Guild Wars 2

This is an issue I’ve been having since I installed the game on my laptop. I went through a lot since GW2 was released. I bought it within the week of release and since then, my laptop and I have been through an "interesting" journey to say the least. Anyway, I’ve finally managed to replace my old laptop with a new one, something more fit for high performance/graphics/etc. and now I want to go back to beefing up my female human warrior, but when I got to the launcher and entered in the correct email, and inevitably the wrong password, I was redirected to account recovery.

I had to fill out *User Name, Serial Code,* and *Character Name*. User Name? No problem. Serial Code? I got that in my hands right now. _Character Name?_ ... lol wut

Now, before the mod starts throwing rotten tomatoes and shouting at me between obscenities, *I already contacted support.* As terribly delayed as it was, I managed to get a response. First response was someone giving my an apology for taking so long. Second response was as follows.

"Hello asdfadsf,

Thank you for your patience during our investigation.

I have reset your Guild Wars 2 account password and an automatically generated e-mail containing a link has been sent to your asdfadsf@asdf.com e-mail address. After clicking the link in the e-mail, you will be directed to the Guild Wars 2 Account Management page to enter your Guild Wars 2 account name and set a new password of your choosing. For maximum account security, please use a complex password that is used only for Guild Wars 2.

If you did not receive the automatically-generated e-mail, please check any spam/junk mail folders, because some e-mail services might flag the auto-generated password e-mail as spam.

Please let us know if you still are unable to locate the password reset e-mail, or if you need assistance with anything else.

Note: There is an on-going issue with Gmail and Google Mail which routing quite a few of our responses to Junk Mail or to a "Promotions" folder instead of the In-box. To shed some light on & let you know more about it, we have posted a thread over forum so please visit the following link.
http://alsdkfjalkdsfj

Regards,

alkdfjglakjdfglkajfg
Guild Wars 2 Support Team
http://support.guildwars2.com/"

Now, let me say that I can’t begin to understand how busy the GW2 customer service guys are. I’m sure it’s a million times worse than working at retail. No doubt it’s tedious, cringe-worthy, and if it’s worse than working at any retail store or fast food chain, they have all my sympathies. I understand that you guys don’t want to set up a customer service number. I mean, who wants that job anyway? I’ve read/heard enough horrible stories about how terrible customers will speak to the ones they’re seeking help from, and it’s worse if you’re the one calling them with a sale’s pitch.

I liked the game when I played it. Ignoring the painful daily chores, I was welcomed by friendly players and I had a story I could follow, where as most MMORPGs would let me blindly run around with no direction and no reason to keep me playing. So I’m putting up with it for now. Some people can play like that, mindlessly grinding through just so that they can acquire that one awesome mount that’s only available once a year because "_oh it’s Halloween and I know the chances are slim but maybe this time I’ll get The Horseman’s Reins and it looks so cool wow imagine how it would look on my kittenderpadur oh God I have 30 minutes before this instance is no longer available noooooooo!_"

I’m only posting this in hopes that I get someone’s attention, because although I stated my problem clearly in my email to your tech support guys, I haven’t been helped and my issue still isn’t resolved. Can I please, *please* get you guys to take a small sliver out of your busy schedule, and just help me get past the Guild Wars 2 Launcher? I had the same issue with my account that has Factions/Nightfall on the original Guild Wars (which was fun while I had it, although I was young and wasn’t sure what I was doing) and I don’t want to let it sit and collect dust. It’s frustrating and sad to know I spent a large chunk of cash the day it released, just to occasionally glance at my shelf and oggle the pretty white case that sits next to it’s older siblings that befell the same fate.

Your’s kindly,
Terri Bear

I don’t really understand what the problem is, might be too early

So, the first time you attempted to log in, you entered the wrong password and then you were directed to reset it? Sounds like it’s working as intended..

Are you now saying that even if you enter the correct password it isn’t letting you in?

I’m saying I don’t remember any of my character’s names. I need to know at least one of my character’s names in order to recover my account that I used on the game it’s self. I can’t for the life of me remember. I’d like for whom ever works in tech to help me get around this issue for that I may log in to play the game.

**And yes, even a new password won’t allow me to play the game. I get the following screen when I try using the password.

ok, what’s weird is it’s letting you log into the forums so you must have a valid username (which is your email address – a lot of people make the mistake of using their display name as their account name and not their email address) and password.

crazy.9083:

ok, what’s weird is it’s letting you log into the forums so you must have a valid username (which is your email address – a lot of people make the mistake of using their display name as their account name and not their email address) and password.

^This

Loginname and password for the forums is the same as for the game.

Beldin.5498:

crazy.9083:

ok, what’s weird is it’s letting you log into the forums so you must have a valid username (which is your email address – a lot of people make the mistake of using their display name as their account name and not their email address) and password.

^This

Loginname and password for the forums is the same as for the game.

If this were the case, why am I still unable to get past the launcher?

Is your new laptop a Lenovo by any chance?

Try typing your password into Notepad and copy/pasting it into the game launcher screen.

Sounds like your account was hacked, used for botting / spamming and then banned from ANet, since the account recovery tool is there for restoring a compromised account it seems.

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/27658708-Restoring-Your-Account-After-a-Compromise

In your while wall of text i was however not really able to found out if you took a longer break and so didn’t noticed it, or if you have played yesterday on your old laptop with no problems, and today on your new you suddenly have a problem.

TerriBear.8034:

Beldin.5498:

crazy.9083:

ok, what’s weird is it’s letting you log into the forums so you must have a valid username (which is your email address – a lot of people make the mistake of using their display name as their account name and not their email address) and password.

^This

Loginname and password for the forums is the same as for the game.

If this were the case, why am I still unable to get past the launcher?

The pictures you posted don’t look legit to me; as in real Guild Wars 2 stuff.

I recommend that you don’t click the “recover account” link and enter anything. I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t believe that you can “recover” your account this way. Also, why would it want you to immediately “recover” your account if you enter an incorrect email and/or password? This just seems very fishy to me.

Anyway, make sure to do a full system scan for viruses and malware. Maybe there’s something out there that latches on to the GW2 process and tries to trick you into giving out your account info.

Also – if you can log into the forums, you can log into the game – unless there’s some type of malware infection preventing this or an internet “hijack” of some sort.

Edited to add:

I searched around a bit and I can’t find a web link for GW2 that allows you to recover your account. I’m pretty sure you are being redirected to a fake link intended to steal your account.

Be sure to check your email account and insure that your email hasn’t been compromised and change the password for it (preferably from a different computer) until you get this sorted out.

abomally.2694:

TerriBear.8034:

Beldin.5498:

crazy.9083:

ok, what’s weird is it’s letting you log into the forums so you must have a valid username (which is your email address – a lot of people make the mistake of using their display name as their account name and not their email address) and password.

^This

Loginname and password for the forums is the same as for the game.

If this were the case, why am I still unable to get past the launcher?

The pictures you posted don’t look legit to me; as in real Guild Wars 2 stuff.

I recommend that you don’t click the “recover account” link and enter anything. I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t believe that you can “recover” your account this way. Also, why would it want you to immediately “recover” your account if you enter an incorrect email and/or password? This just seems very fishy to me.

It is 100% legit. Open your launcher, type the wrong password and hit login and you will see the exact same screens as the OP posted.

Sir Kaboomski.1508:

abomally.2694:

TerriBear.8034:

Beldin.5498:

crazy.9083:

ok, what’s weird is it’s letting you log into the forums so you must have a valid username (which is your email address – a lot of people make the mistake of using their display name as their account name and not their email address) and password.

^This

Loginname and password for the forums is the same as for the game.

If this were the case, why am I still unable to get past the launcher?

The pictures you posted don’t look legit to me; as in real Guild Wars 2 stuff.

I recommend that you don’t click the “recover account” link and enter anything. I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t believe that you can “recover” your account this way. Also, why would it want you to immediately “recover” your account if you enter an incorrect email and/or password? This just seems very fishy to me.

It is 100% legit. Open your launcher, type the wrong password and hit login and you will see the exact same screens as the OP posted.

Cool. I’ve never entered an incorrect password there, so wasn’t sure.

I am having the same error.

I don’t remember my character name. I don’t remember my password. When I try to reset my password, it takes me to account recovery. But the link provided by one of the posters above explicitly states that account recovery is ONLY for hacked accounts and ONLY once per account.
So I don’t think this is appropriate. Plus it says “Use this only when you need to reset your password as directed by the knowledge base.” but that knowledge base article doesn’t take you anywhere. But the forums have the big “FORGOT PASSWORD” link which just takes me to the account recovery.

So either there’s broken links and mis-information everywhere or…I’m in the twilight zone? Plus I had to make a separate account for GW2 support which doesn’t make sense to me and that password didn’t work anywhere. But my browser remembers my password for the forums so now I’m here but I can’t change my password because I can’t remember my old one even if my browser does.

Is there any answer to this infinite loop or do I have to just make a new account and do the old school way of writing everything down on a sticky note and hope some disgruntled neighbor or burglar doesn’t look at it and steal my password?
I realise it’s my error in forgetting my character name but I do have a life that sometimes prohibits me from playing games for a while, so I don’t feel like I should have to create a new account just because I’ve been unable to play for a while.

Ok update.
Realised this is in tech support so I went over to account recovery (came here by search) and saw that I could find my password in my browser. And I did!
Used that password and it worked. Now I just feel stupid, but I still feel like an email or a thread or the knowledge base link should work or something to give me a few things to work through before contacting support.

So what happens when you buy the game and follow all the correct procedure and still can’t log in? Followed everything to have my daughter playing the game i purchased today but I am still getting the same response,11:1001:2:1272. And yes I have reported this to Anet, however this doesn’t help a sick child, frustrated!!!!!

Gaile Gray.6029:

Note: Restoration means that deleted characters and stolen items usually are returned in whole, but restoration must be requested at the time an account is recovered (access is returned) and not at a later time.

I hope this helps clear up the terminology question.

Wouldn’t it make sense that if you determine the account was “hacked” that it would be restored to the pre-hack state without having to ask when access is returned to the rightful owner?

Kanebrake.6192:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Note: Restoration means that deleted characters and stolen items usually are returned in whole, but restoration must be requested at the time an account is recovered (access is returned) and not at a later time.

I hope this helps clear up the terminology question.

Wouldn’t it make sense that if you determine the account was “hacked” that it would be restored to the pre-hack state without having to ask when access is returned to the rightful owner?

Some people prefer to not use their ‘usually once in a lifetime’ Account Restoration at the time of the hack. They might prefer to start over, having been away for a long period of time. Others may have already used the one Account Restoration, etc. It’s always better when there is a choice offered. =)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Kanebrake.6192:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Note: Restoration means that deleted characters and stolen items usually are returned in whole, but restoration must be requested at the time an account is recovered (access is returned) and not at a later time.

I hope this helps clear up the terminology question.

Wouldn’t it make sense that if you determine the account was “hacked” that it would be restored to the pre-hack state without having to ask when access is returned to the rightful owner?

Some people prefer to not use their ‘usually once in a lifetime’ Account Restoration at the time of the hack. They might prefer to start over, having been away for a long period of time. Others may have already used the one Account Restoration, etc. It’s always better when there is a choice offered. =)

Um… that reasoning doesn’t even make sense. In fact it is void of reasoning for any company to say that a “once in a lifetime” rule applies to a compromised account. It would fall into the “extenuating circumstances” category.

It is a rule that safeguards the economy. Otherwise, it would be too easy to exploit or just replace items taken by hackers again and again because of less-than-appropriate security. Everyone must be responsible in securing their accounts as much as possible.