Curse

Ira Blinks · May 22, 2006, 10:13 PM // 22:13

Question I submitted to support.guildwars.com about this issue (introductions skipped):

Quote:

Originally Posted by me

Fort Aspenwood mission became plagued by people known as leechers. They join the game and after that do nothing. Some just stay at the spawn point, others trying to hide their character so their absence is less noticable. The purpose is obvious - they trying to get "free" faction points while not playing the game. Civil words can not describe my and other legimate players' frustration. Leechers are not only gain something in unfair way, but also indirectly make their team (players who actually trying to play the mission) fail. This problem becomes more serious every day as more players start using this tactic. Of all the games today my team ALWAYS had at least one leecher... sometimes two.

What I would like to know is your official stance on this issue.
1) Do you know about this?
2) Do you consider this a problem?
3) If yes, do you accept violation reports on this matter or consider fixing technical side of it?

Reply I got today:

Quote:

Originally Posted by GM Jabberwocky

At the present time there is little we can do to dissuade people who join groups and then go afk. If you find that this is becoming a serious problem, we highly encourage you to consider posting your experiences on one of many of the Guild Wars Fansite message boards. A compiled list can be found on the official Guild Wars web site at http://www.guildwars.com/community/fansites/. By posting on one of these message boards, other players can comment on your ideas, concerns, and suggestions, and Development Team members are able to catch up on what the community wants to see in Guild Wars. Fansite forums make it easy and efficient for us to learn from those playing the game.

While the forums are far more important for the purpose getting your frustrations to the developers, I also encourage you report suspected leechers to us (the Support team). The more reports we receive about particular form of violation, the more informed we will be about the depth of the problem within Guild Wars.

Thank you for your efforts in assisting us to make Guild Wars the best gaming experience possible.

Basically I translate this as
1) they don't even know about this problem (nor reading this forum)
2) they don't see it as problem
3) they not going to make adjustments to the mission. Submit report if you like, but unless 100+ people wasted thier breath on you nothing will be done.

Happy leeching everyone.

Edit: oops, this was meant to be in Riverside Inn.

---
Edit: Thread's fixed, ignore this edit.
-Mercury Angel

bilateralrope · May 23, 2006, 02:04 AM // 02:04

I read that as:

1 - We dont think its a big enough problem now, because there aren't enough people complaining.

2 - We currently have no idea how we can solve this

3 - Report all the leachers to us, if one person keeps comming up we might do something to him and we will also get a clearer picture of how many leachers there are.

Lepton CFd · May 23, 2006, 02:36 AM // 02:36

Hmm, I'm sure that they are aware of the problem. It seems like they haven't figured out a solution yet, and perhaps are hoping to find one of these fansite forums =P

Phoenix Avenger · May 23, 2006, 02:51 AM // 02:51

Wouldnt it be easy to just kick people out of the group who have not moved/used a skill for 5 mins? (or some other amount of time)

Arkantos · May 23, 2006, 03:02 AM // 03:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phoenix Avenger

Wouldnt it be easy to just kick people out of the group who have not moved/used a skill for 5 mins? (or some other amount of time)

This is a good idea, but some people probably just do something else on the computer while waiting for the mission to be done. They can easily start moving every 4 mins and totally avoid this problem. But yes, if they got kicked after 5 mins lots of the people who go afk are screwed.

MoldyRiceFrenzy · May 23, 2006, 03:06 AM // 03:06

arg this is probably gona end up being fort aspendwood screwed just like 12v12 was... they are probably gona make u pair up in 8 and no random groups... I'd rather have a couple leachers here and there than a friggin set up based map where i can't even communicate to my allies.

Kidney Licker · May 23, 2006, 03:12 AM // 03:12

Currently if you don't participant in a battle you don't get any experience or item drops. It seems simple enough to extend this to factions too, though I haven't actually got far enough in the game yet to see how factions are allocated.

robrobrob · May 23, 2006, 03:37 AM // 03:37

Welcome to ArenaNet. Post your complaints on a fan-forum, get flamed for "whining", then wait 4-6 months for something to happen.

Actually Kidney Licker, you do get experience for just sitting there being "afk." Trust me.

Arkantos · May 23, 2006, 03:41 AM // 03:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by robrobrob

Welcome to ArenaNet. Post your complaints on a fan-forum, get flamed for "whining", then wait 4-6 months for something to happen.

Actually Kidney Licker, you do get experience for just sitting there being "afk." Trust me.

1) Nobody flamed him
2) ANet comes on this forum
3) Ooh, your hinting you afk FF. your too cool

MCS · May 23, 2006, 03:47 AM // 03:47

Leechers of all sorts suck, I'd love a vote kick feature to kick people who leech in missions. It wouldn't solve the problem immediatly but when people realize they get nothing by going AFK they'll simply stop.

MaglorD · May 23, 2006, 03:50 AM // 03:50

I seen bots trying to leech in missions as well.
Anet loves getting ppl to post in fan forums, knowing full well there will always be dissenters etc.

I wonder how much they actually save by not operating official forums.

robrobrob · May 23, 2006, 03:59 AM // 03:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bloody Death

1) Nobody flamed him
2) ANet comes on this forum
3) Ooh, your hinting you afk FF. your too cool

1) If you think nobody on this forum flames, you must have joined yesterday.
2) Duh
3) ANet kept a broken system in place, they're even cooler.

Since my sarcasm was too much for you to understand, let me explain:

1) Welcome to how ArenaNet handles things. You have a complaint? They ask that you post it on a fansite forum. Nevermind you just sent them an e-mail clearly detailing the problem, they'd rather it be on a forum so they can say something like "Sorry, was busy and didn't quite catch that thread." Otherwise people would be correct in claiming that ArenaNet ignores issues sometimes.

Of course, if you're at all critical of the game, users here with the wool over their eyes will defend ArenaNet. This of course requires that they make vague attacks on you, the complainee, because you should know that ArenaNet is infallible, and the truth is that without ArenaNet providing Guild Wars, our sun would implode, our atmosphere would dissipate, and we would die a grotesque death. So instead of making critical comments, whether your comments are correct or not, you should instead be sacrificing your firstborn child to ArenaNet. They don't want you to, but the misguided fools on fansite forums do.

So, ArenaNet tells you to post on one of the forums. You do. And these loyal sheep flame you on sight, normally. Don't believe me? Look through this forum and Riverside.

2) I know ArenaNet visits these foums. I don't recall saying they didn't.

3) I wanted to see exactly how much faction sitting afk gets you. I've done it twice. Got 600 faction for a win, 160 faction for a loss. Decided that even afk'ing those garbage missions wasn't worth the effort to log in. Get off your pedestal boy.

There, hopefully you're a bit more clear on where I stand.

Thank you.

Arkantos · May 23, 2006, 04:05 AM // 04:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by robrobrob

1) If you think nobody on this forum flames, you must have joined yesterday.

My join date is Feb 2006. Do you think I joined yesterday?

What I said was nobody flamed him. I never said nobody flames.
PS-Yes, I know you said that sarcastically.

robrobrob · May 23, 2006, 04:07 AM // 04:07

You are correct, I mis-read that statement myself. I apologize.

Isileth · May 23, 2006, 04:40 AM // 04:40

Leechers are a problem. One thing ive found a lot of people have said to me after ive pmed that about leeching is that they are doing pve only and dont want to be forced into pvp. Personally i agree. Although leeching isnt the right way to go about this problem. Forcing people that only want to pve into pvp is annoying. If its only a few fights then i guess thats ok you may as well give them a taste of the rest of the game and hope they like it. But 10k factions worth of games is a lot. And when the alternative is running the same mission over and over sitting afk suddenly starts to look mighty appealing. I was lucky in that members of my guild where running the supply mission so i teamed with them and we chatted while doing it so it was actually pretty fun. 10k is a big target to reach. When you get 200ish for losing and 600 for a win (not likely because these people dont want to pvp remember

) or 400 a run it can easily take several hours if not days to accumulate said ammount. Maybe drop the required ammount down a bit or give a pve alternative like killing 10 hard targets and getting 1k for each etc.
I do pvp, pve to me is the extra bit on the side but i did find it annoying that people are forced to farm faction. Farming is extremely boring imo. Sure the rewards may be great but some people just dont have time to do the same thing over and over which is when other games on your shelf start looking a good alternative. I dont think the realms of pvp and pve should be so close together.
Obviousely some of these people arent just trying to finish the storyline and are farming faction for guilds. But if you remove the need for pve players to leech it would be a lot easier to spot those who are trying to farm faction for guilds.

CorstedPirate · May 23, 2006, 06:35 AM // 06:35

I hate the afk people! I am a PvE gal, but when I decide to do something, I DO it. I hate the idea that I have to do super repetative quests or PvP to get the faction required for a quest. At the same time though, whichever I choose, I will DO it. I won't sit around and say "I PvE so I won't move since I am forced to PvP," that is BS!

I have always thought that there should be a feature that allows the team to vote a member off while in mission. I don't think they should be kicked from the area so much as just not in the group anymore. Which would make them a hostile to each group or the group and monsters. That will teach them!

Kaguya · May 23, 2006, 06:48 AM // 06:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ira Blinks

Basically I translate this as
1) they don't even know about this problem (nor reading this forum)
2) they don't see it as problem
3) they not going to make adjustments to the mission. Submit report if you like, but unless 100+ people wasted thier breath on you nothing will be done.

Happy leeching everyone.

Edit: oops, this was meant to be in Riverside Inn.

That reply was actually the generic bot-reply. Reply that reply with an url to some of the threads discussing leecher problem, a human will read it this time, and reply.

VVV- I think it's the 'ask a question' software NCsoft is using, that automatically sends a robot reply. When I played EVE online, they had the same system, and the same thing. First message was from a robot, and if you replied, you got a non-robot reply for your reply.

CorstedPirate · May 23, 2006, 07:14 AM // 07:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaguya

That reply was actually the generic bot-reply. Reply that reply with an url to some of the threads discussing leecher problem, a human will read it this time, and reply.

I wrote a letter to my Senator once. I had to resend it 5 times before I got a non generic reply. If Anet does it on the second time around, that is pretty good!

guppy · May 23, 2006, 07:26 AM // 07:26

I find it unproffesional for a company to ask complaints be posted on fan forums. Many complaints won't get heard this way, and guarantee's only the biggest complainers get heard.

There are many fansites, and in fact, you must go out of your way to sign up for one, post with enough evidence or reasoning to avoid flames, and particularly argue your point with the community until you are tired and have absolutely no idea if your suggestion or complaint is heard.

Sadly, it is unsatisfying for customers, and only convenient for the developers who may choose to browse forums at their own liesure. Not that they don't look and act upon certain issues, it is just that it takes little reasoning to believe they will act upon what issues keep rising up amongst a plethora of forums such as these in guildwarsguru.com. So the simple complaints that may or may not be warranted may not even get any recognition (bot or no bot :P).

As for the problem at hand, it seems that they do not have any idea's on how to solve the problem as it seems like a game mechanic flaw. They wanted random missions pvp style.

shardfenix · May 23, 2006, 01:48 PM // 13:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phoenix Avenger

Wouldnt it be easy to just kick people out of the group who have not moved/used a skill for 5 mins? (or some other amount of time)

No.
every 5 minutes (or some other amount of time), come back and move your character.
Or...bots.

I read it as:
1: A human made up a short reply to this to make it feel personal, then added the stuff they usually do about the forums.
2: We don't care about the problem, because it does not break the game.
3: We have no way of solving it. Provide an explanation on one of our many fansites (a compiled list can be found at www .goaway.com)