Curse

XiaoTheBlade · Jan 31, 2008, 09:03 PM // 21:03

I've never been spammed by whisper, and I'm in balthazar quite a bit when I create a new pvp char, or going to isle of nameless. Guess it's just chance, or just that they don't do it in euro districts.

And if I ever do get spammed I'm gonna try flirting with the bot

hippo942 · Jan 31, 2008, 09:07 PM // 21:07

Seems to have got worse in kamadan america 1 i get a few pm's every hour which i never got before. Also the same annoying person who wants to buy accounts who uses the same "advert" thing and if you spend much time there you probably have seen him too

Maximumraver · Jan 31, 2008, 09:18 PM // 21:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by XiaoTheBlade

And if I ever do get spammed I'm gonna try flirting with the bot

First look at his title, or else you wont know the size of his E-Peens... lol.

kilkelo · Feb 01, 2008, 12:33 AM // 00:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by XiaoTheBlade

And if I ever do get spammed I'm gonna try flirting with the bot

You know what, don't.

I have the impression they started constantly bothering me only after I replied to one of the bots. I'm guessing they use the "Click this link if you want to be removed from our mailing list" ruse, which essentially just confirms the fact that you're a real person, not a bot, thus a potential customer.

enter_the_zone · Feb 01, 2008, 12:44 AM // 00:44

And all this is easily stopped by not allowing trial accounts to send or receive whispers...

Epic Fail, Anet. Yet again. Well done, truly.

Gaile Gray · Feb 01, 2008, 05:42 AM // 05:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Divinus Stella

The problem isnt the spammers, its the people that actually buy the gold and dont get banned for it.

If anet actually banned the thousands of people that buy gold every day then it would deter others, without demand there will be no bots and chinese people to spam you.

And we do. We have methods to trace gold sales from the bots through the sellers to the deliverers to the buyers. We have to take care, because we don't want to block someone who's engaging in honest activities, but we can and do take steps not just against the advertisers and the sellers, but against buyers themselves. If I'm not mistaken, we are going to step up that process in the future.

Quote:

Originally Posted by enter_the_zone

And all this is easily stopped by not allowing trial accounts to send or receive whispers...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bryant Again

It's not just a feature, it's the most critical feature. No communication = pretty much no gameplay. The game is entirely party oriented; take out the chief ingredient - communication - and you will not have a fun time at all.

The second comment is spot on. And blocking whispers is not really a solution to the All Chat spamming, is it? The question is really: How much do we risk, in removing game options, before the trial become "un-fun?" If the whole reason for a trial is to give potential players a taste of the fun they'll have -- and thereby be encouraged to purchase the game -- you want them to enjoy themselves and have a pretty realistic look at the game they're demo'ing. But if you go into the demo and can't even talk to anyone -- perhaps not even a friend who invited you -- that could present a not-so-great view of the game, and wouldn't represent the true experience that someone would have once he/she purchased it.

We have a lot of ideas, including variations on chat limitations, and are actively working on several that should help this situation.

arcanemacabre · Feb 01, 2008, 05:51 AM // 05:51

I think an idea could be to not let a trial account whisper another until being whispered to by that character first. So, they may ask a question, or advertise "lfg" or whatever in local chat, and if someone whispers them, they can return the whisper, but they cannot just whisper someone, otherwise. That could help a lot, while not limiting functionality for new players all that much.

enter_the_zone · Feb 01, 2008, 08:56 AM // 08:56

First off, this has nothing to do with All chat spamming. We can report that already.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

And we do. We have methods to trace gold sales from the bots through the sellers to the deliverers to the buyers. We have to take care, because we don't want to block someone who's engaging in honest activities, but we can and do take steps not just against the advertisers and the sellers, but against buyers themselves. If I'm not mistaken, we are going to step up that process in the future.

The second comment is spot on. And blocking whispers is not really a solution to the All Chat spamming, is it? The question is really: How much do we risk, in removing game options, before the trial become "un-fun?" If the whole reason for a trial is to give potential players a taste of the fun they'll have -- and thereby be encouraged to purchase the game -- you want them to enjoy themselves and have a pretty realistic look at the game they're demo'ing. But if you go into the demo and can't even talk to anyone -- perhaps not even a friend who invited you -- that could present a not-so-great view of the game, and wouldn't represent the true experience that someone would have once he/she purchased it.

We have a lot of ideas, including variations on chat limitations, and are actively working on several that should help this situation.

Ok, so make it so they can only whisper people on their friends list. That'd slow them down enough to hopefully get this under control.

The PM system is not the be all and end all of chat and if the limitations are explained when a character is created, most people would understand. People are used to limitations in demos.

Not only that, but I find it disturbing that Anet seems to be placing the gameplay experience of trial accounts over the gameplay experience of existing customers, especially given that a lot of trials, some would say most, are botters.

Most logically, just alter the /report system so it can be used out of district to the person you are reporting.

Until then, report them the old fashioned way, with a screenshot and support email. And yes, that is a monumental pain given the frequency with which this is occurring.

o m g pizowned · Feb 01, 2008, 08:58 AM // 08:58

to op:
GET OVER IT

enter_the_zone · Feb 01, 2008, 09:03 AM // 09:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by o m g pizowned

to op:
GET OVER IT

1) Shouldn't have to
2) It doesn't work logically, fix it
3) To people who have this issue, the game is virtually unplayable
4) Get over yourself...

erk · Feb 01, 2008, 10:39 AM // 10:39

There same itemcoo spammer is there in the RA staging area in id 1 all day all week, spamming every few seconds, pretty hard for A.net support not to miss.

Khazad Guard · Feb 01, 2008, 02:26 PM // 14:26

I trade alot in GToB ID1, it's chaos in there. The whispers have only started lately (there was one a few months back, but only once), and even in Kamadan American 1.

I usually just reply to the bot (usually a "Thanks!", "Just what I was looking for!" or "Do you take Visa?"), for taking the time to leave me a nice message, and then I just leave them. Sometimes they will bother me again, but then they go onto the ignore list.

Viruzzz · Feb 01, 2008, 02:56 PM // 14:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

but we can and do take steps not just against the advertisers and the sellers, but against buyers themselves. If I'm not mistaken, we are going to step up that process in the future.

Stepping it up is great. But if you ask me, I think the advertisers is the biggest problem.
Sure there are the people who will buy gold no matter what, but i don't think most people do. With the advertisers spamming pretty much anyone everywhere gets these messages saying that it's 100% safe and legal (lying obviously, but new people doesn't necessarily know that). I think a lot of people, who have no intention of breaking the rules, do end up breaking them because of these spammers making them believe that they aren't doing anything wrong.

IslandHermet · Feb 01, 2008, 03:05 PM // 15:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

We are very sorry about this, and I sent a comprehensive email today to other team members proposing various changes to try to put a stop to this problem. It is growing, and we're aware of it, and we'll do what we can to make it cease.

P.S. Count the bot population reduced by nearly 60, as of this post. *dusts hands*

reduced by 60 and 5 mins later replaced by 120 *claps hands*

IslandHermet · Feb 01, 2008, 03:07 PM // 15:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brianna

They owe you nothing. So don't be an arsehat, though I can see in aapo's post, the explanation for why this is happening. Glad I finally found out why; Besides as soon as that trial is up or whatever, then it'll all go away.

it does not matter if they owe us anything or not its the fact that if they want people to continue to play GW and buy GW2 they will do what must be done or let the company go under from lack of people.

they have unlimited trial keys once it is up them use another same goes for banning them........for every bot that is banned 2 take its place.

IslandHermet · Feb 01, 2008, 03:09 PM // 15:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

That's really understanding of you, Bryant Again. I was sort of thinking something along those lines, because heaven's knows, bots are irritating, and gold sellling ads are irksome, but they hardly prevent me from playing, or keep me from going about my business.

It's good of you to be tolerant, and yes, the promotions and the trials -- because of the accounts they encourage people to buy -- do help us sustain the business and fund both Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. That said, we'll do a better job with them in the future, I'm sure. (Thanks again for your reasonable thinking.)

1 to 2 every once in a while is nothing but 1 every 15 mins is enought for me to drop GW in the trash can.

IslandHermet · Feb 01, 2008, 03:10 PM // 15:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkobra

Generally, free trials make a game more successful. So to quickly say "Take it down, don't let anyone get it", is jumping the gun a bit. Yes, I'm annoyed by the parasitic gold sellers, too. But getting rid of this would stop people getting the chance of trying the game before they buy it, which isn't really fair on their behalf.

just make it so they have to jump throught hoops to get one, it is to easy to get trial keys ATM and this is why banning them is useless.

IslandHermet · Feb 01, 2008, 03:29 PM // 15:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

And we do. We have methods to trace gold sales from the bots through the sellers to the deliverers to the buyers. We have to take care, because we don't want to block someone who's engaging in honest activities, but we can and do take steps not just against the advertisers and the sellers, but against buyers themselves. If I'm not mistaken, we are going to step up that process in the future.

The second comment is spot on. And blocking whispers is not really a solution to the All Chat spamming, is it? The question is really: How much do we risk, in removing game options, before the trial become "un-fun?" If the whole reason for a trial is to give potential players a taste of the fun they'll have -- and thereby be encouraged to purchase the game -- you want them to enjoy themselves and have a pretty realistic look at the game they're demo'ing. But if you go into the demo and can't even talk to anyone -- perhaps not even a friend who invited you -- that could present a not-so-great view of the game, and wouldn't represent the true experience that someone would have once he/she purchased it.

We have a lot of ideas, including variations on chat limitations, and are actively working on several that should help this situation.

I know 2 alliance members that ebay they admit it and laugh that you have not banned them yet. (they do it once a month it seems) I laugh to because it is people like them that are killing this game its sad when someone with 1 million gold asks a question like (what sword does rurik use) or (who is abbadon) I have reported them with SS of them talking about it and nothing has happened.

most people have all chat turned off not because of bots spamming but the all the immature chat I do not feel like seeing a bunch of kids argue about whos penis is larger or who does not have a life calling everyone noobs or nubs.

Im sure you have seen this (Sissy Girl-Looking for cute and innocent guy to be my boyfriend- no pervs) being spammed 9821432509883250 times in ha internation dist but do you ban that person? I can tell you no you do not.

its easy you put in a mesg when you first load the trial key it says
"This is a trial key we have removed some of the options like wispering blah blah blah" just let them know what you have do to it so people know that the real game will have more options. this is kind of like most freeware or shareware. I love some of the excuses you put up

Andruil · Feb 01, 2008, 05:43 PM // 17:43

Just a thought but give us a gold spammer option in /report. That way youmake it far easier for us to report them. I don't really know how your system is set up but surely you could take a snapshot of the previous 50 messages sent by the reported player. If they are selling gold then its likely that they've been spamming it.

erk · Feb 02, 2008, 01:51 AM // 01:51

Most people object to unsolicited advertising in their face, it's not what I bought the game to see, and I feel it's A.net responsibility to fix it. There are several methods that have been proposed including the obvious one to make trial key accounts incapable of spamming. A.net is a multi million dollar company with resources, get on to it or loose repeat business!

BTW. I have no sympathy for multi-million dollar corporations and the excuses they give to the public for their actions, however I do sympathize with the small business man on the street corner trying to feed his family.