Account Blocks and Violations

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Account Blocks & Violations

Why was my account blocked?

Guild Wars is a global game with hundreds of thousands of players. This means that standards of behavior must be upheld. Any violation of our Rules of Conduct or User Agreement will result in a mark placed on the violator's account. Each mark will suspend that account for a given period of time. This time period is often only a few days, but there are occasions where an account may be permanently closed.

Account Block Durations

Temporary Blocks: Some blocks are temporary—the player is asked to strongly consider our rules during his "time out," but may return to the game after the block is concluded.

If a player continues to violate our rules, then he may receive additional marks against his account. Additional marks will notably increase subsequent suspension periods. However, account marks will expire after a period of time. Therefore, you can clear your account of marks, and remove the risk of lengthy suspensions, simply by observing the Rules of Conduct and the User Agreement.

Permanent Blocks: Some violations are significant enough that the owner's account(s) will be permanently closed. Accounts that are permanently terminated cannot be accessed in any way.

Block Reasons

The most common reasons for why an account is blocked would be:

• Unacceptable in game behavior, such as crude language, harassment, racism, or other actions that offend other players
• Advertising of hacks/cheats/bots/macros, game accounts for sale, or of the websites that promote such things
• Spamming, that is, repeating chat lines frequently over a substantial period of time
• Defrauding, harassing, threatening, or causing distress or unwanted attention to other players
• Buying or selling gold for real money, or engaging in any "real money trade"
• Breaches of the User Agreement or the Rules of Conduct
• The use of an inappropriate name

The last one—use of an inappropriate name—has two consequences: The account receives a temporary suspension and the questionably-named character is blocked from future play. Once the temporary suspension on the account expires, you will be able to log into the account and you will be prompted to change the character name to something more appropriate. In order to regain access to this character—with levels, items, skills, etc.—you must change the character name. Players who have had prior inappropriate name blocks will have a new name assigned to them (not of their choosing) and they will either have to accept the new name, or pay for a name change.

How do I report a violation?

If you encounter a player who you believe violate our guidelines with inappropriate actions, vulgar language, offensive character or guild names, advertising of cheats or exploits, or any other breaches of our User Agreement or Rules of Conduct, we'd like to know about it.

Note: All violation reports are reviewed by our Game Support Team. Reporting a single player multiple times for the same offense will not expedite or influence support team attention.

You can report violations in one of two ways:

In-Game Reporting

To report another player using the in-game system, select their character and type. Alternately, you can type /report <character name>. Either method will bring up a report menu. From the report menu, you will be able to choose one of six possible violation types:

• Botting
• Inappropriate Character Name
• Spamming
• Verbal Abuse
• Scamming
• Leeching

There are specific rules that apply to leeching:

• Leeching can only be reported during Random Arena matches, Alliance Battles, and Competitive Missions.
• You can only report members of your own party or team for leeching.
• Each time a player is reported for leeching, that player will receive 2 dishonor points.
• If a plyer accumulates 10 or more dishonor points, he will be unable to participate in any form of PvP until the Dishonor Hex expires.
• If at least half a team reports the same player for leeching, that player will be stripped of experience point and faction rewards for that battle.
• If you report a player for leaching but less than one-third of your team also reports that player for leeching, then you will receive 2 dishonor points.

A single game account cannot use the report command more than 50 times in a 24-hour period.

Note: While the /report system is useful in identifying violations, some violations are of a subtle nature and require more information than can be provided through that feature. Additional and/or follow-up information can be submitted using the Submit a Request tab at the top of this page. Please see the information below for details on using this feature to report violations.

Using the Submit a Request feature

If you have already used /report while in-game and would like to submit additional information or screenshots, if you are are unable to use the in-game report command, or if you wish to report a violation that is not covered by the in-game report command, please use our online help tool's Submit a Request tab at the top of this page to inform us of the violation.

Here are some examples of violation details that you should send in your report:

• The name of the character being reported
• The name of the character you were playing at the time of the encounter
• The time and date of the incident (with time zone)
• The name of the map and language district where the incident took place
• A description of the offending action, dialogue, or name
• Screenshot(s) of the incident (please ensure any screenshots are in JPEG/.jpg or GIF/.gif format and under 2 megabytes total in size before you attach them to your message)
• Any other details that you feel are relevant

When reporting bots, you may send a list of names or you may send screenshots of those you believe are using third-party programs to play the game. (Please be sure to hold down the left CTRL key down when pressing Print Screen so that character names appear on the screenshot.)

We will use the information you have provided to investigate whether a violation of the rules has occurred. If we do find any rules have been broken, we will take action.

Please be assured that the Guild Wars team takes User Agreement and Rules of Conduct violations very seriously. We thank you in advance for helping us maintain an enjoyable playing environment.

For an index of our guidelines, including links to our User Agreement and Rules of Conduct, please go to https://www.guildwars.com/en/legal.

I was told I broke the rules, what’s next?

How do I appeal a rules violation?

If your game account has recently been sanctioned for a rules violation, you can appeal this action by submitting your appeal request to the Guild Wars Support Team. To submit your appeal request, please use the Submit a Request tab at the top of this page and follow these steps:

1. Enter your e-mail address in all lower case (e-mail address is case sensitive). Please make sure the contact information is up-to-date and to use the email address currently registered to the account.
2. Enter Account Appeal in the Subject field and make sure to enter any information you feel is important to your appeal into the Question field.
3. Select the appropriate game in the Product field.
4. Select Rules and Policies for the Category field.
5. Select Game Support for the Department field.
6. Complete your submission by entering the NC Account name (if you have one) and the Game Account name.
7. Once all of the required fields are answered, click Continue.
8. Account ownership verification maybe necessary before an appeal is considered. To avoid any possible delays in reviewing your request, please include the following information.

• What first and last name did you use when you created the account?
• What street address did you use when you created the account?
• What date of birth did you use when you created the account?
• What are all the Registration Keys currently registered to the Master Account?
• What are the game account login names on the Master Account?
• What are the last 4 digits of the credit/debit card used to make any purchases online from us? (if applicable)
• Please make sure to confirm your submission when prompted to complete your appeals submission. You will then be presented with a reference number for the submission and a copy of your question will also be e-mailed to you for your records.

Once the Guild Wars Support Team has reviewed your appeal request, your support ticket will be updated to inform you of the status of your appeal request.

How long will it take to review my appeal?

We hope to complete your appeal as quickly as possible. However, delays are sometimes unavoidable and beyond our control. It can take up to 48 hours or more for us to complete the review. To reduce possible delays, please follow the directions provided in the FAQ when contacting the Guild Wars Support Team with your request.

What happens when I appeal a rules violation?

When you contact the Guild Wars Support Team to appeal a rules violation, we will perform an unbiased review of the incident to determine if any mistakes were made during the original investigation. When we finish our review, we will update your support ticket with the status of your appeal.

If we do not find enough evidence to confirm the violation or if we find that the violation was the result of a mistake in the investigation, we will reverse the sanction and clear the account of the violation. If the account was blocked, we will unblock the account if the account is cleared of the violation. If our review confirms that a violation did occur and the correct action was taken, the original decision will be unchanged.

You will have the option to contest your appeals review if you believe a mistake was made in your appeal request. We will assign a different agent to review how your appeal request was handled. If a mistake in how your appeal request was handled is found, we will review the original violation again. If the second review does not find evidence that your appeal was incorrectly handled, the violation is considered final and no additional violation appeals will be considered.

How do I know you are actually reviewing my appeal?

Our goal is to make sure every appeal is thoroughly reviewed so only those that are absolutely responsible for a violation is actioned. To eliminate any conflicts of interest, the person reviewing your appeal will not be the same person that actioned it. If a second appeal is necessary, a different agent will handle the second appeal.

What this means is, because of the extra steps we have taken to ensure an impartial review of your appeal, the decision made by the Guild Wars Support Team is final.

How do you handle players who use “bot” programs?

The accounts of players who use a "bot" program in Guild Wars will be closed. We use great care when analyzing accounts prior to considering a ban. We are both diligent and conservative in determining which accounts are botting, and we take action only after we are able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that an account is engaged in the use of a bot program.

Protests or disclaimers about using bots cannot be addressed or entertained. We do not have an appeals process for this action and, because of the depth of the analysis prior to the ban, we do not intend to put such a process in place. We regret the necessity of banning accounts, but we will continue to take all necessary actions to protect the Guild Wars economy and to assure that players are meeting the requirements of the User Agreement and are following the Rules of Conduct. (Please visit https://www.guildwars.com/en/legal to review our legal documentation.)

Links to Rules

For your convenience, you can obtain more information in rules pages, which are listed below.

• User Agreement
• Rules of Conduct
• Conduct Breaches and Outcomes
• Naming Policy