Guild Wars 2

coglin.1867:

What do we do to tend to trolls or spies who are burning supplies by building rams in the middle of no where near supply locations?

There is a line in the Tos/Eula/Tos or somewhere that states it is a violation to degrade the experience for other players (close guess paraphrasing here.) How do we draw attention to this?

When I played games like EQOA, they had a tab in the report/bug panel for this and GMs showed up very very quickly. It was also made well known that you could be very easily suspended for false reports, to limit that.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

There was recently a big incident (Halloween) where a player was griefing others who were farming ambients. They suspended/banned (not sure which) the guy. This is clearly precedent for punishing griefers (siege trolls, supply drainers) in WvW.

The only question is, this is WvW, not PvE so will anything be done? Likely not.

What if there was a chat window command that would give us a list of online GMs for that world. If we see an invisible attacker or some other form of quick hack then we could whisper the GM directly.

If we can’t click on a player to report them, this might give us a means of calling a GM to the correct time and place. It would also let us see that there are active GMs and give them a more visible presence without doing something overt.

Torsailr.8456:

What if there was a chat window command that would give us a list of online GMs for that world. If we see an invisible attacker or some other form of quick hack then we could whisper the GM directly.

If we can’t click on a player to report them, this might give us a means of calling a GM to the correct time and place. It would also let us see that there are active GMs and give them a more visible presence without doing something overt.

I could see problems with a massive amount of PMs to GMs and that would actually hinder their efforts. But what about a GM chat channel? Where you can briefly describe whats going on and a link to the nearest WP, POI, vista, etc. However said channel would have a very strict and narrow spam detection, where you would only be able to post 1 message every 10-15 minutes or so? This could help solve that problem. However, there is still the potential for overwhelming the GMs with so many posts about issues. The absolute best way would be to have a cheating/hacking/exploit report tool in the reporting options. (as has been brought up a bunch )

Michael Henninger.7451:

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.

I’m not sure if this question has been asked but how fast can you respond to reports?

Like if I see someone doing hacks/bugs/glitches how fast can you respond before this person gets out off the area or stops what he is doing and you won’t be able to witness the act?

^ Doubt that would answer that, seeing as that would give potential cheaters more information than they should have.

The answer would however most likely be as fast as possible.

he did answer it – a few seconds at best

Torsailr.8456:

If we can’t click on a player to report them, this might give us a means of calling a GM to the correct time and place.

In MapleStory, they had a feature where you could see a list of the names of every player on the map, and you can click on the name in the list and report them (because bots tended to only stay on the map for a short period of time, not long enough to click on them or note their name).

Perhaps something similar could be implemented to make bot reporting easier. It probably won’t be as easy to implement, given that MapleStory is a 2D MMORPG with on average 2-5 players on any given map (maps are to small to support more than a few players at a time), whereas Guild wars has much larger maps that may have over a hundred players on it. Maybe a feature that allows you to get a list of name of players within a certain radius of you.

Being able to communicate directly with a GM in-game is never going to work for Guild Wars, there are just too many players and a GM would easily be inundated by messages. When I used to be a GM for an MMORPG with a much smaller player base, as soon as players knew I was online, my chat box was flooded with messages. Took me on average 30 mins to address all messages before I could focus on patrolling maps.

joshueTM.5294:

Michael Henninger.7451:

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.

I’m not sure if this question has been asked but how fast can you respond to reports?

Like if I see someone doing hacks/bugs/glitches how fast can you respond before this person gets out off the area or stops what he is doing and you won’t be able to witness the act?

This was answered elsewhere. It depends on the volume of reports they have. It can be anywhere from a few seconds to a several minutes.

roxybudgy.8205:

Being able to communicate directly with a GM in-game is never going to work for Guild Wars, there are just too many players and a GM would easily be inundated by messages. When I used to be a GM for an MMORPG with a much smaller player base, as soon as players knew I was online, my chat box was flooded with messages. Took me on average 30 mins to address all messages before I could focus on patrolling maps.

Yeah, I see how message spam could be an issue. It’s not a solution without issues; my main hope was to just toss out the idea and see if it sparked something better or gave Michael an idea for a quick an easy fix while he worked on a better solution.

Another possible solution would be to have GMs randomly follow anyone reported for wrongdoing if they can’t respond to view it immediately. Especially if that person is reported many separate times for the same thing.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

Another possible solution would be to have GMs randomly follow anyone reported for wrongdoing if they can’t respond to view it immediately. Especially if that person is reported many separate times for the same thing.

Ideally while invisible so perp doesn’t alter their actions when others are around…. Though seeing the red logo might scare them straight…..

Just read the thread. This is by far the most productive staff participation we’ve had in WvW, in a very long time.

Someone is actually working on something that we players think is a problem, rather than handing us stuff that we specifically don’t want. Thank you.

Michael Henninger.7451:

Shadow.3475:

That we cant speak with GM or pm then I understand and think is ok, but would be good if a map wide report came when a GM ban a player, like Player xxx banned 2weeks for flying, for all 3 servers on the map.

I’m looking at ways to let you all know when we terminate players, at least the most prolific ones.

Would it also be a possibility then to let people know when a hack/exploit was reported but you found that it was just normal gameplay and that the player may not have understood how it was accomplished, I have been guilty of this several times, and thus thought was a hack/exploit?

This could help reduce the number of reports and let you get to the actual hackers/exploiters faster.

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.

Dont you have bot detector ?
Nobody will write in chat: Look at me I am using hacks..
Why dont you go to a web pages that are selling hacks and bots, and buy it and then upgrade your bot detector so you can ban everyone who use that tool….

Well we have a red poster here now, but looking at their title, it’s Game Support Lead.

Where’s the person who is supposed to be here for WvW?
I think Devon is one but we all know Devon’s commitment here.

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

Well we have a red poster here now, but looking at their title, it’s Game Support Lead.

Where’s the person who is supposed to be here for WvW?
I think Devon is one but we all know Devon’s commitment here.

Well, this thread is about In-Game suport… So it’s about right that the Game Suport lead is the one posting here…

Idk what you trying to start here…

Jeknar.6184:

Idk what you trying to start here…

My parents told me to always start something, but never finish it.
Didnt yours?

But I’m just saying that a mod who isnt supposed to be in charge of communicating with the WvW players has done more in a week than those who should have in the last year….

Michael Henninger.7451:

Jeknar wins this round. This post is specifically about cheating in the live game environment which I am responsible for. It is my job to find cheats and develop the plan to remove them whether it be terminating offending accounts or walking over to Devon to let him know there’s a problem. Now… let’s get back to keeping this constructive.

Also, I’ll see you on the battlefield this weekend. Keep an eye open for me.

i like youuuuuuu

Michael, I have a really simple question to ask you. Personally I think more needs to happen to battle hacking than just reporting. I do care about this game and love playing WvW most of all. What can an average person do to help battle the hacking other than reporting? I don’t want to just report, I want to be proactive in other ways as well.

I don’t think there is a way we can help other than report. We’d need GM powers to do more. While it would be fun stomping the enemy worlds into oblivion with my godliness and ultimate banhammer of uberness, I don’t think it’ll ever happen.

Dear Anet,
when you start to give a attention on wvw hackers? Tell us, and pls no dot pay lip services as usually.
Why players have after all the time no chance to report them (a screen tells nothing) and Anet no chance to check it. Hard to enough to keep motivation to play. It’s not players job to record them. The people are not for there to do your job.

It makes no fun to have an keep or tower and another player (this time from Deso, but feel free to insert server of your choice) and and a Charwarri just porting in front of you after yourself kicks them one floor down.

Exploiters “Servermates” saw and don’t care about by the way. This is the real shame for a server like Deso.

Thank you in advance for it to be ignored. :P

P.S. There are exploite and hack since months and nothing happens.

In response to the last poster, I advise you to read Michael’s responses as well as player follow-ups. You are looking for an answer, like I was, and one was given.

What do you think happend if we see an hacker? Sure, we report him. >.>
In the end nothing happens.

Would there be much point banning a hacker without finding out and plug the hole he/she/it used though?

Some holes you can’t plug that easily, if ever.
Against 3rd party software, a anti-cheat programm would help, but that requires all users to install one (works on your end).
the second option would be to execute a file-validation every time you start gw2 (imagine you get a disconnect in pvp and are required to wait the next 5min additionally)
and the last would be to give less data to the user and store more server-sided, which heavily increases the workload on servers, which would lead to even more severe lags…

So appart from improving the report-function (which is currently being worked on), and giving more feedback to players about what happens to hackers / their reports (again, something that currently is being worked on) Nothing can be done that would not either impact your gw2 experience or the server-performance.

All you can demand for is that the devs work faster, but I guess that shout comes from every direction where there is an issue with the game…
So sit down, use the botting report-function and wait for the report UI to be improved. They actually were fairly quick with fixing the gems-exchange in the TP after the last makeover, so one can still hope…

lordkrall.7241:

Would there be much point banning a hacker without finding out and plug the hole he/she/it used though?

If you’re in a sinking boat, do you bail out water while you work on plugging the hole? They’re not mutually exclusive, and banning people who cheat/hack ameliorates the situation in the short term.

I hope they are watching grievers too.

Arantheal.7396:

the second option would be to execute a file-validation every time you start gw2 (imagine you get a disconnect in pvp and are required to wait the next 5min additionally)

Third party programs get around this by patching the executable data after it is loaded in to memory. Software like Punkbuster continually analyzes code execution to see if it is being hot-modded after launch, and a lot of people dislike it for obvious reasons regarding performance and dubious levels of system intrusion.

That said, I might welcome something like it at this point. This has been going on for two years, and the cover-ups by mod deletion (achieves nothing, by the way, all of this is archived on numerous other sites. Wave to reddit o/) and handwaving the people who perpetuate it away instead of taking a zero tolerance hard line makes it seem as if nobody cares.

Remember the fiasco brought up regarding a player who continually griefed BBB instances under the name The Greefer? Same person that pretended to be Anet staff and threatened EotM players with account termination. Said person was online just a few days ago under the alias Portal Troll (same account) and continually portaling people to their death in Plains of Ashford. I watched, reported, and with a name like that I would think there’d be a response, but there never was.

There has to be a point at which zero tolerance is enforced. No suspensions. No temp bans. Account termination. The person in question is detailed below:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/10-mins-commanding-FR-zerg-and-being-reported/first

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Griefers/first

And yes, Michael, you did post in the first thread.

edit: upon reflecting, my post seems abrasive. It’s not meant to be. The bottom line that I wanted to hit was: how far does another player have to go before their account is terminated? While Michael did comment in the thread about staff impersonation, it was a clarification, and the person in question was not removed from the game. Again, what is the process that support goes through before someone is removed? I hardly think that a player mentioned in the above threads is a complement to the game. So, simple question here, where is the line drawn? Where does it become a minor infraction vs. complete termination?

lordkrall.7241:

Would there be much point banning a hacker without finding out and plug the hole he/she/it used though?

I’m not in the habit of even reading your posts, never mind responding to you but in this case you need a lesson.

Korean game developers have a rotten reputation for dealing with hackers in their western releases, because they don’t have to deal with the situation in their home markets. The penalties for hacking games in Korea is so severe, including a criminal record, that people simply don’t do that.

Increasing the certainty of hack detection and increasing the penalty for hacking are both a deterrent to hacking, and both should be pursued. Then you plug the hole in the game.

Lesson ended.

Michael Henninger.7451:

Jeknar wins this round. This post is specifically about cheating in the live game environment which I am responsible for. It is my job to find cheats and develop the plan to remove them whether it be terminating offending accounts or walking over to Devon to let him know there’s a problem. Now… let’s get back to keeping this constructive.

Also, I’ll see you on the battlefield this weekend. Keep an eye open for me.

Can I please PM you the name and server of a speed cheater who has been cheating for over a year and a half? He openly admits to it, commands while doing it, does it literally every second he’s on, and laughs in everyone’s faces because nothing has been done for that long.

You’re just reposting the same garbage that you wrote in the other thread. Move on please.

It’s been a month since Michael’s last post on this.

Even though he made more effort than others before him, it seems the abyss has taken him as well.

RIP Michael.

Buy Some Apples.6390:

It’s been a month since Michael’s last post on this.

Even though he made more effort than others before him, it seems the abyss has taken him as well.

RIP Michael.

Funnily enough we had a thread created rather soon after this where people raged like mad because a GM was in-game…

Not like anet people don’t take a 2 week vacation like Many other people in the working world around the holidays……..

Michael Henninger.7451:

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.

Thats funny.

One of the things that caused me to leave this game was the lack of A-Nets reponse / action vs known hackers that have been reported hundreds of times by MANY MANY MANY players over LONG periods of time.

Yea, you may clean out the pve gold farming bots, cause wallet ….

But when I actually used to play this game, for about 2 years, I have NEVER seen ANY hacker banned. They are always back again and again and again. Some even admit it freely in map chat. See other posts on this very forum.

The WvW GMs seem to be non-existent.

On the other hand, I have seen plenty of players banned after getting so frustrated at your persistent inaction on the subject when they have been driven to finally vent their frustrations.

Your policy on these matters seems backwards.

lordkrall.7241:

Buy Some Apples.6390:

It’s been a month since Michael’s last post on this.

Even though he made more effort than others before him, it seems the abyss has taken him as well.

RIP Michael.

Funnily enough we had a thread created rather soon after this where people raged like mad because a GM was in-game…

lol I remember that thread. I found it hilarious that the guy didnt get what the mod was doing.

But we still need to know what to do, will there be new reporting options/features which work, and what the outcomes are as we have people reporting a player for almost everything but gold selling and that player is still in the game:

See https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Still-trolls-in-wvw-still-nothing-you-can-do/first#post4671431

Michael Henninger.7451:

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.

So people getting caught on stream (live one with real time viewers) is not enough. People admitting in chat they are hacking is not enough, if they spesifically don’t mention that they are/were using 3rd party program(s). Now since this is the case, how is it possible to use hacks (teleports, speed, etc) without 3rd party programs?

But this really explains why hackers or other bad apples are never banned (unless their actions directly affect to gems sales). “We must be able to see it ourselves in the game in live environment” and “you must point us to the chat where player said they used spesific program to cheat” are just… Absurd, and extremely hilarious at the same time. Regardless, an honest thank you for an explanation why reporting hackers with or without links to streams with timestamps are worth nothing, why reporting itself is pointless and waste of time, and why nothing is ever happening to hackers.

:D

Hackers could be detected automatically by checking, e.g., from player’s position if they are flying above ground unexpectedly without having items/skills for doing so.

There even could be a hack program which allows us players to monitor wrongdoings of other players.

Michael Henninger.7451:

2. First offense in many cases is a 2 week suspension. Further violations (of any kind) will result in account termination.

Hacking only nets a 2 week ban for first offense? You don’t ban them outright? That’s very very very forgiving.

Why not accept player video of hackers, since you aren’t even going to permaban them for the first offense? I have a couple of videos of speedhackers that I reported, but nothing happened to them. I’d love to see justice served.

Because often player claim lag as hacking.

As well, I can make a video that makes it appear anyone is hacking? Would you like a doctored video that someone you do not even know, that is fabricated, get you banned?

coglin.1867:

Because often player claim lag as hacking.

As well, I can make a video that makes it appear anyone is hacking? Would you like a doctored video that someone you do not even know, that is fabricated, get you banned?

Doctoring a video would be extremely hard, and it shouldn’t even get an innocent person banned. They way Anet bans, they have to catch you twice. As long as Anet catches the player once, they can accept player video for the other catch. A truly innocent player wouldn’t be banned that way

I can train a monkey to doctor a video. Obviously, you know nothing about it.

As well, there are threads of players who were “accidentally” banned for botting when the large push to solve that issue was occurring.

Lets avoid discussing what you think, assume, or care to have as reality, and stick with the way things actually work, shall we. That would probably be best for everybody.

Way to ignore the entire second half of my post, and bring up an irrelevant topic.