Guild Wars 2

Agreed. Please remove your post from the thread. I worded my original question in such a way as to avoid its deletion.

Michael Henninger.7451:

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.

Perhaps a status update every patch/month?

Last month:
512 bugs were stepped on with massive hobnailed boots
256 cobwebs were swept off the servers
128 wvw hackers were terminated with extreme prejudice
64 baby quaggans were arrested for excessive cuteness
32 exploits were tortured into obedience
16 paboos were caught stalking Gaile
8 bots were hog tied and hung in the alley behind the server farm.
4 cupcakes were taken hostage by John Smith
2 captive GMs were released into the wild
1 partidge was placed in a pear tree

We get to see that things were dealt with without you needing to make personal responses to each report in game

Thanks for the advice and tips on how to report effectively, Michael.

Torsailr.8456:

Perhaps a status update every patch/month?

Last month:
512 bugs were stepped on with massive hobnailed boots
…

When I used to be a GM for another MMORPG, we also had many players whinging that the GMs didn’t do anything, and reports like this was something I briefly considered doing as a way to address player feedback. But due to the low number of players, we only got a few reports each week, and of the reports we did get, only a few warranted action. So such a report would make it easy for aggrieved players to deduce whether or not their reports had any action taken.

If this is the case with Guild Wars, then I would imagine that they don’t want to advertise that only 1 person was temp banned this month. But there is another game I know of that does what was suggested: MapleStory. Anyone who has played MS knows that it is absolutely rife with hackers/botters. I haven’t played in years, but I remember they used to release weekly reports on how many accounts were banned for botting, as well as the names of those accounts. Each report typically had hundreds of account names listed as being banned for botting.

But from my experience as a GM, no matter what you do, players are going to whine, and the higher-ups are going to drag their feet on any ideas you pass on to them (I remember submitting a detailed proposal to overhaul the way the official game rules were worded to reduce ambiguity, and it took months to be approved).

GW2 need more Dhuum

The fact is that WvW is plagued by hackers and trolls who are repeatedly reported by multiple people using all available methods over the course of many days — all to no avail.

The fact that GMs technically exist is irrelevant when pretty much nothing is ever done.

Michael Henninger.7451:

Fay.2357:

Michael Henninger.7451:

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

Michael Henninger.7451:

so you must use the in-game reporting tool. .

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.

The other very annoying thing is the teleport. The fast jumping is just one thing, but when the downed enemy just pwufff! Dissaper. That makes me turn green. No loot, no xp, wxp and you are out of combat. This week it happened 2 times. Once a warrior in open field dissapeared when i shot him down and yesterday on guild raid after we captured enemy garrison. An ele ported in the lord room 2 seconds after we flipped, we onshoted him and he dissapeared in the second when he went downstate. We was out of combat, no xp, wxp, loot again.

Michael Henninger.7451:

Michael Henninger.7451:

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.

Well this is a bit awkward as we have always been told by the mods and whatnot to report hackers that way as there was no hacking report option in the in game tool. I guess this explains why none of the reported people got banned then if it’s not their job to do that in the first place. Thank you for clarifying this! I have one question tho, if one happens to have video footage of someone doing some sort of naughty business, should we send it in via normal ticket or just rely on the “botting” report to do the thing instead?

Voted as Most helpful replies from Anet with detailed response pertaining to wvw for 2014. Keep it up!

The GM’s have stated how it ‘works’

I can give multiple times it hasn’t, and it contradicts what the GM’s have posted here…. The fact is, there has been some untruths posted here.

Zaxares.5419:

Thanks for the advice and tips on how to report effectively, Michael.

Seconded!

I routinely report gold sellers because there is a clear option for that in the reporting tool.

Last week a DB player was arrow carting well inside the lords room of the SBI borderlands garrison from outside the northern gate. I assumed he was using some sort of zoom hack. After I died, I just rage quitted, because I didn’t know “botting” was the correct reporting option to use (for the time being).

Thanks to all the GMs for the work you do. You need to figure out how to get the word out about what you are doing, because there is the perception out there that reporting stuff is a waste of time, and action is not taken.

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.

Michael Henninger.7451:

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.

It’s great to see another red post in the WvW forums, and another one that seems like action will be taken.

But sorry we’ve been hurt before, many of us although thankful someone replied, wont expect much to be done.

However, if the exploit email if not for reporting hackers, then why is it for the last 2 years our posts about such have been closed and we’ve been told to send an email to exploits@areana.net?!
Your post here just shows we’ve probably been wasting our time for the last 2 years trying to report these hacks.

You’ve made several posts already, my advice is that, unlike all the previous red posters, it would be appreciated if you could keep up updated on these matters and not disappear into PvE

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.

They can’t do that because it breeches various data protection laws in some countries, naming and shaming even if done by the GM’s is a very sensitive subject that is quite strictly bound by many different laws in many different countries and they have to walk a very fine line whith it.

Hi Michael:

Thank you so much for responding here. I would like to point something out which hopefully you can take into account.

You state that a GM must physically see the person hacking, however with the exception of speed hacking, most hacks happen in a limited time period, for instance jumping over a wall, glitching through a gate, and rezzing underground.

This effectively means that since it takes probably a while to work through the que these intermittent hacks cannot be caught yes?

Michael, the system as it is now in its unprioritized state leads to hackers hacking unmolested for months. Not a couple months either, it took half a year to get GOMs worst hacker banned…for a couple weeks.

WvW hacking is public. It hurts server reputation. It hurts player morale game wide. It becomes a toxic topic and it breeds more hackers to “fight the hackers”

It is, as far as I know, the only public cheating ingame, viewed by thousands who get the impression that ANET does not and cannot stop cheating. This makes people think they can cheat the markets, bot the game etc, because hey they cant even stop that one jump hacker.

Perhaps prioritizing the public, in your face, cheating that does instant damage to WvW ranking, server morale on BOTH sides of the cheat, and your reputation would be valuable?

Its a character name not Name, Address, Phone number, email they write, want to se that law suet my character named Kagndfe dubefre got named for cheating and they wrote my character name in game so other players saw I got banned for cheating.

And other games have list off characters that have been banned.

Belidos.3704:

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.

They can’t do that because it breeches various data protection laws in some countries, naming and shaming even if done by the GM’s is a very sensitive subject that is quite strictly bound by many different laws in many different countries and they have to walk a very fine line whith it.

I unanimously vote Michael Henninger is the most helpful WvW GM of the year.
And I hope it will go into 2015 as well.

PS: w/ a sincere hope that you are not going to disappear like many before you.

Thanks for your efforts!

Some of us have been harsh (deservedly so at time IMO) but we should also recognize when someone is making a difference.

It’ll be a happy to day when an entire match can go by and I don’t witness or read (in game map chat) of an exploit.

@Michael,

Thank you for all the interaction. Hearing from those at ANET is always appreciated.

style.6173:

@Michael,

Thank you for all the interaction. Hearing from those at ANET is always appreciated.

I read it as “Thank you for all the infractions”..
Well, they did give us a lot infractions ‘cos we didn’t use the email address which is not for reporting “skilled players” ^^

Was it an internal communication problem? Or some changes were made?

@Michael

Not sure if maybe PMs don’t go through to the devs or if you check them.

Can I PM you the name of a cheater who has been blatantly cheating for over a year and is still doing it? No amount of reporting has gotten him banned yet.

@Michael,

did your tests with these new tools yield any results? I also hope that you will be spending time outside of T1, because there are still thousands of us down on the lower tiers.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

@Michael,

did your tests with these new tools yield any results? I also hope that you will be spending time outside of T1, because there are still thousands of us down on the lower tiers.

Well, I heard Sialoquent is gone…

Jeknar.6184:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

@Michael,

did your tests with these new tools yield any results? I also hope that you will be spending time outside of T1, because there are still thousands of us down on the lower tiers.

Well, I heard Sialoquent is gone…

That’s good news at least.

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?

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?

We’ve already had a reply, though I think it was John who also made a thread after S3 where he asked about how to limit this.

Bottom line though will be is that they cannot control the way a player plays the game. If a player wants to join a server to disrupt it, they can. (Although this ruins the game for that server the most and technically violates the first Rule of Conduct).

This behaviour is something we will unfortunately be stuck with.

Michael Henninger.7451:

I rarely crawl out of it’s darkness for I find new things out here and I frighten easily.

Oh no!
Well at least I didnt have to go and get Chris to get you to post on here and get an infraction doing so :P

Thank you Michael for your hard work! It’s really appreciated when we get communication like this, especially for a competitive community like WvW. We might bite sometimes, but they’re love bites! I promise!

I just wish the dev team would poke their heads in now and then too

Thanks for the information Michael!

Vote for best red post update in 2014, Michael Henninger. Mike (can I call you Mike?), you have no idea how in the dark we were and how little we knew about how emails to exploits@ and ingame reports were handled. Thank you for your attention.

edit: and please don’t be afraid to come in here and talk to us. We have been desperate for any dev or support responses about WvW and “wrongdoing” for a long time. You’ve clarified many things for us. You have, honestly, done more for the WvW community by posting in this thread than any CDI or meager update has done in the last year. Bravo.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

Vote for best red post update in 2014, Michael Henninger. Mike (can I call you Mike?), you have no idea how in the dark we were and how little we knew about how emails to exploits@ and ingame reports were handled. Thank you for your attention.

edit: and please don’t be afraid to come in here and talk to us. We have been desperate for any dev or support responses about WvW and “wrongdoing” for a long time. You’ve clarified many things for us. You have, honestly, done more for the WvW community by posting in this thread than any CDI or meager update has done in the last year. Bravo.

i could not agree more with this post, thank you so much for the information. and arkblade thank you for starting this post and wording it in a way to not get it deleted

Thirded. This is the kind of communication we need and want from ANet, Michael. Clear, concise and informative. It lets us know where you stand, why you’ve taken that stance, and gives us the information to make further suggestions or provide feedback to help refine and improve the process even more.

Also, can I point your attention back to this post?

Jeknar.6184:

GW2 need more Dhuum

Having cheaters/hackers/griefers get banned or suspended in a suitably dramatic way that everybody can see would be both hilarious and entertaining, and a superb way of demonstrating to all players that, yes, ANet DOES police the game and that players who don’t abide by the rules do get their come-uppance.

Michael Henninger.7451:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

@Michael,

did your tests with these new tools yield any results? I also hope that you will be spending time outside of T1, because there are still thousands of us down on the lower tiers.

Yep, they work. You’ll see us from time to time, though generally we’re invisible. And we never forget lower tiers. I’ve played on Anvil Rock, Maguuma, SBI, TC, and several others. My direct reports and I try to join a different server every season to get a feel of what’s going on for each of you (EU included). The account in my signature is open for friend invites or follows and you can always say hi.

Disclaimer! I will sometimes ignore whispers, don’t take it personally I’m very busy when online and get tell-kittened as I’m sure you’d imagine. I’ll pop my commander tag most of the time so you can find my toon and come say hello directly.

*Edit to update signature.

That is awesome to know. I have another question, though (so many questions!). Do you have the ability to jump between servers at will? You mentioned being on servers during seasons, but that isn’t exactly a catch-all. We had our adopt-a-dev Melnetta on our server during S3 and she would ask us after every matchup if this was the kind of thing we were dealing with all the time. After 23 weeks without a win, it was a bit of an exhausted “yes, every time.” She would routinely observe wrongdoing but had no power to do anything about it.

We need GMs on every server, and not just during the seasons. We had a flamboyant and very vocal person using foul play on our server during this current matchup, and while I see that he’s no longer ingame (kudos, btw), it took weeks to get that result. We really do need a full spread of people like you to deal with, well, people like him. Is that a possibility?

Nice to see updates from a red post, Hope you can keep it up and pass on our concerns.
We’ll see how things go next week

im glad anet did a 180 on getting a team of GMs to patrol, its really reassuring. 1.5 years ago anet had no plans to do anything about griefing/cheating in wvw and didnt want to touch it, despite (imo) its necessity in a competitive environment.

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?

BTW… Rams in weird places does not autmatically indicate somebody trying to sabotage the server. A ram can provide Iron Hide, Fear, KD, and damage whether it is in front of a gate, or not. A ram can also be used to shield other siege. Not conventional, maybe controversial, but not necessarily sabotage.

Another +1 kudos for the red posts! It is a huge relief to finally get confirmation that things are being actively addressed!

one of the key takeaways I’m getting from this thread is that, at least for now, if you cannot click on the cheater or otherwise get their name you cannot report them.

it doesn’t matter if you can’t identify them because they are underground, or because they are using invisibility hacks, or because they teleported away before you thought to click on them, or if you can’t report them for zoom hacks because they are behind a wall and you would have to be using zoom hacks yourself to see who they are.

I hope this gets fixed at some point. we do need some kind of “help! I’m being victimized by a cheater and I don’t know who or where!” option.

-ken

Michael Henninger.7451:

Also included are some unique ways for you to notice a GM when we’re online.

So when a GM enters the map there will be a crack of thunder, a towering font of lava, a roiling cloud of brimstone and the sound of maniacal cackling laughter to announce his presence?

This is one of the most informative and responsive threads I think I’ve ever come across regarding WvW and cheating in general on the forums. Thank you for all of the numerous responses you’ve given throughout this thread Michael. With that in mind, I would like to suggest that this thread be added to the locked threads at the top of this forum section so that it might be viewed by as many players as possible in the future! Again thanks Michael!!