Guild Wars 2

It came to my attention recently that I had 2 people stalking me via THIER blocklists, what I mean by this is that they blocked me so that they could then see my location, instead of friending me to know my location, they did this so that I would not know they are following me around from map to map. I really think this needs to be looked at, a simple solution would be that anyone you block should then have UNKNOWN as their location. Make it happen please Arenanet.

If you are being harassed in-game, I recommend you submit a ticket to support by clicking ‘Support’ at the top of the page and explaining in detail what has been happening.

Also, since you know which two people they are, if you block them in return they will no longer be able to see when you’re online.

How do you know they are ‘following’ you around? How do these nefarious ‘stalkers’ know which IP map address you are on? Did they send you a message stating so?

If so, you surely took a screenshot, and sent it to the CS Team, yes?

What about those players that would rather not be in the same vicinity as someone they blocked?

It’s true that ‘Status’ could use some work, though. Let us choose our Status before logging on, and how about bringing back ‘Do Not Disturb’?

Good luck.

penelopehannibal.8947:

If you are being harassed in-game, I recommend you submit a ticket to support by clicking ‘Support’ at the top of the page and explaining in detail what has been happening.

Also, since you know which two people they are, if you block them in return they will no longer be able to see when you’re online.

I did report them, but as for blocking them so they cant see me online, no that does not work.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

How do you know they are ‘following’ you around? How do these nefarious ‘stalkers’ know which IP map address you are on? Did they send you a message stating so?

If so, you surely took a screenshot, and sent it to the CS Team, yes?

I knew cos they are on same server as me and every time I changed wvw border they changed at same time and proceeded to follow me around, and yes as stated I contacted support and they did deal with this guy, so fairplay to CS they did fix this issue for me, however the tool these people use to stalk you is still in game a.k.a the blocklist.

Vavume.8065:

I did report them, but as for blocking them so they cant see me online, no that does not work.

Hmm.. something might have changed then at some point or I’ve got it wrong in the past, and if so I agree with you – you should always be shown as offline to people you block.

It’s good to hear it’s been resolved for you though.

It never ceases to amaze me to see the lengths people go to stalk others, both in game and in the real world.

Whilst on it, make it so you cant whisper people that you have on blocked. Raging kids in wvw and u cant fuel the fire…

Edit: I am stalking you too but then on followers tab ;p

Offair.2563:

Whilst on it, make it so you cant whisper people that you have on blocked. Raging kids in wvw and u cant fuel the fire…

Edit: I am stalking you too but then on followers tab ;p

lol yeah I know, you and like 250+ others, but that’s alright and I agree they should do something like that, but it would prob annoy your GM since he whispers pretty much everyone he fights and calls them every name under the sun while having them blocked so they cannot reply.

This is one of those crazy GW2 stories indeed lol

It actually doesn’t matter if the OP’s post is entirely accurate (I hope it’s not, because it’s terrible to deal with stalkers).

• You should know if people are following you.
• When you block someone, the game should treat it as if you don’t exist to them (in game). They shouldn’t see your location, your AP, your LFGs, your chat, etc.

What’s sadder? People abusing a feature like that or the fact the game can’t even get something as simple as a block system working right in the year 2015.

From 2 years ago: Too easy to stalk/privacy concerns

Snow White:

It is FAR too easy to stalk someone in this game.
-People can add you to friends without your knowledge or permission and see everything about you.
- Even if you BLOCK someone, they can still see if you’re online, (via their friendslist) what toon you’re on and where you are in the world.
- There is no option to sign in invisible. So if an unstable person has friended you, and sees you log in and then quickly switch to offline. They start sending you in-game mail calling you out.
- If you appear offline, people can still watch you and see if you move locations.
All this stuff needs to be corrected!

I propose:
1. There should be a way to LOG IN invisible. And when you’re invisible, your location should NOT update!!!!!
2. No one should see your account name until you add them to friends. They party userface kind creeps me out.
3. When someone wants to add you to friends, IT SHOULD ASK YOUR PERMISSION before they are allowed to see your account name and every toon you log on.
4. When you block someone…they should see you as offline. Always. They should have NO information about you ever again until you unblock them. Not even what server you’re on.

Anet, I’m begging you to please do something about these major privacy issues.
Thanks for reading guys, let me know if i missed anything.

Response:
Moderator
“Hi everyone,
Thanks for bringing your concerns to us Snow White.
We will forward your concerns to the team so they know about them and have them in mind to improve the game.
In the meantime, please keep the discussion constructive and friendly.
Thanks for your understanding.”
_________________________
Sooo, they know about these concerns OP, and will address them in their proper time.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

From 2 years ago: Too easy to stalk/privacy concerns

Snow White:

It is FAR too easy to stalk someone in this game.
-People can add you to friends without your knowledge or permission and see everything about you.
- Even if you BLOCK someone, they can still see if you’re online, (via their friendslist) what toon you’re on and where you are in the world.
- There is no option to sign in invisible. So if an unstable person has friended you, and sees you log in and then quickly switch to offline. They start sending you in-game mail calling you out.
- If you appear offline, people can still watch you and see if you move locations.
All this stuff needs to be corrected!

I propose:
1. There should be a way to LOG IN invisible. And when you’re invisible, your location should NOT update!!!!!
2. No one should see your account name until you add them to friends. They party userface kind creeps me out.
3. When someone wants to add you to friends, IT SHOULD ASK YOUR PERMISSION before they are allowed to see your account name and every toon you log on.
4. When you block someone…they should see you as offline. Always. They should have NO information about you ever again until you unblock them. Not even what server you’re on.

Anet, I’m begging you to please do something about these major privacy issues.
Thanks for reading guys, let me know if i missed anything.

Response:
Moderator
“Hi everyone,
Thanks for bringing your concerns to us Snow White.
We will forward your concerns to the team so they know about them and have them in mind to improve the game.
In the meantime, please keep the discussion constructive and friendly.
Thanks for your understanding.”
_________________________
Sooo, they know about these concerns OP, and will address them in their proper time.

lol I assume you are being sarcastic about them addressing it in proper time, seeing as that post is 2 years old :P but yeah I agree completely with everything that snow white said.

In the character selection screen → friends → status invisible → after that choose/play char → I am invisible.

Doesnt that work? Can one see my status before I start playing?

Lyp Sao.1375:

In the character selection screen -> friends -> status invisible -> after that choose/play char -> I am invisible.

Doesnt that work? Can one see my status before I start playing?

If the person has you friended and has game messages enabled then the game will tell them you are logging on before you choose invisible. I’ve heard that if you leave invisible status on, the next time you log on it won’t tell them, but I don’t know for sure. Your guild will be able to see the change in last login time according to wiki.

It used to be that even if you were invisible, if someone friended you they could see the map names update and change when you change maps. Again, I don’t know if this is still true.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Lyp Sao.1375:

In the character selection screen -> friends -> status invisible -> after that choose/play char -> I am invisible.

Doesnt that work? Can one see my status before I start playing?

If the person has you friended and has game messages enabled then the game will tell them you are logging on before you choose invisible. I’ve heard that if you leave invisible status on, the next time you log on it won’t tell them, but I don’t know for sure. Your guild will be able to see the change in last login time according to wiki.

It used to be that even if you were invisible, if someone friended you they could see the map names update and change when you change maps. Again, I don’t know if this is still true.

Thank you. Then it is a useless function.

There’s really no point in trying to hide your location from a single person. It’s not that hard to get a second account, and you’ll never know about it.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I’ve heard that if you leave invisible status on, the next time you log on it won’t tell them, but I don’t know for sure.

Yes. If you logout while invisible, you will login invisible. People with game messages enabled will not be notified when you login.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Your guild will be able to see the change in last login time according to wiki.

Yes, however you can trick the system by never logging out. The last login time is updated when you close the game. If you really wanted to, simply leave the game on character select instead of logging out.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

It used to be that even if you were invisible, if someone friended you they could see the map names update and change when you change maps. Again, I don’t know if this is still true.

While invisible, your location is blank under friends, blocked and guild lists. However, your actual location can be seen in the tooltip. An actual offline player is displayed as “Unknown”

Healix.5819:

There’s really no point in trying to hide your location from a single person. It’s not that hard to get a second account, and you’ll never know about it.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I’ve heard that if you leave invisible status on, the next time you log on it won’t tell them, but I don’t know for sure.

Yes. If you logout while invisible, you will login invisible. People with game messages enabled will not be notified when you login.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Your guild will be able to see the change in last login time according to wiki.

Yes, however you can trick the system by never logging out. The last login time is updated when you close the game. If you really wanted to, simply leave the game on character select instead of logging out.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

It used to be that even if you were invisible, if someone friended you they could see the map names update and change when you change maps. Again, I don’t know if this is still true.

While invisible, your location is blank under friends, blocked and guild lists.

So, it appears they changed the ability to see where people are if they are invisible but nothing else except possibly leaving invisible toggled until you change it again. The others are work arounds.

However, it’s a cost put on the person who is trying to avoid someone else by keeping invisible. They can’t fully use the social functions of the game. The block function should work better.

I think the op suffers from paranoia. This doesn’t even make sense to me someone following you around? Maybe for a few hours but from what I get the op makes this sound like it’s been happening for weeks. So you’re telling me this person happens to login exactly when you’re on and always follow you? Why exactly would this person go out of their way in a video game to follow you? Are you some sort of online celebrity or did you get into an argument with em?

RoRo.8270:

Are you some sort of online celebrity or did you get into an argument with em?

This doesn’t matter, really. The game should allow to properly “ignore” those you choose to do so, especially those who already blocked you (ignore = block in this game). Could be many reasons why (WvW commanders for example), and none matters, since all of us should have access to this, not just a few.

This is the blocklist – not the friends or followers (those who added you to their friend list). Block should really block, it’s not meant to facilitate “rivalry” kind of “relationship” or stalking, at least that’s what I would expect. (I don’t need it yet, my blocklist is empty, but it’s good to have the option, and for those who already need to use it)

RoRo.8270:

I think the op suffers from paranoia. This doesn’t even make sense to me someone following you around? Maybe for a few hours but from what I get the op makes this sound like it’s been happening for weeks. So you’re telling me this person happens to login exactly when you’re on and always follow you? Why exactly would this person go out of their way in a video game to follow you? Are you some sort of online celebrity or did you get into an argument with em?

I think you need to read up on stalkers. They are mentally ill or have personality disorders and can target anyone. You don’t need to be famous, rich or beautiful to get someone to stalk you.

http://www.esia.net/Common_Traits_of_Stalkers.htm

This doesn’t seem unusual if it’s in the context of WvW. I think people even do this with well-known commanders to check and see when a zerg transfers to their map.

I’m not saying it’s okay for people to follow and harass you, but people stalking you in WvW is definitely a different context than someone following you around outside of WvW.

RoRo.8270:

I think the op suffers from paranoia. This doesn’t even make sense to me someone following you around? Maybe for a few hours but from what I get the op makes this sound like it’s been happening for weeks. So you’re telling me this person happens to login exactly when you’re on and always follow you? Why exactly would this person go out of their way in a video game to follow you? Are you some sort of online celebrity or did you get into an argument with em?

This crap happens all the time. I had one for awhile too, i eventually had to change my phone number and disappear off of Facebook to get them to stop. Stalkers are mentally ill, at least i think so, and this stuff happens all the time. As a previous poster said, read up on them

They should just make it so if you block someone, you appear as not in game to them, and they can’t contact you in any way, and they don’t see you log in.

There was a Release awhile back (you can find it in the patch notes) that enabled one to keep one’s Status when logging out.

Thus, if you log out as Invisible, you will log back in with that Status, as well. No one will get the message, ‘Player X logged on.’

It’s not much, but it is something the Devs did do.

Mo Mo.1947:

This doesn’t seem unusual if it’s in the context of WvW. I think people even do this with well-known commanders to check and see when a zerg transfers to their map.

I’m not saying it’s okay for people to follow and harass you, but people stalking you in WvW is definitely a different context than someone following you around outside of WvW.

That actually happened yeah. People would just follow well known commanders to see which map they are on. Has been disabled after couple of complaint thread. Now you wont see their location if they are in same matchup.

RoRo.8270:

I think the op suffers from paranoia. This doesn’t even make sense to me someone following you around? Maybe for a few hours but from what I get the op makes this sound like it’s been happening for weeks. So you’re telling me this person happens to login exactly when you’re on and always follow you? Why exactly would this person go out of their way in a video game to follow you? Are you some sort of online celebrity or did you get into an argument with em?

I think maybe you have lived a sheltered life or something because I can tell you these things happen to many people, its not even funny. I was stalked and harassed for weeks in game and the guy only stopped after he received a final warning from support.