Guild Wars 2

Allisa Wonderland.8192:

Gaile,

I suspect that you are probably one of the most experienced players of the Guild Wars franchise, at ArenaNET (who else has their own custom minis? ), so I implicitly trust that you are working from the perspective of the players’ interests.

I know these are early days in what will hopefully be another 7 year adventure.

Over the whole time I played GW1, I never worried about being banned. I knew several people who probably SHOULD have been banned, but it didn’t seem like anyone was really paying attention. When I would make a report of someone being abusive in chat, I was always reminded that ArenaNET staff were really on the job. To me, this is how it should be. (ie: no police state, but response to community reports). I used to farm for Nick’s gifts every day in Pre.. sometimes for long periods of time. It just worked, and it worked well. Eventually, it was more time efficient for me to make my living with WTS/WTB, so I did that.. and made sometimes great deals and sometimes bad ones.. but it worked well.

Now, I’m in Guild Wars 2, and I’m afraid of my shadow. I’m afraid of getting DR’d for getting stuck on a batch of Cursed Shores foes who respawn faster than I can kill them all. I’m afraid of getting banned for moving inventory between my accounts (I have moved completed sets of minis without a peep of concern, which gives me the impression that eyes do indeed review these permabans before they are executed).

The number of real bans is small, and I suspect most are deserved, but from my perspective (can’t speak for everyone), the FEAR of losing an account I’ve already invested nearing 1000 hours on has burned a lot of the fun out of playing. Even the fear of in-game logic hurting my chances to be competitive in the drive for gold takes away from the fun.

Perspective is everything. Is there more factual information (ie: hard numbers) that ArenaNET can divulge, to comfort this fear in me (and the community, it seems) without giving away the secret sauce?

I’m willing and happy to put up with the teething pains, as this is the best game I’ve played in the 32 years I’ve worked with computers, but please don’t let the end result be a mouthful of screwed up teeth!

Thank you so much for being one of the ArenaNET team willing to take on the hard questions.

Allisa

I read your comments (thanks for the kind words, btw) and I read the other posts, and I want to say that I understand your concerns. I think I see this differently because of my perspective. I know the processes used, I know the data used in situations like the karma or snowflake exploit, and I also know that while a “termination” is usually permanent, we reverse terminations daily when we find they were made in error.

Now, before anyone thinks “Wow, they’re terminating so wildly they’re making errors” I think you can reduce your worry by knowing — key point here — there is an appeals process, and it extends, really, over several levels. I honestly think with support tickets, reviews, appeals, and then the forums, there are a lot of options for getting the final and conclusive review you guys deserve.

I don’t want you to be afraid to play the game, or feel concerned about the boogieman in the shadows. The numbers of false positives is small. And while, if it’s yours, that false positive can be a heart-stopper — “What? I’m accused of fraud? WTH?” — I do have confidence that we offer a lot of means of correcting those issues and that we will make that correction whenever we can.

In my heart of hearts I’d like to never have a false positive. But for things like botting, gold sales, and other RMTish activities, the cheaters/exploiters are trying their best to do the bad thing, and the systems we develop must be as close to the edge as possible. Overly lenient and we risk severe damage to the game economy. Overly strict, and we risk a high number of false positives. The work-around is to take the appropriate action and remove as many cheaters as possible while always taking care to seriously review each and every appeal.

I can’t guarantee that an innocent player’s account will never get actioned, but I feel sure that if that happens, we’ll do our darnedest to sort the wheat from the chaff and get that guiltless player back in the game as quickly as possible.

simplesimon.2084:

Shotz.4985:

I am posting this on my sons account as I guess when you are banned for one reason or another you are not even allowed to login and post. My account was just banned (terminated) with no explination other than it says I abused an ingame exploit. I got no email explaining what exploit I had abused, just a noticed my account was terminated when I tried to log in. I can not for the life of me think of any in game exploit I used justify the ban. How is someone suppose to defend themselves when no details are given about the ban.

The things that go through my mind.

Did I get banned for buying to many gems on the gemstore and trading them for gold?
Did I get banned for killing some mob that may have been bugged?
Did I get banned for crafting yellows and oranges and breaking them down for Globs of Ectos?
DId I get banned for ……………………………………. I have not a sigle clue other than my account is now been terminated and I can no longer log in.

Probably number 3.

They just did some mass bannings of people that were making snowflake jewlrey for one ecto and salvaging them to get 3 back.

Members of the forum cannot answer your questions, and we do not offer immediate “submit-and-post” services, because that’s just not an efficient way to operate. (Could have people working on the same issue, which isn’t a good use of resources. Only Support can answer the questions you’ve asked and help you with any solution. Please contact Support by filing a ticket through the “Ask a Question” tab on that linked page. They will be able to assist you. For tips on what information to provide in a ticket, please read this post.

Are you Level 30? If so, and if the skill is greyed out, please submit a ticket to Support.

In order to have an intelligent discussion, let me point out that the word/name that ThiBash is asking about it like “darp” but with a “e” for the “a.” Having said that, I understand that some people can see the word as somewhat offensive. However, we discussed this as a team and we feel it’s pretty commonly used to mean not-very-bright, silly, stupid. We don’t block silly or stupid.

I understand you may see the word as a jab at mentally disabled people, but our feeling is that this word is quite different than using [the “R” word for a mentally challenged individual] and therefore we have not been taking action against the former word.

I’m open to your thoughts about it, but again, that’s our general feeling, keeping in mind that we’re not trying to censor every possible word of every possible level of offense, but words that are quite clearly offensive, and seldom have multiple or confused meanings.

Are you talking about a Guild Wars account? Character names are not required in GW2.

And as I just posted in another thread, the majority of log-in issues involved forgotten or misspelled usernames and passwords.

Soylentt.6123:

Hello everyone, sorry it’s taken so long to respond, but I finally got satisfaction today. Soylentt Green has been released from captivity and he is once again wandering the realm! Thank you ANetfor being so reasonable and understanding about my request. So here you have proof that a name change can be successfully appealed.

For all those that supported my appeal, thank you! For those that didn’t…. well.. all I can say is this… Don’t accept the inevitable. It’s okay once in a while to go ahead and fight rather than just lie down and take it! Peace out my GW2 brothers and sisters

We are reasonable people. And thank you for your update — it’s good when people post the “final chapter” so that others know that things do have a tendency to work out just fine. Enjoy SG’s romp through Tyria!

Nightpath.7415:

Today my account was suspended for the name Smashed Azzhole…wasn’t warned, just suspended for 71hours.

This is way too heavy handed, should be made to change the name instead.

The Naming Policy is the warning. Allowing you to choose a new name is a kindness (where some games immediately rename any and all offensively-named characters).

If you honestly think there’s nothing wrong with “creative spelling” for an offensive word, then please review the document so you do not make the same error in the future.

shochinhwa.1648:

Another example of how Anet doesn’t try to educate its players so they can avoid / correct their mistake. It makes people second guess every single thing in-game and instill a sense of worthless fear. All it does is gives itself a bad name and doesn’t help the player to grow and learn from his/her mistakes.

Change your name to what? What’s wrong with the current name? Will the new name be yet another mistake?

Keep your player in the dark. Yeah, that’s the best way to help them.

How do you suggest we “educate” them? Maybe by.. having a Naming Policy, publishing it on our website, and making frequent reference to it in the forums? Yeah, that ought to do it!

Michael.4791:

Just don’t discuss their decisions. Try to get a review and if that fails simply live with it and follow the rules and decisions.

Thank you for understanding and stating that so we

zbrkesbr.4173:

Gaile Gray.6028:

Posting off-topic comments of meaningless value, and threads that have no relation to the topic at hand are not of value in this discussion.

I disagree. Players were suspended without any investigation from ANet team just because some other player reported them for inappropriate name even if they have done nothing wrong and their character names were fully legit. And this is what this topic is about. So those linked threads are in direct relation to the topic on hand.

This is incorrect. People are suspended for an offensive name (not banned) after it has been reviewed by an agent, and usually by multiple agents. No one is suspended for a name without a review — there is no system to suspend for an offensive or unacceptable name without a review. In fact, anything that is reported is reviewed.

Please let’s not use forum posts as “proof” of an issue. I am telling you how the system works — the only way it works. If you choose to believe that someone can grief another player with a simple report, and that the reported player is immediately suspended, you will be wrong.

You might try this:

Log into Guild Wars and speak with the Kimmes the Historian in the Eye of the North, choosing either “Show me my account’s accomplishments,” or “Show me my personal accomplishments.” After you have done that, you can log out.

Then, log into Guild Wars 2 and speak with the ghostly Kimmes the Historian in the ruins of the Eye of the North and see if he’s got your items for you.

If you still don’t see your rewards at this point, please take a screenshot of Kimmes’ dialogue and submit it with a ticket detailing what you’ve done so far, so the team can take another look at this issue.

I really encourage you to contact Support by filing a ticket through the “Ask a Question” tab on that linked page. They will be able to assist you. For tips on what information to provide in a ticket, please read this post.

The most common reason that new account holders cannot log into their account is the fact that they are using the wrong credentials. Either the username is wrong, or the password is wrong, perhaps something as simple as a capital instead of a lower-case letter.

Sam — we do not require a character name to log into Guild Wars 2.

Support will help if you need it.

zbrkesbr.4173:

Gaile Gray.6028:

I think you folks are looking at forum threads and seeing a mountain where there is merely a molehill.
…
The list in the first post that says “I am afraid to do these things” is baseless, for a few reasons:
You cannot extrapolate 1 post, or 10, or even 100 to assume that it is representative of a major issue. 100 posts represents 0.00005% of our player base.
…
So when you see “I was suspended, and all I did was [this thing]” keep in mind that (1) the issue will be given a fair review and (2) you may not be seeing the facts of the case.

Where is smoke, there is fire.

Gaile Gray.6028:

People crying, “I had a harmless name and was suspended” or “I never used offensive/racist chat” were “outted” with posts that included their actual name or chat strings. In the end, if I recall correctly, not a single protest was truthful!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Why-am-I-being-asked-to-change-my-name
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Goodbye-and-ty-to-the-the-1-who-stole-my-name <- player lost his original character name because it was taken in the process of recovering from being suspended and forcibly renamed.

Posting off-topic comments of meaningless value, and threads that have no relation to the topic at hand are not of value in this discussion.

samwelaye.4967:

My friend just bought and registered his gw2 account, but unfortunately when he tries to log in it says incorrect username/password. He’s tried many times, but somehow it simply doesn’t work. In the “I forgot my password” section, he can’t reset the password because he needs a character name, which he doesn’t have because he doesn’t have a character yet. Anyone have any ideas what to do? He emailed support already, but he was very excited to play tonight so any help is appreciated.

What is the 12-digit ticket number for your friend’s ticket?

zbrkesbr.4173:

Gaile Gray.6028:

Right. If you’re not moving around, your location is recognized and approved automatically.

And that is a fail implementation for mobile authenticator.

No, it’s the way many authentication systems work. If you approve a location, then it is “white listed” and you are not pinged every single time you try to log in.

I asked the Security Team about this, and the auth system is still in Beta, but they are considering allowing the player to “opt in” for “ask me every time” in the final version. I imagine that you will choose to use the feature to set your mind as ease.

You do not need a Gamespy account.

Can you please submit a ticket right away? That’s a bizarre message and I’d like the team to see it. Please submit a screenshot of your error code—that would really help!

Jules.5897:

This game bans people every 2 seconds, usually for a ridiculously miniscule reason. They expect everyone in the community to be filled with sunshine and love for guild wars but the bottom line is, the world doesn’t work this way and not everyone acts that way. They can go ahead and keep banning people, but guess what they are gonna be seeing a lot more people getting refunds, like myself, as we speak. I just got banned for defending my girlfriend from a troll. It literally took like 3 seconds for the ban to take affect. Meanwhile she is still in-game – being trolled. Good job arena net. Two customers gone, after she gets a refund too. Say goodbye to your player base. Won’t take long at this rate.

First, you were surely not “banned.” Bans are forever. At most, your account was suspended. But let’s talk about the important stuff: Did you report the harassment incident? When you were suspended, did you submit a ticket asking for a review?

Game moderation is a partnership, and we need to ask you to participate by letting us know the facts of the case and giving us the opportunity to correct any error that was made or any incomplete action that might have been taken.

In this case, if you reacted heatedly, and if you were reported, you may have been given a time out. If the team gets your explanation of the full details — details that are not readily apparent to them without communication from you — then this situation can be amended to be fair to all involved. But you need to give us that chance, and I cannot see that you did yet.

I think you folks are looking at forum threads and seeing a mountain where there is merely a molehill. There are more than 2 million Guild Wars 2 accounts. Yes, 2,000,000+ accounts! With player volumes that high, there will be cheaters, exploiters, scammers, and of course, the occasional and deeply regretted error on our part, the unwarranted suspension or closure of an account. I don’t know of any system that doesn’t have some degree of false positives, but we are working to reduce those as much as possible.

When someone submits a ticket or posts “I was erroneously banned” we take care of the matter. And please note that the fact that one player says he was suspended for saying “Good morning” in chat doesn’t mean that everyone else who said “Good morning” will also be suspended. Too, statistics prove that a lot of those who say “All I said was ‘good morning in chat’” may have either misunderstood the situation or may not be telling the truth. (See a certain Reddit post of two months ago for enlightenment: People crying, “I had a harmless name and was suspended” or “I never used offensive/racist chat” were “outted” with posts that included their actual name or chat strings. In the end, if I recall correctly, not a single protest was truthful!

The list in the first post that says “I am afraid to do these things” is baseless, for a few reasons:

1. You cannot extrapolate 1 post, or 10, or even 100 to assume that it is representative of a major issue. 100 posts represents 0.00005% of our player base.
2. Clearly, players are doing all the things on the above list, by the tens of thousands, and their accounts are not getting suspended or terminated.
3. Some players attempt to get reinstated for an absolutely justified suspension or termination. “I didn’t do it!” isn’t always the truth. Count on dozens of people screaming their innocence who were, in fact, quite and provably guilty.

The latter is not to say that we dismiss any appeal or that we never make a mistake. Everyone who submits a ticket is given a review (sometimes multiple reviews) and if we made an error, we reverse it. We review; we uphold or reinstate, as appropriate; and we try to improve so that we don’t make the same mistake again.

So when you see “I was suspended, and all I did was [this thing]” keep in mind that (1) the issue will be given a fair review and (2) you may not be seeing the facts of the case.

Right. If you’re not moving around, your location is recognized and approved automatically.

Assuming that you are not located in China, then you’re on the right path: Authentication is the way to go. Here are some links for you:

For questions about E-mail Authentication, see this post.

For questions about Two-Factor (mobile) Authentication, please see our FAQ.

Check out several tips on security.

And for a detailed outline on the subject of security as it relates to Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, please see Mike O’Brien’s article on account security.

Please check out several tips on security.

And for a detailed outline on the subject of security as it relates to Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, please see Mike O’Brien’s article on account security.

I think you’ll understand the reason that the password was rejected.

No one goes into an area and does a sweep that takes out all players. Each account that is terminated for botting is reviewed, beyond their location. So legitimate players aren’t terminated simply because of their choice of maps.

Without the ticket number, this is very difficult to parse. I don’t even understand what your questions is.

Please provide the 12-digit number, but it seems to me if you are back in the game, you’re fine.

We have a Tickets for Review thread that you, yourself, have used. That thread will address any issue contained in these comments. Therefore, as you pointed out, this post is redundant. Please work with us in using the proper thread, and in not creating new ones that do not contribute to efficiency or improved handling of tickets.

Thank you for understanding.

Wilqus.3987:

I got email from GM Xionaque that he revived my ticket 121227-002897 and that my issue has been resolved and my account Kruk.9516 is now accessible , but when i try to log in i hade information that Grace period has ended You have not applied a retail code to your account and the grace period has ended . Until you apply a retail code you will be unable to continue playing guild wars 2. Well ofc its not true since i was playing gw since headstart and clearly i have serial code applied on my account, whats going on then ?

Oh goodness, that doesn’t sound right at all. Please update your ticket to let the team know you need their help. I think this is a quick fix, so take heart!

We did take the TP down for a short time. Sorry for any inconvenience you experienced, but I think you’ll find that it’s running better than ever now.

As you have seen, you were assisted by the Support Team. And believe me, we do “own up” when we make an error. There are many cases where an account is hacked and not stripped immediately. Sometimes it’s used for botting or for advertising gold sales and the RMT company leaves the inventory intact, at least at first.

But something happened and I believe that the account truly was accessed by a third party. Well, unless you flew to, say, China and accessed your account, and then magically appeared in your home a few hours later and accessed the account again.

• Hacking does not always result in a stripped account.
• Hacking does not always result in a changed password.
• Sometimes hackers and players use the same account for days, with the account owner being totally unaware of what’s going on in his off hours.

We have security measures in place that (1) block botters and (2) block accounts that appears to have been compromised. Sometimes the botting is detected before the hack, but I really think that both happened. The team was happy to help you get this sorted and re-secure the account and again.

You need to file a support ticket. Please do that.

First, please, please do not PM me to get personal help. I answer in the forums, review tickets, etc., etc., and the agents respond to tickets 24/7. But adding to the 458 PMs I’ve been sent is neither effective nor appropriate.

Secondly, I suggest that you read the response that you received. I don’t know for certain what you were told, but I believe you were told that we don’t change names upon request. And that is true. We’d rather have our agents focus on helping players with actual account issues than deal with secondary situations. In situations like that explained by the OP, we made a change because security was an issue.

I don’t see your name as being potentially offensive. Nor did the team, when it was discussed. I understand you want a change, but I don’t think you need a change, and we really truly want the agents to deal with issues rather than requests. I don’t intend to sound harsh or dismissive. We may offer the opportunity for players to rename in the future. I’ll ask the team about this tomorrow, but I think this display name is going to stand, out of fairness to other renamed players.

Nuked.2360:

The following players got a perma ban tonight while we were wvwing in a guild event. They were reported for exploiting when we haven’t exploited anything we’ve just fought off a large group of people who did wall hop into our keep without breaking anything.

These players:
CarelessKrow.8032
tendertouch.6280
Phoenix Arising.9807

They had wrongfully terminated accounts and due to the auto ban system will be out of action for at least a week and it will hurt us.

This is not where you list banned players. Each individual player who wishes to appeal an administrative action should submit a ticket. Their case will be reviewed, and if they were terminated in error, the account will be reinstated.

Please understand making posts about “This happened to this group of people” isn’t real helpful. Each account owners needs to discuss the matter individually with the Support Team. And jumping onto this thread to take a jab about your issue isn’t the right thing to do, either.

Issue + ticket + review = proper resolution.
Issue + forum post = pointless chatter.

Thanks for understanding.

I’ve seen the numbers, and the damage to the economy could have been substantial, if the exploit wasn’t closed down and if these people were allowed to use their ill-gotten gains. People whose accounts were terminated were the worst offenders. I’m talking a lot of ill-gotten gains that posed a significant potential impact on the economy.

Any time you take one thing and can make two, and then four, and then sixteen… ya gotta know that’s just wrong. (I won’t quibble on the odds, but overall, that form of doubling was not outside the realm of possibility.) And to perform that action hundreds and hundreds of times? That’s call “exploitation,” and that’s against the User Agreement, the Rules of Conduct, and all that is holy.

I know the OP will disagree. But we’ve been more than kind, in the past, and everyone needs to own up to his/her errors and recognize: We all are part of the game economy, and those who exploit it are hurting the rest of us.

Exploit closed.
Worst offenders terminated.
That’s what has to happen to make things right for all of us.

One of our super stealthy agents found this post and changed it a few minutes ago. Glad you’re happy, and we all apologize for the delay!

Update: 2 January – Part 2

121214-002326 Resolved
121218-000324 Resolved
121218-000407 Resolved
121218-000610 Resolved
121218-003017 Resolved
121221-000791 Resolved
121221-002741 Resolved
121221-003527  Resolved
121222-000350 Resolved
121222-001149 Resolved
121224-002243 Resolved
121224-003286 Resolved
121225-000415 Resolved
121225-001447 Resolved
121225-002838 Resolved
121218-000724 Resolved – Termination upheld upon third review
121220-002842 Account was released; you can add a new, legitimate code.
121221-001093 In queue for restoration
121222-003236 In queue for restoration
121220-000483 Followed up today
121220-000825 Followed up today
121220-003274 Followed up today
121224-001614 Followed up today
121225-000316 Followed up today
121226-003713 Followed up today
121228-000009, 121229-000278 Followed up today
121220-002799 Under review
121224-001289 Responded 1/01
121215-001752 The credit card authorization was rejected in error; you were not charged and may add a new code to the account.
121219-000071 The credit card authorization was rejected in error; you were not charged and may add a new code to the account.

Notes:

• Reviews of issues related to botting, RMT/gold selling, and fraud can take time. Please be patient.
• Don’t file duplicate tickets — they slow down your resolution. Submit ONE ticket and update it if necessary. Thank you.

If your ticket is at least three days old, and if you still need assistance, please post in the  Tickets for Review – 3 days and older [merged] thread, which is here at the top of this forum. Provide your 12-digit incident number in every post.

Update: 2 January – Part 2

121214-002326 Resolved
121218-000324 Resolved
121218-000407 Resolved
121218-000610 Resolved
121218-003017 Resolved
121221-000791 Resolved
121221-002741 Resolved
121221-003527  Resolved
121222-000350 Resolved
121222-001149 Resolved
121224-002243 Resolved
121224-003286 Resolved
121225-000415 Resolved
121225-001447 Resolved
121225-002838 Resolved
121218-000724 Resolved – Termination upheld upon third review
121220-002842 Account was released; you can add a new, legitimate code.
121221-001093 In queue for restoration
121222-003236 In queue for restoration
121220-000483 Followed up today
121220-000825 Followed up today
121220-003274 Followed up today
121224-001614 Followed up today
121225-000316 Followed up today
121226-003713 Followed up today
121228-000009, 121229-000278 Followed up today
121220-002799 Under review
121224-001289 Responded 1/01
121215-001752 The credit card authorization was rejected in error; you were not charged and may add a new code to the account.
121219-000071 The credit card authorization was rejected in error; you were not charged and may add a new code to the account.

Update – 2 January

121214-000931 Resolved
121220-002211 Resolved
121215-002277 Resolved
121218-003017 Resolved, but I note you are having access issues. Have asked an agent to review.
121214-002039 Responded 12/30
121213-000102 Responded 12/30; agent will review your comments
121129-000113 Agent needs additional information; please update your ticket
121215-001861 You have purchased FOUR fraudulent codes from unauthorized sellers. We cannot continue to release this account; please discuss with Support.
121214-000225 Fraudulent code. Please contact your seller to get a refund. If you acquire a new, legitimate ecode you may apply it to your account.
121213-002054 Fraudulent code. Please contact your seller to get a refund. If you acquire a new, legitimate ecode you may apply it to your account.
121217-001136 Account was released (after refund) so you may add a new code
121216-000826 The credit card authorization was rejected in error; you were not charged and may add a new code to the account.
121220-002781 The credit card authorization was rejected in error; you were not charged and may add a new code to the account.
121215-001752 The credit card authorization was rejected in error; you were not charged and may add a new code to the account.
121221-000404 PayPal glitch; charges were refunded. You may add a new code to the account.

Notes:

• Reviews of issues related to botting, RMT/gold selling, and fraud can take time. Please be patient.
• Don’t file duplicate tickets — they slow down your resolution. Submit ONE ticket and update it if necessary. Thank you.

If your ticket is at least three days old, and if you still need assistance, please post in the  Tickets for Review – 3 days and older [merged] thread, which is here at the top of this forum. Provide your 12-digit incident number in every post.

Update – 2 January

121214-000931 Resolved
121220-002211 Resolved
121215-002277 Resolved
121218-003017 Resolved, but I note you are having access issues. Have asked an agent to review.
121214-002039 Responded 12/30
121213-000102 Responded 12/30; agent will review your comments
121129-000113 Agent needs additional information; please update your ticket
121215-001861 You have purchased FOUR fraudulent codes from unauthorized sellers. We cannot continue to release this account; please discuss with Support.
121214-000225 Fraudulent code. Please contact your seller to get a refund. If you acquire a new, legitimate ecode you may apply it to your account.
121213-002054 Fraudulent code. Please contact your seller to get a refund. If you acquire a new, legitimate ecode you may apply it to your account.
121217-001136 Account was released (after refund) so you may add a new code
121216-000826 The credit card authorization was rejected in error; you were not charged and may add a new code to the account.
121220-002781 The credit card authorization was rejected in error; you were not charged and may add a new code to the account.
121215-001752 The credit card authorization was rejected in error; you were not charged and may add a new code to the account.
121221-000404 PayPal glitch; charges were refunded. You may add a new code to the account.

If this hasn’t been resolved, please post in the “Tickets for Review” thread above. Individual posts aren’t the way to go, but getting into that thread will get you on the review list.

Have you submitted a ticket to Support by filing a ticket through the “Ask a Question” tab on that linked page? It sounds as if you have done this in the past. I believe we should be able to make a more permanent solution to this problem, so if you have not contacted them, please do so. If you have, please let me know the 12-digit number so that I can follow up today and make sure you can make the purchases before the Wintersday items go away.

Gaile Gray.6028:

Oreoginal.1580:

A LOT of people have the same problem as you right now, including me (my gf to be exact). The only problem is that this also includes actual gold buyers and gold sellers. And of-course those gold buyers and gold sellers will plead nonstop claiming that they haven’t done any gold buying/selling. The only way for Arena Net to distinguish the liars from the bunch is by checking each claim one at a time. It’s those kittening gold buyers/sellers that are causing all this problem. I am also incredibly irritated at this since it’s such a huge inconvenience for something that wasn’t even our fault, but no amount of QQing in the forums will help (sadly). The best thing to do right now is to get your friend to send a ticket and hope he gets his account back.

We are all truly sympathetic about any undeserved suspension that happens. But you’ve summed it up very accurately, Oreoginal. The system gets bogged down in appeals from cheaters, and there is no way to know who’s legit and who’s a cheater (RMTer, botters, exploiter) until the account is carefully reviewed, and that takes time.

I just thought of an idea that might help us “sort” appeals. Not sure if it’s feasible but I’ll share that with the team when we’re all back together after New Year’s and we’ll assess if we can, perhaps, expedite certain appeals. In addition, we will see if the Security Team has any tweaks they can make to reduce false positives, as well.

In the meantime, we have a team working 24/7 and we’ll do our best to get folks back into the game as quickly as possible. Thank you for understanding and explaining the situation so well.

It’s actually quite ez to determine if the player is a gold seller or not.

Gold seller normally do not spend alot of time with the gold buyer, e.g. they won’t party to do dungeons / wvw together, it’s just sell and go. Where else, friends who care about each others, they do dungeons and wvw and they send golds to help each others. (Trust me, if GW2 allow sharing of underwear, we will).

I know it maybe tedious for Anet to scan semi-manually but that is what an RESPONSIBLE enforcer will do. Ask yourself, will u want to jail for allegation without proof? If sending gold warrant a ban, Anet might as well disable send gold function.

You couldn’t be more mistaken. Those involved in gold sales do a _lot_more than simply sell gold. They steal accounts. They bot. They farm. They deliver. They pass gold around across multiple accounts to try to avoid detection. Saying “If they’re in a dungeon they can’t be RMT” is absolutely inaccurate.

JyMissy.4351:

friend has been unbanned.

Thanks anet.

I’m glad this was sorted out, Missy, and very much appreciate that you posted an update!

To me, solving account issues it what it’s alllll about. But yours is good feedback — and I know it’s really not what it’s all about.

We’ll see if we can get some sort of definition or division in the new year!

And Happy Wintersday, Tallis.

Update 30 December — Part 2

121218-002117 Resolved
121219-001161 Resolved
121219-002541, 121221-000109 Resolved
121220-000004 Resolved
121220-001332 Resolved
121221-001422 Resolved
121221-002683 Resolved
121221-002788, 121222-000274 Resolved
121221-003527 Resolved
121222-000274 Resolved
121222-001090 Resolved
121222-001149 Resolved
121223-001682, 121221-001441 Resolved
121224-000787  Resolved
121224-002243 Resolved
121225-001447, 121220-002326 Resolved
121218-001773 Resolved — Account restored.
121220-000435 Resolved — please update your ticket if you wish to have your account restored.
121224-002352 Resolved; if your sister needs help, please have her submit or update her ticket.
121224-000435 Suspended for the use of a racist term but back in the game now.
121218-001256 Under review
121219-001906 Under review
121220-002691 Under review
121220-002842 Under review
121222-000350 Under review
121223-002584 Under review
121224-002521 Under review
121217-001155 Updated today
121217-002393 We need more information. Please update your ticket to answer the questions.
121219-001928, 121224-002364 You did a chargeback. This results in account closure.
121218-000496 Account closed for cheating. Will not be reinstated.
121218-000473 Account closed for cheating. Will not be reinstated.
121118-001373, 121110-000448  Account closed for Credit Card Fraud. Final Answer.
121224-000243 Blocked for RMT/Botting on multiple times; team will review but please stop sending new tickets.
121214-000931 Followed up today
121216-000826 Followed up today
121216-002529 Followed up today
121220-000341 Followed up today
121222-001240 In queue for restoration
121223-002525 In queue for restoration
121220-002781 Payment was refunded. Please reopen your ticket to discuss adding a new code, if you desire.

Due to the holidays, reviews are taking a little longer than normal, as you can see. I have contacted the teams — Payments/Billing, Fraud, and others — and the agents are going to get me more updates tomorrow. We apologize for the delay.

Notes:

• Botting, RMT/gold selling, and fraud reviews, and purchase rejections, take time. Please be patient.
• Don’t file duplicate tickets — they slow down your resolution. Submit ONE ticket and update it if necessary. Thank you.*

If your ticket is at least three days old, and if you still need assistance, please post in the  Tickets for Review – 3 days and older [merged] thread, which is here at the top of this forum. Provide your 12-digit incident number in every post.

Update 30 December — Part 2

121218-002117 Resolved
121219-001161 Resolved
121219-002541, 121221-000109 Resolved
121220-000004 Resolved
121220-001332 Resolved
121221-001422 Resolved
121221-002683 Resolved
121221-002788, 121222-000274 Resolved
121221-003527 Resolved
121222-000274 Resolved
121222-001090 Resolved
121222-001149 Resolved
121223-001682, 121221-001441 Resolved
121224-000787  Resolved
121224-002243 Resolved
121225-001447, 121220-002326 Resolved
121218-001773 Resolved — Account restored.
121220-000435 Resolved — please update your ticket if you wish to have your account restored.
121224-002352 Resolved; if your sister needs help, please have her submit or update her ticket.
121224-000435 Suspended for the use of a racist term but back in the game now.
121218-001256 Under review
121219-001906 Under review
121220-002691 Under review
121220-002842 Under review
121222-000350 Under review
121223-002584 Under review
121224-002521 Under review
121217-001155 Updated today
121217-002393 We need more information. Please update your ticket to answer the questions.
121219-001928, 121224-002364 You did a chargeback. This results in account closure.
121218-000496 Account closed for cheating. Will not be reinstated.
121218-000473 Account closed for cheating. Will not be reinstated.
121118-001373, 121110-000448  Account closed for Credit Card Fraud. Final Answer.
121224-000243 Blocked for RMT/Botting on multiple times; team will review but please stop sending new tickets.
121214-000931 Followed up today
121216-000826 Followed up today
121216-002529 Followed up today
121220-000341 Followed up today
121222-001240 In queue for restoration
121223-002525 In queue for restoration
121220-002781 Payment was refunded. Please reopen your ticket to discuss adding a new code, if you desire.

Silverheart.5674:

Odysaur.8642:

Hello, I am posting in regards to my friend Adelise.5083 as she cannot post it herself. Her account was banned several days ago under suspicion that she was giving Gold in exchange for real money, and it has been at least three days and hasn’t gotten a response.

I can attest, and so has a friend of mine (Parae.3479) that she was not exchanging gold for real money/gold selling, as both of us were receipients in friendly favor.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Friend-banned-wrongfully
This was originally posted as an appeal.

Her ticket number is: 121227-003689

I am also a close friend of Adelise.5083 and I can also attest that she has never asked for any kind of real-world currency in exchange for anything. She is just terribly generous to a fault with her in-game gold, often trying to held her guild-mates or online friends.

Appreciate it if she could be unbanned.

Please do not submit multiple post about the same person. The Code of Conduct speaks againgst “petitions” and we just don’t need them. Everyone is treated fairly and everyone gets a review. No testimonials required!

We cannot offer item replacements. I’m very sorry, but please take this as a lesson to never, ever leave your account open when you are not actively playing the game. I’m serious — after all I’ve seen about intrusions and pesky sibling behavior, if you have other people in the house, I’d close it down even for a potty break.

Loli Ruri.8307:

Why not program the forum to auto-reply to any mail that is sent your way, telling them generally where their info should be directed?

Software is software, there is no reason why somebody can’t make it happen.

Don’t have the programming to do that right now. I’m not a fond of auto-responses, but I may need to ask for that to get coded.

I am sorry, but if you would stop and think about it, asking “What did I do to get caught?” is not asking for transparency, it is asking for information that could be — in the wrong hands — a blueprint of cheating.

I have spoken about this many times in these forums. You might use the search engine to find lengthier responses, but be assured that a high level of care is used, that we’re constantly refining systems to reduce false positives, and we’re not able to provide chapter and verse on the parameters that might catch an innocent party, because they are most certainly catching a plethora of guilty parties.

You have our apologies for the time outs, and our assurance that we’ll do our best to get better at reducing false positives and at getting people back onto their accounts even more quickly.

Updated 01/08/2013: I wanted to update this post to note that the account in question was hacked and used for botting. We were able to restore the account to the owner, but we can tell from logs that it was hacked, despite the account owner believing it was not.

Qtie.3182:

Gaile posted:
Update: 24 December 2012 (Merry Christmas!)
121221-003527 Please have your friend submit a ticket directly.

How many submits do we have to sent? My friend sended one on friday and i did with the same number and the same explanation. (about 10 mails together in 6 days on the same ticket with 10 different persons that reply with simular answer : someone will be in contact as soon your issue has been reviewed)

Maybe i don’t have more friends that can send more tickets :p Just that 1 friend that really wanne play …

So you have submitted 10 tickets? And some of those were sent by someone who does not own the account, and therefore should not be submitting tickets? I’m pleased that the team was able to help you, but please be aware that every duplicate ticket you submit slows down your response and the response of everyone else who is waiting for help.

Please: One ticket for an issue and no more.

gary.1273:

please help me…..my account question already 11 days,I still didn’t get any answer
this is my 121224-001759
121223-002371
121223-000686
121222-000259

STOP submitting duplicate tickets. You are delaying your response. The team will get back to you as soon as they can.

Update: 30 December (based on list of 12/24)

121221-001035 Resolved
121217-002070 Resolved
121218-001529 Resolved
121218-002117 Resolved
121219-000077 Resolved
121221-000791 Resolved
121217-001155 Responded today
121219-000366 Received update from your friend today, thank you.
121220-002781 Followed up on this today
121129-000113 Followed up on this today
121215-001752 Followed up on this today
121218-000724 Followed up on this today
121219-000235 Followed up on this today
121219-002541 Followed up on this today
121221-000404 Followed up on this today
121221-002788 Followed up on this today
121213-000102 Followed up on this today
121213-002054 Followed up on this today
121214-000225 Followed up on this today
121214-000931 Followed up on this today
121214-000931 Followed up on this today
121214-002039 Followed up on this today
121215-002277 Followed up on this today
121216-000826 Followed up on this today
121217-001136 Followed up on this today
121218-000407 Followed up on this today
121218-000724 Followed up on this today
121218-003017 Followed up on this today
121218-003018 Followed up on this today
121218-003019 Followed up on this today
121220-000341, 121215-00186 Followed up on this today
121220-002211 Followed up on this today
121219-003118 Account involved in cheating. Will not be reinstated.
121220-000324 Account involved in cheating. Will not be reinstated.

Due to the holidays, reviews are taking a little longer than normal, as you can see. I have contacted the teams — Payments/Billing, Fraud, and others — and the agents are going to get me more updates tomorrow. We apologize for the delay.

Update: 30 December — Part 1

121221-001035 Resolved
121217-002070 Resolved
121218-001529 Resolved
121218-002117 Resolved
121219-000077 Resolved
121221-000791 Resolved
121217-001155 Responded today
121219-000366 Received update from your friend today, thank you.
121220-002781 Followed up on this today
121129-000113 Followed up on this today
121215-001752 Followed up on this today
121218-000724 Followed up on this today
121219-000235 Followed up on this today
121219-002541 Followed up on this today
121221-000404 Followed up on this today
121221-002788 Followed up on this today
121213-000102 Followed up on this today
121213-002054 Followed up on this today
121214-000225 Followed up on this today
121214-000931 Followed up on this today
121214-000931 Followed up on this today
121214-002039 Followed up on this today
121215-002277 Followed up on this today
121216-000826 Followed up on this today
121217-001136 Followed up on this today
121218-000407 Followed up on this today
121218-000724 Followed up on this today
121218-003017 Followed up on this today
121218-003018 Followed up on this today
121218-003019 Followed up on this today
121220-000341, 121215-00186 Followed up on this today
121220-002211 Followed up on this today
121219-003118 Account involved in cheating. Will not be reinstated.
121220-000324 Account involved in cheating. Will not be reinstated.

Due to the holidays, reviews are taking a little longer than normal, as you can see. I have contacted the teams — Payments/Billing, Fraud, and others — and the agents are going to get me more updates tomorrow. We apologize for the delay.

Notes:

• Botting, RMT/gold selling, and fraud reviews, and purchase rejections, take time. Please be patient.
• Don’t file duplicate tickets — they slow down your resolution. Submit ONE ticket and update it if necessary. Thank you.*

If your ticket is at least three days old, and if you still need assistance, please post in the  Tickets for Review – 3 days and older [merged] thread, which is here at the top of this forum. Provide your 12-digit incident number in every post.