User talk:Gaile Gray/Archive Support Issues/Jan - Mar 2008

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Reports Out of the District

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

I know this is not the first post about reporting players but i still think this one is worth a place on your talkpage :).Here i go. Someone was using much verbal abuse in my whisper but unfortunally i couldn't report him because he wasn't in the sam district. Just like the know the reason why we can't report people swearing at us in your PM chat. --Fox007 20:51, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

The /report system works well for many kinds of issues, but for harassment, we really need more details that the /report system will offer. Please do submit a support ticket, providing date and time (and time zone), your character name, the offending character's name, and a general idea of what was being said. Thank you. -- Gaile 21:17, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Actually, i have a different reason for wanting reports outside of dis...with bots running out of town it is difficult to report before they map out Killer Revan 23:07, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Not to mention gold seller bots who spam you their adds long after you left the district they were in... 90.27.84.121 19:42, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) I have relayed the request for reporting outside the district. There are reasons it was restricted, but we'll see if there is advantage to lifting that restriction now. The designers will let me know, or you may see a change in the Update Notes. :) -- Gaile 06:39, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Gaile! I believe that this change... well I hope it would be advantageous to A.Net, but it would make a lot of players feel like they are doing something worthwhile. --Ravious 12:41, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

They are using a new tactic...spotter bots somehow give names to spammer bots...so the only person involved in spamming you that was ever in the same district as you is unidentifieable...as they never spammed Killer Revan 21:48, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

The Banning of Goldsellers

I hate gold seller's because they ruin the in-game economy,so what it seems you guys are GW need to do is to ban the goldseller's IP address because the goldsellers's use trial accounts so if you report them and they get banned they just use their other trial accounts. So when you ban someone for goldselling you should ban the IP address, so that would get rid of alot of the goldseller's out there because then they wouldn't be able to use any of their trial accounts again or even the account they play and deliver the gold with, ever again..... -- Ninja Dragon • Talk 23:41, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Actually, IP blocking is far too risky. You see, some neighborhoods share IPs. Maybe 1,000 or more people could have the same static IP. We cannot just randomly block an IP--and potentially close the accounts of innocent players--to try to catch the gold sellers. Most people involved in gold sales have ways to spoof an IP, or they use dynamic IPs. So they are actually less likely to be caught by an IP block than an innocent player would be. This is simply not a good option, but we continue to work on more viable options to improve the advertising and botting. -- Gaile 23:49, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Such as disabling Trial accounts ability to trade or drop things for other people. Nice work on that one Anet :D Crazy 07:38, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Well at least I now see why you guys at Anet would've broken off from Blizzard.....^.^ Ninja Dragon 17:22, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Sitting in LA for a couple mins and get spanned 5 times from the same person selling gold =/ --> Cfgh Hjuk <-- — Rappy 03:13, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Every time i go to Great Temple of Balthazar, i get a gold selling message. I just report the guy for spamming and move on. -Warior kronos 03:32, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

What if a temp ban is instituted on trial accounts, not real ones, when 20 (Or other number) people report a trial account for spamming? 68.62.26.48 02:55, 10 February 2008 (UTC)...forgot to log Killer Revan 02:56, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

Almost every major centre I enter I get whispered by random players (random lettered names) who are advertising the same site, but i can't find them to report them. I never noticed gold-sellers until like a fortnight ago and every time I'm on I get whispered by at least 5 different people. Can we just email Anet support the address they give? House Of Furyan 10:10, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes do pay a visit to the Support page and click under "Ask a Question" and report their IGN, district, what time and date. Barinthus 10:18, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

More Spam Bots for Game Gold?

I have never got a PM before telling me to buy gold or view a website and I have played for almost two years but now in the last week I have had it happen 3 times on separate days. Are Spammers up or is it just bad luck? I use the /report but they leave the town before I finish typing so Gaile is there any quick way to report or is the only way, to be faster or send a pic to Anet Support and should I even report them since they are more than likely trial accounts that banning will just make them use another. -- Natalie Black 02:44, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

There's definitely more of them. I've reported about half a dozen of them in the last week. -- Gordon Ecker 03:19, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

I've addressed this topic multiple times on the GWW and on forums. Nothing is more effective than hitting /report and sending a direct report, if you are able to do so. Use "Spamming" as the reason, unless we later add "gold selling" as a reason, which is something I have requested but may not be possible. I realize that you cannot /report someone who is not in your district, so in that case, you may use the Botwatch page to report gold-selling advertisers. This situation will be greatly eased in approximately two weeks, as the last of the free online demos expire, and as we move to alternative systems. Thank you. -- Gaile 06:10, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Sweet, I didn't know about this - I already shared it with my guild and alliance! Doing my part in the Bots Wars ;) Barinthus 06:44, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

It seems to be the ugame site every time, it's getting quite tiring. Adding another name to the botwatch page. Gaile, maybe it's a good idea to keep a link to it at the top of your talk page? EDIT: Never mind, it's there. I'm just blind. xD -- Elv 11:20, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the input. I will use the Botwatch if they are to fast to use the /report. It seams to be ugame for me also. -- Natalie Black 18:18, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

If you can block words, why not just block the addresses of know gold selling sites from chat? If they can't tell people where to go, they can't sell gold. Lord Belar 22:07, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Alliance Members Recourse

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

It seems to me there is no recourse for anyone against a ban. Where are the guidelines or procedures to follow to reverse a ban. Is that it? If so Why? We recently lost one of our Alliance memebers due to foul language, we think. The only reason stated by the logon window states Banned due to breath of code of conduct and nothing more. Seems to me there should be some sort of process to reverse a ban. Some people are more emotional than others when it comes to ID 10 T's, but to get a your account banned for such a simple mistake seems harsh to me. I know your GM's made a mistake in this instance and its basically turned me off to the Guild Wars Game. I know they ban a ton of accounts, everyday. Are they not just a little jaded? I personally can vouch for my guy and I know he would never put his account in jepardy in anyway. So what can be done?Prince Arcos 09:57, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately Gaile does not have the power to restore an account, your best bet is to contact support and see what they can do. I hope you get that sorted out. -- Broodling 15:00, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

It's not that they're jaded, it's that they're apparently horribly understaffed and they are still incapable of pulling up chat logs. --24.9.234.253 22:26, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) First, do you mean ban or do you mean block. A ban will indicate that is is permanent; a block will show a number of hours until the player can log back in. If someone has been banned and sees the message "a breach of the Rules of Conduct" as the reason, I can almost 100% assure you it was not a mere chat violation. I don't know of a single person, ever, who was banned for language. The "breach of the Rules of Conduct" message -- when it is connected to a permanent ban -- is used for continued scamming of players, for duping, for exploiting, for gold sales... in other words, that is a message that is given for the most serious of infractions. (Again, I don't know which applies to your guild leader.)

There are certainly ways for the Support Team to reverse a ban, if a reversal is in order. I encourage players who were blocked to consider the fact that blocks are temporary, and by the time someone puts together a protest and contacts Support, and by the time Support (given this is a weekend) is able to respond, the block may have nearly expired. For the player who was banned, the player -- and it must be the player him- or herself, not a friend or other advocate -- may contact Support via the official website, on the link that Broodling provided. A player can ask for a review, or for some level of information about his/her ban. However, Support will not provide chat logs, not because we can't, but because releasing that information is against company policy, for a variety of solid reasons. The fact is, though, that the Support Team has a very well-defined and very reasonable set of rules by which to assess reports and incidents, and they are very experienced and fair in the actions that they take.

From what I have seen in our system, the number of false positives for account actions (blocks or bans) is very, very low. I'm not saying that Support doesn't see a number of protests. But nearly every time I've asked about a particular account, it's been an eye-opening experience to see what people "forget" when they appeal their block. My point is, the number of times someone is blocked or banned in error is low. The team can make an occasional mistake, though, because they are human. (There are no mechanical or automatic bans in Guild Wars.) The Support Team will give each questioned block or ban a careful review to assure that the account action was appropriate, and was placed at the right level.

I hope this information is helpful to you, and I am going to move this to the Support Concerns page, where I think it is more appropriately placed. -- Gaile 02:24, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Where Do I Complain about Advertisers?

i was just wondering if someone could help me find where to complain about gold sellers, advertisers that sort of thing, because its really annoying me now. heres a screen shot i just did: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/robotnorris/gw061.jpg please tell me; thank you. --Robot 18:14, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

/report Bot Seller Name Here (only works if they are in same dis) Report for spamming Killer Revan 18:16, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

There's a link to a Botwatch page at the top of this page. -- Brains12 \ Talk 18:17, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

I think ugamegold is the biggest advertiser at the moment in the game. You almost get a pm in every capital outpost of the game from them. But the number is reducing. Good job! Death Sligher 18:24, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

What about reporting them for botting? Because that's what I've been doing. InvdrFlame 19:16, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Reporting is great, and thanks. If you do /report, I think the best option might be "spamming" as that is what they're doing, even if by whisper. However, "botting" would work fine, as well. Thanks. -- Gaile 19:28, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Gaile, just a question ... as there is lots of spamming for ugamegold lately, I'm wondering why do players have to keep reporting them ... I mean, what about contacting ugamegold owners and tell them to stop (at least spamming, if not selling gold too). --Шєвч [TALK] @ 21:52, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Just block ugame and ugamegold from chat. Lord Belar 22:17, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

We do have filters and we do block, but sometimes the company subtly changes their URL and the filter no longer performs as desired. I'll check on that tomorrow.

We are not able to contact this company and force them to stop such sales, as they are not in an area where we have legal representation. I believe that we would need to have the assistance of local authorities in closing down such retailers, and from what I understand, such assistance is routinely declined. -- Gaile 23:01, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

From what I understand what they are doing is not illegal anyhow, and therefore authorities would have little success. They are violating the EULA not any laws. --Lemming 23:11, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Most countries respect User Agreements, and support the fact that, on our private game servers, we have the right to set expectations of behavior, including setting prohibitions for sales related to our intellectual property. Some countries do not. But then, some countries don't do a whit about copyright violations, and over 95% of the software in their country is stolen. Which of course impacts costs for software users (and developers) everywhere. But that's another subject for another day... :) -- Gaile 00:35, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Am I the only one who feels sorry for poor Meta Game, who apparently is on a course which sucks? -- Salome 13:22, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent)

Hey Gaile I know this is off topic but: Do you know exactly how many GW accounts there are (dis-including trial accounts). because I know the games gotten really big but I just don't know how big. -- Ninja Dragon 00:38, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

We've sold well over 4,000,000 (4 million!) copies of Guild Wars. That does not includes demos or trials. -- Gaile 01:23, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Back to the subject, maybe you guys can make ugamegold and other names like rude names ingame. Then it would look like: we are selling gold go to ----------------, fast delivery etc. maybe they will stop making trail accounts if people can't read there message's. Death Sligher 9:35, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Arenanet has actually done that in the past. Early on in GW (2005, I think) there were bots like this, only spamming the local channels. Eventually, the name 'virgoods' (site no longer in existance, so it shouldn't matter that I posted the name) was censored, and remains so today. The bots went quiet pretty quick. The problem with doing it this time though, is that by default the censor is set to allow swearing in PM. If the site was set as a naughty word, you could still use it in PM's WITH the censor on it's default setting. Marin Alacet 23:25, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Great idea Death -- Ninja Dragon 08:39, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

But it would still show up for anyone with the word filter off. What about running some kind of "sniffer" to detect accounts engaging in spambot-like behaviour (such as rapidly whispering to the same messages to large numbers of people) and flagging them for scrutiny? -- Gordon Ecker 09:04, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

All that can be achieved with such an obvious block is a momentary respite and the sellers will simply make a subtle change and carry on doing just what they're doing. Remember they have a financial incentive to spur them onto coming up with quick workarounds to basic blocking. Where there's a will, there's a way (unfortunately). WarBlade 09:41, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

4 million? That's far more than I'd thought! Congratulations! :) -- Sirius 11:42, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Its actually at more than 4.5 Million but that is products not accounts as I have all the releases so while I only have one account I count as four products. Still there are alot of accounts though -- Natalie Black 16:13, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

I can't remember where I heard this but somewhere I heard that those kinds of bots use the free trial codes...--The Forsaken One 16:30, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

They use trail accounts because they wouldn't pay 50$ + just to get banned.... and also you never see bot's farther into the game. And Also Why would you turn the chat filter off if you don't want to watch them swear or pm you the website I know I Wouldn't? -- Ninja Dragon 02:40, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Biggest problem is people actually buying gold from them, if all the idiots out there learn to play a game rather than looking for the fast easy method all the time then they wouldn't have an incentive. As for the EULA, my understanding is that this creates a binding contract, might not be able to enforce it via the criminal courts but should be enforceable via the civil courts, of course this depends on the individual country and as already has been pointed out some countries don't care. Draco 18:53, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Credit Card Issues

→ moved from User talk:Gaile Gray

Hi Gaile, I've a few questions concerning the in-game store and credit card usage, and I was hoping you couldclarify a few things for me. I have three GW accounts I play (fairly) regularly, upgraded in varying degrees. I've been considering upgrading my second account with EotN, but I already have one boxed version and I see no point in getting an extra bit of plastic.
My problem is this: I have upgraded my primary account with extra character slots and such through the in-game store, using my shiny credit card. To avoid the unnecessary purchase of another piece of plastic, I'd like to use my credit card on my second account for the acquisition of EotN. Unfortunately I've heard of a fair number of incidents with credit cards being rejected, accounts getting blocked etc. when the same credit card was being used for more than one account- apparently over fraud issues even though the transaction was perfectly legit.
I have no way of finding out whether or not this is true, or even possible other than asking. I could, of course, simply try to use my credit card on my second account but I'd rather not risk a ban and go through the long, unwieldy channels of Support to solve the possible issues as a result of the attempt. The same goes for accounts of friends- suppose I was at a friend's and wanted to buy them an upgrade for their account as a gift, would that be an issue? The account would have purchases linked to more than one credit card, after all...
I hope you'll be able to provide me with some answers and advice concerning the matter. Thanks. :) -- Elv 13:57, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

I have used the same card for up to 4 different accounts and never run into any problems. :) - Bex 14:26, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

Congratulations! Reducing waste amount is a good thing!

Er... I mean same thing for me with my 2 accounts. Although with the second account there was indeed a problem the first time I tried, but I came back later and everything went smoothly.--MORTUIЯUS 20:35, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

I've purchased upgrades on multiple accounts, including for a friend from out of town who didn't use credit cards, and none of them have ever had any problems.--Pyron Sy 23:27, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

I think you're worrying over nothing. I have never had any trouble using my(roommate's) credit card in the ingame store. I have purchased several character slots and GWEN if I recall, no problems there. Once I remember roommie was ordering me something and the store gave her an error "credit card rejected" or something but if I remember right the transaction still went through. My roommate has used her credit card to buy me, herself and a third friend(all separate accounts ofcourse) slots and games before and no issues there. If your credit card gets rejected often the blame is usually in the credit card service/bank rather than the ingame store. - nian 00:11, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

I used a credit card on 3 accounts and it wouldn't let me use it on a 4th one. It just said "card in use on to many account." So obviously there is a problem there if you can't use it on all of the account you have access too. — ク Eloc 貢 04:33, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, I'm glad to hear that despite some issues, there don't appear to be any bans involved. I don't think I'm worrying over nothing- there are issues, and if they involve credit cards, I think that's a good reason for concern. Thanks for the feedback so far, guys. :) -- Elv 06:21, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

I wrote to Support, and they suggest that if you have concerns about the use of credit cards, you're free to write them in advance of a purchase. In addition, if you wish to purchase items for other players, there is no direct means to do that at present, because of course you have to be on the account to add the gift. (I often bring up the fact that we should support giving gifts in the future.) Account Support actually suggested using a pre-paid credit card to effect a purchase for a friend, and they can use the prepaid CC to add the item(s) the account and complete the transaction remotely or while you're together, as you wish. I've seen pre-paid CC's at no cost, through grocery stores and other retailers, so hopefully that is a helpful option for you. -- Gaile 06:54, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I don't live in a country where prepaid cards are a viable option. I don't think I've ever seen one in any store, so if they exist here they're well-hidden to say the least. I do entirely support the idea of a gift-giving system, because I think it would be absolutely awesome. Perhaps you can use instances as this one as 'case studies' to remind a few people of your point.

I guess what I'll do is just badger Support a little. I have some good answers now, so I think I'll be fine if I just send a pre-alert of my purchase. Thanks for the help. :) -- Elv 17:52, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

/report Question.

→ moved from User talk:Gaile Gray

I do alot of running for money and many people that agree to have runs simply leave the district when they owe me money. Could you let me know why you can't report a person who has left the district? Thanks Smashman2004 ∙ talk 08:43, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

because it's not illegal. the eula does not warrant a ban for bad behavior. - Y0_ich_halt 16:59, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

As I understand it, running it not a supported game mechanism, therefore if you choose to do it you pretty much have to take the risk of non-payers. So either get payment up front, part or full. Or charge enough to cover the costs of non-payers. --Lemming 17:04, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

I hope that there will be a mechanism to support running in GW2. Meanwhile, I think it should count as a reportable offense, and ppl should be punished for it. -- Alaris 17:31, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Running kinda defeats the point of the game... --Lemming 17:34, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

which is why there should actually be a mechanism preventing running. - Y0_ich_halt 17:56, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

imo, it does not 'defeat the purpose of the game'. The 'purpose' of the game is to have fun playing it. If I've already played through an area 3-4 times, doing it again on a new character is not fun. I would prefer to be run. In that case, NOT running actually defeats the purpose of the game. — ( ɔ \ ʇ ) uɐɥʇıǝɹ 18:03, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

it should still get prevented. - Y0_ich_halt 18:05, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Why? — ( ɔ \ ʇ ) uɐɥʇıǝɹ 19:26, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

I never said it defeated the "purpose" of the game which I agree is to have fun, the "point" of the game on the other hand is to have a set storyline to get from one area to the next, why do you think in factions and nightfall they made it nearly impossible to be ran anywhere. --Lemming 19:48, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

@reithan: because. :P - Y0_ich_halt 20:08, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Based on discussion of the very same topic before, I've understood that Anet neither supports nor actively disencourages running so handling transactions is the players responsibility. I would ask for half or full payment up front or at least half of the way depending on where you were going if I were to do runs. I doubt any of the campaigns were made with running specifically in mind. - nian 22:10, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

I never said the campaign was made with running in mind, just the mechanic for navigating it. You can not enter a town further in the storyline, unless you are doing the relevant mission/quest for an npc to let you through the gate. That is clearly an anti-"running" mechanic and nothing else. --Lemming 23:12, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

There are propably several reasons as to why those exists. In Faction I've always thought of it as more of a push/encouragement to try out ab, especially for the more PvE oriented players. Anyway that was not my point. - nian 10:23, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

What I want to see is two things: First of all, I agree that we need to have cross-district reporting, because of the spambots jumping districts. Also, I would like to see the [argument] of /report take precedence over the person selected. Often times, I've something selected, like my partner that I'm partying up with, and a get a spam message. I go to /report them, and I mistakenly slap my partner instead. -cringe- If this is not possible, could you perhaps relay to Support to check the logs to see if a mistake was made in that manner if the /report seems to be false? I'd hate either myself or my partner to be slapped with a temp block because of a mistake made in syntax. Shen 19:41, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Long-term reporting statistics might help a lot in figuring out who is causing problems in-game, and who is abusing the report system. Spammers and trouble-makers will get reported by various people. Griefers who report innocent people will end up reporting people that no-one else reports. Even Guilds or groups of griefers can be identified by their report patterns. Legit reporters can be identified by their reliability and by following-up highly reported felons. Finally, falsely or erroneously reported people will otherwise tend to have a clean record. -- Alaris 19:47, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

I agree that it seems much more logical that a name written in the command takes precedence over who you have selected. It's rarely easy to find and select someone specific in a crowded district just because you saw them spam or type obsinities in the chat. Although you can override this by selecting yourself or a NPC so it's a minor miss. However I personally doubt the usefulness of reporting spambots in the long run since they no doubt take full advantage of changing names and accounts as often as possible, maybe through using trials. Not saying they weren't annoying and it would be nice to see some solution to the situation before it gets more common. Cross-district reporting would be useful only if the reviewers could actually see the chatlog of the abuse because currently I've understood that they don't just ban someone for being reported by a few people, there needs to be some evidence. So if you report someone much later than when the actual abuse happened then it could get a bit difficult to find the proof. I'm unaware of wheter the report reviewers can actually go through private/whisper chat logs since the spambots now only seem to use whispering. - nian 20:36, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

To Shen: If you accidentally report your pal a few times nobody's going to get blocked so no worries there. It's only if the reporting is constant that they might do something. They do check the chat logs before they slap anyone with a ban-stick though. - nian 20:45, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Bot Report

Hi Gaile, your attention is kindly requested to this. It is a growing menace to those of us who still farm the odd faction or two. Thanks in advance. Esan 18:42, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

There is a page for bot reports here on the Guild Wars Wiki. Please go here if you wish to make a report. I try to provide the tools to allow players to make suggestions, bug reports, and to share other types of information here on the wiki. I hope that you can make a report on the page I've cited. Thank you. (Incidentally, I hope that you will not mind my abbreviating the title of your comment, but the formatting of this page is badly tweaked with an overly-long subject line.) --- Gaile 19:06, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll smoke 'em as I see 'em. Esan 15:07, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

problems with female derv model again....

alright i posted bout this before and alrdy know defragmenting can solve it, but it seems this is happening almost every single update...the last 2 updates in march both did this, and i dont feel like defragmenting my computer every single update, it takes a few hours...can u plz look into this. and for those who have no idea what im talking bout, the female dervishes appear as if their holding an invisible bundle item in towns whenever moving and in explorable they hold all weapons as if they have backward joints >.>, i never knew wrists bent that way lol >.>.Snipey lizard 00:05, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

try reinstalling? -FireFox 00:10, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Hi. At this point, I do not see that this is a game issue, but instead believe that it is something odd on your own system. For if defragmenting fixes the issue, and I've not seen any other reports, I have to conclude that this is on your end, rather than a Guild Wars bug itself. I will scope out the forums to see if anyone else is reporting this, but I believe that the solution is within your system, rather than within the game code. Thanks. -- Gaile 00:19, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Try erasing your gw.dat and then running gw.exe -image - this will re-download all of the game assets (run it overnight). That fixed a similar issue I had with Devona. --Tankity Tank 00:57, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Did, fixed it but once again took another hour...I hope it doesn't do it again, and there are others with it, last inceddent there were alot of people complaining about it in ab and ra, this time I haven't check but im sure there are others.Snipey Lizard. forgot to log in74.186.169.130 01:10, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

You could do what I did. Once I had a "clean" (by that I mean, one that wasn't corrupted) gw.dat, I copied it and renamed it so that whenever I have an issue... all I have to do is delete the corrupted one and rename the clean one (but not before making another copy of it). --Doll 01:25, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Account Support- a complaint

I'm going to address a completely new issue on this page- account support. I wrote a ticket to support today requesting help, and I got nothing useful out of it. In fact, all I got was a bad attitude, an almost blatant refusal to help me, and a request for me to do the impossible. I wanted to change my game account password today. The client referred me to the PlayNC page, so I logged on to my Master Account. I couldn't find what I needed, so I checked the FAQ and looked again. When my resources failed, I took my time to sit down and write a detailed support ticket, explaining exactly everything that was wrong. The response I got completely disregarded everything I had stated. It was an answer, yes, but not an answer to the question I had asked. I was told to supply a number of things for the return of my PlayNC account (which, as I said, I could access just fine), and I was also told that I couldn't in fact change my Guild Wars password because my GW account had been merged with my PlayNC account, despite the fact that their own FAQ explained where and how I should change my password using the PlayNC website. You'll understand that the answer was neither adequate nor satisfying, so I sat down once again to explain the issue. I know for a fact that my accounts are linked, but for some reason, my GW account is NOT showing up in my PlayNC account. (Which is a completely different issue, but just as worrying, if not more so.) I got a reply, that once again asked me to provide a ridiculous list of details. See below, I kid you not:

• First and last name
• Postal address
• E-mail address
• Date of Birth
• 20-digit Serial code/25-digit Access key
• Unique account ID (This was sent to you via email on the date your game account was activated, with a subject header of “Game Account Activated.”)
• Last 4 digits of the credit card used on your account
• The creation date of your Guild Wars Account
• A scan or photograph of the actual insert showing the access key and the receipt of purchase in an attachment

My comments on this: My personal details (name, address, DoB) I can provide. I have moved since I created the account, but I assume that the original details would suffice. Credit card details I can provide. The 25-digit access keys I can provide- well, one of them at least. I have the Prophecies box at hand and I know for a fact it still has the tiny slip of paper. I'm not so sure about the whereabouts of my Factions and Nightfall boxes (again, I recently moved) and I'm even less sure if they even still contain those tiny slips of paper. Eye of the North, several character slots and various other upgrades were purchased via the in-game store. The Unique Account ID... I have no idea if I ever even got one. Presumably so, but after almost 3 years it's very likely that it's no longer in my inbox. The creation date of my Guild Wars account? Are you kidding me? How in the world am I supposed to remember this? Through an email I got over 2 years ago that has probably long since vanished from my inbox...? A scan of the access key I can provide, or a photo. Either works. The receipt I cannot provide- Prophecies was a gift and I don't know if the giver of the gift still has the receipt. Factions and Nightfall I bought via online stores that shipped them to my house. I probably have order confirmations somewhere, but they'll be hard to find. Honestly, though... Would you keep a receipt for over a year after booking it in your accountings, finishing your tax returns etc.? I keep receipts of items that have warranties requiring me to keep them, like computers, mp3 players, etc. I don't usually keep receipts of online games that aren't exactly famous for money-back policies. Once I've accounted for those expenses, there's usually not much point. I don't understand how you can expect anyone to keep those details- never mind after this long.

I had explained the difficulty in providing some of the details, so Unique Account ID and Creation Date were taken off the list. They still asked for scans / photos of the keys. I took some time and dug up a few things, coming up with no less than THREE access keys. I added those to the details, filled out everything I could in as much detail as possible. My scanner is still in a box somewhere, so I answered that I wouldn't be able to send scans of my 3 keys just yet, and submitted my ticket. The reply I got was: Thank you for updating us with your status. We will be looking forward for the information in order to assist you further. In other words... "Even though we really have everything we need to assist you, we've decided to be nit-picky and refuse to help you until you send us scans of keys of which you've already provided us the numbers." Are you kidding me? I spend fortunes on my account, and this is what I get for a response when I actually need support? What... the... fudge? -- Elv 21:49, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

I understand your distress. Send me an email to community@arena.net. Please provide me the support ticket number. Thank you. -- Gaile 22:14, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Done, thank you. :) -- Elv 23:02, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

And if you're who I think you are (working from real-world names elsewhere) I am going to figure this was all resolved? Just checking. :) -- Gaile 01:11, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes, it was in fact all resolved. After you forwarded in, the matter was dealt with really quickly. Thanks again. :) -- Elv 07:06, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

WHY WHY WHY?what i do?

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

I've posted here and also ask over at wiki regarding someone from china buying / using an american guildwars account. the answers I've been given is that I can buy a guild wars account from anywhere in the world and also able to use it. Some players also suggest that there will be no problem in using an american guildwars account from mainland china.

I've therefore, bought my copy of guild wars north american pack/edition, after 20 days of using said account, my account was stop for 70 hours, today it has been discontinued for good.

why? can i please have an answer? other commets were not translated.

--Weillz 04:58, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Hello, Weillz. Can you please tell me what message you get when you try to log in? There should be a specific message, "Your account has been blocked for (reason)." What do you see? I will try to find out more, but I need to have some information from you first. Thank you. -- Gaile 05:45, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Your Guild Wars account has been terminated for a breach of the User Agreement and or Rules of conduct. this action is permanent/.(code=045)

Guild Wars is not sold in China, it is only in beta testing there. So anyone who wishes to purchase a copy needs to do so external to China, as far as I understand it, and that would mean that he or she was playing on the servers of whatever region that game comes from. In other words, if someone purchases a copy from the US, he/she would be playing on the US servers. I do not think that IPs are blocked from China or anywhere else but I can ask about that. this!

My MSN : (e-mail removed to stop spam -- Indochine talk)--Weillz 06:19, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Try reading up on the EULA. Perhaps you've done something in the game that would flag your account for a ban and at least after reading through that you might have a clue as to what that might be. The other thing I'd ask is how exactly did you purchase your account? A physical box from a shop? Or maybe bought from the Guild Wars In-Game Store? --WarBlade 06:58, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

I don't think they can use the ingame store without first having bought the game/account because you need to be logged in? - nian 08:58, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

It sounds to me like you may have violated something in the User Agreement that got your account banned, but I am not entirely sure. However if it is a bug/glitch or something you may need to contact support but I am not 100% postive on that. My best bet is that it has something to do with the User Agreement. --Shadowphoenix 17:39, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

I agree with shadowphoenix. This most likely is a breach of the user agreement and hasn't got anything to do with the fact he's in china. May have bought/sold gold or any other number of things which equate a permanent ban. His only recourse really is to contact support but with their not being a Chinese support network for guild wars due to it never being properly released there, i'm not too sure about how successful that's gonna be for him. -- Salome 18:00, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Hello, Weillz. In order to check on this, NCsoft, who provides our support, would need your user name and other details. The best way to work through this is to write to Support]. Use the "Ask a question" button to create a support ticket. Provide your account user name, the date you were blocked, the error message that you received, and so forth. (They do not need or want your password, of course.) Support will then check into this and get back to you with information about what happened. I am sure they can assist you, and good luck. -- Gaile 18:32, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Gaile, don't you ever get tired of repeating that? ~ SCobra 21:39, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

If I had to guess, I would say it is delicious copypasta. — ( ɔ \ ʇ ) uɐɥʇıǝɹ 21:41, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, actually, I do sometimes feel like a parrot, saying the same thing yet again. On the other hand, I'm not in a position to personally assist, and I have to assume that the person to whom I'm giving the information really needs it, so I do feel that it's good for me to reply, right? :) (And no, I don't have it in my cache to paste in. Maybe I should consider that.) -- Gaile 21:43, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

HI,my ID Wei Ness //// Email Address:<snip> //// Your Guild Wars account has been terminated for a breach of the User Agreement and or Rules of conduct. this action is permanent/.(code=045)//// Can you help me? --Weillz 03:01, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

I removed your email, hope the crawlers haven't gotten it yet. Posting emails like that is a good way to get more spam. :)

Regarding your issue, Gaile is not the right person to approach. As she mentioned, please send your details to Support. That's where you will get more info on your ban. -- ab.er.rant 03:07, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

As peeps have already said Weillz, none of us here can help you. You HAVE to contact for support for that. Their is nothing gaile or anyone else on this site can do for you in this instance. -- Salome 21:43, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

freedom and equality?

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us about your Guild Wars game account.

Your account was permanently closed because you engaged in the sale of in-game items for cash or other items with real world value, or you engaged in gathering items to be sold for cash or other items with real world value. Both actions are against our User Agreement, where Section 7 states, "You may not sell or auction any Guild Wars accounts, characters, items, coin or copyrighted material, nor may you assist others in doing so."

Protests regarding the termination of your Guild Wars game account will not be addressed or entertained. We will not accept appeals in cases such as this because of the depth of the analysis prior to the block. We regret the necessity of terminating any game account, but we will continue to take all necessary actions to protect the Guild Wars community and to assure that players are abiding by our User Agreement.

Please keep in mind that Guild Wars is a global game with hundreds of thousands of players. This means that standards of behavior must be upheld. For your convenience, you can obtain more information about our rules at the addresses listed below.

- User Agreement: http://www.guildwars.com/support//le...-agreement.php

- Rules of Conduct: http://www.guildwars.com/support/leg...sofconduct.php

- Conduct Breaches & Outcomes: http://www.guildwars.com/support/leg...d_outcomes.php

Regards,

The Guild Wars Support Team

---

Please answer my qustion: HOW did I sell items for cash? WHAT did I sell? With WHOM? Please explain with evidence. I'm just an ordinary GW player. I accumulated my in-game money and items little by little on my own. You may call this farming, but everyone may farm in GW and I did it for my own pleasure or gave some of the items to my friends. That's it! No illegal trading whatsoever. Just because I come from China doesn't mean I have to be one of those stereotypical gold farmers. Did I get banned because of your prejudice against us? Is this the so-called "freedom and equality" advocated in America? Please be responsible for what you said. Again, I want your evidence or my account back. Thank you.

--Weillz 05:55, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

I am very sorry, but I cannot assist with this matter. Please contact the Support Team and, if you are certain you were not engaged in the disallowed actions that they describe, ask them to review your case. They have extensive records, and they can check to verify that the process that was used to determine this block was appropriate and fair. Thank you. -- Gaile 06:08, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

can you help me?--Weillz 06:12, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

I wish that I could help you, Weillz, and I may be able to do that later. But you see, I do not have access to the information that the Support Team can access. They have a lot of tools that let them see what happened with an account. For instance, they can see trades and exchanges and figure out what sorts of transactions were happening. If you write to them and explain that you were not involved in selling Guild Wars gold or items for real-world money, and were not working for a company involved in such sales, they will look at the records to see what may have caused you to be blocked in error. If you write to them, and they have questions, they can write to me and send me the information that they have, so I may be able to help later. But first, you need to write to Support to get things started. Thank you for doing that. -- Gaile 06:27, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

"there is no implicit, legal, or even moral requirement to show "proof"". Sorry to say it but unless you email Support (NCSoft) and they go "whoops we made a boo-boo" which is pretty clear that they won't even 'entertain' that notion, it doesn't look good for you. I would be surprised if they provided evidence though as to justify your permanently closed account. Its unrealistic to hold ArenaNet (well, maybe thats harsh, well no since they're part of NCSoft) or NCSoft to any levels of fairness or any level of justification. From one player to another, man, I feel for you. Good luck! House Of Furyan 07:10, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

While I see that you have a bit of skepticism, please do understand that account blocks and terminations are reviewed daily, and in cases where an error has been made, they will be and are reversed. I know that you can find instances of that on these very GWW pages. I would not encourage someone to contact Support unless I knew -- as I do -- that a second look may result in a different decision. There are no promises that a review will be an "automatic reinstatement," but in cases where someone is assuredly innocent of gold farming or gold sales, it's definitely worthwhile to request a review. -- Gaile 07:16, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Erh, not that it matters really but, is that true for this case, given that Anet is already stating (and i quote) "Protests regarding the termination of your Guild Wars game account will not be addressed or entertained. We will not accept appeals in cases such as this because of the depth of the analysis prior to the block."? (in any case, at best this looks like another "my little brother", and at worst looks like a collateral ban because of a proxy ip).--Fighterdoken 07:24, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

So they permanently closed his account, then they check it the next day or that day? Is that what you're trying to say? In the text provided it states this "We will not accept appeals in cases such as this because of the depth of the analysis prior to the block.". In the user agreement I find no references to 'reviews'. House Of Furyan 07:25, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Where did you get the idea that it's the country of freedom and equality ? The Mermaid I would Like To Feed - 90.15.61.164 07:30, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, in Conduct Breaches they have the word 'review' but I would guess it is before the banning/blocking/closing than after. So, I'm a little lost, if they review before it and won't entertain appeals after... House Of Furyan 07:35, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Gaile, thank you for your help! I already wrote to the support team yesterday but still didn’t receive their reply. Thank you for your trust in me. My trading partners were all my guildie, friends, and occasionally party members at Gate of Anguish, none of whom were gold farmers. In-game trading and communication between friends should be encouraged. Sadly, some of these friends got banned because they purchased EtoN with a Chinese international credit card, which I believe to be pretty unfair. The great distance between China and US adds to the inconvenience of communication.

The9 City (GW’s partner in China) will terminate GW’s Chinese version on 3/31 so the North American server will probably see more people from China. --Weillz 08:20, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Rebirth

I am halfway from beeing able to not touch GuildWars any more. Can you please ban me for a larger amount of time ? The Monster I would Like To Face - 86.209.199.235 19:58, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, but we don't really want to close someone's account without cause. I guess you could "self-ban" yourself, eh? :) -- Gaile 01:07, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Actually I send a complaint about me to the support team. They answered that I could not be trusted since I was the one reporting. Have a nice day. Yseron, Gaile Gray Greatest Fan - 90.29.55.68 22:06, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

For an ADDED challenge, you can just practice self control! We're human, so we can break away from instinct. However, I understand if it's a bit harder for some. Vael Victus 06:05, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

thank you

Thank you SOOOO MUCH Gaile! They unblocked my account!--Weillz 03:43, 18 March 2008 (UTC)'

Congratz mate! Although still somewhat worried about the first mail you got from them which seemed to just say "We're not gonna review this further!", very misleading. However very happy that it worked out alright in the end although i hope you got some kind of apology from them for banning you in the first place. -- Salome 06:04, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

I would ask myself why, with the "because of the depth of the analysis prior to the block", it happened in the first place. Ready to revert this post, Gaile ? Go ! Go ! Go ! Yseron - 86.64.70.44 11:57, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Could you PLEASE stop trolling? Although he does make a valid point about the "because of the depth of the analysis prior to the block" -- Salome 15:52, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Very happy to hear that you're ok now, Weillz. Hope to see you in the game soon. :) -- Gaile 23:06, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Congratz Weillz, I hope you got a bloody good apology from them. House Of Furyan 06:36, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Buyers

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

After the ip update I think there are more people who want to buy a account ingame for ingame money. I saw 3 buyers in 1hour. I have all reported for spamm but still, are they trying to get accounts this way, because trail accounts dont work anymore? Death Sligher 12:47, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

There are a lot of people (stupid I might add) who try and buy accounts for in-game gold, and most are just doing it so they don't have to spend real world money on the accounts. However, the reality is most of those people get spammed out of their money or accounts. I don't believe the IP update was targeted at them, but rather at the numerous actual Gold Selling Companies. These companies use trial accounts mostly for spamming large towns (I.E. Lion's Arch, Kadaman, Great Temple of Balthazar). They also use new accounts (thus the 24 hour no-trade ban) to deliver the actual gold. The people you're talking about are more normal just doing something stupid, but this update was aimed at the big folks, the actual gold traders.

Did you mean "scammed out of their money or accounts?" Just checking.) -- Gaile 01:15, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes but can't people who need accounts to sell gold (and they have much ingame money) just buy new accounts in this way. Who are older then 24hours? We my report those people who try to buy account for ingame money right? Death Sligher 16:48, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

I have asked if we can add a "gold and account sales" reason for the /report system, so that we can track those trying to buy used accounts to work around the 24-hour block on trade. I don't know if it's possible, but it is a request on the table just in case it would be do-able. -- Gaile 01:15, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Gah, I did, nice catch haha-Warior kronos 02:54, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Latency

I haven't seen any mention of this on the official site, but I myself and many of my alliance members have been having insane latency issues over the past couple of days, possibly since the latest update. Sometimes I'm fine for a few hours, only to get insane lagspikes later. Last night I disconnected twice in 5 minutes, and simply logged off. Today I've disconnected about 10 times in as many minutes, and a lot of my alliance has been having the same issues. I can't play like this, and usually we get notified about such issues. What's going on? -- Elv 15:23, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Can you tell me where you are located? How about your guild members? It's really helpful to know locations so we can consider any regional issue component. That is, sometimes the Internet is woogly in a certain region of the country, and that accounts for the issue, rather than the Guild Wars servers themselves. (I know it sounds like an excuse, but truly, the vast majority of latency issues are related to something outside our data centers.) Anyway, since I haven't seen issue reports lately, I am wondering if you can provide location information and I will check around to see if I can identify any issues. Thanks. -- Gaile 01:10, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

It's happened to me on the European servers, on the International servers and in the Guild Hall which I believe is neutral. I haven't been on the American servers lately, but some of our alliance members are there and I wouldn't be surprised if it's happened there as well. The members I know about are in various parts of Europe, one is in America but plays on the European servers. People have been asking in Alliance Chat about it, so I'll see if I can gather some more precise data.

Just yesterday when I wrote this we had to forfeit a vanquish because of it. It's hard to get started when your members are constantly booted from inside the town, and even harder to keep going when you're finally in a zone and people keep freezing every other minute. The friends I was with were having the same problem: they'd get 7k ping lag spikes, or a little James Bonding. -- Elv 07:11, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

I've asked around in Alliance Chat, and people still seem to be having trouble. As far as I can tell it's on the EU and International servers; I've been unable to confirm issues in American districts. I can, however, confirm that it's happened to people from various parts of Europe (UK, West and East Europe both) and American people playing on Euro servers. Whatever is wrong isn't local, so maybe it's an issue with European data centre. I've only just logged on today, so I'll be keeping an eye out for more reports. -- Elv 18:33, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Update: I just got a few more spikes, and so did a friend- he lives in Seattle. Still Euro servers, though. -- Elv 19:24, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Change report options

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Now this is just unfair..i was doing ra and behold we get a leecher, obviously we lost the match so i reported the leecher as i normally would, well apparently this person got mad and started pming me all kinds of stuff...so i ignored em. well he goes and starts messaging in all chat "player xxxxx is leaving gw and giving away free stuff, pm him!!!" (there are people who believe this stuff.....)and great i end up getting like 50 pms....im in an active guild and friends list so do not disturb wasn't an option for me...but i had to, so i did and pmed FU and go away noob to this guy. Well aparently there are people with no lives whatsoever because he starts spamming reports of abusive language at me and guess what i end up getting suspended. WTF IS THAT, i endure a few hours worth of some noob with no life trying to get back at me for reporting him for leeching and send one pm to get him to stop and im suspended.......PLZ do somethign with the report system, its not punishing people who do wrong things, its allowing nubs to get other peoples accounts disabled. Either do this or im gonna have to start taking a screeny of every single curse word people say and report them as revenge to make me feel better and apparently make use of the unfair system.74.186.169.130 21:17, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Does Anet ban people for swearing only once? Nicky Silverstar 23:17, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Let me guess.... you didn't remember to take screenshots of your conversation with that leecher? -- ab.er.rant 01:43, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

I am so sorry for what happened there! Please do me a favour and write to Support and tell them the whole circumstances. Tell them about the several hours of abuse, so that they know to pull the full chat logs, and I do believe they will be able to help you with this. (Well, if everything is as you say, of course. :) )

It would be really unusual for our Support Team to block someone based on a single account, so be sure you have all the details in your support ticket, ok? -- Gaile 04:45, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Players shouldn't need to screenshot their conversations, Support should provide ... oh, thats right, support doesn't actually say anything bar "You did something naughty, we have proof but we're not going to show you." House Of Furyan 05:04, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

In a situation like this, that's correct, there is no implicit, legal, or even moral requirement to show "proof" of the need to take action, or decline to take action, on those playing on the private Guild Wars servers. You can be sure that the Support Team is highly motivated to resolve issues with the least possible impact on the individual player, but will not hesitate to take action when it is warranted. And no, they don't need screenshots, either for indictment or defense. -- Gaile 05:09, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Do you know what also sucks with the report feature. Reporting someone who's leeching and no one else being bothered too, so getting dishonour points yourself, most annoying. Happened to me so many times as so many people either A) dont understand the /report feature or B) cant be bothered with it. I still think that the report feature needs a complete overhaul and also once done, is needed for PvE too for leeching. -- Salome 09:05, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Salome, call me a "tad" tardy on this question. ;) But I wonder, is it your belief that reporting someone when others do not also report will cause you problems? Even with just a single report that others don't confirm? If you feel that is the case, I want to look into the system at greater depth, because that is not how I perceived it to work (and hasn't been my experience with leechers). It was my belief that it was only through multiple reports that were not confirmed by others that a player would experience any impact on his or her account. This is, of course, designed to prevent someone from spending a day griefing others by sending a bunch of unsubstantiated reports. Could you let me know your experiences so I can check into this? Thanks. -- Gaile 21:49, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

From how I understand the feature to work, in a party of 4, with 1 leecher you need all 3 people in your group to report said leecher to not accrue dishonour points yourself. I have in the past been very vigilant about reporting and thus have reported many people for leeching. Now in a big map where you can "hide" to some degree, leeching isn't immediately seen by everyone, this is seen In AB alot as many leechers find a nice wee quiet spot where people wont notice them leeching as much and stand there, out of the way. So I've seen these people leeching and reported them. When asking my time mates to report the same person I normally get "what's the point?" and "stop moaning and play!" type comments, making me the only person to have reported them. Also due to me having to ask my party to report the leecher to try and prevent me getting dishonour points, the leecher then knows i reported them and so normally reports me back for nothing. Thus I end up ending the match with the same amount of points of dishonour as the leecher himself which is REALLY annoying. Also it doesnt just happen in cases like this, ive seen many cases where the person is just standing at the res shrine not moving, obvious to everyone that hes leeching, I report, ask others to report with me and they just can't be bothered as they don't see the point in it and argue that nothing happens to these people and thus reporting has no impact and again cause of me asking people to report with me to prevent me getting dishonour, the leecher knows that i reported them and once again reports me back just to grief me. It's not a major issue when you have only one leecher but sometimes you get 2 or 3 leechers,you report them in one go and f no one backs you up and the leechers report you back, that's you then banned from playing for 10 minutes. The system seems flawed in that it punishes those who are vigilant about people playing fair as so many users either dont understand how the report system works or just cant be bothered too use it as the punishment to the leecher isnt seen as drastic enough to balance the effort of reporting. I will admit i think the dishonour feature has helped Random Arena an awful lot as its quicker now to stick with your team than leave it and get a 10 min ban, but for those of us using the report function to report leechers which are mostly found in ab, it just isn't effective as A) many people just can't be bothered and B) the punishment doesn't outweigh the gains to the leecher. a 10 min ban to someone who's prepared to sit about for a 20 min AB match and do nothing just to accrue points without effort isn't going to upset an awful lot of leechers and isn't enough incentive to normal players to report them. I do understand the need to stop griefers from using the report system just to annoy people, but as it stands its also punishing the vigilant users, just cause we seem to be in the minority. I'm not really sure what anet can do to fix this issue, i just know as it stands it needs fixed in some way as the report feature is basically not used anymore in AB as people dont want to risk getting dishonour points themselves from reporting actual leechers. -- Salome 14:01, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

If you reported him for leeching, then he shouldn't have known which of his teamates reported him. Also, why not just switch characters for like 15 minutes? That would have reduced the spam greatly. — ク Eloc 貢 10:16, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Good point, although they shouldn't have to do that imo. Best bet is to not tell the reported person anything or have any contact with them even if you are angry because most likely they will just start harrassing you. I never tell anyone if and when I report them even though sometimes I really wanted to. - nian 10:28, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Well when i was being bothered by this guy, i did swap characters lol... he added me to friends so he could track me...seeing as that wouldn't help, i just stayed on my original character, and i dont go around reporting people for every little offence imaginable but there are people out there who do, ive seen people reported for saying the words "you suck" lol. its sad... but i do report people for leeching or eccesive annoyance...otherwise why bother the anet staff for some petty little thing?but apparently this petty thing got me suspended :'(.74.186.169.130 22:28, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Put him on your ignore list next time. — ク Eloc 貢 05:17, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

EXPLOIT!!!

There is a SEVERE exploit that need urgent attention by the admins.

The exploit is:

If you use dark aura and shadow walk, then cast enchantments on yourself, the enchantment fails 'cause of the side effect of shadow walk. But the dark aura effect (aoe damage) still applies. Combine this with cultist fervor (so your spells costs nothing) and hit like crazy something like masochism and poisoned heart. Having a Mark of Protection on you saves you from death This is the outcome:

See here for ssshot: [1]

5700 damage in 10 seconds.

Please fix it before it will be the only build played in gvg and ha.

This afternoon GANK held like 5 hours with it (and be ashamed of that, gank players). --213.140.6.120 19:59, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Gaile has mentioned before that exploit info should be sent to community@arena.net - not posted on her talk page. (Aiiane - talk - contribs) 20:13, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Seriously guys, why post these things in public places, you make people want to go and try them......Report it privately, don't blab it all over the place.....-Ë×ţřεмəόήє 20:23, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Confirmed. Yseron - 90.29.55.68 21:01, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Closed. :)

But yes, please send via email, rather than posting on the wiki. You can use my "email wiki user" address right here, if you'd prefer. But let's not post it publicly. Thanks! -- Gaile 21:47, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Wow, it was fixed quickly. Do all ArenaNet members work on holidays? — ク Eloc 貢 21:40, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Didn't you watch the Nightfall CD? :P They have most people on weekdays of course, but some go for Saturdays, yeah. And I think the server people might be on call 24/7. (wouldn't surprise me one bit) Vael Victus 05:54, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

We do have people available to contact around the clock, it's true. Obviously, some matters are more critical than others. For instance, several members of the Content Programming Team (plus an ArenaNet co-founder) were very helpful when an exploit was reported right around New Year's Day this year. They hopped into action and got the issues resolved very quickly. On the other hand, we'd prefer to work on less-urgent matters during normal hours, so we might not make a phone call to a co-founder, at midnight on a holiday, for a gold-selling account review. ;)

I'm excited to relay that we expanded our Support Team just this month, and I feel that will allow us to offer even better service to players in the future. -- Gaile 21:43, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Changing Password

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

ok its black scorpion of d again, here is the deal,i have had the game since it came out(prophicies)then bought factions and nightfall as they came out(boxed versions) then i got EoTN when it came out(thru the ingame store)since then i have wanted to change my password but instead it sends me to the plaync.com mainpage to add my games to my account,of which i dont have. i was told the reason is because of new security protocols which combined gw games into plaync's system so that your account is harder to be stolen. i have all the information u would need to make sure i am the original owner of the access keys.

i would very much like to be able to change my ingame password like i could when the game first came out due to the password being something i do not like to type any more. p.s.my in game name is black scorpion of d

please if u can help me i would appreciate it. thank you. jr hobbs

Hi, there. I think that I can help you. Well, help you get to the right people who can work through this issue with you, anyway. Go to this link which is the PlayNC Support Site. The reason I suggest you go there is because since you ordered GW:EN through the in-game store, your account is linked to PlayNC now and that is why you cannot reset your password through the game. However, you can reset your password. There's a page on the PlayNC site called "Password Helper," so you should search for that in PlayNC. If you find you need more help, you can use the "Ask a Question" system to get in touch with one of our Support Team members and they'll help you get through the system. -- Gaile 03:41, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

I have his same problem, I bought boxed versions of all 3 campaigns and bought the expansion from the in-game (to qualify for the BMP). Now I want to change the password and I can't remember any of the info that I submitted while creating the shop's account. I already asked for help, they asked me something about the visa I used, I answered them that an old friend bought it for me (whom now went abroad and I haven't heard of him in a while). No answer came back. That was like 3 months ago. I can scan and send u the access keys if you like. --MageMontu 09:12, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Also I need to change at least the email as soon as possible cause I'm migrating to Wales this Friday and I won't be able to access the current email anymore. Thanks in advance :) --MageMontu 11:12, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

You know that there are options of e-mailing usernames and passwords to the PlayNC account... — Poki#3 11:59, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

As I said in my first 1, I forgot all info that I submitted and they asked about the visa which i don't have. --MageMontu 12:09, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

If you have the keys, Support should be able to help you. Please get in touch and see what they can do. -- Gaile 03:41, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

I seem to have the same problem. I know I made an in-game store account, bascially the account needed, right? Problem is I can't remember the account name or password, and I might've used an old email account that I don't use. Is there any what I can reset everything and just make a whole new account for the NC store without making a new game account? --Master Fast 02:23, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi, Master Fast. Don't worry, I've done the same. "Who was I when I made this account?" ;) I believe that we can help you. Could you send a ticket to Support? Let them know your situation, and they can do such things as ask you a security question or check your account against the data that you have on hand. By writing to Support, you open the door to them verifying the account and getting it reset so that you can access it again. -- Gaile 02:35, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Do you mean GuildWars support or PlayNC support? Because I contacted PlayNC and they just gave be about 80 hoops to jump through that I don't necessarily remember the answers to that I put at the time. --Master Fast 02:18, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi, Master Fast. Yes, that's the the PlayNC Support system. NCsoft handles account support for Guild Wars through PlanNC, so it's all really one bucket. The reason they're asking you all those questions is to make sure that someone else isn't trying to access or steal your account. There are a lot of ways to prevent that, from passwords (of course) to security questions to getting scans of your access keys, and so forth.

It can be complicated if, for instance, you set up an account using a fake email address, a pretend birthdate, and a nonsense security question. (I'm not saying that you did that, of course! But some people do, and then write later and say "I have no idea what I used for any of that stuff!" :( ) The pity of that situation is that Support can't just, you know, hand over the account on someone's say-so. That would be scammer-ific, to be able to say "Yeah, that account is mine. Suuuuure, the one with the 410 ectos and all the high-end armour sets. I can't prove it, but hey, change the password for me, anyway." ;)

The system is supposed to give you several alternate ways to prove ownership of the account. For instance, if you can't remember a password, can you provide a copy of your key? Can you answer a few questions? Please give the Support system a try -- see what you can do and fill in as many blanks as you can. If that fails, you can get in touch with me again, and I can try to help, but in a situation like this, I have to say I can't make a guarantee until all of us know more about the matter. Take care, and good luck. -- Gaile 02:36, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

I put in a support request. I didn't use a fake email address, but I think I've deleted that email account since then, so I might run into some trouble there. When I made the account I was at the age (13) where couldn't MAKE an account without forging at least the year of my birthday, for this particular account I think I only set the year ahead a few years. I do have all of the game account keys still left, since I always buy the boxed versions of the games. As long as I don't have to fork over ALL of the keys (there are a few keys that I've lost because they were for free minis), I don't think that will be a problem.

There's nothing on my game account that could be stolen (yet), but I'm just worried for my account's safety especially since I haven't changed the password to it since the first played the game (2 years ago in about a week :]). I'm extremely proud of what I've done in the past 2 years, and I don't want any of it to be deleted by some hacker for "friend" who got mad at me for some reason and guessed at my password (which, quite honestly, wouldn't be hard if you knew some basic info about me).

I hope support can help me out with this one. They haven't really been help in the past, I usually had to get help from the in-game community, but I'll take your word for it that they'll help out. --Master Fast 03:07, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Following up on this, Master Fast. Did you get a resolution to the issue? If not, please let me know and I'll try to help you. -- Gaile 21:53, 19 April 2008 (UTC)