Difference between revisions of "Feedback talk:Gaile Gray/Support Issues"

Revision as of 19:10, 9 May 2012

Paws to Ponder: Support IssuesThe first place to seek assistance with matters of a support nature is through our Support System. If after you've worked with Support you feel you require additional assistance, you may post here and I will do my best to help you. Please note that questions, reports, and appeals should first be directed to Support. Please provide your Support Incident/Ticket Number with your comments here so I have a good point of reference. Thanks! ~ Gaile

Contents 1 How Do I Contact Support? 2 Guild Wars Support Issues Page 3 Bot Ban Details Page 4 Fake Beta Sites 5 Support Ticket #111026-000192 6 Perma Ban 7 Support ticket 110418-000642 8 Plea for Help 9 Hacked. [Incident: 120205-000437]‏ 10 Gaile. Help! ): 11 Account Hacked [Incident: 111106-001478] 12 Support Ticket #120215-000934 13 Support Ticket 120312-001081 14 Incident: 120425-010526

How Do I Contact Support? Just click support to start filing a Support Ticket. For the fastest possible service in issues that involve your game or NCsoft Master Account, consider providing as much information from this list as you can: Your name Your game account name(s) Your address Your telephone number Your birth date Your access keys (a scan of the key would be super helpful) The last four digits of the credit card(s) that you used for NCsoft Store or Guild Wars In-Game Store purchases The air-speed velocity of an unburdened swallow. European please. (Ok, we really don't need that last bit. :D ) If you still have access to the email account that you used as your game user name, please submit the ticket or send the email using that account. And while the team doesn't require all this info, the more you send from the above list, the more easily the team can address the issue you're writing about. All information is kept confidential. We offer telephone support for billing/account and technical support issues only. We do not offer telephone support for game support issues, bug reports, in-game incident reports, gameplay issues, general inquiries, etc. Contact our Billing/Account or Technical Support Teams as follows: 1-512-225-6359 Mon through Friday Noon until 5:00 PM, Central time (-5 GMT) If you are unable to submit a support ticket, you may email Support at the following (exact) address: Support@GuildWars.com. Warning: Please do not give out personal information, such as account names or passwords, on this page.

Support Issues Current Support Issues Support FAQs NCMA Security Feature Bot Ban Details Contacting Support Account Security Death Counts Xunlai Tournament House Support Issue Archives Botwatch Archives by Topic Chit Chat & Miscellany Wiki Topics Community & Website Game Related Topics Product Information Misplaced Articles, Etc. Special Pages Journal/Blog Mementos 3rd Year Mini Guesses 4th Year Mini Guesses 5th Year Mini Guesses Tonic Guesses Bug Reports Suggestions

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 23:53, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

(Reset indent) I wanted to refresh this warning because with the increased news about Guild Wars 2, we're seeing an awful lot of scam and phishing sites these days. :( Protect yourself: Don't visit "beta key generator," "beta access," "cheat," or "exploit" sites. -- Gaile 20:15, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

I like to point out, if you go onto [www.ISOhunt.com] you will be able to find apparent leaked beta of gw2 and gw1 account generater... I just looked it up for the hell of it and a good laugh. Stressing again, ONLY will hear of gw2 beta on the gw2 page or gw2 wiki and facebook page Ocren 02:30, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh yes, sadly (and irritatingly!) there are dozens of such sites. I'm currently considering our best means of learning about such sites -- perhaps a unique email address to which players can write, I'm not sure yet. In the meantime, please do contact support with a brief note and we will pursue such sites to the best of our ability. -- Gaile 19:12, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

I did try using these fake whatever, they didn't work for me... though don't want anyone falling victim to a money scam. Ocren 07:13, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

"Key Generator" is just another term for "Account Theft Mechanism." I've been with ArenaNet for more than 10 years, and I've never seen a single, functional key generator. They're either bogus, aka fake do-nothings, or they're bogus, as in fake steal-your-account somethings. Please take care of your account -- stay far, far away from "key generators" or "cheats" or "ecto generators" or any of that other stuff. -- Gaile 03:56, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Support Ticket #111026-000192

Dear Gaile Gray :

I have discover here and your support forum post "How do I contact Support?" too late,this make me haven't use the email account associated with my Guild Wars account to send mail to the support group from the earliest.Because I don't understand the procedure of account recover,I feel my Support Ticket look like so confused (etc,I have added data and positive evidence more than once or I have changed back the support account email or login name associated with my GW account )

I have change and add back all data for the fastest possible service regarding issues now.

Will this influence process for recover my account??I'm so sorry about that I make inconvenient to the GM or Support Group.... Jokersoul21 21:51, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

My account have recover now, support team have a high efficiency !! Thank all staff of A net again Jokersoul21 21:54, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Very glad that the team could assist you. :) -- Gaile 17:11, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Perma Ban

Hello Gaile,

I'm typing this message to you in hopes that I can get some help. An old friend of mine directed me towards here because she felt that you could help possibly. Recently I was permanently banned for "Match Manipulation". Not that long ago, one of my teammates emailed support about syncing and the higher power's stance on it; here is the ticket number for said conversation, [Incident: 111206-000717]. Due to that email my teammates and I decided to sync in Heroe's Ascent to get matches late night. We played matches by bumping teams to us and fighting them. We were under the impression that that wasn't not currently being punished due to what was said in the email from GM Jessica. So we continued to do it that night and people were mad saying that we were syncers and were going to get banned and what not. I don't understand how that could have been possible from that email.

Also, while in the Hall of Heroes, there were obviously some three way matches, some with the team of one of our friends playing. In this game, our friend decided to gank for us and help us win, which I am sure is very aggravating to the losing team, but lets face it that happens all the time. A good example is Death Is Energy[DIE] running two guild teams one holding and the other ganking for them to win. Ganks happen all the time. I did not tell the person in our match to gank for us nor did I care. In ventrilo I told my team to just shut up and play and to not suck. I could have cared less honestly if we lost, but it turned out that he did gank, so we won. Everyone on the other team complained and said we were jsut syncing and cheating and stuff, when first off I did not tell the other person to gank or let us win. I did not control that other person, I did not have anything to do with the team that he had. I can't seem to explain that fully to the person I am currently emailing, [Incident: 111209-000016]. I may seem a little rude but it is only the frustration from playing for 6 years and 7000+ hours and spending $100+ on this game only to get banned. I come to you for a final resolution. I was under the impression that the syncing was okay. I also understand the rules of the game, I udnerstand the match manipulation is not acceptable. But i don't understand why I was banned for match manipulation because I did not do it.

I really hope you can help me, I understand you are busy but I hope you can get back to this soon.--Wild Throw Monk 04:03, 16 December 2011 (UTC)Jeff

First, you've submitted multiple tickets, some using different email addresses. Please understand that doing this is counterproductive and delays your response while it saps time that the team could be giving other players.

As to the issue at hand: In your initial contact you asked only about syncing. GM Jessica gave you an accurate response about that subject. However, GM Ara send you an additional response beyond what you asked about, making a proactive attempt to explain the rules against dive-taking (as opposed to the syncing you had asked about) to try to dissuade you from breaching the RoC. She wrote, "As long as everyone involved is playing to win, there is nothing inherently wrong with synchronizing teams. However, if you are doing this so that one team does not play properly or resigns in order to give the other team an easy win, this would be considered match manipulation. In cases of match manipulation, the accounts of all involved are actioned and multiple violations can lead to account closure."

You were not misled by GM Jessica, as you contend. She answered the question you asked. In addition, the team proactively gave you even more information than you requested and if you had only heeded that information your account would not have been closed. However, you chose to engage in match manipulation despite the warning. The case has been reviewed by multiple senior agents (and myself) and I cannot see any reason that the decision would be overturned. -- Gaile 20:01, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

I have not been on here to check this as of late and can't seem to remember my password, but first off, I did not submit multiple tickets, check the ip addresses from those emails and you will see they were not from me. Those were other people in my team that were banned. I sent only one from my school email account.

My problem is that I was not the one doing any manipulation of any sort. I was not allowed to see any proof of the manipulation and I still don't believe it. I am currently under the impression that you all think I was the one playing on all those accounts which is impossible. But due to you all assuming I sent those emails I guess it is safe for me to assume that you all think I ran them all. I only played on one account, that was jas92@adelphia.net. I was only one character, The Trolling Nomad. I was not anyone else in my group and I did not ask anyone else in my group to do anything wrong. I did not manipulate any matches. If you are going to count anyone for manipulation count the person that ganked the other team in HALLS. --Sumjef47 21:34, 5 February 2012 (UTC)Jeff

I don't like to make assumptions, you can be sure of that. If you did not submit the various tickets -- or submitted only some of the tickets, or were involved in only one of the accounts in question -- I believe the team can discover that through additional investigation. Please feel free to refresh your ticket via the Web support interface or through email, and explain what you've explained here to me and they'll give things another look. -- Gaile 03:52, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

I sent another and they said they are going to keep it closed. I was wondering if I could get you to take one more look at it, I appreciate the help already from you but I still honestly feel that I didn't do anything wrong. I do understand all of the rules you all have in place and from my personal view I know that I did not manipulate any matches. I am still at a disbelief that two other players were not banned and I feel like I should be part of that list. I led the team yes, I do admit to that. But I can swear that I did not manipulate anything. It was not me and if you check the IP address of the person on the other team that did the ganking you will see it was not my account. I just ask that you take one more look at the emails and the players yourself. I know they are wanting to end this but I mean, it's kinda hard when you played so long and feel that there is a mistake. Sorry for keeping this going but I appreciate you still replying. --Sumjef47 19:12, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Support ticket 110418-000642

Hiya Gaile. I come on behalf of my friend's father, who lost his account early last year. He deploys often (leaving the country for weeks, sometimes months at a time for work), and during one of those deployments, he found he couldn't log in. He tried to explain this to support staff in a ticket - that, given his limited time at home, he wanted to get his account back as quickly as possible, and was willing to provide any information necessary for the recovery. He never heard back from support staff after the initial automated response.
Any way you could check into this? The character name is Fercean Octarus, and the ticket number is provided in the header. -Auron 06:00, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

If this was a recent email, then he might not have gotten help because of this. Apparently they've had some support email problems, so just have him resend the request. ~FarloTalk 16:51, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

Your friend's father has been promptly responded to via each of the three support ticket he has submitted about this matter. Each time, he has been asked to provide basic, user-known information that will verify his ownership of the account. However, he never responded with that information and our processes require that we are sure we are speaking with the actual account owner before giving him/her access to the game account. (I'm sure you agree that only makes sense. It's like a bank making sure you really are the account holder before they give you cash.)

Please have this gentleman respond personally to any of the tickets he submitted. I recommend he use the most recent: 110418-000642. Our Support Team will be happy to assist him once they have the info required to move forward. -- Gaile 20:08, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Plea for Help

Hi Gaile,

This is my last ditch attempt to retrieve my long time lost account. I've tried going through support and haven't really reached any satisfying conclusion.

I've tried twice in the past to reset the password to my master account and linked guild wars accounts since they were hacked years ago.

I received the following mail (2009): Someone at xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx has reset your Guild Wars Game Account password for account myemail@gmail.com. If you did not make this change, please contact support immediately at support@ncsoft.com.

I started [Incident: 091130-001357] in which I replied stating I had not requested any sort of password reset on my account. As I wasn't actively playing Guild Wars I forgot about it and when I came to try to log in a few months later I found I couldn't.

I sent in a support request outlining the situation and was told I hadn't supplied enough information to verify I was the owner dispite providing everything except CD-Keys.

About a year later (2010) I tried again, which was [Incident: 100516-003070], in which I sent some of the CD-Keys I found in my house which could have been mine or my brothers, but this was still not enough. I hope you understand that it's been years since I purchased Guild Wars and I never really made a point of storing DVD-Cases and keys for an online game.

I owned this account for a long time and made multiple credit card purchases on it, so I'm a bit annoyed I can't get it back, especially with Guild Wars 2 coming out.

I'm not sure if there's anything you can do to help me or let me know what to do, I realise that it's hard because it's been such a long time but I still own the email addresses associated with the account, and can provide you with further details about the characters on the account (assuming they still exist)

Thanks for any help or advice you can offer.

Hartshill 22:27, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Yo, you used a credit card? Send them the credit card number. Automatic account retrieval, no questions asked. It's worked for at least seven people I know. Granted, you have to know the e-mail address used by the account, but other than that it's the quickest way I know of. I guess the logic behind it is that since you're not supposed to share accounts, the person with the credit card information is the rightful owner. –Jette 00:27, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

I've submitted another support request [Incident: 111222-000150] with a summary of all the information including the credit card details, so here's hoping! Hartshill 01:32, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

It's not looking good, i'm getting the same canned responses and impersonal replies as last time :( Hartshill 08:18, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Canned replies are required until someone can actually focus on the request. They're supposed to reassure people ("oh, yeah, we got your message, we're working on it") but all it does is annoy people.

As a side note, listening to people who tell you to give out your credit card information to total strangers is probably a big part of why you got your account stolen in the first place. Don't do that. Furthermore, I believe Gaile prefers to use the official support forums (forum.guildwars.com) to negotiate this kind of thing. This page has been in limbo for a while. –Jette 16:32, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

While I appreciate your comments, please don't assume, I wouldn't have given them my credit card details (which by the way is just the last 4 digits) based purely on some random guy on the internet. They did request it before so all I've done it resend another support request as per your advice. I'm fairly sure I lost my account through having poor security questions & answers. Hartshill 19:30, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

I'm sorry you are having trouble getting back to your account.

Post a quick note on the support forums with a link to this topic; Gaile does read this page, but (as Jette suggests) not as often as she visits the official site. You can also send her an email. However, do not create any additional tickets; that delays the response time (since someone has to coordinate the work for each ticket). You can update the individual tickets (even if they were close,d updating will re-open them) or reply to auto-reply email they send.

We should expect canned replies and impersonal responses for the most part because (a) that allows the team to focus on resolving more issues (rather than spending time crafting emails) and (b) 99% of the activity is going to be standard (e.g. support received your ticket, looked at the issue, escalated to the next level, etc.). The alternative is no response and/or no action, an unfortunate reality of not enough time in the day.

Good luck. – Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 20:50, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

(Reset indent) This issue is over :D I got my account back. Thanks for the help/comments. I removed this but it got reverted apparently someone has to archive it, so whatever. Hartshill 01:20, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

Glad you got everything resolved in time to participate in Wintersday. (Re: removal vs archiving: our discussion page policy requires that we retain all conversations on the wiki for a variety of reasons. If a topic is resolved, instead of removing it, it's moved to an archive page. On mainspace articles, that can be done by virtually anyone; attributed talk pages (e.g. this one) must be maintained by the relevant user (e.g. Gaile) or their proxy. ) – Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 02:54, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

(Reset indent) I'm glad this worked out ok. It's true I'm more likely to see pending issue on the Guild Wars Support Forums these days, but I try to keep an eye on this page, as well. Thanks to the helpful wiki members who provided assistance and advice! -- Gaile 20:12, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Hacked. [Incident: 120205-000437]‏

Hello Gaile, I emailed support three days ago because my two accounts got hacked, obviously was my fault giving out my information but thought they would not be able to hack me if they don't have my email password, indeed very stupid of me. However, I restored one of my account and I updated the ticket with GW support but then they still banned my account the next day with a message says that a senior staff will look upon both accounts and will message you asap, it's been three days here and I wonder how long more is it going to take? I tried logging on to the forum to PM you and it gave me that I am banned. if you please can look at the ticket number and read through first until last message I posted, thank you.

Hi there. I am so glad you took advantage of our Live Chat feature! I just checked into your ticket and it very much appears that this matter will be investigated and resolved soon. You are free to contact me if you haven't heard in a couple of days. But may I ask that you post on the Guild Wars Support Forums if you do need further help? I try to keep up with my wiki pages, but I do find myself on the forums more often, and it would be perfectly appropriate to move this conversation there if you need more help. Thanks. -- Gaile 03:50, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Hi Gaile, unfortunately i'm not able to post anything on the forum since I have to be log in to do so, login error message is banned also. I assume because it's linked to the game. In about 12 hours, it will be a couple days and I was really thinking of buying another game today like torchlight because i'm getting upset over it. I don't find a reason in the first place to ban my restored account since I updated the ticket and told them that I already restored it, however, but please work on the other account that it is still hacked. Tomorrow is the 10th and I reported the incident on the 5th. I understand that you might be over busy (not you) but the whole team, but this really does not give the customer satisfaction when all this problem can resolve in couple minutes. I don't assume it's hard to log in to the server and review the data and confirm that I am the right person or whatsoever needed to be done. I also bet that they did not ban the guy who actually hacked me. I'm sorry if I said anything wrong but I'm really frustrated.

Hi. Last bit first: We will always ban a hacker. If we establish that someone stole an account, that person will be gone. It's that simple. Sometimes, proving the incident is difficult or impossible, but I've seen the team take a lot of time and effort do so just that. So be assured justice prevails a great deal of the time, and if it doesn't, it's not for lack of trying.

Secondly, I understand that you cannot post on the forums. I am so accustomed to people having secondary accounts that I made my recommendation without the natural realization that someone whose sole account is banned cannot post on the forums. I apologize for that misdirection! (And incidentally that's why I try to keep an eye on this page, to have another means of contact.)

Lastly, I just reviewed the extensive data in the files, and I confess that I am confused by it. I have written some of our senior CS folks and asked them to get back to me (or, more important, to you) with more information about this. I am sorry for the delay, but I anticipate you'll hear from someone tomorrow. If not, please update this post and I will follow up. Thanks. -- Gaile 06:29, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Gaile, thank you very much. yes, I do have two accounts but they banned the two of them since I reported that they got hacked. So, both accounts are banned even though I told them that I restored one of the account, they still banned the two of them. I really hope by tomorrow one of the CS will reply. Thank you very for your help.

Right, so double-outties on the forums, I understand. And yes, hopefully by tomorrow this will all be a distant memory. :) -- Gaile 07:06, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Gaile, please re-check with them again today, It's 3:22pm and I still have not received any email from them.

(Reset indent) Ok, I have a lot more information about this situation now and my confusion most definitely has lifted. According to the game records, you attempted to resell one of your Guild Wars accounts -- tempted by a promised payment of 1,000 Ectos -- and were then scammed by an RMT who performed all sorts of shenanigans on/with the account afterwards. We took care of them, of course, but because of the attempted resale the account in question -- the account you sold to the RMT -- has been terminated and will remain so.

Let me take this opportunity to point out a few things:

• Reselling accounts is forbidden by the User Agreement, as is giving, trading, exchanging, or sharing them. Anyone who is not the original user should not be on, or consider him- or herself the "owner" of, such an account.
• Attempting this sort of transaction puts all your Guild Wars accounts in jeopardy
• Offers that seen "too good to be true" probably are just that: too good to be true

If you want to discuss your main account with Support, please do so in the ticket that you opened regarding this matter. I believe my involvement in this review and appraisal is at an end. -- Gaile 20:55, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Gaile, this guy was spamming the message in trade in LA for about 6-7 days and he did not even got banned (until I reported). I am a new player and I do not even have both accounts more than a month. do you really expect all players read the user agreement? it's just a backup to back the game developers judgement when something happened. so, I failed on this, that's fine but also GW support failed to ban this player in the first place spamming the messages in trade. But then, the question why both accounts? alright, why they don't take away the account that I attemped to sell (which i'll say fine) but instead they banned my two accounts? are not they supposed to be considered seperate? and why the harsh judgement for it? I just bought the game like 20 days ago. I want my main account (which I did not attempt to sell) back. I don't understand why my main account was banned in the first place. if I have 10 accounts and I attempted to sell one them, do all my 10 accounts get banned? this is just insane.

As I said, you are welcome to discuss your other (I assume your primary) account closure with Support. We very much want to work with you on that and I encourage you to talk to the team, I truly do. Please note that saying, "That other guy did that [bad thing]" does not justify doing an even worse thing. And I mean this in a friendly tone: Implying that a spammed message somehow forced you to lose control of your senses and breach the UA isn't a real solid position nor is echoing someone else's contention that "No one reads the legal agreements so they don't matter." As a fellow player, I would recommend that you let those go and simply contact Support on a more even footing. I wish you well. -- Gaile 22:31, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Alright, thank you very much Gaile. Well, I guess I learned the hard way regarding this matter. I already updated the (same ticket) and asked them about my primary account. I still did not receive any email from them about my primary account and I hope this will not take another week or so. Since, I have been asking them about my primary account since the 5th. However, I really do appreciate any help you provided regardless of the outcome! :)

EDITED: They just unblocked it, thank you very much Gaile.

That's good. Thank you for letting me know and I'm glad it worked out well for you. -- Gaile 23:04, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Gaile. Help! ):

→ moved from Feedback_talk:Gaile_Gray

Gaile!

I need your help ;-;

I'm not exactly sure if this is what I should be doing but Support is being much help.

I was recently perm. banned on Guild Wars D: It seems it was for "Match Manipulation in Heroes Ascent" I sent a message to support and after a couple days wait on a response they said "we have determined the evidence of misconduct to be incontrovertible". I had logged into Guild Wars and way there were only 1 7-man group and HA and decided to join them. I had HA'd so I figured I had nothing better to do an joined them. He HA'd w/o vent for the first match or 2 and I then noticed the it was the same guild vs. the same guild.

I had absolutely no idea that the guild I was playing with were manipulating Heroes Ascent. I wasn't on their vent at all during the run and I was a last-minute addition to their team and didn't know what they were doing until that match in Hall of Heroes.

After I was banned I went onto their Ventrilo and exchanged some pretty "harsh words" with them.

I've heard of other people getting temp. bans before for match manipulation but never a perm. ban right off that bat except in high-end GVG cases. q.q

If you could please just take a look into my case I would be very much appreciative.

Case Reference Number: 120126-000127

~Andre

I sent over an inquiry to the two customer support team leads as to the details of this case. I have been asked about some recent bans for match manipulation. Players have stated everything from "I didn't know I was cheating" to "It's not cheating" to "I didn't know I would get banned for this form of cheating." But yes, we definitely have banned accounts involved in match manipulation; in fact our rules cite that as the outcome of all proved cases. That was established several times over the years, particularly perhaps in the article by James Phinney where he points out that during the "bot sweep" of May 2010, we also banned a number of accounts for match manipulation.

So for those who engaged in the action, such an outcome is not at all unusual. The events that took place in HA involved teams "taking a dive" to exchange wins with other teams. This is cheating, because you're not honestly playing the game. I guess I don't see how anyone couldn't see it as being a cheating offense. I mean, the baseball team that did it nearly 100 years ago is still viewed as something close to evil. If you contend you didn't intend to cheat, immediately left the group, and reported it to Support to make them aware of the wrongdoings by those involved, then please contact Support again so they can give your case another review. Obviously, we would treat such a case differently than we would those who engaged in cheating multiple times. -- Gaile 23:06, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

--

Thank you Gaile. I will admit I did not leave. I wanted to but, for lack of a better word, it would have made me seem like a dick as I did have friends in that team. I've made it a point in my Guild Wars life to not be one of those "leavers" that just click on the X button in the middle of a run. That severely degrades the Guild Wars Community in my eyes. I do contend that I didn't know what they were doing beforehand, I didn't leave the group as I consider ties to friendship one of the most important thing, and I've never really reported someone but I tried to in this case but when I type /report it does not give me a match manipulation option. I do contend this was my first time even being remotely involved in something like this.

Please, take another look at my case.

Thank You Gaile,

~Andre

I sympathize with your situation, I really do. Ultimately, due to the well-researched nature of the matter, and the fact that more than a dozen people were identified as being involved, it's unlikely that the team can justify an account reinstatement for one individual and not for the others. And reinstating all those involved would, obviously, reinstate those who willingly and knowingly involved themselves in cheating.

To put it in real-life terms -- and believe me I know this isn't a real-life situation, but sometimes analogies help -- it might be like being in the company of people you know are shoplifting. They may be your friends, you may not be stealing, and you may never have done so before. But it's really hard to separate the "who did what and when," and parse out justice, if the police find stolen goods in a car in which you're all traveling. :(

You are free to contact Support again (through the same ticket) and make your case. But with regret, I cannot foresee that the outcome will change. -- Gaile 03:42, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

--

Thank you Gaile for looking into this. It was/is very much appreciated. I understand the logic behind this however I am willing an do wish to make my case through support again.

I do have a slight request. Support has informed me that they aren't even willing to consider or even take a look at any appeal I make. Would you terribly mind contacting them and ask if they will? Someone new with fresh eyes for the case.

Thanks Again for Everything, ~Andre

One of the fundamental issues with player blocks is the disregard for bystanders such as yourself who can be banned without the intent to break the rules. The support team seems to mix up the concepts of intent and motive to such an extent that virtually all offenses are strict liability crimes, meaning that the state of mind of the offender is not taken into account when deciding punishment. Ignorance of the law is not a defense for breaking the law, for pragmatic reasons if nothing else, but a key component of punishment is the "guilty mind," a term meaning that the offender meant to break the law, or acted in such a way that any reasonable person could predict the consequences.

In Andre's case, the motive was playing the game and, possibly, earning fame. Neither are problematic in and of themselves. But unlike those who arranged the gimped matches, Andre had no intent to break the rules; he was unaware that match manipulation was occurring and had no part in the conspiracy to manipulate matches.

The counter-argument here is the repetition of the opponents. Four years ago, I'd say that any reasonable person could see something fishy was up, but in the current state of HA where very few teams actually play, it's entirely possible to face the same teams repeatedly due to the small pool of potential opponents. It's fair to assume a reasonable player would have suspected something, but it's a far cry from suspecting something and continuing because you're having fun and intentionally manipulating the matches. At worst, such an offense should be grounds for a temporary ban and disciplinary action: two weeks off the server and resetting the player's fame, for instance.

Permanent account blocks are analogous to life imprisonment or capital punishment in real life, but such blocks are handed out without regard for the player's conduct history or their intent, if any. For serious offenses such as account theft and botting, this is reasonable – there's no way a person running a bot could fail to understand that they are breaking the rules, even if they aren't aware of the draconian penalties for violating those rules. Similarly, account theft is something you can't do by accident or without knowledge of the consequences, and it has a serious effect on other players' ability to enjoy the game.

The tendency for predicate violators to lie and attempt to gain sympathy cannot be ignored, but neither can the history of the player involved. The purpose of disciplinary action in cases of crimes where there is no direct victim, or a gross breach of the spirit of the game (e.g. botting) should be to instruct a player that an action is against the rules, and to be more cautious in the future.

All this is predicated on the assumption that he's telling the truth about his perceived innocence. It's possible he's a damnable liar, in which case I've wasted the 5 minutes it took to write this up. –Jette 17:20, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

The problem is, no one can truly know someone else's intentions. What we see is what was done, and who did it, and what harm it caused. In this case, unearned rewards were acquired for cheating in multiple matches. Such unearned rewards devalue those that other players earned legitimately, just as items acquired through a dupe-hack (in another game I once loved) devalued every item in a legitimate player's inventory.

I am an incredibly player-centric person. I always, always try to turn a "no" into a "yes." However, in cases where someone cheats, "I didn't know I was doing wrong" is right up there with "My dog ate my homework." We hear "I didn't know it was cheating" for virtually everything: match manipulation, scamming, selling an account, buying gold, even botting and using an exploit. (It's strangely common with exploits, even when the game logs show the person fully knew and understood -- by his own statements -- that what s/he was doing was cheating and is fully disallowed.)

You're right, ignorance of the law is no argument. How far does "I didn't know the speed limit" or "I didn't realize this was stolen property" go with law enforcement? Not far at all. Because they, as we, do not have the means to plumb the hidden reaches of another person's mind or soul to ascertain his or her intentions. And while those real-life instances are far graver than in-game incidents, the fact is the User Agreement is there not just to protect the developers, as you claim with such certainty, but also to outline acceptable player behavior. And the UA, coupled with the Rules of Conduct and our unique Conduct Breaches and Outcomes details what is unacceptable and outlines what happens when a player fails to abide by the game's standards of behavior.

Consider: the motive of every player in HA is gaining fame. The question is how it is done. And when fame comes with shameful ease, it should be clear that something is wrong, even if one never bothered to read a single one of the legal documents. According to game logs, things were said in All Chat that made it clear that those involved knew they were cheating. So if certain participants were unaware that they were cheating before, those comments would have made it clear that they were.

We don't have the means to reset fame. It's not a tool we requested because the dev team felt that those who engage in MM need to be removed from the game. Temporary suspensions without resets aren't reasonable for the legitimacy reasons cited above. Getting a magic "Reset Fame Button" would leave us in the position of playing whack-a-mole with players intent on cheating: a cycle of suspending, resetting, and wash/rinse/repeat. This is because for some, it's in their DNA continually to flaut the rules with the hopes that "this one time I'll get by with it."

You and I may to agree to disagree on how such things should be handled. I will be the first to admit I don't like any of the ready solutions. It gives me great sorrow to see good players banned for bad decisions. I look at some accounts and I feel incredibly sad that the player has lost his/her account. But what's the alternative? A light hand that welcomes the repeat offenders? I have some ideas about that are under consideration right now. But at the least, I hope you'll acknowledge that we come to our policies with a clear and full view of all the elements involved in such situations. I hope my comments have prompted, if not a change in your opinion, at least some consideration of the complexity of the issues and our deep and considered valuation of how we act on any infraction as well as our willingness to review policies and practices when such review is warranted. -- Gaile 21:53, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Meh. I was playing the devil's advocate; I think it's kind of nice to be able to perma people without worrying about reasonable doubt. I don't think anybody reads those agreements, though, not even the lawyers that write them. It's harder than reading recipes, and at least after you slog through one of those you get cookies or something. –Jette 23:32, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

I have actually have read them... it gets repetive though. But I have to agree with gaile, sometimes the only way to learn is a hard slap on the hand. Its upsetting that it happened to you, but think the best thing to do is if you suspect something, send off a ticket quickly, report them, and leave... save yourself the pain on losing your account... or maybe it's time to read the terms and conditions we agree too everytime we log on. Ocren 09:48, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

A perma-ban is more akin to cutting the hand off than slapping it. Sure, you could buy a prosthetic hand, but it will take a long time before you're functioning at the same level again. elix Omni 08:15, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Account Hacked [Incident: 111106-001478]

Dear Gaile, I noticed I could not log into my account a few months ago but didn't give much thought to it. After repeated attempts later, I realized my account was compromised. Much to my shock, I found my mail account was cleared of all my previous posts because it was inactive for a long time. I had all my digital keys in it.

5 years worth of game time and effort to develop my characters has all come to nought. I feel deeply pained by the loss. I tried contacting Support but I cannot provide them keys to validate my claim. I am seeking your help directly to help me restore my account. I've been part of a very respectable guild for over 3 years and I'm sure they can vouch for me. I can also name every PvE character I own along with a few PvP characters. To further reinforce my claim as the rightful account bearer, I can also provide over 250 screenshots of almost all my characters through various stages of their journey in Tyria. If you require more information, I can ask my banker to provide the dates on which I bought the game(s).

The incident number on the top is the first ticket I raised after failing to log in. I hope this information is sufficient to restore my account. Looking forward to hearing for you. Best Regards!

I can see you provided a lot of information to confirm your ownership of the account in question. Let me see if a team member can take another look at the ticket (thank you for providing that number) and maybe we can get this resolved. The support system is pretty busy right now, with all the news about Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. But I imagine you will hear back soon. -- Gaile 23:47, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

And just like *that* I heard back from a team lead, who responded that it appeared you may have accidentally closed the ticket when you provided the additional information last November. The team is going to take another look and you should hear from an agent in the next few days. -- Gaile 23:54, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Account got restored. I can't thank you enough, Gaile. I almost thought I lost the whole thing. Of course, a lot of stuff I earned over the years has been stripped clean but the good thing is I can at least look forward to GW2 in high spirits. Thanks again! :)

I'm very happy to hear that you've got your account back. All the best, and welcome back to the game! :) -- Gaile 17:32, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Support Ticket #120215-000934

Hello Gaile, I need your help. The title is my ticket number，but there has too many information.I summarized as follows. Half a month ago my accoun have been "error code=045“.That Said:"we have detected that your account may have been accessed by an unanthorized individual.”I immediately contact the GW support for help and offer the information about my account. After 5 days,GM told me "Your account was permanently closed because it was found to be related to networks which sell in-game items for cash or other items with real world "But I'm sure I never do anything about RMT.So I contacted the Live Help and talk with senior GM Nickolaus.He understood my situation and told me to wait for reply. Then GM Oghma told to me that "Due to the violations committed by this account, it will remain closed. We will not accept appeals in cases such as this because of the depth of the analysis prior to the block." I don't know what lead to this problem.I'm sure I did not sell or buy anything with cash.Maybe it was caused by IP change？Last month was the Spring Festival，I gone back to my hometown for 9 days and played game use another Network operator.Maybe this is the reason my IP was changed.And sometimes I play game at home,sometimes at netbar when I'm in in work travel. Although I and GM talk a lot, but I still don't know what happened to my account.I'm not sure is there anything you can do to help me.Or let me know what to do, I can provide you with further details about the account.Thanks for any help you can offer. I'm sorry for that my english is not well，but I will try to reply you as soon as possible when you reply me. Best Regards! ---wei

I have a new ticket "120302-000649",I hope you could have time to view it. Best Regards---wei 2 March 2012(GMT+8)

It seems that GM have completely ignored me. Is he can casually muder a game player? I now feel very depressed. I don't know how to do to defend my rights. Help me please. Best Regards! ---wei 5 March 2012(GMT+8)

try the official forums may get a faster response Ocren 22:50, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

thank you ocren for your suggestion，but my account was banned.I cannot login in forums.Laoguiwei 01:33, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

I was actually just discussing this with a CS Team Lead. The problem is, the account is being used from a location that is actively involved in stolen accounts. Wei, I do not believe that you steal accounts! But when we have a location that is flagged more than 50 times for account theft, we get very concerned and we must take action that protects our players. In that case, that means closing accounts that access from that location.

I don't know what the answer is to this problem. For the safety of other players, we cannot allow access from that location. And yet you wish to play the game. If you have a suggestion on how to address this problem, please update your support ticket and talk to an agent about this issue. Good luck, and thank you. -- Gaile 23:07, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Thank you Gaile for looking into this.About the block of my account, GM gave me a lot of reasons, but the reason your said is the most Reasonable . I think there are some things I want to clarify:All of the ISP In my country only provide the dynamic IP to private users, so nobody can confirm the identity of the individual from the IP address. We usually use the following methods:1 citizen ID number;2 mobile telephone short message confirmation;3 computer MAC address;4 Special issue digital certificates; or other unique and fixed information.Sometimes even use the telephone or video authentication to confirm the identity of the individual.Anyway,that can't forbid me continue to the game just because the IP I used had a bad records .Because if so, I had to move out of the city I lived to change a IP segment for the game - this is not science.Maybe we can explore a way to better protect The game players who love GW. at last,thank you for your attention.Looking forward to your reply and my account:) Laoguiwei 04:58, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Hello Gaile,I contacted the support center.But GM said"This account has been linked to real-money trading organizations".That means I never play Guildwar at this city?I had to assume punished because there have a " real-money trading organizations" in my city? Although I did nothing wrong.Why not through action to decide whether to violate compasses, but to rely on IP address?It‘s a huge hit to the player who use dynamic IP.In order to play GW change a city to life possibility is not very big.I hope you can help me to find a way to play the guildwar.Thank you. best wishs,Laoguiwei 02:29, 9 May 2012 (UTC)

Support Ticket 120312-001081

Hello Gaile, I'm sorry that the key I bought is devil,my computer is devil,and my internet environment is devil.But I'm innocent.My credit card is innocent.Why didn't you block my account until I got "GWAMM"?Why didn't you block my account until I got "LDoA"?Why didn't you block my account until I got 50 points in HoM?Why didn't you block my account until I had played 3 years and a half?I don't want to say any more.I just hope my next account is fine.Jary Cai 08:11, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

to be blunt... what the frack are you talking about? and on another note, Gaile is normally on the Official GW forums. Ocren 16:45, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

This concerns another account that was terminated because it was associated with RMT. I will see if I can learn more. -- Gaile 23:15, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Incident: 120425-010526

Hi Gaile. I'm really eager to get my experience in GW2 started, yet I cannot due to being unable to connect accounts. This is why:

Hi, my name is Demetrius and I began playing Guild Wars back in 2007, I couldn't play very much come 2009 due to moving away, and my account became permanently banned due to use of a 3rd party program. I've tried twice to get my account unbanned, but with no luck. I've all but given up on it, as badly as I want it back, I think it's a lost cause. Anyway, I was emailing you fine people because I recently purchased Guild Wars 2 and I want to connect that old account to it. Is this at all possible?

Needless to say, I'm very concerned with this matter. I've already pre-purchased GW2, I'm just waiting to see if I can connect them now. Thanks for your time. -- Dee Strongfist 19:26, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

This seems to indicate you will not be permitted to do so. -- FreedomBound 20:02, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

welp, looks like I need that account back then. Took me 4 years to get that stuff. -- Dee Strongfist 20:22, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

good luck mate Ocren 22:23, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Looks like you won't get it back. --Lania 19:10, 09 May 2012 (UTC)