Guild Wars 2

I have started seeing Allot of Guild Leaders and Squad Commanders requesting some ones API key in order to join Guild/Raid Squad. I’m pretty sure this is against ToS. Can any one verify. And if it is, how do we report players for requesting API keys from people?

sigh
The whole point of the api keys is for sharing information with third parties where all of the control is in the hands of player giving out the key. And later they can choose to revoke the key.

Sharing the key with another player is no different than sharing it with a third party website.

I haven’t seen such requirement in EU yet and I doubt it’s getting popular. For the most groups this is too much circumstantial and too absurd.
Personally, I won’t join such a group and wait some more seconds to join the next one.
In addition I don’t think that you want to play with those guys anyways.

It’s not against the ToS, and while very annoying for a pub, it’s perfectly legitimate for someone to run a guild that way. If you hate the idea of being honest with your guild leader about your gear/character setup, then just don’t join that guild! Simple, really.

I doubt its against the ToS, but I still wouldn’t give it out to anyone.
And no, it has nothing to do with honesty – it is about simply keeping your private information about your account private.

While some will only use it for ridiculous borderline-elitist membership policies, others may be more nefarious. While I doubt anyone can steal your account with the information, communicating the value of your account and exactly what you own can make you a more likely target for gold sellers and others of that ilk.

Best policy is to keep it private.

What’s the point of giving an API key anyway? The API keys are personal.
Give them a link to your character on gw2efficiency that shows your gear and such, only of the specific character you are joining the Raid with, is a much better idea.

Blaeys.3102:

While I doubt anyone can steal your account with the information, communicating the value of your account and exactly what you own can make you a more likely target for gold sellers and others of that ilk.

You only need the characters permission on any API key you provide in this manner, which wouldn’t give anyone access to anything outside of the stuff on your characters. You can also disable the key after. That said, maddoctor.2738 is correct that it’s better to just share your specific character’s page on GW2Efficiency instead of handing over an API key to begin with.

Why would it be against the ToS? It’s no different from asking people to ping gear, but it’s 100% reliable (whereas gear links aren’t). If you don’t accept the requirements of the group, join a different one (or start your own).

I generally would agree with Blaeys: don’t share if it’s really not necessary.

PS the are also a couple of options so you’re not “oversharing”.

• Create the API key to show only builds, characters, inventory.
• Enter the key into GW2 Efficiency
• From there, grab a link for the specific character who will participate in the raid/etc.
• Share that link rather than the API

That limits the amount of detail to which the others have access, so it’s a compromise between the extremes of giving them everything and not joining because you won’t give them anything.

Tell them to get bent and find a less absurd group.
They’re basically asking you to give out hair, blood, urine, stool, and skin samples. Along with previous work history, your entire extended family’s full names, your own address, and what kind of things you spank the monkey to.

Literally none of that is their business, and while it doesn’t break the ToS (to my knowledge) it’s incredibly scummy and as mentioned above can make you a target for account hijackers.

Murdock.6547:

Tell them to get bent and find a less absurd group.
They’re basically asking you to give out hair, blood, urine, stool, and skin samples. Along with previous work history, your entire extended family’s full names, your own address, and what kind of things you spank the monkey to.

Pretty casual list for eve online tho LuL. But yeah like others said asking for API is not breaking any rules it is just kinda dumb and inefficient since it is possible to share character profile with a gw2efficiency link.

The important take way, to me, is that we are seeing yet another symptom of exclusionary disease that is quickly becoming the status quo for GW2. More and more, players are looking for new ways to split the player base – to find rationale and tools, logical or not, to help them decide who they are willing to be friends with in game and who they never want anything to do with.

I know this is nothing new in MMOs (or even in GW2 to a much lesser degree), but it was (imo) never supposed to be as blatant in this game as it has become in the past year and a half. This was supposed to be the game where we could come home from work, load up our character and just enjoy the game without all the kitten and “are you good enough to play with me” silliness – and, for a long time, it was exactly that.

And, yes, it is driven by player decisions, but I do find it sad that Anet is becoming more and more accepting and even, in some cases, supportive of that kind of behavior. I know I’ve said it a few hundred times at this point, but they really need to stop and think about how this game was supposed to be different than the competition – and get back into that development mindset.

I was actively pug raiding in EU this evening. There hasn’t been any single group demanding API key or such must have filled faster than the usual ones.
Of course, I can’t speak for NA but in EU the percental appearance in LFGs must be <1% so to speak a non-issue at all.

Blaeys.3102:

More and more, players are looking for new ways to split the player base – to find rationale and tools, logical or not, to help them decide who they are willing to be friends with in game and who they never want anything to do with.

Yes, please. I would love to have more tools to split the playerbase into one group that lies about simple things like their build, equipment or experience, because they want to get carried without contributing anything, and a second group that is worth playing with.

Let’s be honest for one moment: Nobody would request ridiculous amounts of LI if people wouldn’t lie about their experience. And nobody would even consider requesting api keys, if the same kind of people wouldn’t demonstrate on a regular basis that they spend more time learning to manipulate chatcodes than thinking about their character’s role or reading some boss guide to know at least the basic mechanics.

The API keys are a good compromise. They allow us to share information we intend to share through sites such as gw2efficiency. It is completely legitimate to ask for someones page, even if doing so in pugs seems a little silly.
People simply made too many experiences with those who do not see anything wrong in outright lying to you. They decided that they do not want to waste any more of their own and also other people’s time with such players.
They tell you what they are looking for. You ask them to join after making sure you fit in. They check out your page to confirm the truthfulness about what you told them.
Seems simple enough, that is unless you are trying to join a squad or guild you have no business being in.

Don’t get me wrong, I find it commendable how much people seem to care about protecting other players from mallicious or mean behaviour nowadays. It is certainly a big improvement over how games used to be.
However, it is interesting to see that this only goes one direction with most of them. Unlike the casuals and raiding newbies, the other group is just supposed to take that type of disrespectful behaviour. They need to have all of the tools they might use to protect themselves with taken away from them.

I don’t see the harm in asking for API keys to be honest. I would simply not share mine. If they need to do some background check on me, whether or not I belong in their group, I most likely don’t want to be in their little group anyway.

If that gives me less players to play with then so be it.

Blaeys.3102:

The important take way, to me, is that we are seeing yet another symptom of exclusionary disease that is quickly becoming the status quo for GW2. More and more, players are looking for new ways to split the player base – to find rationale and tools, logical or not, to help them decide who they are willing to be friends with in game and who they never want anything to do with.

I know this is nothing new in MMOs (or even in GW2 to a much lesser degree), but it was (imo) never supposed to be as blatant in this game as it has become in the past year and a half. This was supposed to be the game where we could come home from work, load up our character and just enjoy the game without all the kitten and “are you good enough to play with me” silliness – and, for a long time, it was exactly that.

And, yes, it is driven by player decisions, but I do find it sad that Anet is becoming more and more accepting and even, in some cases, supportive of that kind of behavior. I know I’ve said it a few hundred times at this point, but they really need to stop and think about how this game was supposed to be different than the competition – and get back into that development mindset.

The way you can take any topic and turn it into another anti raid discussion is hilarious.

I find it very hard to believe that random squads on LFG as for an API key, I’ve never seen something like this and even if they exist, then it’s one in a thousand.
Let’s say such squad does exist, why would you think of joining it? In a matter of fact I don’t think anyone, including the most experienced / elitist players would consider that too because it’s such a time waste.

I believe that OP tried to join a guild or a static group that asked for an API, but decided to inflate it to normal squads too for more attention.

What’s wrong with guilds/statics asking for your API? Building a group is a long and tedious progress, they want to know that they don’t carry dead weight and a simple API can save them (and you) a lot of time.

Lying about your stuff doesn’t belong to guilds, keep that kitten in LFG.

Ooops.8694:

Let’s be honest for one moment: Nobody would request ridiculous amounts of LI if people wouldn’t lie about their experience. And nobody would even consider requesting api keys, if the same kind of people wouldn’t demonstrate on a regular basis that they spend more time learning to manipulate chatcodes than thinking about their character’s role or reading some boss guide to know at least the basic mechanics.

Yes they would.
There are commanders who set up groups and demand 100+ LI and KP just so that they can get carried by a bunch of people who know the fight, while they themselves have 0-6 LI.
But I guess that falls under “people lying about their experience”
… I dunno… it just irks me more than anything to see that nobody ever questions the commander.

Murdock.6547:

… I dunno… it just irks me more than anything to see that nobody ever questions the commander.

If the commander is with his guild members/friends you can’t do anything about it. But if he is not then I’m sure the other players and you can ask for his proof and Li.

Murdock.6547:

… I dunno… it just irks me more than anything to see that nobody ever questions the commander.

It’s because such coms are rare. You can see within seconds after joining if a com is inexperienced or not, even before the fight has started. At the latest you’ll recognize it during the first minutes of the first pull like with other inexperienced people. If somebody is so good at hiding his inexperience and additionally can carry his weight (for example his dps is fine, plays the mechanics right on Sloth or is calling things out correctly during a fight) I don’t see any problem to play with him or letting him be the com.
Since those things are obvious to veteran raiders it’s a non-issue again. Of course it would be a problem for new raiders but they can’t join anyways because the com would have set the entry barrier too high for them.
So, where’s the problem again?

the people comparing an api key to a blood sample or whatever are either clueless and allow paranoia to get the best of them, or are the fakers who’ve been kicked for being fake.

Murdock.6547:

Ooops.8694:

Let’s be honest for one moment: Nobody would request ridiculous amounts of LI if people wouldn’t lie about their experience. And nobody would even consider requesting api keys, if the same kind of people wouldn’t demonstrate on a regular basis that they spend more time learning to manipulate chatcodes than thinking about their character’s role or reading some boss guide to know at least the basic mechanics.

Yes they would.
There are commanders who set up groups and demand 100+ LI and KP just so that they can get carried by a bunch of people who know the fight, while they themselves have 0-6 LI.
But I guess that falls under “people lying about their experience”
… I dunno… it just irks me more than anything to see that nobody ever questions the commander.

Yes, it would fall under “people lying” just like with anyone else.
Reminds me of when I used to ask the party leader to show me their own gear back when most made you link your gear in dungeons. Was always good for a laugh.

This seems to be much less of an issue with raids, though.
Most commanders are at least able to lead the squad towards a few boss kills given the right players. Even if the quality of commander may vary about as much as the quality of those trying to join the squad.