I’ve spent a long time in WvW and seen a lot of, shall we say, foul play from people on various servers, even our own. I’m asking a simple question: do we have ingame GMs that we can whisper or mail when we see wrongdoing so they can observe it for themselves? I have never seen or been in contact with any GM ingame in WvW. So, do they exist? Could we have their account names? Ingame eyes from staff would go a long way in helping to improve the WvW experience, and I would think would be even more valuable than a token update to the game that, at this point, could ever be. Please tell us that we have not been utterly forgotten and left in the cold to fend for ourselves, because that’s exactly how I feel every time a thread about “wrongdoing” is deleted without warning or notice and without any reason given for the deletion.
To put it slightly poetically, the carpet that things have been swept under now looks like someone stashed a pile of cars under it. It’s your game, Anet. Help us protect its integrity. Don’t think for a moment that these threads you’ve deleted haven’t been screenshotted, archived, and reposted elsewhere. The more you try to silence things, the more it spreads. You want people to buy this game. You want us to spend money on gems. You have a serious problem that you seem unwilling to address. What’s your move?
All of us (GMs) have character names starting with GM (GM Proheals, for example). We are online 24/7 and responding to reports sent by you via the in-game reporting system. 98% of the time we’re invisible clearing bots and the like.
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool. The only exception is if you can point us to chat where the player cheating has said they are using a 3rd party program.
Hope this helps, I’ll check in later for questions.
They are on only when requested by upper management to look into a particular ticket taht is massively game breaking i.e. Like the gold seller with 9 accounts that was auto botting to farm gold.
Fuzzionx[SF]
Guest member of [LOVE]
JQ official Prime Minister
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool. The only exception is if you can point us to chat where the player cheating has said they are using a 3rd party program.
The problem is: The in-game reporting tool doesn’t give an option to actually point the person is hacking. And a lot of people are afraid of reporting for somenthing else because we risk getting our accounts suspended for “false report”.
Can Anet at least add a “Hacking” option on the report list?
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool. The only exception is if you can point us to chat where the player cheating has said they are using a 3rd party program.
The problem is: The in-game reporting tool doesn’t give an option to actually point the person is hacking. And a lot of people are afraid of reporting for somenthing else because we risk getting our accounts suspended for “false report”.
Can Anet at least add a “Hacking” option on the report list?
I believe this has been discussed on many occassions, and if I remember correctly the response was to use “botting” for now. But yes this is a catagory that needs to be implemented, and I believe will at some point.
“You know what the chain of command is?
It’s the chain I beat you with until you
recognize my command!”
TOLD ALL YALL they monitor the game 24/7, but none yall believe.
Anet aint dumb, if someone is really cheating they will get to the bottom of it.
Scared to report? Wtf, all you do is take a screenshot, tell them the current time and where. If someone talks about 3rd party program, screenshot and report. You don’t get repercussions for submitting a report.
Anet does do something, but they sure aren’t going to tell you step by step of what there actions are, its none of your business anyways. Just like if your neighbor losses his house from the government, its none of your business. The government/anet doesn’t have to explain every single action to you. Theres something called Confidentiality.
So it’s absolutely pointless and waste of time to record any video footage of these people hacking and reporting them via the exploits@arenanet.com then?
We used the ingame report tool a couple days ago when the person in question on our server was dueling people using a 3rd party program outside of SMC. He was right there, doing it in front of 20+ people. I even whispered people from the other server to report him as well. No GMs showed up to observe the behavior that I know of, and since he is still playing, I’m guessing none did. If you saw what he was doing, there would be no doubts as to the veracity of our reports.
How much time do the GMs spend in WvW, then? Because there have been times where people have blatantly cheated for long periods of time.
They don’t live on WvW, they go where the reports are at.
They fix report issues and bugs, they not going to watch you play WvW all day.
I sure don’t want a super stingy everyone is watching me type game.
Would you like a perfect world where your being watched all day because they want you to feel ‘safe’. I don’t feel safe when people are watching me nonstop.
I feel safe if I have a 911 option and I get help, but watching me 24/7, no thanks.
This is what GW2 has, 911 option (/report), they help you out when you call them and they don’t hover over you and watch everything you do all day all night.
Again, I don’t need no developer watching me 24/7. Go do something else that’s more productive than watch me 24/7. I’ll call you when I need you (911/report function).
The exploits address is for reporting exploits so the team can gather data and work towards a solution to close the exploit. The exploits address is not monitored by Customer Support. CS monitors the in-game reports and tickets opened on the customer support page.
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool. The only exception is if you can point us to chat where the player cheating has said they are using a 3rd party program.
I understand that it may be inside information you’re not allowed to give out or whatever, but I may as well ask.
What kind of turn-around time can we expect for someone to pop in to, say, WvW to check out a cheater report? I mean, if we see someone ‘porting around in a golem (or outside of one) and report it, could we actually expect someone to respond in time to catch him? There’s not really anything stopping him from just WPing back home or leaving WvW and then just not doing anything for a bit. Or moving to another map or location to attack, so we lose sight of him.
If you do get reports, how long do you hang around to keep an eye on things? Do you just pop in, try to locate the person reported, and then leave if they’re gone? Or do you stick around a while to watch for them?
So we just keep trying to report as botting? Which can be impossible for some?
So basically you are telling us that we are wasting our time, doing what we have been told before to do, by sending anything to exploits that isn’t basically showing how to do the exploit?
All of us (GMs) have character names starting with GM (GM Proheals, for example). We are online 24/7 and responding to reports sent by you via the in-game reporting system. 98% of the time we’re invisible clearing bots and the like.
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool. The only exception is if you can point us to chat where the player cheating has said they are using a 3rd party program.
Hope this helps, I’ll check in later for questions.
Would like to point out that according to a dev’s response earlier, the names follow the generic capitalization procedure and are actually “Gm”, not “GM”.
He basically said 98% of GM activities is clearing bot implying their presents in WvW is close to zero because bot isn’t that dumb to collect resources or doing map completion in WvW. The remaining time is to responding to reports including but not limited to investigate and collect data to see whether the report has any merit to pursue further. So if you hope they can pop right there to instantly witness the hacking process, keep going to church on Sunday. I think that works out much better than sending videos & what not to exploits address.
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool.
What in game reporting tool? There is none for reporting cheaters.
COUNTLESS people have been reporting a specific player for more than a year and nothing has been done. Videos have been sent to the exploits email and still nothing.
Can I PM you his name so you can personally look into it? This person has been cheating for a long time. He’s been cheating every second he’s been playing for almost 2 years. He even brags about it.
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool. The only exception is if you can point us to chat where the player cheating has said they are using a 3rd party program.
The problem is: The in-game reporting tool doesn’t give an option to actually point the person is hacking. And a lot of people are afraid of reporting for somenthing else because we risk getting our accounts suspended for “false report”.
Can Anet at least add a “Hacking” option on the report list?
You are not going to get suspended for “false report” unless you do it to grief someone. ANet knows that players can’t tell for certain if someone is botting, hacking, or otherwise breaking the TOS; only ANet can do that. They understand that there will reports that turn out not to be validated; that will not get you suspended.
It is only those tiny number of players that abuse the reporting tool that will get suspended.
So report people if you suspect them. If you see a repeated pattern, create a ticket or send an email so you can include screenshots or video or other details. I know there’s a redpost saying ANet has “to spot them in action,” but they can backtrack and/or follow someone in game, if you provide enough details that shows there’s a systemic issue. ANet knows that sometimes, it’s hard to click on someone in the act of hacking.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
All of us (GMs) have character names starting with GM (GM Proheals, for example). We are online 24/7 and responding to reports sent by you via the in-game reporting system. 98% of the time we’re invisible clearing bots and the like.
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool. The only exception is if you can point us to chat where the player cheating has said they are using a 3rd party program.
Hope this helps, I’ll check in later for questions.
Now, could you please tell us what we should include in the report and what should we report it under since “Hacking” option is not available. Any kind of details you guys need us to include that will help you crack on these guys?
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool.
I’ve been running into a lot of gathering bots in PvE lately. They’re underneath the terrain and I’m not able to target them, so there is no way to report them using the in game tool. I’ve been putting in support tickets – 5 or 6 over the last 2 weeks. However, it really is a serious pain to need to alt-tab, pull up the website, fill out the form, etc.
Can you look at providing us an easier way to report bots that we can’t target using an in game system? I’d guess this might help in WvW exploit situations, too.
Honestly, don’t even bother reporting people. Even when things are supposedly acted upon (almost never), the offenders are back within a couple weeks (for example those how have FAST golems).
So, theoretically, I can cheat as long as I want to if people don’t see me?
So basically, those people who used hacks to get under the map (invisible) and attacked the players were never banned? I could never target them.
All of us (GMs) have character names starting with GM (GM Proheals, for example). We are online 24/7 and responding to reports sent by you via the in-game reporting system. 98% of the time we’re invisible clearing bots and the like.
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool. The only exception is if you can point us to chat where the player cheating has said they are using a 3rd party program.
Hope this helps, I’ll check in later for questions.
FINALLY a response from a gm about this, thank you. You say use the in-game reporting tool, currently there is no option for exploiting/hacking, under what reason should we use to report people we see hacking? And could an option be added specifically for hacking/exploiting?
All of us (GMs) have character names starting with GM (GM Proheals, for example). We are online 24/7 and responding to reports sent by you via the in-game reporting system. 98% of the time we’re invisible clearing bots and the like.
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool. The only exception is if you can point us to chat where the player cheating has said they are using a 3rd party program.
Hope this helps, I’ll check in later for questions.
Then might I suggest a more robust reporting tool, or one with more options..
I can report a player for many ways of cheating, but there’s only an option for botting.
Don’t call anyone out on their BS, that’s an infraction and a deleted post. —Anet.
They do have in game GMs. I’ve got one of them on my friends list. I’ve seen them around in game as well. They’re normally named “GM First Last” The only way I can confirm that this was in fact a GM is that she moved servers twice in a day to find an exploiter in WubWub
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool.
I’ve been running into a lot of gathering bots in PvE lately. They’re underneath the terrain and I’m not able to target them, so there is no way to report them using the in game tool. I’ve been putting in support tickets – 5 or 6 over the last 2 weeks. However, it really is a serious pain to need to alt-tab, pull up the website, fill out the form, etc.
Can you look at providing us an easier way to report bots that we can’t target using an in game system? I’d guess this might help in WvW exploit situations, too.
You can type the name into your block list, and then report from there. I did that for the one gathering bot I saw under the map, but for some names that won’t be easy. Best way is to quickly screenshot and then do it that way. You can always use the character map tool in windows or something to get the special characters.
They do have in game GMs. I’ve got one of them on my friends list. I’ve seen them around in game as well. They’re normally named “GM First Last” The only way I can confirm that this was in fact a GM is that she moved servers twice in a day to find an exploiter in WubWub
I was under the assumption that No one is allowed to have “Gm whatever” as a name except GM’s anyways
All of us (GMs) have character names starting with GM (GM Proheals, for example). We are online 24/7 and responding to reports sent by you via the in-game reporting system. 98% of the time we’re invisible clearing bots and the like.
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool. The only exception is if you can point us to chat where the player cheating has said they are using a 3rd party program.
Hope this helps, I’ll check in later for questions.
1.) Can we please have a “cheating” selection on the reporting screen (as mentioned numerous times already)?
2.) Can you impart some information explaining why we are seeing players – who have been verified as abusing the system – return to the game within a short time frame (weeks, as said by others)?
3.) Could we please see a little more open communication from Anet, such as a message from the GM resolving the issue to let us know our reports have been received? This will cut down on your players feeling neglected and unanswered.
4.) If your GMs are overloaded with botting and other in-game bugs they are attending to outside of WvW, would you consider dedicating a small team of GMs to monitor WvW issues (not just cheating but general bug reports as well, of course)? WvW is a competitive environment that players pour hours of work into in order to scale the ladders of their tier. It seems almost negligent on Anet’s part to not provide ensured coverage for regulating the battlegrounds, both on and off tournament seasons. I understand the need to make all aspects of the game fair and balanced, but I would think WvW / PvP would be treated separately because of what is involved during seasons.
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool.
I’ve been running into a lot of gathering bots in PvE lately. They’re underneath the terrain and I’m not able to target them, so there is no way to report them using the in game tool. I’ve been putting in support tickets – 5 or 6 over the last 2 weeks. However, it really is a serious pain to need to alt-tab, pull up the website, fill out the form, etc.
Can you look at providing us an easier way to report bots that we can’t target using an in game system? I’d guess this might help in WvW exploit situations, too.
You can type the name into your block list, and then report from there. I did that for the one gathering bot I saw under the map, but for some names that won’t be easy. Best way is to quickly screenshot and then do it that way. You can always use the character map tool in windows or something to get the special characters.
Yeah, soon as I see them now, I screenshot so I can report. Didn’t think of adding them to my block list. Guess that’s faster, but I’d still like a better way to report them than having to workaround having to target/rightclick them.
Why can’t I just type “/report Botname is a bot harvesting nodes from under the terrain in Mapname” and move on with my game?
I can’t speak to tools. I can tell you that using the ‘botter’ option is indeed sufficient.
As for the exploits are ANet address, this isn’t a Customer Support address. Exploits is more of a ‘I found a way to cheat here’s how to do it’ thing and Quality Assurance reviews those.
GMs don’t belong to a server so wondering if you’re server has a GM is futile. We’re everywhere >=).
I can’t speak to tools. I can tell you that using the ‘botter’ option is indeed sufficient.
I can’t help but feel that reporting a ‘botter’ does not quite have the required urgency when a player is speedhacking, flying, and disrupting the normal play of all 3 servers.
Great! So I’ll just click on the invisible unclickable Unknown player and report them using the in-game reporting tool under the options for hacking……..oh wait.
The WvW Forum Poster Formerly Known As Omaris Mortuus Est
All of us (GMs) have character names starting with GM (GM Proheals, for example). We are online 24/7 and responding to reports sent by you via the in-game reporting system. 98% of the time we’re invisible clearing bots and the like.
To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool. The only exception is if you can point us to chat where the player cheating has said they are using a 3rd party program.
Hope this helps, I’ll check in later for questions.
1.) Can we please have a “cheating” selection on the reporting screen (as mentioned numerous times already)?
2.) Can you impart some information explaining why we are seeing players – who have been verified as abusing the system – return to the game within a short time frame (weeks, as said by others)?
3.) Could we please see a little more open communication from Anet, such as a message from the GM resolving the issue to let us know our reports have been received? This will cut down on your players feeling neglected and unanswered.
This one is tricky but I’ll see if there are some sort of numbers I can share with you.
4.) If your GMs are overloaded with botting and other in-game bugs they are attending to outside of WvW, would you consider dedicating a small team of GMs to monitor WvW issues (not just cheating but general bug reports as well, of course)? WvW is a competitive environment that players pour hours of work into in order to scale the ladders of their tier. It seems almost negligent on Anet’s part to not provide ensured coverage for regulating the battlegrounds, both on and off tournament seasons. I understand the need to make all aspects of the game fair and balanced, but I would think WvW / PvP would be treated separately because of what is involved during seasons.
Thanks.
1. I will bug the appropriate teams and see if that can be squeezed in. =)
2. First offense in many cases is a 2 week suspension. Further violations (of any kind) will result in account termination.
3. This one is tricky because we have a strict policy against allowing GMs to make contact in-game outside of a few unique circumstances for reasons of security. I’ll take another review and see if we can help further.
4. This is an issue we are currently working on. I know it seems to you (any outside observer) that nothing is getting done but that’s simply not true. My team was given another set of tools today that allow our hunting in competitive to yield faster results and you should see results this week. .
Great! So I’ll just click on the invisible unclickable Unknown player and report them using the in-game reporting tool under the options for hacking……..oh wait.
Yes definitely!
Seriously though, the options presented just above do allow you to do so. I have reported numerous bots and a few client hacking …. lets refrain from derogative words beyond that but umm yeah I often add them to block list then report them from there. The biggest issue with this, is we have no way to tell anyone, via report tool, that they are under the map harvesting nodes, or that they are flying through the air, or that they are teleporting all around the map while in down state (which this has once been observed as a lag issue, but normally it’s them cheating), or following you in stealth, or somehow landing sic’em while you’ve been in stealth for the past 5 seconds and you never attacked anything (which granted that could all be lag, I don’t know enough on that, but I do know there are ways they can see you in stealth, and guessing where someone is and following erratic non-obvious movements is something else entirely), etc.
which is difficult enough in the chaotic situations of combat to pin down a single person to report, especially since we were under the assumption there were logs that could be reviewed to show some things, and now find out it has to be actually observed in action.
Anyways, I always block them quickly, then report.
Great! So I’ll just click on the invisible unclickable Unknown player and report them using the in-game reporting tool under the options for hacking……..oh wait.
I can’t speak to tools. I can tell you that using the ‘botter’ option is indeed sufficient.
I can’t help but feel that reporting a ‘botter’ does not quite have the required urgency when a player is speedhacking, flying, and disrupting the normal play of all 3 servers.
Every report is served in order. Even if it were a separate report option no extra weight would be given to a cheater in WvW over a botter, or a griefer, or someone spouting hate speech in DR. Well… maybe that last one.
I can’t speak to tools. I can tell you that using the ‘botter’ option is indeed sufficient.
As for the exploits are ANet address, this isn’t a Customer Support address. Exploits is more of a ‘I found a way to cheat here’s how to do it’ thing and Quality Assurance reviews those.
GMs don’t belong to a server so wondering if you’re server has a GM is futile. We’re everywhere >=).
To further clarify – exploits@arena.net is not used for reviewing reports of cheaters. This is for notifying us of found exploits so that QA can work on reporting fixes.
Great! So I’ll just click on the invisible unclickable Unknown player and report them using the in-game reporting tool under the options for hacking……..oh wait.
Are you referring to players under the terrain?
A commonly seen hack in WvW makes the player/golem/what have you invisible and untargetable. Damage taken from them shows up in the combat log as belonging to ‘unknown’. You recognize them existing by noting the golem rockets coming out of thin air.
1. I will bug the appropriate teams and see if that can be squeezed in. =)
2. First offense in many cases is a 2 week suspension. Further violations (of any kind) will result in account termination.
3. This one is tricky because we have a strict policy against allowing GMs to make contact in-game outside of a few unique circumstances for reasons of security. I’ll take another review and see if we can help further.
4. This is an issue we are currently working on. I know it seems to you (any outside observer) that nothing is getting done but that’s simply not true. My team was given another set of tools today that allow our hunting in competitive to yield faster results and you should see results this week. .
Great! So I’ll just click on the invisible unclickable Unknown player and report them using the in-game reporting tool under the options for hacking……..oh wait.
Are you referring to players under the terrain?
A commonly seen hack in WvW makes the player/golem/what have you invisible and untargetable. Damage taken from them shows up in the combat log as belonging to ‘unknown’. You recognize them existing by noting the golem rockets coming out of thin air.
K, I’m on it. I’ll talk with Game Security and make sure we’re not missing these.
Might be good to have a posted list of GM’s in each servers that we can reach out.
As was said, they don’t communicate except under special circumstances anyways.
And they’d get messaged by many for countless reasons, as well as able to be followed and someone could use that to ‘avoid detection’ by leaving a map every time they enter it.
