Guild Wars 2

I’ve posted before here when I was hacked earlier in the week and I can attest as its been said here and many many many other posts that CS is far below what you might call “Industry Standards”…as someone said this is 2012…MMO’s have been out for some 15 years now and any company big or small knows that the number one thing you start out with is security…Without being racist or territorial or whatever you wanna call it every single person that buys, plays, makes, or even just reads about MMOs today knows that the very second any game goes live or for that matter even beta you are gonna get an immediate onslaught of Asian based hacking attempts…its just an accepted fact of MMOs today. And then for Anet to come out with a game they spent at the least 6 years developing and not have better security and more importantly CS with the ability to not only provide live 24/7 support but a restore and replace system is completely unacceptable…did they think in the history of MMOs online they were gonna be the very first one ever that no one was gonna try to steal peoples accounts and thus steal their gold, items, and anything of value on that account once it was accessed? I think not…they had to know this was coming. Now as I stated in my previous post I will give them props when they are due…CS has drastically improved the last 2 weeks or so…my account was hacked and I had to log in on my sons account and sit and watch my own character stand in town spamming gold selling crap…even got the person to speak to me in what I will call broken engrish as best…so if I can track down my own character within minutes of logging on on another account I feel certain they too can do this….that is IF and WHEN they have real live CS personnel…but to take in millions and millions of dollars up front in payment from paying customers then to say well now your on your own…if one of these hundreds maybe thousands of hackers actually succeed their reponse is yea we know its a problem right now…yea we know what they are doing…but too bad…you hundreds of hours of work and efforts are just tough @@@@…everything you own and worked for is gone and well…too bad. Hell on my account even my Collectors edition items that I paid 20 bucks extra for was deleted by the hacker and even that simple thing cannot be replaced. When the reviews are written and are being written now every day on web sites it will be said What a beautiful amazing game….but right now dont spend your money because when you are hacked and odds are right now it will happen to you at some point…as it was stated in the email we all have gotten at this point…We understand your frustration but we do not have the tools to replace items or gold that some dirtbag stole from you because we couldnt do what everyone else does and secure your account…but hey….visit your local Karma NPC and it will help you replace items you lost,,,,really??? Yep thats it…you paid us 79.95 to autobot email CS and well…go earn more stuff to be stolen and MAYBE by then we will have a system in place to fix it for you….truly sad in 2012….

I wrote here days ago about my fiasco with hackers. First off I am not a noob when it comes to security so everyone that simply posts well its your fault your simply wrong…this many accounts being hacked at once is simply NOT their own fault…certainly there will be some that lax in their own security and yes those do born some small part in the security breach…however with all the MMO’s out there able to put a stop to this these days why now is this one having such a huge influx of hacked accounts? I was able to log in using my kids account and actually stand next to my own account and watch them spam gold selling crap with MY account…when I recovered my account of course everything I owned and worked for was gone…everything !!

Now that being said I will give props where props are due…they have definitely improved on CS response times..I had to recover my account 3 times to get it straight but we finally did get it taken care of…all in the span of 48 hours…so props to them for faster response times. But what is still lacking and still a huge concern is they know this is happening…they know paying customers are being robbed blind and yet you still get a cut and paste “We do not replace anything” email crap….in todays world of MMOs this is completely and utterly unacceptable…If it were and isolated incident ok maybe…a few well maybe deserves more attention but ok…but hundreds if not thousands of hacked accounts means they bore some of that responsibility. And nothing is more valuable to a paying customer in the MMO world than the items they spend many many many hours earning…thats where the rub comes in…simply posting a video saying hey you guys take security more serious as we investigate how this is happening wont fly after so many have lost everything….hopefully someday they will see this not as a failure but as a learning experience and learn to take care of those that pay their paychecks…until then people are gonna whine and moan and others are gonna say well its your own fault…until its their turn…..

Obviously most are missing the key issue here…we all know that hackers are going to get in…they always do and no amount of changing this or that is gonna stop em all. Of course I changed my passwords when I started receiving these emails…of course I changed my game password. I run 2 antivirus and a malware program and its been over 5 years since last time someone was able to hack a gaming account of mine. But the bigger issue even though certainly its an issue that its been 2 days and I dont have access to my game account and I can log in with my sons account and stand right next to my own character and watch him spam gold selling crap…so next thing you know I will be banned and lose my money because of their actions…that being said the real issue is that the developers of this game knew in advance this would be an issue..it always is…after taking 6-8 years to develop this game they had to know of course security would be an issue and you can only imagine them sitting around going ok we are gonna have a huge launch and thats gonna make hacking attractive to gold selling sites and so forth so how should we respond?? And some low level admin says I got it…lets make an autorespond email bot that says sorry we dont have the power to do anything and you should visit a Karma NPC to rebuild your account ….and he gets a raise and everyone pats him on the back and says yea thats it…costs nothing…admits nothing…does nothing..,,,perfect customer support !!!!!!

I could cut and paste this into mine and thousands of others here…its their fault but your loss. I got exactly the same email last night and within 2 hours my account was hacked again and I even logged in on my sons account and actually talked to the person who was logged in on my account …well I say talked to since I tried but of course no english. So you are absolutely correct…they got our money so since there is no subscription there is no need to provide service…simple math…they got your 79.95 so gripe all you want you aint gettin it back !!! And you are also correct that with all the technology out there now even small insignificant companies provide not only security but tools to roll back and restore those victimized yet here they say we dont have those tools…thats like saying we knew this was gonna happen and it would take real people not jut autorespond email bots to fix these issues and we dont want to do that so lets make an autoresponse saying we cant do anything …thanks sucka !!!!

As the saying goes I feel ya dogg….I have played MMOs since before it was cool to play MMOs and have had some bad experiences of course over the years with customer service but nothing like this debacle they have created here. Specifically on your points 2 and 4…They admit and know there are many many bad people out there actively attempting to phish accounts and hacking every single day is going on…read the literally hundreds of horror stories just on these forums alone. I get hacked and they out right LIE to me…they send me an email saying No your account was not hacked but oh well we restored it? Why would you restore something that wasnt compromised Then log in and EVERYTHING is gone…even my Collectors edition items I PAID FOR and of course hundreds of hours of crafting materials..the list can go on and on…so of course I have to email back and say I beg to differ I absolutely was hacked and everything is gone…everything…immediate response…yea we know you are right but tough ####…we dont have the tools to replace anything so visit a Karma dealer to help your situation….really? Their entire customer service solution is visit a Karma NPC !!!! So needless to day I absolutely agree with your assessment to this point that given the state of technology out there today this companies complete and total lack of customer service and the ability to do even one small thing for vicitims of their security problems is apalling to put it mildly…I have seen and played FTP games lately with 1/100 th the budget of this game offer actual security and a simple roll back or account reset if you do happen to be victimized by these foreign hackers….but alas they see no need…they have your money….the root of the issue here is that since this is not a subscription game once they have your 79.95 they dont need to service you….you cant cancel something you paid for in advance….where as other games that actually provide service do so because if they dont they lose money…here they say yea we know…tough luck…visit your local KArma dealer and all is well….NOT !!!!

Actually no that does not mean they have my password…what it means is they have ATTEMPTED to log in but did not succeed. What it means is that hackers and gold sellers from an ISP in China are phishing through all GW2 accounts usually using either keyloggers or random password generators attempting to get into everyones account using automated bots trying to crack your password. And after 14 years playing MMOs one thing I know and I am certain most here with any experience knows that unless the company itself secures its game they will eventually get in…these guys have the latest greatest hacking technology and if the company doent stop them you as an individual certainly wont. Yes you can do what we have been told and it will make a small difference…however once they have your account name and your email its only a matter of time if and until GWs actually takes steps to stop them…and in every other case…even in pay to win games that disquise themselves as FTP they do a much much better job than we have seen here so far and secondly if you do happen to get victimized they will usually immediately either reset your character or they will reinstate a previous saved point so you the consumer dont lose anything. We have to remember it is after all just virtual items …but those virtual items cost real cash on our end…but are nothing more than a click of a button on their end….so the impression given when companies take such a hard line stance is the average consumer understands they may not be complicit with the hackers..but their policies certainly encourage their behavior.

I logged in as I said last night and was actually able to SPEAK with the person that was actually at that very moment on my account…I was able to watch that person swap servers to avoid me…I was able to actually get that person to respond in whatever language you call that…so if I as a person without the tools the builder of the entire games can get that close to that person…..they should be able to get them…they know their ISP…they know what country they are all coming from and can ban regional ISPs…and lastly they should know from all the expereince we have all had over the past 14-15 years in the evolution of MMOs not only how to stop this but also that compensation for losses is the number one bad mark in customer service for all online companies…and they have chosen to simply say we cannot or will not take your side against known criminals..and that is what is circulating around all the reviews of this game…they wont miss my 3 accounts….they got that money ..that 250 bucks is gone…but what they will lose is my and others trust in them as a company that cares about its customer base….and that is something most companies do not recover from if they dont do better than they are now…

So I log in using my kids account since my account is of course on the friends list and sure enough there is someone actually USING my account right now right this second !! Even AFTER they restored my account..after I changed all passwords on my entire computer and then get more of the emails about attempted hacking…so I ask the person who are you this is my account? !! Silence for a few moments and I notice in the meantime they actually logged out and moved to different server using server transfer probably thinking that would remove us from friends list…so I repeat who the hell are you? I get a reply after about 5 mins that says quote " My person…you know not this yours…leave me alone now"….oh really? So does anyone have any questions about who and what has happened???? So it appears once your user name is out there they are gonna have endless access to your account and the answer is…………..visit a Karma NPC !!!

Updated…received in email tonight..:

In regards to missing gold and items, we are currently technically unable to provide restorations or any direct assistance in reclaiming what was lost.

If you need some help getting started again, you can seek out the ‘Renown Heart’ NPCs that have had their tasks completed. They tend to provide useful gear for small amounts of Karma.

If you have any other questions please let us know.

So their answer to what is clearly their fault to losing everything is visit a Karma NPC…really???

So 250 bucks down the drain buying 3 collectors editions and the honor of getting the single worse customer service possible making you the victim over and over again….I thought they had learned these lessons with GW1…we had all these issues then only to see after what …8 years? They still cant get it right…

I got over 100 of these emails and then finally today they succeeded..of course I have never opened these emails but none the less we have all been around the block a few times and if we tell the truth our posts will get banned for being racist for simply saying we all know when we receive this email it is chinese bot farmers attempting to take your account…well today they succeeded on my account and stripped it absolutely clean…I got it back..went to dinner and came back and within an hour they now have it again and I cannot get in myself and of course you will get an email saying do this do that we take no responsibility and yes everything of yours is lost…they dont do what every other company in the mmo world does and go back and replace your hard earned items and in some cases like mine even items bought with cash in the store and items from my Collectors edition will not be replaced…I can only imagine since its the second time today these people have gotten into my account what is done to it this time…for the one hour I was able to get in this afternoon I had gone from level 55-59…everything I had in inventory and bank and especially well over 3000 crafting items GONE…I was in a guild and I had never joined a guild myself…I was told by that guild that I joined today at 3 and how did I learn to speak english so fast…and yet here I am again not able to log in and they win….so my suggestion is do not under any circumstances click that email…we all know its a keylogger and how they work and operate..and secondly protect your account at all costs once you get that email because they will eventually get in…they will not stop them and you will not get back anything they steal…just a harsh fact of life…and finally keep a back up game ready…your gonna need it….

So I get all those annoying emails one after another that your account has been attempted to be logged into from blah blah blah id in china…great yall are stopping em even after 100s of attempts. Then today BAM I cannot access my account so I immediately send in support and get an email after sending all my info in that my account was not hacked however it has been restored…anyone else see the discrepency in that statement? So I log in and of course my entire bank was empty…100s of hours of crafting materials stripped…all my 12 slot bags GONE…everything in my inventory GONE…then I notice I am in a guild…I have never joined a guild…so I say in guild chat how did I get in this guild…I immediately get a reply that I joined today around 3pm but how did I learn to speak english so fast…really…so I send another email to support and of course get the standard do this do that to protect your account which of course I had already done and of course No we do not replace anything what so ever…not even my collectors edition items I PAID CASH FOR that are gone…just tough ####…so ticked off and disgusted with the worst customer service I have ever seen in 14 years playing MMO’s I go eat dinner and calm down and come back and you guessed it…15 more emails already saying your account has been attempted to be logged in from ##### ISP in China and of course immediately went to try to log into the game and of course my brand new password is not usable and try to reset…cannot reset password….so now I can only imagine the damage done to my account..after losing everything I worked weeks for in crafting materials…4 gold …4 12 slot bags….18 mini pets…all collectors items I purchased and everything else all gone…now they get to go in and steal what little bit is left for me to probably be told sometime tomorrow well sorry but we cannot do anything try these security measures……as the title says This is getting absolutely absurd…I purchased 3 copies of the game to play with my children and have already spent a fair amount on cash shop items only to be told well you really dont matter we protect farmers and bots and thiefs from other countries….when does it end? Anyone else had this happen over and over even AFTER doing what they say and AFTER changing every password in the world only to be sent more and more and more of the You are being logged in from China messages? Is there any possibility of any real help or should my family just delete this and go back to games we know work and know take care of their players???? Extremely frustrating after dealing with this for 12 hours and having to even log onto my 12 year olds account just to get here to ask questions…unbelievable !!!