Guild Wars 2

Alec Owlyear.6782:

Not to mention it takes two seconds to hit ESC>Logout>Character Select, and relogging from there takes about 10 seconds of a loading screen.

Well, on my PC If I log out or close the application, it closes all other pages on my computer. So that is why I go afk instead logging off or exiting.

Alec Owlyear.6782:

LordPenguin.1382:

Here is proof that they don’t investigate! Don’t auto attack and go AFK.

The only proof I see is that:

1. You’ve been a complete kitten to people trying to do their jobs and have had nothing to do with your ban, nor could they reverse it (because of #2)
2. You just admitted to “auto-attacking and going AFK.” No, this is not technically botting, but you earned gold and experience without actually playing the game. That’s like saying it’s okay if you exploited any other oversight in the game and got an unfair advantage. “Mispriced karma items? It’s part of the game, you can’t ban me for keeping them!”
3. The poor CS agents are overwhelmed by people with legitimate issues, compromised accounts, and kittens trying to rationalize why their exploit wasn’t an exploit, and was really just a method of abusing the system for gain without effort.

Word is, next patch they’ll be adding in a free common sense injector, although it appears you’re apparently allergic to it, sadly.

I received my ban for the same thing without actually knowing about it, I left a turret in an area and with the Healing Turret trait the turrets does not go away. I was banned about 10 minutes after this. It was only after being permanently banned did I look around and discover others with my situation. You make it sound like anyone in this situation is as fault when that is not the case. I suggest they just add AFK play as a rule to the TOS since this will not be an issue.

akkmok.2178:

This is similar to AFK leveling using pets and considered an exploit in almost all MMORPGs.

Auto-attack was intended to help players by not having to keep pressing the same key over and over in active play, it was not intended so people can leave their character at or near a spawn spot and come back hours later with rewards. Like the karma item bug earlier most people know it is wrong, but they still chance it for the potential rewards.

I highly doubt that someone who went AFK for 10 minutes for drinks/bathroom breaks/emergencies would get banned his way. It is the people who went AFK for extended peroids of time who are considered exploiting and thus are banned.

As for “it is not wrong because it is in the game”….so are bugs and spots where you can attack monsters but they cannot come to you due to pathing issues. Doing it once or twice would probably be tolerated, but intentionally exploiting it would be bannable in any MMORPG.

I was banned 10 minuted after AFKing, I have been unbanned now, I however blame the people randomly reporting near areas that are heavily botted or Afk players. That is just a guess. Although I agree that Afk play is borderline as exploiting, I think they should simply change the TOS and make it clear that they do not support the idea so it will settle these issues.

DonQuack.9025:

Isnt part of the rules they can do whatever they please?

No, but they could just falsely accuse you of doing something and terminate your account if they wished. Which is practically the same thing.

They actually made me a lot of money taking the peppers out of the game. I bought 10k Peppers from karma Vendor to go towards my alts getting 400 cooking. Then They took the chili pepper out of the karma vendor and I sold 10k peppers for 75 Gold. Thanks Guild wars.

I recommend just stay away from AFKing. I was banned for 6 days before I could get back on due to the turret issue and then going AFK. It technically is not bannable, however they more than likely will ban you for botting since the game can not tell the difference between afk fighting. I just log out now and I hope others just do the same to avoid having to deal with this. However Arenanet did restore my account so I can’t complain too much.

I was unbanned already, The issue was solved, so thank you for your time.
That was the incident number just in case. 120909-001580

Nevermore.3820:

Ok I don’t want to jump down anyone’s throat and I’m not pointing at any one person here but why the heck can’t people just log out if there going to be AFK for more then a few minutes? It takes what 45 seconds to log back in, it’s not like SWtoR day one where there were 3 hour ques to log into a server.

Meanwhile there are new players looking to join servers where all their friends are but can’t because the server is “Full” due to so many AFK’ers.

If I need to answer the door or the phone I’ll AFK but if I’m leaving the house or cooking I log out, simple and as for AFK with an auto power running at a DE spawn point, game function or not you should just know your asking for the ban stick.

MMO’s by there very nature are dynamic the developers put stuff in that they think will work and find out that they were grossly wrong and quickly remove or change it in someway, expect auto fire and auto target and healing traits to all be gone or radically changed very soon.
I just don’t know why they don’t already have an auto log out timer on anyone AFK without movement function yet, maybe 20 minutes and poof your logged out.

My Circumstance, I was banned when going afk just to grab something to eat. I was not gone but 10 minutes and then i was banned. However after a long process I am now Unbanned. I had no idea at the time that turrets would not go away if the auto heal turret trait was active. I mainly afk so I can read my guild chat for the time I was away. Also in the first week there were auto-log issues. It is in the game, it was just buggy the first week.

Daisako Kunandra.6248:

To the people that are using the engineer with auto-healing turrets:

How does this work exactly? Did you set up auto-attacking turrets that auto-healed and then idle and the enemies the turrets kill give you experience?

Exactly, it also gave you credit for any Dynamic Events that it contributed to. Also the auto-heal feature allowed the turret to stay after the time given. Meaning the turret is only supposed to remain for 10 minutes and then explode. However with the Auto-heal trait, it stays.

Hang in there phoenixdot, hopefully they will fix the issue like they did for me. It was 5 days until my problem was solved. They seem to get to it, but slowly at the time. Also if they deny your appeal resubmit it! It took me two appeals before they reinstated my account.

Brother Grimm.5176:

phoenixdot.9760:

That’s the problem’s they don’t kitten care about terminating their customer account without any clear reason because they already have 2 million copies sold. My ticket and complain has not getting any reply from their representative till now just an automated reply that state my account has terminated forever, they even didn’t explain what 3rd party application that they accused me for. They already making profit, and now they run with my money and doesn’t care for my problems as their customer. I’m already tired of this kitten. Please check my ticket 120911-009271 and fix it immediately !

They obviously have some method set up to check for specific activity specs and ban based on those results (most likely fairly automated). It’s also pretty obvious that eveyrone that was banned and is complaining here (possibly with cause) DID perform AFK activities that ANet considers BOTTING. Whether or not a warning or some time limit ban is appropriate for a first offense is ANet’s call (and I can see this being a point of argument with valid customers).

It also appears they are reviewing the complaints and reinstating accounts. If I were ANet and saw your posts (phoenixdot), I would make SURE you were the last guy reinstated as you are rude and demanding beyond what is just normal customer frustration or necissary to get your point across. Being civil (at least at first) is more likely to get you help than being a totalkitten (and you get less spit in your food too!).

I DO agree that the perma-ban is a bit harsh, but I think that if they start with a time limit ban, it is going to take longer for them to possitively identify actual player accounts and thus stop the actual hacked / BOT accounts. Yes, this ends up with actual customers having to jump thru hoops to get the service they have paid for, but it also sends a pretty strong message as to what ANet feels is BOT-like behavior (and they are serious about getting rid of it in the game).

I thought I was pretty rude and they unbanned me for third party use/botting last night. You can not judge someone solely based on a post. Most of these people as myself were frustrated because when you pay a lot of cash and then get banned for unsure reasons, well its understandable.

I was Just unbanned. Thank you Arena Net For fixing this issue.

BlueFeather.9012:

You can login to Aion?

That’s another Anet game

Or they gave your Engineer wings? j/k

But gz to you. Some of us are still hoping to get our accounts back.

[LOL i keep checking my email hoping for a new mail to popup]

Lol I have no idea why it says Aion.

BlueFeather.9012:

Linestro.1056:

I am unbanned….I honestly am surprised. I retract any obligatory remarks I made. I thought they banned me and just did not reply to me because they didn’t want to deal with it. Well. Thanks ArenaNet, I guess I should not have gotten so angry, but in my position I felt I had been cheated and reacted that way.

I’m still hoping i’ll be unbanned. Did they say anything about turrets? Is it really a bannable offense? My character was level 16 in Defense of Shaemoor. I’ve been using Turrets since level 5 or 6 i think…at the time i got my first skill point.

I just got a message saying “After reviewing the issue, it appears that your account was blocked in error. Your account is now released and you should be able to log in to Aion. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Please let us know if we can help you with anything else.”

However it is funny that two days before I got this
“Hello,
This mail is to notify you that your account was confirmed to be violating the User Agreement and/or Rules of Conduct by engaging in the use of an unauthorized third-party application in conjunction with the Guild Wars 2 service.

As a result of this violation of the User Agreement and/or Rules of Conduct, this and all related accounts have been permanently closed. The account(s) will no longer be accessible and will not be reactivated. Our decision is made in the best interest of the Guild Wars 2 service and for the player base." So…whats going on?

I am unbanned….I honestly am surprised. I retract any obligatory remarks I made. I thought they banned me and just did not reply to me because they didn’t want to deal with it. Well. Thanks ArenaNet, I guess I should not have gotten so angry, but in my position I felt I had been cheated and reacted that way.

Oh please. Letting someone play your game to try it out is not account sharing. How about we just stop letting people borrow other games of ours because it might as well be the same as illegally copying the game?

I was Banned for third party use/Botting. They claim now that I am doing personal attacks when I am explaining wrongful bannings. Fix This Arenanet!

I was terminated due to my turrets not diminishing over time and gaining me xp while I was afk. This was due to the healing turret trait causing my turrets to stay even after the time for them to be destroyed has passed. I only figured this out after my account was banned and terminated and I began to look around online. How was I supposed to know that my turrets would remain forever with these specifications? I have posted on several forums and made my own explaining my situation, and all they have done is edit my titles or my wording. They Never explain to me what ive done.

Separate from that bug, It is not third-party use or a bot when the game is not being controlled by another program outside of Guildwars. Arenanet has made a mistake and needs to fix this.

Falrinth.4168:

using your keyboard/mouse macros to play for you is 3rd party programs usage… Just becouse you have some gaming hardware producing company brand on it doesnt make it more fair.

No one is using that.

It seems that some others are having the exact problems with this turret issue, not as many that are getting banned for the afk third-party/botting accusations. None the less ArenaNet needs to address the issue instead of avoiding the matter.

kamikaze.2319:

bump this.. admins and all ppl need to read this stupidity from arena, they ban for no reason, without warning , and dont even answer us this is ridiculous

Thats how is been going with this issue for some time. They know there is no rule for what they have deemed “Bannable” so now they are looking for something they can blame this on. Although my situation is slightly different, I still believe that banning someone for a reason not mentioned in the ToS is criminal.

Wow, They changed my original Post title. It originally was “I Found out why I was banned, and it sickens me”
I guess I was too vulgar for their tastes…I am going to confirm that I was banned for using the auto heal turret trait solely on the fact that they send me automated emails that inform me of nothing. I will possibly change my belief If i was shown in their logs with some insight as to why I was possibly terminated. However they like to send me automated messages and ban me based on their beliefs. So I will believe what makes the most sense until proven otherwise.

phoenixdot.9760:

Wow, i got that message to :

Response Via Email (GM Kaine) 09/11/2012 07:22 PM
Hello,

This mail is to notify you that your account was confirmed to be violating the User Agreement and/or Rules of Conduct by engaging in the use of an unauthorized third-party application in conjunction with the Guild Wars 2 service.

As a result of this violation of the User Agreement and/or Rules of Conduct, this and all related accounts have been permanently closed. The account(s) will no longer be accessible and will not be reactivated. Our decision is made in the best interest of the Guild Wars 2 service and for the player base.

Regards,

GM Kaine
Game Surveillance Unit

So, this was auto reply after all. What happen in this game ??? i forgot to logout and falll asleep and the bammmm suddenly banned -_-

Here’s my ticket 120911-009271 same problem

I got that exact same email from them, so much for looking into the matter.

kamikaze.2319:

Shogun.9567:

Even if they admit their mistake, how are they going to fix it?

They have already deleted out accounts. In game gems purchases gone. Your place on your server will be gone. Pre-order items gone.

Can 1 staff spend 20 seconds to reply to this or any of the many similar posts?

looks like they dont care about us, cause i aready got 2 replies deleted and no answer for anything… so.. i say again: what can we do legaly?

If they say you broke their TOS there is little you can do. The only thing people have been doing that can not receive a refund, is report them to the BBB for consumer abuse.

Shogun.9567:

Look above at what the decision will be. A wrong one.

Can some staff show me where it says in the tos “dont enable an in game fuction and go afk”?

It does not, I looked over their entire TOS and found nothing resembling the problem. I think they do not know how to own up on this issue, so they are avoiding it.

I was banned on Sunday September 9th. The reason I was banned “for using a bot or other third-party program”. As frustrated as I was I opened a ticket and tried to have this issue solved putting my judgment and faith in ArenaNet to fix the mistake. Instead when I look at my log in status the following day, my account was no longer banned but terminated. This angered me to no end and so I spent the last two days trying to figure out exactly what I committed to give the impression I was using a bot or third party program.

I recently read a post on Reddit where some people were explaining why or how they got banned. I then read a post that was eerily close to something I had noticed in game. I now realize why this led to my ban, and it disgusts me.

I played the engineer class and played using all turrets in my skill slots. I then invested my traits into “Tools” to get the ability to have my turrets auto-repair. Now normally a turret without the the self healing trait will explode or go away after a particular amount of time has passed. If you use the trait however the turret remains and this is where the ban comes into play. I would lay down turrets in an area where an event would occur while heading to another area where I would personally participate. Since you helped with both events you then get each of the rewards. However I did not know at the time that turrets would not go away if the self-healing trait was unlocked. I then went AFK to go pick up some food and on my return a Ban had been issued.

This is not botting or third party use, however ArenaNet considers anything you do not attend as botting since you are not physically participating or are present. Meaning the program is doing the work for you. This has become painfully clear to me that instead of changing an aspect of the game to not allow turrets to remain forever so long as the trait is on and you are in the region. They do not warn me at all, it is simply a ban to quickly solve a simple issue. It sickens me that they assume a vast majority of the GW2 community is constantly looking for trouble, when in truth we just want to enjoy the game.

I would love for them to own up on this issue, but I am pretty sure they never will.
Here is my Incident number if you ever care to look 120909-001580.

Ok, i finally found why my account was banned. This is of course a guess, but based off my research this is the only situation I have come to. It was because I chose the engineer class and if you unlock the trait to allow the turret to repair itself then the turret shall stay even after it should be destroyed after ten minutes or so. So dropping the turret and then going to a new location you will still gain xp from any events or enemies it kills as long as you are in the same region. Arena Net considers this botting because the you are no longer gaining the xp yourself but through doing nothing. If this is the case I am sure I had done this at some time, but this is by no means third party or an actual Bot. I am honestly shocked, if this is really the reason then I can say this game is going nowhere but down hill from this point on.

Lwd.1264:

It is funny to read something like I was afk for hour or more and so on, dunno what are you using but game uses auto log off for afking. So I’m pretty sure you’re using “something”.

Do not get it twisted. I said that I went afk to get something to eat and when I came back I was banned, I was not away for an hour, it was 20 minutes at most.

Nightingale.6820:

Does it state “reason 20”, or does it explicitly say “the use of a third party program”?

Word for word this is what my message says when I try and Log in. “Your Guild Wars 2 account has been terminated for using a bot or other third-party program which is a breach of the User Agreement and Rules of Conduct. This action is permanent.”

arwis.7045:

Chances are you accounts were banned because they got compromised as you used your email and password somewhere else allowing hackers to gain access to it.

My advice to everyone who got perma banned because their accounts got compromised:

1. Make unique email for guild wars 2 account. You can use this email for blizzard, ncsoft, microsoft, EA and for other high security companies BUT NOWHERE ELSE. Ofc like in recent blizzard’s case nothings is 100% safe, but with these companies it’s much safer and you can easily make new email like I did after blizzard reported a security breach.

1. Make a really unique password because if hacker gets your email address he will run it systematically against 5 000 or so most common password list and god, if you got passwords like ’’7eleven’’, ’’porsche911’’, ’’iPhone3GS’’, ’’Password’’ you are asking to be hacked as these passwords are very commonly used and they are on most common password lists around the net.

Couple suggestions for really easy to remember and unique passwords;

[First 2 letters of your name][Your phone number][First 2 letters of your last name]
Example: GE84342447634234CL

[Name of your favorite beverage][Your name][Year you were born]
Example; CocacolaGeorgeClooney1961

[Name of the street you live][Your phone number]
Example; WallStreet54755417865

Using details like your name, phone number, social security number in general is a bad idea, but if you make a unique mix of those like I’ve shown before password is very secure unless obtained by other means in which case you should think of new mix and new password.

Would Not matter at this point I am afraid. My account has been terminated, so It would be impossible for me to gain my account back in its entirety.

Max Lexandre.6279:

And The Flame War about Bans and ANet Policies continues…

But it may be possible, the sytem for detect bots surely is automated and then it may causes false alerts in some cases, things that ANet may explain to us, since I don’t trust in-game moderators that are Robots.

Exactly, I am guessing they have some automated system that tries and detect bots. However they ban players without even questioning them or even looking into their history. If they honestly just looked at my character history, you can tell no bot-like behavior is present. They sadly did not do this and terminate my account instead. I mean what do they care? They got my money and since I did not buy it online I can not receive a refund. I am just baffled as to why the ArenaNet moderators are complete “Ban Happy Communists” they suspect you of doing something and that’s all they need to do away with you. Think about it, they could ban as many as they wanted and lose little to no money. We already made the purchase and in some cases when you are banned you are not allowed to ask for a refund. I have no idea what is going on in the offices of ArenaNet, however they need to fix their support/moderating before anything else comes into play.

Im done with this game, Honestly. I Spent $160 on their collector Edition game and paid $20 for their in store stuff, I got three of my friends to buy it, I played Guildwars 1 for six years. Then they accuse me of just using a third party program/bot and thats it. They do not respond to me, they will not refund me, and they made a game I thought to be amazing, to completely worthless. ArenaNet, you need to listen to your customers and not ban us simply because we already bought your game and now we are disposable. You have handled this situation worse than any MMO gaming company I have ever witnessed. You do nothing to show me what has made my account suspicious of any botting like behavior and cut the cord with no second thoughts. I am reporting you to the Better Bushiness Bureau for this. To think I thought so highly of this group, now I just wish I had never even picked up or heard of this game. If my account was restored I would at least play the game and eventually change my thoughts of an incident like this never occurred again. However I am sure you are to busy randomly banning other accounts to care. Goodbye Guildwars Community, I had fun the 11 days I played. Sadly all good things are forced to end.

They Changed my Description now when I try and Log in saying I was using a third party program or a bot and saying the decision is permanent. Ok, how can I be accused of using a bot or third party program when If you look at my actions in the game. How could a bot do multiple different events,do my quests,sell my loot, raise my crafting skills,recruit for a guild,and help friends??? It is not possible! Let alone that the game has been out less than 2 weeks!!! I highly doubt bot technology has even gotten that far at this point in time! These accusations infuriate me to no end. I want a response so I can go back and play this game! I spent $160 on your game and am severely frustrated with the way this is being handled.

Yea I do not know, as I said Steam is constantly running and I also listen to music from Playlist. That is all though.

Jezath.7395:

I have been afk for hours also, no ban, however I wasn’t on auto attack at the time.

I have been afk on multiple occasions, sometimes I even forget to log off. However to accuse me of using a third party program is nonsense. It just bugs me that everyone is having these problems with no real solutions as to why.

Shogun.9567:

Have you tried a virus scan? I had a few trojans and they were just removed last night. They were changing the time on my desktop clock and giving me bluescreen of death while in game and slowing my internet connection to the point it would log me out of guild wars 2.

That is not the case with my issue. Have no viruses.

Merkator.6351:

Were you guys using a recording program like Fraps, or an overlay like Steam? Just curious. Those shouldn’t be illegal but I wonder if things that like are giving Anet false positives.

Yea I have steam up at all times, and I had camtasia open for a few minutes but nothing major.

I was banned for using a third party program when I did not. I do not even know what to do other than send in a ticket.

Incident Number 120909-001580

Same exact thing! I left to go get something to eat, come back am now banned for the exact same thing! I didn’t even use a third party program!
Incident Number 120909-001580