Guild Wars 2

I really want one of those Bows :-)

I’d heavily advise the GMs to take pictures of the incident BEFORE the whisper. It’s amazing how someone’s actions/attitude will change when a GM whispers them. This is just so that if the person in question goes to a social media page and tries to start drama, the GM’s/Anet have a picture of what they were doing wrong before they were contacted.

If I’m very naughty will you come after me Gaile? <3

On a serious note, nice to see this happening

Will the whispers be recorded internally, amassing marks (as you state it)?

For example, I do something stupid and GM Bob whispers me saying “oi, knock it off.” I stop, then return the next day or the next week and start doing the same something stupid again. Will GM Suzy know that GM Bob already warned me about it?

(disclaimer: Any resemblance to actual GM names is purely coincidental and unintentional)

Instead of having illegal areas in the game (such as a huge whole in every single map that allows players to break into places they shouldn’t) wouldn’t it make more sense to actually close the said whole? Not to mention the aforementioned map breaking has been in the game SINCE BETA, but now we will receive a warning (at Anet convenience of course if not being banned) instead of Anet fixing this problem in the previous 2 years of its known existence.

Also, how are the players at fault for using the system you set up? Much like the karma weapon incident and the chili pepper fiasco. People literally playing the game the way you designed and they get shot in the face. How does this make sense? (Might I add you never once came out and said it was inside the confines of your system. Instead we got, “They should have known it was a exploit” <— are you serious?)

I understand these systems for people who are legitimately breaking the rules (third party programs, hacks, etc..) but for those of us just playing the game the way you have created it…. it is ridiculous and not professional at all.

Let me guess: “Soon” “It is harder than it seems” “We are working on it” “Insert popular Anet come back here”

You probably should have just closed it, Gaile.

Thanks for the heads-up! =)

Vanthian – I am sensing a bit of a guilty conscience here. She never specified what the messages were about. My assumption was that it was likely going to be primarily used on people caught using macros, POV alterations, etc, or who are being verbally abusive to others. (edit: her last comment wasn’t posted when I wrote this).

I’m not going to dignify your straw man arguments with a proper response, because you know you’re twisting things to fit your side, but I think your accusations are at best overstated, and at worse, completely baseless.

Thanks for the changes, Gaile!

How detailed will these warnings be? Will it be more like “you need to stop what you are doing.” or more like "At ##:## you started “doing such” and is in violation due to “such rule”, or somewhere in between?

Will we be able to respond to the GM’s comment, assuming we are polite and courteous?

As a gamer coming from a MUD background, I love seeing GMs in game and getting direct feedback on actions. Tentative yays and also beforehand bracing hugs for any verbal abuse I’m sure people will feel entitled to dole out.

Quick question: These golden whispers will they be blocked from players view if the chat box settings are on don’t show whispers and game messages or are they considered something else?
I don’t plan on ever getting one hopefully but i would still like to know.

Gail..if you ever leave Anet for new pastures, please can I call shotgun on your Bow of the Mighty Slaughtering of Fools? (there is a gem store item or a unique weapon drop crying out though…)

Fine policy otherwise.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Dan.4398:

Quick question: These golden whispers will they be blocked from players view if the chat box settings are on don’t show whispers and game messages or are they considered something else?
I don’t plan on ever getting one hopefully but i would still like to know.

If someone has turned off whispers, then I believe that player will not get the warning. This is the player’s choice, of course. We will not make a different or additional effort to contact the player. Again, the warning is a courtesy, and whether (1) a player puts her- or himself in a situation that earns a warning, and (2) blocks whispers, is entirely the choice of the player.

May I humbly suggest you consider some sort of screen print message in large font and some godly thunder / reverb.

That some may be turned from their wicked ways and resume the path of righteousness – or at least harmlessness.

If I get a yellow gold seller whisper I’ll fall over laughing!

Gaile Gray.6029:

Deified.7520:

I’d heavily advise the GMs to take pictures of the incident BEFORE the whisper. It’s amazing how someone’s actions/attitude will change when a GM whispers them. This is just so that if the person in question goes to a social media page and tries to start drama, the GM’s/Anet have a picture of what they were doing wrong before they were contacted.

No worries, we don’t rely on screenshots. We have a trump card: game logs, and they cannot be altered or fudged for personal reasons by someone trying to grief another player.

I think he was referring to this : http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2epx2e/chris_cleary_with_the_burning_condition/ => https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Selling-dungeon-paths-reportable/first#post4338187
While we do know that your logs are much more reliable than screenshots,, but since they are internal only, screenshots may be good to deal with Drama. (I really like when those “I got banned for no reason, stay away from this game” posts get an official answers that proves how bad-faith the original post is (above example with a screenshot, or this very nice one : http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2bdc8u/botter_gets_schooled_by_anet/ / https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Banned-for-keyboard-Macros)

Gaile Gray.6029:

ConfusedDave.4271:

I really want one of those Bows :-)

Sorry, it’s mine all mine and I’m not sharin’!

Deified.7520:

I’d heavily advise the GMs to take pictures of the incident BEFORE the whisper. It’s amazing how someone’s actions/attitude will change when a GM whispers them. This is just so that if the person in question goes to a social media page and tries to start drama, the GM’s/Anet have a picture of what they were doing wrong before they were contacted.

No worries, we don’t rely on screenshots. We have a trump card: game logs, and they cannot be altered or fudged for personal reasons by someone trying to grief another player.

eekzie.5640:

On a serious note, nice to see this happening

I think so, too!

Nkuvu.2570:

Will the whispers be recorded internally, amassing marks (as you state it)?

For example, I do something stupid and GM Bob whispers me saying “oi, knock it off.” I stop, then return the next day or the next week and start doing the same something stupid again. Will GM Suzy know that GM Bob already warned me about it?

(disclaimer: Any resemblance to actual GM names is purely coincidental and unintentional)

We’re not giving warnings for chat violations, but yes, chat reports are amassed and over time can impact one’s account. We will keep account notes for instances when a warning is given for other sorts of infractions, so yes, our fictional Suzy and Bob will know the account’s history.

Will this come in handy in the future WvW season tournament with other server’s troll on your server’s map?

Gaile: “Sorry, it’s mine all mine and I’m not sharin’!”
Pictured Frog holding a bow and saying above in Daffy duck voice.

I think it will be a good idea because it will let people know that there is an active presence by staff in game

would be awesome to see the old ‘dhuum’ killing players who have infracted policies be a visual reminder to other players that offences will not be taken lightly….but thats just me

Gaile Gray.6029:

who want blood.8765:

would be awesome to see the old ‘dhuum’ killing players who have infracted policies be a visual reminder to other players that offences will not be taken lightly….but thats just me

I dream — DREAM, I tell you — of the Return of Dhuum™ with his Awesome Scythe of Banning© action.

If it’s too politically incorrect for lore, then any other cross-cultural, non-denominational, black-hooded spiritual entity of unspecified origin will do.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Sorin.4310:

How detailed will these warnings be? Will it be more like “you need to stop what you are doing.” or more like "At ##:## you started “doing such” and is in violation due to “such rule”, or somewhere in between?

Will we be able to respond to the GM’s comment, assuming we are polite and courteous?

Let’s face it. If you’re engaging in a disallowed activity, you know it. So the message may be specific or it may be a little more generic, but in the end, we believe it’s a kindness to let you know “You’re doing something right now that needs to stop.” (As far as I know, the warnings will not come later, they’ll be at the time of the disallowed activity.)

No, you may not enter into a dialogue with the GM. You may, of course, contact Customer Support, which is what the message will direct you to do if you have questions.

Hopefully, players will be smart enough to recognize what they were doing and not try to engage in a huge exchange defending their misbehavior or arguing against a friendly warning. We have a lot of players with legitimate issues we’d like to help, rather than trying to quell a “No, i didn’t do it” or “But is that precisely wrong, or is it your fault?” sorts of discussions.

Any chance of having this policy enforced retroactively? I know I’ve got a couple friends whose accounts were terminated for the 2012 snowflake incident and they never got a warning/temporary suspension =(

Gaile Gray.6029:

who want blood.8765:

would be awesome to see the old ‘dhuum’ killing players who have infracted policies be a visual reminder to other players that offences will not be taken lightly….but thats just me

I dream — DREAM, I tell you — of the Return of Dhuum™ with his Awesome Scythe of Banning© action.

However, on the serious side, I should reiterate that the warnings will come in private chat (whispers) and will not be visible to others. So this is a confidential system that warns, without sending any sort of public message, verbal or visual.

While I really (really) wish Dhuum would return in his traditional role, I can understand why the confidential route was taken.

I’ve got to say though, I’m surprised he hasn’t made an appearance as a finisher yet.

Gaile Gray.6029:

No worries, we don’t rely on screenshots. We have a trump card: game logs, and they cannot be altered or fudged for personal reasons by someone trying to grief another player.

I’m wondering Gaile, what does the game logs consist? Replayable footage of an instance? Message, combat log? Other information on written form? I’m just curious : 3

Randulf.7614:

Gail..if you ever leave Anet for new pastures, please can I call shotgun on your Bow of the Mighty Slaughtering of Fools? (there is a gem store item or a unique weapon drop crying out though…)

Fine policy otherwise.

Ohh! The particle effect has GOT to be salty tears!!! And the sound effect! The sound effect should be the sad trumpet (Wah-Wah Wahhhhhh). YAYYYYY! Best legendary ever.

So next time when Woodenpotatoes breaks map he gets a bow or someone will close some eyes?

It seems you possess a very particular set of skills…

Anyway, can you please clarify for me- offensive chat?

We all slip occasionally, dropping a s- or f-. Is this okay as long as it isn’t malicious, excessive, or discriminatory?

Gaile Gray.6029:

[…]

I dream — DREAM, I tell you — of the Return of Dhuum™ with his Awesome Scythe of Banning© action.

However, on the serious side, I should reiterate that the warnings will come in private chat (whispers) and will not be visible to others. So this is a confidential system that warns, without sending any sort of public message, verbal or visual.

I say we go to Godslost swam and try to devise a ritual to bring him back. It’s unlikely he ever got destroyed, but just sealed, as you can’t kill ‘death itself’. Now that Zhaitan has been defeated, Death-attuned magic is not being constantly sucked anymore out of the ambient and so it should be possible to strengthen entities attuned to it like Dhuum or Grenth. Once we have the ritual, we wait until Halloween when the borders between Tyria and the Mists are weker and boon: Ban-scyther.

I would only ask that there be some disambiguation from the yellow/gold message that we see in Squad messages.

Despite my desire to remove the non-commander commanders from the game, It would be all far too easy for someone to see a commander tag, join their squad, then send a squad message along the lines of “You have received an infraction for…”.

Since you are warning people for doing bad things, how about occasionally using positive reinforcement in map chat to encourage great behavior? This may also have an impact on behaviors of the community and alert people to the presence of people observing.

Gaile Gray.6029:

If you cheat, your account is headed on a one-way trip to Termination Territory.

If that’s true, then why is the person I reported a few weeks ago still playing the game as of yesterday?

I wish a few honest players could get a “power” too, to have bigger effects on reported players/botters/gold sellers. Not like they could ban them, but like making a quicker way of acting against them or something similar. But I guess doesn’t matter how nice a player is, there would be always a high risk of abusing it.

After all, we players are who spot every one of these at the first place (most of the time, I guess so).
But maybe someone could come up with a good system for it. I’m not sure is such possible.

Gaile Gray.6029:

• Any mention of “Freedom of Speech”

Hello, Gaile. I think you’ll like this: http://xkcd.com/1357/ (especially the alt text)

hahaa “Prepair to meet you doom” Thats what I imagined while reading topic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfrOOv1izG4

I do hope it will eventually be made such that this gold text from GMs cannot be hidden like normal whispers. I rarely hide any chats, myself, but know players who often do, and this is clearly the kind of whisper that no one would want to miss.

I know you say the specifics aren’t up for discussion, but I must confess I’m made incredibly uncomfortable by this new system, given what appears to have been a heavy-handed approach to account terminations in past incidents. Perhaps offering warnings is actually something of a departure from that. However, like Vanthian somewhat more passionately touched on, my concern is that, by banning players for certain actions rather than promptly addressing/fixing the issues, players are put in a position in which they must be the party responsible for interpreting whether or not they are in breach of the design intentions of ANet. This can be a troublesome gray area.

(I recognize there is quite a difference between accident and willful abuse on the part of players, and I realize that fixes are not always easy and cannot necessarily be made quickly. I don’t mean to trivialize that. I understand ANet has to protect the integrity of the game and especially its economy.)

Anyways, thanks for the heads up to the change and your continued work, Gaile.

This would look even better with gw2 engine!

Gaile Gray.6029:

If you get a whisper in gold text, pay heed.

I think it is a bit odd that these whispers will be in gold (the guild/squad colors). As a person who finds color coding in UI very important, I believe that red (or bloody red, orange since bright red is already taken) could’ve been more appropriate. Red would both deliver the “danger”, “alert” message on subconscious level, and match ANet’s and GW2 logo colors.

Gaile Gray.6029:

None whatsoever. To go back and review thousands of suspensions to determine if they would have received a warning at the time, coupled with the impossibility of knowing if the warned player would have stopped the exploitative action takes such a retroactive review off the table completely.

Disappointing, but understandable. thanks for response.

Gaile Gray.6029:

This is an excellent point. I will look into the colors, but I’m told they are substantially different.

I think screen shot examples would be beneficial. Just so we can be sure of what we’re looking for.

In an ideal world, I’d like to see these colors customizable. As a partially colorblind player I’ve had issues before with colors (such as red AoE rings on green terrain, meaning they’re practically invisible to me). But I know it’s not an ideal world, so just seeing the difference would, I think, be helpful.

Here is an example of what a GM message would look like: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/10-mins-commanding-FR-zerg-and-being-reported/page/2#post4335926

Nkuvu.2570:

Gaile Gray.6029:

This is an excellent point. I will look into the colors, but I’m told they are substantially different.

I think screen shot examples would be beneficial. Just so we can be sure of what we’re looking for.

In an ideal world, I’d like to see these colors customizable. As a partially colorblind player I’ve had issues before with colors (such as red AoE rings on green terrain, meaning they’re practically invisible to me). But I know it’s not an ideal world, so just seeing the difference would, I think, be helpful.

(From another thread where a Dev supplied a screenshot):

I meant side by side, actually. I’ve never seen a “squad” message, so I really don’t know what color that might be in comparison to the GM whisper.

Thanks for the link, though (from two different people, even, whee). I hadn’t seen that bit.