Guild Wars 2

Michael Henninger.7451:

There are 6 GMs with the power to monitor WvW in the live environment and all work directly under me.

6 seems like a small number to monitor all of WvW. Is this a test before expanding the team or is your data indicating you can monitor everything with just 6?

I’m not trying to be critical, just mildly curious.

Either way, I think it’s cool that we may see visible dev oversight when there’s a problem.

Jerus.4350:

Reborn.2934:

i do not know what you guys thinking , but the last think that i want from GMs is to be visible , playing the game .

GMs are to help people , not to play the GOD-MODE in games !

also , i want to not disconnect our clients ( yesterday my client twice , today a friend’s client ) when their teams loosing !

be professionals and change your in-game methods please

player-“Anet doesn’t care and doesn’t actually do anything about cheaters”
Anet -“yes we do”
player – “No you don’t, we never see you anywhere”
Anet – turns off invisibility to show people there is a presence
player – “omg cheating devs playing with god mode to troll us!”
Anet – “we were trying to show you that we do have a presence and we do try to police the community”
player – “omg that’s stupid”
Anet – /facepalm

That’s how I see this whole situation going /shrug.

Now I kinda want to see Guild Anet turn on Godmode in WvW and just roll through a zerg on April 1st. Payback for the impossible kitten on the forums.

Torsailr.8456:

Now I kinda want to see Guild Anet turn on Godmode in WvW and just roll through a zerg on April 1st. Payback for the impossible kitten on the forums.

ArenaNet [ANET] is now recruiting! | www.guildwars2.com | 100% rep | TS3 | Privileged access to game-mode ruining tools! | 40+ hrs/week attendance required | Submit a bug report to apply!

Reborn.2934:

@Gaile Gray i do not want to know that GMs exist in any visible form in game and in any game-mode .

is that simple request or not ?

It may be your request, but it’s not mine or that of others. ANet’s doing a Good Thing™ by letting players know they are there and watching. Nothing more.

I have a horde of suggestions for you, but most of them would get me infracted.

I agree wholeheartedly with the aforementioned complaints, as they’re definitely not trivial in the slightest manner. I myself refuse to watch sporting events due to being able to see referees. When they show some restraint, as well as dignity, and enshroud themselves from my view I will be content. Being able to gaze upon them only negatively impacts the players involved. You don’t believe me? You’re wrong.

Their presence demonstrating a sense of vigilance and promoting order/fair play? I assume next you’ll tell me water is a liquid, or gravity increases as you approach the Earth’s core? Exactly, point proven.

Publicity stunt successful. They won’t bother wvw for 6 months now.

Virtute.8251:

Michael, it looks like you need a spectator mode without your own character model being rendered. The match interference is in the fact that for whatever team you’re currently flagged as, the opponent teams will try to kill you with extreme prejudice. That alters their decision making, and causes group leaders to lose control of their teams.

I originally called it a mistake because I felt that the above should be obvious in deciding how such a GM account would interface.

Furthermore, the visibility of your GM guild tag is going to alter the behavior of nearby baddies.

-So when they’re invisible, complaints that the GMs are doing nothing are all you hear.
-Now that they’re visible, the complaints are that they’re altering matches simply by being visible because players choose to turn into mindless idiots chasing a tag kill.

Make up your mind.

I have no problem criticizing Anet’s actions regularly, but in this case, they are perfectly fine.

+1 in support of (sometimes) visible GMs running around with the ban-stick.

Reborn.2934:

@Gaile Gray i do not want to know that GMs exist in any visible form in game and in any game-mode .

is that simple request or not ?

No, it is not a simple request. You are not the only GW2 WvW player.

Reborn.2934:

Torsailr.8456:

Michael Henninger.7451:

There are 6 GMs with the power to monitor WvW in the live environment and all work directly under me.

6 seems like a small number to monitor all of WvW. Is this a test before expanding the team or is your data indicating you can monitor everything with just 6?

I’m not trying to be critical, just mildly curious.

Either way, I think it’s cool that we may see visible dev oversight when there’s a problem.

if you think that this is cool https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46FSZdp133A ….. i am speakless

That’s a video from 2013, presumably an anet employee enjoying the game like any other player would, as it happens every now and then. Here we’re talking about actual GMs with “god-mode” powers, and they’ve already stated they don’t interfere/participate with the game play.

I really don’t see where your vitriol is coming from, I see this as a good thing.

Reborn.2934:

@Gaile Gray i do not want to know that GMs exist in any visible form in game and in any game-mode .

is that simple request or not ?

Simple yes, reasonable? I don’t think so. Just because you don’t want to know they exist doesn’t mean anything when the majority of those speaking about it are creating an outcry to see them.

Seems to me Typhus was intentionally dishonest in an accusatory fashion here. Typhus, you should be ashamed of yourself for manufacturing this in such a disingenuous manner. Particularly with such proven lies as claiming he switched professions and ported them in.

Nokaru.7831:

I would try to explain what’s wrong with someone who is invulnerable and swapping teams in a competitive environment, but that would be a waste of time since anyone defending it is clearly beyond any reasonable or cohesive thoughts.

Beyond reason eh? I love when folks hammer down with an aggressive attitude when they havn’t the slightest clue what is really going on.

Good thing the devs do not mind explaining things to those beyond reason or cohesive thought, or you ay still be in the dark on the facts eh?

Nokaru.7831:

I really like the people who keeps saying the guy “forgot to make himself invisible” after he was being attacked and nuked by many players. He sure didn’t forget how to swap his team though.

Yeah smart guy, it is because they want to monitor the chat.

Nokaru.7831:

This thread makes my brain hurt.

Based on your uninformed accusatory comments and the fact that they had no base of truth, I would be glad for the pain. It lets you know it is still there. Does it naturally shut off when you log into the forums or just when devs are evolved?

Michael Henninger.7451:

I haven’t read this entire thread because it started to become a lot of “I heard he/she did this”. Here’s what is happening and you’re going to see more of it.

There are 6 GMs with the power to monitor WvW in the live environment and all work directly under me. The shots above are of me (GM Proheals) standing in Bay after BlackGate took the point.
I ran all the way from TCs Gari into Bay visible and was a Guardian the entire time. No tool exists to allow anyone to switch professions.

We have the ability to switch to any of the 3 teams (blue/green/red) in order to properly police WvW. This allows us to visibly take action against players due to recent outcry that we aren’t actually there doing anything. We can also switch to a fourth team making us ‘friendly’ to all teams but we can’t communicate with you when we do. We also can’t communicate with hostile teams which is why we’re team switching.

These characters are separate from both our play and work accounts – and when used in WvW are only policing. Any interaction such as killing or taking a point (standing in the circle) will flag for audit.

This wasn’t a test. I was there doing live monitoring of the WvW environment. We’re looking for hacks, invisible players, siege griefing, and more. We’ll be present on all servers randomly for both NA & EU and have no bearing on the outcome of a match.

See https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Ingame-GMs-do-they-exist for more on what we do in WvW.

Many of you know me in game and I thank you for the positive feedback we’re getting while we work on keeping WvW balanced and fair. If you helped me take down a cheater – cheers!

Wow… Awesome! Its about kitten time! I am SO happy to see you people in game doing this. I’ve been complaining for months now over the cheaters and hackers, so this is a HUGE relief.

But just a note on this – I see more of the hacks in sPvP, than i do in WvW. WvW hacks are rare, whereas the sPvP hacks are ALOT more frequent.

Also, a simple file check of your install files during any given patch rollout should correct alot of this.

slamfunction.7462:

Also, a simple file check of your install files during any given patch rollout should correct alot of this.

Nah, because that file check’ll also be hacked. Anything on the client side must be assumed to be in enemy hands – hopefully ArenaNet can start doing server-side validation for some of more more common hack types, because that’s the only way to be sure that people aren’t sending invalid information to the servers.

I play wvw on ET and for the last 2+ years I still haven’t seen a a single Dev/player with that Anet Guild Tag.

Michael you gotta come down to ET and say hi. I promise I wont attack.

I would like to make a request for improvement that the names when on the apposing team for GM’s would not default to the generic invader names.

This way people will know that they are indeed without a doubt GM’s and not just some random dev. Currently in WvW per the picture there is no way to tell the difference.

Glad to hear that you are making headway on stopping cheaters.

Hehe. Nice commercial now everybody talk about the watching in game gms
Btw the 90 of the cheats happen when you solo roam. Dissapearing downed bodys without any loot or xp, teleporting enemys etc

anzenketh.3759:

I would like to make a request for improvement that the names when on the apposing team for GM’s would not default to the generic invader names.

This way people will know that they are indeed without a doubt GM’s and not just some random dev. Currently in WvW per the picture there is no way to tell the difference.

Glad to hear that you are making headway on stopping cheaters.

That would also deter players who are hacking/cheating from doing so in front of the GM who is trying to catch them.

I said hi to Proheals but he never said hi back. #Rude

Oh, the love bites are coming in thick and fast as I mentioned in a previous post concerning WvW moderation.

Great to see such active moderation of WvW. I hope content development for WvW is following soon

Oh my, never seen that many responses from a dev in a wvw topic! Must be christmas or something

Perfectly happy with what I’ve read, have fun hunting cheaters!

thread made my day
keep having so much fun that it doesnt feel like work michael (and other 5)~

Im glad you guys are being more proactive about trying to catch this stupid crap in action, although its obviously less likely to happen if people see a anet tag. So I would suggest being able to go invisible or going without the anet tag. The most common complaints regarding hacks/exploits concern flying/climbing hacks, where you can see someone literally jump up a wall.

If you guys and gals start dropping Dhuum kills live on WvW cheaters it would make my New Year

for those that don’t know
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B6bZSpQHxU

Nice to see u guys around. Keep up the good work.

Awww why am I not surprised he’s playing on Tier 1?

You guys should visit lower tiers more frequently, we have great havoc squads and the most skilled roamers of the entire game. Blobbing isn’t even half as fun as the things we pull off.

I think it’s great that God-Mode GM’s are in game and making themselves visible from time to time, though I still have a bit of concern about time zone coverage. I play in the EU.

I’ve reported a couple of people as botting, for using radar-style hacks but they’re still doing it. Stealth is your get-away mechanism and when one guy can 100% of the time follow you and leap to exactly to your position with a stun, you know there’s something wrong.

I am PERFECTLY fine with god-mode gms. The only people that should be whining are the people worried about getting caught. The rest of us can continue playing. The only thing id say is have htem be obvious when there in the area.

Id honestly reccomend having the ol reaper skin come back for the 6-7 “hunting” devs (the one that banned people in gw1). That way theres absolutely no doubt the person there is a God-Mode dev and there looking for a cheater.

Other than that. kittening AWESOME to see you out there. Hope to see more of you.

Good to see you are slowly taking care of the hackers.

But isnt a cure better than removing scabs? Of course I’ve read this is an issue as the hacks are client-side and hard to track, but that just means you need to fix your client so it cannot be altered so easily.

As for the thief saying no fair I almost killed you, well they cannot look for cheaters when they are dead.

But again, the best way to find the cheaters is for you not to announce you are there.
Having your anet logo visible is like sending up a signal flare saying dont cheat whilst i’m here. But when you are gone, they are safe. Again this adds to fixing the client instead.

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

Good to see you are slowly taking care of the hackers.

But isnt a cure better than removing scabs? Of course I’ve read this is an issue as the hacks are client-side and hard to track, but that just means you need to fix your client so it cannot be altered so easily.

As for the thief saying no fair I almost killed you, well they cannot look for cheaters when they are dead.

But again, the best way to find the cheaters is for you not to announce you are there.
Having your anet logo visible is like sending up a signal flare saying dont cheat whilst i’m here. But when you are gone, they are safe. Again this adds to fixing the client instead.

On fixing the client. Im not a programmer so I cant claim to know much about htat but I imagine if there was a ready fix they would have done so rather than go to this much trouble. As for hiding there presence. From what I understand the majority of them will still be doing that. These others are going to be like a giant sign saying “Hey…were here…don’t think this kittens gonna work anymore”

rip in peace LUN

Sirendor.1394:

Awww why am I not surprised he’s playing on Tier 1?

You guys should visit lower tiers more frequently, we have great havoc squads and the most skilled roamers of the entire game. Blobbing isn’t even half as fun as the things we pull off.

He’s not there to play, he’s there to watch for cheaters.

Please stop posting your vitriol as you are devolving this thread into an attack thread, and it’s not helping. Michael has shown more attention to wvw than anyone else has in months, stop trolling and keep the thread civil.

I’d like to thank Michael for banning two cheaters last night. One of these cheaters has been cheating for almost 2 years.

It was a pleasure hanging out with you in the OS as well.

Why that Gm should be visible ?
Was that necessary?….Look the posts now..You are judged about the game and how the Gm’s has Neutral stance against incidents like this…..
If i want to contact i know where i can find the support team that’s for sure …that’s why you have given me those tools to report or….. those tools doesn’t work?
Anyway does Anet knows what the Gm’s doing ??….and how you will protect your customers that SPENDING money for this game ???

Crius, what on earth is your problem? Calm down. What does it matter if they are visible?

The fact that there is now an actual presence in WvW by the admins will deter cheaters big time. Think of it as a cop car just patrolling a neighborhood. It’s a huge deterrent.

Crius.1426:

Anyway does Anet knows what the Gm’s doing ??….and how you will protect your customers that SPENDING money for this game ???

The GMs ARE ANET. The admin in the photos is the kitten head of customer support. He’s the one that decides who is banned for cheating. These aren’t random people who are recruited as admins.

How will Anet protect the customers? What kind of question is that? They’ll “protect” them by banning cheaters (who also paid for the game but are banned anyways).

Some people are weird.

There’re a lot of things wrong with WvW. A visible dev is definitely not one of them, on the contrary, it’s a really good thing.

Reborn.2934:

@Gaile Gray i do not want to know that GMs exist in any visible form in game and in any game-mode .

is that simple request or not ?

Seriously, calm down and let the GM do his job.

Same goes to Crius.

By the way, Merry Christmas Mr. Henninger!

Tamasan.6457:

Virtute.8251:

Michael, it looks like you need a spectator mode without your own character model being rendered. The match interference is in the fact that for whatever team you’re currently flagged as, the opponent teams will try to kill you with extreme prejudice. That alters their decision making, and causes group leaders to lose control of their teams.

I originally called it a mistake because I felt that the above should be obvious in deciding how such a GM account would interface.

Furthermore, the visibility of your GM guild tag is going to alter the behavior of nearby baddies.

-So when they’re invisible, complaints that the GMs are doing nothing are all you hear.
-Now that they’re visible, the complaints are that they’re altering matches simply by being visible because players choose to turn into mindless idiots chasing a tag kill.

Make up your mind.

I have no problem criticizing Anet’s actions regularly, but in this case, they are perfectly fine.

+1 in support of (sometimes) visible GMs running around with the ban-stick.

I have never complained that GMs were doing nothing. Different people, different opinions.

Remember, in GW1, the solution was a Reaper of Grenth ban-hammer animation. That would be fun, to see something like that again.

It isn’t that easy to catch some of the cheaters. I wish it was, but it’s not so simple. Even when they do catch them, it is likely that there is a policy they have to follow before the person can be banned. Additionally, there are others watching what the GM’s do.

If they only cheat for a few mins, then play ‘fairly’, when an invisible (or visible) GM does show up to investigate the report, they are already gone or not actively doing it. Short of them standing around watching that person for the next 2 hours, there isn’t much they can do.

One of the GM’s stated before that they have to actively see the cheating going on. Until the devs add the ability to put information in when reporting, this is the alternative that we need, GM’s that talk to us. Yes reports via in game tool and support are looked at, and acted on. Unfortunately though, people do falsely accuse others too, intentionally and accidentally, and those can tie up their time to investigate actual claims.

It is a good thing for some to be visible and to talk to us. It’s also a good thing to know that they are in the background watching as well.

There is no reason to attack Anet when they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. There are a few people on here bringing up old things that are not relevant, or that show a dev playing the game for fun (which is also something good for people to see, that they play the game they work on), or even show something that Anet took disciplinary action for as I understand it. If the vitriol continues, mods will have no choice but to close the thread and/or delete said posts. It’s one thing to discuss, but it’s another entirely to sit and attack.

One other thing I would suggest is being offline when going into a map, since this is public knowledge now, a player can simply add you to their friends list and track what map you are on. So being offline and going w/o the anet tag I think would make it easier for you to find offenders. Unless your just there to prevent it, as people will obviously be less likely to do anything if they know your there. Then its almost a wasted effort because we want these offenders caught and punished, and not simply be able to avoid detection.

I’m fine with all this. I figured the team switching had something to do with maybe looking for players on the mini-map being in places they shouldn’t be able to be. I’ve had to ask friends on other servers sometimes to see who is on their mini-map.

Michael should use a quaggan tonic or something though. Oh, how about a Seer tonic that only GMs can use?

A cool so the devs know the balance is often 10 to 1 outnumbered for a lot of players

I can understand the OP’s annoyed as an Atag during a LR fight really isn’t appropriate. It’s a large distraction which can do more damage than any individual hacking. I feel GM’s should not be seen by players. If one showed up the other night during our epic 3 way in JQ Hill’s, you’d have all three server’s raging for certain.

Why anyone would even hack this week for a paper Bay, I just don’t understand at all.

Michael Henninger.7451:

Stones shall be thrown at my person upon the ’morrow! Srsly tho, sorry!

This is Christmas. We won’t throw stones at you for it.

We’ll throw fruitcakes.

Michael Henninger.7451:

. As long as there’s a Pepsi on my desk I won’t complain much.

How many gems did the Pepsi Cola company buy from Anet for that advert :P ?

Have to agree that having a anet tag on the map WILL change the way people play. If they’re not playing the game and only observing as the do then I would agree they need to stay perma stealthed while doing this. Or even better have a Observor mode when they need to check things out. Where they can watch all that is going on and be able to see chat from all sides, without taking up a slot on the map and without influencing how some play. If they are there to try and find poss exploiters do they not think having a big red anet logo might mean the poss exploiters will play fair while the tag is there, and once its gone from the map play the way they were before.

The BIGGEST issue is anet are yet to add some sort of program scanner to detect certain programs which are being using in GW2 daily (which we all know have been around since beta). The current tactic of Observing is clearly not working and needs to be addressed. The fact they removed Orbs from wvw instead of working to block the programs that some are using says it all really.