Guild Wars 2

Forum bug, she’s on it.

Sytherek.7689:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Sytherek.7689:

Chris Cleary.8017:

There are some very valid comments here, and addressing concerns with facts may be the best way to do this. We always try to be the most open and honest with our community, so here it goes.

<snip>

You didn’t say anything about false positives.

ANet has killed accounts over false positives. I know, because it happened to my eldest daughter. Sure, ANet undid their action on her account, but it was, if nothing else, excessively annoying to be accused and banned completely falsely.

I commonly send my wife’s account hundreds of gold, which I either earn or buy with gems. Are those transactions going to be flagged by historically inaccurate algorithms?

I’d be more comfortable with direct, honest answers to those concerns.

There is no system in the world that completely avoids false positives. (Turns out to be a mathematical certainty.) Drug tests, polygraphs, chemical assays, and RMT tests — they all result in some amount of false positives. There’s a balance among time/effort, number of false positives, # of false negatives, ease of use, and implementation difficulty. ANet, like any other service provider, has to weight the pros/cons of each element of their system and for a business, that’s always going to mean erring on the side of catching as many as possible, while suffering a few falsely accused.

So all that’s left for them is making the inconvenience to those accused as small and short-lasting as possible.

I feel bad that your family was affected, but I’m not sure what else ANet could do to avoid it, outside of letting RMTs/botters/etc run rampant.

Balance. Tricky, but a worthy goal. ANet can control RMT without resorting to baseless “accidental” banning of players.

In the United States, we have this thing called “due process”. It’s not perfect, but it’s a heck of a lot better than ANet’s autocratic rule. Now, I’m well aware that a game isn’t bound by any external national rights, and I can live with that, and even support ANet’s attitude on subjects like free speech.

I don’t support traumatizing little girl fans with false accusations. It’s bad for business, and that should concern ANet.

The daughter is now in her mid-twenties and an educated, successful pro artist. Her experience with ANet may be water under the bridge, but neither of us want to see a little girl get banned over over-zealous enforcement of rules about fake money. Gold buyers have zero affect on my enjoyment of the game; banning my daughter falsely did.

My attitude is less about past wrongs and more about preventing them in the future.

And how many stories of people released after being wrongly convicted have you heard of? I have heard of a fair number so even in the American justice system, there are false positives.

Now could they look at the algorithm to make sure that that number is as low as it can be and not let too many false negatives happen? Yes. But they can’t reduce it to zero.

Seera.5916:

Sytherek.7689:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Sytherek.7689:

Chris Cleary.8017:

There are some very valid comments here, and addressing concerns with facts may be the best way to do this. We always try to be the most open and honest with our community, so here it goes.

<snip>

You didn’t say anything about false positives.

ANet has killed accounts over false positives. I know, because it happened to my eldest daughter. Sure, ANet undid their action on her account, but it was, if nothing else, excessively annoying to be accused and banned completely falsely.

I commonly send my wife’s account hundreds of gold, which I either earn or buy with gems. Are those transactions going to be flagged by historically inaccurate algorithms?

I’d be more comfortable with direct, honest answers to those concerns.

There is no system in the world that completely avoids false positives. (Turns out to be a mathematical certainty.) Drug tests, polygraphs, chemical assays, and RMT tests — they all result in some amount of false positives. There’s a balance among time/effort, number of false positives, # of false negatives, ease of use, and implementation difficulty. ANet, like any other service provider, has to weight the pros/cons of each element of their system and for a business, that’s always going to mean erring on the side of catching as many as possible, while suffering a few falsely accused.

So all that’s left for them is making the inconvenience to those accused as small and short-lasting as possible.

I feel bad that your family was affected, but I’m not sure what else ANet could do to avoid it, outside of letting RMTs/botters/etc run rampant.

Balance. Tricky, but a worthy goal. ANet can control RMT without resorting to baseless “accidental” banning of players.

In the United States, we have this thing called “due process”. It’s not perfect, but it’s a heck of a lot better than ANet’s autocratic rule. Now, I’m well aware that a game isn’t bound by any external national rights, and I can live with that, and even support ANet’s attitude on subjects like free speech.

I don’t support traumatizing little girl fans with false accusations. It’s bad for business, and that should concern ANet.

The daughter is now in her mid-twenties and an educated, successful pro artist. Her experience with ANet may be water under the bridge, but neither of us want to see a little girl get banned over over-zealous enforcement of rules about fake money. Gold buyers have zero affect on my enjoyment of the game; banning my daughter falsely did.

My attitude is less about past wrongs and more about preventing them in the future.

And how many stories of people released after being wrongly convicted have you heard of? I have heard of a fair number so even in the American justice system, there are false positives.

Now could they look at the algorithm to make sure that that number is as low as it can be and not let too many false negatives happen? Yes. But they can’t reduce it to zero.

I don’t expect zero false positives. In fact, I said the exact opposite.

I do expect them to minimize the chance of mistakes.

In the past, their automated bans have been sloppy. The inevitability of mistakes is not an excuse for being lazy in making them.

I hope your RMT detection got better. I was banned wrongfully twice for RMT already. Next time I want a Mini Mystical Dragon for compensation.

applecup.3047:

Chaba.5410:

Chris Cleary.8017:

(please use Mobile Authenticator, PLEASE!).

I honestly wish two-step authentication was just an SMS text message sent to my phone. Yes, I’m lame and do not pay for a data plan on a phone, let alone have a phone that runs modern mobile apps.

If you don’t have a smartphone, you can always use a desktop app which supports googleauth (the system GW2 uses). There’s really no excuse.

A desktop app? Where? Not a third-party thing is it?

Wiz.1543:

Blude.6812:

One thing, I wouldn’t use the the buy gold competitive edge argument. Many but lots of gold legally from the TP with real money (gems) and gold to gem exchange.

I don’t think you really understand what a competitive advantage is.

Gold sellers tend to be cheaper then buying gold trough gems the legit way. So you get more gold per dollar/euro/ruble spent.

Edit a 2014 graph of black market exchange rates and official ones:
https://www.gw2tp.com/blackmarket This is my favorite TP site.

I realize that gold sellers are cheaper, however
A competitive advantage is getting whatever stuff regardless of the exchange rate/cost, be it in game stuff or hardware. You can do it legally or not. It depends on your honesty and morals 1st. Your wallet second.The issue is ANET loses money because of gold sellers and is going to do something about it.

Chaba.5410:

applecup.3047:

Chaba.5410:

Chris Cleary.8017:

(please use Mobile Authenticator, PLEASE!).

I honestly wish two-step authentication was just an SMS text message sent to my phone. Yes, I’m lame and do not pay for a data plan on a phone, let alone have a phone that runs modern mobile apps.

If you don’t have a smartphone, you can always use a desktop app which supports googleauth (the system GW2 uses). There’s really no excuse.

A desktop app? Where? Not a third-party thing is it?

https://www.google.com/search?q=google%20authenticator%20for%20desktop

There’s one that’s a chrome plugin, and winauth/gauth4win that I’ve heard of (but never used either)

Blude.6812:

Wiz.1543:

Blude.6812:

One thing, I wouldn’t use the the buy gold competitive edge argument. Many but lots of gold legally from the TP with real money (gems) and gold to gem exchange.

I don’t think you really understand what a competitive advantage is.

Gold sellers tend to be cheaper then buying gold trough gems the legit way. So you get more gold per dollar/euro/ruble spent.

Edit a 2014 graph of black market exchange rates and official ones:
https://www.gw2tp.com/blackmarket This is my favorite TP site.

I realize that gold sellers are cheaper, however
A competitive advantage is getting whatever stuff regardless of the exchange rate/cost, be it in game stuff or hardware. You can do it legally or not. It depends on your honesty and morals 1st. Your wallet second.The issue is ANET loses money because of gold sellers and is going to do something about it.

I am not so sure about sellers being cheaper.
Checked out a couple of sites (I won’t link them)
The prices (In USD) for 100g was $11.00 , $11.63, $13.75, $12.46, $10.30.

With the current exchange rates (according to GW2 Spidy) 1g is $0.11. Thats 100g for $11.00. 2 out of 5 sites either matched or beat that prices, but not so much that it’s a huge savings.
So it’s not only not cost effective in many cases, but is it worth the risk of getting banned and losing $60?

I applaud this post. It’s good to hear that more enforcement will be done against gold buyers. I dream of a day when honest players don’t have to have caps on their wealth. It’s nice to know that after all these years of reporting RMT bots is paying off somewhat.

I still don’t agree with the caps and would hope that you guys would implement a way for us to store gold in our personal banks again. The only reason I can see for its removal is that you always wanted us to have our gold on our characters so we would spend it.

I don’t want to spend it. I want to hoard it like a dragon would. In my personal bank that is like my simile of a dragon cave with all of my golds in it.

Behellagh.1468:

Hmm, lets check that annoying RMT site we keep getting ads for. 1000g on sale for $120, down from $129. That $120 buys 9600 gems which is about 936g where $129 would be 10320 gems or about 1000g. Ignoring the new delivery problems, the big annoying RMT isn’t really offering much of a deal nowadays.

So why the frowns RMT users. ANet provides a similar safe service, with ease picking up your cash bought gold, while being only 6% less than the RMT with the possible shaddy gold supply. So …

Have gems crashed overnight? I was curious so I just had a look… Gem exchange currently has 2000 gems turning into ~333g. That means you’d need only a meagre 6000 gems for ~1000g. I’m in the EU so I can’t compare to actual ANet $ price tags, but with 4k gems at €50 and 8k gems at €100 that works out at €75 for ~1000g right now. (At current exchange rates that’s around $80-85.)

I may be missing something, but doesn’t this actually make ANet the cheaper option? Sounds like illegal gold buyers are getting a really bad deal!

The exchange rate will spike in favor of gem purchasers when popular gemstore content is released due to many people competing to buy the incoming gems with their personal gold (roughly stated). You can get 50% more gold or better if you time it right.

Yay! thank goodness!!!!

Shazbawt in action <3 http://gfycat.com/AgonizingGrimGoldenmantledgroundsquirrel

Lady Elvea.2847:

Behellagh.1468:

Hmm, lets check that annoying RMT site we keep getting ads for. 1000g on sale for $120, down from $129. That $120 buys 9600 gems which is about 936g where $129 would be 10320 gems or about 1000g. Ignoring the new delivery problems, the big annoying RMT isn’t really offering much of a deal nowadays.

So why the frowns RMT users. ANet provides a similar safe service, with ease picking up your cash bought gold, while being only 6% less than the RMT with the possible shaddy gold supply. So …

Have gems crashed overnight? I was curious so I just had a look… Gem exchange currently has 2000 gems turning into ~333g. That means you’d need only a meagre 6000 gems for ~1000g. I’m in the EU so I can’t compare to actual ANet $ price tags, but with 4k gems at €50 and 8k gems at €100 that works out at €75 for ~1000g right now. (At current exchange rates that’s around $80-85.)

I may be missing something, but doesn’t this actually make ANet the cheaper option? Sounds like illegal gold buyers are getting a really bad deal!

Right now big RMT is 1000 gold for $110. 8800 gems ($110) is 970 gold.

BTW, GW2Spidy Exchange Rates are off, by a lot and have been off since early August 2014. A simple check at the in game Gem Exchange will show this. The Gold->Gem rate is too high and the Gem->Gold rate is too low.

Behellagh.1468:

BTW, GW2Spidy Exchange Rates are off, by a lot and have been off since early August 2014. A simple check at the in game Gem Exchange will show this. The Gold->Gem rate is too high and the Gem->Gold rate is too low.

Sorry but i’m not a native english speaking person, and i really don’t understand
what “off” means in this relation (can’t mean offline, right ?) .

The graphs on Spidey looks like the graphs on GW2TP to me, so it seems they both
are working.

I’m guessing off, as in inaccurate.

The solution it’s very simple, just make all gold account bound.

It’s so simple!

Chris Cleary.8017:

“So why announce this now?”
Guild Wars 2 has been out for almost 3 years now, and during that time it has become increasingly clear that relationships have been established between some players and the RMT market. That relationship has become a somewhat reliable one and players who purchase from RMT are likely to continue that trend. By increasing our enforcement of this, we intend to break that relationship now and forever. Buying from RMT will no longer be anywhere near as safe as it was before, it’s time for gold buyers to say goodbye to their RMT friends.

I have issues with this comment as a honest player I can’t help but feel insulted by it. Anet was already well aware of how rampant bots & RTM traders were in GW1 which is one reason why the 55 Monk was killed, RIP, plus many farming nerfs. Also one reason why Anet gave us a legit route with gems to gold conversion in GW2!
While I’m glad the crackdown is coming in huge ways……….. BUT!

1. Little too late as this should have been done since day 1.
a. Many players already decked out their accounts with 1 or more legendaries and other items, the ones that didn’t get caught got a free pass in a way.
b. Lack of enforcement encouraged this RTM behavior to go on and flourish throughout the game effecting prices on TP and affecting outcome of some WvWvW tournaments.

The MMO industry as a whole created this RTM problem with how they allow so much to be traded through their games via mail or through person to person trades. It‘s going to take the MMO industry to come up with a solution to drive RTM out of business for good.

For GW2 I have no problems if Anet made it so gold can’t be mailed same for items over master work (green items) while keeping guild bank limits in place.

Behellagh.1468:

Lady Elvea.2847:

Behellagh.1468:

Hmm, lets check that annoying RMT site we keep getting ads for. 1000g on sale for $120, down from $129. That $120 buys 9600 gems which is about 936g where $129 would be 10320 gems or about 1000g. Ignoring the new delivery problems, the big annoying RMT isn’t really offering much of a deal nowadays.

So why the frowns RMT users. ANet provides a similar safe service, with ease picking up your cash bought gold, while being only 6% less than the RMT with the possible shaddy gold supply. So …

Have gems crashed overnight? I was curious so I just had a look… Gem exchange currently has 2000 gems turning into ~333g. That means you’d need only a meagre 6000 gems for ~1000g. I’m in the EU so I can’t compare to actual ANet $ price tags, but with 4k gems at €50 and 8k gems at €100 that works out at €75 for ~1000g right now. (At current exchange rates that’s around $80-85.)

I may be missing something, but doesn’t this actually make ANet the cheaper option? Sounds like illegal gold buyers are getting a really bad deal!

Right now big RMT is 1000 gold for $110. 8800 gems ($110) is 970 gold.

No. My figures came directly off the in-game gem>gold exchange and when I checked yesterday, 2000 gems were worth ~333g. (Today it’s ~341g.) That means you’d only need 6000 gems, not 8800, to get ~1000g from the TP directly.

Colour me confused, but are there multiple exchanges?

In any case, illegal gold buyers… looks like you can get a better deal directly through ANet and you won’t be risking your account doing it. Go donate some money for HoT development!

Beldin.5498:

Behellagh.1468:

BTW, GW2Spidy Exchange Rates are off, by a lot and have been off since early August 2014. A simple check at the in game Gem Exchange will show this. The Gold->Gem rate is too high and the Gem->Gold rate is too low.

Sorry but i’m not a native english speaking person, and i really don’t understand
what “off” means in this relation (can’t mean offline, right ?) .

The graphs on Spidey looks like the graphs on GW2TP to me, so it seems they both
are working.

Off meaning inaccurate. All values are within a couple of minutes of 20:37 UTC. Remember the rates are shifting all the time.

Gold to Gem rate per 100 gems.

GW2TP – 17.12g
GW2Spidy – 18.64g
The API – 17.69g
In Game Exchange – 17.50g (when converting 100 gems)

Gem to Gold rate per 100 gems.

GW2Spidy – 11.26g
The API – 12.60g
In Game Exchange – 12.50g (when converting 18g)

So the question is who do you use, who is more accurate when looking up rates.

For gold to gems – % difference from in game Gem Exchange

GW2TP – 97.8%
GW2Spidy – 106.5%
API – 101.1%

For gems to gold

GW2Spidy – 90.1%
API – 100.8%

Also the ratio between the two rates (Gem to Gold/Gold to Gem) on GW2Spidy has grown.

In July 2014 it was 72.24%. Pretty much the same gap since GW2Spidy started tracking. By Sept 2014 it expanded to 66.53%. Now it’s 60.4%. You can see that the actual exchange data it’s roughly 71.4% and the API is 71.2%.

That’s why I say the data from GW2Spidy for gems is inaccurate. It lists converson to gems at a higher rate, conversion to gold at a lower rate. While GW2TP only updates every 30 minutes, it is much closer to the Gold to Gem rate than GW2Spidy is.

Lady Elvea.2847:

Behellagh.1468:

Lady Elvea.2847:

Behellagh.1468:

Hmm, lets check that annoying RMT site we keep getting ads for. 1000g on sale for $120, down from $129. That $120 buys 9600 gems which is about 936g where $129 would be 10320 gems or about 1000g. Ignoring the new delivery problems, the big annoying RMT isn’t really offering much of a deal nowadays.

So why the frowns RMT users. ANet provides a similar safe service, with ease picking up your cash bought gold, while being only 6% less than the RMT with the possible shaddy gold supply. So …

Have gems crashed overnight? I was curious so I just had a look… Gem exchange currently has 2000 gems turning into ~333g. That means you’d need only a meagre 6000 gems for ~1000g. I’m in the EU so I can’t compare to actual ANet $ price tags, but with 4k gems at €50 and 8k gems at €100 that works out at €75 for ~1000g right now. (At current exchange rates that’s around $80-85.)

I may be missing something, but doesn’t this actually make ANet the cheaper option? Sounds like illegal gold buyers are getting a really bad deal!

Right now big RMT is 1000 gold for $110. 8800 gems ($110) is 970 gold.

No. My figures came directly off the in-game gem>gold exchange and when I checked yesterday, 2000 gems were worth ~333g. (Today it’s ~341g.) That means you’d only need 6000 gems, not 8800, to get ~1000g from the TP directly.

Colour me confused, but are there multiple exchanges?

In any case, illegal gold buyers… looks like you can get a better deal directly through ANet and you won’t be risking your account doing it. Go donate some money for HoT development!

I’m at the Gem Exchange right now. 999 gold is 8058 gems … 8040 gems … 8023 gems … 8012 gems … etc, it’s always changing. It looks to me you are looking at the Gold to Gem exchange rate and not the Gem to Gold which is 28-29% less. 2000 gems cost around 345g at the moment.

Gold Sellers: Selling in-game gold which was earned rightfully by a player(s).
Gold Buyers: Player(s) taking advantage of the benefits Gold Sellers provide.

Question that arises to me is why is Anet focusing on this issue when there are plenty more to tend to?

How does this effect Anet?

Correct me if I’m wrong but the only possible logical answer I can come up with is…

Ok, say we start banning Gold Buyers and Gold Sellers. What have we eliminated? That transaction between players. What have we gained? More revenue. Players of the game will now prefer to go online or to their local store that sells gems and purchase redeemable codes for gems.

This only seems to me to be a valiant act to gain more money from the players. In my opinion.

…This is not to include players who are actual real life friends. One of the said friends is a “PvE grinder” and other is “PvP/WvW’er”. It goes unsaid who makes more money playing Gw2 between the friend. PvP friend receives in-game mail from PvE friend as result of a conversation they had in real life and now they’re both banned because they were, in a sense, “labeled”.

Good luck handling this Anet.

sssstrick.9283:

Gold Sellers: Selling in-game gold which was earned rightfully by a player(s).
Gold Buyers: Player(s) taking advantage of the benefits Gold Sellers provide.

Question that arises to me is why is Anet focusing on this issue when there are plenty more to tend to?

How does this effect Anet?

Correct me if I’m wrong but the only possible logical answer I can come up with is…

Ok, say we start banning Gold Buyers and Gold Sellers. What have we eliminated? That transaction between players. What have we gained? More revenue. Players of the game will now prefer to go online or to their local store that sells gems and purchase redeemable codes for gems.

This only seems to me to be a valiant act to gain more money from the players. In my opinion.

…This is not to include players who are actual real life friends. One of the said friends is a “PvE grinder” and other is “PvP/WvW’er”. It goes unsaid who makes more money playing Gw2 between the friend. PvP friend receives in-game mail from PvE friend as result of a conversation they had in real life and now they’re both banned because they were, in a sense, “labeled”.

Good luck handling this Anet.

In your example, is the pvper paying real monet for in-game gold? If so, yes they both should be banned because such things are against the ToS.
Is the PvE player giving a gift? Then they are within their rights to do so, and the ToS and system allows for them to do just that.

Eliminating RMT sellers and buyers alike both harm the games economy, the gold to gem exchange rates, and preys upon, and encourages hacking accounts. Its also protects Anets assets, which is their right, and also protects their investors. And as a business they should want to get more players to spend more money. Theres nothing wrong with that. It doesn’t make them greedy, its how a business is run.

sssstrick.9283:

Gold Sellers: Selling in-game gold which was earned rightfully by a player(s).
Gold Buyers: Player(s) taking advantage of the benefits Gold Sellers provide.

Question that arises to me is why is Anet focusing on this issue when there are plenty more to tend to?

How does this effect Anet?

Correct me if I’m wrong but the only possible logical answer I can come up with is…

Ok, say we start banning Gold Buyers and Gold Sellers. What have we eliminated? That transaction between players. What have we gained? More revenue. Players of the game will now prefer to go online or to their local store that sells gems and purchase redeemable codes for gems.

This only seems to me to be a valiant act to gain more money from the players. In my opinion.

…This is not to include players who are actual real life friends. One of the said friends is a “PvE grinder” and other is “PvP/WvW’er”. It goes unsaid who makes more money playing Gw2 between the friend. PvP friend receives in-game mail from PvE friend as result of a conversation they had in real life and now they’re both banned because they were, in a sense, “labeled”.

Good luck handling this Anet.

You do realize that gold sellers get their gold from nefarious sources, right?

Botting, hacking other players accounts to liquidate and mail off all of their gold, scamming, etc.

And not removing the ill gotten goods from the buyer, adds money to the system, increasing the rate of inflation.

And engaging in RMT is against the TOS, which all players agreed to before being able to play. So ANet is well within their rights to ban anyone and everyone who engages in RMT.

Chris Cleary.8017:

Hey all,

We have been fairly relaxed since launch on players purchasing wealth from “Real Money Traders”, but that stops now. We will be taking a very active stance against RMT buyers from here on out.

The purchasing of wealth from these “Real Money Traders” violates our Rules of Conduct. These traders are often a cause for fraud, hacking, and identity theft.

Repercussions from purchasing wealth can result in removal of wealth and continued purchasing could result in action against your account including temporary suspension or permanent ban from the game.

All I can say is why the heck wasn’t that the stance from day one?!?!

Behellagh.1468:

Off meaning inaccurate. All values are within a couple of minutes of 20:37 UTC. Remember the rates are shifting all the time.

Gold to Gem rate per 100 gems.

GW2TP – 17.12g
GW2Spidy – 18.64g
The API – 17.69g
In Game Exchange – 17.50g (when converting 100 gems)

Gem to Gold rate per 100 gems.

GW2Spidy – 11.26g
The API – 12.60g
In Game Exchange – 12.50g (when converting 18g)

So the question is who do you use, who is more accurate when looking up rates.

In the end i just look at gw2tp for the graph to see the history that we no longer
have directly ingame. Then if i see gems price is down i check it directly ingame
to see what 1000 gems cost.

as for the gold xfer limitation on new accounts, just convert the Gold into T6 Mats and transfer them that way. Sure you lose a little bit, but thats what has been working for me.

And my new 2nd account is now 2 months old and STILL has the gold limitation on it :-)

sssstrick.9283:

Gold Sellers: Selling in-game gold which was earned rightfully by a player(s).
Gold Buyers: Player(s) taking advantage of the benefits Gold Sellers provide.

Question that arises to me is why is Anet focusing on this issue when there are plenty more to tend to?

How does this effect Anet?

Correct me if I’m wrong but the only possible logical answer I can come up with is…

Ok, say we start banning Gold Buyers and Gold Sellers. What have we eliminated? That transaction between players. What have we gained? More revenue. Players of the game will now prefer to go online or to their local store that sells gems and purchase redeemable codes for gems.

This only seems to me to be a valiant act to gain more money from the players. In my opinion.

…This is not to include players who are actual real life friends. One of the said friends is a “PvE grinder” and other is “PvP/WvW’er”. It goes unsaid who makes more money playing Gw2 between the friend. PvP friend receives in-game mail from PvE friend as result of a conversation they had in real life and now they’re both banned because they were, in a sense, “labeled”.

Good luck handling this Anet.

1. It pollutes the Gold/TP economy
2. It takes money directly out of Anets coffers when Players are paying RM for Gold, but not through the Gem store (Gem to Gold conversion)

that is why, and it has needed to be addressed since launch. We do NOT need to see a gold/silver cost hike on general items like it has hit in other games like WoW.

And if it doesn’t get controlled its just a matter of time before your level 20-40 greens are 20-30g each.

Currently, 120-200G is A LOT of gold. But if the RM sellers/buyers are left alone eventually that 120G is going to be come equivalent to 12silver.

So if somebody hates you he can go buy some gold and put your name as recipient so you get banned? It is a bit exaggerated i know but there is a possibility or not?

I hope their algorithms and how they decide it’s gold selling is improved. My main account got a ban once for gold selling when I loaned gold to a friend to get the Gold title. Our chat had several minutes of discussion about it and all gold was returned a few seconds after the trade and I still got banned and had to contact support.

Kanalreiniger.8209:

So if somebody hates you he can go buy some gold and put your name as recipient so you get banned? It is a bit exaggerated i know but there is a possibility or not?

in theory yep

Kanalreiniger.8209:

So if somebody hates you he can go buy some gold and put your name as recipient so you get banned? It is a bit exaggerated i know but there is a possibility or not?

probably not actually. Anets server logs are pretty extensive.

They MIGHT suspend your account during the investigation, but the player who buys the gold and sends it to you will be banned. As you didnt buy gold.

Kanalreiniger.8209:

So if somebody hates you he can go buy some gold and put your name as recipient so you get banned? It is a bit exaggerated i know but there is a possibility or not?

If you get a large sum of gold in the mail that you are not expecting, return to sender.

sirsquishy.8531:

Kanalreiniger.8209:

So if somebody hates you he can go buy some gold and put your name as recipient so you get banned? It is a bit exaggerated i know but there is a possibility or not?

probably not actually. Anets server logs are pretty extensive.

They MIGHT suspend your account during the investigation, but the player who buys the gold and sends it to you will be banned. As you didnt buy gold.

He said someone could buy gold and set you as the recipient. Not Person x buys it and receives it and then sends it to person y. Person X buys it and tells the gold seller to send it to Y. There is no way for Anet to know if X or Y bought the gold since they cant look into your bank transactions.

Malediktus.9250:

sirsquishy.8531:

Kanalreiniger.8209:

So if somebody hates you he can go buy some gold and put your name as recipient so you get banned? It is a bit exaggerated i know but there is a possibility or not?

probably not actually. Anets server logs are pretty extensive.

They MIGHT suspend your account during the investigation, but the player who buys the gold and sends it to you will be banned. As you didnt buy gold.

He said someone could buy gold and set you as the recipient. Not Person x buys it and receives it and then sends it to person y. Person X buys it and tells the gold seller to send it to Y. There is no way for Anet to know if X or Y bought the gold since they cant look into your bank transactions.

True, however if I were to randomly recieve a large sum of gold with no warning, for an unknown account, with a message saying “Thank you for using XYZ gold!!”, I would send it back, and report the sender. But thats just me…

Behellagh.1468:

Lady Elvea.2847:

Behellagh.1468:

Lady Elvea.2847:

Behellagh.1468:

Hmm, lets check that annoying RMT site we keep getting ads for. 1000g on sale for $120, down from $129. That $120 buys 9600 gems which is about 936g where $129 would be 10320 gems or about 1000g. Ignoring the new delivery problems, the big annoying RMT isn’t really offering much of a deal nowadays.

So why the frowns RMT users. ANet provides a similar safe service, with ease picking up your cash bought gold, while being only 6% less than the RMT with the possible shaddy gold supply. So …

Have gems crashed overnight? I was curious so I just had a look… Gem exchange currently has 2000 gems turning into ~333g. That means you’d need only a meagre 6000 gems for ~1000g. I’m in the EU so I can’t compare to actual ANet $ price tags, but with 4k gems at €50 and 8k gems at €100 that works out at €75 for ~1000g right now. (At current exchange rates that’s around $80-85.)

I may be missing something, but doesn’t this actually make ANet the cheaper option? Sounds like illegal gold buyers are getting a really bad deal!

Right now big RMT is 1000 gold for $110. 8800 gems ($110) is 970 gold.

No. My figures came directly off the in-game gem>gold exchange and when I checked yesterday, 2000 gems were worth ~333g. (Today it’s ~341g.) That means you’d only need 6000 gems, not 8800, to get ~1000g from the TP directly.

Colour me confused, but are there multiple exchanges?

In any case, illegal gold buyers… looks like you can get a better deal directly through ANet and you won’t be risking your account doing it. Go donate some money for HoT development!

I’m at the Gem Exchange right now. 999 gold is 8058 gems … 8040 gems … 8023 gems … 8012 gems … etc, it’s always changing. It looks to me you are looking at the Gold to Gem exchange rate and not the Gem to Gold which is 28-29% less. 2000 gems cost around 345g at the moment.

Nope, I was looking at Gem to Gold, just like you. I know it fluctuates, but not generally by more than a few gold, day to day, when there are no special offers or such to increase demand for gems. Which is why I wondered how it could be possible that I see 2000 gems can be traded for X gold, and you see the same 2000 gems can be traded to get Y gold, with a difference too significant to be explained away by normal fluctuations.

Lady Elvea.2847:

Behellagh.1468:

Lady Elvea.2847:

Behellagh.1468:

Lady Elvea.2847:

Behellagh.1468:

Hmm, lets check that annoying RMT site we keep getting ads for. 1000g on sale for $120, down from $129. That $120 buys 9600 gems which is about 936g where $129 would be 10320 gems or about 1000g. Ignoring the new delivery problems, the big annoying RMT isn’t really offering much of a deal nowadays.

So why the frowns RMT users. ANet provides a similar safe service, with ease picking up your cash bought gold, while being only 6% less than the RMT with the possible shaddy gold supply. So …

Have gems crashed overnight? I was curious so I just had a look… Gem exchange currently has 2000 gems turning into ~333g. That means you’d need only a meagre 6000 gems for ~1000g. I’m in the EU so I can’t compare to actual ANet $ price tags, but with 4k gems at €50 and 8k gems at €100 that works out at €75 for ~1000g right now. (At current exchange rates that’s around $80-85.)

I may be missing something, but doesn’t this actually make ANet the cheaper option? Sounds like illegal gold buyers are getting a really bad deal!

Right now big RMT is 1000 gold for $110. 8800 gems ($110) is 970 gold.

No. My figures came directly off the in-game gem>gold exchange and when I checked yesterday, 2000 gems were worth ~333g. (Today it’s ~341g.) That means you’d only need 6000 gems, not 8800, to get ~1000g from the TP directly.

Colour me confused, but are there multiple exchanges?

In any case, illegal gold buyers… looks like you can get a better deal directly through ANet and you won’t be risking your account doing it. Go donate some money for HoT development!

I’m at the Gem Exchange right now. 999 gold is 8058 gems … 8040 gems … 8023 gems … 8012 gems … etc, it’s always changing. It looks to me you are looking at the Gold to Gem exchange rate and not the Gem to Gold which is 28-29% less. 2000 gems cost around 345g at the moment.

Nope, I was looking at Gem to Gold, just like you. I know it fluctuates, but not generally by more than a few gold, day to day, when there are no special offers or such to increase demand for gems. Which is why I wondered how it could be possible that I see 2000 gems can be traded for X gold, and you see the same 2000 gems can be traded to get Y gold, with a difference too significant to be explained away by normal fluctuations.

Sorry to disagree but you couldn’t be.

Below is a screen shot the exchange I took moments ago. It shows 999 gold costing 8865 gems while 8865 gems cost 1402.5 gold and change. Normalize that to your 2000 gem number and you get 316.4g. Normalizing to 1000 gold and you get 6321 gems. But the buying gold with gems side of the exchange clearly shows it costing 8865 and not 6321 gems.

Ergo you were using the wrong side of the exchange. It’s not terribly clear since they revamped it but the left side is for buying gold where you list the amount of gold you want and it lists the cost in gems while the right side you list the amount of gems you want and it liest the cost in gold.

The old exchange you list want you wanted to spend and it told you want you would receive. Now it’s bass ackwards.

This sucks, I only started playing GW2 3 months ago and have saved up every single penny I earned. I now have 300 gold, and that is nowhere near enough to get me a twilight. I was thinking about getting RMT gold, and it seems to hit late joiners like me worse than others

EsotericJohn.1768:

This sucks, I only started playing GW2 3 months ago and have saved up every single penny I earned. I now have 300 gold, and that is nowhere near enough to get me a twilight. I was thinking about getting RMT gold, and it seems to hit late joiners like me worse than others

So you were thinking about breaking the ToS and now you won’t do it simply because they have said they will remove the gold? It have been against the ToS since release after all.

EsotericJohn.1768:

This sucks, I only started playing GW2 3 months ago and have saved up every single penny I earned. I now have 300 gold, and that is nowhere near enough to get me a twilight. I was thinking about getting RMT gold, and it seems to hit late joiners like me worse than others

Wow! I do hope you were joking around. If not, this is why all the restrictions have been put in place. /smh

EsotericJohn.1768:

This sucks, I only started playing GW2 3 months ago and have saved up every single penny I earned. I now have 300 gold, and that is nowhere near enough to get me a twilight. I was thinking about getting RMT gold, and it seems to hit late joiners like me worse than others

Late joiner? I’ve been playing this game since beta weekend 1 and still don’t have a legendary.

EsotericJohn.1768:

This sucks, I only started playing GW2 3 months ago and have saved up every single penny I earned. I now have 300 gold, and that is nowhere near enough to get me a twilight. I was thinking about getting RMT gold, and it seems to hit late joiners like me worse than others

You can buy gems and exchange them for Gold. Depending on whats up for sale in gemshop you can get even more Gold than you get from goldsellers at no risk of being punished.

EsotericJohn.1768:

This sucks, I only started playing GW2 3 months ago and have saved up every single penny I earned. I now have 300 gold, and that is nowhere near enough to get me a twilight. I was thinking about getting RMT gold, and it seems to hit late joiners like me worse than others

Congratulations, you can still get your gold. By purchasing gems and using the exchange. Problem solved.

When you remove gold from someone’s account do you notify them as such or do you expect all of your players to maintain accounting of their in-game gold total to protect themselves from being falsely identified as an RMTer?

From some of the posts I’ve seen on the forums, it sounds like the gold was just removed without any sort of notification to tell them it was because of RMT. That is dangerous to the rest of us. Some of us may have already lost gold to stealth removals and not even realized it to be able to protest. It certainly does nothing to make us feel that the integrity of our accounts is safe. There needs to be a “paper trail” so that we can see when action is being taken against our accounts, even if we will hopefully never have to see it.

So while I agree with the intent, I think “zealous” is the word I would use to describe the current implementation of this enforcement policy. There is simply not enough protection against false positives nor information being provided to affected accounts.

I will note that the timing of this seems to coincide with a recent wave of GW1 bans since the start of the year that appears to have affected hundreds of users, many of which were false positives and people had to wait for weeks to be unbanned because the GW1 skeleton crew could not handle the volume of requests, and are now being handled here on the GW2 support forum. I certainly hope that your accuracy has improved.

^

I agree that the account should get an email stating gold was removed because of RMT. No offense, but since my main account was banned once for “gold selling” I’m a little suspicious of ANet’s ability to correctly see transactions.

I can see the new phishing emails now. ‘Your account has had Gold removed. Clink this lick to have it restorred now!’

I imagine RMT Gold removal will work like any action on a player’s account: An action is taken, and if the player wishes to find out more about said action, they must contact the CS Team.

(I was ‘permanently banned’ for Gold-selling as well, so I understand the CS Team can make mistakes. The only thing I would request [and Gaile had said they would address this, but they have yet to] is the wording and tone of the [automated-like] responses when submitting and corresponding requests for assistance about such false positives.)

If I receive a mail with free gold I’m taking it, but that’s me.

BilboBaggins.5620:

If I receive a mail with free gold I’m taking it, but that’s me.

Not me. Not now, not ever. Unless i know who sent it.

BilboBaggins.5620:

If I receive a mail with free gold I’m taking it, but that’s me.

Why?

If you do that in real life (at least in my country) you can get some rather nice jail-time for that.