything. They simply do not have the possibility to do this. Of course that can be changed but it requires an investment to do so. As it stands, my opinion is that game companies should invest in some Support options that can help players when something bad happened to them and maybe even in situations like this. Whether it needs to be a return or exchange issue or a dual step selection when you trade in items (are you sure you want to get x item Yes/No) is another discussion. Et In Gehenna Vixi... 11:21, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

To the OP: I am a little confused about what you said happened. Are you saying that you made an accidental click on the wrong item? You're not suggesting there is an "automated" process that would make the entire exchange take place outside of your control, right? Thanks for that additional info.

As far as exchanging items, that really isn't an option for Guild Wars. Where the team will go with Guild Wars 2 remains to be seen. Having a store of items to hand out on request (not matter how honest and forthright the request) or having the ability to spawn items is not a simple decision. There are a lot of complex factors to consider in offering replacements; just as there are considerable disappointments in not being able to do so. This is a subject that has been and will continue to be discussed at the highest levels. Our goal is always to offer the best possible support to our players, and I'm confident that if we can do more and better in Guild Wars 2 -- while ensuring the game remains balanced and fair for everyone -- we'll do it! :) -- Gaile 20:46, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

100526-004029
Re-read the EULA & the Bot-Ban details. It's unfortunate that I still disagree with my ban and feel like enough time has passed to bring it up to you. I didn't bot, I was in a guild that had people who botted, maybe banned by association? I feel kinda slighted by the fact that I had the change to interact with so many devs and so many prominent community members but it comes down to "Sorry, we won't talk to you about this issue." I send you guys Christmas presents with GWGuru~ :( Could you possibly take a look into it and give me a little bit more insight? <3 Sierraa 06:19, 18 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Sure, I can take a look. But please know, we do not ever "ban by association." If you were marked for botting, then your personal account was involved, not someone else with whom you played, or a guildie, or even someone else using your computer. All bans were associated directly with the account in question. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 20:53, 19 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks for taking a look! Please let me know if you find anything. :] Sorry about the delayed response, I've been having a bit of computer trouble. Sierraa 06:23, 28 April 2011 (UTC)


 * I did the research, as promised, and found that the specific account you asked about was definitely detected using a disallowed third-party program. It was terminated as part of the largescale bot sweep back in May, 2010. So, there was no issue of mistaken identity or "guilt by association." I also learned that took the time to look into possible unauthorized access, and they were able to rule out most forms of account breach. The one that they cannot completely rule out is a "hack" where someone in the same house --  a family members, friend, roomie, whatever -- learns or is told the account credentials and then accesses the account. Sadly, this happens more often than you'd think, so consider if you might have one of what I call "The Evil Little Brother(tm)" situations.


 * I cannot say which program you used that raised the "bot flag," nor is the team empowered to do so. Because it is so important for us to protect the security of our bot detection system, we can't give details that could lead to deductions on the part of bot programmers that allow them to work around that detection system. Certain programs in their native, unadulterated form are not malicious and will not result in account action. Yet even those cannot be given any form of formal "approval," as we've made clear in the past, because the programs can be altered to include malware or cheat elements. We're in the business of creating games, not approving, monitoring, and vetting programs made by other people, and for that reason, the use of any third party program is always "at your own risk." I have seen case after case where someone used a program that is usually harmless but in the version he/she used, was not harmless at all. I hope this information helps you better understand the actions that were taken. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 21:24, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
 * "Some people may have installed and uninstalled a forbidden program a while ago, thinking it would not be detected. Obviously that wasn’t the case. Others may share a computer and not realize that someone else added a bot program to their system." You mentioned that it would be my personal account but support has lead me to believe that someone could install something on my computer and I could be flagged for botting. Could it be possible that this has happened to me? I'm not sure what to do. :x I was in a guild with people who used bots, everyone got banned even the ones who didn't use a bot. I thought possibly it was because I had traded with them but you ruled that out. I didn't bot, I'm not entirely sure how someone access my account, people had access to my computer but never my account. Sierraa 02:54, 30 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I would have no way of knowing if someone installed something on your computer; nor would Support. The point is, your account was used to bot. Not your computer, necessarily, but your personal account. That means that someone got access to your account, yet based on the evidence whomever did so wasn't remote from you -- different town, state, country -- but was at the same place you access your account, presumably your home. As the team said, someone may have downloaded a program onto your computer that then interacted with your Guild Wars account, but the fact is, the account was corrupted through that use, and was therefore flagged as having botted. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 01:44, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

Connectivity Issue: Europe
Our Network Team has been checking into reports of connectivity problems that began earlier today. They are working directly with the team at ArenaNet. In a nutshell, there have been some very bad connectivity problems between the German Datacenter and the datacenter in Dallas, and those problems have been negatively affecting some players' ability to play. If you are connecting from Europe, the team is aware of the issue and is on the case; they'll get this addressed as soon as possible.

I hasten to add this is not the same issue as the one that we've been tracking since March, where players get to 0% on the loading screen when trying to connect to a US District. The issue is, I believe, unrelated to the EU Guild Hall issue first posted on this page in March. The newest permutation involves people trying to load a character into a US District (not the guild hall) and has affected only a small number of players, and only intermittently. Those factors mean it has been very difficult to track down. However, the matter was being investigated even as recently as this morning and the team will keep at it. It's a particularly pesky problem that's heading into its fourth or fifth generation of problem-solving cycles, with team members in several locations working to get it resolved. The team is implementing a new routing change tomorrow, and we're crossing fingers that the change will do the trick.

We hope to have good news on both situations soon. In the meantime, thank you all for your patience! -- Gaile 01:38, 3 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Just got an email and the second issue I mentioned -- the pesky, longterm problem with connectivity -- looks much better tonight, after the latest routing change. I'm not going to mention who the provider was and who it now is, but we're all feeling really good about what may just be the nail in the coffin of this two-month problem. I will post again after some more time passes, just to verify that the problem is resolved.


 * I'm hoping that the routing change fixes the first issue mentioned here, but only time will tell. The team will continue watching the server data nad will adjust and research the problem(s) as necessary. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 07:25, 3 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Thank you for sharing with us about the status of these problems! If I see any more issues over the coming weeks I'll keep reporting them w/ the necessary information. --[[Image:User_Karasu_sig.png|19px]] Karasu (talk) 13:33, 3 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Karasu, I know those reports have really helped our team nail this down. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 19:03, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

Update: May 5
I wish there was good news to share. For a few days, things looked very good, and connectivity issues dropped nearly to zero. However, the connectivity problem for our European players (or those accessing EU districts) resurfaced again in the last several hours, and players in European districts are receiving 007, 040, and 013 errors and in many cases find themselves unable to log back in.

Emails are flying internally, involving at least 30 people, and I don't think it will be long before our Network Engineering Team and our IT Team come up with some sort of diagnosis of the problem. From what I'm understanding, the issue may be outside our server -- it may lie somewhere between our servers and our players. Over those things we don't have a lot of control, but as you'll have noticed, the team sometimes tries re-routing traffic to a different provider, and they may do so again to try to nail this bug.

I'll get you more info as I have it. And I'm sure it goes without saying, we are very sorry that some players are having this difficulty! -- Gaile 19:34, 5 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for keeping us posted. — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 19:37, 5 May 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm crossing my fingers here. The latest ticket or post about this was nearly 2 hours ago -- we may have seen a resolution. Will continue tracking to see if we can define the cause and figure out if it's really fixed. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 22:28, 5 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I keep disconnecting from the friend list server at least every 2-3 minutes. It happened yesterday and today. I am a European player, yet this happenes to me in US districts, too. I hope this helps you and you can help me. 88.153.105.75 22:48, 5 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Literally my whole guild (and it's one of the biggest in Guild Wars) couldn't login (logging into the account worked fine, but choosing a char would only net you a code 013 and disconnect you)/got disconnected upon changing area yesterday around 17-21 GMT. 16:27, 6 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Happening again, after looking good for a week. Interesting enough is that not everybody got kicked out, some are still ingame, even after repeatedly travelling. 19:42, 14 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Plenty of cursing on Vent last night when 5 out of 12 players got kicked out (2 Dutch people, 2 Germans and a Swedish) while doing Kanaxai. I'm quite used to have a code=005/007 sometimes, but this amount is crazy. Hope this is being solved soon... thanks Gaile for being on it! 82.176.8.4 13:29, 15 May 2011 (UTC)
 * looks like the bug is back. My guildies on ts3 and me are all getting 013 Rumian 17:33, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Account Hacked
Dear Gaile, Account Hacked [Incident: 110516-000133] I'm contacting you in regard to a recent incident in which my Guild Wars account was accessed without my authorization. I first noticed the problem early this week when I was unable to log on to my account, receiving an error code saying my password was wrong. After logging in to my NCSoft Account and changing my password, I finally regained control of my Guild Wars account, only to find it had been stripped. Though my characters were in tact, I lost all items of value in my storage, all my gold, all crafting materials, every armor set across all characters, all weapons, all hero weapon sets, and all hero insignia and runes. After contacting support, I was disheartened to find that there was no way to replace the items that had been lost. I know my story is not unique, and I understand the support team's policy with respect to replacing items... and why it's not something that can be done.

I guess it's just disheartening to learn that as a six year veteran of Guild Wars, my time, experience, and attention has been lost due to the illicit activity of some jackass who's "great" with a computer. I'm lucky I only lost my items and not my characters, I guess... I'm just bummed there's nothing you guys can do about it... no compensation, no way to reconcile the issue in the best interest of the player.

Any chance there will be something implemented for Guild Wars 2 that keeps this sort of loss from happening? Because it has really put me off from playing the game.EtherealAngel
 * What else are you expecting? The way you're talking about this it sounds like you think it's ArenaNet's fault you got hacked. Use a better password, make sure you're on the correct site when you type your info, keep viruses and such off your computer. These things are the best way to protect your account, rather than simply depending on security measures ArenaNet has implemented. --ஸ Kyoshi [[Image:User_Kyoshi_sig2.png|19px]] 05:57, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

is 100% bullshit. My account name is a mail (not even my own) that haven't even existed for 6 years now. It doesn't matter if my password is "4TSKSKsslkjsesaelkjseaöl54p+¤¤#3333%#¤¤T" or "lol", I still had someone entering my NCsoft account. -Cursed Angel  <font face="Arial" size="1">22:32, 21 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm expecting security on the server side to be a bit tighter. Seeing as how I keep things ridiculously safe on my end, I am left with nothing else but to conclude that my hacked account occurred because an information/security leak on ANet/NCsoft's side. My gripe is that there's no way to verify lost items earned in game, meaning there's no solution that benefits the player. Providing screen shots, and inventory script... something would be better than nothing, IMO.
 * "Use a better password"
 * I can imagine your pain mate, but on the subject of security, changing your password is one step, but then there are programs out there that can hack that. Something I noticed in another game I play (not an mmo) is that it has the IP filtering, and you can turn that on or off. with it on, it will litterly not like you logging on to different IP Addresses (example, I am at home, it likes me because that is normal, but while I am on base it will litterly yell at me regarding that it isn't normal and sometimes lock the account for a few days 'orriginally disband the account but they since fixed that')

also since I have been taking a bit of a vacation, instead of soling relying on the password that might get hacked, have a sort of vacation mode with questions to answer and something else (yes this is in the wrong area but I have no idea where the official area is, since it doesn't like me for that)

I feel for your lose mate, but lets hope things can be fixed in the future. sad thing though, as security get more complicated, so does the hackers Ocren 03:30, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Been to Codex lately?
Or, have any of the support personnel? While game designers might have a larger impact on the reasons behind comments and advice like this, I thought support might also be interested. <font color="Black">-- <font color="#0104C6">FreedomBound  11:21, 19 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, I may have exaggerated it slightly but the issue still exists. But while I definitely think something should be done about it, I do acknowledge the difficulties the support have with this issue such as "Where is the line between match manipulation and normal playing?" and these farmers can just alter by playing 'normally' without resigning but because there is only 8 players they will still accrue the same benefits.  Thus, there little the support can do about and the true problem lies in the popularity of this format which allows this to occur.  While I do very occasionally drag the remaining team-mates after GvG dead hours to police Codex for these farmers and abit of laugh, it does little to deter them since they can just wait until we're gone.  Hence by giving this advice to a (hopefully) wide wiki player-base, enough of these farmers would appear and therein lies a temporary solution until the game designers get time to work on this.  Z  encow [[Image:User_Ox_rider_Sig.png]] 11:06, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

E-mail user not working
Hello Gaile :)

I am trying to send you an e-mail through the wiki but I am getting an error every time.

"Mail object returned error: error_log(/var/log/httpd/mediawiki.log): failed to open stream: Permission denied"

I am a registered user with a confirmed e-mail address and I have tried using different browsers and disabling internet security programs. I would really like to send you an inquiry privately so hopefully this problem can be fixed soon.

Thanks --The preceding unsigned comment was added by Belieber2169 (talk &bull; contribs) at 05:11, 27 May 2011 (UTC).


 * Belieber: you can report wiki bugs on the wiki bug page (linked from your navbar, under toolbox); Gaile isn't responsible for the well-being of the wiki. If you don't want to troubleshoot/wait for a solution, follow the support contacts, create a ticket (using email), and direct it to Gaile; she'll get it (just a tad slower than using the email function).


 * Have you tried emailing any other registered users? (That might help narrow down the issue.) Good luck. — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 05:23, 27 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the quick reply. I added a topic on the bug page so hopefully that can be sorted soon. The problem is, after testing with a friend it looks like the same error shows up but an e-mail with the content is still delivered directly to their inbox. Because I was testing my settings I tried sending it several times...Sorry Gaile if you got a bunch of the same messages from me, that was not my intention!


 * Yes, I had a flood of emails from you beginning at 9:00 tonight. Please note that it is not appropriate to email me (or anyone else at ArenaNet) regarding account issues; this is the place to discuss such questions. And as gently as possible, sending a mass of individual mails is never a good thing. I suggest that should a similar situation arise in the future, you test the system sooner rather than later to avoid sending a ton of emails to another hapless recipient.


 * I have reviewed the chat records. I also thoroughly read and appraised the explanations you offered for the various comments you made in the game. I am aware that you were using a new account that you created after your previous account was closed due to chat violations. I did not examine the records of those previous violations, but judging from the content of your current appeal, I believe you accept that the previous closure was appropriate. I can assure you that the Support Team is not targeting you for review; they are not paying you special attention; they are not reviewing records in an attempt to justify taking action on your new account. Based on the multiple examples I reviewed -- and remember that the team probably reviewed many other chat strings -- I have concluded that the team acted responsibly and appropriately in closing the account. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 07:12, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for looking into this matter for me. You are correct that I have come to terms with the previous closure and due to that I have adjusted my choice of words carefully with the new account. I am glad that you believe the support team is not singling me out. However, the examples I was given of my chat were hardly violations at all as they involved no explicit words, and nothing sexually descriptive or otherwise inappropriate. As I said before, maybe what was said is being misunderstood or read out of context, because I still cannot figure out why this action was taken unless it is being based off of my former account purely. There also could not be much else said because I only had the account for about a month! I have apologized numerous times about the first account incident but feel like even though I am behaving appropriately this time around, the negative past is still being held onto. If you have any questions for me I am willing to answer just about anything either here or privately. Please reconsider and take into account what I have said and what the actual facts are pertaining to this account. Thank you. -- Belieber

Banned account and the guild on it
Hi, I got my account banned during the massive "ban all the bots and everything near them" event, wich i still don't get how it comes that i was banned since i was in the middle of my army duty at the time and hadn't been playing for a very long time so i was kinda surprised to find my account permabanned when i got back. So after arguing back and forth with the support group i realized that i won't get it back, but i really do want the guild back that is on that account, and the big problem is that my account is the only one in the guild.

So i wrote another mail to the support about the ability to get the guild back, but they basicly told me that they can't do anythng about it at all. So i hope that you can help me a bit here, i do realize that getting the guild back in it's current state might be hard. But since they proved that they have the ability to delete guilds (see [don] incident) i'd appreaciate it alot if you could talk to them and help me get the guild deleted so we can reform it useing that very same name.

Thx in advance --The preceding unsigned comment was added by Phear (talk &bull; contribs) at 23:04, 29 May 2011  (UTC).


 * Since you've spoken to support, perhaps you can add any of the ticket numbers to this. (It will help Gaile in tracking down the history.) — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 00:30, 30 May 2011 (UTC)


 * The support ticket about solving the issue about the guild is Incident: 110122-003384  --Phear 09:05, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Idea for account security
IP based game account security. You can still login and validate the IP, but if it is an unknown ip, keep the account from doing anything internally. Make it optional for those of us who are actually concerned about security. I got hacked and current security is stupid. <font face="Bradley Hand ITC">Kyle van der Meer  18:56, 1 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Don't forget to create an official suggestion. — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 21:16, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Code=45; dormant account accused of RMT [110529-001765]
I have a similar problem to Lyger. After not using guildwars for around a year (maybe more, maybe less) I tried to start playing again, but when I type in my login details I get (Code=045) and a message about my account being involved in buying or selling gold for real money (which I have never done). I contacted support to try to get my account back on 29th May, and after receiving updates from support I got an email saying that it would be put to a senior staff member for further assistance on 30th May but haven't heard anything since, so I thought I'd post here to see if you can help as it has been a week with no response and I'm worried that it's been forgotten about. My support reference is 110529-001765. Also a friend of mine said that last year there were problems with account security (although I don't know how true or false this is), so it could be something to do with that. Thanks for you help (and sorry if I'm just being impatient), Slarevyn    --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 91.111.124.14 (talk &bull; contribs) at 22:02, 6 June 2011  (UTC).
 * -> Edit: Just received another email asking for a new secure email, so I think the issue is close to being sorted. :) --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 91.111.124.14 (talk &bull; contribs) at 13:13, 7 June 2011 (UTC).
 * I'm sorry it took a while, but the team can get pretty darn busy. I'm going to assume that since you didn't post again after your edit, things were sorted and you're good to go now. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 06:43, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Appeal for [110611-000242]
Dear Gaile,

I want first to apologize for the email I sent last week to plead my case, I didnt saw the part where you say none should send email directly to you for appeals, futhermore I didnt mentioned the incident number so it was really fail move, sorry for this.

I was whilling to keep this issue somewhat private since it is a bit shamefull, but it would seem this is my last resort, while I could see also your not a supreme court of appeals and that in similar case it usually doesnt change the outcome, Im still hoping to find a solution and requesting your help.

The ticket should provide sufficiant material for you to review the whole incident, if you need any other information please just let me know, the incident isnt closed yet but I fear the situation just cant resolve by itself hence why Im here.

I have hard time with the support saying he appreciate and think im sincere but wont give any second chance, this is a depressive situation for me and I think the punishment is a bit severe (over 70 serial keys burned down for one error that is less than 0.1% of my time spent in game, no warning nothing).

Thanks for your time and hoping to hear from you soon. ArukAdo 15:37, 21 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Gaile is here to help if Support becomes unresponsive, not while you think you're losing. I wouldn't expect a response yet. --ஸ Kyoshi [[Image:User_Kyoshi_sig2.png|19px]] 19:30, 20 June 2011 (UTC)
 * The support forums are replacing this page, so post your issue there if this doesn't get resolved within an acceptable timeframe. Gaile posts there every evening. AndrewB 13:44, 21 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Its impossible, banned accounts cant login in there, it cant replace this page or it mean theres no more appeal. ArukAdo 15:37, 21 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Stephane Lo Presti has said that Gaile will announce her plans for this page. Knowing Gaile, I'm sure she'll take time to respond to any ongoing issues. Also knowing Gaile, I'm sure that ANet has figured out some way for permanently banned accounts to mount an appeal. — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 16:26, 21 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I didn't know banned people are unable to register there, sorry. I just tested it, and you're right. I'll put this up as an issue there, I hope Gaile gets to you shortly here! AndrewB 08:35, 22 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Dunno if this was your post, but I'm relatively concerned about this issue now, the way Gaile is addressing it. I've sent her a private message for details so I'll post her response here unless she beats me to it. --ஸ Kyoshi [[Image:User_Kyoshi_sig2.png|19px]] 04:18, 23 June 2011 (UTC)
 * In my case it wasnt an error but I dont see why I cant try anyway (that post from Gaile is suggesting to use second account in that case but erh, all was banned), even if for the others readers its meaningless, its not for me so I dont see whats wrong with having some hopes and try a last time to beg for mercy. If thats not suppose to be such a place im sorry but I dont think I did harm anything with that request, eventually wasted Gaile's time but since its important for me I dont feel its that much a waste actually. She might just never answer but at least I did try. From start to end Im only getting "No we wont accept appeal", and eventually "I apreciate and I think you sincere, but no(simplified here)", this is frustrating and depressive, regardless what you guys think this is justified request or not, Im still having hopes even if its not justified. ArukAdo 05:04, 23 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I understand that you are upset, but match manipulation is and has always been a bannable offense. (I'm pretty sure that's the case in most other games with a competitive element, as well.) The abuse that was going on was excessive. I mean, cheating is cheating, and it can't be ignored in any case. But flagrant abuse like what was happening a week or two ago was appalling. One of the Live Team members took time out of his busy schedule to do some of the research, and I met with the Live Team several times about the subject, hosted a conference call meeting, exchanged a flurry of emails on the subject, and the decision was that we could not do anything other than close the accounts. As we will continue to do when we catch other players doing the same thing.


 * End of the day, we cannot reinstate the terminated accounts. And I feel really bad saying that because I don't mean to be cruel or heartless, but someone can't take a dive in match after match, gain ungodly wealth in a short amount of time, and then say "What, that's cheating? Who knew?" Our players are smart. They're smart enough to know when something they're doing is wrong. (100 or 200 "games" in a day? That's ridiculous! That's... cheating! Using multiple accounts is non-matches to get rewards? That's cheating, too!) Our players are also smart enough to know that when they cheat they take the risk that they will get caught, and that if they get caught they might lose their account. You ask why you were not warned. You were warned, every single times you accepted the User Agreement. And honestly, I can't help but think you were warned by your personal instincts about the wrongness of what you were doing. -- Gaile [[Image:User gaile_2.png| ]] 06:57, 23 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Thats right, but there you are implying I did lie in my argumentation, witch I didnt, your saying basicly "I knew", well no I didnt or obviously I wouldnt have start it in the first place (no im not dumb and wasnt whilling to trow away 4 years of my life, its ridiculous to think otherwise, and my pvp/gvg historic does proove im right here), if this was true I wouldnt have used my main account and would have just "risked" the alternate ones, obviously "smart" isnt the adequate term in your argument, but yeah I was ignorant, and no I wouldnt have try my luck if fully aware of the situation.


 * Your reacting on the quantity, well yeah with that many accounts thats the logic outcome, what would you except? and yeah if thats matter I saw people using more than I did (full team), this doesnt make it right, it explain how it happened, yes if you have nearly 70 slots it takes a long time to clear up zaishen quest everywhere. If we follow your logic the quantity doesnt matter, as wether "cheating" on 1 or 100 match is the same, the quantity again is simply the result of multiple accounts, its not like I could have done so with just 1 account, Im just 1 person but yet I have to take the penalty on 6 accounts, how thats fair?


 * Also regardless I would have done only 2 cycles instead 3 or even a single, from what you and support saying that wouldnt have helped me there, whatever the "size" of the offence you still threated every account the same way, so yeah when I realized this was wrong it was obviously too late, you know, when you play all day long and your tired, you dont forcably think first to reread the UA to check if you did something wrong or not, you get some rest.


 * The wealth isnt the problem either, as support could review, it doesnt even get close to what I got before any of this did happen, and it could also be easly destroyed.


 * Im saying it wasnt fair there was no warning or this is a bit severe, thats, because im not even a pvp'er, if I was having like several titles acquired trought syncing codex ect... You would have "catch" a very bad guy, but here it isnt even remotly the case, the reality is one bad guy persuaded me it was "ok", thats maybe dumb of me to think its "ok" and I definitly shoudnt have, but again, theres nowhere any prevention on anything, people are saying gvg is dead, witch is pretty much true, since sincying works so easly, the problem isnt what I did or the quantity, the problem is theres not any sign of anything to prevent you doing so, unless you read the UA every day before going to bed, Im normal been, I dont read the UA every day and after 4 years yeah I forgot it totaly and no I wasnt whilling to take a risk nor doing something that is bannable offence, if you dont want to understand or think im lieing fair enought, but thats what happened and yeah I was been sincere, Im not upset at all what happened is relativly normal, Im depressed thats different, GW was the only activity I had left in my life that was giving me some satisfaction and on the first error I get the maximum punishment.
 * Anyway thanks for the answer, I know you try your best, as for others games since they have monthly fee Im pretty sure they give first warnings or something equivalent, dunno if they have appeal but here there isnt thats pretty sure, you should change the term as appeal would imply you are given a chance to explain yourself or influct on the judgement, this is just cosmectic issue tho.
 * If you are really spending time and efforts to find ways to reinstate accounts then why nothing is happening? Im sure you guys have enought creativity and ressources to figure this out, I wouldnt mind to have a permanent effect "you cant pvp" pretty much like you get "this is pvp", but surely it would be simpler/saner to trust players that realize its a mistake or monitor them, I really doubt you get 100% bans to come back and say they are sorry.ArukAdo 18:10, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

--
 * Some criminals get their redemption by helping the police. Helping the L.A.P.D. (Lion Arch Police Department) to identify the new methods used to cheat (AB syncing, lags on commands and the new generation of rupt bots would be great) might be a smart move to make one consider a lower, say, sentence. Yseron - 83.196.155.217 08:28, 24 June 2011 (UTC)
 * This was just a prank ? If so it wasnt very funny, otherwise you will have to be a bit more specific.ArukAdo 16:06, 24 June 2011 (UTC)
 * The best jokes are the shortest ones: go download a rupt bot, it's ok. Yseron - 83.196.155.217 16:13, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Hacked/banned
Hi Gaile, I dont know how else to seek help, I have been hacked and banned, i have opened a ticket, but while i normally see support getting back to me quickly, this time either it feels like forever, or they really are not. code=45, thats all i saw. it started with me coming home from work, around 7pm my time i decided to log in, my password wouldnt work, i saw the "protect your account" announcement at the login and got a rush of paranoia, reset my password, changed my password via my ncsoft account, tried to log in again only to discover im banned and code=45. i sat speechless for i dont know how long until my wife realized im staring at the monitor with my jaw dropped and quickly sent an email to support. after having done so, i mentally scrambled for changing passwords everywhere, i logged into my second account and noticed in the Guild Roster that my main account had logged in 12 hours ago (7pm when i wanted to play....yet 7am when someone had logged in...i start work at 7am so its impossible for me to have logged in) thats when i realized i had indeed been hacked. I dont care about my ingame "stuff" i can always earn it back...but how do i get my account back???

Please help Thank You 71.202.198.72 02:20, 24 June 2011 (UTC)
 * As long as you've still got your access keys to prove account ownership, it shouldn't be a problem to get your account back. It may take a day or two of trading emails with support, but just be patient.--[[Image:User Pyron Sy sig.png|19px| ]] Pyron Sy 02:56, 24 June 2011 (UTC)


 * I certainly hope so, otherwise this will be the most depressing weekend I have in years, not to mention the most depressing year... :( 71.202.198.72 04:04, 24 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm going to move this to Gaile's support page, since it's really more relevant there. Aside from that, giving them one night to respond before coming to Gaile is not going to get you a response from her (or support) any quicker; you should really keep from posting here until Support has been out of touch for around a week. --ஸ Kyoshi [[Image:User_Kyoshi_sig2.png|19px]] 07:12, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

To OP: That is pretty much exactly how I noticed when I had been hacked, except it was several days after the fact. While it felt like eternity, Support was really quick in getting back and reopening my account once I proved ownership. The banning is standard procedure, mostly to lock the hacker out of any further access to the account. Just give Support the info they ask for when they ask for it, and you'll have your account back soon! 81.234.120.18 20:49, 26 June 2011 (UTC)
 * well I got my account...with everything salvaged, sold, stolen etc....been farming over 12 hours to having something to buy armor with :(

Support related question on behalf of a friend [110626-002078]
Heya, Gaile! Quick question for you. My friend (personal data removed) has been trying for the past few days now to get in touch with support to recover her password after having been away from the game for some time following a previous account issue but to (currently) no avail. I was wondering if you had any idea on when she'd be likely to hear anything back from support or who she could contact in the meantime as it seems to be dragging on a bit? Thanks! -- Kiyoshi Ryuu --The preceding unsigned comment was added by Kiyoshi Ryuu (talk &bull; contribs) at 09:25, 27 June 2011 (UTC).


 * Ryuu: Gaile will need the ticket number (please do not include personal data about the player). — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 16:39, 27 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Ah, my apologizes. Would I need to post the ticket number here then or ... ? -- Kiyoshi Ryuu --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 94.196.217.93 (talk &bull; contribs) at 16:46, 27 June 2011  (UTC).


 * Here is fine. — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 16:52, 27 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Alrighty, here it is. Her tick # is - #110626-002078 -- Kiyoshi Ryuu --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 94.196.217.93 (talk &bull; contribs) at 18:34, 27 June 2011 (UTC).

Hi there - just wondering if you could tell me if any progress had been made regarding this matter. I don't think my friend has heard back at all yet. Thanks! -- Kiyoshi Ryuu
 * You would probably have more luck posting on the Support Forum. Gaile said she intends to state her plans for this page later, and for the moment it seems that means she won't respond here. --ஸ Kyoshi [[Image:User_Kyoshi_sig2.png|19px]] 15:49, 2 July 2011 (UTC)

Stance on more 3rd party mods
First off, this page seriously needs an archiving, haha. Anyways, I was wondering what Arena-Net's official stance was towards some of the more recent mods that are appearing, namely the CamUnlocker, DressUp, and Vanquisher tools from Argos-Soft.net. I assume that these will follow the same pattern that Texmod and others do, but I wanted to confirm it, just in case there's some reason these would be bannable programs. Thanks in advanced for the clarification, and I hope these are allowed, they can make some wicked screenshots. ~Farlo Talk 08:08, 8 July 2011 (UTC)


 * ANet has repeatedly said that they cannot provide details about what they do and do not allow. TexMod and GWx2 have been around for a long time, so people have assumed that ANet has an official stance on them, but that's not accurate. What ANet has also said is that people are banned for behavior, not solely for the use of software. Some software is obviously designed to give an advantage (e.g. map unlocking tools), but other software is not as obvious (e.g. TexMod could be used in nefarious ways).


 * Personally, I am not prepared to trust Argos-Soft programs because (a) it's closed source (I cannot verify if the program only does what it purports to do) and (b) they have already demonstrated that they don't care about player privacy or security (the Estimator is a great price-checking tool, but it also makes public information about players without any sort of implied, let alone actual, approval from players).


 * However, for those willing to assume good faith, CamUnlocker, Dressup, etc do more or less what various TexMod plug-ins are able to do. In other words, if you would use TexMod to show you what your armor would look like dyed with Green and Yellow (and if you trust Argos-Soft), then you are taking the same risk by using the alternative software. — Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 12:32, 8 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Positives of Dressup are that you could potentially do all the Armor renders for free which would finish a significant amount of the armor project. --[[Image:User_Chieftain_Alex_Chieftain Signature.png]] Chieftain  Alex 12:49, 8 July 2011 (UTC)


 * I would just like to point out that all of Argos-Soft's programs are written in C# .NET; You can decompile them and look at the source. --  Cat Slayer  Calli  [[Image:User Cat Slayer Calli signature.png]] 15:03, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Still, like TEF said, ArenaNet does not take any stances on third party programs. People may find an illegitimate version of a safe program, or that program may be changed to be unsafe. If ANet gave programs the go-ahead, and then they were edited to be unsafe and people started getting accounts banned or stolen, it wouldn't look very good. --ஸ Kyoshi [[Image:User_Kyoshi_sig2.png|19px]] 15:25, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
 * How have they not taken a stance on any tools? There are two massive quotes from Anet employees about Texmod.  I know they can't disclose anything about how they ban and track people or whatever, but I was just wondering if, because it let's you zoom out really far, or see more info than directly provided by the game client, that it would be a step further than they would allow, or if they would see it as an advantage over normal play. ~FarloUser Farlo Triad.png Talk 16:40, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Also, in that case, I should probably pull down all the software from them on our database until someone with a bit more knowledge of that stuff can decompile them and take a look at what's inside. ~FarloUser Farlo Triad.png Talk 16:52, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
 * They have taken stances on various features that programs would allow, but never on the programs themselves. For instance, it was said implicitly that legitimate Texmod is allowed because it just changes textures. However, Texmod is not considered simply and always safe, and they make it a point to mention that whenever they talk about it. I'm not sure what the position would be on the details you mentioned, so you should probably bring it up on the new support forums if you want an answer. For the moment, Gaile is not active here, and she's said on the forums she is not sure of her plans for this page right now. --ஸ Kyoshi [[Image:User_Kyoshi_sig2.png|19px]] 19:43, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Yeah, understandable that they aren't explicitly allowed to OK a program, that just introduces a slew of problems. I guess I asked wrong, and I did mean the processes they do and the techniques used.  I completely forgot the forums existed, so I'll bring them up there.  Thanks. ~FarloUser Farlo Triad.png Talk 01:04, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Also, if anyone decided to read the Terms and Conditions (which we all agree too each time we log on) it says no third party tools. with that in mind, text mod is a third party tool and if they wanted too, could ban you for using it. the fact that they actually understand why people are using it and haven't shows that ANet actually has a stance on it. the stance on it is as followed (summerized) : We do not take any liablity to text mod or any 3 party software, any corruption that can take place... we do not support... use at your own risk. With the Argos-Soft.. I wouldn't recommend it since as someone said, it doesn't care for My privicy... it's nice to know who is selling things but lets change the program a bit... here is all my account info for my game... my password is cake, my user name is bob@bob.com and my characters name is pie is great. and then yours is what now?

My thoughts on it Ocren 03:12, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

So anybody dissect DressUp and CamUnlocker? I want run both of these but with no second account there is no way that's happening. Previously Unsigned 11:31, 11 July 2011 (UTC)