Curse

TrueLokaster · Aug 09, 2007, 07:51 PM // 19:51

I use a Windows Vista Home Premium (Brazilian-Portuguese version) and have McAfee internet suite active all the time.
Please anyone post something to calm me down.
This kind of thing happens on a regular basis? The accounts are usually restored?

EroChrono · Aug 09, 2007, 07:54 PM // 19:54

Was playing today, decided to start on my skill hunter title, bought a bunch of cap signets and started capping, went off for dinner, came back; banned, permanent. (Code+045)

Way to go ¬__¬

I did visit Aultrumn Ruins while capping (Int as it happened to be), and yes it was full of bots Mo/Me ranging from lvl3 to lvl20, maybe they ban every non-bot player that goes there so the bots will remain unnoticed >;]

Anyways I send a ticket and hopefully they respond & take action quickly..

And TrueLokaster, go here click the link revelant to you, and send a message with the "Ask a Question" form.

TrueLokaster · Aug 09, 2007, 08:00 PM // 20:00

Already did, opened a ticket. No replies so far.

VitisVinifera · Aug 09, 2007, 08:33 PM // 20:33

according to Gaile, these are extremely rare occurrences, so rare it's virtually impossible, and that Anet has double secret redundancy to make sure noone is falsely flagged

yeah, right, some people have been 'perma-banned' MULTIPLE times for nothing, and these threads pop up constantly, and good people are getting walked all over by anet's bots trying to detect non-anet bots

TrueLokaster · Aug 09, 2007, 09:16 PM // 21:16

My account was reestabilished.
"Thank you for contact Guild Wars Support. After reviewing the issue, it appears that your account was blocked in error. Your account is now released and you should be able to log in to Guild Wars. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."

freekedoutfish · Aug 10, 2007, 11:29 AM // 11:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrueLokaster

My account was reestabilished.
"Thank you for contact Guild Wars Support. After reviewing the issue, it appears that your account was blocked in error. Your account is now released and you should be able to log in to Guild Wars. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."

At the end of the day, are you really being inconvenienced not being able to play for a few days until you get the ban removed?

This isnt a pay monthly game, so your not loosing money.
Your account still exists, so it will be there when you get it back.

I would rather Anet made mistakes when banning people, because atleast it shows they are pro-active and trying to ban legit rule breakers.

The above reply also shows they recognise mistakes happen and fix them when they realise. I have sympathy for you not being able to play for a few days and Im sure its a pain having to email them and constantly ask to have the ban removed....

...but atleast their trying to catch people who they think are breaking the rules!

Its better to ban 100 people, if it means you catch 25 who are actually breaking the rules. The other 75 will eventually get their accounts back and an apology.

There is no need for threads like this one saying "I was banned and I did nothing wrong", because you are no doubt already in communication with Anet support who are looking into it.

Yes mistakes happen, but if you read every thread like this, the end result is always the same. The individual always gets their account unbanned..

...does that not show that Anet are 100% effective at fixing mistakes? You cant expect a company to never make mistakes, when they have 1000s of players and they are having to check 1000s of accounts all the time.

No one is perfect!! People only make threads like this, because their inpatient and cant be bothered to wait for the support team to reply.

Personette · Aug 10, 2007, 12:21 PM // 12:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by freekedoutfish

Its better to ban 100 people, if it means you catch 25 who are actually breaking the rules. The other 75 will eventually get their accounts back and an apology.

These odds do not impress me. I doubt the proportions are correct, but if they were - I would say they are doing their job badly.

I have been more sympathetic to anyone who has to deal with ANet support since I had my run-in with them about the GW store. They were so rude, so grudging, so unhelpful. Missing Guild Wars for a few days isn't that bad, but dealing with Anet help is like taking a trip to the fourth circle of hell.

freekedoutfish · Aug 10, 2007, 12:30 PM // 12:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Personette

These odds do not impress me. I doubt the proportions are correct, but if they were - I would say they are doing their job badly.

I have been more sympathetic to anyone who has to deal with ANet support since I had my run-in with them about the GW store. They were so rude, so grudging, so unhelpful. Missing Guild Wars for a few days isn't that bad, but dealing with Anet help is like taking a trip to the fourth circle of hell.

What company has absolutely perfect customer service?

(Aside from the company I worked at, within the IT support department and we were great

)

But a I said, nearly every thread that has concerned having an account banned has had those accounts restored. That must speak for someething?

But having worked in IT support I can relate to how those people feel when having to deal with countless issues all day. You can get overwhelmed and end up in bad moods very easily.

For every bad experience with Anet support, im sure there are countless good experiences.

Also concider how many times in a day, the Anet support team gets an email saying "my account was banned and I havent done anything wrong", and concider how many of those emails are legit and how many were banned for good reason.

You can imagine the feeling when you see another "account banned" ticket come in. Your heart must sink!!

I know how it felt to alway get "create a new account" request at work, and at times I really couldnt be bothered because I had 10 other things to be doing.

The point is, you cant always expect a smile and politeness when your dealing with a human being. I also used to work on a deli in a supermarket and I was expected to smile and be polite for hours on end, while dealing with rude, abusive and arrogant customers.

I snapped more then once in 4 years and I'm sure those customers walked away cursing my name. But jobs are stressfull!

I still say its better then Anet are atleast trying to catch abusive players, and making mistakes, then to do nothing at all. Its like the police pulling you over in your car to make a check, when you havent done anything wrong.

They may make a mistake, and let you continue on. But they might also catch a criminal doing that casual check.

Psuedo Halgoen · Aug 10, 2007, 12:33 PM // 12:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by freekedoutfish

But a I said, nearly every thread that has concerned having an account banned has had those accounts restored. That must speak for someething?

Yes it does. Not good for either the company banning people, and the people getting banned.

EroChrono · Aug 10, 2007, 12:44 PM // 12:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by freekedoutfish

Its better to ban 100 people, if it means you catch 25 who are actually breaking the rules. The other 75 will eventually get their accounts back and an apology.

You'd do well in the US Army

"it's better to have 10 people who might be terrorist in jail than 1 real terrorist lose"

Anyways I think those percentages you say are absolutely ridiculous, and completely not acceptable towards the community. Of course it is just an example, but thing like this just should not have to happen, and it certainly should be accepted by the community as if it is nothing.

Of course, as I am now watching from the other side of the fence, my opnion towards this isn't as indiffirent as it just to be.

It just sucks if you support a company, buy all their games and get threated like a crook in return, even if it is temporary. (of course I also got counless hours of fun playing time in a nice game, but that isn't the type of argument you should bring up in this type of discussion

)

Personette · Aug 10, 2007, 12:53 PM // 12:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by freekedoutfish

What company has absolutely perfect customer service?

(Aside from the company I worked at, within the IT support department and we were great

)

But a I said, nearly every thread that has concerned having an account banned has had those accounts restored. That must speak for someething?

Frankly, most of my comparable customer service experiences are very good. When I'm dealing with things like clothing I've ordered online, or groceries, or books, when I have problems I get an immediate soothing response. Even when the problem is my fault, they want to fix it and make me happy.

I have a miserable time dealing with: phone companies, utilities, and occasionally banks. Oh, and Guild Wars.

So yes, the fact that the accounts are restored is an important plus for Anet, but it still leaves them at the bottom of the barrel in my experience.

freekedoutfish · Aug 12, 2007, 11:00 AM // 11:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Psuedo Halgoen

Yes it does. Not good for either the company banning people, and the people getting banned.

Ok lets say you work in a huge, multimillion dollar company and you suspect someone is hacking the system or using the system inappropriately. Its a really serious situation and it has to stop NOW, but you dont know for certain that its them doing it.

So intead you temporarily block all the accounts of those working in that department. It may be about 10 staff and it will cost the company time and money to have that department down for a day or two.

Is it not better to block all those accounts on your system, to then look into who has been abusing the system, or is it better to leave it and allow that entire department to continue while you look into who is abusing the system because?.

Potentially leaving the entire system and network open to abuse while this person gets away with it and while you trace who it is?

We had that exact issue when I was working within IT, but fortunately we knew exactly who it was and he got fired. But if you know the system is being abused and you dont know exactly by who, you have to take action anyway.

For a company to stop and ban abusive users, there are going to be innocent victims in the process. Its not a simple case of them being able to 100% spot abusive players and be absolutely certain if someone is doing wrong or not.

No company is going to have a system that can 100% effective at such things. Your also talking about humans checking this information and they make mistakes.

Are you suggesting that if you were part of Anet and part of the department that detects abusive players... you would never make a mistake?

You would catch the right people every time?

Out of the 1000s of players and tones of information you have to read and analyse, you would never make a mistake in that situation?

Be realistic and have some appreciation for what Anets limited staff are having to deal with. They have to trace through countless amounts of data to see if anything looks suspicious and they have to rely on what their ingame staff see while playing.

Its not going to be perfect and mistakes happen. But atleast their trying and as I said.... those who are banned accidently seem to be always getting their accounts back and being apologised too.

God forbid you dont play for a few days.

If you want to blame someone for your account being blocked and your playingtime interupted, then blame the abusive players who force Anet to be so strict! Dont blame Anet for trying to catch them.

Thats like blaming the police because they stop someone in a hoody, late at night and ask what they've been upto, when they havent even done anything. Its not the polices fault, its the fault of yobs wearing hoodies and causing trouble and giving anyone in a hoody a bad name. But atleast their being pro-active.

kooomar · Aug 12, 2007, 05:21 PM // 17:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by freekedoutfish

You would catch the right people every time?

God forbid you dont play for a few days.

Answer #1) no, I wouldn't, BUT I sure as hack would try to. I agree, A-net is TRYING to do something about bots, thats awesome to me. But, they are being reckless with it, as MANY people have been wrongfully banned. In fact I was banned back in the days of Elona's Reach bots. *wavy flashback* I was so happy, I had just created my first 55 monk within that month, which wasn't cheap as runes were more than 100g at the time, but I was getting bored with those darned trolls outside of droks, so I thought id expand my horizons. I had read on threads about elona's reach, so I decided to give it a whirl. After a couple runs, I got a black dye. "Oh man," I thought to myself "I'm rich." The next time I went out, I got this little blue message on the left side of my screen, uh oh, FARMING CODE. So, i bid ado to elon'a reach, and went elsewhere. Later that day, BANNED.

Many other people are the same way, having done nothing wrong, its not right to plow over so many faithful customers to get to the bots.

Answer #2(though you didn't pose a question) If it was a day or 2, thatd be awesome. When I was banned for "botting" It took 2 weeks to remove it, thats kind of annoying when I really only had 3 weeks to play that summer.

Answer #3(again, you didn't post anything, nor did I quote a third comment from your post): Go deal with their customer service, one time, just once. This isnt the "man, I can't understand that Sony tech guy's accent." Or a "crap, my couch was supposed to be delivered 20 minutes ago." This is a "Damn, I haven't talked to anyone for days, and they won't respond to me, I sure as hell feel betrayed."

It just sucks when a company you put alot of faith in almost abbandons you, but also as you said, everyone seems to get their accounts back, so good deal!

brian78wa · Aug 12, 2007, 05:31 PM // 17:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by zuckdeluxe

"I feel no pity for him or people like him."

Well, you don't care about my situation, i undestand, but coming here and saying all those thing about people you don't know, that's offensive. Go play GW, that's what i would do.

He wasnt talking about you. He was talking about someone he DOES know. People need to start reading a post in full before taking offense to them.

brian78wa · Aug 12, 2007, 05:34 PM // 17:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackhearted

riiiight, they actually ban bots. I'll believe that the day i go to a certain few outposts and don't see an army of bots.

They do ban accounts all the time. they ban upwards of 2k a week. And no this isnt just a guess this is from a post of Gaile herself

brian78wa · Aug 12, 2007, 05:40 PM // 17:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Personette

These odds do not impress me. I doubt the proportions are correct, but if they were - I would say they are doing their job badly.

I have been more sympathetic to anyone who has to deal with ANet support since I had my run-in with them about the GW store. They were so rude, so grudging, so unhelpful. Missing Guild Wars for a few days isn't that bad, but dealing with Anet help is like taking a trip to the fourth circle of hell.

Hmm maybe you were rude to them???
Ive dealt with them on several occassions and they were always very friendly to me.

Mac Sidewinder · Aug 12, 2007, 10:55 PM // 22:55

Maybe they should simply ban everybody then let each real customer back in one at a time after they make sure they're not a bot.

Seems the route that its going now.

Sergeant of Marines · Aug 12, 2007, 11:21 PM // 23:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by GloryFox

Zinger you would be amazed at how many people think that FFF means AB runs. This was not a flame but an observation. You of all people should know the difference between sarcasm and observations. Read your own posts sometimes you might learn the difference.

Just from personal experience when recently seeking a new guild I had asked no less than 9 Luxon guilds if there was a Fast Faction Farming area similar to Lutguards? Then told "yes" by those guilds, only to discover they were refering to Alliance battles as FFF.

Furthermore I do know of at least one person who was banned recently because he was running a Faction Farming Bot out of Aspenwood. I feel no pity for him or people like him.

I have had about 10 people banned for running FFF...The only reason is b/c we sometimes (in order to maintain a town) have to have a faction spike, which means running about 100 - 200k worth of faction in a day. This has become alot easier since the introduction of heros. All FFF outside LUTZ can be done with heros and is alot faster than a reg team...But it can resort in perma banning these people b/c they are "looking" or "running" like a bot...it happens, but they get their accounts back in the long run...

extremist · Aug 13, 2007, 08:39 PM // 20:39

This just happened to me, except I'm accused for "abusing an in-game exploit." I can tell that people on this forum (from other threads, mostly) aren't interested in hearing my pleas of innocence, but I do have something to add.

I agree with the general sentiment: What's a few false positives if you nuke 1.5k+ accounts that are really in violation of the EULA per week?

But those of us that are false positives don't want to be greeted with statements like "For marks that are the result of inappropriate in-game behavior, no appeal will be accepted." I would have opened the support ticket anyway, but clearly the above statement demoralises and discourages players that are falsely found guilty from even pursuing the matter.

I don't mind, be draconian. But then you have to 100% certain that you won't be banning people that aren't supposed to be banned. And while ArenaNet asserts that their system prevents that from happening, it has happened. Their reversals of the bannings are an admission that they erred.

We'll see what happens. Despite many people's sentiments of "ANerf" and "It's ANet, they'll never do XYZ" I've always been pleasantly surprised by them. While my jaded mind tells me that they're just a big corporation and we represent an insignificant fraction of their clientéle, my more optimistic side remembers my favourable dealings with ArenaNet in the past.

Milkdudpoppin · Aug 13, 2007, 08:46 PM // 20:46

This problem can easily be fixed. Go to the Guild Wars Official Website
http://www.guildwars.com/ and simply click on Support. Then click English - US and finnaly click on "Ask a Question" located on the bottom of the page. Explain what happened and fill in all the neccesary fields. Make your report ticket as professional as possible and your account should be re-opened and accessable again.
You are subject to appeal and if you are actually innocent or Area Net cannot proove you guilty they have no choice but to re-open your account. Also, if this is your first account dispute make sure to include that in your report ticket.

Also, if you have already sent a report ticket nobody on these forums can open your account so then this thread would be pointless.