Guild Wars 2

Hello my fellow Tyrians!
I have an idea to propose to you all. After some debate with the Guild Wars 2 staff, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a lot of mess involved in any disciplinary action against an account, regardless of the company or game. My idea does not change the support process, nor the appeal one, but the blocking/reporting features. Why have both? Except for very circumstantial times, do they not both fulfill the same goal?

I am relatively new to the forums, but I can see most of you (or a sizable sum) disagreeing with this and providing the rebuttal that most other MMOs have both features and that they are both a necessity.

That said, let’s compare two things and then discuss two more aspects of this.

The final result of reporting someone versus the block list. What does reporting do? It submits a notice to ArenaNet that the reported person has done some action (whether it be verbal or otherwise) that is questionable as an offense of their rules of conduct/policies. In my experience with the original Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, it begins simply from one person finding something else someone did as offensive. From there, the ArenaNet team evaluates it and takes disciplinary action or not.

Do note that after reviewing both the suspension and naming policies, as well as the rules of conduct, there are (naturally, due to list of possibilities) vague rules that cover almost any form of conduct and name.

The disciplinary action ArenaNet takes reflects the offense itself (i.e., if a name was offensive the name is required to be changed). Thus, solving the original issue: one person finding something else someone did as offensive.

Blocking is (thankfully) far more simple of a process. If you dislike the actions of someone else you can (by all realistic, virtual, senses) eliminate them from your existence through a process called blocking.

So now, for the comparison. They both reach relatively the same goal: fixing what someone did that was against the rules or offended you. And from my review of the rules, offending someone covers a large portion of the rules itself, so they are one-of-the-same. One of the few differences between reporting and blocking is that reporting does bring the attention to ArenaNet, and for situations like abusing an exploit or “cheating”, this is perfect. The last difference I’d like to point out is that reporting takes a great deal of time on ArenaNet’s part to evaluate, whereas blocking is within the sole discretion of a person and requires no lengthy process of analysis.

Here comes the two parts of the discussion. Guild Wars 2 is a product, and ArenaNet is a company. Much like any other company, their goal is to sell the product. As someone who has been in the restaurant industry for many, many years we all know that the product itself is half the battle: service is the other half. So the other, unsaid, half of their goal is to please their customer (guest). Obviously, turning a loyal guest away by poor attention or negligent consideration is unwise. So how can they cater to the desires of the offender and the offended?

Secondly, as an answer to the previous paragraph: disallow reporting for all but a few, select, reasons (hacking, exploiting, bugs, etc.) and let blocking solve the issue. In real life, a court would tell an offended person “get over it and you are free to ignore the other person as you see fit (Lauren von-Lilequist, J.D. from Loyola and A.A.S. in Paralegal Studies from PCC).”

The goal here should be to allow the freedoms of each party while respecting the wishes of each. Blocking allows this efficiently and perfectly through a function where one person can fulfill their own wishes: ignore/block who they want for whatever reason they desire, while the other person has none of their freedoms infringed upon and both get to enjoy the game harmoniously.

Not only would this allow a simultaneous bolster of choice, but it brings two other purposes, too. It will save a considerable amount of Guild War 2 staff’s team by not having to mediate so many tickets concerning petty differences, but they would keep both costumers (guests) and appeal to the interests of both. Which, for you, my fellow Tyrians, means: more time and money for them to develop content.

As I’ve explained, blocking/reporting both fulfill the same purpose excluding those specific instances where ignoring a person does not solve the problem (exploits, hacking, RWT, etc.)

So, again, why have both? Both bring greater risks and less revenue, whereas having one will promote three, separate, interests for both the guests themselves and company itself.

It gives us options. Either:

a.) Not have to listen to the person ever again.
b.) Be a social elitist and just report while still getting bombarded by w/e was insulting you.
c.) Report AND block in hope that the offender may get banned in peace. (yay :D)

I want to see 4 things about this

1. I have been complaining about for a while now – when you block someone they can still see your account online. This needs to be addressed. Its a security risk. When you block someone you need to to always appear as offline to them

2. Block – should be setup to block for 24hours, or 36hours depending on blocked content. If you block someone that is spamming gold selling via websites, the system should auto block and report on that. If you block someone for being rude, I think 24hours or 36hours is good enough. This doesn’t need to be a perm block (this would be a dynamic Block List that is in addition to the static block list we have now)

3. Report – this should be followed by a QA from Anet via Email on why you are reporting such user, and a follow up that an employee at Anet got the report is is reviewing it. We do not need to see the outcome, but rather just know thakittens not being dropped off as insignificant by Anet. And when you report someone, that account should be perm blocked from sending you messages.

4. Report based on harassment. I have reported a few accounts in the past week or 2 about harassment, one was very very bad in nature (she was trying to sell pics of herself via Paypal….I mean, Common!), And as of last night that account is still online. I feel this, out of all the reporting I have done in the past, this one should have been taken seriously. And this is why on #3 Feedback needs to be given to the account that reports certain behavior.