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Strange scam

"NCsoft Account Issue!‏
From: support@plaync.com (support@plaync.com)
Sent: Sun 7/04/10 1:25 PM
To: [my email address]

We have the evidence to prove that your account involved in the controversial game currency transaction .If your account is found violating Terms of Use, it can, and will be suspended/closed/or terminated. In order to keep this from occurring, you should immediately verify that you are the original owner of the account.To verify your identity please visit the following webpage:[HIDDEN URL LINKS TO SCAM PAGE].Only Account Administration will be able to assist with account retrieval issues.

The NCsoft Team"

It's clearly a scam, because it links to a non-NCsoft site, and it jumps from gold buying accusations to verifying ownership to account recovery. What confuses me about this attempt is that the email appears to be, in fact, coming from plaync.com. I may not be good with email programming, but usually it's not possible to send as an alias that you don't own, is it? Anyway, consider it a heads-up, I suppose. --Kyoshi (Talk) 19:56, 4 July 2010 (UTC)

One can make the "sent from" address appear to be from a different source. You should be able to show the routing information (google has directions on how to do this for various email readers/websites). Thanks for the heads up.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 20:10, 4 July 2010 (UTC)

Ah, thanks. --Kyoshi (Talk) 23:22, 4 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, that's correct. You can set up your "from" name to say "King of the North Pole" and that's what it will display. :) In point of fact, I look at email properties and get the real skinny on such incoming messages, and they're invariably faked to try to look like benign or "helpful" emails. (And you are right, the bad link is another telltale sign.) -- Gaile 20:22, 5 July 2010 (UTC)

Oh, well yeah, I knew that much. What confused me is that it says "support@plaync.com (support@plaync.com)", of which (in the Hotmail display) the first part is always the display name, and the second is the actual address. I assumed this could mean one of two things: first, that the ANet email server had been taken over, or second (more likely) there was some kind of exploit of the system by which Hotmail and other email servers recognize the sender email address. --Kyoshi (Talk) 00:16, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

Spoofing displayed e-mail is easy to do. You need to look at the source code of the email to find which server and IP it came from. I'm not sure hotmail allows you to see the source code since I never used hotmail before. --Lania 18:55, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

(For what it's worth: hotmail, as well as AOL, Excite, Gmail, and Yahoo allow you to view the message in source code, which include routing info. See: google, which also includes directions on how to find the same info using email programs, e.g Outlook)  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 19:19, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

This same "scam" (if we are calling it that) was being sent to many Aion users aswell. Aion GMs where assuring members it was being dealth with tho.--Nataliexxx 06:27, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Thanks for writing about this. It gives me another opportunity to talk about phishing. We have an internal monitoring group that looks into phishing attempts, tries to get various phony sites closed, etc. But like Whack-A-Mole (or Dragon's Nest ;) ) the sooner you smoosh one, another one rises. We identified two new phishing attempts last week; three this week. The best thing you can do is never, ever click a link in an email that involves the potential for any sort of security issue. If you hear from "your bank" go to your account management pages, don't click the link. If you hear get an email about your game account from "ArenaNet" or "NCsoft" (Usually it's AreaNet and NCsotf or silly stuff like that to try to fool the eye), go into your own NCsoft Master Account or your Guild Wars game account directly, not through a link.

Security is past the "never give you password to a strange" warning, these days. I doubt very many people fall for that one any more. But a surprising number fall for email allegedly from a reliable source. Remember: Anyone can use just about any name as the "email sender." The word "From" doesn't really tell you a thing! Look at the mail properties, look at the full, detailed extension of the link you're being asked to click. And then run the opposite direction and initiate a contact, rather than respond to one.

'Nuff said? -- Gaile 23:54, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

Small update. Over the last few weeks, our team has identified between three and five brand new phishing attempts every week. Some are weak sauce, some are really scary, and might grab a few people who aren't paying careful attention. So, the scammers and would-be account thieves are still at it. That means you need to be at it, too: Keep your guard up and your account safe!! -- Gaile 22:43, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for responding i was curious about what was going on with this and hadnt realise u had replied ^_^=--Nataliexxx 16:44, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

I have never understood why people fall for phishing attempts... Even the one's that are not obviously glaringly phishing hooks have tell tale signs. Plus, what possible use would ANet or NCSoft have for your account details? Even the best phishing attempts fall through when you use a little common sense.... Kairu 11:11, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

Account Banned

Response to your guru message

Hi Gaile Gray! I assume you are one of the PR representatives? I was told by some friends that I should try looking you up... but I had no clue where to go :( I am currently waiting on a response in my current support ticket as they said before the week that they would "elevate it". Here is my support ticket title and number: Cannot Access Account [Incident: 100702-000868] I really hope that no one managed to steal my account while I was gone for so long... But if they did I hope no damage was done :( Thank you for messaging me Ms. Gaile <3, Sandra

Your account -- as first glance, anyway -- definitely does not bear the marks of an account that was stolen, accessed by a thief, and then banned. The team will be taking a look at the issue very soon. Thanks for providing me with additional details. -- Gaile 19:38, 5 July 2010 (UTC)

That is an interesting thing Ms. Gaile... I had no idea what to think when I recieved that support message but your suggestion to me seemed that it could have totally happened to me... If that is not what happened I wonder what did actually happen to my stuff :( You seem to always come through with a response as I've read through these support messages... I'll just grin and bear it as I wait... --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 76.184.33.11 (talk).

Please sign your comments with ~~~~ at the end. And if nobody has accessed your account, then you wont have lost any stuff, are you sure you're spelling character name / email / passwords correctly? It's easily done. Tylenol Jones 12:32, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

Sorry Tylenol, I don't know how wiki works yet... Thank you for letting me know... I'll try and remember to do that in the future. Ms. Gaile, I just wanted to update you (even though I know you can check through my number) that support responded to me suggesting someone else had access and used a program... but I haven't played in three years and I know it is against the EULA to share your account with anyone... Is this basically proof that someone has hacked my account? My boyfriend suggested that I should bring up with you the idea that it was more than just a one time hacking... that possibly the person stole my account all together??? I don't quite understand how this stuff works so I'm really taking any suggestions at this point... Thank you for your time again Ms. Gaile! <3 Sandra 76.184.33.11 18:50, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

Hi Ms. Gaile again! I just wanted to try and update you on the lack of update... I know its been about a week since you've put messages on wiki and I haven't heard from the support team in about a week so I can only assume you guys are really busy... I can't say I'm happy I missed the new dragon festival mask =[ but I hope to hear you soon! <3 Sandra! 76.184.33.11 03:51, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Ms. Gaile, I today finally recieved another response from the support team. They aren't listening to anything being said. They aren't confirming data. They aren't doing anything. Is there a reason that NCSoft Support is non-existant? I've been told by many people not to expect much from the support team but that its possible things could turn around since they say you guys have been doing a much better job since the bots or whatever got banned. I've been told that support would ask for my keys, why have they not done that? Why does it take a week to give me a response that ignores everything I say and is probably the most pitiful excuse for an acceptable answer ever? Sincerely, Sandra 76.184.33.11 03:29, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

I feel, and the facts support, that you are being a bit inaccurate and quite unfair in your comments here. The Support Team has done a thorough investigation of the situation; four different agents were involved and I became involved later, as well. And in the time you have waited, you have been sent six responses. Investigations take time, but I think you have been well served here. Further, I have seen and carefully reviewed the data. In fact, I contributed some of the data on file, because I pulled records in an attempt to establish whether an error had been made. It had not. You account was not hacked. Your account was engaged in the use of a disallowed third-party program. You claim you haven't played in three years, and that someone else must have engaged in the activities that resulted in the block. That is not a believable scenario, given the detailed data we have on record. The account will remain closed, for its closure was the right and proper decision when considering the facts involved in this particular case. -- Gaile 06:09, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Alright, I'll play devil's advocate for you since skepticism seems rampant. I really have no clue whats going on so I am at a bit of a disadvantage here as far as what I can say I think has happened and what has actually taken place. ~ Let's try and hammer out the picture ~ I stopped playing about the time after Nightfall came out. I had an account based on *********@yahoo.com(if you need this info feel free to email me again). From what I know you have not placed accurate security measures till this year. If I stopped playing starting after Nightfall, is it possible a person might have accessed my account at some point and stolen my valuables? (which I would have no way to confirm or deny because again it has been three years and I never logged on to see a problem) But if that person had my account info, it is possible that they would have noticed my lack of activity and my lack of logging on and just started playing on the account? Maybe they gave the account to a friend? Hell if they knew the account email (I reserved that email specifically for GuildWars gaming and not using it for 3 years and moving I don't have that account info written down) they could have changed the email to their needs. I want to say I never had an NCSoft account because I really don't ever remembering having one, but if I do that is my mistake I can admit on my part for not keeping up with. I would assume that if this account had been hacked and the hacker had realized my inactivity he would have had it promoted for his own use or a peer. If this person had used the account with a third party program and gotten it banned, would this person have tried to contact support to try and get the account back? I mean if he had put considerable hours into the account wouldn't he basically try to assume ownership and attempt to regain the account? I still not have been given an answer to this question. I would hastily assume yes this person has tried to contact you because honestly if he had not, you would say no one has tried to contact you. I had several characters on that account that I can at least remember their names because I have used them in WoW and as several other aliases in other games. Aedan of Azeroth. Carina Of Mystik. Aesmerina Of Oceania. No one has asked for the serial codes of the games that I do have in my possession. Have you asked the other person who probably has contacted you if they have the codes? I'm really sorry I'm having to be so harsh with you Gaile but this really bothers me that this has occurred and I am being punished for no reason. I hope you take my theory with all do respect and look into this situation again. 76.184.33.11 06:28, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

You seem to have misunderstood. This account is not in ownership dispute. No one else is trying to claim it, and I agree, that would be likely if someone else were playing on it and had invested time in the account. The person playing on your account during it's "inactive" period, and the person playing on your account the (many) times it was detected using a disallowed third-party program was playing from your address. Assuming a random stranger did not steal your account and move into your computer room, the other conclusions that can be drawn are either that you yourself were using the disallowed third-party program(s), or that you allowed someone else to use your account to do so. In either case, due to the unwarranted and undeserved advantages gained on the account, it will remain closed. -- Gaile 16:40, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

That's quite the damning evidence. I was about to ask if the IP addresses were different but if it's the exact same with the same host computer name then... that's something that's very difficult to spoof. The only other explanation, someone in your house/apt was using your account while you were at work/school and kept it a secret... highly unlikely :-)! --Lania 16:49, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

I moved back in with my ex-boyfriend about 2 months ago. I saw him playing this game and it re-interested me in picking it back up. I had my suspicions about what you saying being the case. Though that is a good start to a relationship with him lying over a damn computer game... Thank you for sharing that bit of information Gaile. I will be having a nice chat with him later today. 76.184.33.11 17:42, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Wow, so that really was the case huh? He used your account to bot and use illegal programs and got your account banned. What an a-hole! You should find out if he plays any other online games and delete all of his characters. :-) --Lania 18:11, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, because a Guild Wars account is more important than a relationship. elix Omni 01:25, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Duh. I thought you knew better than that Felix. The Emmisary 01:26, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

I'm just pissy because he lied about something that was insignificant. He even encouraged me to go to support and create this scene. I am embarassed about what I have said to support and to Gaile because now knowing this information it makes my story look absolutely ridiculous. So I offer you an official apology for my behavior Gaile and thank you for looking into this matter. If there was anyway for you to remove these advantages the account had gained (I'm not quite sure what they are) that would be awesome but it does not seem the decision is alterable. Thank you anyhow. 76.184.33.11 05:03, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

If he's someone who can't own up to something so insignificant... what's gonna happen when something actually serious comes up? That's not a relationship worth having IMO. --Lania 21:55, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Connectivity Issue:5 July 2010

We're looking into connectivity issues that are causing players to be disconnected from Guild Wars, or are causing noticeable latency (lag) when playing the game. The problem seems to affect European players the most, as the issue is between our data centers in Los Angeles and Hamburg. The network team is investigating the problem game wide, that is, across all territories and regions. We're hoping to have more information soon and we are sorry for the inconvenience! -- Gaile 18:28, 5 July 2010 (UTC)

Update: Our provider has written to say there is an issue within their system, and they're working on a repair. No ETR, but I'll try to post then we know more. -- Gaile 19:24, 5 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for keeping us up-to-date.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 21:12, 5 July 2010 (UTC)

I hope that is the correct place to ask about that - is there any chance the event would be extended like a year or two ago, when similar connectivity problems occured during Canthan New Year? I would love to see even more Dragon Arena. 79.139.2.195 13:51, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

I would expect so, considering they did the same for Wintersday last season, and that was when the issues were user-side, for the most part. And this is probably a relevant place to ask, yeah. --Kyoshi (Talk) 01:36, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

The issue wasn't widespread, and most players were able to get reconnected without issue, so there wasn't an extension of the event. Extension, while not unheard of, are pretty rare, and only come about when there's a major issue affecting many players. I believe that the servers that were causing the disruption were cycled out of service pretty quickly. -- Gaile 04:56, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Hi there Gaile :)

hey there, I was wondering if you could pretty please take a look at my ticket... You're my last hope for getting unbanned. I'm sure if you could look at my account, you could see that no monster was ever killed, no drop of gold ever picked up, and no minute of drunk ever botted. It would mean soooooooooooooo much if I could get my account back,(even taking time out to look at it; NCSupport was not very helpful :[ ) I'd be (Toy Story reference) Eternally grateful! :) [Incident: 100528-000414]. Thanks again Gaile :) forgot to sign :P 209.240.181.170 02:54, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

I will not be able to assist you. I have checked the data and it's very clear that your account was involved in the use of a disallowed third-party program. You mention that you used TexMod, but I can assure you the block was not related to the use of TexMod, or at least to the use of a legitimate, uncorrupted copy of that program. Based on the facts, the account must remain closed. -- Gaile 06:15, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

/Sigh... I knew I shouldn't have used TexMod lol. AVG hated it; it was always saying it had a Trojan in it, but I suppose that is not relevant. Thank you for your time and effort Gaile, it means alot. Peace and God bless. :) -Jerry 209.240.181.170 07:24, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

I am very sorry that there wasn't a more positive outcome, Jerry. :( -- Gaile 16:47, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Many antivirus programs will falsely detect a legitimate version of texmod as a trojan via their heuristics engine. So it's hard to tell if that copy of the program really was infected or if it was just a false positive. You can use an online program called jotti malware scan to scan your copy of texmod with 19 different virus scanners. At least you'll know if it really was texmod or not. My version was only flagged as a malware by Virusbuster, while the zip file was flagged by virusbuster, fprot, dr.web and ikarus. --Lania 16:58, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

The Norn Tournament just broke.

I was on round 3 or something, did like 11 succesful rounds before and then, this mini-game got stuck to loading 0%, stays there for 2 minutes, goes to 100%, stays there 3 minutes and disconnects me. After that, I just lost 100g to a scammer tournament. Good game. This has never happened to me before. Gunnar's Hold - America English 1. Juze 16:12, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

The server probably crashed. Juze 16:15, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Finally after Frostshield scammed like 700g from my inventory, I got in, but the timer is stuck at 00:00, there is no ping, I can't move and it's frozen. *Sigh* Juze 16:24, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Now it's been at 0% for 10 minutes and I have a video that I'm editing and uploading to YouTube soon. Juze 16:45, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Have you tried closing and reopening that game? -- Gaile 16:46, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes I have and it doesn't seem to work. And sorry, I forgot to submit the support ticket first because I was frustated about this. Juze 16:48, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Oh I completely understand your frustration, don't worry! If you would submit a ticket, that would help a lot. (Post the 12-digit incident number here when you do, please.) I will alert the Live Team that "Houston, we (seem to) have a problem." It may turn out it's not widespread and is a glitch that somehow is unique to you -- like server to player problems of some kind, ISP, whatever -- but it's good to investigate. Thanks. -- Gaile 16:52, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Sent. Now I'll just wait for the support ticket number... By the way, I just discovered that this only happens on my necromancer. YouTube vid on way. Juze 17:08, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Btw, I did a ping test with command prompt using the ping command on server ip, it got a timeout. Now I'm finally in and this tournament is slowly letting me play and the server seems to recover now. Still getting random disconnects. Juze 17:11, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

[Incident: 100714-001882] There you go, Frog-friend. Juze 17:14, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

YouTube Video. Quality will improve when it has done processing. 84.249.26.52 18:08, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

The above IP is mine. Juze 18:10, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Juze - I don't think this is happening any longer. Can you confirm? -- Gaile 21:10, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

Banned account

→ moved from Feedback talk:Gaile Gray

Hey Gaile. I'd like you to look at some information concerning my banned account (it was banned for the mallyx taxi exploit and i sent many tickets, of which emails i deleted, leaving me no record, and GW Support refused to work with me, despite my proving that it was a bug and I had ever reason to think it allowable since taxis to the Deep and Urgoz are allowed. I since sent requests begging for help and they refuse. The ticket number is 100706-00096. Any and all help will be appreciated with this issue. You are my last chance at redeeming my account. I will be sincerely happy if you consider helping me. Thanks, M A N 18:21, 16 July 2010 (UTC) --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:M A N (talk).

Wow. You are aware that the Mallyx Exploit situation took place more than two years ago, right? No matter, I'm happy to answer. Support is not refusing to work with you. They are telling you, rightfully so, that your account will not be reinstated because you took advantage of a game exploit. You would not be able to prove that it was some sort of bug, because the process that got people to that forbidden map was not a bug. Further, the dev team took care to ensure that the level of leniency shown to those who were involved more than addressed any players who may have unwittingly taken part, or those who may have been victims of "party portaling" to the forbidden map. Comparisons to a taxi service to other maps is not at all relevant, because The Deep and Urgoz's Warren are on the world map, where the map involved in the Mallyx Exploits was unnamed, unregistered, and unintended for use. Add the fact that all the players who remained banned for using the exploit went to that map repeatedly, and that many hacked their game files to do so and you can see why none of those who were blocked then will be reinstated now.

I get a lot of satisfaction in my job when -- by review, by finding new evidence, by another level of research -- I can turn a "No" into a "Yes." But in this situation, I'm afraid I cannot do that. -- Gaile 03:03, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Wow. I am not the original poster, but I think some points need to be adressed here.

You are saying "The Deep and Urgoz's Warren are on the world map", that is a lie. In fact, when you are in one of those outposts, you see your character's location as indicated by the green arrow close to either faction's main town; very much the same as when you are in The Ebony Citadel of Mallyx (mission outpost), where the green arrow is shown just beside the Gate of Anguish. Which if you do think about it, makes sense lore-wise, being as that's where center of the Domain of Anguish is located. Proof: http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z108/koekdeeg/exploit03.jpg http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z108/koekdeeg/exploit02.jpg

You are also saying the following is not a bug:

Accept Mallyx the Unyielding (quest) from High Priest Zhellix

Complete the quest steps in order until you are in The Ebony Citadel of Mallyx

Type /resign, you will see the "Return to Outpost" button appear.

Now, these have to occur at roughly the same time: Click "Return to Outpost" and disconnect your internet

Once you are connected again at the login screen, your character's location will say "The Ebony Citadel of Mallyx", and upon logging in, you find yourself in the mission outpost with the usual realm of torment outpost map and an "Enter Mission" button in the party screen.

At this time, you can ferry people from your Guild Hall to the mission outpost the same way you would ferry them to The Deep or Urgoz's Warren.

I seriously have doubts about your opinion, because you seemingly did not do adequate research.

I wish to give you two things to think about:

1) The definition of Software Bug on Wikipedia: A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's source code or its design, and a few are caused by compilers producing incorrect code.

2) If it was not a bug, how could it possibly have been fixed? And I quote from your update notes: "Fixed an exploit that could allow players access to certain locked outposts."

These outposts were marked as "unlockable", not as "locked". Hence they would become unlocked after the first normal completion of the Mallyx quest.

It is an oversight by your design or programming team, and as such directly classifies as a bug.174.123.7.194 18:00, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

I misspoke about the map visibility. And although I think it's going a little overboard to call such an error a "lie," I do apologize for my error.

At the core, The Mallyx Exploit is called The Mallyx Exploit because people manipulated the game -- they cheated. The update notes say, "Fixed an exploit that could allow players access to certain locked outposts." The "fix" was not said to be designed to correct a bug. It was described as a means to prevent the use of an exploit. Or do you contend that following those instructions shows the game was bugged? I really don't think so, but we can agree to disagree. What we should be able to agree upon is that people following those instructions were jumping through a lot of hoops to avoid playing the game as intended; they assuredly were not stumbling unwittingly and innocently upon a bug and golly gee, ending up in a hidden outpost. And you know what? Even if there was a bug involved, the end result was the same: They were exploiting. And such exploitation is a breach of the Rules of Conduct, which says, "You will not exploit any bug in Guild Wars and you will not communicate the existence of any such exploitable bug (bugs that grant the user unnatural or unintended benefits) either directly or through public posting, to any other user of Guild Wars."

I'd like to point out that an unprecedented level of mercy was shown to those who were not heavy users of the exploit; in fact, not everyone was banned. But those who were banned or whose ban was upheld upon appeal were rightfully banned. And that brings us back to the actual subject of this thread: The request for reinstatement was denied by the Support Team, and upheld by me upon review. And so it shall remain. -- Gaile 03:09, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

It sure was an exploit, and I agree with you on that. However, I don't see how you can justify the exploit not having happened as the result of a bug. If that bug had not existed, then no one would have ended up in the "hidden" outpost upon logging back into the game.

You seem to think that this bug was not discovered through normal gameplay, and this is where I honestly disagree. It takes nothing more than a party wiping on Mallyx (which wasn't that uncommon at the time the exploit occured) and then 1 of the 8 players having a disonnect when the party returns to the outpost for that player to end up in the "hidden" outpost. I believe you will agree with me that this player would have as you say "stumbled unwittingly and innocently upon a bug and golly gee, ending up in a hidden outpost", and that it was just a matter of time before this bug manifested.

Lastly, I can't think of a reasonable answer why anyone would purposely have attempted to disconnect at the same time as they are returning from a wipe without prior knowledge of the bug.

Some (or most?) of the players banned for this incident were the most avid players in Guild Wars. For what other reason would they return to you after two years and still ask for mercy?

If you can understand that these players feel relly sorry for what they have done and would never even think of abusing the tiniest exploit ever again, please accept this suggestion to unban those who ask, regardless of the number of times they have completed the mission (after careful manual review and removal of the items attained from the Mallyx mission, be it by usage of the exploit or legit items). I don't think anyone would be compelled to violate the Terms of Use again because they have already felt the wrath of a 2-year ban.

Please consider that people make mistakes, even Guild Wars players are, after all, human. I think I can speak for all of the banned players and say that no one of us wanted to harm the game in any way through our actions. --66.90.73.246 09:40, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Bullshit. elix Omni 10:14, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Agree with Felix... total utter bollocks! --Lania15:35, 25 Jul 2010 (UTC)

It saddens me that you seem to think this way, could you please elaborate on what gave you that opinion? --16:25, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

The first person who stumbled across this, as you said, did so by accident and would not have gotten banned for it. Instead of GW being contacted about this issue, as per the agreement that was signed to play this game, other players were told in order to take advantage of this game for their on benefit. This action is considered harming the game. You used this exploit for your gain. That's harming the game. They have more than enough evidence to show that you were not making a mistake by travelling there repeatedly, so at least you backed away from that claim.

Your account has been banned. You, however have not been. Create another account, don't get into trouble, and we'll all be happy to see you play again. G R E E N E R 16:38, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

I understand that and I totally agree with you. I have another account, and have since never gotten banned; I even have much more wealth on my current account than I have ever owned on my old account.

As far as I know, ArenaNet was informed by the first person to find this. The issue went on, however, because some characters that were present while the bug was tested for the first time chose not leave the zone, but instead ferried over people from their own guild, and soon there were multiple guilds ferrying in and out of the outpost.

But that is completely beside the point now. I do not want my account back for any items or even titles, that was never the reason. I regret losing my character names, ingame reputation, and more importantly my friends list and guildies.

I have already contacted the Support multiple times, asking them if they could reinstate my account but strip it of all items and titles. They declined. --66.90.73.246 16:51, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

So, you are saying that the governor should grant you clemency because you have shown remorse? Suppose ANet agrees. Then everyone else who has ever been banned and created a new account will make similar claims. I really don't want ANet to spending its finite resources tracking down whether people are actually remorseful. In case of a dispute, they should validate whether they followed their own guidelines; they have done so in this case (and many others).

Whether we agree or not, whether we like it or not, ANet has set guidelines. It's reasonably hard to accidentally cross them. As a consequence, I believe that 99%+ of all bans were earned. I realize that not everyone will be willing to accept their ban as a consequence of their own actions and that some will tell cool stories in an effort to circumvent the long arm of Dhuum. That doesn't mean that ANet has any obligation (moral, legal, or otherwise) to respond. Your choice whether to move on or not; the outcome is going to be the same.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 19:36, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Thank you, TEF. That is exactly how someone needs to look at this situation: at finite resources, at priorities, at what most benefits the common good. We would need to pull developers of off the game to restore people who had, excuse me, cheated the heck out of it. (Remember, those who may have been innocent, merely curious, or who had not gained a great deal were already shown clemency.) We don't have untasked staff members, people sitting around looking for something to do. All of us are busy, many of us work beyond our normal work hours. (Case in point, my posting late at night and on weekends.) Further, there are some attributes that are gained by an account that could not be reversed. For instance, we cannot now "roll back" title attainments or points gained towards a title. Maybe we could develop the ability, but again, at what cost? Support and further development of Guild Wars? Development and release of Guild Wars 2?

So before you ask for personal favours, please ask yourself this: What benefits the game and the community most? New content? Bug fixes? Skill balances? Or a banned player regaining his character name? I believe most Guild Wars players will agree that in a situation where resources are finite, and where choices do need to be made, that improvements to the game overwhelmingly trump personal reversal of an individual player's penalty for his own bad judgment. -- Gaile 20:52, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

And I appreciate that. I very much love the new content for guildwars (WiK was much better than I thought btw :-P) and GW2 is looking better everyday. Of any game that I have played, I've enjoyed guildwars the longest by a mile! I wish you could just refer people to the EULA and rules of conduct for any appeals for account bans and be done with it, that would probably save you so much time, but circumstances doesn't allow it. It's disappointing that some people who do get banned seem completely confused as to why, despite them violating the EULA and the rules of conduct... and even after them reading it they still don't seem to get it. It's not like they are written archaically like the legal agreements for credit cards etc. --Lania21:29, 25 Jul 2010 (UTC)

Okay, all I have to say is wow. This is M A N, a.k.a. Matt the original poster and I only sent the FIRST request to you Gaile so I ask you to disregard the others as they are speaking for themselves and not on my behalf. I did, however read ALL comments and thank each of you for you opinions, however I simply wished for Anet to look at my old account. A response was sent less than 5 hours after each ticket, making the impression that they didn't take the type to actually look at the accounts history. I must first explain two things however. 1) Let the record show that at the time I played GW with my uncle who introduced me to the game and was also my guild leader. He told me there was a new way to get gems and I thought it suspicious so I asked if I could get banned for it and he said no, because Arenanet was already informed of the problem, so, of course I didn't question him and I thought things to be fine. 2) And most importantly if the GW Support team were to actually look at my old account records and take the time to see that I used the exploit all with my friend Leprekan X maybe a total of 10 times and if the storage of the account were checked, they'd see I had less than 10 of each gemstone, not nearly enough for a tormented shield or to flood the economy. I do agree that those that TRULY abused the exploit should remain banned as some created 10 or more tormented items when they were rare, but all I asked and begged for for 2 YEARS now is that ArenaNet look at the account records then look at the clean track record I have on my new account and see that it was a fluke. Obviously, I have not since taken part in ANY suspicious activity and I actually genuinely care about my old account as I spend 5000 hours of my life on it and had irreplaceable items. The whole point of this is I made a mistake. I'm human. These things happen. All I simply asked was for the GW Support team to actually look at the account history of both my accounts to see that it was a fluke. If afterwords they still have a valid reason to keep me banned (which there shouldn't be) then I will leave the issue alone. But until I AT LEAST get closure from the situation I simply can't let it go as I merely thought I was in the right. Had I known I would get banned, I NEVER would have gone into the citadel of mallyx and I have apologized and since made very sure to not violate ANY part of the user agreement. All I ask, no not ask, beg of you Gaile is to talk the Support team into seriously looking into my ticket and the issue. If this is done I will be humbly grateful wheteher the account is unbanned or not. Please give me a chance and at least consider the situation. That's all I ask. Thank you for any and all help you can give me Gaile. Sincerely M A N 16:38, 26 July 2010 (UTC) a.k.a. Matt

I think you got your closure right here: "The request for reinstatement was denied by the Support Team, and upheld by me upon review. And so it shall remain. -- Gaile 03:09, 25 July 2010 (UTC)" So at this point your begging is just a waste of your time. --Kyoshi (Talk) 00:57, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

Nevertheless I still wish for Gaile to review my second and last response as she is the only one with the authority to help me. Thanks, Matt. M A N

"Had I known I would get banned, I NEVER would have [done it]."

this statement screams "if i knew i was going to get caught i would never have done it" ..... the fact is, you did do it, you did get caught and you did get judged. gaile does not need to explain it any further to you about your ban; gaile has already gone above and beyond what i would consider "generous" with the feedback that she has already supplied you with.

my conclusion, as well as eveyone else's, is to just let it go. no means no; they will not be lifting your ban. |Cynn's Thong| 13:05, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

NCsoft Store Info for 22 July 2010

The NCsoft Store (and the Guild Wars In-Game Store) will be offline for several hours on Thursday, July 22, as the store servers are upgraded. We apologize for the inconvenience, and will have the store back in business as soon as possible. -- Gaile 02:52, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Reclaiming names

I didn't want to derail the conversation too much, so I made a subsection, but reading above it struck me that there might be a way for banned players to reclaim old names already programmed into the game, at a cost no less. Quick disclaimer, I'm not banned and am 99% sure I never will be. Even if I were I don't really care about any of my names, so I'm not petitioning on my behalf. What I was wondering is whether or not it would be possible for someone to purchase a name change for a banned character, thus giving them time to claim the name before someone else does. They would need to purchase a new account and a name change to get the chance to reclaim their name. I don't know if name changes can be purchased through the NCSoft store or if they have to log in to buy/apply the name change as it is not something I have ever considered, but would this be a possible route for people who really care about reclaiming a name? If it requires any additional effort at all it probably isn't worth it, but questions cost nothing. Misery 18:18, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

I thought for some reason that character names on permanently banned accounts become available for anyone to use after a certain period of time. That period of time, I have no clue, but I thought that was the case. Then all the person has to do after they are perma banned, is to wait that time period, buy a new account and reuse the old name? I'm probably wrong though. --Lania18:51, 26 Jul 2010 (UTC)

I don't think so, I'm fairly certain the accounts are just locked. The only way for a name to be freed is for the character to be deleted, then it's released 24 hours later. -- FreedomBound 19:06, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, the accounts are simply locked. That way, if a ban was placed in error, the account can be easily restored, regardless of the amount of time between block and restoration. If there was a time limit placed before names are released, and the banned account was stolen and reclaimed after the time limit, then the legitimate owner would find his name no longer valid. In theory, a post ban name change would be a good idea, but would probably take too much to implement.-- Pyron Sy 21:10, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

Nevertheless I still wish for Gaile to review my second and last response as she is the only one with the authority to help me. Thanks, Matt. M A N

(Reset indent) @Misery -- I'm not sure we want to offer banned players any such privileges, and I believe that a locked account needs to stay intact and locked, for reasons that are explained above: We seldom reverse an account termination, but in the rare cases where we do reinstate an account, we want to make sure the termination is fully reversible. In addition, it would take time and perhaps even new tools to verify that the owner of the old account is the person who is writing us on the new account asking to retrieve a particular character name. (I'm sure you can see how that could be abused or griefed, right?) I do want to say, though, that your questions have given me some ideas, and I will be making a few related suggestions to the GW2 Team about this issue.

@Matt -- I don't know what you're asking me at this point. Are you saying "I only cheated a little bit, please let me back on my account?" Then again, you exceeded the point of mercy for the exploit and the account will not be reinstated. Asking us to dissect the account and check storage and reviews days or weeks of trade records and jump through a dozen hoops to see if you benefited from the exploit is immaterial. Because you used an exploit and that's really the end of it. I hope that you will understand that it isn't reasonable for me to spend more time on this issue. Question asked; question answered: The account is closed and will remain closed. Finally, if you received a brief response from Support, a brief response is appropriate; the length of a response never makes a statement about how much time or thought was given to a request. In the end, what you need to know is that the request was read, reviewed, and rejected. I know you are not happy about my answer, but it's the only one that I appropriately can offer you. -- Gaile 06:48, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Character names?

I have two questions for you regarding character names. I haven't been able to find the answers scanning through the EULA and when i sent in a support ticket asking these questions a few omnths back i only got copy/paste automated answers that weren't related to my question at all. My first question regards character names on banned accounts. One of my former accounts was banned, at the time it was banned i had a rollable pvp character holding a name I planned to use for a pve character on a different account. Would it be possible for a CSR to delete the character on my banned account so that I can use the character name on my newly purchased account? I've tried explaining to support that I was in ecuador working on a research project with my university during the period when my account was banned (and that it must have been hacked in some manner, possibly when i logged onto guild wars using an unsecured network in miami international) but the inept CSRs I corresponded with were unable or unwilling to help me. I've accepted that and moved on. I've even purchased a new account. It's okay if there's no way to help me, but I'd really appreciate getting my character names back for my new account xD. My second question regards purchasing character names from other players. There are some players with names I'd like to use on my new account (eg Tahiri Veila or I Tahiri Veila I). If myself and another player come to an agreement whereby i trade ingame currency (platinum or ectos) in exchange for the other player deleting a particular character so that I may use the character name, does any possibility exist that myself or the other player will be punished by arenanet? Thanks for your help, i've always found that you're actually able to understand and aid players unlike the inept CSRs that handle tickets.--24.63.116.169 01:30, 4 August 2010 (UTC)

the second part i can answer for you. although it may seem to fall in a grey area to some people, it really doesn't. since you are purchasing a guild wars-related in-game name with in-game guild wars currency (gold/ectos/zkeys/etc), there is no way they can take action against your account unless you intentionally scam the person.

tl;dr: you are not spending real world cash for in-game items or paying in-game currency for real world items so you will be fine. |Cynn's Thong| 02:36, 4 August 2010 (UTC)

And concerning the first part, a couple sections above this one, Gaile explained that it's simply not feasible to cater to users' wishes to get character names from banned accounts. Aside from the fact that reversing your ban (I think that's what you're asking) would open to you the ability to use your account for other purposes for the time the ban would be reversed, the time spent on something like that could instead be spent developing new content that benefits the community as a whole as opposed to catering to a user who broke the EULA in the first place. (I don't claim to know that you did, but being banned is pretty accurate evidence for the most part.) --Kyoshi (Talk) 05:01, 4 August 2010 (UTC)

Hi gaile, I have some new info for you, it's kind of a long story though, so bear with me! It begins about 2 months ago, when I left for south america to work on a research project in chile using the QUIET telescope. Before leaving I decided to leave my gaming laptopwith my parents while I was gone and chose only to bring my dedicated linux laptop (with which i logged onto guild wars once in the Miami International Airport). I gave my 16 year old brother permission to use the laptop as it has a better graphics card than my parents' desktop. Anyway, last night I was looking through my inbox for emails from arenanet support so that I could provide you with additional info. I found a couple of emails relating to support tickets that I had never sent. I confronted my brother about the tickets and got the whole story out of him. When I had lent him my gaming laptop, I had foolishly forgotten to remove the password tag from the target field of my guild wars client. As such he was easily able to log onto my account easily and used the third party programs with the account. After the mass banwave my account was terminated, and my brother used my email (which he also had access to on my laptop) in order to send in support tickets and attempt to remove the termination from the account (a task in which he was not successful). I understand perfectly why the account was terminated. I also understand why it's incredibly unlikely that you will be able to return the account to me; illegal third party programs were used in conjunction with the account and you have to real way to verify that my tale is fiction. I understand this and realize that there's very little chance of getting the account back. But I'm still a loyal customer of Anet, I've even gone out and bought fresh copies of each campaign. I'm humbly requesting that, before i activate the new account keys, that a CSR take 10 minutes to delete two character from the terminated account so that I might use the character names on my new account. I understand if this is not possible but it seems like a minor request and would confirm to me (and I'm sure other players) that Arenanet truly values their customers. Currently I'm on the fence about whether or not to play GW2, but a small example of good customer service would almost certainly convince me to pick up a copy. Thanks very much for your time and any assistance you can render. Cheers.--24.63.116.169 17:57, 4 August 2010 (UTC)

I seem to be missing something. Why do people feel like they have to pull, "Do this for me and I'll buy your game otherwise nope no way no how."? Chances are they'll buy it anyway. I just seem to be missing something. Before I get jumped on about people demanding a great company... Blizzard can be total crap and SC2 sold 1 million copies opening day. Seems like a lot of people circumvent their boycott when the pretty shinies are released. Also, promising to their best friend/buy their game/etc/etc isn't exactly a good way of getting something you want done. 63.80.53.130 01:44, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

(Reset indent) So let me understand you. You gave another person access to your computer and therefore your account. That person breached the User Agreement and the Rules of Conduct. You know and acknowledge that the person who used your account engaged in unacceptable activities that garnered irreversible gains, and you admit that the account termination was appropriate. But still you ask for an entirely undeserved account reinstatement and having failed to receive that, you then ask for special services that are not offered to other players -- even those who are 100% legitimate. And then, let's view this fairly, you demean the team when they decline to grant you the special favours. And finally you comment that you'll only purchase our future title(s) if you get said special favours.

I think I have all the facts straight here. And I have to say it's wrong, very wrong indeed, to ask the team to make exceptions for an account that has been used to cheat. It's doubly wrong to insult team members when they uphold the rules, rules which the vast majority of players respect and follow. I operate under the personal philosophy that game development and gamer support are a two-way relationship. We build a great game and we support those who play it. Players, in term, are expected to abide by a fair and well-reasoned set of rules. In essence, we have a pact with our players: Play fair and enjoy the game, and we'll do our best to help you play, to keep the game fun, to add content when possible, to balance skills and fix bugs, and to keep the game fair for everyone. When someone cheats, he or she has broken that pact. And at that point, whether or not we have the capacity to grant a special favour, whether it takes 10 seconds or 10 years, we should not do so. Support and I have, collectively, spent a goodly amount of time on this issue, what with dealing with the untruthful tickets that attempted to achieve reinstatement, with doing our best to explain, with unreciprocated courtesy, why we cannot help you with your requests. In the end, the answer has been, will remain, and should remain, "No." -- Gaile 06:25, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

To be fair, if you say "You gave another person access to your computer and therefore your account," it would only be reasonable to assume that giving a person your credit card is tantamount to giving that person permission to make purchases with your credit card. That's the only part I personally take issue with, and I feel might need further explanation from the team. If that is indeed your stance, I sincerely hope you don't store any credit card information on your end for any purpose. 173.19.224.120 09:05, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

I got banned while I was helping with the relief effort in haiti. I was trolled via email for 2 weeks with support staff and then completely rejected after being jerked around. I can safely say: Arenanet only cares about money. Why do you think it is that they stated quite openly that buying a new account is perfectly fine after being banned? Honestly, it's almost as disgusting as blizzard's marketing techniques. 75.142.8.220 09:18, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

I got banned while someone else was using my accounts, and I've yet to complain about it. And I'm completely honest. I have never once read the EULA, nor had I ever planned on it. I was legit unaware of what GWCA was and I was botting to get my terrible friends things. But...being banned and having you guys at the support team so obstinate about giving people the benefit of doubt, or anything similar to it is just sad. I spent 160 dollars total on my account, and I did enjoy the time I spent playing it. To tell someone that they're not allowed to have their old names back, EVEN THOUGH they are planning on re-purchasing your software is ridiculous. Even worse with you Gaile -- the supposed conduit to the company and developers of Guild Wars -- your projected hostility is quite shocking. If I were to come back and tell you guys, "Hey I want my account back. I didn't know what I was doing. I won't bot again," I thought it was assumed that I would be given just that. I've been banned for foul language and otherwise lewd behavior before, but never doing something like botting. I honestly could not even tell you how I set it up. Back on the subject, would I get my account back? Probably not. Why not throw him a bone and just give him the name. It's not like he's asking for one of you guys to give up your first born. I just find it kinda tasteless to tl;dr him with a HELL NO. He DID buy all of the games like the rest of us banned people. -- Dee Strongfist 09:30, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

As I was making my way to a small village deep within the Amazon jungle with a small parcel of critical medical supplies and vaccines, necessary to combat a recent outbreak of Smallpox, I happened upon a small puppy that had broken its leg at the bottom of a well. I clambered down well after securing a rope to a nearby sturdy kapok tree, scraping my hands and forearms quite badly on the way down. I rescued the poor whimpering beast and pulled us both out of the dark depths, unfortunately tearing my expedition pants on the way out. The stones used to make the well were rather broken and sharp. Due to my extensive veterinary training I was able to set and splint the leg, it will never be perfectly straight, but at least the dear thing will walk again, and took the pup with me onwards to the village. When I arrived the whole place was on fire! I took the last of my clean drinking water and doused the blaze raging on the roof of the village elder's hut, saving the poor old woman, bedridden inside, cradling her young granddaughter to her breast. I was unable to save the entire village, but the villagers themselves managed to save the greater portion using water from the nearby river. After my ordeal I decided to relax by playing my favourite game in the world, Guild Wars. After delivering the medical supplies I logged into the village wireless connection. I had been in the deep jungle for 4 weeks trying to traverse the difficult terrain on foot and had not been able to log in to do an UW speed clear in some time. I typed in my password and character name and was greeted by a taunting, malicious red box. My account had been suspended for botting. Horrified I rushed to support to try and work out what had occurred. Surely this was some horrible mistake. Their response was emphatic. I had spent the last two weeks botting and eternal exile was to be my punishment. I protested, I had been without internet access for weeks, it couldn't have been me! No answer was the stern reply. I decided to get to the bottom of this, so I called up my helicopter pilot and flew to the airport to try and return home to my condominium in New York. When I exited the taxi outside my apartment building I knew something was up. The doorman had a puzzled look on his face, as if he didn't understand how I could be arriving now. It was almost as if he thought I was already at home. I rushed upstairs and heard sounds coming from within my apartment. I burst in through the door and found myself sitting on the couch in a pair of stained underpants, my wide screen television filled with the foulest, most debaucherous smut this world has ever seen, ordered on my cable account no less. I rolled from the couch and landed in a wide crouch facing myself in the doorway. "You have returned!" I hissed as I bore my teeth. "Too soon! The plan was not complete!" I quickly realised that I was not myself. The face of this creature that I thought was me started to twist and reshape into a horrible horned visage. I ripped my silver crossbow from my travel pack and cocked back the firing mechanism. The blessed bolt, forged in the holy flames deep beneath the Vatican, struck true through the beast's heart causing a cloud of black ash to explode outwards from its physical manifestation, covering my entire apartment in a fine soot with the stench of sulphur clouding the air. Through my investigations it became clear that this creature, posing as me, had gained access to my bank accounts, credit cards, and yes, even to my Guild Wars account. It then went on a mad campaign to sully my good reputation. I have never botted before or watched pornographic material, but my previously untarnished reputation was dangerously close to ruined. I acted quickly, I called my cable company and got the charges reversed after fully explaining the situation. My credit card company was happy to reverse all the charges relating to internet sites of ill repute. I contacted support again, but understandably they found my story a little unbelievable. This is the last black mark upon my reputation. You, Gaile Gray are the last chance I have to clear my name. I come to you on my knees. The demon is dead, the evil spirits will never again waft across my account. I have placed a complicated series of wards against evil throughout my neighbourhood to prevent future supernatural meddling. The ticket number is 100666-00666. Help me Gaile Gray, you're my only hope. Misery 10:10, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Can't wait for the movie. --71.95.46.36 11:04, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Sorry to have taken up your time Gaile. I realize that inadvertently giving my younger sibling access to my account while trying to do him a favor was a horrible atrocity. Purchasing your product once again and politely requesting 10 minutes of good customer support (instead of copy/pasted automated replies) after 5 years of loyalty was also a mistake. I thank you for your unwarranted hostility in this issue, it has convinced me that I was truly mistaken. Too make up for this error on my part, I shall go purchase 4 more copies of guild wars and faithfully play GW2 until the implosion of the universe. Once again, you have my sincerest apologies for wasting your time, I did not mean to threaten the Arenanet support team, I was just hoping to get some help with a minor problem.--24.63.116.169 16:09, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Regardless of the trolling on this page, I'm still genuinely concerned about the use/consent issue. I am not okay with anyone sharing such a view having any of my personal information on file - regardless of what those files might be used for. 173.19.224.120 17:57, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

@75 -- If your account was hacked, Support would do their darnedest to help you regain access to it. There must be more to this story than you've outlined. I'd be happy to research this matter. Please start a new topic and include your incident number and I will do so. -- Gaile 18:23, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

@173 -- First, the comment with which you take issue was a tactful way of not making an assumption that access to the game was freely given. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't -- I'm going with what I was told by the player. I'm sorry if that phraseology caused you concern. But as to the larger issue, if you give someone your credit card and your PIN, I'm not sure how a bank would react. Would they replace your money? Would they be able to assume -- under their legal charters with governmental agencies and with consideration for precedent and societal impact -- that you didn't work out a little arrangement with someone to take money, claim innocence, and get the money replaced? I've never been in that situation and I don't know. I imagine they'd pursue the loss through law enforcements means (try to find and prosecute the thief or, alternately, the person who tried to scam money from the bank through a false claim of "theft.") In the end, each individual is responsible for Guild Wars account security, and bank references don't really parallel how the unauthorized use of a game account is handled. Lastly, you should be aware that your credit card information is not retained on file with ArenaNet or NCsoft. It is used to complete the transaction and only the last four digits are stored for verification purposes. I hope that addresses all your concerns. -- Gaile 18:23, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

@24 -- The Support Team answered your request. And they gave you fair and good customer service, even if you didn't get the answer you wanted. You didn't provide me with the Incident Number, so I can't read their precise answer, but based on the details you provided, the outcome was sound. Whether the answer was cut-and-paste or completely unique -- and I assure you it was not "automated" -- the decision was correct. It would be inappropriate and would make a mockery of the rules to set aside legitimate support requests from other players to fulfill your personal request related to a cheated account. No matter how long it would take, or how easy you think it would be, account reinstatement or unprecedented character name services are simply not the right things to do in this case. -- Gaile 18:23, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Honestly gaile, this isn't a "I'm 12 and what is this" game. I was descriptive in my ticket and extremely polite. I was replied to three times by generic copy pasta garbage. When I finally demanded to speak to a real person they danced around the issue asking questions and finally said: "We cannot find any evidence of your account being hacked, therefor your account will remain closed." They refused to show me even VAGUE proof that my account was misused. I have room mates but I highly doubt they would get on my computer just to bot on a random game they've never played. In fact I doubt they even know how to release/renew an IP. The fact is that the company you are employed by in fact works against its customers in a deliberate effort to make profit. I would be glad to leave my ticket numbers or even personally send you the emails(I have them saved) if you would like to follow up on the matter. On a side note, I heard a few people were banned because they used texmod? Even YOU said it was "ok". 75.142.8.220 00:33, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

ArenaNet has mentioned many times they will NEVER approve third-party programs. They can tell you what features are allowed, to some point, but they can't keep track of any changes that may occur to the program and can't guarantee it will always be both safe and EULA-allowed.

She did just say you should go ahead and start your own section on this page for your issue, though. None of the other comments in her last few posts were directed at you. --Kyoshi (Talk) 03:26, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

@75 -- Kyoshi is correct. We do not "approve" or "ok" third-party programs. We never have. Our team members consistently have said that some programs, such as the "straight" version of TexMod, will not prompt an account closure in their original form. However, we don't test third-party programs, don't offer them, don't tell you where to get them, and we absolutely do not offer any kind of support for them, even for the non-malicious, uncorrupted versions. (My comment years ago was something along the lines of "If it makes your game fail, causes your email to start appearing in Swahili, or prompts your washing machine tp start shooting socks across the room, don't come to us for help." :) After all, that would be like complaining to the chef that you're meal's too spicy after you dump a container of peppers on it.)

If you manage to get an uncorrupted version of TexMod, your account should be ok because we won't be tracking the use of the "vanilla" version of the program and won't action those game accounts that are associated with its use. (And this is because TexMod and a few others programs, in their straight or vanilla versions, do not offer a player an unacceptable game advantage.) But again, please keep in mind that we will not tell you where to download third-party programs, and that we accept no responsibility if you download a version that is less than cheat-free. The fact is, we make Guild Wars. We are not in the business of vetting random third-party programs created by people outside ArenaNet, some of whom have good intentions, some of whom have nothing by evil on their minds. All Guild Wars players who use third party programs choose to do so -- as has always expressly been said -- on a "use at your own risk" basis. I don't use the programs -- not a single one. And many other players don't use them, either. Frankly I think that's the smartest course to choose. But if you must use third-party programs, do take the "use at your own risk" message to heart. Because it would be inappropriate and unfair to blame ArenaNet for a decision that you, and you alone, chose to make in connection with your game account.

Feel free to start a new section if you'd like me to review an account termination. -- Gaile 04:51, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Game Network News -- August 10

On Tuesday, August 10th, we will be moving the Guild Wars live database to a new data center. This will require a temporary interruption in service beginning at 12:01 AM Pacific time on that date. Service may be suspended for up to 24 hours, although we will do everything we can to expedite the process. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding during this rare interruption! -- Gaile 20:49, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Update: Postponed Until August 11

The planned move of the Guild Wars live database that was scheduled to take place on Tuesday, August 10th, has been postponed until Wednesday, August 11th, 2010. The postponement was made to ensure that the process meets our high standards for quality.

So the message originally posted for August 10th now states: On Wednesday, August 11th, we will be moving the Guild Wars live database to a new data center. This will require a temporary interruption in service beginning at 12:01 AM Pacific time on that date. Service may be suspended for up to 24 hours, although we will do everything we can to expedite the process. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding during this rare interruption! -- Gaile 06:42, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

I was banned

→ moved from Feedback talk:Gaile Gray#I was banned

First off I'd like to say that I would not being bothering you with this except they banned my account on NCsoft as well.. so I can't even put a ticket info in. I never used a bot, I don't buy gold, or anything else. I don't see why I was banned at all. So I created another account at NCsoft filed a ticket with them... all i got was an automated response.. than nothing. I'm a daily player, and have over 3'000 hours logged. I would very grateful if you would look into this. Why ban accounts on NCsoft? I mean no one can even contact support that way. Just seems shady.--Siver Vixon 03:04, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Hi Siver Vixon. Let me start by saying there are three kinds of accounts in the NCsoft/ArenaNet/Guild Wars system: there is your game account(s), your NCsoft Master Account (not everyone has one, but it's possible that you do), and then there's the NCsoft Support account. You should not be prohibited by filing a support ticket through the support system, even if both your game account and your NCsoft Master Account was closed. If you feel that the ticket system is failing, would you kindly send an email to Support@GuildWars.com and outline the situation you're having? The more information you provide at the outset -- please see the box in the center top of this page for details -- the more quickly the team can help resolve the issue.

If you've already created a new account -- maybe you're actually just created the Support Account that you need for the first time. (As I said, you could have three or more accounts -- and yes, that's confusing as he** and it's something I'm working to change!) Anyway, if you submitted a ticket and then got an automated response, that's ok, that's how the system works, it sends an immediate response (within a minute or two) to let you know the ticket has been received and will be responded to as quickly as possible by one of our support agents. How long has it been since you got that automated response? You will ideally hear from a human being within a few hours. If it's been, say, more than 24 hours without a follow-up response from an agent (and that response may simply be to let you know the ticket has been escalated to another agent), then please do let me know. (And if you can send me the 12-digit Incident Number, I'd appreciate having that). -- Gaile 04:30, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

read what I said up top, I have a lot of studying to do. D: -- Dee Strongfist 05:02, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Dee, rambling, erroneous attacks are not appreciated by anyone, so please, reconsider before posting more. You're bringing up a subject which has already been discussed and explained at length, so I suggest doing some research on the topic, start here. Finally, if you have an account issue that you wish to discuss, please post a new topic with your own support number, rather than jumping onto random conversations. Thanks. G R E E N E R 07:42, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Reference #100805-002113, I did get a reponse saying that they escalated my ticket. Thanx for getting back to me. --Siver Vixon

Thanks for letting me know. It appears the team is working with you to verify account ownership. Please give them any and all info you can, so they can assist you in getting back onto your account. -- Gaile 22:18, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

Bullshit Account Termination

I bought a new account like a fucktard so it's not like this matters, however, for the sake of amusement I'll post some info. [Incident: 100627-000275] - I would compare Anets banwave to BP's oil spill. They have a lot of cleaning up to do. 75.142.8.220 05:26, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Well that's one way to not get your issue resolved. I would suggest presenting your problem a little more restrained and composed, especially if you want Gaile to take your problem seriously. Walking her through problem might help too, instead of just saying "Bullshit ban, fix it." --- NessHrin | 5:33, 6 Aug 2010 (UTC)

You went to Haiti to help with the relief efforts? Good for you! Unfortunately, as you have said in the ticket, you knowingly left your account open for access by a variety of people. Now you're asking us to reinstate the account because, allegedly, you didn't bot, but some unknown other person to whom you knowingly gave free access to your account did the botting. With all due respect, do you realize how many times a week we hear the same thing? "I didn't do it" or "I don't know how it happened" or "Your records must be wrong -- I'm innocent." It is impossible it is for us to know if you botted, your friend botted, or your Evil Little Brother(tm) botted. What is is possible for us to do is detect that your account was used to cheat in Guild Wars, to determine that it benefited or may have benefited from the particular cheating that took place, and to make the decision to not reinstate the account.

No one made you purchase a new account. The bot sweep was not an effort to sell more copies of the games. In fact, we deliberated a long time before we decided to allow people to do so, so obviously profit is not a motivation here. The simple and clear motivation in all that was involved in the bot sweep and is involved in every bot we remove -- every single day -- is a very real effort to keep the game fair for everyone. We do that by closing accounts that are involved in cheating and by keeping them closed. -- Gaile 06:11, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

If you buy a new account, it doesn't have the advantage from cheating that your old banned one had. So, it's perfectly fine as long as you don't cheat and get an advantage on your new account, which will hopefully be banned (if you do). It doesn't matter who cheated on your account, the account still got an unfair advantage. Point: don't cheat or let other people use your account, because you can't control what they do. P.S. to Gaile: I like how you mentioned the little brother from earlier, haha. :) -~=Ϛρѧякγ (τѧιк) 06:35, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

You just fed me the same bull crap they did. I explained to them, but I guess I can explain in detail to you. My room mates are Mentally Retarded when it comes to computers. They watch super bowl and drink beer. John screams his ass off about crushing things in his sleep. Theres is absolutely no way in hell they would be able to find hacks, let alone get them to work. I asked for proof my account wasn't hacked and I got a "We're done here, fuck off." If you read the emails I was EXTREMELY Polite up to a point. 75.142.8.220 19:50, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

If your account was hacked, the hacker wouldn't just cheat for you. They would steal your account. You're in the same position either way, except being hacked isn't (entirely) your fault and there's probably less that can be done to help you. -~=Ϛρѧякγ (τѧιк) 20:00, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

I'm discussing this with gaile, not ignorant trolls. I'll use a famous quotation from the late Dora the Explorer: "Troller stop trolling, Troller stop trolling, Troller stop trolling." Good day to you sir. 71.92.145.146 00:45, 7 August 2010 (UTC)

It's more explaining what Gaile is saying to you than trolling, really.

ANet still can't determine just from your testimony that you're right about what's going on. If they did, then every botter who cried that orphan pirates often used the account would be free to bot. They go by the data they can collect from their systems, and not by things that a user banned for botting or cheating has told them. Gaile just explained that to you. Even your explanation of how your roommates are "mentally retarded when it comes to computers" can't be proven and really doesn't matter. Your account benefited from botting or cheating. There are no signs of the account being hacked. (And like Sparky said, a hacker would have at least secured the account as their own by changing the password before any botting or cheating.) Ergo, no investigation ANet can afford to give you will render a verdict in your favor. --Kyoshi (Talk) 19:22, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

(Reset indent) @ The OP: I know you're not happy with the answer that you received from the Support Team or from me. But honestly, it's the only possible answer we can give you. Please read the comments from your fellow players; they may help you understand why we're not able to reinstate the account, even while we all might like to give "the benefit of the doubt." The fact is, there is no doubt the account was used to cheat and that it benefited from that cheating, and we do not have the mechanics nor the justification to perform some sort of personal account "roll-back" to allow its reinstatement. I am sorry that someone abused your trust and that it resulted in these consequences. -- Gaile 21:41, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

In echoing what Gaile said before... "Never share your account". Families and people having more than one person use the same account is just asking for trouble... --Lania 21:53, 08 August 2010 (UTC)

That'll do horse, that'll do. 75.139.205.155 10:07, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

I had the same i never used anything and they banned me never met a company thats sucks so much and gives so little support last game i ever bought from ncsoft and i make sure that the people i play with in other games now about it and think twice before they buy anything of this stupid company they just a bunch of thieves for me

Code 13s and othe rrandom bugs?

Been getting all kinds of weird bugs all night. Code 13s whenever I try to join a match in any pvp area. Using the Guild hall button just maps me back to the last outpost I was in. Getting kicked out guild halls i've been guested to whenever a player is added/removed from my guild or a guild is added/removed from my alliance. Are these because of the new machines the servers are hosted on? I assumed that the servers would just be locked while the switch was done or that the switch had already happened (since the server IPs changed on the 9th and ping has been a bit better since then). So are these bugs all the result of the server switch or has the server code (which I assume is as shoddily and confusingly constructed as the client code) simply breaking down after adding one too many features on a base system that wasn't designed to handle it? Cheers, an interested RE hobbyist--24.63.116.169 05:04, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

The servers haven't been moved yet. They just unplugged them 10 minutes ago. I assume the bugs were caused by whatever they were doing in preparation for the move. It was interesting; it seems that being unable to play RA made the people in the RA outpost... friendlier. The conversations were as messed up as ever, though. --Macros 07:13, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

Starting discussions on politics, economics, and religion in american 1 are always the best ways to troll. I feel comfortable in saying that <90% of the GW playerbase has been to college, or even knows how to google. -- Tha Reckoning 13:26, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

Judging by how poorly people still perform in RA 5 years after the game has been launched, I would guess that 90% of the GW playerbase has downs--24.63.116.169 14:52, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

More to the point, some of my friends were saying that Vizunah Square was giving them a Code 13 too. I'd assume it's related to preps for the move. --Kyoshi (Talk) 17:47, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

This morning I was unable to talk in local chat or message anyone. --Lania 19:53, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

I think these were "spot issues" as opposed to a systemic problem. But if you're having issues today -- now that the server issue has been rectified -- please get in touch with support. Thanks a lot. -- Gaile 03:42, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

Massive Amounts of Lag

After the data center move on August 11th, 2010, me and some people I know, have been receiving massive abouts of lagg and ping going up past 105k almost constantly. I know it isnt my ISP, because every single player Ive talked to about it has had tons of lagg. Im fairly sure its the server, and the amount of lagg makes it almost impossible to play. File:User Fantil Swift Sig Icon.jpgantil Swift 23:54, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

I don't have any lag...and only a few of my allies have...are you sure it's not your ISP? Have you tried Ping Plotter or another tool to check for latency? 71.115.101.155 00:26, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

Most of my allies are lagging, and none of us have the sane ISP, well only 1 of them does acually File:User Fantil Swift Sig Icon.jpgantil Swift 00:29, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

I'm with Mr 155, My day has been better than or equal to previous days. But, I have heard the occasional mention of lag from allies, but about the same frequency as before the change. — Mar Master 00:56, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

^ honestly. It's about the same. And only 1 of your allies has the same ISP? How is that possible unless they're using local ISP's which suck anyway and would explain their problems or if you only have like 4 allies. Otherwise that doesn't make sense. 71.115.101.155 02:51, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

Ive got alot of allies, and the 1 using the same ISP as me is my husband lol. Most of my allies are from the states also and I am not. but they still get unreasonable amounts of lag. File:User Fantil Swift Sig Icon.jpgantil Swift 03:47, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

We don't have a lot of lag but we're having some strange connection issues like error 15 and such and unable to enter missions (vizunah square from the foreign district but not local)--Lania 04:43, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

Several error 15's and one 10 error on my end as well. Definitely odd. -- Wandering Traveler 04:58, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

Hi guys. As I mentioned below, we had some server issues out of Dallas, but all should be well now. Please reconnect, if you're connected, by completely closing the game and logging in afresh. If you experience continued issues, do send an email to support. Thanks a bunch. -- Gaile 03:41, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

Unable To Log Into Servers

After the data center move and game update on August 12th, 2010, players are unable to log into GW. (Code=072) and various others.

I just got two reports: The servers were down at our Dallas Data Center for a few minutes. But, after quick work by one of our IT guys, they're back up and you should be fine now. Please don't hesitate to send a ticket to support if you continue to experience issues. -- Gaile 03:40, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

Reports of Broken Zaishen Timer

I'm getting reports that the Zaishen Timer is broken. I'm trying to ascertain if that's the "up" timer (for Morale) or the "down" time to allow entry into the next mission. I suspect it's the latter, but in any case, if this is happening to you, go ahead and write to support if you wish. I've made a ton of people aware of this issue already, but a ticket never hurts. :) We are sorry for this inconvenience. At the present time I cannot say what is causing it or when the resolution will be in place. -- Gaile 04:03, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

I'm gathering info on this, but apparently it's the after-battle timer, not the Morale Boost timer that's giving a few people a problem. I'm also hearing of a few Err 15s. Please post here if you're experiencing problems with Halls. Thanks. -- Gaile 05:43, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

TexMod

I originally asked this question about ten weeks ago; it was archived here without a response after two months.

TexMod has been "approved" (I know you'll correct me about the exact phrasing here, but bear with me) as a usable third-party program that won't necessarily get you banned. However, the phrasing was that those third-party programs "in their original form" were allowed. Since TexMod "in its original form" does nothing without texture files, some of which contradict your definition of "benign software" in your Bot Ban FAQ, is any sort of check on TexMod textures to be enforced? --72.253.204.205 00:32, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

To clarify: Anet will take action against any account which it detects breaking the EULA. Third-party programs could carry such code. They are "use at your own risk". Anet will not endorse the use of any third-party program. If you are uncertain about a program, don't use it. There are no more semantics. G R E E N E R 00:43, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

I know full well that I'm inviting the wrath of Gaile's self-appointed wiki guard by posting here. With that being said, you did an admirable job of conveying zero information whatsoever in six sentences. --72.253.204.205 12:21, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Unmodified means that the texmod program itself isn't modified, ie. hacked to include botting functions etc. Using textures with texmod does not count as "modifying" the program, as in this case, modifying means, changing the programing code of the texmod program, or inserting code to make the texmod program behave differently to perform illegal functions like botting. I can't think of any "textures" that will provide a significant advantage over other players as much as botting would. Even using texmod to put a line at 50% mark on the health bar is allowed for making WoH easier to use, as well as putting a circle in the radar to show where is spirit range. Both of these can easily be duplicated with tape on the screen as well, and this does not constitute as botting. Other modified versions of texmod can also function as a keylogger and steal your passwords. --Lania 17:59, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

As I've said previously, advantages go beyond those that can be replicated by physical modification of your display. --72.253.204.205 03:38, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

As has also been said previously, the advantages do not go beyond those that experience would allow. Kairu 04:00, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

It's hardly an advantage to have a literal spirit range indicator or percentage marks. You can easily roughly estimate spirit range or align some UI element to mark the half-way point if you want. Either way, I don't think Gaile can say anything about what they look for when they scan for bots. -~=Ϛρѧякγ (τѧιк) 04:47, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Zero information means that little thought was put in by the reader. "Anet will take action against any account which it detects breaking the EULA" means that Anet chooses what they believe to be breaking the EULA. I hope that part is clear. "Third-party programs could carry such code" means that your text mod program could be considered, by Anet, to be breaking the EULA. That is their call, their discretion, and no, they don’t need to be clearer. They could step in at any time, and say “That’s using text-mod too far”, and take action against the account. Hence my next sentence: "They are ‘use at your own risk.’" As you cannot read their minds, and they are not going to tell you that any third-party program is okay, or what portion of a program is on the boundary of "too far", I added "Anet will not endorse the use of any third-party program. If you are uncertain about a program, don’t use it." If you still need more bread crumbs, I'll leave you more. G R E E N E R 06:35, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Kairu: On what grounds can you support that statement?

Green: I appreciate your effort, but that still has absolutely nothing to do with my question. The point is, using modified skill/map textures is "allowed" (note quotations, so that you don't regurgitate Gaile's post again) by the letter of the law, but it also violates the spirit of the law in that it provides concrete minor advantages.

Incidentally, I've been looking for a second opinion on this post. What do you think? --72.253.204.205 13:13, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

That statement of Kairu's can be supported on the grounds of "read my post directly under his, I won't C&P it down here." -~=Ϛρѧякγ (τѧιк) 13:45, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

In answer to the original post, yes, randomly at Arenanet's discretion. I don't know whether you want to use this yourself or stop other people from using it, but you won't get a guarantee that you won't be banned for using it and you probably won't convince Arenanet to ban anyone you report. They aren't ever going to give you an answer, sorry. Misery 13:51, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Okay... lets just look at precedent here... They have never banned people for using texmod to help their cartographer title, or using texmod for applying just about "any" texture for the game. About the only people that were banned for using texmod were people that added other functions on the back of the texmod program itself. For example they added a bot farming program right into texmod or they were using botting programs along side texmod and/or KSmod and never disclosed that they were using other 3rd party programs on their "whine" fest to support and to gaile. The main "advantage" they are looking for is obvious by this passage on the EULA, "You agree not to use any hardware or software, including but not limited to third party tools, or any other method of support which may in any way influence or advantage your use of the Service which is not authorized by NC Interactive, including but not limited to the use of 'bots' and/or any other method by which the Service may be played automatically without human input". There are no textures that you can use with texmod to give you botting or any type of automated function without user input. Also looking at precedent, the "including but not limited to" refers to other instances where players gained impossible advantages like the max survivor title + Legendary defender of Ascalon. Others have been banned for duplicating items, and exploiting other bugs that gave players advantages that were impossible were it not for the bugs. Other bannable offenses are listed on the Rules of Conduct. Does precedent give you 100% protection from bans? No, but it makes it very unlikely. --Lania 15:20, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

And you won't ever get more than that. It's basically a legal issue. This way they can still ban you later if they feel like it and you have no possible defence. Misery 15:35, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

It's like jaywalking in front of a police officer: if traffic is light, the weather is clear, and the cop is in a good mood, she might decide to pretend she didn't see you cross. Flaunt the lawbreaking (no matter how minor) and peace officers have little choice but to ask to see your ID and check to see if there's a pattern. If they find outstanding warrants or complaints, then they're gonna ask you to come downtown to assist them with their inquiries. But no cop will tell you exactly when they'll cut you slack: they can point out egregious cases and trivial ones, but the thin EULA line isn't any more precise than the Kurz/Lux border.

Don't give ANet a reason to worry about your behavior: Be sensible in how you play the game. Consider how other people might view your actions. PUG with others as you would have others PUG with you.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 17:01, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Question about reporting someone

Hey Gaile, maybe you can answer this for me.. can I report someone who openly admits to use bots, macros and the like, or do I need proof like a screenshot showing him do that? The latter would be quite hard as I'd have to get into a PvP team with/against him for that first..

You can still report him. The support team can look at his logs and see if he used any illegal 3rd party programs or not. --Lania 22:50, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Account Blocked

Blocked account for an account issue [100817-003310]

hi gaile! sorry for my english (i speak spanish). I bought a extreme makeover in the ncsoft store using paypal, the order was completed. then like 30 mins later i tryed to buy a name change, but the the order failed like 4 times ad a gave up. When i came back to the game i got a message saying that my account is blocked for an account issue, i contacted support, but im really worried because i really dont know if im suspended or banned, can you plz help me? thx in advance! hasta luego y cuidate mucho!!! --ArmandoJimenez

Hi again!! my problem is now resorved and i can play again! =D it was a paypal issue! =D ---- Armandojimenez

So glad to hear all is well, Armando, and thank you for letting me know. :) -- Gaile 07:32, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Hacked? [Incident: 100810-001031]

I contacted support a week ago after i got a error message saying that my account has been accessed by an unauthorized individual. They tell me that gold sellers have accessed my account and want me to provide them with the account info. I got them all the info, my first and last name date of birth and the last 4 digits of my credit card that i used to buy the account. The only thing that i don't have is the cd key and i tried to explain that i bought the account from the ncsoft store and that i don't have the email with the cd key. So after a week without any response i get worried and look at the ncsoft site and it says that my ticket has been closed. I sent a new email asking for what more info they need so that i can get my account back but still no answear. Is there anything you could do?--Azum 17:53, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Hello. I am looking at the ticket in question, and I cannot see that you responded to the questions sent to you on August 10. I can see the customer support agent's list of questions, but there is no answer from you after that. Could you please reopen the email and make sure you are putting your answers between the lines, as instructed in that email? Alternately, you can visit the NCsoft support website and update your ticket there. Please let me know if you are still having trouble and I will try to help. -- Gaile 20:38, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

I got my account back, thanks for the help!--Azum 17:51, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

I forgot to say earlier, thanks for letting me know. -- Gaile 08:42, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Banned with insufficient information? [Incident: 100706-002727]

Hey Gaile, I hate having to bug you here but I've come back to the game recently to find my account banned. I've of course read around about what's been going on and can assure you I have not used 3rd party programs or given account access to anybody. I've tried working with support for the past month or two and I don't see them doing anything to help me assumedly because I don't have all the serial numbers for my account any longer as I threw out the boxes when I moved last March. The only information I have would be the basic information I still need to access my account today and an email from an online purchase which I gave to support. My login email is my name and I'm feeling so discouraged at this point that I doubt even my birth certificate would be accepted as proof that I'm me. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.214.232.246 (talk).

To facilitate Gaile in looking up your case, make sure you give her your support ticket number. G R E E N E R 22:24, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Hi there. I've looked at the ticket, and you seem to be doing everything correctly. From what I'm seeing -- and I can verify this of course -- it appears that the account you're writing about may either have been hacked or it may be involved in a question about its actual ownership. (You know, perhaps the account was shared, that sort of thing.) The problem is, the team needs verification information to make sure you are the real owner and not the hacker or one of multiple people who has been using the account. :) I know it's a bit frustrating -- you're having to jump through hoops to get at your own stuff! But it seems you've provided a purchase-related email as partial proof of ownership, and that's good. I'd like you to try to fill in any of the other blanks -- user name, etc. -- and send it back to the team in your ticket. I feel like you're very close to getting this resolved, but the team has to be cautious to make sure that your account is kept securely for you!

Send as much info as you can, based on the list the team sent. Let me know if you haven't heard back, but with the weekend approaching, why don't you get back with me early next week if this is still an issue. I will do my best to help you. -- Gaile 05:33, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Thank you very much, Gaile, I truly appreciate your explanation of the situation, and I will try to fill in any other blanks possible.

As of today -- September 6th -- I can't see any updates to this ticket. The team has set the ticket to "waiting" and hopes to hear from you in order to assist you with this issue. -- Gaile 01:14, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

Account Theft

Screwed & support on the slow side? ;) [Reference #100526-004142]

Hello Gaile. I haven't heard back from the team since August 13th. Would you be kind enough to check whether the ticket is lost, or just pending investigation? I'd appreciate some more details on how this could've happened without my e-mailaccount being compromised (I did not get ticket updates, password change notifications ...). On the sidenote: Will Guild Wars 2 provide a security token option? I can't prove anything(!), but I won't accept this to happen twice so I'll just skip Guild Wars 2 if it doesn't. Have a nice weekend. AndrewB 14:49, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

Hello again Gaile. They finally replied, I no longer need help on this one. Can you give me an answer to my second question? Thanks. AndrewB 14:26, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

I am glad to know that this is fully resolved. If you're curious, the way that most accounts are stolen without access to the email account is through the owner's use of a common password on multiple websites or in multiple games. RMTs (Real Money Traders), who profit from selling in-game items for real-world money, scour the Internet to find account names and passwords in order to steal game accounts, after which they strip off gold and items to sell, and sometimes use the account to advertise their company's shady business as well. (That seems like adding insult to injury, when they end up cleaning out an account and then getting it banned as well. But we most certainly do rectify those situations once the owner gets in touch.) That's why your password for Guild Wars should be used only with Guild Wars and nothing else.

I am not sure what a "security token" is. I can tell you that we will have new security measures for Guild Wars 2, although we're not talking about the details at this time. But as always, account security is a top priority and I believe players will be pleased with the new measures. -- Gaile 20:35, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

I think he's referring to those key fobs they use with other games (like WoW) that are inserted into a USB port and show a random number that must be input when signing into your account. I've never had any account security problems, but I'm glad to know that there are some new security measures coming for Guild Wars 2! :D --★KOKUOU★ 20:42, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

That's an interesting idea, actually. I assume you have to pay for those, though? --Kyoshi (Talk) 23:46, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, it's not free but it's not that expensive either. Not sure how much the ones for WOW cost, but most keyfobs run from 10$ to about 90$. --Lania 06:10, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Hello Gaile. I wouldn't say it is fully resolved, but the part where I needed you (to get me a reply) is.

About the token: Yes, Kyoshi, that's it, sorry for the vague info. Banks use this too for online services (in Belgium). It's an extra level of protection that could/should(?) be an option to players: "Make my account only accessible with a token".

About passwords: I only use that password for the NC Soft Master Account and Support Account (~ Guild Wars only). Please see the latest reply in my ticket if you want to learn more about what kind of problem this can cause.

Have a nice day all AndrewB 07:50, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Hello again Gaile. While the team is right to have a grudge against my account, I have nothing to do with what happened (I only noticed the termination about last week I didn't play for about 8 months). I can't prove anything, the data is in their hands, but I gave them a valid scenario they don't want to believe in. They don't even reply to the security concerns associated with my scenario. AndrewB 17:29, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Hello once again Gaile. I'm still having trouble to make support believe I wasn't in control of my accounts (2) when they were used for dirty stuff (they didn't tell me what, but nobody got injured I guess? :p). You said compromised accounts that got banned during a hack can be returned. They lie to me saying my account was only used from 1 physical location which cannot be true as I used it from home, college, on the train before Januari... . Could you possible ask them re check the data again? Thanks a ton. AndrewB 06:26, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

You feel that you're having trouble making support believe you. And I am having trouble with the content of your ticket. You tell Support that you will start flooding them with "10, 100 or 1000 tickets, all automated." That sort of threat puts a black mark against your name, surely you can see that! If you say "I don't use cheats, bots, or third-party programs" and you then threaten to use an automated ticket flooding system, well, that's not good. :(

You've demanded proof of the use of a disallowed third-party program. We do not provide such proof because we do not intend to give cheaters a primer on how to avoid detection. You've demanded another look at your account. They've given the account another look. You've claimed you were not in ownership of your account, but we have not been able to establish that someone else accessed it. (Yes, if we can establish that, we will reinstate the account, but it's very, very rare.)

I've written to a team lead to go over the notes with him and I will update if there's anything new to add. At this point, after all the research I've seen in the ticket, I don't anticipate a change in the outcome. -- Gaile 01:40, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Hello Gaile.

(1) Have you seen them close my ticket 2-3times/day? I want to remain polite towards them, but they're just mocking me, knowing I can't prove anything. I'm looking for options that doesn't involve insulting them, but seriously, I get frustrated. On the side note: I'm in IT, so I can easily do that but most importantly: The technical details I gave them leaves me with a few unanswered questions.

(2) I guess I'll have to be OK with the support's explanation about the block.

(3) I really do hope they will take into consideration what I said, and I really really do hope to see a change soon when I visit my ticket(I hope you get that one).

Thank you for your time and have a nice day. AndrewB 07:07, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Hello again Gaile. Support wants me believe they do the research right and thoroughly, but this took away the little credibility they had:

August 25th: http://i53.tinypic.com/5p39sn.png

September 17th: http://i51.tinypic.com/105v5go.png

There's also a "security issue" described in my ticket. I believe NC Soft's IT-team should take a look at this, or at least you should WARN the players about the risks of this. I did not notice it until it was too late. AndrewB 07:57, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

The first response was incomplete, the second sums it up: Yes, there is access from more than one IP. But those IPs are consistent with the locations that you cited, and again, there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that your account was hacked. As to the security issue, I appreciate the information that you sent and I agree that it warrants a look. That is why I sent it over when I noted it in your ticket. The Security Team and others have looked and are looking into the matter. It's not a glaring issue and I don't see how it would cause a significant issue with account jeopardy, but as a "housekeeping issue" I think we want to clear it up. -- Gaile 22:36, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Hello Gaile.

1) English isn't my mother tongue, but "incomplete" ??

"The only access to your account has come from the same location in Belgium" ~ August 25th

<=> "You admit to playing from different locations in Belgium which is exactly what our logs show." ~ September 17th

My limited vocabulary has the word "contradiction" for this, not "incomplete".

2) The NC Soft Master page already proves there is a problem with the support sign in.

Also, visit Hotmail, Gmail, eBay, ... Why would they, and NC Soft (for the Master Page sign in) implement "useless things" anyway?

3) This is the first time I hear about NC Soft looking into the security issue. Until now, I only got "f*ck off" replies and *ticket closed* actions.

4) It makes me real mad, but I also really appreciate you looking into this on a Sunday.

I will tell them I'd appreciate updates on this, then I'll be patient again I guess. AndrewB 20:15, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Seeking help - my account was banned in error [Incident: 100822-002209]

Hello and thank you in advance, Gaile Gray!

First of all I'd like to say that I come from Slovenia, so I will try my best with my English. And I registered on Guild Wars Wiki today, so please don't judge I do something wrong like typing in a wrong section... I'm now contacting you in hopes that you will be able to assist me in my distress. I've already sent my ticket to NCSoct Support. I never got detailed information about why my account was banned. I only got this: After further investigation, we can confirm that your Guild Wars Account has been closed for using an illegal third party program. I couldn't persuade them, I'm still updating my ticket every two hours, but I think that nothing will work in my case. So, now, I'd like to review what has happened that day:

On the 22th of August, 2010, I was farming with my A/Me in Tombs of the Primeval Kings for about half an hour. Up until August, 22., I've amassed myself a good amount of money. 137 Globs of Ectoplasm and about 730 platinum plus other minipets and gold items and such. I was shocked when I saw that notification that my account was banned. I immediately contacted support. Now, tell me this: I bought all 4 Guild Wars games, and merged them. I've enjoyed Guild Wars since Factions came, that was my first buy as my friend told me that it is easy to start playing in Factions. Then after that, I bought Prophecies, next Nightfall and finally Eye of the North. I've enjoyed Guild Wars from the start. I have a 50 months old account that I cherish the most out of my other MMO game accounts. It has also costed me about 150€ for the whole Guild Wars collection. So after over 4 years of joy with this game and working hard on my account, why would I suddenly start botting? I've never used any bot and third-party programs. I do it all legally. I protect my valuable things as hard as I can. I'm a reasonable and responsible person, so I would never, ever risk my beloved account to get it banned. I think this is a very harsh mistake, any many other people, who also got banned in a similar way (farming Tombs was the most common place mentioned where they got banned). I support the aggressive approach that you have against botters, but innocent people get swept away also. This is why I am contacting you. All I'm getting now from a support team is cold-hearted answers about how they will not reverse their action of banning my (and probably many other's) account. I've always helped newbie in the game, I was actually participating in a guild lately, where we would recruit new players and give them proper directions and help them get to know the game better. If my ban is somehow connected to a virus or a spyware or if someone has somehow accessed my account and then used a bot on it, please tell me what can I do. I have already scanned my computer for viruses, but I haven't found nothing particulary harmful. I hope that I was clear enough and that you will be able to assist me on this. I would really like to play Guild Wars again, since I worked so hard on my account. On the Guild Wars Guru forums, we're making a list of people, who got banned accidentaly when you we're probably hunting for bots. If I ever get my account back, I will never farm again. I'm happy with the amount of stuff that I have now and I'll settle down with it.

Thank you, Gaile, in advance! ~ Rok Jeselnik --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Rokzor (talk).

Hey there, Rok. I understand that this issue has been resolved and your account has been reinstated. Please let me know if you still need help and I will try to assist you. (I was on the Danube last summer but I wish I had seen Bratislava and a little bit of Slovenia! Maybe I will do so when I next visit Europe! :) ) -- Gaile 05:38, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for taking you time and resolving my issue. I appreciate it very much.

Slovenia is a very small country, but it has a lot of natural wonders and a rich cultural legacy. I think there aren't many countries in the world that offer you to ski in the mountains AND swim in the sea on the same day. :)

Hi again. It was a pleasure to help and I'm glad everything is going well with you now. :) -- Gaile 01:13, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Another ToPK innocent ban to add to the list - [Incident: 100823-003399]

First, and foremost, I would like to state that this appears to be my last civil option in regards to my recent account termination. Error code 45.

I along with many others apparently that do not have illegal 3rd party programs/bots have been banned permanently for being in TOPK farming at the wrong time/place/build/runpath/merchanting: whatever the screen is that ANET has used to determine botting in ToPK.

I have serious concerns about the validity of the screens that Anet has employed now or for that matter, ever, as being an innocent player without said programs, it is _EXTREMELY_ disturbing to be banned under these circumstances.

Clear positives that can clear me of botting. 1) I was there for 2-3 days total. I was just learning the build/farm, I used several different builds during that time. It switched around a few times. 2) I salvaged in the farming process or dropped items because I was full and needed to pick something else more valuable. 3) I didn't use the same run path to ball up monsters. 4) I took random breaks between farming sessions at times. 5) I died a lot and sometimes I resigned, sometimes I did both. 6) I changed staff's to get a more energy after the 1st day. 7) I had variable key strokes timing. 8) I had made mistakes hitting the wrong button and causing scatter. 9) I resigned early sometimes when I made an early mistake 10) Sometimes, the mobs weren't close enough to shadowstep to, so I would run away from the ledge. 11) Sometimes, I tried to kill left over mobs even if they were going to be hard, just to see if I could do it.

I understand the need to capture bots and I applaud that desire to help us get rid of them. I understand the only reason why innocent players like ourselves have gotten banned are due to the bots; however, having innocent players get banned permanently as collateral damage is not acceptable.

The screening test involved for bots is faulty. The screen is not strong enough to weed out false positives. I am a physician by practice/training, I know the important of screening tests and that it require both a sensitivity and specificity. Apparently, there's a serious lack of specificity in Anet's screening.

My initial reaction of course was shock and that in fact I had done something wrong. I thought it might have been a pve macro that I had used recently for running, which apparently wasn't the case. I posted my situation at guildwarsguru.com and have had a mixed response, but was directed here if I was unable to get anywhere with customer service.

The thread is here: [1]

I have another account that my wife and daughter use to play with me. They don't farm like I do. I make the cash, buy them nice things, my daughter likes minipets. And in all honesty, if a regular innocent player can be banned out of the blue for farming. What message does that send me? 1) fear 2) disappointment. I've urged everyone to stay away from ToPK farming until the screening process is fixed. Why would I or have my family persue playing if I can not trust customer support to do the right things? Why would I go to the effort to purchase another account or for that matter any other Anet/NCsoft game if I know that this is how I will be treated? By the pure luck or in this case bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong build in the wrong order bans me -> permanently?

Clearly, I am disgruntled. I have been manhandled by customer serviced. Treated as guilty until proven innocent. Treated as a child and a cheater. As a professional myself, I find this unacceptable customer service.

I hope that you can help me. I hope that there is some recourse because this really is my last hope to recover my account.

Thank you for your time. --Light and Peace 13:21, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Thank you Gaile for your time, I got unbanned today. Although it is nice to be unbanned, I just wish that there was some way that you all could develop a more specific test that weeds out the false positive. At least two screening methods that allow you to get 1) all bots 2) remove innocent players. I'm sure you can profile innocent players and know exactly what looks like an innocent player and be able to put the account through that test and remove those accounts. Granted, I do not know your methods. I understand that you can't share those things. I work in the medical field and am involved in process improvement and safety development in hospitals and I do this for a living. So if there is any help I can give you, please let me know. I just don't want other people to go through this.

Thanks again--68.118.111.239 11:37, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

I did have a suspicion that Anet's bot detection scheme was heavily reliant on behavioral characteristics and I think these strings of false positives does confirm it. I don't think they can "actually" detect 3rd party programs unless the 3rd party program uses .dll injections since the GW client doesn't scan the hard drive for files or programs and doesn't send any information back about actual programs on the computer (As far as I know anyway). Anything else is just a guess based on how the character moves through the game. Oh that character clicked on the sign post 10 times in a row, it must be a bot and it must be using a 3rd party program that's illegal. So I'm sure there are a lot of parameters they use to score each action and when the score reaches or crosses a threshold, the account gets flagged for possible botting. I think the problem is that some times people do click on signposts to auto move, use the same skills in the same order every time, merch and sell in the same path, order etc because most of their attention is focused on a movie, tv or something else other than the game so they want to stream line their key inputs into the game. Maybe there needs to be a more active bot detection scheme where once a player reaches a "botting behavior score threshold" then a PM is automatically sent to them to have the player answer some easy but random questions. Like what is your characters name?, or how much gold do you have, how many characters do you have, etc etc... Questions that bots should have a hard time to respond. Also the questions should change over time like, type in your character's name backwards... Maybe the PM could be something else like, please port to the "starter city" for the corresponding character's starting campaign. This kinda forces them to "take a break" too. I dunno, I just think something more needs to be done to reduce false positives, and make people feel like they can farm again in their favorite spots. --Lania 01:02, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

I like the idea that there might be simple Turing Tests that ANet can use to determine the botness of a given toon. The unscrupulous might be able to develop ways around it, but it would certainly increase the barriers to the average person thinking of botting. Keep in mind that people also can (and should) get suspended for violations that don't take them afk and that gold farming bots are probably monitored by human beings. In other words, this alone won't make it easy to eliminate wrongful violation tags or ensure that fewer illegal actors are missed.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 01:34, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Nothing will make it 100%. There will always be false positive and false negatives. Also non-afk bot farming kinda defeats the purpose of botting donchathink? Might as well farm honestly. I think most people check back occasionally and sometimes look at the chat log. Most bots are quite unsophisticated in chatting ability, I've PM'ed many of them and they mostly don't respond to anything I say. Occasionally they do say something quite nonsensical which is funny. --Lania 01:41, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

A system that "automatically sends a random message" must have someone who reads and assesses the response that this message receives. If you'd please consider the sheer volume of players, and the large number of people who do use bots, you'll see why that level of "bot checking" may not be possible. I discussed the "live question" concept with a programmer once time. He told me that random questions usually come from a limited database, and the responses can be programmed as well. Heck, bot programs have been developed to instruct, "adopt more randomized pathing," and "merchant at different vendors," and even "stop and file your nails -- look innocent!." :) Likewise, a bot can be programmed to "give XX response to YY question, as determined by your bot detection detection code." (That's the code that detects the code detection, you see?) Note that I'm not discounting the suggestion, or saying that we wouldn't do it. I'm just asking you to consider some critical elements in such a process. For instance, if staffing is to be held steady, would you want to double our support response time by assigning agents to "Are you botting" questionnaires when they could be answering tickets? (I bet you can sense here and I'm being a bit of a devil's advocate yet again, even while I always appreciate good ideas! :) )

There are a large number of parameters that are reviewed in order to ascertain someone is botting. False positives are actually few in number. I'll post more below, in direct response to the OP (rather than in a discussion of bot reviews). -- Gaile 03:24, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Light and Peace -- Upon review, your account was determined to have been blocked in error. We are reviewing the parameters for bot detection, as we do after nearly any false positive. I feel that you should not be overly concerned about the other account. There were particular elements involving your own account that, from your description, would not be a factor in a review of your alternate account. Therefore I feel quite sure that account would not be blocked for botting.

False positives are always painful: to you, to us. Players who play legitimately and get banned by accident go through all sorts of emotions none of us want to experience: shock, anger, dismay, confusion, with maybe a little disbelief and a lot of frustration tossed in. It's extremely regrettable when a false positive happens. From our perspective, we have to cut "close to the bone" with our bot parameters -- just outside what a real player would do -- in order to catch people who do their best to take advantage of the game, who cheat, who exploit, who sell in-game gold and items for real money, and other negative things like that. Making the bot detection parameters necessarily detailed means that, sometimes, a regular player gets caught, gets mistakenly noted as a "botter." I regret when that happens; we all do. I sincerely apologize for the situation, as does the team. But like many things in life, personal involvement can magnify the appearance of a problem. In other words, what happens to you may seem to be a huge problem, when such things really are quite rare. If it happens to a couple of people you know, that may also raise the element of concer.

I will be speaking to the teams about false positives, but we haven't seen a huge upswing in false positives recently. We'll be continuing to discuss ways in which we can be good bot-nabbers while remaining as player friendly and as false-positive-free as possible, 24/7/365! -- Gaile 03:33, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Thank you very much for being so attentive and responsive to the issues that I've brought up. I appreciate the added effort that you will be looking into these things. I appologize for being so reactionary in regards to the subject without having more insight. As you said, personal involvement has magnified the problem especially for me. I will be brainstorming a bit and might hit up our IT people at my hospital (a few of them do game, although FPS) and see what they have to say.

I know I don't have the inner workings of how you do these parameters. I think that when you go across all the false positives, there must have been something or many things that were in common that said -> whoa this guy definitely is not a bot. And is it possible to run the accounts that trigger the initial bot detection parameters through a false positive screen afterwards. And as you keep your false positive screen private along with your initial bot detection parameters, I think you might be able to weed out more legitimate players from being banned. Of course, you might weed out some true positives in the process as well. Then the question will be, would it be worthwhile to save a few legitimate players the agony of having to deal with getting their accounts unbanned, vs having a few true positives escape through the nets. As I had mentioned before collateral damage in the form of permanent bans to legitimate players (to me) appears to be unacceptable and I would argue having a few fish escape would be better than catching a few dolphins. Perhaps a bad analogy.

Again, I don't have the data you have and the number of true positives may be just too low to really stop from happening, and I, among the others, that I have met on this journey were just the unlucky few that this happens to. I think there's always ways to improve process and the goal should always be 100 percent bots, and 0 percent legitimate players. I appreciate all the effort your team has put forth to make this game more enjoyable to everyone and keep the bots from ruining our experiences.

At this point, naturally, I don't feel comfortable with any solo farming areas, especially ToPK, but also raptors, vaettirs, feathers, UW, etc. I'm not sure if there's any way to really stop this fear other than a tincture of time, but I also hope that you do find an algorithm or screen that makes it a bit more secure for the legitimate players.--Light and Peace 04:32, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

(Reset indent) "we haven't seen a huge upswing in false positives recently"

Are you sure about that? Not to be disrespectful (and I obviously don't know all the numbers), but since the recent ToPK sweep, I personally know of 4 accounts that had to be unbanned. And, by the looks of your talk page and the forums, many others got false-positive'd as well. But again...I don't have your data. 72.181.47.223 04:34, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

@72 -- I will check again, but yes, I'm pretty confident the team would alert me to a rash of false positives about any cause. Again, you're visiting a large forum with a lot of active players. You may see a handful of reports and may think "Wow, that's a ton!" Or you may see the same people discussing it over and over again -- not that anyone does that on a forum ;) -- and think the numbers are really high, when it's just a few. But when you consider the number of bots in the game, and when you also consider that we're blocking hundreds a week, well, a handful isn't a huge number. Except that is a huge number to those involved, and I definitely know that!

@Light and Peace -- Getting unjustly blocked can have such an impact on a player's enjoyment of the game, not just for a day but sometimes for a while to come. I don't need to tell you that! That is why we are frequently adjusting the bot detection parameters, and that is why we will continue to do so in the future. Right now, I'm talking to Support in Europe, Support in North America, and the Live Team. We'll review the situation and compile all their input. Maybe the input will result in a change, I'm not sure yet. (Knee-jerk, reactive changes are unwise, I'm sure you'll agree.) Maybe we will tweak Parameter A and remove Parameter L altogether, or ask the team to pull another record, another piece of data, and review that before finalizing any bot block. (Blocks are reviewed by a team member before placement; they are not automatically put in place.) Maybe Live would look at the game design. Maybe we'll note "Hey, there's a bug with a certain skill that's making something work differently than intended." At this point, I've asked the initial question and we'll take it from there. But at the end of the day, we try really hard to avoid false positives, to reinstate those who are caught in such a situation as quickly as possible, and to make sure they understand our regret and our continued efforts to reduce such issues in the future. -- Gaile 04:50, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Yup, I understand totally. Reactionary actions are not the preferred approach. Proactive and measured responses of course is the way to go. I understand that the issue is a lot more complex that I had thought. Most lay persons as do myself think bots are simple repeatitive, routine scripts, but apparently it isn't the case. And just like piracy, when you create a new anti-bot, I'm sure they find a way around it once they find out what it is. So I understand the secrecy and I understand there may be limitations. I agree what you are saying, and I understand where you are coming from, but I am sure you will strive for perfection always and hope to achieve it because once we become complacent, things stagnant and gradually fall apart. You have a very active and motivated enemy and thusly, you must be as active and motivated if not more. Have just as much ability to adjust, refine, and improve as they do it not more. As you know the fight against hacking is a major issue for healtcare organizations, and we always have people trying, if we stopped working against them, it would be all over for us.--Light and Peace 11:35, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps some of the issue is that with all the bot bans, pretty much all the "unsophisticated" bots are extinct from the game now, and all that remains are some of the more robust, intelligent bots that can mimic human behavior more closely. Tightening the noose on these guys ended up catching innocent players in the process. Maybe you guys are already doing this but maybe you can have one person finding and downloading as many bot programs he/she can find and test their behavior, report it, and set up more customized parameters that cater to the specific botting programs (Kinda like specific parameter definitions for a specific virus for example, but this time for a specific bot). I know many of these are floating around bot forums, mIRC channels, and on p2p file share networks. This won't help at all with those that program their own bot, but I suspect most people that bot, use the programs that have been downloaded off the net. I would also suggest anyone doing such a probe to find botting programs to use a closed proxy server that rotates the IP address every so often as they are also probably want to keep anyone from Anet from downloading their bots, and they might have already blocked any IP's originating from Anet. --Lania 23:11, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Talked to my IT department, most of those guys say that the best way would probably be captcha[sp] in game pm. Referrence to webpage to confirm activity with captcha type intervening with certain timeframe to respond before account suspension. I.e. 5 minutes to respond to captcha at following website to continue playing. They also said that if you do this, your screen for bots could be a bit more loose, and thusly people who are false positives could easily get out of it by answering math, graphics, or sound to show that they are not bots. --Light and Peace 03:22, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

I think there is some potential to that idea, although how much I cannot tell. A system like that is something I compiled notes about a few months ago. I'll send those notes to a coworker (who happens to be one of the most brilliant programmers I know) and see what he thinks. It's not likely he would have the time to review or comment on the idea at this time, since he's extremely busy. Still, I'm sure he'll give it a think when he has a chance, even if he instantly sees huge drawbacks that you and I might not anticipate. :) -- Gaile 02:10, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Another person banned inocently with error 045

First of all, thanks in advance foir all the help. second the account i am asking help for is not mine, is from a friend currently in vacation that asked me to help him with this.

So he played GW some years ago and stopped it, and then we were talking 3 days ago and seeing gamescom videos of the second game and we wanted to replay some of the first. when he tried to login it said the account was blocked and had error 045. After that he tried to contact support and, has you said here to do, 24 hours has passed and without counting the automatic response nothing was recived.

(support ticket blocked [Incident: 100824-003563]‏)

So can you help us unblock the account so he can play again? feel free to ask any additional information you may need for the purpose.

thank you for the help.

24 hours is a bit quick to be asking here. Support is very backed up with all kinds of requests like this. Gaile usually asks about a week without a reply before coming to her. --Kyoshi (Talk) 17:07, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Like Kyoshi said, just keep trying, but don't expect a 24 hour turnaround. Anet recently banned a lot of ToPK botters, and ended up catching quite a few innocent people with them. On average, it seems to be taking around 2-3 days after the support tickets are filed to unban the innocents, so be prepared for that. Karate Jesus 17:18, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

I only posted here in 24 hours because there is a post from Gaile in this page saying it, there is no problem in waiting :).

Oh goodness, if I said that people could contact me in 24 hours, I misspoke! I would like all players to wait at least 72 hours before contacting me about any issues they'd like me to get involved with. We must give the team time to research the matter, and, in many cases, discuss between team members on different continents. That does take more than a single day, in quite a few cases.

Incidentally, you have been sent a response from Support (as of 8/24) that asked you for information about your account. The sooner you provide that information, the faster the team can help you. So please open that email or open that ticket and update with as much info about your account as you can give! Thanks. -- Gaile 03:41, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Ok, sorry I haven't noticed that e-mail, that asks some information that i'll have to wait for him to come back home, so is there any problem only sending the info next tuesday?

No problem at all. Please respond as you are able, with as much info as possible. We want to help, so look forward to hearing from you. -- Gaile 01:03, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

I thought I'd check back on this. The Support Team didn't receive the proper information for one means of verifying account ownership, but they are willing to accept other information in order to help out with this situation. They must show care that they're doing a justified restoration, but they do try to show flexibility in what they accept. Please follow up with them in their response to you sent September 16th. We'd like to help! -- Gaile 22:53, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Banned Account Review

Support Isn't Even Trying To Help Me [Incident

100527-000163]

Hello, Gaile. First off, I'd like to say that Guild Wars has been a part of my life for over 4 years. When I lost Guild Wars from my account being banned, I was devastated; I felt the same way when my mother died, or had a bad break-up. Because I played so seriously and had over 4,500 hours caked up on the game, I would never even consider running a bot or third party program because I knew by the announcements that Arena Net was serious about this. I've waited 5 months, creating Appeal after appeal, and support keeps ignoring me. All I've gotten was about 6 automated messages, the last one being a message saying that they're done with the topic and to not be disappointed if I don't hear from them anymore. I've never had a problem with support before, and it sucks that I have the problem when I need them the most. It is very frustrating that I can't get any help, when I've done nothing wrong. Anyways, Gaile, you're my last hope; I'm being ignored by everyone that I try to contact about my unjustified ban. I'd love to play Guild Wars 2 when it comes out, but with more than 2,000 hours put into my Hall of Monuments, and having that taken away; I don't think I'll be playing. I still think about Guild Wars everyday, and after almost 5 months without it, I'm ready to take a stand. I'm here contacting you to see if I can get any help. I'm going to try to do everything in my power to prove that I was banned when I didn't deserve it - and try to get my account back. I know you're busy, and you hear things like this all the time, but I'd really appreciate it if you could help me. Like I stated before, all I'm getting is automated messages, and every time a support representative tries to help me, he always transfers me to a senior staff member who closes my appeal without any consideration. Please help me, here are my support ticket numbers: 100527-000163.

I have reviewed the ticket you cited for me. It leads to a number of other tickets submitted since your ban in the bot sweep of May 25, 2010. After the first message in a ticket, all comments are being sent by an actual human being. But yes, if you continue to send tickets, and if the issue has been addressed in the best and only means possible, an influx of tickets may be met with closure instead of with a continued recitation of the same responses.

I invite you to read this page for more information about the bot bans. The team is unable and unwilling to expose more information about the bot bans, except to say that there is incontrovertible evidence that all accounts caught in that sweep were connected to the use of a disallowed third-party program or, in some cases, to multiple disallowed programs. Sometimes accounts were massively involved in bot use. Sometimes the use was slight, but still present. Occasionally, players were not aware that their system had been compromised by such a program. And once in a while, players decided that what they were using was ok, even when it was not. What is without question -- and believe me I have asked about this many times, to make sure I'm answering players and writing articles accurately -- is the fact that accounts detected as having used a third-party program were indeed using that program or those programs.

I wish that I could tell you differently; as a player I truly sympathize with you in regards to your account. We review all appeals carefully. But in relation to the bot sweep of May, the company took a stance that is both firm and clear. The devs did not feel it would be appropriate to say, "This person is nice, we'll let him go with a warning," or "That person has XX hours, let's keep him on board," or "We'll keep the player with a spotless record and continue to block the player who had marks on his account." Doing that would render the bot detection system less effective and -- although it may occasionally benefit a single individual -- it would be less fair and less true to the facts in an overall sense. Again, I'm very sorry for your situation and I wish there was another, equally-appropriate answer I could give you. -- Gaile 04:17, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the super fast reply, Gaile! The only human responses I get are "This will be reviewed by a senior tech." and the senior tech always closes the topic without even a reply. I almost had a heart attack when I saw that I was swiped by Dhuum and it kicked me off, I thought it was a joke at first until I got on Ventrilo and talked to others who were banned that day. I understand that Arena Net is very firm about their bans, and they're not taking favorites - but I know for a fact that I didn't use a bot or third party program. I know that I was the only one to ever sign into my account, and the only programs I ran were programs to reduce boredom or improve game play (Ventrilo, Teamspeak, iTunes, etc.). I know that I'm innocent, could you please review my account? There has to be room for mistakes in the bot ban, I don't deserve to be banned and it's really frustrating losing everything I've worked for and all the friends I've made, and have no hope of getting it back. I've reviewed all of the information you stated above, and fully understand; but I don't belong in any category, the last thing I am is a cheater. The seriousness I had with my account were to the extreme; I limited my language, and tried very hard not to offend anyone by what I said because I didn't want to get banned. I also submitted tickets reporting cheaters, scammers, and botters so that the support team could be on top and know about it. I have always been against cheaters, in any and every game that I've played and will play in the future. If anything, I was on Support's side. So, as a last resort, I beg you; could you please look into my account? The majority of my time was spent in Kamadan, American - English - District 1, power selling. I was in ZoS for a short time, and was really known by the Guild Wars community, however, I did get involved in some bad activity on the game unknowingly, but after I realized that it was against the rules, I immediately submitted it to the Support Team, apologizing and telling them how it was done so in the future they could catch the cheaters. When I wasn't in Kamadan, I was helping friends or in the Domain of Anguish. There was never an instant where I even walked away from the computer while Guild Wars was running, besides the occasional drink break. I'm not the biggest computer user, and don't know how to make a bot or use one. My point is, that all of the hours I've logged into Guild Wars, I was sitting there: typing, playing, moving, killing, and everything else that you do on Guild Wars. I'm disappointed because I was so close to getting my God Walking title also. I'd like to add that I didn't mean to create so many support tickets; I just realized that they like to keep 1 support topic in 1 support ticket, but the only reason I did was because I felt like the support team was ignoring me, and lost all hope. Like I said above, you're my last hope; and that's why I'm sitting here, begging you, to help me get my account looked at because I know I've done nothing to deserve a full account termination. If I can't get any support, and I buy GW2 - will I get banned from GW2 as well? Anyways, thanks for reading - I hope to hear from you soon, Gaile.

You can also try the BBB of Austin. This link https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/GetStarted.aspx?source=cibr&e=2920938&site=113&id=46a6a9cd-5402-454e-9476-e4df22e6f371 They help people. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by 208.101.159.115 (talk) at 23:23, 26 August 2010 (UTC).

I have looked into the BBB, but it clearly says that they in courage people to take it out with the business fully before filing a complaint, and that's what I'm doing right now.

Hey Gaile. I'm just wondering if there is any updates on the situation with my account. Is there any more information I can provide? Thanks.

I am sorry that you were expecting an update and I apologize if I wasn't clear. In the end, your account was involved in botting and will remain banned. As I have already expressed, I'm sorry about the situation, but the facts are solid and there can and will be no change in that particular outcome. -- Gaile 22:11, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

I just realized that you asked a question to which I can give a more cheerful answer: In nearly all cases, an account ban in Guild Wars will not influence how an account is handled, reviewed, or actioned in Guild Wars 2. We consider Guild Wars 2 players to have a "clean slate." But I imagine there will probably be cases where someone's grievous history in GW does have an influence on his account in GW2. For instance, a bigtime GW scammer or botter may be looked at a whole lot more carefully -- and may be actioned more quickly or given an extended time out -- in GW2. I'm just speaking casually now, but that's something I'll be discussing with the Support Team and the devs so we can develop a solid practice for issues that I hope will be really rare.

In your case I believe you should be fine in GW2. -- Gaile 00:48, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

Even the dumbest Guild Wars scumbag knows that when he/she doesn't have a static IP, and uses another NC Soft "Not So Secure" Master account, you won't be able to link his/her Guild Wars past to Guild Wars 2. The intentions are good, but results are lacking. AndrewB 07:54, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

I don't see why Guild Wars support team refuses to look into taking action on my account simply because it was banned in a massive botting era. If anything, that should give them more of a reason to take action; surely at least 1 person out of 3,700 were banned unrightfully, and I'm living proof. Not to get mad over the subject again, since this all happened over 6 months ago, but I think that's crap. If Guild Wars support is lacking this much motivation, I don't think I'll be picking up Guild Wars 2. What does it hurt to show a little evidence? I know it'd be impossible because I never used any sort of cheat. It seems as if whenever the support team is faced with a challenge (ie calling them wrong), they just end the topic in a long run. Also; as you might look back into my support threads, they haven't helped me once. Not when I lost my password, lost my NC account management username, or when I forgot my character name. I know for you a fact that it's impossible for the support team to have evidence of me doing anything that would be thought of as cheating, so why do they refuse to take action and ricochet my termination? By what you're stating, it's because I was banned in a specific botting era which makes me responsible for other's actions?

I'm really struggling to be as clear about this as I can. Please know that your account was reviewed in the appeals you sent. I reviewed it myself more than once. And the reviews established and re-established the fact that the account was linked to at least one disallowed third-party program. I don't know if it was a bot -- not all who were banned were botting, but all who were banned were using a disallowed program. I don't know how it got on your system, but my first thought is that you downloaded and used some third-party program that was corrupted to contain cheat components. We have no way of knowing if if you or someone else who may have been given permission to use the account knew the program was there, but there it was. The block was not based on a guess. It was not placed as a form of persecution. Your account was found to have a connection to a cheat program, and because the evidence is clear, the account will not be reinstated. -- Gaile 23:11, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

I don't see how that's possible though, I've never even had a program that touched GW on my computer. I've also never given anyone permission to my account, or my computer.

Blocked Account [Incident: 100828-001680]

Hello Gaile,

Another person who has been blocked. I've already sent a ticket in through support, I've read the forums and it was suggested to ask for your help here just in case. I don't really know what happened, I haven't played the game for a long time and only logged in sometimes just to see what is happening. I was really surprised to see that my account has been blocked which devastated me. I can tell you this, I have never botted, never bought or sold gold, and never used third-party programs. So I thought I was banned by mistake which has happened to a lot of people the past few months from what I've read on the forums. Then I received another e-mail and they said it had something to do with Aion. Which is strange because I have never played Aion nor purchased the game. So I'm confused at the moment. I hope this get resolve soon and thanks. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.34.58.191 (talk).

The Aion one was probably unrelated, and probably a scam. I'd ignore it.

As far as your incident, Gaile isn't a "just in case" liaison, she's available to give support a nudge if they don't respond after a few days. If that's the case then it's fine, but she prefers to not be approached about every issue because there's significant backup on support responses. (I mean, just look at all the tickets on this page alone.) --Kyoshi (Talk) 17:23, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

This issue was resolved by Support within 48 hours. -- Gaile 20:49, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Incident [Incident: 100825-002905]

Hi Gaile, just sent you a PM on guru re: A guildies plight.His english is'nt great and he's a little shy :) anyway It contains some sensitive info, hence the PM. Hope you can find time to review it for him. Thanks. --Shan 23:21, 31st August (UTC)

Hi Shan. I'm sorry, but as I just explained a couple of topics below, I'm stretched thin with so many irons in the fire, and my visits to the fan forums are not frequent. Please feel free to use the "email this use" system on this wiki, instead of sending me a forum PM. Thanks! -- Gaile 22:07, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Thanks Gaile, the guildie got it sorted out in the end. Took him 2 weeks of trying and enough detective work to keep Poriot busy but alls well that ends well :D Thanks again.

--Shan 18:53, 9th September(UTC)

So glad to hear that everything worked out well for him. And that's confirmation that the system -- while admittedly not perfect -- does work. Albeit sometimes with the help of Poirot or Miss Marple. :) -- Gaile 20:49, 9 September 2010 (UTC)