Curse

Epinephrine · Jul 04, 2005, 06:06 PM // 18:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Odd Sock

That's still the most retarded thing I've heard regradless of EULA. And if he got banned for inappropriate behaviour, that's equally as stupid since there are language filters. There's no reason to ban accounts, best thing to do IMO would be to ban for three days, then a week, then delete the account. Sure it's just a game but when you've invested countless hours unlocking stuff, EULA or not you're at least entitled to something. If they keep doing stuff like this word will get out and they will lose some customers that I can guarantee.

1) It's not stupid, an EULA is an agreement.
2) Language filters are not foolproof, people swear by substitutig numbers, putting spaces in words and so on. I support banning those who are racist or excessively rude in game. And don't give me any free speech argument, it doesn't hold water.
3) "EULA or not you're entitled to something"; yeah, you are entitled to think about how you broke the contract you agreed to. Remember the "I agree" button?
4) "They will lose some customers". Oh well, sucks to say bye to botters, racists and those who support botters.

Aniewiel · Jul 04, 2005, 06:08 PM // 18:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Epinephrine

4) "They will lose some customers". Oh well, sucks to say bye to botters, racists and those who support botters.

LOL!

Good one and I couldn't agree more. The language and legality of the EULA is ironclad. Thinking that "I'm just going to slide this one little time" won't cut it.

=HT=Ingram · Jul 04, 2005, 06:09 PM // 18:09

I've worked to get others unbanned in the past, but I'm sorry, I can't find it in my heart to help on this case. Not as many posts as we have been making about these services in the past few months... and Warning people DON'T DO IT.

Just submit to the wipe. you'll be allowed back in after that.

Akilles · Jul 04, 2005, 06:10 PM // 18:10

i think ANet is doing the opposite of what shoudl be done, you do NOT punish the person who bought the game, you punish the person makin the real profit on the game. The person who in the trade offers 100K gold in exchange for nothing is obviously the one in violation here. BUT! some ppl (myself) have been known to actually save lots of money and then give away funds to guild mates for nothing. The most i gave to a close guild mate was 20k for nothing. They should just stick to the bad names thing and ignore the rest. they should also give a warning so u can transfer any good items to a new account in storage.

I have done the retail thing b4 and that is like banning a customer from a store when they had a 3rd party coupon to redeem a free item. blame the coupon maker!

Digitalblast · Jul 04, 2005, 06:16 PM // 18:16

Its like cops busting people on the street who just bought drugs and ignoring the one who just sold it to them.

Epinephrine · Jul 04, 2005, 06:16 PM // 18:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akilles

i think ANet is doing the opposite of what shoudl be done, you do NOT punish the person who bought the game, you punish the person makin the real profit on the game. The person who in the trade offers 100K gold in exchange for nothing is obviously the one in violation here. BUT! some ppl (myself) have been known to actually save lots of money and then give away funds to guild mates for nothing. The most i gave to a close guild mate was 20k for nothing. They should just stick to the bad names thing and ignore the rest. they should also give a warning so u can transfer any good items to a new account in storage.

I have done the retail thing b4 and that is like banning a customer from a store when they had a 3rd party coupon to redeem a free item. blame the coupon maker!

They probably check that. It's easy to do - you check:

a) if they have played together before, and how much.
b) if they play in a guild together

If the answer to a) is essentially none and b) is no, then check c)

c) volume of text whispered each other and content.

Red Locust · Jul 04, 2005, 06:17 PM // 18:17

Why don't you summarize that post of yours in 4 words, namely, Why Was I Banned, and ask ANet support? You'd actually get some results. I'm sure they don't need to hear your life story on a gaming forum, and we certainly don't.

=HT=Ingram · Jul 04, 2005, 06:17 PM // 18:17

well thats not actually true I have given 100k to guild mates for stuff.

Not for profit or anything just internal to our guild. normally its for fissure armor and supplies to get it.

we also trade for 0 gold all the time in our guild hall.

Shagsbeard · Jul 04, 2005, 06:17 PM // 18:17

Well... seems my guesses where a bit off the mark. No cookie for me. But buying in game stuff with real money is a violation and just a really silly thing to do. They need to ban both buyer and seller. Thing is, the guy selling stuff doesn't care. He's making enough money off you buyers to get himself a few accounts. They need to ban the buyers as well to get the sellers to stop.

Why? Because there are people in the world sacrificing their educations and childhoods to make money this way. It's not as bad as shoe factories, but it's still wrong to support these item mills. Sure, a real person is behind the character, but it's no longer a game. It's a job. I applaud Anet for being proactive in getting rid of real money transactions. Why they don't publisize this type of ban is beyond me. I'd be putting it up all over the place.

Macievelli · Jul 04, 2005, 06:18 PM // 18:18

Well, if it's against the rules to buy anything outside the game, you can bet your last dollar....well, no, actually, that would get you banned, so dont bet anything. You can be sure that I wont be spending a single red cent....no wait, that would be considered politically and/or racially offensive. Hmm....ok, you can be sure I will never again spend real money on anything ever again. *whew*

My characters all have names that are well away from offensive: Macievelli Club OC, Club Oc Macievelli, and Errol Flynn. SO that counts that out.

Again, never used bots, and never farmed in my life. Wouldn't be a good farmer if I tried...dont have the patience for it or the desire to do so.

If the A.Net logs were to ban me for using items like a bought cigil, why would it take months to come into affect, and then be listed as unacceptable behavior? (which according to the rules of conduct is behavior that is considered rude, racist, sexist, offensive, morally questionable, etc.) THis is what the offense was listed as, and I just don't behave that way to people in game.

The only thing that I can think would be even remotely offensive is our guild tag. Club Overclocker guild (from the web site of the same name) is listed as COC. Now, it certainly wasn't tagged that as some kind of perverted insinuation. I'm 37, and the time for finding humor in poopy and weenie jokes has long since past. It's a legitimate tag based on a legitimate acronym for a legitimate guild that's from a legitimate and well respected web site.

I'm totally in the dark on this one. I haven't offended anyone in game, cant think of any remarks I've made or incidents where I've had it out with any players. This has caught me completely off gaurd, and it really is a great big turnoff. I've gone out of my way to try to help people in game. Answering questions, giving items away to low-level strangers in Ascalon from time to time, trying to end disputes and arguments between people rather than escalate them. This is my first RPG, and I really love this game. I dont have much of an active social life, and this guild and the time spent there with those people has given me somewhat of a sense of community and friendship that is missing from my life (I work on my computer at home about 60 hours a week.) To have this happen is really quite disturbing and upsetting. I don't think I've done anything wrong here, and I feel let down by all of this.

I appreciate the responses Ive gotten here. It is this very sense of community which has prompted me to continue to get involved in this game...the kind acts and genuine concern of the many (disregarding the acts of the few) is what I play this for in the first place. While the game itself may be a virtual reality, with virtual characters in a virtual environment, it is driven by the real people with real hearts and real minds which play those characters and populate that world. That is the real environment, and you in it are the real Deus Ex Machina.

FOR OC AND HONOR!

Aniewiel · Jul 04, 2005, 06:19 PM // 18:19

I said the same thing earlier, Akilles. However, I can see suspending the buyer's account and submitting them to an inventory/storage wipe. But the ones who need to be actively pursued are those who are profiting IRL from the sales of virtual pixels.

My thought, and I think it's a good one, is for ANet to offer IG rewards for bounties put out. They would not give names of people for whom to look but they could operate something like Silent Witness: The "crime" is scamming/selling items for real money. Bounty hunters would 'make the deal' and take screenshots, save chat logs and such, turn them into ANet and, if proven true, the player is given a 'reward', either an item or gold. LOL!

Sort of the old west come to life again!

=HT=Ingram · Jul 04, 2005, 06:20 PM // 18:20

IXGE has over 200 accounts... all with really wierd names. From what I have heard they average 3 or 4 accounts getting banned a month..

Jelloblimp · Jul 04, 2005, 06:21 PM // 18:21

So are all characters on account blocked or just one? (So far I have only read about specific character blocks).

Yes buying from ebay & such is against the EULA.
(And as all EULA:s it has a magic instant ban clause(sp?) regardless of any actions).

Aniewiel · Jul 04, 2005, 06:22 PM // 18:22

Can't ANet get the websites closed down and encourage Ebay to suspend accounts that are selling what is tantamount to 'stolen intellectual property'?

Dalia · Jul 04, 2005, 06:23 PM // 18:23

Both drug dealers and drug users are breaking the law, however. I applaud Anet for tackling the bot issue. Removing the market for bot products helps to reduce the amount of bots. Bots are hugely determental to the game and need to be curtailed as much as possible.

It won't be surprising if the majority of people who complain about this player's banning are people who've purchased bot-made items themselves.

There's another issue, too, that I haven't seen mentioned and that is the issue of intellectual property. Something to think about.

Dalia

noot · Jul 04, 2005, 06:24 PM // 18:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akilles

i think ANet is doing the opposite of what shoudl be done, you do NOT punish the person who bought the game, you punish the person makin the real profit on the game. The person who in the trade offers 100K gold in exchange for nothing is obviously the one in violation here. BUT! some ppl (myself) have been known to actually save lots of money and then give away funds to guild mates for nothing. The most i gave to a close guild mate was 20k for nothing. They should just stick to the bad names thing and ignore the rest. they should also give a warning so u can transfer any good items to a new account in storage.

I have done the retail thing b4 and that is like banning a customer from a store when they had a 3rd party coupon to redeem a free item. blame the coupon maker!

Anyone who says "blame the seller, not the buyer" must be living on a different planet. This is along the same lines of saying that gunshops, not killers should be punished, and dealers, not druggies should be in jail? Sure, both should be punished, but saying that it's purely the sellers fault is ridiculous. Maybe in a situation where the buyer is completely ignorant, which, this time, is not the case.

This is very typical modern purely inwardly way of thinking

=HT=Ingram · Jul 04, 2005, 06:25 PM // 18:25

If you want you can submit a request in to support for a grievence, and get your guild to patetion a reversal. BUt I'm sure they are going to give you one heck of a talking too before allowing anything special. as in unlonking your account before a wipe to transfer your leadership to someone else. I have only seen them do it once however... So be real nice about it and talk to support on tuesday. they are closed today for the 4th.

Aniewiel · Jul 04, 2005, 06:27 PM // 18:27

I have never said "blame the seller not the buyer". As was said earlier, BOTH are to blame and, yes, the problem should be cleaned up. That said, the buyer has already shelled out money. They should absolutely have their account suspended and wiped of all gold/items. That would probably chagrin them enough to stop them ever doing it again. I would venture to say that most people who resort to spending their hard-earned cash on pixelated items are RL law-abiding people. A suspension of account would probably humiliate them enough that they'd stop for good.

The seller should be permanently banned.

Alderman Sweet · Jul 04, 2005, 06:28 PM // 18:28

Anybody with a character named Errol Flynn has to be okay.

Dax · Jul 04, 2005, 06:30 PM // 18:30

Would it be that the EULA only covers things during gameplay?... so if you buy something out of the game, they can't get you until they catch you 'in game' using it.

I don't know, I just thought I'd throw that out.