I understand this may get flamed with a “here we go again” mentality; but ‘ey, it’s better to say something then to stay quiet.
I have noticed that the Arena Net Team/Guild Wars 2 Team is stretched very thin when it comes the more popular issues such as:
~Account Hack reports
~Rage Quitting Refunds
~Broken Game Content
I can’t really blame them for not being able to do everything at once;however, I think the whole company as a whole should explore the option into hiring temporary volunteer staff to help tackle the botting crises in game. I have thought about this on and off the past couple of weeks and have tried to think of a couple solutions to the problems that would arise from the volunteer staff and I believe I have a steady framework to make this work out for the long haul.
Title: Guild Wars 2 Community Volunteer
Abbreviations: G.C.V.
Privileges:
1) G.C.V. in game title,
2) Access to the botting tickets
3) Permissions to temporary ban botters
4) Close out botting tickets
5) Spy mode
Obviously, that is a lot of rights for a single job and I understand that; however, those rights should be enough to help aid the community and the Guild Wars 2/ ANET team.
Some checks and balances for the above rights to prevent any major or serious abuse:
A) Upon agreeing to be part of the G.C.V. you agree that any abuse that can be proven by your actions will result in a 90 day ban of your account and a blacklisting from applying to any NCSOFT and ANET jobs paid or non-paid in the future.
1) Nothing can really be abused with a title, so no real harm there, could be nit picky and enforce a no-wear policy if you are not actively working.
2) You may only view one ticket at a time, publishing or using any information from said tickets is strictly prohibited and will result in the action listed at " A) " above.
3) This is the most controversial power I think the community and ANET will have; however, It is a power that has to be given. To prevent major abuse, this power will work in the method described below labeled “B)”
B) Upon being hired as a volunteer you will have access to a new icon in your in game window that would look like the Arena Net icon. Once clicked this icon will display the list of botting tickets from Oldest to newest. The G.C.V. will be able to click the ticket, a window pops up with the information, underneath all the information provided will be three options.
1) Spy
2) Ban
3) Delete
The spy option once clicked will put the G.C.V. into stealth mode and will allow him/her to monitor the suspected botter. If the individual feels that there is enough evidence to ban the account he/she will proceed to hit the ban button. Once the ban button is clicked, it will activate three functions will be labeled below:
1a) Sends a message to the community managers that an account has been banned by a G.C.V. member with the account name of ____ at 00:00:00 for botting.
2a) It will automatically ban the account for three days.
3a) It will automatically close the ticket out
The third option delete, will only be used if the G.C.V. feels there is not enough proof to ban the suspected botter. This will also send a message to the Community Managers stating that a botting ticket has been closed. Once the ticket has been resolved the G.C.V. will re-appear at their destination that they activated the botting ticket support from.
4) See the section labeled “B)”
5) See the section labeled “B)”
I would imagine that each world would need at least 10 Volunteers. Each volunteer being from a different time zone with the remainders being dumped into the more active time zones. Selections for said jobs would be done via a three part application.
1) Written (up to ANET how they wish to execute this)
2) Activity in game (how active are you really, have you been banned)
3) Activity on the forums (posting/viewing)
Payments:
None, you are a volunteer, your payment is basically having a title and knowing that you are making Guild Wars 2 a better place. You could make this position a stepping stone into the community manager role later on.
Quota:
Even though you are a volunteer you have to be active with your rights or you are basically a useless burden to the team o.O so I would say that you would have to go through at least 15-20% total tickets a week submitted. Divided up by how many G.C.V. and normal staff that should be a reasonable amount of tickets for a volunteer and help relief some of the P.R. stress.
I’m sure there are a couple of flaws in my plan; however, I think this is the best course of action with out introducing to much corruption. Feel free to suggest any ideas you may have to help relieve the pain, Forum Moderators please don’t say “just submit tickets” that’s a given and its also given that you are to swamped with other tasks to help.
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