Curse

Whirlwind · Dec 27, 2007, 12:01 AM // 00:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fril Estelin

I'm going to try an anlogy here: do you actually know that 70% of all emails exchanged on the internet is spam? (source: Symantec's State of Spam report) That's 2 emails out of 3 that are useless (and on some UK email servers they report 98& spam), completely and uterly useless emails that are scams and preying on naive internet users ready to get into the "deal of the century". Can we avoid that? Yes we can, but it would require a dedicated team of hundreds of people adapting the anti-spam features consistenly all over the world, and that does NOT work (tools like spamassassin are doing a fantastic job, but can't adapt that fast, unless they become standard on ALL email servers...).

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that would actually need thousands of people to try and pull off

Whirlwind · Dec 27, 2007, 12:03 AM // 00:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by makosi

Personally, I haven't seen an increase nor decrease in the numbers of gold selling spam. When I do see one I can't /report them because they appear to be programmed to go to a district, send their message and move somewhere else ASAP. That way players can't /report because the player you report must be in your district.

The above also happens with account buyers. E.g. "WTB GW Proph Acc. 150k (200k w/lvl20)"

You can always do it the old fashioned way and send a ticket on the website

prism2525 · Dec 27, 2007, 12:19 AM // 00:19

time ago i used to sit back in ascalon ID1 and take some 'photos'

Been a while since i paid a visit though.

EDIT: just popped in kamadan ID1 and saw some guy spamming gold ads. /reported

Redfeather1975 · Dec 27, 2007, 12:46 AM // 00:46

I haven't seen an increase in gold selling ad bots Gaile.
But I don't regularly visit the first areas accessible in the game that much anymore.

If they are using trial keys then that's where they would be densest in population as I doubt a person would buy an account and get very far into the storyline, or unlock hero's ascent or even team arena just to spam ads.
The hot spots would probably be Ascalon, Old Ascalon, Shing Jea Monastery, Kamadan and Balthazar.

I'm sure people are reading this going, duh, no kidding. Sorry. lol

Phoenix Tears · Dec 27, 2007, 01:08 AM // 01:08

I think..the number of gold seller increased in the last time extreme..especially in balthazar ID1...

some months ago..there weere NONE ....when I go now there..there are so much gold GS-Bots spamming there..that you can't write anything, without that your written words disappear some seconds later instantly ...

Its then there..like the times of local chat commerce spams, as the report system wasn't implemented and like 90% of the com was too lazy to just write their stuff into the correct chat channel...

I would not say now..that the reason of this increasement are the free trial keys... but as logical thinkining being ^^..i say..this sounds like the most logical reason to me personally

Ec]-[oMaN · Dec 27, 2007, 01:11 AM // 01:11

Nothing is coincidence, when in doubt, there is no doubt.

Redfeather1975 · Dec 27, 2007, 03:38 AM // 03:38

One thing I found weird in Everquest 2 and WoW was there was a time, when if I made a new character, minutes later I would get mail advertising a gold selling site.
Others complained about that too.
How do they even know the new characters made?
Do they have bots doing /lfg searches for level 1s?
I don't know.

Sha Noran · Dec 27, 2007, 12:55 PM // 12:55

LOL, Guild Wars GMs. How do you imagine that such personnel would be paid? Learn to accounting.

prism2525 · Dec 27, 2007, 06:29 PM // 18:29

I would gladly volunteer to do it for free.... or some in game gold perhaps

No seriously, I would do it every time I log on if it were necessary.

The Real Roy Keane · Dec 27, 2007, 07:54 PM // 19:54

Why don't you all just ignore the gold sellers?

Siadena · Dec 27, 2007, 08:59 PM // 20:59

Yes, anet should take an occasional time or two to go on a banning rampage through balth int d.
What's even more alarming is how many people responding to this thread are basically saying "no they shouldn't" for one reason or another. In reality, most of the people IG who have oodles of plat and condemn buying gold online are the same ones who are supporting those companies in 3rd world countries farming like crazy and selling plat/items. Oh, sound off and flame all you want, but in many cases (not all) that is true and I bet most of the people who would jump on my case for saying so are the ones who are doing it. Not all wealthy people IG do this though, and my props to the skill and players who find IG methods with honor to raise their fortunes.

The other part of the difficulty is that A-Net is more concerned about banning the "buyers" who actually play the game and influence the IG economy. They dont' get caught often enough, but they're the ones they do hunt down more then the rest. As far as the sellers are concerned, yup, they just bag the accnt and get another one. In addition, being banned for selling/buying gold doesn't in most cases ban you forever. First, it's like a 2-3 day ban, then a week, then 2-3 weeks or a month - then forever. Basically that's 4 chances on one accnt alone which overall with the system and guidelines they have set up doesn't make it very effective

Tougher issue and problem to address more effectively then it looks actually, but yeah - definitely ridiculous.

Vàna Rúndóttir · Jan 15, 2008, 05:34 AM // 05:34

In Kamadan Int 1, I am surprised if someone isn't spamming gold sales these days. In Shing Jea Int-1 the place is always full of low level fire ele bots with random letter names all following fixed paths. There are too many to report them all. I understand and appreciate ANet not wanting to ban any innocents, but too few people can be bothered to take and submit screen images and give details. So I think ANet needs to employ someone full time for a while with the power to instantly ban, who should actually play the game and go look out for these bots and spammers for themselves. I find it hard to believe that the gold bot reapers and spammers actually buy all those accounts that they use, so to me their use of trial keys and bought or stolen accounts is more likely. So I don't think Anet can make anything financially by banning the bots more aggressively, but they would be doing gamers a real service.

Maximumraver · Jan 15, 2008, 10:39 AM // 10:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zinger314

If 100k gold trades are setting red flags, I suggest we ban The Herbalizer and Dralspire.

Now that made me lol

Req 7's anyone?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkobra

Now you can see around 20 constantly changing their names to be random headsmacking on the keyboards with names reminiscent of assassins in PVP.

Double lol

Chrono Re delle Ere · Jan 15, 2008, 12:54 PM // 12:54

There was a time when they also started whisper you with spam messages...now it has stopped, but they should seriously do something for this damn spammers...oh we can report them for spam, yea, but it won't be a solution.

sterbenx2 · Jan 15, 2008, 03:39 PM // 15:39

I've noticed an increase in sellers.

Dylananimus · Jan 15, 2008, 04:44 PM // 16:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by netniwk

because there aren't gold sellers/bot in say,...WOW
rooflez.

Hit the nail. GW isn't anywhere NEAR as bad as WoW for gold sellers and bots, yet...they do charge monthly -_- So I see no connection between a monthly fee and gold sellers/bots.

Sellers and bots are just a part of any game like this. They can ban the accounts, but they'll just pop right up again....so they ban that account, and 2 mins later they're back again. You don't notice the bannings cos they're instantly back. It's just the way it is.

Use /report to help with the endless cycle.