User talk:Gaile Gray/Archive Support Issues/Jul - Sep 2008

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Banned for RMT

Hello, Gaile, I am very sorry to trouble you but I don't have another method. My account recently have been permanent banned from logging into Guildwars game. I have send a ticket letter (Reference #080623-001125) to Plaync to ask Guildwars support groups for help. I got a respond saying that the reason was because I have been done Real money trading items in game. I swore that I never trade any in game items or Guildwars coins to Real world money. Also I seldom trade with another players in game. What I have remember is that I recently sold a Bone Dragon Staff Req 9 Air magic to a foreign player for 80 ectos which I got from Shars or Orr dungeon reward chest. It is not illegal trading!!! I don't know why GM repeatly said that I have done "Real Money trading" in game and he didin't give any evidences nor more informations on this. Can you help me to investigate my case because I am innovent and even don't know what have happened due to the respond from GM. I even can't get the satisfied respond from GM because they keep saiding the same answer. The Ticket number I sent to Plaync support is Reference #080623-001125. I think I did not violate the rules, and I like GW very much, also I have played on my banned account for more one year. I hope I can receive good news from you. Kelvinchi 20:18, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Hello, Kelvinchi. Please understand that we will not give exact details about an account that seems to be an RMT (real money trading) account. If we do that, RMT accounts will grow and the game will be damaged by them! We do not make a judgment without having a lot of facts, and almost always, the judgment is correct.

If you made that trade, and that is all that you did, I should be able to see that. I will check, with the help of the GMs. Please understand that if you were involved in gold selling, with regret, I cannot help you. This may take a few more days, but I will let you know what I find out. -- Gaile 06:42, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Hello, Gaile, Thank you for your respond. I understand that Guildwars Support groups have done a busy and difficult work on assisting players to solve their problems or suggestions throught plaync support team mail box. I am sorry to trouble you to help me to check on my banned account just to because I don't have any another method. I will be patient to wait for your respond ^_^, Thanks again. Kelvinchi 08:36, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm really sorry, but after the Support Team carefully reviewed this entire situation, and after I took another very detailed look at the data today, there is no way that this account can be reinstated. The data shows -- without question -- that this account was involved in real-money trading. It was not banned for the trade you mentioned involving a Bone Dragon Staff. It was banned for a completely different incident and we can see those details very clearly. Therefore, whether it was you who was involved, or someone who used your account, we cannot reinstate an account once it has been proved to be involved in an RMT transaction. I regret that there cannot be a different resolution. -- Gaile 20:32, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Hello, I am sorry for seeing your post lately because I have been go travelling in foreign country for one month. I refer to your respond on my account, can you tell me what time happened on the incident that makes my account need to be get banned? I just want to know if the incident is happened after selling Bone Dragon Staff (or is the incident was happened before selling Bone Dragon staff)? I think that my account seems have been stolen by someone. Can you check the IP address when I login to Guildwars? May be there is another IP address (I think may be someone logged into my account and stolen my items and then change to real money?) login to my account and it is used by another Internet supply Provider (ISP) which I don't use? I also discovered that my login password was wrong before the account has been banned so I think someone has stolen my account. Kelvinchi 09:18, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Hello, Kelvinchi. You are more than welcome to discuss your questions with the Support Team. Having spent a good number of hours on researching this, I have no questions of my own at this point. I feel that the ban put in place was entirely appropriate. If you feel there were other details that the team may have missed, you are free to take the inquiry to them. If your account was stolen, that could offer details of interest to the team. However, I wonder if the account continued to log in from the same location. If that is the case, then it doesn't seem to be likely that it was stolen.

Please do feel free to discuss this with the Support Team via the ticket that already exists on this matter. I ask that you not pursue this matter if your account was used for RMT -- by yourself or anyone else -- because the outcome will not and cannot change. -- Gaile 06:42, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Wanted the reason

Hello Gaile Gray

My Hong kong friend's gw account has been blocked. But he didn't know why the reason to blocked ..... PS: he had wrote 5 letters to PlayNc Support,but they didn't talk about why blocked reason... Updata my friend sent to PlayNc Support information:

Reference: #080610-000638

Product: Guild Wars Category: Account Support General Date Created: 06/10/2008 03:18 AM Last Updated: 06/10/2008 03:28 AM Date Closed: 06/10/2008 03:28 AM Status: Closed Character Name: 鬼s靈s精

My guild wars game accounts were blocked in error . I have a good job in real world and never buy or sell the gw coin... I almost long time to worked and played gw at few time. One more check my accounts why blocked plz. I believe my account have been blocked in error.

IGN:鬼s靈s精 thanks all i like gw very much

This block was not in error, and has been researched multiple times. The account was involved in RMT; the research makes it clear. Either this player or someone on his account was involved, multiple times, in RMT transactions. The account has been blocked several times. Each player is responsible for his account's security. So even if someone else conducted the RMT activities, the account owner is still responsible.

The player involved in this account termination has written a large number of new tickets asking about this. He has received a polite response several times. I do not think he will receive any more responses because there is nothing new to say. This player was unbanned several times previously, starting last autumn. The team was exceptionally considerate. But now, every time this player makes a new ticket on this issue, it costs other players time that we should be giving to their tickets. I think it would be good to stop the appeals, because (1) they have already been rejected (because the research has shown conclusively that this account needed to be banned) and (2) the players as a whole deserve attention on their legitimate issues. With regret. -- Gaile 22:59, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Didn't receive reward points! :(

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

I decided to make an account so i could finally get reward points, so I made one. And... I didn't recieve the points. I made the predictions in time and everything, AND its linked to my account, I think. Please help. Whatever info you need, please tell me and ill get it to you.--'ÑöẊĭƑý 23:45, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

The support team can assist you with this. Please submit a ticket and they'll look into the matter for you. -- Gaile 00:23, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Well the update was a few mins ago, sometimes you have to wait an hour after the update or so to receive them --MageMontu 00:31, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

That is a very good point, MM. Please allow the Agent to get the points shuffled into his inventory. Don't write Support until tomorrow, please. That is, please do not start a ticket until at least Noon GMT on Friday, July 11. That will give things time to settle and then if there are issues, you can let Support know at that time. -- Gaile 00:34, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Remember the points do not automatically show on your account. You have to visit the Xunlai House representative to recieve the rewards. --Silverleaf 09:34, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Try each character, and did you vote correctly? Dominator Matrix 10:36, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

All excellent advice -- thanks, guys! -- Gaile 20:29, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

"Try each character"? The specific character is the one registered with Tolkano... Open the Hero panel, "H" and check which character name is registered on the Account tab. Take that character to the Xunlai Tournament Agent and the agent should turn over the points if any have been won. From there it's just a matter of returning to Tolkano for the rewards. I think. Do we have a comprehensive guide for the Xunlai Tournament on the wiki? So many people are having trouble with this, especially in the area of account registration, that I'm inclined to think we need a solid set of instructions that are easy to find. -- WarBlade 23:37, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Noxify, I just responded to your ticket. Hope that answers the questions; let me know if not. WarBlade: I agree! A comprehensive instructional XTH page -- from how to register, how to predict, how to pick up points, and how to see those points, once picked up -- would be marvelous!! *looks around hopefully for volunteers** -- Gaile 23:49, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Under which title should we do it? --MageMontu 23:45, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, I'd say Xunlai Tournament House and I guess I'd suggest a subpage called "instructions" or something of that nature. However, maybe an expansion of the main page is better? There is a "How to Play" section, and a "Tips" section, too. But I think we all agree that we really need something far more comprehensive, a walk-through from account creation to prediction to point pick-up. If you're getting this organized, or helping find someone who could do so, that's wonderful! Please let me know if I can help in any way. :) -- Gaile 00:59, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Well I was thinking of creating the page with little info, place a stub template on top, and put a 'Wanted Writers' topic on the talk page, as I'm only good in correcting articles not creating them :P --MageMontu 08:21, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

That would work for me. Any start on a worthwhile project is a good step! -- Gaile 19:50, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

3 days ago I asked in the talk if someone could do it, and no 1 answered. Can you ask them here please, maybe they will check it out when they see your name in the Recent Changes page ^^ --MageMontu 08:16, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

I added a note. I think you overestimate my influence, but maybe some kind soul will help out. :) -- Gaile 18:28, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Double account trade?

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Gaile, can i trade items, gold and materials back and forth between my own accounts without getting a ban? --Silverleaf 09:36, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

I did that a couple of days ago and did not get a ban. I think the auto ban is, if u trade 100k all at once without receiving nothing --MageMontu 09:40, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

My husband and I have 2 accounts each and this past weekend with the boardwalk games we both transfered 200k from each account over to our main account and never recieved a ban. Maybe it was just luck, but I do move money and items from my main over to my 2nd account all the time and I've never been banned. It does make me nervous to do that cause if I ever did get a ban and need my key codes I would be in a pickle cause I have a lot of codes and I'm not sure which one goes to which account. I would guess to be safe is not to transfer 100k, just make it a lower amount maybe.--BabyJ 18:10, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Guy, guys, guys! "Auto-ban = bad choice of words!" :) As we've said a lot of times, the rumour of an auto-ban is grossly over-exaggerated. The specifics for any ban or block are a lot more fine-grained than a simplistic "A - B = Ban." It's more like "A + B - (C + D) (E + F + G) - (M + N + (O x XX%) - P) then Ban." (Ok, I made all that up, but still! :) ) Anyway, all that a "ping" on the preliminary review equations gets is an introduction into the human review list, which all suspected gold sales or purchases receive before a ban takes place. Yes, people do get actioned in error, it's true. We regret that, but it's part of keeping the parameters as close to the edge as we can so as to address the pernicious gold selling issues while doing our best to not cite legitimate players. And the numbers of those who are erroneously actioned are very, very small. Should an error take place, it will be reviewed and amended as quickly as possible. So please, go forth and mule between your accounts with a feeling of confidence, and in the unlikely event that you are somehow nabbed, please let us know and we'll address the concern right away. -- Gaile 18:11, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

*Looks at the mathematical formula, head starts spinning and falls on the floor with whirling eyes (anime style)* :P. Sry Gaile if that's d case but it's good to learn new stuff. *thinks out loud* Now all I need to do is take a feather from 1 of Emily's birds and tickle her until i have some info about GW2, hmmmm sounds like a good plan. --MageMontu 20:42, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Thank you Gaile :). --Silverleaf 23:14, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Is that the equation where E = the number of minipets you have, M = the number of times you said "lol" today and G = your total number of wiki contributions then the result is incorrect as it forgets to multiply by the mysterious "Z" factor where Z = the number of times you have been killed by Shiro after spending 45 mins doing the Gate of Madness mission.... :) --Lemming 02:14, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Almost. Don't forget the "D-Factor," which is where you have put in at least 30 minutes of synchronized dancing in a major town while shooting off at least X (variable determined by profession) Bottle Rockets and have consumed more than Y (variable determined by armour class) sweets and/or other edible/drinkable goods.

Whooops, do add the "Dye-factor," which I will leave you to figure out how to work into the equation. (Hint: Purple is the next Black.) :D -- Gaile 02:28, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH, MATH!!!!!! Did you know that math is the next Abaddon? and all of you are the next Varesh for summoning it D: --MageMontu 21:53, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, foo, given that reaction, I guess I shouldn't bust out the Latin noun declension double-check element of the whole process, huh? :D -- Gaile 04:45, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) /rubberchicken I do believe this thread is getting very silly! (Aiiane - talk - contribs) 06:36, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but I have in on good authority that Silverleaf doesn't mind. *innocent whistle* -- Gaile 06:49, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

iguyfyrdresew? --Sum Mesmer Guy contribs 07:24, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Hmmmm... I'm torn between asking "Who let Sum Mesmer Guy into the Alphabet Soup" and asking, "So, Pat, can I buy a vowel?" :D -- Gaile 17:55, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Giggles* I have my answer and am still save with my accounts :). Dntmndtll, darn those vowels. W2B an O, I & double A please. --Silverleaf 18:01, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

i'd like alphabet soup...--Sum Mesmer Guy contribs 06:34, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Yummy...I haven't had alphabet soup in so long...I don't see it in stores as often anymore :(. Only the boring plain noodles...-Warior Kronos 21:28, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

I happen to feel that the Alphabet noodles taste better than the plain noodles. And the stars in Chicken with Stars is obviously superior to those flat boring noodles. If someone says the noodle recipe is the same, we know better, don't we? :) -- Gaile 04:46, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Banned incorrectly?

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Hi there Gaile. I'm not entirely sure where to start with this one so I'll try my best to keep it brief. Myself and a few others have been working on a new auction site called Guild Wars Auctions, a completely free and non commercial auction site dedicated to guild wars players, much like the others out there currently but we've done things 'our' way. It's been months in the making and a lot of work for all involved, but we're pleased with the result. I wrote to NCSoft a few weeks back to ask them to take a sneak peak at the site before we launched, to make sure everything was compliant with policy and asked if we should change anything. After some very positive feedback from the Customer Support Team last week, we decided it was high time we took the site to the community. We planned our launch of the site for this weekend, with the build up over Thursday and Friday and we've been very much looking forward to it all week.

Yesterday the other moderators and I started our build up promoting. We were merrily hopping about outposts yesterday announcing a message about the site just "once" per outpost, per district, then moving on. We all logged in this morning and all the moderators of the site have been banned from Guild Wars for 72 hours. I have replied to my original support ticket 080628-001045 to request that the banning be reversed. That ticket shows me asking about the site to begin with, and receiving Kudos back from the Customer Support Team wishing us luck with it...then me replying to ask why we were all banned.

What I think has happened is people are confused about what the website is. They see people shouting a message about a website in game and they assume it's some kind of money trading site or something...either way, I think people have been too quick to use the /report function. None of us have done anything wrong accept spend months building something for the community...so we'd very much like to bring it to them, as planned, this weekend. I'm nervous that the bans will effectively stop us from launching the site this weekend, in which case we may as well throw in the preverbial towel. I'd appreciate any help you can offer with this. --Bunny - Angel talk 07:27, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Just to give an update, the Customer Support Team have removed the ban from my account. I'm still working to help the others that were also banned, but we're making some progress. One of them was a young one from my guild who just wanted to help and be a part of the launch. He was so careful not to spam after all my instructions, so I think he was a bit shocked, he's such a good kid. The poor thing doesn't know how to raise a support ticket but I'm trying to talk him through it. I had put his details into my ticket, but they responded to say he needs to raise his own, so I'll persevere. --Bunny - Angel talk 16:11, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi Bunny. I'm really sorry to hear about the blocks. (Not bans, those are permanent, just to make a fine point of it.) I immediately sent a message to our Support Lead in Europe to see if there was any way I could assist in getting these resolved. It's is Friday evening, and he's not online at this very moment, but he's a great guy and I know he will consider if there is a way to expedite the issues so we can get those who were mistakenly blocked back into the game. The best process is submitting a ticket, of course. (Giving me the number here was very helpful, so I could look at the situation from within the system.) Please keep me informed, as I shall do you, with any updates on this. Best of luck with the launch, too! :) -- Gaile 18:00, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Oh I'm very sorry, I had no idea I was using the wrong term (blush). I've tried talking the young one through how to raise a ticket 2-3 times and the poor thing can't get it to work so he's given up. I feel absolutely terrible, there's nothing else I can do to help him unfortunately. If he can't raise a ticket I have nothing to go on and no way to escalate it for him. --Bunny - Angel talk 20:10, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Bunny, why don't you have him email me through the wiki here, or through my SupportLiaison@arena.net email address? If I have account name; time, timezone, and date of his block; one of his character names, I may be able to start a ticket or help him directly. If he was actually spamming (multiple repeated messages in the same zone), obviously there's nothing that can be done for it, but if he was caught in the same situation as the others, we should be able to assist with this. -- Gaile 20:29, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks so much for that Gaile, I'll let him know to do that if he logs back into our ventrilo server. I think he feels a bit defeated by the whole thing so he's gone for the night, he's on Europe time too so I don't expect him back today. I know he was very careful to only shout once and move on because I gave him a good lecture (and probably even scared the point into him) before he set out to help yesterday. If I have worked it out correctly, his block will be lifted Sunday evening. Looking at it logically, even if he logs back in tomorrow it's unlikely we can do anything to accelerate it further, I'd say the Europe Support Lead will be enjoying his weekend by then. I think I'll just need to give him a little something to cheer him up when he eventually gets back on. --Bunny - Angel talk 21:16, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

One thing: I'm a major fan of both of our account leads, in part because they're great guys, and in part because I often hear from them after hours and on weekends and that's a big help! Now, I don't mean to imply any sort of promise that we can or will be able to investigate and resolve the block issue right away, but there is always a possibility that we might be able to do so. -- Gaile 23:52, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Bunny, I did hear from your guild member and was able to verify that his actions on behalf of the guild and event were entirely appropriate. I spoke with the European Support Lead (because we work as a team and I do like to check such things) and he agreed that an unblock was just fine. So I've taken care of that and the player you mentioned should have no difficulty accessing the game now. -- Gaile 22:23, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Oh that's wonderful! Thank you so much! I caught up with him on ventrilo yesterday afternoon and passed on your advice. He sounded sceptical about it being resolved when I spoke to him yesterday, so I'd say he's going to be one happy camper when he logs in today. I honestly can't thank you enough Gaile, I really appreciate your help, and on your weekend no less! PS: The launch is going very well, people are really enjoying the site. You may want to peruse the minipet section, for some reason it is largest ;) --Bunny - Angel talk 09:19, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm really happy to have been able to help. (He sounds like a really nice and helpful guildie.) And I'm sure I'll be over on the site looking at those mini options. :) -- Gaile 18:42, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I would just liek to throw in here and say that our own auctions site, gwauctions.org, once advertise in chat and our admin also got a ban. Does this mean we may advertise in chat again if to put it frankly our competition may? We havent advertised in chat since our admin's warning from ANET (a 3 day ban) and we would like an answer. Also, we have an outstanding fansite application that we were told was being looked into but have not heard anything for at least a month. Any news? Soqed hozi 18:28, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

You are allowed to mention your site or event in All Chat, yes. You are not allowed to spam the message. If you put up a message once or twice in a district, there's no harm. But if you stay in a district and repeat the message multiple times, you'll probably get reported for spamming, and that character will be blocked if the records prove that it was spamming. If you "hop districts" to share the word of an event, and post it just once or twice per district, there should be no problems. (And if a problem develops, as occurred in the OP, such problems are corrected as promptly as we are able to do so.)

I am sorry that I cannot tell you the status of your fansite application. I encourage you to contact the community team for information about that. Thanks. -- Gaile 18:43, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

many many thanks! please do come visit our site and our forums, we would love you to use us, even if it is just to say hello every now and then on our shoutbox, the first shoutbox to be used on a guild wars auction site ever. :D Once again, many thanks. Soqed hozi 19:38, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

I'd just like to note that I just received a 50 hour suspension for advertising GW Auctions, while I have only advertised once every district. I started Kamadan, first all American districts once, then all the English European districts, the same for Lion's Arch and Kaineng. I'll submit a ticket, but clearly the report handlers don't actually check how many times you shout your message per district. HeavenMonkey 14:37, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

You definitely should send an appeal. If there is a primary system for spam reviews, I know there is a secondary system, because I've done it myself. :) That's "read the chat, check the district, look at the time stamp, and see what's been going on." Don't worry, the team will take that effort, if you will please let them know that an error seems to have taken place. (And I am sorry for the inconvenience!) -- Gaile 03:17, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I already send an appeal. It got forwarded twice but it's probably at the correct department now :P I'm sure it will be resolved correctly. A shame I have to miss the triple luck weekend though, but I wasn't going for that title anyway. HeavenMonkey 18:17, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Gaile,can you help me?

hello Gaile.sorry to trouble you.My question has been closed!!Need your help,I know that very liberty,But I am a legitimate player.i very love GW~To my account, I talked with Support Team many times!But has not been the answer, the question was closed.(Reference#080529-000532)and(Reference#080613-000336). Please take a little time! help me!!!--Mr.Yu 11:11, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Mr. Yu, it appears that you removed comments left on this page by Ruby Lightheart. It is not permitted to remove content from the wiki. I have replaced Ruby's comments as a separate topic. Please do not delete content from these pages again. If you have questions about wiki policies and practices, the members will be happy to answer them. -- Gaile 18:43, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

As to the issue that you asked us to look at, we have given the account additional examination and it is possible that we will reinstate the account. But be aware that this is not the first block on this account, and the account will be subject to intense examination in the future. Playing legitimately is wonderful, and you are welcome to do so. But you seem to be playing with a lot of people involved in RMT. If the account is blocked again, there will be no additional review. -- Gaile 18:43, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

I hope that all goes well for you, now. The account is restored, and I wish you well as you continue to enjoy playing the game. :) -- Gaile 06:47, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

sry!gaile!(Reference#080613-000336).that account can't playing! :(--Mr.Yu 00:46, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

The account referenced in this ticket: 080529-000532 has been unblocked. Are you saying you have two accounts that were blocked for RMT? If so, please feel free to take up your additional appeals about the second ticket -- 080613-000336 -- with the Support team. I truly cannot expand any more time on this matter. -- Gaile 06:33, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Reporting Leechers/Botters In Fort Aspenwood - Worthwhile?

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Hi Gaile. I have been playing in Fort Aspenwood quite a lot since I finished all the campaigns on numerous toons. Prior to the report function there was a very large leeching problem. Since the implementation of the /report this has decreased a lot. One very common problem still exhists however. Because Aspenwood is a relatively small arena you start to get to know fellow players. It is because of this reason many players in Fort Aspenwood are aware of several accounts which repeatedly leech for almost 12 hours, or more, at a time. They enter the arena and don't leave the starting zone. This becomes very frustrating because 9 out of 10 times no-one else, or only one other person will report them. This means in an hours time you will play with the same leecher in sometimes more than 6 games in a row.

The frustrating thing about this is sometimes the player is obviously using a bot, where their toon will follow a player around and sometimes cast random skills, but won't move on their own and often run into walls. Many of these players are part of Luxon or Kurzick alliances which own towns.

There are two clear abuses happening here. One abuse is players are leeching, which isn't so serious, but I have been playing there for over a year and certain characters have been leeching there the entire time I've been there - countless matches over and over. I understand if someone leeches once or twice for unknown reasons, but when the same several well known accounts continue to do it for so long it becomes depressing to know it is highly effective for them, with the report system not working at stopping them until after 6 or more matches, and even then they still benefit. The consequences they receive - a possible and rare time out don't stop them. Is there something more players can do once these accounts have been identified to prevent their continued exploitation?

The second abuse is the obvious botters. I know there is the /report botting function but I have done this several times and no action has ever been taken in the 12 months + (I was previously filling out tickets to no effect) - they are still there. How does support deal with these reports and can you say why it doesn't appear anything has been done about it?

My final question is how serious does support take not just leeching, but continued intentional abuse over a very long term? Are these accounts just seen as normal accounts with no greater penalty for continued leeching? I would like to believe continued long term intentional leeching would warrant greater account action. Any answers you can give me are greatly appreciated. 122.104.165.13 00:47, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

You're probably better of asking Regina about this, as she is the community relations manager. Unless Gaile has some input? I'll glady step aside if thats the case ^.^ -- Wandering Traveler 03:47, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Pssst! WT! Notice this is a Support-related question? It's really ok to have this discussion here and I'd like this page to be welcoming to all. 'Cause you know if I need to redirect folks, or ask other team members, I will definitely do so. Okie dokie? :) -- Gaile 07:27, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Hello, 122.104.165.13. Thanks for stopping by. Bots are irritating, leechers are frustrating, too true. Most players agree that the addition of the /report system was a significant help in addressing the the situation, but of course it's not perfect. If I understand your question, you wonder about whether Support maintains a sort of "cumulative /report" on players or accounts, as as opposed to single reports that don't accumulate. If someone acquires 100 individual /reports a week, I'd agree he or she is probably a problem. ;) So you wonder if the Support Team tracks for individual reports in the overview of an account, and I think that's a good question.

I've asked for details from the Support Team on cumulative "tabs." That might be information about which it would be best to not be too specific, to avoid people working to remain just below the bar, as botters often do. However, I will see what I can find out. I've also asked for their insight on whether there are more effective ways that you, as a player, can accomplish the outcomes you desire when you use the /report system. I need to better understand how the system works from a Support Team member's perspective so that I can give you a good answer. Thanks for your patience as I get you the info that you seek. -- Gaile 07:27, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

O.O Danget, I feel stupid! *Smacks self around with large cast iron pan*. Sorry Gaile, I read that at about 1 in the morning, and my neurons were at a standstill >.<. -- Wandering Traveler 15:09, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

HEY!!! you are ruining that nice pan, here use this lead pipe instead. :P --MageMontu 15:24, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Hey, this is perfect! Thanks Mage! *Continuously beats self with lead pipe* -- Wandering Traveler 15:29, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

*casts spell of Calming* It's ok WT, I just want everyone to be comfortable with placement, especially folks who may be new to the GWW. No biggie at all! -- Gaile 19:03, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Awww....I liked that lead pipe....ah well. Sorry about that XD -- Wandering Traveler 21:10, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Leechers really do ruin the fun of aspenwood. as of latly i have seem 3 notorious ones. Ji L, Li B, and Jum Rock. jil and lib are both in the [spar] guild if that helps... and what really ticks me off is Ji L has Rank 11 of the luxon title!! so not earned! Do you need screen shots of them? cause im willing to go far to get these players out of the game, and improve the aspeenwood expirence for everyone SweetEscape 08:07, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) I wanted to let you know I am continuing a dialogue with two of our Support leads to discuss this matter in detail. I think we should at least consider if it's possible to suggest some improvements to the /report system. I know our studio is focused on Guild Wars 2, and rightfully so. However, there may be steps that we can take for Guild Wars that are not time-consuming and do not require excessive staff hours but can more effectively deal with leeching. We might even consider whether it's possible to place observers in FA on a random basis to observe and block those who are leeching, a suggestion that many players have made over the last several months. The Dishonorable Combatant System system may require a second look (if that is possible). Perhaps the worst offenders deserve more than the current time-out period. Frankly, for the biggest leechers, I don't think a few days out is at all unreasonable, and I mean in one fell swoop, not in tiny increments.

We do see this as a Support issue because Support gets tickets about this on a pretty regular basis. A few of those tickets are about erroneous reports or about someone getting harassed through the system. But the majority are about expert leechers and the need to deal with them more firmly. I'll see what I can learn from the leads, and then perhaps we will make a proposal to the devs about some low-impact but helpful changes. -- Gaile 19:07, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Thats cool! well if you need a observer ill be glad to help, cause i do spend at least 70% of my play time in FA :D . I know the report system does need a change, because no matter how many times i tell my team "X player is a leecher" (and they do leech im not crazy lol) only maybe 1 or 2 more people will report them, which scares me because i dont want to "abuse the report feature getting my account banned" Thanks for the response Gaile! SweetEscape 19:41, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

In response to the suggestion of random observers, is that a productive use of Support time? What I'm thinking is, from a game mechanic perspective, leeching behaviour is pretty straight forward and should be machine-detectable. A player stands a toon in the staging area, clicks on the enter mission button and goes AFK. From that point onward the character will remain at the initial spawn point receiving no input signal from the player. Therefore, it strikes me that any character receiving no player input for an excessive time period could be subject to a demerit point system (so as not to unfairly disadvantage a player accidentally dropped in the transition into the PvP instance).

My other pet peeve, and one that could similarly benefit from a new bit of code, is the problem of quitters. Just yesterday I was on the receiving end of a hammering in defence of Fort Aspenwood with my team consisting of four active players, one leech and three quitters. I'd love to see some improvements to systems that might enhance game play in FA, Jade Quarry and Random Arenas. :) -- WarBlade 19:44, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

What i have noticed in Luxon side of FA is that the leechers are getting smart. They run a program that makes them follow the leader of the team, or if they get stuck, the person closest to them. its quite smart because since they move not many people will report them, but i have spend whole matches watching them, and they dont do anyhting but move around, no spells. at all. so while maybe they can catch the leechers that just stand in one spot, it will require human observation to catch the ones that run a movement program. SweetEscape 19:54, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

That's botting behaviour and similarly machine-detectable. ;) -- WarBlade 19:58, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Ah ok, lol i wasent sure. xD Sweet Escape 19:59, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Not all leechers are the same. As SE said, some do enter, sit, and reap the rewards. Some use "utilities" that make the leeching a bit harder to detect. Therefore, "machine detection" is not necessarily possible -- is in fact not at all possible in some cases.

Is random observation a productive use of Support time? Perhaps, perhaps not. But a random check isn't a 24/7 commitment, and yet a random check could help address the "career leechers" who are imposing such a negative impact on AB and by its very randomness, may have a positive impact even on the casual leecher. Personally, I feel it would be sensible to at least discuss and consider such an option, for I know that such a discussion would include weighing the impact on staff and assuring that individual customer issues are giving the high priority they deserve. -- Gaile 20:03, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes! More nets to catch the slippery fish! :) -- WarBlade 20:11, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

I think random observations would be a great use of support time, even if it is every once in awhile. I was talking to some of the FA community that plays alot, and they told me they where dedicated to taking SC's of notorious leechers, or whatever you guys at anet might need to help speed up the process of getting these leechers what they deserve. Sweet Escape 20:16, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Just an idea but, maybe the amount of people it requires to tag someone with dishonor should be lowerd? because like i said before some people just dont seem to want to use the report function... :( Sweet Escape 20:30, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

I can ask the designers about this. I see what you're saying, that if fewer and fewer people are bothering to follow through with a /report, then fewer leechers and leavers are getting addressed. Let me check and see what I can learn about that. -- Gaile 05:02, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

That would be awesome! Keep us updated! :D Sweet Escape 22:04, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Updates can't come soon enough. I've just been reported in the game myself when I pointed out the infamous Elementalist toon that haunts the Kurzick side most days. I pointed out the recreational leech at the start, another player asked if that player was leeching shortly after, so I replied, "YES." Then the report notification pops up on screen and the next thing you know the pair of us had counter reports targeted at us. Honestly, the system in it's current form is far too lenient IMO. Temporary suspensions are one thing, but there are some players who deserve a permanent block from accessing any single-player entrances to competitive missions (FA, JQ, RA, AB, even Dragon Arena) due to their party exploitation habits. Leave them the rest of Guild Wars, but lock them against accessing those places. -- WarBlade 02:40, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) I have asked about whether changes to the /report system are on the horizon. The major need is to focus on Guild Wars 2, naturally, but certainly we see Support tickets on this issue on a regular basis. Therefore, it can't hurt to see if the devs are able to give any sort of info on changes, as remote as that possibility must be. -- Gaile 21:31, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

This past weekends event gave me idea. While playing i noticed that there where almost no leechers (maybe i was just lucky). Upping the faction reward causes more people to want to play FA/JQ and with the big influx of player i guess the leechers didnt want to risk being reported a lot. If Anet ups the faction reward that might ward off leechers because of them being reported more. On the other hand it might draw them because they could get more faction for what they do. just an idea :) Sweet Escape 22:41, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Xunlai Tournament House

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

There appears to be a problem with saving hero battles predictions for July. The GvG predictions worked correctly, however for the 1v1 battles, upon pressing "save predictions," instead of getting a confirmation page, I get a blank page with the standard menus at the top, and the predictions are not saved. This could just be my computer, but I think its unlikley as I tried with a couple different browsers and times of day. 76.120.124.95 15:24, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Wrong page but the person how should know know it already^^. Fox007 15:30, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Wrong page but i have the same problem with IE & Mozilla. On both predictions. --Silverleaf 19:13, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

I think it's ok to put this here; I work with XTH issues as part of my role as Support Liaison, so I really don't know where else to put it, except perhaps the Support Issues page.

Thanks for letting me know -- I will relay this immediately. -- Gaile 19:16, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Thank you for the reports. A small database issue developed yesterday and our website programmer is working hard to fix it. In the meantime, we've disabled voting, so that everyone knows to come back when the system is fully functional. We don't have a timeframe for this, but it is being worked on actively right now. And the CT is going to share news of this with the community, so they're aware of the slight delay in voting. Thanks again. -- Gaile 19:54, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

but it will be back up and working for those of us who haven't yet voted before the cut off (26th) right? -- Salome 20:15, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Offcourse it will and otherwise they will extent the date for the cut off. --Silverleaf 20:19, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

I think it'll be back up real soon -- they're working on it now. We couldn't extend the deadline, because the tourney is this weekend and that will not be delayed. However, I'm sure the fix will be sorted very soon. Thanks for your patience. -- Gaile 20:21, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) My good friend, Volker, the lead of the European Support Team, sent over this message for everyone:

Gotta love that, eh? :D -- Gaile 21:05, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

HAHA, nice =D thats good stuff =D --Wolf 21:07, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

LOL, who had the big idea to give him permission to go on a lunch break? :P --MageMontu 21:18, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Is that CHEESEBURGER in his hand?! --Wolf 21:21, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, yes, I believe it is. And a brown bag tucked under his arm, too. ;) I tell you, that Volker guy is a very clever artist! -- Gaile 21:23, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

And now I can tell you without a doubt what I'm having for dinner =D --Wolf 21:25, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Issues resolved. You are free to move around the voting booth. :) -- Gaile 03:06, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

=D Yay! Glad its back :). 68.151.16.139 04:05, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Woot! That was fast =D --Wolf 13:21, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

'Fraid this issue still happens with HvH, but not GvG. Backsword 08:30, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Hmmmm weird, i voted successfully yesterday. --MageMontu 08:35, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, there's still a bug. You can vote in the GvG tournament, but the 1v1 tournament is still bugged. — Poki#3 14:42, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Please try again now. There was an issue, but reports are that it has been fixed. Thanks. -- Gaile 18:21, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Quick Question About Account Login

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

This is simply a very quick question to anyone who might know. About one to two years ago, Gaile mentioned that the ability to change the email address the player uses to login to the game (assuming it is tied to an NC Account) was forthcoming. I haven't played the game for a while now, but I just logged into the PlayNC website and have not noticed any ability to do such a thing. Is this a feature that is still set to arrive someday, or is it not happening? 24.30.151.154 14:59, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi. You are absolutely correct. There is no ability to change your user name once bound to PlayNC, at least not yet. It's been a hope of mine for a long, long time that we'd have that implemented, and it's nearly done. However, there is a need to get other people involved who have high-priority tasks at hand, so we're in a "holding pattern" on that update. It is something that players desire, and which we want to give everyone the option to do. But at this point, beyond the fact that it's "in progress" (and I do know that -- it's been worked on quite a bit) instead of "planned," Support doesn't have a timeframe for its roll-out. -- Gaile 16:58, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

This is certainly some good news, even if it's anticlimactic. I'm just happy to know it's still being worked on, rather than being merely a planned feature. It's too bad there's no timeframe, but this is secondary to the fact that it hasn't been forgotten. Good to know that this feature is "nearly done." If I may annoy you just one more time, Gaile, could you elaborate on what that means? Thanks for taking the time to respond. 24.30.151.154 21:26, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I wouldnt hold your breath for such a feature, considering the late stage GW1 is in its life cycle. Hopefully ANet get smart with GW2 and bind account to a USERNAME instead of an email. Email is too important a thing not to be able to ever change. --Just One More Thing 20:24, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I get the feeling that we might be using a unified login system between GW1 and GW2 at some point, or else how would the game be wary of our achievements. Certainly, I'm probably going to be wrong and there would be other ways to detect this, but I certainly don't see this implementation as out of the question. I assume at that point, or sometime before, they'll update the login system to allow for changes so that GW2 won't be hampered by this issue. 24.30.151.154 21:29, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Many have brought this lack of email changing function over the past 3+years. Nothing has been done about it, apart from words similar to above 'in progress', 'working on it', 'no eta'. It doesnt inspire confidence. It seems anything new we will only see with the new game, whenever that is, 'no eta' etc --Just One More Thing 21:54, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

You should not hold your breath for a time of release for this feature, it's true. But nor should you be skeptical about whether or not it is in development. As we have said for many months -- too many months, I know :( -- the feature is in development; it will be released at some point. The feature was conceived and developed for Guild Wars; it is not a feature that is being held for Guild Wars 2. At what stage is this feature's development now? That's mighty close to asking for a timeframe. :) Note the aggregate information we have shared: the feature has progressed beyond the theoretical into development and testing. Please keep in mind that because this is a critical feature, it cannot contain or present any possible issues, glitches, or bugs. (A bug here would be far more critical than a bug in, say, armour clipping or an NPC's dialogue. Account security is key to everything, after all.) Testing has been and will continue to be painstaking and multi-faceted. That's all there is to say on this, except to mention that all the Support Teams are awaiting this roll-out with keen anticipation, too! -- Gaile 22:19, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for this very detailed explanation. I get the sense this is about as in-depth of a response as you can possibly provide, and this is certainly appreciated. Given your description, I'm actually surprised by how much has been done, given some degree of skepticism, some of which I'm sure you've had to deal with. By the way, Gaile, if I may add a personal comment, it just plain feels nice to be able to post here. I haven't done it for quite a while. Although you may no longer be community manager, I'm glad you're still around as support liaison. 128.54.49.226 00:22, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

What would we do without you Gaile? --Wolf 00:40, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, guys. Your warm the heart. :D -- Gaile 05:46, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Well hmm, how things are centered towards GW2 so much. That I think when GW2 is out, that GW will get major patch work. As you said you will support it after GW2. Till then we still have a lot to do (KoaBD 6 anyone? =D). Dominator Matrix 00:53, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

It's also notable to add that ArenaNet encourages us to go back to the Hall of Monuments and collect more things so that our GW2 characters can benefit. I think it's retroactive as well, so even if your GW2 character has been created, he/she can still benefit from achievements in the Hall. I hope they will continue to support GW long into the future. I prefer to believe that ArenaNet views GW more like a supplement to GW2 rather than an aging predecessor. It's sound business sense, too, since they can encourage sales of the older games on these achievement incentives. 24.30.151.154 05:20, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Correct, the June 24th developer update has confirmed that you will be able to continue to add monuments in GW1 and benefit from them in GW2 after the release of GW2. -- Gordon Ecker 05:42, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Definitely. We said that some time ago. I hadn't noticed the reiteration, but I think we'll all agree it's good to see that statement repeated in the here and now with the expanded new of the HOM. -- Gaile 05:46, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Speaking of account security and since you're now part of support, there is still a huge and rather stupid security hole in the GW login process that often makes me have sheavers at night: the login screen tells you when your password is not correct. While that sounds a quite minimalistic issue, it is actually a rather clumsy handling of what is supposed to be a secured way to log into the game. In most common security systems/schemes, the good way to handle this kind of error is to NEVER tell someone the password they just fed in is bad; instead, you always have a single unified message that tell people that EITHER their login/usename/email address OR their password is wrong.

We, computer-techies/nerds/greeks talked again about that guild-wise recently when a friend of ours (not a guildie) had his account pirated and his precious items resold and we all agreed that the current message is a big mistake on ArenaNet's designers' part. Additionnaly he (the victim) himself raised the question on his own to EU support and was rather quickly answered the usual security blabla and the whole subjet was dismissed as non-important/non-critical issue... Jaxom 06:19, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Jaxom, you rock and you're right! Yes, we should say "The information that you have used is incorrect" without revealing "name" or "password." I learned this from Patrick Wyatt, who you may know is a co-founder of ArenaNet, but who is also my mentor and my go-to guy for all things security.

I will be very happy to look into this. However, I need one clarification: Are these accounts straight Guild Wars accounts, or are they merged with PlayNC? I think the log-in, if apparently the same to access the game, may indeed be different, because of the back-end linking of PlayNC and Guild Wars. Can you please get me that information? I will then pursue it right away. And thank you again. -- Gaile 06:24, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi Gaile, thank you for looking into the matter. Yes, it was a GW account that was merged with PlayNC through purchase in the online shop. I juste tried with mine (which is also a GW account that got merged to PlayNC through the online shop) and it does the same : it says my password is incorrect (thus implying an account with that email exists and can be activated with the proper password). Jaxom 07:02, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Jaxom. I am sending an email right away. :) -- Gaile 07:04, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Hey Gaile, i have 3 accounts and only one of them is linked to PlayNc (wich i never use because i dont have a credit card). It say the same thing with a normal account. See the following screen capture (hosted by ImageShack.us) :

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/2886/24072008033007pl3.jpg

TulipVorlax 07:34, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

For me as well. I tested it after I realized I could do so with my various (nine) accounts. :) So I did relay that information, and thanks for the confirmation via testing with an account not tied to ArenaNet, TulipVorlax. -- Gaile 07:42, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Might not be as important as the wrong password problem but did you ever tried a login name (email) that is not a real GW account ? It say that the account does not exist...

By the way, me and Jaxom are friends (same alliance). TulipVorlax 16:05, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

This looks like an important thing to look into as well, Gaile. 24.30.151.154 18:03, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

I wanted to confirm that we will be changing the messaging in both instances mentioned above. Under the particular circumstances of Guild Wars account names and passwords, a decision was made in early development to offer messaging in the current form without there being a significant increase in security risk. (After all, there is a balance always to be sought between foiling the possible activities of an unscrupulous person and helping the owner with info that s/he will find helpful.) However, times changes, our awareness of and perceptions about risk change, and even the perception that there is a risk is a bad thing. Therefore, changes to this messaging have been added to the task list and both messages will be modified in the future. I do not know the exact timeframe for the change but I would imagine it will be relatively soon, as these is message changing as opposed to programming a new feature. -- Gaile 18:10, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for looking into this for us, Gaile. 24.30.151.154 03:29, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

My pleasure, any time. -- Gaile 05:43, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

I noticed today that this error message is changed now. I would like to thank you very much, and everyone who had a hand, in getting this done! 's too all!!(opsie forgot to sign)--BabyJ 15:24, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

My pleasure. As you know, good ideas are always appreciated and often acted upon very quickly. We can't do that with every good idea, but we try! :) -- Gaile 02:51, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Factions Question

I too am having massive problems with Support. I have had an issue waiting for resolution since 6/28. The Question Reference is #080628-001059. Any help wold be appreciated. -RubyLightheart

I just checked the support system and I see that you have received a detailed answer, so you're good on the Factions question. You were not missing Faction, but were getting the appropriate amount for the area in which you were playing (and hitting the ceiling for Elite Zaishen Challenges). I also see that you felt this information was not apparent, but yet that exact information is on the Balthazar Faction page here on the wiki: "If you plan to farm the Zaishen Challenge, there is a faction cap at 2,000 a day, and a faction cap of 6,000 with Zaishen Elite."

That's just proof again that the GWW is a great resource for information about game mechanics. In fact, as a general rule, I always look at the wiki before submitting a bug report. It seems practical to do so, and it's certainly a time saver for me as a player and for the Support, QA, and other teams involved in researching bugs. Thanks. -- Gaile 19:06, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

ooook, i have had the game for 2 1/2 years total now and after the first half of the year i went to Europe for college. Well...after 2 years you seem to forget passwords quite easily and i have sent about 2 or 3 emails to the Support Group. I haven't heard from them for 2 days so far and i gave them all the information i knew about the account. Please help, Gail!

I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are. Are you the original poster in this thread: RubyLightheart? If not, could you kindly start a new thread by separating these comments with a new subject line? Then, would you sign your comments and provide me with the Support ticket number so that I can help? Thank you. -- Gaile 23:52, 1 August 2008 (UTC). Moving content to new topic

== no longer existing e-mail ==

oookay, sorry bout that, but no, but h/o, i'll get ticket number... Moved to topic below

no longer existing e-mail

ooook, i have had the game for 2 1/2 years total now and after the first half of the year i went to Europe for college. Well...after 2 years you seem to forget passwords quite easily and i have sent about 2 or 3 emails to the Support Group. I haven't heard from them for 2 days so far and i gave them all the information i knew about the account. Please help, Gail!

I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are. Are you the original poster in this thread: RubyLightheart? If not, could you kindly start a new thread by separating these comments with a new subject line? Then, would you sign your comments and provide me with the Support ticket number so that I can help? Thank you. -- Gaile 23:52, 1 August 2008 (UTC).

Thank you for starting this new topic. I'm going to move things around to keep them all together. :) -- Gaile 01:24, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

oookay, sorry bout that, but no, but ticket number is...080731-000368]. i gave all information i could to help them. sadly i seem to have lost the access keys after moving back in with my parents... 166.217.38.141 00:01, 2 August 2008 (UTC)THE TOTAL DAWTS

yeh...sawrry i'm freaking out -- just stressed. but pleez, as i said this is the ticket 080731-000368. pleez, so far the other guys haven't done much to help and they just said they'll be contacting me. -.- -- THE TOTAL DAWTS

i do not know what or how to use this, i just got on and decided it would be a good idea to try and find somebody... is there a way we can e-mail or something because if i have to give any information i would like to keep it private.--166.217.38.141 00:38, 2 August 2008 (UTC) THE TOTAL DAWTS

thank you, sorry i know nothing about these wiki chat forums. but anyways...yeah, i can give you information but i cannot figure out ur e-mail and i searched the left side thing for the email user and i haven't found it... --- THE TOTAL DAWTS

is there anyway that it can be fixed. Here's the general problem. I made an account 2 years ago. After 2 years you seem to forget small things like an old profile password. After i moved back to the U.S. i couldn't remember it and i got rid of COX internet and thus i had no more e-mail for the arenanet to send it to. Thus i am at a standstill because i do not know the password and i cannot get new password through e-mail.

I understand, you probably cannot give away information like that but i really feel silly for not remembering the password but i really want my old character back. I sort of miss her, ya know? --- THE TOTAL DAWTS

Do you still have the product key? That could help to verify your identity. Don't post the key here. -- Gordon Ecker 04:22, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

that is the biggest problem. I do not have the key. I gave them all the information i remembered about the account and everything but i lost the product key (or possibly somewhere along the way i thought it was trash and threw it away...2 years is a while to keep a small piece of paper). --- THE TOTAL DAWTS

okay, it's been 2 days (almost 3) since i have heard any response from the GW Support Team about the issue. They might be working on it but the least they could do is send an update on status or something if they are working on it at all.... All i can say is that the neglect to even try and talk to users is quite pathetic. They might be working hard (go ahead, take all your anger out on me) but that should not stop anybody from letting a customer know important facts like: We Will NOT help you:: or ::We will work on it:: or ::We will need more information. This is the largest problem i ever see with any Technical Support group because it seems as if they just do not care for the customer's knowledge. 2 days should be enough to decide whether or not to take action. I do not know and i do not care how long it takes to fullfill any progress if they decide to help but the mere fact is they should let me know if they will help me in progress. --- THE TOTAL DAWTS

Hi, Dawts. I looked into your ticket. You submitted it late at night on July 30th. It was responded to (automatically) right away, and by an agent (human being) within 14 minutes. The agent asked you for your access keys, and you responded about 10 hours later that you did not have them. (Don't worry, 10 hours is fine; people need to sleep! So, no delay on your part there!) 12 minutes later, the agent responded to let you know that the ticket would be routed to another team member (escalated) to help you because, without keys, this will take some extra "detective work" to figure out. I think that's all good so far, don't you?

Now, looking further, it appears you wrote three times on July 31st, after the ticket had been escalated, and again on August 1st and August 2nd. However, please do keep in mind that escalated tickets take a bit of extra time, and they will generally be reviewed by senior team members during the normal work week of Monday through Friday. This means the ticket was in the escalated queue for less than two business day before the weekend arrived.

I wish things could go faster, but it does take time. Now, I think it would have been good to respond to you on Friday to say that the matter was still being looked into, just to reassure you. I'm sorry that we didn't do that. But I did want to say that the team has been very busy the last few weeks. And I worry that if they're reopening tickets that are being worked on to tell players, "Hey, we really are working on this," will that mean that they're slowed down from actually completing tickets? Might that delay the actual resolution? (Sort of like someone keeps picking up the phone to say "Hold on," when it would be better to set down the phone, leave it down, and keep working to get the job done! ;) )

So, this being the weekend, I wouldn't expect an answer until Monday, but I do know the matter is being looked into and is not rejected simply because you do not have your access keys. There are other ways that the team can try to verify your account for you. They will do whatever they can to help you get back into your account. Take care, and see you soon in the game! :) -- Gaile 06:27, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

i am amazed...you are the only person who can possibly place such a confusing pointt of view in my mind to such a simple and laid out plan. Tthank you, i am ttrying to be pattientt, also i have anotther questtion...(justt a silly one:: butt since we have a nice lil chatt goin on rightt here...) is itt possible to add you as a GUILD WARS friend, because i have heard rumors that it won't register or i will get a short-term ban. --- THE TOTAL DAWTS

I'm glad if I could help with some information, and hope it will result in a good outcome. I just checked the ticket, and I see that you're still working on this issue with the team. They seem to be responding quickly and are checking all the possible names and other information that you relay, so I hope that you'll have success in locating that account so you can get back into the game!

And yes, you're welcome to add me as a friend. I don't know where the silly "you'll get banned" rumour got started. It's sort of sad that people feel constrained by that bit of nonsense. But I do understand someone said it, and others may believe it. However, nothing could be farther from the truth and I'll look forward to seeing you in the game sometime. :) -- Gaile 21:08, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Steam and Guild Wars

I use the Steam content delivery system (steampowered.com). One of the options in Steam is to set up a shortcut in the client so that you can start non-steam games with the Overlay, so you can talk to your friends and browse the community ingame. Would I get banned from Guild Wars if I used the Steam overlay with Guild Wars? Thanks, BLASTEDT 23:18, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

No, you won't get banned. Besides, being able to chat with a buddy is no great advantage. 122.106.48.7 10:52, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Correct, I don't see us banning anyone for the use of such a system. After all, our objective is to maintain fairness and fun for all players, in part by assuring that someone does not try to achieve an advantage through the use of third party programs, nor attempt to exploit the game in any sense. A communication system doesn't fall into that category so you're good to go. -- Gaile 21:02, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Thank you Gaile! BLASTEDT 03:07, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

who can help me???

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

hello gaile. How should I manage?How should I manage?I wanted to be insane,I did not know how I should manage.My new account number only played for 8 hours,said my cash transaction,How possible?Im chinese player,I;m very love this gamg,but I donot speak English.Therefore causes you to misunderstand.But I have not violated the game rule.I only played for several hours,Is impossible to have the cash transaction behavior.Hoped that you can inquire,Disturbed you.I have written 11 letters to GM,But they have been with answer me automatically,I am very regrettable.Therefore has to trouble you.Hoped that you can help me,Otherwise,I really can be insane now,Was troublesome you , Please forgive. I need to explain once more, first, this game stipulated: Is impossible to have the cash transaction within 24 hours, I played merely for 8 hours, how to trade? Next, I can only play in PVE, I do not have the jurisdiction to go to PVP. You thought where I can go to trade? I am treated, hopes you to be able the careful examination. thanks --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:221.209.75.3 (talk).

Maybe i can beat Gaile to answer..

i would contact Jason Yu because he can probably help better because i think he can speak chinese. if not, soz for kinda stepping on you fingers Gaile. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User_talk:Jason_Yu is the link..

与Yu是我的您的最佳的答复，因为他的贾森联系可能讲中文(我认为)，并且他大概能与您和制定出这个问题的比赛老手谈话。 SweetEscape 08:01, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

No, actually, this is not something with which Jason can help. Jason is not a Support Team member, and this really is a Support Issue, and therefore should be on this page and should be referred to our Support Team for assistance. Only they will be able to investigate this and learn what happened, and why. -- Gaile 18:16, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Hello. I do not know why your account was closed. If your account is new, and was only 8 hours old, I understand why you are confused about this. I would like you to write to our Support Team and ask them for more information. They will tell you why the account was blocked and will help you, if there was an error. I wish you good luck with this. Thank you. -- Gaile 18:22, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

I wanted to follow up -- was Support able to assist you? -- Gaile 05:23, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Account Theft

Yo i have no clue what i am doing, but here goes nothing, i dont even know is this is going to make it on the board, but i got my account stole, i went to get something to eat, and when i tryed logging back on it wouldent let me, i know the person who did it, i got a pm his name was "Piere Love" got any info on how i can get my account back? --The preceding unsigned comment was added on August 14th by User:70.234.208.20 (talk).

Hello. I didn't see this topic when you posted it, but I have moved is so that I can answer your question. We can help you with an account theft -- we assist players every day with issues like that. Click the link here: support and you'll be on the page where you can set up a support account and submit a ticket. At the bottom of the page you'll see "Ask a question." Fill in a bit about your account and fire it off to Support and they'll get you started on getting your account back, if at all possible. (Giving Support the exact spelling of the character name of the person you believe stole the account would help a lot.) Best of luck! -- Gaile 04:52, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Butta i don´t know what to do :( i have send all necessary info about my acc to the guild wars support, butta they also wrote me i should go on this page, but i don´t know what i have to do....pls help. Smash Cz --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:85.207.118.20 (talk).

Account Theft

Yo i have no clue what i am doing, but here goes nothing, i dont even know is this is going to make it on the board, but i got my account stole, i went to get something to eat, and when i tryed logging back on it wouldent let me, i know the person who did it, i got a pm his name was "Piere Love" got any info on how i can get my account back? --The preceding unsigned comment was added on August 14th by User:70.234.208.20 (talk).

Hello. I didn't see this topic when you posted it, but I have moved is so that I can answer your question. We can help you with an account theft -- we assist players every day with issues like that. Click the link here: support and you'll be on the page where you can set up a support account and submit a ticket. At the bottom of the page you'll see "Ask a question." Fill in a bit about your account and fire it off to Support and they'll get you started on getting your account back, if at all possible. (Giving Support the exact spelling of the character name of the person you believe stole the account would help a lot.) Best of luck! -- Gaile 04:52, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Butta i don´t know what to do :( i have send all necessary info about my acc to the guild wars support, butta they also wrote me i should go on this page, but i don´t know what i have to do....pls help. Smash Cz --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:85.207.118.20 (talk).

Account block question

Gaile, I normally wouldn't trouble someone as high on the ladder as you, but the link to Play NC support on your user page is broken. I'll state my case here briefly in any case, if that helps. I was just disconnected from GW and told that my account had been suspended for 167 hours for inappropriate language. I have a couple of questions... I understand why suspensions are put in place but I was a little stunned at the duration of my ban considering it was only for a minor infringement (compared to RMT, exploits, etc.). I don't remember what or when I said something to offend anyone (though I obviously did, since I was suspended) but the seemingly abrupt appearance of the ban (it disconnected me when I was sitting in town just talking to guild members) really confused me. So here are my questions: I understand I'm being punished for something I said that must have offended someone, but why is the duration of the ban so long? Secondly, is there any use (or rather, hope) in me getting this suspension lessened or, dare I suggest it, postponed? I understand that might not be possible, but it's a real bummer to miss out on an awesome bonus weekend. Again, sorry to bother you since you probably have better things to do, but I wasn't sure where else to ask for help. I might suggest that you put a new link in on your user page :) (My account email is (content removed for privacy).) I don't have any query reference numbers because I haven't been able to file a ticket with Play NC support. I hope you can help. Thanks. 122.106.48.7 17:10, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for pointing out the broken link; it's fixed now: support. If you fill out a ticket, the Support Team will help you with the information that you need. But I did take a look at your account (and am now going to remove your user name from your post :) ) and I think you are seeing the results of the graduated system for account marks. This is your second account mark in 30 days, so that explains why the duration of the block is longer. The system allows a discretionary extended block for offensive language, but those are rather unusual. You are correct, a first mark would not normally get a one-week block. (Our Conduct Breaches and Outcomes document can give more info on the mark system, if you're interested.)

I understand your request, but I do not think our policy would allow reducing the timing or duration of such a block upon request. Not to make light of the matter, but getting an account block is sort of like getting a traffic ticket -- neither happens when it's convenient. :) -- Gaile 02:43, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the info, that clears up everything I wanted to know. Guess I should watch my tongue in the future, eh? Thanks again. 122.106.48.7 00:34, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Happy to help (and sorry about the block :-/ ). But it's only a bit longer and you'll be back in the game pretty soon. See you there! -- Gaile 05:22, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Is this page still used as a Support Liaison page?

If not, who has taken over the position for Gaile Gray? I have a support ticket number, but if this isn't the place to ask for help, then I need to find one. Sable Wood 21:49, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

I'm still here (every day, including holidays :) ) and yes, I'm ArenaNet's Support Liaison. I don't know about the situation you mention, of course, but if you are working with the Support Team, you're on the right track to get help. If there is a way in which I can assist you, please share the details here and include the support ticket number. Thanks.

(Oh, by the way, I apologize for responding a bit later than I normally would, but I missed your post because it was at the top and not the bottom of the page. Since Wiki users look for new topics at the bottom of the page, I moved this into chronological order by original date of posting. Hope that's ok with you.) -- Gaile 20:08, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

That's fine: I am just learning how the mechanics behind how the wiki works here. Thanks so much for letting me know you will be reading this. All of the related info is on my computer downstairs, (and I am in bed) so I'll post it tomorrow for you. In my opinion, it is a problem that is begging for an easy change to keep this type of problem from happening again. I will be sure to post when my eyelids are able to stay open for more than 5 minutes :-) Sable Wood 03:06, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Update About Support

I wanted to share a bit of interesting news about our Support system. If you submitted a support ticket in the past, you may have noticed we weren't real forthcoming about the outcome. Maybe you submitted a ticket about harassment or bad language, or wrote us about an offensive name or some in-game scamming. You would have been thanked for your report but would not have been told when the report was researched, whether it was verified, nor if any action was taken against the player you reported.

As part of our review of ways to improve our support, we realized that a "Don't tell" policy was pretty unsatisfying. If you report someone, you probably feel that it's fair to know what happened! Now, we're not going to go into chapter and verse: "We handled your report against Mr Bad Player on Tuesday at 4:10 PM GMT (-7 PDT), placed a mark on his account, and because he's been a naughty player and had X other reports this month, the most intense PvP he's most going to be doing for the next two weeks is dominoes." I guess that would be a tad too much info, eh? ;) On the other hand, giving you some basic info -- "We got your report, confirmed it through research, and took action on the account" or even "We researched and couldn't confirm the report, can you send more information" -- is a lot better than a sing-song "We're not tell-ing."

So if you submit a support ticket in the future, it's likely that you will be given more info about the outcome of your report, and that's a very good thing. :) -- Gaile 23:23, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

That's great news! I think it will ultimately also help us players know what's reportable, and when we shouldn't bother- especially with language! I mean, I'm sure there are people out there who would report any and all players for using just a single bad word, not distinguishing between the f-word and something as mild and uninteresting as "ass". Perhaps with the new feedback system, we can learn when it's useful to report (since we know which tickets were acted upon, and which weren't), and maybe it'll lead to less tickets, ultimately speeding up the process a little. :)

How about other Support aspects, though? I mean, I've reported two or three people myself over the past 3 years, but I'm mostly concerned about the way everything else is handled... What about bug reports and the like? I'm still waiting for them to fix the default district bugs, for instance. -- Elv 07:25, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Bug reports fall into a different category than player reports. We address issues within the game as quickly as we can -- bots are blocked within an hour; RMTs are blocked by the hundreds each day; harassment and offensive language are researched and dealt with as soon as such as report comes in.

As far as bugs, though, we have indicated we are focused on development for Guild Wars 2. That means that we do not have a large "live team" to handle changes to the game. If someone reports a bug, it is routed to the devs, but unless there is a critical priority in addressing that bug -- say, the "bug" is really a major exploit or the bug has a significant effect on gameplay -- that report will be added to a review list and it may or may not be addressed at all, based on its priority and importance. Example: We're less like to address a clipping issue than an error in a skill description that affects gameplay.

Players should, by all means, continue to report bugs, and the Support Team will route them to the development team so that they can be reviewed and given the appropriate handling. -- Gaile 21:02, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

"the most intense PvP he's most going to be doing for the next two weeks is dominoes." LMAO, such a person has been pwnd. Must agree that getting a response from Support is an agreeable change.

I'm just disappointed that one particular bug I reported has been around for about a year now (ever since they made it possible to switch servers whenever you wanted), and that apparently they can't be bothered to fix it or can't be bothered to let us know that they just don't know how to. I'll quote from the reply I got: After reviewing your description, we are able to confirm that the problem you have reported is a known issue and the development team is already working on an appropriate solution. I understand that GW2 is a priority nowadays, but this was a reply I got in February, and in this particular case and with this particular response I think it's only fair to say that this is a promise (of sorts) they should keep, or at the very least update us all on somehow. It could be that it's hard to fix and that it may take a few more months, but it is the sort of feedback I'd appreciate. I'm someone who doesn't believe in making promises I can't keep, so I really hope this isn't some sort of standard reply they send out with every bug report...

For me, and for who knows how many others, this issue causes a lot of lag and annoyance on a daily basis, and sometimes it puts me off enough to log off again almost immediately. I'm not sure how long GW2 has been a priority, but this is one bug I wish they'd consider as more important. :(

I guess that leads me to another question... there is apparently a list of known issues, and I guess it also keeps tabs on how many times said issue has been reported (I assume so, as personally I'd like to know if something happens to the masses or to a handful of people), it probably also shows the severity, and I assume the order in which things get fixed is based on that. In my head, the district bug would be more important than the clipping of Mesmer Fissure armour (I do hope the devs agree with me there ;) ), but maybe not as important as a crash bug or exploit. Is it viable to ask for a short monthly update on the main issues on that list, either by liaison or through the official website somehow? It could simply be a bullet point list along the lines of

• Exploit A fixed (not necessarily specified, I don't think exploits need that)
• Exploit B fixed
• Crash bug so-and-so being worked on... etc.

The "fixed" bit is already included in the Update Notes, I know, but if they are actually working on fixes for a few things and they're taking a long time, a short quick update accessible to everyone (rather than having to bother with updating every relevant ticket) would be really, really appreciated. I mean, I was told over half a year ago they would fix this bug, but right now I don't even know if they're still looking into it or if they've finally added it to the "we're not going to bother" pile. If they're still working on it- great, I'll sit around and wait patiently- and if not... well, that's a shame, and a little annoying, but at least I'll know I can stop wondering and won't be tempted to ask again. :) Do you think something like that could be doable?

Anyway... (This post is soooo much longer than I originally intended...) I think this needs to be repeated: great job on the improved Support system so far, and keep up the good work. :) -- Elv 23:01, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi, Elveh. First of all, could you let me know about that district bug that you contacted Support about? You can post it here, email me through the Wiki, or drop a line to SupportLiaison@Arena.Net. I hear about a lot of bugs, and I just want to make sure I'm familiar with the bug, and then I'll try to find out about the status, particularly because it has been directly related to Support issues, as you point out.

I can sure ask about a "Known Issues" list. I remember discussing this back a few years ago, but as I recall, the company would really prefer to release detailed build notes and make the occasional Dev Update to keep players apprised of what's going on, as opposed to hosting an issues list. I'll check internally to see if that's still the plan. From a Support perspective, I don't know if an formal Known Issues List would eliminate the need to update support tickets, because even with a published list, people would still want to have their tickets answered and we want to show them that level of respect. Could our responses say that we were investigating the matter and that the person submitting the ticket could track any updates on the matter on the Issues List? Or would players feel that was a brush-off? "Yeah, we know about this, go read the list!" :) And to be quite honest, some players place a bit of clipping on their armour as a very high priority. Would they find it acceptable to see a list that placed it as low priority or that it's simply not going to be addressed? Would having a list cause a lot of second-guessing and "re-prioritizing" in the eyes of the community? "What the heck? I think #1 should be #4, and #7 shouldn't even be worked on!" (Come to think of it, it could be a new form of PvP: List Revision Wars! Maybe the Xunlai Tournament House could cost predictions on the next month's updates! :D )

What I see in your comments (and no, they are not too long) is a genuine interest in assuring that people who submit issues through Support have a way of knowing more about the issue -- that it's still in the works or even that it's something we're going to be able to address. I sense there's some drop-off in communications, and I'd like to see if we can improve that. So thinking out loud... an issues list, improved follow-ups on tickets, internal "unfinished update" reviews, some sort of increased information dispersals... maybe somewhere in there is an idea or are ideas we could consider for the future. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! -- Gaile 04:42, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) You're more than welcome to look at the ticket- it's ticket 080123-001557 "Territory Issues". I asked you about this way back when, and you suggested that I ran a few tests. I did all that, did a few more, and then wrote a detailed ticket about the issues and why suggested workarounds don't work. I think you'll recognise the issue when you see it. :)

List Revision Wars? xD I'd totally play PvP if we could do that! [coughs] In all seriousness, though, I wasn't thinking of having the list as a whole detailed out online for us, because that would cause all the issues you mentioned. (I'd totally want my Mesmer FoW fixed before my Monk FoW, and I'll gladly beat up any and every person who disagrees... using my Tormented Staff. Incidentally, would we get TRPs for our guesses, just like with the ATs?) I guess it's hard to work out exactly how to go about such a list, but I suggested it because it was far less time-consuming than answering 10k tickets, for example, to say that a bug was fixed. I want the team to have the time to fix bugs, not waste it on something that could be done more efficiently. Or perhaps there would be an invisible way to group the tickets? You know, place all "Territory Issues" and related tickets in one category, and then when there's an update on this issue, send out a single update to all these tickets at once. That way, there would only be need for 1 email, but everyone would get an update and know if they should be patient or /resign.

I'm not sure if that's possible for tickets that have been "Closed", but then again I never agreed with closing certain types of tickets after 3 days. My bug report's been closed, but my bug's still around. To me, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who feels that way, that sort of feels like the devs are done with it even when they may not be. 72 hours is a very short time to deal with bug fixes- it often takes a lot longer to fix it. Or is that a mechanism that allows them to go "Oh hey look you guys, this ticket's closed... we don't have to work on it anymore!" I hope not. ;)

I'd brainstorm more and make this even longer, but I have to dash for now. Hopefully in the above wall of text I managed to squeeze in something useful. I'll probably run a few more tests later just for the sake of it. Maybe some more details will motivate the team a little extra. :D -- Elv 07:01, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Question about the Guild Wars rules

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Hello Gaile, I'm new to editing the wiki so I'm sorry if I blow your user page up, I really hope it doesn't.

Lately there has been an entire guild (an entire alliance? I'm not sure) that has been harassing me, basically sending me spam PMs, or hateful messages, telling people to PM me for free stuff... I decided to look through the Guild Wars rules and this one caught me eye:

"1.While playing Guild Wars, you must respect the rights of others and their rights to play and enjoy the game. To this end, you may not defraud, harass, threaten, or cause distress and/or unwanted attention to other players. You will not report players maliciously, or cause them to be investigated without reason."

That guild (alliance?)'s actions are disrupting my enjoyment of the game, they're harassing me, causing me distress, and bringing unwanted attention to me. Is there a place I could report the whole alliance for harassment, or do I have to report every single one as they come up?

I don't know how to sign my username... Let's try... Lady Taurucis

Hi, and welcome to the Wiki, it's nice to see you here. To answer your question, yes, there decidedly is a place for you to reports issues like this, and believe me, the Support Team will take a good, hard look at the information that you send to see if a breach of the User Agreement or Rules of Conduct has taken place. If they are able to establish that someone has engaged in player harassment, the accounts of those involved in the harassment will be actioned and you will be informed of the outcome. (This is a change in policy brought about in the last few months. I think I'm going to explain in greater detail on the Support Issues page.)

To reach the Support Team, please click support and then at the bottom of the page, look for "Ask a Question." Fill in your email address, use a few drop-down menus to get into the right category, and then fill in the information that you want to share. We would need date, time (and time zone), and your game user/log-in name, the exact spelling of your own character's name, and an equally careful spelling of the character names of those harassing you. I do not think we can pull chat records for an entire guild by guild name, so please make a careful note of as many of those involved as you can, or update the ticket later with more names, if need be. The more information we have, the better.

If I can help in any way after you have submitted a ticket, do let me know. (I have access to the system, so providing me the incident number is very helpful.) It is very likely, though, that the Support Team will get this resolved within a day or a couple of days. It will go through the queue from the auto-response to the first-level (human) response to, if it needs to be escalated, the staff member who will do the research. But do be assured that we are committed to making the game world a fun and comfortable place to be, so your report will be taken seriously. -- Gaile 02:15, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi, LadyTaurucis. I wonder if you could tell me if this issue was resolved in your satisfaction. We're very interested in your impressions and your feedback, so please feel free to get in touch! -- Gaile 04:31, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Hello Gaile - the whole issue managed to peacefully resolve itself, it's been about a month since those goofballs decided to mess with me and I haven't gotten any harassing whispers from them as of late. That is pretty much the best outcome, I don't really want other people to get banned but I'm not going to lie down and let people walk all over me...

However I do have a question about the rule violation reporting page. It says that I need some kind of PlayNC account (I don't remember exactly what it was called) to contact support, is that true? I've heard horror stories about people getting their GW accounts hacked through PlayNC, and other nightmares with account name changing... so that got me kind of hesitant to use the reporting feature. Taurucis

I have never heard of someone getting hacked through PlayNC. I'd call tAhat a rumor until I had a lot of details and could check out the report. Setting up a support account is necessary for some forms of support, it's true. But a support account is different than a game account, and setting up a support account does not bind your game account to PlayNC. Therefore, name changes are not affected. I've been pressing for a means to contact Support that does not require an account of any kind and I'm hopeful that we'll be making changes towards a more user-friendly system in the future. -- Gaile 18:51, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Question about chat filter and actions taken for language.

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

I do tend to notice while playing and while reading some of the support issues you deal with, foul language tends to be a one of the main things that get reported. Now i realize that some foul language would count as slander or racial slurs...but because of the chat filter at what point does action get taken?

Ive seen people been called [insert whatever bad word you want to here] once and spout off with "oh i just reported you for saying that to me!" when the word in question would have been blocked by the chat filter.

I guess the main question is "When does language go over the chat filter and become enough that action will be taken?" --Mashav 08:51, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Why are we talking about the chat filter again? It was covered in 2 long, waaay too long discussions already :/ Just because there's a filter that's preventing some words (and it's a filter that you can turn off if you wish, mind you) doesn't mean you can be offensive to others if you think up a word that bypasses it. Just because a door has a lock doesn't mean that you're free to do anything you want if you bypass that lock. — Poki#3 15:30, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

He wasn't talking about bypassing the filter, he was asking how do they decide enough is enough. I mean if I swear in a casual non abusive manner in alliance chat I probably won't get a ban. If I swear in a team a coupe time "Stop ----ing pulling adds!" Again I probably won't be banned if reported. But when does support decide enough is enough... obviously there is a context for when words are used and this will effect the severity [if any] of the punishment received. Mashav is talking about the chat filter again Poki because this is Gaile's talk page not yours and Gaile is the support liason. When you work in a liasing position you get asked the same question over and over, and it's your job to answer it. A question asked frequently is a question worth answering - and also a hint players strongly care about something [ie hair dressers, character renaming]. Although I doubt it is likely Mashav will get the answer he wants because setting a limit will just encourage people to operate just under it, it is up to Gaile to respond to the question how she likes or is able to. Some people aren't wiki savvy and knowledgeable enough to search archives, some want more up to date information, some want to deal with a more specific area of a question or topic previously covered. You are under no obligation to read any of it. 122.104.165.13 21:02, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks to both of you who have commented. While you have very different viewpoints, I appreciate that both opinions have merit. -- Gaile 01:07, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi, Mashav. I think you are asking, "Why block players if you have a filter?" Or you may be asking, "Why have a filter if you're going to block players?" Or you may be asking both. :) Here are some thoughts:

First, Guild Wars has players from all over the world. They come from different cultures, religions, nations, languages, and backgrounds; they span a wide range of ages and both genders. The word filter is a tool that players can use to have some control over their gameplay experience, and Support teaches people about that every day. Using the filter isn't mandatory, but if someone reports a concern about chat content, the first reaction isn't simply to go looking for a head on a platter! The team's first reaction is twofold: (1) empower the player to control some of his game world experience by using the tool, (2) take action against those who willfully damage that experience with offensive or unacceptable behavior.

Support appraises each report individually. They try to show a reasonable level of tolerance for spontaneity, impulsiveness, and human error, but they remain keenly aware of their responsibility, as well. For instance, Support seldom takes action on a single instance of swearing; they very seldom act on chat in the more-private media, like Whispers or Guild Chat. Support most likely will react when the inappropriate speech is repeated, when it's personally directed, or when the content of the chat is over the top (by general standards). Examples? Well, saying Oh ******! once when you lose a PvP match isn't going to get you blocked. Saying it a dozen times may. And saying ***** you, you ****ing ****! is pretty likely to earn a block. Using racist or sexist language gets zero tolerance; creative spelling isn't a work-around; "he made me say it because he made me mad" isn't a defense.

If the door lock fails, there's no permission to steal. If someone uses "abc123" for a game password, that's no justification for access. The Guild Wars word filter does not offer a "License to Swear." :) We all do what we can -- with door locks, passwords, and word filters -- but at the end of the day, each of us has a responsibility to behave acceptably in the world and in the game world, too. The filter does a good job of giving players who seek it some level of control over their experience, but tools are not the full answer and never will be -- mutual respect is the real answer. -- Gaile 02:31, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Well thank you for your response Gaile. But the main thing was not really "Why is action taken?" it was more of a "When is action taken?". In any case you did answer the question in the second paragraph and i do thank you for responding. --Mashav 06:45, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Why don't people just grow some damn skin? The filter's enabled by default, why not just give a huge warning when you try to disable it warning people that this is the internets and there is going to be dirty language? Then you don't get idiots getting people banned for talking. Sure, if you're spamming crap in local that isn't getting censored, that's one thing (see also: LA AD1 last October, when I was banned), but if you turn off the filter and find people swearing, that's your own fault. (If swearing is such a horrible sin, why can the filter be disabled in the first place? Why not just enable it permanently, as Jagex has done? Sure, plenty of people will leave, but it's not like they were getting you any more money anyway.) -- Armond Warblade 12:28, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

This really is a complicated issue. You want to allow people as much freedom as possible, but you want to offer a game world where players are comfortable. Sometimes there are conflicts. Player One: "I want absolute freedom of speech." (I won't go into how the U.S Constitution's protection from governmental inhibition of a citizen's free expression doesn't relate to a private game server. But I guess I just did. ;) ) Player Two: "I want you to protect me from every possible semi-offensive word or innuendo."

There's no perfect answer, but there is a compromise:

• Give players tools to control their game experience.
• Deal with those whose offensive behavior cannot be controlled by the tools.

It wouldn't be fair for us to insist that everyone use the filters; some players want to interact in a less restricted environment. On the other hand, it wouldn't be appropriate for us to consider filters as the final and only answer when we know that people try for work-arounds to harass, offend, or victimize others (in ways the filters can't control). We're hoping for solid middle ground, a way to serve everyone with fairness and objectivity.

You're probably aware that improving Guild Wars Support is a major, company-wide objective. It's why I'm doing what I do these days. :) So share your thoughts and feedback, any time! -- Gaile 16:20, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Armond, Gaile's completely correct. A chat filter can never, ever be able to censor out everything, because of minute spelling changes people can make to get around said filter. Your comment of "why can't people just grow some damn skin" also shows that you have a very, very limited knowledge of sociolinguistics (not that most people do, but if they did, they wouldn't make those kinds of comments). Language is the single most powerful tool that we as humans possess. In addition to being able to make people feel a whole plethora of emotions, language and words also have the ability to create laws, suppress whole nations of people, and perpetuate prejudice and genocide, among other atrocities. Sure, this is only a game, but words are words, regardless if they're in game or out. It's not a matter of having thick skin; rather, it's a matter of having respect for your fellow human beings. "Intarnets" or not, the fact is that ArenaNet wants its players to have fun and decency for other players, and that means that sometimes people will be banned for the "greater good" of the game, so to speak, should they decide to ignore the rules (and, in essence, that their opinion is above that of other users) and use disgusting language. So please, before you tell people to grow thick skin, think about the power that words can have and the social responsibilities that they carry. Kokuou 00:12, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

That was completely beside my point. Yes, avoiding the filter is serious (there are people who keep it on because they find swearing distasteful), but if you're going to turn off the filter, you should understand that, in doing so, you're exposing yourself to that kind of language. It's... not a difficult concept. My entire problem, though I didn't state it as such, was with people who turn off the filter and then complain to ANet or whoever that they were exposed to the language the filter was designed to protect. -- Armond Warblade 19:20, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

I usually turn off filters because some words get filtered even though there is nothing wrong with them. That's a legit reason to turn off yet be insulted by the language that some people use. -- Alaris 19:33, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

That's more a problem with anet's filter than with any player. Lord Belar 19:36, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Alaris, those things do get fixed sometimes. I remember mentioning a few of those words to Gaile a while ago, and fixes were implemented, including the notorious Damned Cleric one. It's always worth making ANet aware of this stuff, because they do like to improve their system (never mind what some people would claim). I'm still not 100% happy with the filter, and it may not cover every single language in the world (I'm pretty sure it doesn't even cover a few of the languages I speak, not that I'm about to spam Team Chat and find out either, though), but it does cover some of the most basic obscenities. I can survive the occasional bit of swearing, but personally I find it off-putting. To me, seeing **** is just as annoying as seeing the actual 4-letter word it blocks, and if I see the same person producing it repeatedly it will shape my opinion of this person in exactly the same way whether I see the actual word or not. There's no filter in the world that can fix that- then again, my problem is attitude much more than the actual words.

That said... two thumbs up, Gaile, I've definitely seen improvement in the way Support handles this particular issue, and thanks for stressing that the filter is not a license to swear (again), because there are still losers who'll spam local in the big towns claiming that it is. I guess I won't have to feel hesitant about sending in a complaint next time I see them do it. ;) -- Elv 22:24, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

And if you guys want to report those issues, please do so. The Support Issues page could stand a listing of such word problems, and I can then pass them along to the team handling the word and name filters and see if we can exclude legitimate words while blocking the nasty ones. -- Gaile 19:41, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Armond, I hope that I have reassured you on that score. :) Support is involved in these issues on many levels: researching reports, appraising the seriousness of the offense, placing a block on an account when research shows that player needs a time out, and educating players about the tools that are available to them, including the filter.

We don't take offensive language lightly, but we don't action every report that comes in, either. I think at the end of the day, if someone is filling the screen with swear words, or filling the screen with ****, that person needs a look. And if someone is reporting every swear word and declining to use the tools, that person needs to be asked to use the tools and report only the cases that are beyond his ability to manage. -- Gaile 19:35, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

I'm not honestly very reassured, because that does nothing to change ArenaNet's policy of being more carebearish than I feel appropriate.

That said, there's nothing you can do about it - nor, I think, can you assuage my feelings that support is essentially a waste of resources - and there's nothing I can do about it, either, short making a company of my own. So I guess that just leaves me to acting like an ass out of frustration.

Oh, and because it was requested of me: Mudkipz.

-- Armond Warblade 01:43, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

I don't see why you aren't reassured; acting crude in-game is just as inappropriate as acting that way in real life. Sure you swear and throw profanity around in your own house, but do it in public and people will not only think you're weird and avoid you, but you'll also get yourself thrown out of (i.e. "banned from") establishments. If you really feel the need to swear at a PvP rival because s/he ranked your corpse, then yell at the screen. If you feel the need to let some choice words fly, do it in guild chat, or even alliance chat, if your alliance is cool with it. Seriously, there is absolutely no need to swear or become verbally violent with anyone in all chat at any time. And if you're not mature enough to ignore someone that is provoking you, then maybe you shouldn't be playing at all. There's a time and a place for everything, and if you can't understand that GW is not the time nor place for that kind of thing, then maybe you should go and re-learn the general so-called "rules" of society. Kokuou 09:28, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

The "rules" of society have no place on the internet, where every society is thrown into a blender and switched on to "high".

Further discussion of this subject has already taken place elsewhere; see also, link. -- Armond Warblade 13:17, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) No, Armond, this isn't "the internet." This is Guild Wars. And ArenaNet has specifically stated that it has rules that it expects its players to abide by. The internet doesn't because no one moderates the internet. Unfortunately for your case, Guild Wars does, and its moderators will take action if you decide to be verbally abusive or crude to another player or in all chat for everyone to see. And your argument sounds dangerously close to, "everyone else does it, so I can too," which we know to be the worst possible excuse for anything, on the internet or off. Maybe if everyone remembered that the person or people on the receiving end of words and sentences were actual flesh-and-bone human beings with a brain and emotions, the internet would be a happier place to be. It's not going to happen, but one can dream. In any case, GW != internet. Period. Kokuou 22:16, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Two things I live by:

• On the other side of your monitor is another human being who deserves respect and consideration.
• Kindness costs nothing

And yes, I tilt at windmills on a regular basis. -- Gaile 22:26, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

"I've never broken bones with a stone or a stick, But I'll conjure up a phrase that can cut to the quick." -- "This week the Trend" by Relient K on Mmhmm. Someone once said to a friend of mine, "Your life is not worth digging 6 feet for." And I about put my fist through his face. I have no issue with language and explatives, but you start throwing insults at people (no matter how much profanity it contains) that are very harsh and degrading, and we will have problems, VERY fast. Lack of respect for any one person gets to me quicker than anything. Saying anything with the intent of degrading someone or prevoking a response I WILL NOT tolerate. I report people for using harsh language and insults that ARE offensive whether or not you tolerate or are cool with swearing. --Wolf 22:47, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

The internet isn't moderated? Untrue, we have RULES! Obey. -- NUKLEAR ^IIV 12:11, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

I run into rude people constantly. Since I tend to be a bit more out in the open, if you will, I often become the target of abusive whispers. Now the Queen probably has a skin thicker than most Tyrians, but there is a limit to the kind of abuse that can be tolerated. Although I always stay polite, I do give fair warning when people cross the line. When they cross it, the report is out the door. I think some of you tend to underestimate the level of abuse one can sometimes run into. A few swear words won't do much harm. But when you receive threats of r*pe, I do think the time for politeness is over and a quick report is in order. Yes, I do get those kinds of whispers occasionally and it does not make the Queen very happy. Mad Queen Malafide 06:34, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

DirectX

Heya Gaile,

I always thought I'd never need you(in a good way, ofcourse :) ) but it seems I do.. I also realise that I'd to send a support message, but I've a strong feeling they cant help me out, correct me if I'm wrong.. well, here is my problem:

I have backuped my PC, because he was doing weird, didnt want to run/connect with some programs, and was just, acting weird. When I re-installed GW, and wanted to run it, it gave me an error: DirectX 8 or higher must be installed(not exact the same, but it comes close). Since I've got Vista, I downloaded DX 10 and restarted my Guild Wars, it gave me the same error. I tought that I'd better ask a friend who is good at computers, he told me to tell him my graphic card and name, but he said that it should be possible with the one I got. So that brings me to you, could you please help me? Thanks, Dutch Sunshine 23:45, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Hey, Dutch. I hope you're doing well, aside from the current difficulty, of course. I am not familiar with that error, but I have a lot of respect for our Technical Support Team. Just last week, I saw the most complex and confusing ticket, and it was about many different issues. For instance, the player's video card was wrong, the drivers were old, the motherboard wasn't configured properly, the DirectX was iffy, and the fan had cat fur inside it. (Oh, ok, maybe not that last one. ;) ) But the fact is, the TS team helped this player through all those issues one by one, and that guy is up and playing now without a problem!

I would like you to write to the TS Team first, and see what they have to tell you about this. We support the software you're mentioning, and you've been playing fine before, so I bet it's drivers or settings, and I know my friends in TS will help you with that. Let me know how it works out for you! -- Gaile 05:21, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, after you told it might be the driver, I realised that I switched my graphic card when I got this computer, and that I changed the driver After the back-up, all is fine again, again thanks very much, and sorry to bother you :p. Hope to see ya ingame sometime again! Dutch Sunshine 16:58, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, that's a happy outcome! I will tell Tech Support that their expertise is having a good influence on me. :D -- Gaile 04:43, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

error 7

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Just a quick question but is their something up with the network at the moment? Myself and alotof UK based guildies are suffering repeated error 7's and we're all suffering it at exactly the same time,which makes me think it has to be the network and not us as we're all getting kicked at the same time. We're all on different ISP so just trying to clear this up for us. -- Salome 23:20, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

I've also been experiencing connection issues ... I just disconnected a couple of minutes ago, and a few times before that; I happen to be in the UK, too. -- Brains12 \ talk 23:23, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Same here. Yseron - 90.28.75.133 23:33, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

I just got my err7 about a minute ago. Kinda wierd, if you ask me. -- Wandering Traveler 23:35, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Hmmmm... let me check on that! Back in a few with info, if there is any available. Hold on: Where are you located? ( *blush* Ok, I can see two of you are in the UK. But it doesn't hurt to confirm, since having a lot of UK friends doesn't mean you personally are in the UK. *cough* Good cover, eh? ;) ) -- Gaile 23:41, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Oh I'm Edinburgh based and my friends are in York, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Brighton and Manchester and they are all reporting the same errors. -- Salome 00:00, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

*sniff* You make me homesick. A few of those number amongst my favourite cities in the world! /blows nose

Sorry, back to business: I have relayed these reports, including my brilliant deduction that Yseron is in France, to the network team, and await their reply. Thanks for keeping me in informed about this sort of thing! -- Gaile 00:04, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) The Network Team just wrote to say that they do not see anything clearly pointing to a problem, but they would like to know if you guys are continuing to experience connectivity issues. They will continue to investigate -- can you please confirm if you're still getting the discos and error messages? Thanks. -- Gaile 00:16, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Homesick? I didnt know you were a UK native. Well I havent error 7'ed in about 45 mins, although i do keep losing connection to my friends list and having to reconnect to it, but 2 of my friends have error 7'ed in the past 20 mins who are UK based. Although it doesnt seem that were all being kicked at the same time like we were earlier. -- Salome 00:22, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

(Edit conflict x2) None here. I've been going without a hitch. Could have just been a hiccup in the servers. On the other hand, I have no discos yet, but I got some techno and alternative here....(bad joke, shoot me). -- Wandering Traveler 00:24, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) Thanks, Gaile. I've been idling in my guild hall for about half an hour now, and I haven't disconnected yet. -- Brains12 \ talk 00:25, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

I'm in the states, Illinois to be exact, and in a 20 min time frame I got disconnected at least 15 times. I gave up trying to play but my hubby has been playing for about 30 mins and hasn't got any dc's as of yet. Hopefully everything is worked itself out.--BabyJ 00:27, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi, Salome -- I am not a native. But I am a proud "I lived there for part of my childhood" Anglophile. :D -- Gaile 00:29, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Thanks for the info, all. I will relay it now. Can you please keep me up to date? -- Gaile 00:29, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Well if Edinburgh is up there with the cities you love, maybe it might interest you to know that their is a gaming convention which started this year in Edinburgh during the festival. It's the first year, so it was very small and not that great, but hopefully it will improve in subsequent years. NCsoft sponsored it so you might already know of it. But yeh, you might be able to wrangle a "business trip" here if the convention takes off properly and to make it even better its during the height of the Edinburgh international arts festival which is on every august which I guarantee you would LOVE. -- Salome 01:31, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

I did not experience the error 7, but I did experience terrible lag issues today, oh and I'm in Swansea, Wales (UK). --MageMontu 01:38, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

PS: I did disconnect more than once (I think 3 times) from the friend-list in 2 hours time. --MageMontu 01:41, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

I didn't know about this! And yes, attending festival is one of my life ambitions. I adore bagpipes and highland dancing and all things art, and stuff! :D Is there a website I could visit to learn more? -- Gaile 02:52, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the additional info, MM. So I am reading this as your staying connected but having to reconnect (as in refreshing your password log-in?) to get to the Friends' List? -- Gaile 02:52, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

This is the link, E.I.F., as i said this yearit was a bit on the errr....disapointing side, as it only had activision, codemasters and nintendo there but it's the first year and i dont think they got enough publicity this time round.Hopefully next year they will be more established and have more peeps attend. -- Salome 03:19, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

yeap Gaile, you are reading it right. --MageMontu 08:29, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

i've been getting a number of Error 7's as well since yesterday, i'm also in the UK (Bakewell - Derbyshire, if you need specific), it's mainly one i'm loading from one area to another (or towns to explorable etc.), and not jsut randomly in a town or where ever else. ~PheNaxKian Talk 22:28, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Yesterday's situation proved to be unrelated to an internal server issue. It may have been caused by an Internet "backbone" issue, it may have been rooted in another issue, but our network team was not able to identify anything inside our network that would have caused the problems, and after a short time the users were back in good shape so we didn't need to pursue it further. I think that's the outcome of the reports, and thanks for letting us know about them. -- Gaile 03:28, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Guild Leader Promotion Accident

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Hi Gaile my Guild has a problem. My guild leader was kicking some inactive people from our guild was we are a faction farming guild and inactives don't donate. The problem was during the kicking there was a lag spike and my guild leader accidentally promoted the person (to guild leader) instead of kicking them. This is a bad situation for obvious reasons. We have contacted support but we are unsure of how to proceed and for the health of the guild we are concerned what might happen if this situation is prolonged. Is there any advice you could give us in this situation? Thank you for your time. 122.104.161.96 04:58, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

As far as I understand it, we cannot get into the guild data and make changes to the officers and leader. I honestly do not know what to recommend about this quite yet, but I will find out. So the guild leader intended to kick someone, but promoted him instead. To what was this would-be removal promoted, officer or leader? If officer, can't he simply be demoted to regular member again by the leader? If the would-be removal was promoted to leader, well:

• What's the Support incident or ticket number?
• What is the name of the guild?
• What is the name of the character who was supposed to be kicked?
• What is the name of the guild leader who needs to be promoted back to guild leader?
• How long has the player (who was supposed to be kicked) been inactive?

I would suggest that you email this information to me and I will see if I can learn more about this sort of situation. (You can email me by using the "Email this user" link in the toolbox to the left.) I do appreciate that time is critical and I will do my best to assist you. -- Gaile 05:14, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Not that it's much of a reassurance, but he'll be degraded to an officer, and the oldest officer in the guild will be promoted to guild leader after the guy is offline for 2 months. Of course 2 months is a very long time in this situation... — Poki#3 09:14, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

I'm currently unable to test, but does the game offer a confirmation window whenever somebody tries to leave/kick/promote/demote? If not, that would be a handy security feature to guard against this. Of course, people still manage to sell their armour / delete the wrong character with very strong fail-safes in place, so it won't always work, but it would help. ;) Biscuits 18:08, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Not that I know of, I have kicked a few people from the guild I am in and I don't think it showed a confirmation screen --Stu 18:18, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes, it does show a confirmation screen, otherwise I would have lost my leader position a long time ago. --MageMontu 00:55, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Pretty sure it doesn't. -- Armond Warblade 01:19, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Will get a screenshot first thing in d morning. --MageMontu 01:22, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

I just checked and when you click the icon to either kick, demote (or promote if not an officer), or designate as leader, a conformation box pops up asking if thats what you want to do with a yes or no to click. Maybe the leader should have paid attention before clicking yes. Not trying to be rude or anything but as leader you kinda need to read the details before just having a click fest and clicking the wrong thing. --BabyJ 01:40, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

BabyJ, thank you for testing. I also tested, and yes, there is a confirmation dialogue for changing a person's rank within the guild. I should mention, though, that if someone were doing a lot of roster updating, it's possible that they might miss the exact words contained within that dialogue, sort of get into "auto-pilot" for "Yes, confirm," if you know what I mean. (I remember I did that once with some selling some excess goods to the merchant. I didn't notice what I was selling and nearly cried when a nice gold went out of my inventory. :( ) I do agree it's good to be careful, but I can see where human error can play a role in such a mistake. -- Gaile 03:41, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

I lag-sold a Superior Vigor rune to the merchant one day. Sighing and grrrring ensued. Then my guildmate named a new character afterward to commemorate the "occasion." o_O Kokuou 09:32, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Hey, 122, I wanted to let you know that we've been looking into the issue, and I thank you for the extra details that you provided me. I am hopeful that we can assist in some way, and I will be keeping my eyes on the issue. If you have any updates for me, please do email me or post them here. Thanks. -- Gaile 07:15, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Oh I completely understand, I've been click happy myself on a few occasions. I've sold a few gold items, an ecto, and acidently sold my very first drago bow. : ( Now I usually keep all my dearest item in my last bag of my inventory and uncheck it at the merchant so I can't sell anything that I want to keep. I also skim over the conformation box's that pop up, cause I too went on a kick spree in my guild and almost designated someone else as leader. We're only human and mistakes do happen!--BabyJ 12:36, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Account Problem

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Hello Gaile Gray. I've heard about you at http://guildwars.incgamers.com. Since I'm getting a "Can't find server" page when I'm trying to contact support with the "Ask a Question" thingy, they said that maybe you could help me. I bought Guild Wars back in the days when Factions came out and then I stopped playing for a long time. Now I want to play again, but I don't remember my Username (e-mail) and my Password. I still got my serial, but when I try to put it in, it says, that it's already in use. But there's no options where I could get my Username and Password back. Is there any way I could delete my old account with the use of the serial key? So I could make a new account. Or maybe somehow recover the old Username/Password.

Please help me out if you can. Thanks in advance.

Peter Berden

The login screen has an option of reseting your password, but you have to know your username, and that username is your e-mail. I honestly don't know how you can forget your e-mail. A password could be anything, but there are limited e-mail options that each person has. — Poki#3 14:10, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, the problem is I changed my e-mail a few times and I forgott which one I was using at GW. So you're saying, that there's no way, that I could get my Login name (e-mail) back with the help of my serial key? I even know the password I was using, but can't remember the e-mail. Am I in deep shit? :S - Peter Berden

Yes, we can help you! Please contact support -- the team is often able to cross-reference an account by working with an accurate access key. With proper verification to ensure that we are helping the original account owner, the team can help you regain the the user name information that you seek. After you have that, you should be able to retrieve the account password and be on your way. -- Gaile 17:52, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Xunlai Tournament House Voting Issue

We're getting a few tickets about an issue with the Xunlai Tournament House, where it's hard to get a player or guild name box to "stick" in the prediction space. After talking with a bunch of people, we've figured it out: We have an alignment issue (in some resolutions) between the prediction box that contains the name of the player or guild (from the left-hand column) and the space that accepts the prediction (on the right-hand column.)

Happily, there's a good workaround and I just tested it myself: Instead of trying to drag and drop the name box into the prediction space, simply pick up the name box and hover the cursor over the prediction space. Click, and you'll find the player or guild name pops into the prediction space. It worked for me, and I bet it'll work for you, too!

We'll be giving XTH predictors this tip, and will of course be working on the misalignment issue, as well. Let me know if you have any questions about this, and Happy Predicting! -- Gaile 20:58, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi, Gaile. :D I just tried making my XTH predictions, and the page is down. I managed to get the names in the spaces, but after hitting save, I'm getting a blank page with no text or buttons to click, and my predictions aren't saved. Is the site having an issue at the moment? Kokuou 05:49, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi, Kokuou. I just checked and the site is working just fine for me. I got in ok and was offered the chance to redo my predictions, just as expected. I've been in meetings for the last two days with visitors from out of town, but I've not seen reports of the page being down and I didn't see any with a glance at the forums. So I'd like you to try it again, maybe close and reopen your browser, etc., to make sure it's not a system-related error, because I'm thinking it's really working fine right now. -- Gaile 06:38, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Gaile, I can get the GvG predictions to work but the 1v1 predictions just take me back to a blank page, tried 3 accounts on 2 different computers with both Firefox 3 and IE7 (Alara 06:57, 29 August 2008 (UTC))

Just to confirm im having the same trouble with the 1v1 predictions, i click save and it goes to a blank page Frozenwind 13:03, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

To confirm too...iexplorer en firefox giving this problem with saving prediction for 1vs1...blank screen after saving

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/783/predictionproblemab7.jpg This problem occurs on 4 of my accounts. GVG-prediction nevertheless is working fine Didis 18:56, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Same here, put the names in the boxes, go to save and I get a blank page like above. --68.32.187.152 17:51, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

It seems that it is fixed...thanx Didis 19:03, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) This issue has now been resolved. 1v1 and GvG predictions are now open for you. Thanks for the reports and your patience as we got this issue resolved! -- Gaile 19:55, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Gaile! I'm actually waiting in the line at PAX right now and the XTH won't work on my iPod, but as soon as I get access to a PC, I'll do my 1v1 predictions right away! Thanks for the speedy support, as always! (kokuou not signed in) 66.114.226.5 20:38, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Big Liar "King of Nightshade"

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

big liar "king of nightshade" ...hi ,gaile,Player(king of nightshade) is a liar.

"king Burning Arrow","king of nightshade"... This person to deceive my feelings. Deceived 1 k, although a small number, but how should a warning or punish him? --Weillz 08:58, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Please make reports of players behaving badly to support. While I work with the team, I would not be able to assist with this sort of issue. Thank you. -- Gaile 08:56, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Took the liberty of changing the images to links so they don't ruin the talk page. Though they'll probably get deleted soon for having generic names without the username in them, not to mention not having any copyright tag. And yeah, file a support ticket. — Poki#3 13:32, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

That was real helpful, Poki. I found this at 1 in the morning, so was too tired to do anything about the large images. I'm sure if they need deletion or renaming, someone will kindly assist. Thanks for the assist. -- Gaile 16:43, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

There's generally nothing you can do about scammers, just be intelligent and don't do what they want you to. Just stay away from them. ~Shard 21:44, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

I thought I was never going to become a victim for scamming, at least not the normal 10g instead of 10k trick. But back in the days, when I was selling my temple guardian for 45k (think it was about a year or so after game release), I got fooled big time. I was such in a rush and so happy to find a buyer. What set me off really was that we had been arguing about the price for quite some time - this scammer was not acting like the scammer he was.

Back then 45k was quite a lot, and as the trustfull fool I was I clicked accept almost even before I saw the offer. I discovered what I was doing already the moment I clicked my left mouse button, but it was already too late. I submitted a ticket with screenshots to support, and after a while he went offline for about 2 weeks (guessing he got a temporary ban). But, that didn't get my money (or pride) back, did it? In my opinion he got off quite too easy, so I took the case in my own hands. We had an alliance back then with about 3 guilds (alliances didn't excist like they do know, but still - we were allies), and I got everyone in these 3 guilds to add my new "friend" to their friends list. As you may know there are limited persons you can add to "ignore". I told him that if he refunded the trade, or payed me my 45k, the harrassing would stop, but he refused. And well, for the next 2-6 weeks he either had to play offline, play with quite an ugly chat, or not play at all. Harrassing players like this is of course not allowed and I therefore encourage you to never do such a thing *shifty eyes*... All that I am saying is: Scammers shouldn't be accepted by the community. "you got scammed - it is your fault for not checking the trade!" < What the *** is wrong with TRUST? Shouldn't players be able to trust each other??

On the other side; I've had loads of occations of trust during the game as well. People noticing me putting a larger amount of gold in trade than I should and telling me, people refunding trades, people trading me 140k against a product (which means 2 transactions has to be done - 40k in advance without no security at all).

Bottom line: Imagine a community where you could actually trust people to do as they said. Do scammers act the same way in real life? Scamming is disgusting! When I see a scammer I see a low-life with no pride, nor respect. Sadly, GuildWars is too large for scammers to really face any "big" concequenses. The game is too populated to make people remember scammers. I would love to see all scammers to be blacklisted on the official gw.com. (which I of course know won't happen, and wouldn't help much either). There wouldn't excist scammers if the concequenses would be: not getting into guilds, not getting into teams, not getting in to trades.

My philosophy is: Trust your fellow players and be a player to trust, always, but if they don't stick to their own words, punish them by "death". Act towards others as you'd like them to act towards you. Do not scam, and do not accept scamming. The greatest evil is the indifference of good men. Destroy all that which is evil. So that which is good may flourish! -- Titus The Third 06:34, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

Tag repeatable scammers after three strikes with a red name! Visible for everyone. And no one wants a red name. --Silverleaf 07:48, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

I want a red name =D --Wolf 17:55, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

Red name is a bit weak. If support have verified that they're habitual scammers they should just be banned. Sadie2k 08:26, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

{{delete}} -- Armond Warblade 23:05, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

OH!thank you,I don't know picture has exceeded the standard!Very grateful! abuout support,Anet has been such a "cautious".--Weillz 01:07, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Local vs Trade

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

About a year ago A-Net did us all a great favor and lowered the boom on users using the Local channel for sales, trade etc... A warning was placed on the Log-On Screen. Accounts got temporary bans. Local chat was quiet for a long time while we players set back and said all is now good with GW.

Well, things have creeped back up now, Local channel you almost have to turn off do to all the sales and trade spam going on.

Do you think you might be able to put a bug in someones ear that it is time once again to clamp down and to let the players know this is wrong? --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Pappy (talk).

That's a really interesting observation, and I see your point about increased spamming these days. We do block people for spamming daily; last week, about 100 people were giving a "time out" for spamming, based on folks letting us know through the /report system, or based on our observations. However, that's probably only a scratch on the surface of the total of those doing excessive messaging in towns. I agree with you that putting up the warning on the log-in screen seems a worthwhile idea, and I'll see if we can boost that back into the rotation soon! Thanks. -- Gaile 02:31, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Xunlai Tournament - email

→ moved from User Talk:Gaile Gray

Dear Gaile,

When trying to enter my tournament predictions for this month, for the first time ever (I signed up when it first came out but never bothered with it), I found out I forgot my password. The email I'm using for my GW account is an email I no longer use, due to it receiving about 100 spam messages a day, and I haven't checked it for about a year. I'm unable to retreive my PW to the XTH for this reason, and also I forgot my PW for my old email... (I can never remember passwords unless I write it down... I wrote it down somewhere but can't find it :\). Is there any way of sending it to a different email account, say, my new Gmail account?

Thanks, -- Mini Me 20:56, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried simply creating a new account based on the preferred email address? -- Gaile 02:21, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but I need my account name for that, and seeing as it's already registered I can't :\ Thanks for moving btw. -- Mini Me 10:07, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

To clarify: I have one GW account, and it's already registered on the XTH. You can't register the same GW account twice, obviously, so I can't re-register with my new email. -- Mini Me 20:25, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Hey minime, I had the same problem a while ago, I contacted support and they were really kind, and after that they sended me a mail back with the email I used to register + a reseted password. so my advice is, just contact support since that is also more private then here on a public support page :) I wish you GL. Sorry Gaile for answering for you, but I tought I'd tell how I fixed it, hope you dont mind ;) Dutch Sunshine 14:34, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

At the present time we're working to resolve an issue with some players not receiving their points for the August Distribution (which took place on September 10th). However, yes, a support ticket will be forwarded to the team member who can resolve correct an individual account name or password, in needed. The first steps are of course to try to retrieve the password through the system -- you'd be surprised how many people who do have access to the email address fail to try that first. :) If you submit a ticket, please give some time for a response, since we tackle broader issues that need to have a higher priority and then handle the individual requests as time allows. Thanks. -- Gaile 21:17, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Support FAQs

(Double posting may be a no-no, and I sure don't want to be seen as a Wiki spammer! :) However, I thought I should post about this page on the Support Issues page as well as my talk page.)

We thought it would be nice to cover some of our "Support hot topics" in depth, to give players more information regarding certain issues that seem to arise in tickets on a regular basis. Today we're kicking off a new Support FAQs article that you might want to check out from time to time.

Feedback and suggestions for future topics of a Support nature can be posted on the related talk page. Hope you enjoy! -- Gaile 20:11, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Good to see you started on that Support FAQ that I (and tons of others I'm sure :D) suggested a while ago. Just checked it out, and while at the moment it only covers one issue (Survivor), I can see that there's time and thought put into it to get the message across clearly. I'm looking forward to seeing it updated. :) -- Elv 08:46, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Xunlai Tournament House: August Issue

Late last week we noted a number of support tickets concerning the XTH, where players were sure they had earned points but yet did not receive them. It's not uncommon for a few players to write in saying they think they are missing points. In those rare cases, we are able to check the points list and say, "Sorry, no, you didn't earn any this month." However, this month the volume was high and by Friday we were pretty sure we had an issue that meant some participants really didn't get earned points.

After discussions on Saturday (yes, we do work weekends :) ) Support began responding to the XTH tickets to let players know that we were aware of the issue, that we had captured a complete points list and were able to verify each person's missing rewards, and that we would be awarding the missing points at a future time.

At this point, we know who is owed what, and we are going to include the August prediction points in the September distribution which will take place in October. (Got all that? ;) )

If you have any questions, please let me know. Thanks to those of you who are waiting, and best of luck in the September predictions -- may your points be overflowing! -- Gaile 02:47, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Don't know if this additional note is worth anything, but I have two accounts (after that little box with graffiti all over it ;) flew into the country) and when the points were distributed one account received reward points while the other did not. I rechecked the second account a couple of times in the following days, then waited for the next week's update and was pleased to finally see the missing points turn up then. So there's a tip in that: Points might be delayed so players would be well advised to check back after another update. (I'm guessing experiences similar to mine might have bloated the numbers of support tickets...) -- WarBlade 03:14, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Excellent advice. I remember that out of six early tickets that Support escalated to me the first time this happened -- last May -- the points appeared on four of six accounts within a few days. Thanks for that info! -- Gaile 03:15, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

The build of September 19, 2008, was not intended to reward the missing XTH points from August predictions. If some players found that they could retrieve their points after today's build, great! But as stated above, points will be given in the early- to mid-October distribution and any received today are a pleasant by-product of that poor captured NPC. :) -- Gaile 03:06, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Supporting Guilds

Above, I started the "Is this page still used as a Support Liaison page?" topic with the following in mind.

Ok, Gaile, here we go… About a month ago, one of the Guilds in my Alliance experienced a problem that has occurred in many other guilds: an officer kicked out all of our members and then left. I read over the Guild Wars Code of Conduct, and interpreted the officer’s actions as a violation, and reported it to Support. My Support Ticket is #080814-001692. I was really unhappy with the response I got (they didn’t read all of what I wrote in my replies to them, and answered inappropriately in the final response, so I gave up). I’m sure it was a “canned” response. In his defense, I am sure that the support tech has read many similar situations. I am addressing this to you, not because I want the officer (I took out his real name and am using Noname) to be punished but because we need to open a dialog to generate some ways to ensure that it doesn’t happen to others. In just a few hours time, members in my alliance forum posted at least 3 really good suggestions as to how Guild Wars could put a check in place to protect its members.

Besides the tech support’s inaccurate answer, the other reason I was so disappointed in my response lies in the fact that the driving force in this game are the guilds, and people working with people in an online setting. The name of the game is Guild Wars, so I was disappointed that Support couldn’t adequately address a problem relating to Guilds. I would have expected GW to make sure that the main premise behind the game would be better supported.

Let me share with you two of the ideas generated by my alliance that perhaps could easily be coded into the game, to help alleviate the problem. One, extend the Status list on the Guilds tab so that if an officer goes insane as ours did, the other members can contact those members and let them know they were not booted for any legitimate reason. Second, limit the number of members that can be booted in a certain time period. For example, maybe 5 members in 24 hours. That would give the other officers more than enough time to find out why an Officer is rampaging and destroying a guild.

Gaile, as a caring Support Liaison, I bet you are as upset as I am that this happened, and that it happens to many other guilds. The fact that GW has hired you to be a Support Liaison speaks volumes about how much the people behind the game care about us, the players. The guild in question is now gone. Many members that were booted are no longer playing. The ones we officers were able to remember all came back, but there were many more that probably think they were booted because they did something wrong. How sad.

I know this is a long read, but let me now post my original ticket to Support, hoping to generate more solutions than the above mentioned. Again, I am not asking for punishment ( even though he has expressed that he is not sorry about hurting so many people). I am asking that you read the Support Ticket, and perhaps implement my Alliance’s suggestions, or find another way to protect the biggest aspect of the game, its Guilds. ……

"I am an officer in RIR, a guild in the ColdBlackEyes alliance. I would like to report a former officer’s actions as a breach of your Code of Conduct as stated on your website. The occurrence has been reported by our Guild Leader as a request to generate our old Guild roster. Today, I am asking that you consider the actions taken by this former member in light of your Rules of Conduct.

On Tuesday August 15, RIR had almost 80 members. On Wednesday Aug 16, Noname, one of our officers, booted every one of the members and then left the guild. He has stated to our Alliance Leader that he did this to hurt the Guild leader and one of the Guild Officers because he was mad about one of their rulings. This goes against your code of conduct, in that it was abusive and vindictive act against other players. I have a copy of this conversation between Noname and our Alliance Leader. He even says he “thought long and hard about doing it.”

What bothers me the most, and has prompted me to write to you, is that Noname still does not think he did anything wrong. Yes, this is only a game. But I know you care a great deal about this game, and so does my Guild. Please do something to tell Noname that it is not okay to do this vindictive act. It hurt a lot of innocent members, who have been booted and have no idea why. We have tried to rebuild the roster by re-inviting the members we can think of, but we can’t remember a large bulk (like 30-40) of their names. Those 30-40 people will never know why they were booted from our guild, and may blame Guild Wars instead of the person responsible, Noname.

1. While playing Guild Wars, you must respect the rights of others and their rights to play and enjoy the game. To this end, you may not defraud, harass, threaten, or cause distress and/or unwanted attention to other players.

I believe that this is the Rule that Noname violated mostly. He did not respect the ruling of his Guild Leader, or other Guild Officers. He also disabused his rights as an officer. Last, he violated the rights of many members of our Guild that are now booted and do not know why, and we have no way of explaining.

3. You may not use sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, or racially or ethnically offensive language.

Noname did not use language, he used his actions. His actions were threatening, abusive and hateful toward the Guild Leader and other officers, along with members of the guild." Sable Wood 18:48, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Don't worry about lengthy posts. Support Issues, by their very nature, can be complex and may require a lot of explanation in order to discuss. And I want to say I'm very sorry that your guild went through this experience. Sadly, it's not unique, but happily, it's very uncommon.

Let's brainstorm some possible remedies and outcomes. While I doubt we could substantially change the mechanics of guilds for Guild Wars, I'm always interested in gathering ideas for Guild Wars 2. Players can be volatile and passionate people and I honestly believe that no matter how we build the system, there may always be a few unfortunate events based on impulsive or even mean-spirited actions. However I think we may be able to reduce those, so let's discuss:

• Prevention: It's better to prevent a crisis than deal with one. How do we prevent this from happening? The fact is, the guild should be real sure about a member before promoting him or her. The guild system -- with its promotions, demotions, arrivals and departures -- needs to be functional. It must be based in part on feeling that the person so promoted will have good judgment and be trustworthy, sort of like electing a president... or a dog catcher. :) Now, it's true that trust can be betrayed, but with good judgment and careful screening, the group should be able to keep that likelihood to a minimum. Here are some possibilities off the top of my head, but none of them are perfect, by any means:

• Add a "confirmation" process where a second guild officer has to confirm the first officer's member change.

• Plus: May reduce the number of malicious boots
• Minus: Could be unwieldy to manage either requiring two officers online at the same time or putting the change in limbo until a second confirms

• Have a "waiting time" before a newly-chosen officer can promote, demote, or add or remove members

• Plus: Gives the guild leader and members time to learn more about an officer before the officer is let loose to perform the most critical functions
• Minus: Sort of defeats the purpose of promotion; the person should be observed and known well enough before promotion
• Minus: Puts pressure on the guild leader to do everything
• Minus: Makes small-guild management really challenging
• Minus: Can cause a leadership and functionality crisis if the guild leader goes inactive

• Outcomes: How do we deal with this sort of situation when it does happen?

• Restoration I suggest that guild leaders should accept the responsibility of externally recording the guild roster, marking it with arrivals and departures as they happen, so that there is a way to rebuild. It couldn't take more than a couple of minutes a week to keep a Notepad list, right? ArenaNet cannot perform any sort of "roll back" or restoration process now and I doubt that would be possible in Guild Wars 2; I think the guild needs to maintain a roster for many reasons, including a one that makes rebuilding necessary. (Frankly, there have been times I've wanted to reach a guildie and have wished we had an members email list, too.)

• Reaction: How would you propose that we react to such reports? It's impossible to know someone's motivations, and while we can see what someone did, we can seldom be sure why he did it. In issues like this, we might have conflicting claims, untruths, side-taking, even a half dozen people making different assessments of the same incident. How would Support act to resolve a group's internal issues, or should they do so at all? Where would "doing our job" cross to "intruding into your private group?" Our policy has been rather "hands off" on guilds because we wanted to support their autonomy, allowing them to operate as they see fit. There are dozens of ways to enjoy a guild: Some are very formal, some are casual; some have set elections, some rotate officers, some change on irregularly, by consensus or guild leader decision. I feel that guilds would not welcome intrusion into their "private matters" and I'm not sure I'm comfortable with Support being put into the role of arbitrator for these sorts of complex matters. I'd love to know other peoples' thoughts on this!

• Obviously, a single member booting all the others is seldom a good thing. :( I can't think of a legitimate reason for doing so. But let's look at a real-life issue and compare: If the Lion's Club or the Kiwanis had a local unit president who booted all the members, would the police get involved? Would a lawyer accept the case? Would the members be able to ask for a refund of their dues or compensation for their time invested in the club? I'm fairly sure the answer would be "no" to those possibilities.

• Questions:

• So if private organizations have the right to manage their membership as they see fit, is a guild any different?
• If Support gets involved, what should they do, and when? At what number of removals? One member protesting his individual removal or demotion? More than 10? The full roster?
• What if the person who did the removal(s) defends himself, saying thing like, oh, "The guild leader asked me to do that?" or "The majority of guild officers took a vote to boot that player, so we did." Can we really expect Support to pull huge amounts of logs and try to piece together the whole story, hoping to avoid making a critical mistake by missing or misinterpreting a bit of information?
• What if the player appeals?
• What if there is a power struggle and two sub-groups within the guild demand opposite actions?
• What if there is a fight for leadership that the individuals hope to have Support to resolve?

• Hopefully from these questions you can see that not only should we allow guilds to act somewhat autonomously, we must do so, as well.

• The Future: Now, all those questions and ponderings do not mean that I'm saying the system is perfect or that we should continue exactly as we have in the past. My instinct is that straight out "Boot everyone from the guild" action probably should result in some sort of response from Support. I feel confident we can and will help guilds in better or more meaningful ways in the future. But just below the surface of what may seem a fairly straightforward issue are all those pesky questions. We'd need to know when, to what degree, and who is ultimately able to make each decision. So, basically, let's discuss! What would players recommend? -- Gaile 21:06, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Customisable Officer Permissions. The default template would govern the basic officer permissions in a guild, then on a case by case basis the guild leader can check or uncheck the following options...

• Can recruit new members (More a handy variable to apply to selected regular members seeing as an officer who cannot recruit would be largely pointless)
• Can kick guild members
• Can promote members to officers
• Can demote or kick officers
• Can accept/decline alliance invitations

The current guild system would translate to this idea as, the first three boxes checked by default and the others unchecked. The last two options are intended for co-leader guilds. If need be the guild leader could set the default to a more restrictive configuration, then check appropriate check boxes once an officer is promoted. -- WarBlade 05:55, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

For sure it's a good starting point to look at a guild as a private organization with its own authority. And your suggestions about how to prevent this from happening are certainly helpfull. But I think your comparison with real life is like comparing apples with pears (Dutch expression ;)). First because this is internet. Yes, you do your best to only promote officers that seem trustworthy, but the fact is you can not look him/her in the eye, you can not go to his/her house and ask "What were you thinking?", or "what is the problem". I have experienced many times that my judgement of people on the internet has failed me and I don't seem to have any problems with that in real life. So to answer your question: Yes, a guild is different from a real life private organisation.

Second way I think your comparison goes wrong is that it's not the president kicking people AND that it's more about Anet giving the means to make the guild. So just imagine that with this Lion's club you go to a convention and one of the 'officers' has shut the door for half of the members. Then if the president would go ask the hotel staff to open the doors you think they would say "sry sir but we treat this as a "hands off" situation? I'm not pretending that this is a good comparison, because there just is not a good comparison between real life and internet possible imo.

The case is that someone abuses his powers to hurt the guild. And sure you can not know the whole inside story and you don't need to. What the question here is is to help the guild leader with better tools to manage his guild. To find a way to repair damage that is done or prevent it. Imo people need tools for their build, not a punishment for the guild wrecker. Does it really matter what reason was behind the whole thing? I don't think so... What matters is how you support the guild leader he/she isn't guild leader for nothing. If people want to leave the guild because of some dispute they can do it themselves. So if an officer is kicking the whole guild it is clear to me it's rage kicking and it's very common.

My answer to your other questions would be:

- Support should seek possibilities to help the guild leader either restore his build (by expanding the amount of lines in the status message f.e.) or find a way to prevent rage kicking.

- It doesn't matter if the person defends himself imo, it's not about that person, it's about the people that are kicked from your guild.

- It doesn't matter if the player appeals, cuz it's again not about him/her.

- If two sub groups demand different actions...well they can demand what they want, imo the GL is the owner of the guild, if you like it you stay, if you don't like it you leave.

- If there is a fight for leadership it's the same answer. The GL is the GL and he/she got promoted there if you don't like it it's your problem. I don't understand what it has to do with rage kicking...

Imo there is never a good reason for rage kicking. If a few people have been kicked it's no problem because you can see that in the status message and find them back. And even if you can't invite them back it's not a big harm to the guild. So we are talking about rage kicking here, kicking large amounts of people from the guild. So imo the question is what can Anet do about preventing it and about giving the tools to the GL to restore his/her guild if needed.

I have been a clan leader in LineageII for a long time and I was very happy with the Customisable Officer Permissions (like Warblades solution above) and I think that that's the way this (and other) problem(s) is solved the best. Guildwars is great in many things, but the guild system could sure use some improvement imo. Sorry for the long text :( -- Pepper - Dewdrop talk 11:11, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

There are some really good thoughts here so far. I, too, did not totally agree with Gaille's analogy with the Lion's club. I do understand where you are coming from, and I do like that guilds are considered to be private. But as said above, Guild Leaders need better tools to manage this problem. In the above case, the Officer was extremely helpful and was available consistently. He was well-spoken. He was well-liked. He was respected. As an officer, he did nothing to give anyone an inkling that he was about to "rage kick". It was a shock to all of us, so much so that we first believed his was hacked. We found out otherwise when he actually sent a private message to one of us, and said he meant to do it, and was considering it for awhile. So Prevention measures would not have helped us in this case. I believe than most established Guilds and Alliances are fairly careful about who they promote to Officer for exactly this reason. The problem is that there are no safeguards in place. Couldn't they be implemented rather easily?

Right after the event the bigger guilds in my alliance created a separate roster for safe-keeping. It is a horrible solution to something that I think could be managed much better ingame.

I'm curious about this Gaille: "My instinct is that straight out "Boot everyone from the guild" action probably should result in some sort of response from Support." Why didn't it? And I have heard this story many times from others. There is never a response from Support. I wish there had been, because this person still plays quite a bit. What's to keep him from doing it again to his next guild? I know you are looking to improve GW2, but to be honest, I am hoping something will improve GW1. I really kind of like this game, and I expect I will be playing it for awhile yet (along with more than a few others)  :-) Sable Wood 20:24, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

What would you suggest that Support do to players who engage in massive group kicks? Assuming we can verify it happened, that the person reported was responsible, and there were no extraordinary mitigating circumstances, what sort of action would you suggest that Support take on that player? -- Gaile 03:02, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I would suggest imposing a ban on the account. Maybe a week, maybe a month. Anet does impose temporary bans on accounts for other actions that are less harmful to the GW community, so I would think it would be reasonable to ban for rage kicking.Sable Wood 22:47, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

OK after reading this I am pleased that Anet will not punish those who "rage boot". First of all it was not a "rage boot". I was unhappy with the elitest attitude of the guild. I was displeased with the fact there were members still in the guild with over a year of inactivity. IMO a GL should be active which he was not. I was tired of seeing good people leave because of arrogant comments from other 'elitest' members. All of which I had said to others. I contributed a great deal of time recruiting for the guild and helping others. This was by no means a rage kick. This was what I consider justice for the wrongs done to others and myself. As stated above I was respected and very helpful but why not give respect to everyone. Sure it was not my guild but it was not the GL guild either the guild was given to him by Anet, a default for inactivity of other officers. In fact it was a guild for storage of people who obviously did not play anymore. I feel tha Anet ruled in the correct way there was no abuse towards anyone, I never disrespected anyone in the guild or alliance. I had told people of my displeasure with some of the rulings of the GL and that it was bs that we had no room for new active members because we didn't want to boot those who had more than 6 months inactivity. There were warning signs (Linda0092 this is for you) that I was unhappy but people don't read between the lines. I shouldn't have to be here stating my case but although others have stated I am "not worth the sweat beneath their balls on a 90* day" I feel that this is the only form of comunication that I may have with them. So in regards to the cold blackeyes alliance and RIR guild just drop it and leave me alone. It does not take long to start rebuilding with the right people and good recruiting skills. What's done is done and I am done with ya'll. Just remember that arrogance and ignorance go hand in hand. Larz 12:47, 17 September 2008 (UTC) Larz

Imo there is no good reason for kicking people from the guild just to hurt the guild. No reason at all. Like I stated before if you don't like it then move on and take ppl who agree with you with you if you want. On the other hand I don't think you can expect Anet to punish those people. Simply because they can never know the story behind it and they can't judge who is telling the truth (and if they could judge that, the truth has many sides, even more on internet than irl if you ask me - cuz it's much easier to missunderstand eachother or have miscommunications). So the only solution is to give the GL tools to prevent this to the minimum and at the same time it will help the GL to manage the guild better (cuz it would really be much better if you could have some custom permissions for officers in general).

As far as Larz is concerned, I can understand you feel the need to tell your side of the story, but wiki is not the place to discuss this imo. So far this topic was in general without calling names and personal reasons as it should be. -- Pepper - Dewdrop talk 22:46, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Pepper I also agree with you that this is not the best place to discuss my side of the story but after being harassed and then finding out that they had hoped to get me suspended, I felt like I had to state my case. If there is a better way or place to comunicate with them and others, then please tell me where I may do this and I will leave this page alone. Also I was not calling anyone names I was just stating the truth. Ask them yourself & they will tell you they are an elite guild. Larz 11:41, 18 September 2008 (UTC)Larz

I'm sorry that was my non-native tongue. I didn't mean to say you were calling anyone names. I meant that no names were involved, we were just discussing the issue in general. As you can read above yourself the OP wrote "not because I want the officer (I took out his real name and am using Noname) to be punished but because we need to open a dialog [...]". So this topic on the wiki was never about you. I'm sorry for you that you feel harrassed, but again, that was not here, so this is not the place to respond to it either.

As far as the truth is concerned, I'm solely interested in the general topic, not in 'the truth' behind you and how you justify kicking people from the guild or whatever. So I don't need to ask the truth from anyone. Like I already wrote everyone has its own truth. "The Truth" doesn't exist, so what good will it do to discuss it? Better would be if all ppl involved would just /shrug and move on ;) It would be nice if we can keep the topic here a general discussion like it was. -- Pepper - Dewdrop talk 11:51, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Larz: I have a lot of questions: What "injustice" did the guild do to you? From your words, you removed all members of a guild because you unilaterally deemed them "elitist" and felt they were not active enough. For this, the guild was destroyed? You imply guild members should have read your "warning signs." But does that mean you expect they could have / should have predicted what you did? Do you feel that because they did not predict such a grievous act, the guild itself is somehow responsible for your actions, that its decimation is somehow the other members' fault?

From what you said yourself, you knowingly and intentionally caused distress, hurt, and even irreparable harm to your former guild. You did this to people, real people who play a game that we all have in common, who enjoy being in a social setting with friends and acquaintances, who deserve to be comfortable and assured of their companions' integrity. These people welcomed you into their group and then showed you the honour and the respect of trusting you with a leadership position. You say, "I never disrespected anyone in the guild or alliance." No? Didn't you show the most intense and disdainful disrespect of all -- to every member of the guild and its alliance -- through your impulsive, unkind, and unwarranted actions?

Tell me this: If you were unhappy, why didn't you simply leave? If you don't like a club, is it right, fair, or acceptable to try to burn down the clubhouse? Why the "need" or even the "justification" to inflict harm? You said yourself, "Just remember that arrogance and ignorance go hand in hand." I could not agree more. But in the end, haven't you played the most arrogant card of all? And can you truly be ignorant of the outcomes that your act would bring about?

I'd like to discuss this with you privately. Please send me your telephone number via wiki email (completely private) and we can chat. From where I'm standing, there are so many unanswered questions and so many justified concerns. Maybe you have another side to the story that we should hear. -- Gaile 21:46, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Gaile after sitting here and writing a response, again, I deleted it all so that I will not feed fuel to the fire that still burns within me about the whole situation. I would be glad to talk to you via phone about this whole situation so that my writings do not become misconstrued. Unfortunatly my lack of knowledge about wiki and how to contact you via email leaves me sitting here in the dark. If you could contact me via GWW email or just tell me how to go about finding the correct page to contact you privately I will be glad to give you my cell# as well as what hours are best to contact me. Thank you for taking the time out to hear at least 2 sides of the story. Larz 23:25, 18 September 2008 (UTC)larz

I am not seeking punishment for noname. I do not want to argue "the facts". I do want to say when I logged on two hours after the GL logged off to find my entire guild, my friends, gone... I felt I had been betrayed. When I phoned the GL, he told me he had no idea what had happened. As perviously stated, original thought was that the account had been hacked. I would like to pretend for a moment that is what happened. I did not see any posts in forums that I read several times a day, to indicate there was some problem that needed my or any other member's attention. I don't recall any discussion prior to the incident to cause alarm. I state this only to illustrate that this was unexpected.

I feel that all the harm could easily have been undone if the status screen just showed all members kicked in the last 48 hours, giving officers or the GL time to re-invite the kicked members, even if this list is reserved for officers and GL's. I can not understand why an officer would kick an entire guild. I can agree that maybe a GL should be able to, but not an officer. Putting aside my opinion on that, I feel that if an officer kicks the entire guild and then leaves or is kicked, this makes the motive for kicking all those people even more questionable in my eyes. I know someone who had their account hijacked who was an officer. That person lost alot of items and in game gold, but the other officers all found stuff to replace what had been lost. I can only be thankful that the thief only scammed us out of in game gold and items and didn't kick a bunch of members. I like alot of the suggestions I have read, but ultimately they can't help when a trusted account is hijacked. The extended status screen would.

They call me Zee74.166.218.187 02:28, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) An update on this situation: I spoke at length with both of the people who were directly involved in this issue and have participated in this wiki discussion. The guild provided additional details about the devastation caused by one person's actions and we discussed ideas for preventive measures. The person responsible for the guild roster wipe stated that, upon reflection, he acted precipitously and he said that, given more information about the situation, he would not have made that choice and would be extremely unlikely to make such a choice in the future.

I spoke with the lead designer for Guild Wars and Guild Wars II, and he agrees that we need stronger guild tools. While it isn't likely that there would be substantive changes to Guild Wars, we always try to take the lessons of GW into GW2. Therefore, I have great confidence that guild tools in GW2 will be stronger, and will afford guilds an increased ability to manage many elements of their guild, including the roster and guild communication. -- Gaile 19:40, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

I just wanted to add, albeit late, that when things like this happen (I am not referring to the incident above and am in no way connected to any of the people either), the leader and officers who have to reinvite these members back who were unjustly kicked (regardless of the reason given by the renegade officer) have to spend 100g per person just to reinvite them, and this does not even cover an explanation of what happened (if its even possible to contact them), why it may have happened (if not known), and what can be done about it. I'm sure it's also possible that people who do these sort of kicks are aware that it does cost these in-game funds and do it knowing it will cost those leaders and officers money. In such a way, it can be construed as scamming, in that (the kicker) removed them and now they have to be reinvited to the tune of 100g apiece.

Again, I do not know the people above but simply want to make an outsider's opinion known of another potential reason and another "loophole" that should be closed in GW2 before it starts. Nbajammer 06:30, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

GW Trial and Full Game Codes

There is a question here that requires your expertise. The user is wondering whether or not it's legal and agrees with the UA to sell GW trail codes and Full Version game codes for in-game money. — Wolf 20:57, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

The User Agreement, Section 3 (License to Use) specifically states: "You may not (a) sublicense, rent, lease, loan or otherwise transfer the Software or the Service (or any part thereof), including without limitation access keys..." I imagine that verbiage prohibits the transfer of said keys except as intended, that is, a "Buddy Key" being given to a friend. As for giving access keys (new or used) for accounts, I read the UA to say that such actions are prohibited and I don't see a distinction related to the form of payment: real-world money or in-game gold.

I do have some thoughts on this subject from a Support perspective, since games sales are an issue that arises in Support all the time. For Support, account transfers are a major issue; account transfers are one of the most common causes of tickets; they are a major source of heartbreak for players. It doesn't matter if the sale is for real money or in-game money; most of the time the would-be buyers are RMT companies. RMT companies are eager to get accounts so that they can use them to make deliveries of gold, to advertise for gold, or to use them for farming. But farming isn't the focus of RMTs these days. Instead of farming gold, they'd rather steal it. And if they can get you to give up your user name and password by waving 100 Platinum or even 100 Ectos (as happened to a player I spoke with last week), they're happy to make promises they have no intention of honoring.

In order to turn over the account, you have to give them your user name and password. A lot of people use the same password for their email account and for their game account. That's a bad idea, but let's face it, people do make that mistake. So when they turn over the account access information, they also may be exposing their personal email account to theft as well! (That means credit card transactions may be on there and a whole bevy of other identity-theft bait. :( ) And daily, we hear from many players who were promised payment and never receive it.

So, from a game rules perspective, I do not think that selling keys for any form of payment is allowed. And from a Support perspective, I would simply urge people: Don't do it! Please feel free to ask any additional questions on this subject and I'll be happy to provide details. -- Gaile 21:34, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

K, thanks. Would I be correct to assume that the same goes for keys that have not been used to create accounts yet? — Wolf 21:41, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

As you can see, the User Agreement does not make a distinction between used or enabled keys and unused keys. My reading would be that transferring any access key (aside from those clearly intended to be shared, like "Buddy Keys") would be prohibited. But I am not an attorney and would not offer legal advice. (I may have read the UA many, many times, but I don't claim UA expertise. :) )

Since this is often raised as a Support issue, I would be happy to ask our attorney about his interpretation of the rules concerning access key sales. -- Gaile 01:28, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

I hope no-one gets a lawyer and comes after me for giving out the NF and EotN keys I won in the rollerbeattle tourney at PAX to guildies XD — Wolf 01:46, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

(Reset indent) I thought of something that would be helpful for us: If you find someone advertising to buy or sell a Guild Wars account or access key, could you please select the advertiser, type /report, and then choose "spamming" as the reason for the report? That will send a quick 'n' easy message to our first tier Support Team members that will allow them to review the account for a possible chat violation and check to see if the player has also been involved in known account thefts or gold sales, as well. I think we can cut down on in-game advertising and put some of the account thieves out of business, too, with your help. Thanks! -- Gaile 03:13, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

They should add a specific category for /report for gold selling or account selling. That way more people would be able to report that kind of thing. — ク Eloc 貢 03:28, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) Its really hard to do that with /report. As the player has to be in the same district as you. Which they commonly exploit by quickly changing districts. Plus often the locations they pop up are often crowded areas. By the time you take a screen shot, sent to support for all we know they may never login again as they know there being watched. Dominator Matrix 03:49, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

I think they can still go over chat logs, even if they don't log in again. — ク Eloc 貢 04:29, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

You make real good points. One of my goals is to expand the "reasons" field in the Guild Wars /report tool just a tad. We don't need too much more, maybe just "buying/selling accounts" will do it. (If you have other "reason" ideas, please share them.) But while I know we'd like to tweak the tool, there are a lot of higher-priority elements that the GW Live Team is working on. So, we'll hang tight on that for a while and use the present workaround: Choose "spamming" and Support will pick up the issue and take care of it.

Yes, you do have to be in the district with the person you wish to report, which is a right pain in the patootie. And, guess what? That's another change I've suggested for the /report tool: the ability to report without being in the same district. We're keenly aware that people can be really good "district hoppers" and it's like chasing a gnat to try to be where they are, select them, type /report, and then select a reason before they leave. But hey, it's definitely possible for a lot of the people who need reporting. When the advertisers stay around to advertise for a few minutes -- and quite a number of these sellers/buyers do -- you'll be able to let us know about the problem through /report.

Don't worry about the character's being swapped out for another one, or the person going offline after you report. Support will still be able to handle the report and deal with the advertising (or other issue) based on the account, not the character or the on- or off-line nature at the time the team does the research. Thanks for your comments and suggestions. -- Gaile 06:39, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

It's the worst when they whisper you from a different district. — Wolf 22:33, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

That is true. They do that, sometimes, and it's frustrating. You can always submit a support ticket for those, if you're willing to do so. -- Gaile 22:39, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

I've turned in more RMT than I'd care to think about XD — Wolf 22:42, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

And we greatly appreciate that! :) -- Gaile 04:07, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

Gaile, I was the one that aked the question first, but on Reginas page(I did't know that u handled this sort of stuffxD ) Thx for answering, I'm very, very happy that I didnt sold my account codes just for cash... get banned from my account, that would really suck:( Well, THX Galie:))))Kyahaha 13:28, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm happy the info helped. In fact, it was great that you raised the subject because it gave me a chance to get on my soapbox and say a few things about how bad the outcomes usually are for sold accounts. It's something the Support Team sees on every single day: account thefts, non-payment scamming, ownership disputes, etc.

Oh, and thanks for making the right decision about not selling! -- Gaile 20:26, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

Because we all know how much Gaile loves to get out her soapbox ^.~ =D — Wolf 21:54, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

Hey, my soapbox glows, sorta like Chaos Gloves. :) -- Gaile 22:21, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

SWEET! Where can I get one like it? — Wolf 22:23, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

I was going to tease you and say "Random drop at XYZ location" or "It's a ultra-rare in the Zaishen Chest," but someone might believe me so I'll just say, umm..., "dev hax." ;) -- Gaile 20:01, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

Oh, wait, someone might believe that, too! :D -- Gaile 20:02, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

OMG, HAX HAX!!! *Grabs his torch and pitchfork. Starts running after Gaile* --MageMontu 20:08, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

Gaile on the subject of the /report Tool is there a way it can be implemented For Leeching in PVE? I may already understand why this is not in place simply because people in PVE Tend to be Gun jumpers more than PVP players...I can say the reason I ask is FoW/UW come to mind the most here... Get in a pug Spawn in said elite area player afks then when said area is clear they mooch all the drops and end chest...This can also get rather Annoying expecially in Dungeons in GW:EN...Party wipe Afker still standing at gate party must leave instead of being able to rez... (I do understand that reporting them would not kick them as to rez) Maybe this would make people think twice b4 doing said actions...Just IMO thx in advance for listening (>*.*)>207.145.102.170 16:16, 15 October 2008 (UTC)The New Bp11:10, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

You could just tell them it was hand made with love, care and LOTS of ectos =D — Wolf 17:55, 15 October 2008 (UTC)