Guild Wars 2

This action is kind of ridiculous…banning a group from one guild because of a concerted reporting effort by enemies is kind of sad

Botting is a really broad term. They could have been banned for suspected usage of 3rd party software (to instantly counter certain things, like using stun-breakers on CC effects, or instant targeting of the player with the least life), or even breaking the “1 action per keypress” rule with some sort of keybinding. It doesn’t have to be 24 farming of something while you’re away from your computer.

But in any case, this thread was made WAAAAAY prematurely. If the ban lifting was denied, then a thread should have been made in the account issues forum, not WvW. Just because its your guild leader, doesn’t make it any more important than any other case, nor does it make it appropriate for the WvW forum.

MikeFerguson.8921:

I want to clear something up here, we do not auto-ban people without investigating the account first. Our CS staff reviews reports that come in and if they find questionable activity, they take whatever action they deem appropriate.

Questionable activity can actually be as simple as a guild mate sending 30 gold to another in a loan.

There have been more and more reports of people with high playtime being banned in WvW for “botting.” If there is no automated system in play, then many mistakes are being made repeatedly. It is just a coincidence that these bans are correlating with the rise in guilds being aware of this activity and using the report feature?

This is still the internet, people can say or do what they want. Nobody here is 100% sure about what they did or did not do…unless you’re some sort of psychic or you work for Anet. I’m surprised this thread isn’t locked yet as it involves sensitive issues. I would suggest that the OP simply appeal the bans and just remain calm and quiet. This doesn’t help your cause at all. Just to share a story to people who keep saying they know 100% what happened. I remember being in a huge guild once in a different MMO, we all thought our Guild Leader was the best…he got banned for Gold Selling. He denied it (of course). Except that the guy who reported him was his own Officer that used his alt to purchase the gold from said Guild Leader. As time went on, this Officer got booted out of the guild by the Guild Leader due to difference in opinion in running the guild, so the Officer got back at the Guild Leader and reported the Guild Leader for Gold Selling. During this ban, our entire guild erupted with anger for erroneously banning our Guild Leader, little did we know that the transaction actually took place and only a few of us knew of the true story up to this day. I’m not saying something similar has happened here, what I’m saying is, sometimes things aren’t what they seem. This is still the internet. I’m not saying anyone’s guilty, I’m just saying, let the system work…I rather have that than listen to unverified opinions from random players. Just my 2 cents.

For the clarity, when Jang banned, pop up message is “you are using 3rd party program blah blah..”

But think about this.

After Jang mailed with 3 of CS team several times, they finally accepted there’s no evidance about botting. But he’s not released until now. Instead, Anet’s CS team changed their question to Jang’s account name. They told him about how weird his account is.

Jang is suspected of using 3rd party program. That’s why he banned.
So, why they keep asking something else with no relate?

Once he prove his innocence, their next step is must be release him first. Isn’t it?
Why they keep changed their suspect toward him instead of release?

There are more commanders in our guild banned. They are all suspected of botting and released.
And as you know, we never blame or complain about that once.
But things gonna worse and worse again. I think it’s just not our own problem.
It can be happened any other players at any time, any where.

brooks.1875:

I have enjoyed playing with WM on Kain, don’t let them get you down, you guys are alot of fun to play with.

All aboard the bandwagon!

MikeFerguson.8921:

I want to clear something up here, we do not auto-ban people without investigating the account first. Our CS staff reviews reports that come in and if they find questionable activity, they take whatever action they deem appropriate.

You may receive an automated response if you appeal actions taken against your account, but any action we take is reviewed and enacted by human beings.

It is true that we have reinstated folks that were banned erroneously for questionable activity, but we don’t take action against an account unless a very solid reason presents itself upon review.

Please note that I’m not commenting specifically on the actions take against those accounts mentioned in the OP and I have no information on why any action was taken in the cases mentioned. I just want everyone to understand that we don’t ban people just because they get a lot of reports against them, our CS folks have to find and confirm actual infractions before we take any action.

Don’t take this the wrong way Mike, but if what you say is true, this is worse than automated bans. It would mean that a human looked at the gameplay of our guild and somehow came to the conclusion that we were “botting.” We like to think of ourselves as competent players, but bots? Really?

Just because in this circumstance we continually wiped a larger group of unorganized players, it doesn’t mean we’re botting. And this was the reason they were banned – shortly after those battles took place, many couldn’t log in. We have footage of that above from two different players, if you’re interested. It shows a lot about this situation, but only one thing matters – no robots of any kind were involved.

Given that some of our players have already been unbanned, it’s clear that a mistake was made. And it’s a mistake that never should have happened. Aside from the many false “gold selling” bans going around recently, this is the first time I’ve seen a group of people get wiped from the game “erroneously”. For some reason, I doubt it will be the last.

I personally was unaware that playing well in WvW was tantamount to sweatshop workers using automated tools to game the virtual economy. The more you know, I guess.

Tekish.3216:

MikeFerguson.8921:

I want to clear something up here, we do not auto-ban people without investigating the account first. Our CS staff reviews reports that come in and if they find questionable activity, they take whatever action they deem appropriate.

You may receive an automated response if you appeal actions taken against your account, but any action we take is reviewed and enacted by human beings.

It is true that we have reinstated folks that were banned erroneously for questionable activity, but we don’t take action against an account unless a very solid reason presents itself upon review.

Please note that I’m not commenting specifically on the actions take against those accounts mentioned in the OP and I have no information on why any action was taken in the cases mentioned. I just want everyone to understand that we don’t ban people just because they get a lot of reports against them, our CS folks have to find and confirm actual infractions before we take any action.

Don’t take this the wrong way Mike, but if what you say is true, this is worse than automated bans. It would mean that a human looked at the gameplay of our guild and somehow came to the conclusion that we were “botting.” We like to think of ourselves as competent players, but bots? Really?

Just because in this circumstance we continually wiped a larger group of unorganized players, it doesn’t mean we’re botting. And this was the reason they were banned – shortly after those battles took place, many couldn’t log in. We have footage of that above from two different players, if you’re interested. It shows a lot about this situation, but only one thing matters – no robots of any kind were involved.

Given that some of our players have already been unbanned, it’s clear that a mistake was made. And it’s a mistake that never should have happened. Aside from the many false “gold selling” bans going around recently, this is the first time I’ve seen a group of people get wiped from the game “erroneously”. For some reason, I doubt it will be the last.

I personally was unaware that playing well in WvW was tantamount to sweatshop workers using automated tools to game the virtual economy. The more you know, I guess.

WM came out and openly said they exploited into SOS’s keep about a month ago. I wouldn’t rule out that you guys are botting…

MikeFerguson.8921:

I want to clear something up here, we do not auto-ban people without investigating the account first. Our CS staff reviews reports that come in and if they find questionable activity, they take whatever action they deem appropriate.

http://youtu.be/8VSrx8GWwbM

http://youtu.be/Rfe3k7Cnl80

Elite member of WM were banned about 10 including leader “Jang Gun”.
Now WM can’t talk with other Kaineng guild leader.
and can’t prepare reset and rematching.
They sent video that can prove their fighting. But did not resolve until now.
Let’s see carefully. why and when and how.

You guys know that generally developers hate it when they’re put into spotlight and forced to admit a mistake. Take it from a player that got banned for no Kitten reason in another game. They thought I was using some sort of hack program when my account was barely a week old with noob items and dirt poor, with zero progress. I was kitten because I bought the game for real money I kept asking for a refund in their forum. However, I was a little noisy about it, I kept posting threads and what not. In the end, I think I got their Ire and they decided to just tell me to F off because they never unbanned me or given me a refund. Just take it easy, let the system work. It’s not perfect, but you don’t have a choice really…

MikeFerguson.8921:

I want to clear something up here, we do not auto-ban people without investigating the account first. Our CS staff reviews reports that come in and if they find questionable activity, they take whatever action they deem appropriate.

Kind of like the name reporting that happened in masses at launch and still happens periodically? It seems pretty clear that when an individual account is reported multiple times the action comes out pretty quick and often times not for a valid reason. If that’s what investigating means then I’ll be kittened. And when the account is unbanned, it’s typically because whoever does it knows it’s not a valid ban.

A player on my server was mass reported, temp banned and then forced to change his name. I don’t know why he was mass reported or what he was reported for but the name was “Do It To It”.

I mean, really? We would still like Do It to have his name back. Currently hes running around as “Do It Two It” and its just not the same.

Munkee.3542:

MikeFerguson.8921:

I want to clear something up here, we do not auto-ban people without investigating the account first. Our CS staff reviews reports that come in and if they find questionable activity, they take whatever action they deem appropriate.

Kind of like the name reporting that happened in masses at launch and still happens periodically? It seems pretty clear that when an individual account is reported multiple times the action comes out pretty quick and often times not for a valid reason. If that’s what investigating means then I’ll be kittened. And when the account is unbanned, it’s typically because whoever does it knows it’s not a valid ban.

About the reporting. One thing that came to mind. I would love to see those reporting falsely counter suspended. Just think how much more carefully it would be used, how much more thought a player would use before pulling the trigger.

And I find it coincidental that many officers and commanders from WM get reported en mass, gj gg. The immaturity of some of this community is pretty bad. (even baits me in sometimes). Can they not represent themselves with pride, using there name and there guild tag without harassment? Sorry to hear the issue WM and Anet, and hope this is resolved in a better manner. I mean ya stood next to each other at one point.

How does 1 pick and chose the selected targets?

Should I go around and just roam party report? Is that the fotm? Move to an opponents server (hmm where do you think I would go… oh possibly back to nsp and ar), tell my guild members … there commanders are ‘x’, ‘y’, ‘z’… commence report lols. I sure hope not.

Cut both sides some slack, they will sort it out. Whoever pick and chose targeted this attack. Otherwise there whole guild would be banned if WM were bots. Talk to any investigator, targeted.

Lame.

Given the absolutely inhuman moderation on these forums and the infractions I’ve been issued for totally ridiculous things, I’m really not sure I can take Anet’s words as absolute truth in these matters.

Well is Jang back in the game now? I hope your bans are lifted as soon as possible.

I’m kind of curious how this occurred (btw, I’ve met a few of your guild members in WvW, and they’re pretty good and it was worth the fight to beat them).

I’ve tried confirming whether or not you get banned for sending gold though. I sent 30g, and my brother sent 30g to my friend to help get his legendary. My other friend also sent 500g to that friend of mine. No ban ever occurred, so I’m pretty sure there isn’t some auto-ban system in, at least a week ago when I did this.

I also doubt you can get someone banned by mass reporting because if it was like that, then those bots I’ve been seeing for a week or two should have been gone in a few days. Right? Do you think you can get more reports from angry mobs in WvW than those bots that run around in plain site? I highly doubt it.

I’m not taking any sides btw. Just pointing out that people are taking it wrong on certain aspects. Anyways, good luck on the appeals! Making it public isn’t in your favor though, as I’ve learned from past experience. Keeping it private prevents unnecessary drama. That’s just my advice.

kenshinakh.3672:

Do you think you can get more reports from angry mobs in WvW than those bots that run around in plain site? I highly doubt it.

Actually, yes…all it takes is one angry group in WvW to then post the name telling everyone “Please report _ Account for Botting.” which gets more response than counting on random people to report an obvious Bot.

So you’re implying that more than 300+ people will report each and every player o.O? Bots gets a ton of reports each day by just farming, at least in high traffic areas. People are way more likely to report bots because they know what it is. On the other hand, do you really think it is easy to convince random people in WvW to report a person, much less a guild? It would ruin your server’s reputation if they did a mass-scale report on a single guild in WvW. That’s why it is highly unlikely. Fyi, you can estimate that at least over 300-500 different players cycle through a leveling zone a day on busier servers. They’re bound to report the same bots several times over a week. I’ve seen bots that lasted like 3 weeks in densely populated areas. Those bots alone must have gotten at least a thousand reports already.

kenshinakh.3672:

So you’re implying that more than 300+ people will report each and every player o.O? Bots gets a ton of reports each day by just farming, at least in high traffic areas. People are way more likely to report bots because they know what it is. On the other hand, do you really think it is easy to convince random people in WvW to report a person, much less a guild? It would ruin your server’s reputation if they did a mass-scale report on a single guild in WvW. That’s why it is highly unlikely. Fyi, you can estimate that at least over 300-500 different players cycle through a leveling zone a day on busier servers. They’re bound to report the same bots several times over a week. I’ve seen bots that lasted like 3 weeks in densely populated areas. Those bots alone must have gotten at least a thousand reports already.

2 things: Bots farming will get a lot of reports…over time. They won’t get 300+ Reports because 300+ players passed them…over the span of a day or two, sure. But most people who pass bots do just that…pass them.

In WvW…they get a massive number of Reports instantly. In the span of a few minutes…THAT is what seems to trigger the “Auto-Ban”.

Nokaru.7831:

MikeFerguson.8921:

I want to clear something up here, we do not auto-ban people without investigating the account first. Our CS staff reviews reports that come in and if they find questionable activity, they take whatever action they deem appropriate.

Questionable activity can actually be as simple as a guild mate sending 30 gold to another in a loan.

There have been more and more reports of people with high playtime being banned in WvW for “botting.” If there is no automated system in play, then many mistakes are being made repeatedly. It is just a coincidence that these bans are correlating with the rise in guilds being aware of this activity and using the report feature?

I’ve mailed 100g to my wife, and I farm all the time, so could mistakingly be thought to be a bot, especially since I’m a Ranger.

I’ve never been banned, so chances are those who’ve been banned, are also lying. Take what they say with a grain of salt.

StormWolf.7645:

kenshinakh.3672:

So you’re implying that more than 300+ people will report each and every player o.O? Bots gets a ton of reports each day by just farming, at least in high traffic areas. People are way more likely to report bots because they know what it is. On the other hand, do you really think it is easy to convince random people in WvW to report a person, much less a guild? It would ruin your server’s reputation if they did a mass-scale report on a single guild in WvW. That’s why it is highly unlikely. Fyi, you can estimate that at least over 300-500 different players cycle through a leveling zone a day on busier servers. They’re bound to report the same bots several times over a week. I’ve seen bots that lasted like 3 weeks in densely populated areas. Those bots alone must have gotten at least a thousand reports already.

2 things: Bots farming will get a lot of reports…over time. They won’t get 300+ Reports because 300+ players passed them…over the span of a day or two, sure. But most people who pass bots do just that…pass them.

In WvW…they get a massive number of Reports instantly. In the span of a few minutes…THAT is what seems to trigger the “Auto-Ban”.

Quit while you are ahead, a dev posted in this very thread telling everyone there is no autoban system.

jkctmc.8754:

Quit while you are ahead, a dev posted in this very thread telling everyone there is no autoban system.

-.- Hence the “Quotes”. By “Auto-Ban” I’m referring to banning without evidence due to number of Reports. Just because someone manually presses the “Ban” Button doesn’t make it less of an auto-ban.

…if they are bottling its not to wvw.. It’s to farm gold. Obviously they would be present to wvw kitten /p>

StormWolf.7645:

kenshinakh.3672:

So you’re implying that more than 300+ people will report each and every player o.O? Bots gets a ton of reports each day by just farming, at least in high traffic areas. People are way more likely to report bots because they know what it is. On the other hand, do you really think it is easy to convince random people in WvW to report a person, much less a guild? It would ruin your server’s reputation if they did a mass-scale report on a single guild in WvW. That’s why it is highly unlikely. Fyi, you can estimate that at least over 300-500 different players cycle through a leveling zone a day on busier servers. They’re bound to report the same bots several times over a week. I’ve seen bots that lasted like 3 weeks in densely populated areas. Those bots alone must have gotten at least a thousand reports already.

2 things: Bots farming will get a lot of reports…over time. They won’t get 300+ Reports because 300+ players passed them…over the span of a day or two, sure. But most people who pass bots do just that…pass them.

In WvW…they get a massive number of Reports instantly. In the span of a few minutes…THAT is what seems to trigger the “Auto-Ban”.

Then wouldn’t we see more bans, and from higher tier guilds/servers? My guild does runs like these where we destroy unorganized zergs, and none of us ever got banned. And I’m pretty sure we made people angry enough since we camped a choke point on a server’s homeland jump puzzle.

But you’re forgetting one pretty important thing and that’s server pride and reputation. As far as I know, this guild is from Kaineng, and they faced Emery Bay and Devno recently. I know Emery Bay personally would never do this sort of tatic because that’ll damage the server reputation, which is something they take very seriously.

Also, who would implement an autoban system that depends on how quickly someone gets reported? It doesn’t make sense to do so because bots obviously take time to report, and in any logical reasoning, more unique reports are more alarming than smaller but mass reports of a person.

Hexin.5603:

As you can tell, it’s written and reviewed by a professional, in a first and formal letter and request to ArenaNet.

Ha! It was schmaltzy and way over done. Can tell the quality of a guild when they have to seek the writing skills of a “professional”…

…You do realize for the last 4 days several people have been shouting “BOTS!!!” in the WvW thread with Kaineng right? The accusations have been thrown around willy nilly and reports submitted. As far as “Why”…I imagine it’s because whoever’s responsible for reading all the complaints said “Jeezus…100 reports on this one guy?… -.- Screw it, he’s obviously guilty BANNED.” This is FAR from the first time this has happened..so whatever it is, there is a problem with Reporting that is abusable and it needs fixed.

You assume that people can target him through the culling…

I think you’re being a bit too paranoid lol. Just a couple of people might shout that and report, but they’re not going to convince more than 50+, especially since you’re fighting on the low tiers where wvw population are smaller.

I was from Emery Bay (but left due to friends wanting to join friends on another server) from that match up with Kaineng, and you can bet that Emery Bay doesn’t have the man power to report a player en-mass, much less 100 players reporting…

By the way, most people only know how to report people via right click → report. Telling people to report a person via their account name is bound to fail because most people don’t know how to do that.

The majority of our opponents and allies (individuals, guilds and servers) have also acted in this grain, and we can have no complaint about their conduct. However, at the same time as we have strong honorable opponents on one hand, there have also been some questionable tactics implemented by less respectful, weaker opponents who, having seen our strength, and unquestionably superior team-play, seek to damage our guild, and our server through underhand methods.

I thought they were just gloating LOL.

In my experience in online games, people that are suspended/banned for botting/hacking, usually are, exactly like doping in sports.
Given ArenaNet extensive experience in online games, i’m sure they wouldn’t autoban. Maybe they are wrong and it’s a mistake, but i seriously doubt it. That’s just my view on this, i never faced WM or played along them.

and that was a fail quote by the way

Just as a note: If they don’t, why do I know of at least 5 people who’ve been banned for similar reasons, only for the ban to be repealed with nothing more than an “Appeal” submitted?…Call it a “Screw up” or whatever you want, if no further evidence was submitted in their defense, it means there was none against them in the first place.

Well, SoS did a small yet interesting test about this.

For us, we also have a special guild event called "the justice"

What we do, is to roam around the map, and look for bots, and report them.

with a size of 5~10 of us reporting, the same bot is still there on the other day.

However, with a size of 30+, the bot is instantly removed on the following day.

And we found another group of bots on another location and just have the size of 30+ report them, and guess what? it’s gone the next day.

Sure, if what mike said is true, there is a human check ban, but ... I’m thinking that they are just lazy and decided to go with the number of reports on the same person to judge whether or not the accused is actually botting.

Oh, speaking of another fun thing that we tried - set auto-skill on your healing skill and afk in LA for 3 days = banned for botting/using 3rd party software.

Good job.

Whoa didn’t know WM’s guild leader was banned for botting.

You guys know this makes zero sense right? Let say I am the evil leader of a famous guild that let my members bot. Well as leader, there is no way I would bot myself. Because if I was found guilty, it would ruin the reputation of the guild. It might even rip the guild apart. Instead, I would let my “no name” members do the bot-ing and gold making for me. If they are caught the damage is still controllable.

Bananasmile.4126:

This is still the internet, people can say or do what they want. Nobody here is 100% sure about what they did or did not do…unless you’re some sort of psychic or you work for Anet. I’m surprised this thread isn’t locked yet as it involves sensitive issues. I would suggest that the OP simply appeal the bans and just remain calm and quiet. This doesn’t help your cause at all. Just to share a story to people who keep saying they know 100% what happened. I remember being in a huge guild once in a different MMO, we all thought our Guild Leader was the best…he got banned for Gold Selling. He denied it (of course). Except that the guy who reported him was his own Officer that used his alt to purchase the gold from said Guild Leader. As time went on, this Officer got booted out of the guild by the Guild Leader due to difference in opinion in running the guild, so the Officer got back at the Guild Leader and reported the Guild Leader for Gold Selling. During this ban, our entire guild erupted with anger for erroneously banning our Guild Leader, little did we know that the transaction actually took place and only a few of us knew of the true story up to this day. I’m not saying something similar has happened here, what I’m saying is, sometimes things aren’t what they seem. This is still the internet. I’m not saying anyone’s guilty, I’m just saying, let the system work…I rather have that than listen to unverified opinions from random players. Just my 2 cents.

I agree with you 100 fold good sir. It amazes me how the story is pretty much already decided in the minds of parties on both sides of the fence.

@Chaster -Who would afk in LA with their healing skill set to auto attack FOR 3 DAYS for fun??? Really? I mean really, you expect me to believe that? Also what’s not to say a guild very similar to yours likes to play the same game and see’s someone in LA in the same spot auto-healing for 3 DAYS. There can only be so much palm to face in that post.

Just to clarify: I am NOT saying that WM is/is not botting…I’ll leave that to ANET to figure out. My issue is with the insta-ban without any evidence. They paid to play this game same as me and you, do you truly enjoy the idea of being banned without any evidence whatsoever that you did anything? I know people this has happened to, I was with them and we talked a lot in VOIP…and they were banned as bots. Was it repealed?…Yes…but not until 5 days later on average. That’s 5 days of not being able to play the game “Just because”.

Chaster was making a point khan.

The point was a player getting banned for botting when the player wasnt botting.

Yes it took 3 days, but thats irrelevent.

Draygo.9473:

Chaster was making a point khan.

The point was a player getting banned for botting when the player wasnt botting.

Yes it took 3 days, but thats irrelevent.

It was a horrible point and even one more unbelievable.

Howso?

Player isnt botting, but doing something mundane and stupid, and gets banned for it with the reason as “botting”.

I think that proves the point just fine. And maybe people are going to stop autocasting for great justice in LA now? (please?).

StormWolf.7645:

Just to clarify: I am NOT saying that WM is/is not botting…I’ll leave that to ANET to figure out. My issue is with the insta-ban without any evidence. They paid to play this game same as me and you, do you truly enjoy the idea of being banned without any evidence whatsoever that you did anything? I know people this has happened to, I was with them and we talked a lot in VOIP…and they were banned as bots. Was it repealed?…Yes…but not until 5 days later on average. That’s 5 days of not being able to play the game “Just because”.

Storm I have the utmost respect for 99% of your posts I have read in the past as a competitor matched up against you for now our 10th week. Hopefully you know most if not all my posts are laden with sarcasm and poor humor intended to get a laugh out of at least one person. However there are some pretty serious accusations going on in this thread as well as in the match-up thread FROM BOTH SIDES NOW. We as players have no clue why the ban was dropped right? Yet in his post Shroom clearly points out that the bans were handed down to WM due to and I quote “War Machine is being systematically targeted by a group of people who are willing to violate the code of conduct in order to sabotage another server’s community.” Could those bans be related to something completely different???? I’ve killed WM players and been killed by them, do I think they use a third party program? Honest answer-No. Could they be using one? Honest answer-Yes. Bringing this issue to the public forums has and will only open up more cans of worms.

Khanswrath.1032:

Storm I have the utmost respect for 99% of your posts I have read in the past as a competitor matched up against you for now our 10th week. Hopefully you know most if not all my posts are laden with sarcasm and poor humor intended to get a laugh out of at least one person. However there are some pretty serious accusations going on in this thread as well as in the match-up thread FROM BOTH SIDES NOW. We as players have no clue why the ban was dropped right? Yet in his post Shroom clearly points out that the bans were handed down to WM due to and I quote “War Machine is being systematically targeted by a group of people who are willing to violate the code of conduct in order to sabotage another server’s community.” Could those bans be related to something completely different???? I’ve killed WM players and been killed by them, do I think they use a third party program? Honest answer-No. Could they be using one? Honest answer-Yes. Bringing this issue to the public forums has and will only open up more cans of worms.

I’ll be totally honest: No I do not for a fact know that this particular case is one of the ones I’m assuming it is. However, I still do believe it is a potential problem(likely to actually be a BIGGER problem because of this post sadly…now that people know how to exploit it, I foresee it happening more.) I truly and seriously believe ANET will have to look at it’s itchy trigger-finger bans…I also agree it WAS needed when we had 5 billion Bots running around now…and I imagine THAT was the original impetus for the “Protocol” as it stands…But more and more innocent people ARE being affected by this. I will bet anything innocents always have, but with fewer Bots now, it’s hurting more than helping.

I’ve had 2 people in my guild banned and reinstated, one for sending his best friend 50 gold for christmas, the other was farming corrupted lodestones all day so he could afford a precurser. Ironically we think it was the actual farming bots in frostgorge that reported him. I am sure the number of people that get banned and reinstated in this game is fairly high compared to other games.

Draygo.9473:

Howso?

Player isnt botting, but doing something mundane and stupid, and gets banned for it with the reason as “botting”.

I think that proves the point just fine. And maybe people are going to stop autocasting for great justice in LA now? (please?).

For starters as a player you’re gonna just let your game run in LA auto healing for 3 days never playing or moving just to see what happens? Secondly, this is all based off of a claim Chaster has never reported on the forums until now? (apologies I got tired of reading through his third page of posts so if it’s there then by all means I man up and apologize) Both scenarios are a tough pill to swallow. If you believe em at his word doesn’t mean I have too.

Seren.6850:

I’ve had 2 people in my guild banned and reinstated, one for sending his best friend 50 gold for christmas, the other was farming corrupted lodestones all day so he could afford a precurser. Ironically we think it was the actual farming bots in frostgorge that reported him. I am sure the number of people that get banned and reinstated in this game is fairly high compared to other games.

That is indeed interesting. My friends and I also tested this “gold ban” thing, but we didn’t get any. That’s why I’ve been saying that it’s not 100% certain why certain bans happen. (By the way, in our tests, we sent 30g, 30g, and then 500g, from 3 different accounts to my friend’s for his legendary lol). The best I can figure is that bans aren’t automatic and they get processed by a person. That might explain more of why ban errors occur, but that’s just a complete guess. It does support what MikeFerguson said earlier in this thread where reports are checked by humans first.

brooks.1875:

I see complaints about how they move around very coordinated, but if you’ve played with their leaders you’d know even with pugs they focus on keeping everyone in a tight grouping.

Ive seen other guilds trying to mimic this. If you ball up tightly it does look VERY similar to the old swarms of bots we used to see swarming all over the world. But what reason would they possibly have for botting? Seems to me like bots in WvW trying to fight against real players would be awful. Pretty sure WM zergs are not awful. I hope they are still investigating these accusations.

kenshinakh.3672:

The best I can figure is that bans aren’t automatic and they get processed by a person. That might explain more of why ban errors occur, but that’s just a complete guess. It does support what MikeFerguson said earlier in this thread where reports are checked by humans first.

This would probably explain the inconsistency best…Some people are going to be obscenely lazy, others extremely diligent. The lazy people will see 20 Reports and rather than read them all will take the time to smoke, take a break…then ban and say they read it. :p Not precisely accurate, but simply trying to express my view of what’s happening.

Foss.4830:

Ive seen other guilds trying to mimic this. If you ball up tightly it does look VERY similar to the old swarms of bots we used to see swarming all over the world. But what reason would they possibly have for botting? Seems to me like bots in WvW trying to fight against real players would be awful. Pretty sure WM zergs are not awful. I hope they are still investigating these accusations.

From what I understand, all but the leader’s have been “released”. That alone is enough proof for me that someone was gaming the system. 10 Players Banned, and summarily un-banned without further evidence submitted. ANET…look at your Report-Banning system. Consider sending in-game E-mails to inform people they are being investigated and why…a Bot won’t respond, a real person will.

Uncle Shags.9017:

Ha! It was schmaltzy and way over done. Can tell the quality of a guild when they have to seek the writing skills of a “professional”…

They definitely couldn’t be non-native English speakers wanting to better represent themselves to a Native English speaking company they are having issues with. [/sarcasm]

Proper communication makes the whole process easier. They are a Korean-based guild utilizing an appeal process with an American (English speaking) company, and they wanted to minimize any miscommunications. Not everyone can speak English well.

Stop trolling, or stop being a biggot.

I have question along the same lines. We’ve noticed that sometimes our more known commanders get suppressed in the chat just after couple of sentences while regular members can chat away in /m or /t for hours.

Is it possible that this can be somehow induced by enemy scouts on our servers reporting commanders or is my tin foil hat too thick and this is something about the way commanders structure their, uh… commands that triggers temporary ban in chat?

Maybe they were using macros? You know binding multiple actions to one key. Lots of people do it.

Odaman.8359:

Peetee.9406:

I have never played against WM but I can tell you that I have been reporting A LOT of people lately for botting since there is no option to report players for hacking.

The max run speed in this game is capped at 33% out of combat which my elementalist is at all the time. If a player can noticeably out run me that player has to be hacking and I report everybody.

Unless they’re a warrior or using leopard/bear form….. I have yet to see speed hacking in this game. Use of unintended items… sure all day. The occasional flying mesmer i’ve spotted, but not speed hacking.

On topic, I don’t know how they do botting bans. The gold transfer stuff is automatic, horribly implemented, and easily skirted around. I’d like to think they need proof before throwing out the ban, but who knows… maybe they didn’t. Either way this isn’t the place to bring it up.

Speed hacking has been out since the 2nd week of the game. In fact, the first incidents were recorded on YouTube because people didn’t know it was a hack and recorded their streams trying to figure out how to achieve such speed.

Similarly, teleport hacks that eventually led to the deactivating of the Orbs of Power is now widely adopted by many bots in PvE. ANet disabled Orbs because teleport hacks, which is functionally extremely similar to speedhacks in many games, possibly GW2, has NOT been fixed. If other MMOs are an indication, it’s something that is not likely to ever have a solution to.