Guild Wars 2

I figure I would post this on the forums instead of send in a ticket as the poor CS staff has a lot to deal with and was wondering if the community knew what to do in this situation.

My father recently became very ill so I will but returning to my home country. Along the way, I will be stopping in four possibly five different locations including other countries.

Since I will be logging in from a bunch of different places in a short period of time, do I need to inform CS of my situation so they can make a note about it for my account like I would a credit card company or my bank? I completely understand that the possibility of having my account locked because of the many locations appearing on my account is 110% reasonable, but I would like to avoid it if I can as it will be a real hassle.

Thanks in advanced for your responses

Still no response from ANET – but on the bright side its been two weeks since we have been banned.

Thanks for the suggestions, but when I was banned the first two times I changed my password to something very long, unique, and comprising of 4 unrelated words as I figured maybe my account was compromised. In terms of taking off my equipment and AFKing somewhere I never do that. I have on occasion alt tabbed to talk to a friend on Skype while standing in LA and forgotten so I was kicked due to inactivity, but I never stand idle while in the middle of doing something like events or farming.

At this point I’m not angry, more just concerned about playing the game. I know it is hard to believe but I am an honest to God legitimate player who has never cheated, ever. Lets see if I can go an entire week without a ban

Astral – I agree. I don’t think that the system itself is flawed but that something is happening either internally with the system or with the human factor. If Gaile Gray is indeed on vacation when she comes back I would love to have that dialogue with her. As I said I don’t mind that they are doing their jobs, I am just concerned that there is something specific dealing with me and my partner that might be setting something off and I would like to get to the bottom of it for everyone involved.

Well, I must say I think something strange is happening but it seems a very well worded, concise ticket sets it right. I was given access back to the game VERY quickly (probably in less than seven hours) however I was asleep at the time. It was indeed, again for the 3rd time, an error: “After completing my review of this incident, I have concluded that your account does not fit all of the criteria for the violation that led to the block. I have reversed the action taken against this account and have noted the account accordingly.”

I have still not received an actual response as to if my network might be the culprit or if something fishy is going on. I am curious however if I don’t fit “all of the criteria” for a ban and every ban is reviewed by a person before it occurs, why has this happened, twice, in a 5 day span? I would really like an answer from some one. I am seriously freaking out – is it my internet? Is it where I am playing? Are they new trainees getting their feet wet? Put my mind at ease ArenaNet.

But all in all impeccably fast service, this time

Please ignore my request for Ticket number: 130503-000810. Our issue has been successfully resolved this morning. Thank you for all your hard work.

Just an update to those of you who have taken the time and energy to deal with me on the forums.

Our issue has been successfully resolved. After about 4 days they finally reinstated his account. They even said to us “His account did NOT qualify for the criteria for the ban.” In other words, it was indeed a ban that was a mistake. Thank you Arena Net CS team for admitting it was in error and quickly restoring access once this was discovered.

Also thanks to everyone who offered their time and support in giving their opinions on the issue.

Inculpatus Cedo: I too have wondered if the network (other people in our building, etc) might be the culprit but CS didn’t respond on that possibility.

Smooth Penguin: Your argument also doesn’t work for the same reason. Most of the information would be readily available in the e-mail as well, especially since we have to use those things to log into our account, the forums, etc. If they took the account they could also access all the in-game information and write it down. In general, I don’t like e-mail support systems as it just makes impatient people more impatient and can make some issues that shouldn’t take a long time take even longer. Also, Anet is not a bank, I shouldn’t have to call them to tell them I am on vacation He was logging in everyday from the same location for almost a week and had added it to his remembered networks. But I do see your point if he was hopping around.

Again thank you all and I am glad it was finally resolved!

Ticket number: 130503-000810

I am sure you have seen my very length post on this very forum. We have now hit the three day mark and would like some one to look into this asap. Last we heard from the CS team was at 6:22am Japanese standard time today (we responded at around 9:30 this morning) and it is now 7:22pm. We provided them the extra information requested but honestly each reply from the CS team is taking longer and longer to get here. Seeing as how our vacation playing time, our anniversary, as well as our ability to enjoy the LIMITED time content together has either been hindered or irrevocably blocked I would really appreciate this issue to be resolved.

Just an update. Now they are asking us a bunch of information and are telling us this issue is “complex” and that it may take a long time to fix the issue. Seeing how we are on day three it looks like that they indeed did make a mistake; however, I would like to take this time to give my thoughts on a thing or two.

I am curious as to why customer support is so vague on all fronts. Be it for banning, suspensions, or explaining situations it seems we don’t actually get a real response unless we specifically ask for it in the ticket and at that point it is at best one or two sentences. Most of the time we don’t even get a legitimate response at all. As some one who has worked in the CS department of a large company I find this really appalling.

I am also curious as to why there is no direct way besides e-mail to contact support. I notice there is a live chat for gemstore transactions but for nothing else. I find this to be odd the most in regards to trying to determine account ownership. I feel that calling in person to vouch for your ownership of an account is by far a more legitimate way to ascertain who is the valid owner than doing through e-mail.

I am also curious as to why every time an issue is responded to it is done by a different person. Each time we have gotten a response, it has been by some one else and with different information that the previous GM. Sometimes the information is even conflicting or has nothing to do with the actual problem at hand.

Seeing how this has happened to us two weeks in a row I am also wondering what the deal is. I am actually telling people to NOT help me with my legendary, run dungeons with me, etc because I am afraid they will be banned. I was banned twice last week for two completely unrelated issues (one of which turned out to be a false positive) and now my partner who has had no issue with his account since launch comes to my apartment and is banned within 4 days of arrival. I feel that there is an underlying issue that is not being addressed and I find the communication from CS a bit lacking to put it politely.

I understand completely that everyone in the CS department works a thankless job, believe me I do. But a little communication goes a long way especially when it is innocent players who are being targeted by these anti-cheating measures. Just my two cents, also still waiting.

Thanks a lot Astral. I really do appreciate it. You are always there helping people and it’s really great. I need to edit the first post again as we are now really confused. The error he is getting when trying to log in is for botting or using macros but the CS representative is saying its for being associated with gold selling networks or selling in-game items for real world money. So now we don’t even know why he was really banned o.O

Thank you for your reply but I don’t appreciate it that people are just assuming we are in the wrong. ArenaNet has stated before that sometimes there are false positives and I am certain this is one of those times.

He won’t even buy the materials off the trading post because, and I qoute, he “wants the satisfaction of making the entire thing himself.” so the temptation to buy gold is ludicrous. He also was really lucky during the super adventure box and has some skins he has been saving to sell when the price went back up. So gold isn’t the problem. Besides he wouldn’t even think about jeopardizing his account for essentially a very expensive weapon skin. It’s not worth it. However, we will soon hit the three day mark so I can post on the ticketed thread.

I do believe this is indeed a mistake and am starting to seriously question this “guilty until proven innocent” approach.

Yea, if it came to that we would definitely be gone. We have been slowly grinding out our legendary items as that is essentially the last thing we need to achieve completeness. I also appreciate your reasoning and logic in terms of how they probably go about banning RMT and gold sellers but we have a very strict moral code and principles when it comes to following the rules. We even go as far as to leave dungeon groups that exploit bugs or try to do things against the design.

At this point I just hope it is one large misunderstanding.

Geotherma, thanks for your response! I would like to clear up a thing or two in regards to what you brought up.

At the time of the banning he was here visiting me for our anniversary (we have a week long vacation here in Japan which happens to coincide with our anniversary. I would say pretty lucky ). At the time of the ban he was sitting on my bed playing on my laptop. We were literally in the same room for about 4 days before the ban. So as I suppose I cannot be sure about other times I am assuming that they had found something he had done recently (within the last few days) to finally enact some sort of counter measure.

If Gaile does indeed respond and it is very stern, I am actually ready for it. Seeing how this is our main form of staying in touch we will just find another game to call home. I just want to make absolutely certain we have exhausted all avenues of a resolution before taking such a big step, especially since we have both come so far in finishing all of the game content, including our legendary weapons.

Thank you for the good luck and I appreciate the time taken to do such a thing.

Beware, this is a long and possibly less than civil post.

My partner for six years, a legitimate player who has done nothing wrong, has been permanently banned with no option to reverse it for “being associated with gold selling networks”. We went through the customer service ticket system and received a response May 4th at around 1am after putting in a ticket for being banned for we we thought was botting (since the error code is rather vague as to what actually is the offense you have been banned for).

We responded saying that we were innocent and that the only way we actually get any money in the game is by doing events, selling items on the trading post from drops, and running dungeons and fractals with our friends and guild. We didn’t receive a response until just now after updating our ticket and it said the following:

“The decision to terminate the account is final. This decision has been thouroughly reviewed by our team and we maintain absolute confidence in our conclusion. The account will remain permanently closed and will no be eligible for reactivation under any circumstances.”

As some one who knows 150% and then some that he is indeed innocent as we only play this game together and as a way to communicate and stay in touch being in a long distance relationship in different countries due to work I am essentially lost for words.

I beg for some one to please take a look at this and see what can be done about it. He has never used 3rd party sites, bought gold, sold gold, or any items for real world money. We have read the apparent violations that he has been accused with (thank you for actually showing us all of those by the way, much more information than when I was banned for botting) and we can say with absolute certainty that he has not broken any of these rules.

I have attached the conversation leading up to their response. The beginning is missing due to the fact it has all of the account information and essentially just asks the reason for the banning. I ask that this is looked at again as we feel we have been punished for no wrong doing.

Ticket number: 130503-000810

EDIT: I would like to add that the top response was posted and then immediately followed up with there is nothing we can do. We don’t know if we posted it at the same time as there is no time stamp associated with it.

EDIT 2: We are confused as to the reason for the banning. I have done some research and when attempting to log into guild wars 2 it should tell you why an account is longer usable for play. The error we are getting is dealing with botting, macros, third party progams, etc. But the CS representative is telling us it is for gold selling or being associated with gold selling networks which should provide it’s own error separately. Now we are just confused as to what the real issue is.

Thank you for your response but there is a flaw with your suggestion as well as Arenanet’s. At the time of my banning I didn’t have access to the forums as my account was no longer given access to the game. If it indeed take three days or more to solve the issue with no response how would I post on the forums? Obviously I could use my partner’s account but what if that option was not available?

Also, I am quite aware multiple accounts are needed and the best bet is to use the ticket system (which I have done). I don’t want them to “reveal” how they “detect” botting but I also don’t like their approach of terminating accounts of legitimate players without even an e-mail or any form of communication. I do know that this is probably a way to prevent people who have hacked or stolen the information to get a heads up as well as ensure that the ownership of the account is legitimate.

Thank you for your response, however it does not help me with my issue or my concerns.

This isn’t a rage post but more of a concern of mine. Within a week I was banned twice and now my partner of six years has been banned as well as of this evening. The offense is botting or using macros etc, etc. Recently we have been farming tier six materials by putting on as much magic find as we can and killing enemies that are known to drop tier 6 materials as well as bags that have a chance to have them as well. We have never cheated in our lives and are growing concerned about this situation. Recently when playing we have been getting weird messages along the lines of logging into the game on the same IP address (we use a wireless router and connect to the same fiber optic internet connection) and wondering if maybe that has something to do with it. I am honestly freaked out and don’t know what to do.

To be honest I am a little concerned with the way accounts are flagged and or suspended. Recently I defended the CS team as they really did help me out with what limited information they could provide. But as of late I am literally afraid to play this game. People exploit things in dungeons with me in their party even if I object to them and they say “Don’t worry, I do it all the time.” I need to get my tier 6 materials and the only logical way I know how to do it without grinding out events in Orr, selling the drops, then buying the materials at ridiculous prices is to just get them myself; however, now I am afraid to do that for being banned again (for the third time). In a game that is amazingly adept at letting me play how I want to play I am now afraid to do just that. Please excuse this paragraph, just want to say how I feel on the subject.

I probably won’t get a response to the second half of this post but I am concerned about the first part. I honestly can’t remember what the error said but it was something along the lines of each of us playing on the same ip address. I can only assume that there is something fishy with my internet.

If you need it here is my incident report number (which was handled beautifully by the CS team) as well as my partners in case it is indeed a problem with accessing the game from my apartment:
Mine: 130423-000978 His: 130503-000810
Internet Service Provider: Yahoo Broadband in Japan

Now before everyone burns me alive and says “Down with the witch!” hear me out.

I was banned as a bot or as someone using 3rd party software to achieve something against the terms of service. I was shocked and scared as I was just playing the game a few hours before. So, like a civil person I appealed for them to re-establish my account. And do you know what happened? Within 9 hours the ban was reversed and I was able to log into my account. I thought “Sweet, this is great.” However, I wasn’t out of the woods yet.

I followed the instructions given to my be CS and changed the necessary information. However, upon logging in for the first time my account was re-frozen. So what did I do? I didn’t panic (ok, maybe a little) and filed an update to my ticket. Within 5 hours I was told that they were going to forward it to some one higher up and a few hours after that the issue was resolved and I could log into my account, nothing was missing, and everything was peachy keen.

Total time to investigate possible hacking, make sure everything was in order, etc? Probably 28 hours. Now, to some people this is an outrage and how dare they. Well, I was surprised and asked for some clarification on what had happened. And guess what happened? I was given a notice that they would forward it to a senior CS representative and I got a personalized response as to what had happened and why it took so long.

What can you as a player take away from this? These people are probably over worked and tired, especially when angry customers are yelling at them. If you treat some one with respect and how you would like to be treated, the same will happen to you. Was I mad that it took so long, a little bit as I was home sick at the time and stared at my e-mail. However, from the prospect of everything I had done was for nothing over to everything is fine and sorry for the mishap, I would say the over all experience was rather pleasant (aside from the “why am I banned?! I don’t bot!!!” part.)

So to all of the CS team, thank you for doing what you do. As some one who is a profession where I am literally spit on, taken advantage of, and demeaned as a human being on a daily basis I applaud you and wish I could send your office something for doing a great job. My only concern is that there is no way to contact your offices directly if there is an issue (especially with trouble identifying account ownership).

Gail, if you would like my ticket number for training and to perhaps prevent the confusion of account restoration but still having no access, here it is : 130423-000978

Thank so much for everything you do and keep it up!

TL;DR: Stop being jerks and remember these are people. Golden rule applies and they are there to look out for you in the end if you indeed have done no wrong. Send them a cookie!

We just opened it on Kaining – get your shards while you can