EDIT: Also having worked CS for an MMO you will NEVER have enough support staff to handle the number of petitions when a game launches with the kinds of numbers we are seeing MMOs launch with now. People put tickets in for stupid stuff, if the ticket is prioritized right then it will get seen faster but each hacked account requires investigation. These Investigations sometimes take 20 minutes or more per account to finish.
Now I’ve seen numerous people say it’s all ANet’s fault yet they admit they had weak passwords or used the same username/password as other games (Blizz was just hacked you know right?), or the same username/password as GW2 fan websites (which one just recently was hacked) yet somehow it’s all still ANet’s fault.
And if “not enough support staff” constitutes to a CS rep addressing your ticket and vanishing MID-WAY through the resolution, then I don’t know what to say.
People have two options now. Either be patient (to which I’ve already lost hope on my account, its been almost a week) or request for a refund. No need to tinfoil here.
P.S: Be nice to Gaile, she really is doing her best. If anything blame all the Stevens you’ve been getting automated responses from haha.
I have used spybot S&D before, but since I recently bought a new computer I had not thought of installing it.
When I saw your post I figured I would install spybot again, but Instead of clicking any links I did a search for spybot and used that to get to the right site and got the software
To be honest it never even crossed my mind to click any of the links you provided, I just went ad searched for it instead.
Some people are lazy, so I just included the links to the appropriate websites — and lazy people usually don’t give it a second thought haha.
Well I have over the years been hearing allot about people getting their accounts hacked as well has had my share of phising in my inbox.
It has left me a little paranoid when it comes to clicking links, but I think thats just a good thing.
If I’m not sure about a link I just do a search for it instead.
As for phising mails I usually read them, but can usually spot them a mile away, and even if I think they are genuine I do it the safe way and dont click any links.
That’s actually very good practice I don’t click links for the most part too, never hurts to be safe!
Going to hit the sack for now, not sure how I managed to stay up till 7am. Hope this thread has, in some measure, helped people.
I have used spybot S&D before, but since I recently bought a new computer I had not thought of installing it.
When I saw your post I figured I would install spybot again, but Instead of clicking any links I did a search for spybot and used that to get to the right site and got the software
To be honest it never even crossed my mind to click any of the links you provided, I just went ad searched for it instead.
Some people are lazy, so I just included the links to the appropriate websites — and lazy people usually don’t give it a second thought haha.
I’m slightly bored while waiting for my karma appeal ticket to be resolved, and with the multitude of accounts being hacked going on, I figured I might share some things I do to keep my PC as well as my credentials safe.
Anti-Viruses – Get yourself an anti-virus and anti-malware program. You will be surprised at how many computers get infected just by not having something as simple as this. Ones I use (both free!) are Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Conducting scans weekly (as well as keeping your anti-virus up to date) is a good way to go about things.
Additionally, you can try Spybot Search & Destroy or stuff like AVAST! but I’m a cheap person and if security is free, why pay for it? Also, McAfee is utter nonsense. Get rid of that.
Check First – Now you may have noticed that I linked you three links above. Did you instantly click on it? Well you shouldn’t have! The first thing you should do before clicking on any link is to check that the link actually points to where you want it to go. Typically, this will be displayed at the bottom left-hand corner of your browser when you hover over the link — do it and do yourself a favour by checking and double checking links!
Know your computer – It can be wise (if you know what you’re doing) to run msconfig as well as task manager and check the list of services and processes that start up when you boot your PC. See anything that’s suspicious? Google it which will usually return you the stuff you need to know about any process running.
Don’t take candy from strangers – It can be good practice to spend five minutes researching before you download anything — this includes torrents, installers as well as archive files. Read comments (if applicable), scan it first before you open it and if you’re still suspicious, just don’t install it at all.
Common Sense – The general consensus is that if you’re not visiting any shady parts of the internet or trying to download shady things, you’ll be generally safe. If you absolutely insist that you must visit said parts of the internet, then do so on a different PC and with different credentials (and I don’t mean coolguy1 and coolguy2).
Hosts File - This is an excellent thing to have. Every (Windows) computer comes with this (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc). It allows you to dictate who can and can not connect to your computer (ala, blacklist). Dan Pollock (link) has an awesome compiled list which gets rid of most pop-ups, spyware sites and all that jazz; having that will make your internet browsing experience a whole lot safer and fun.
Google Chrome – If you’re still using Internet Explorer, shame on you. Get Chrome now, and get Adblock Plus while you’re at it.
Passwords and Accounts – Don’t toss around your credentials on every single website or gaming forum you come across. Keep them relatively separate cause chances are, if one gets compromised, someone’s going to try them on other things. Here’s a comic by xkcd which explains to you exactly what’s happening to many of the hacked accounts right now: http://xkcd.com/792/
Pair all of this with the advice posted by Regina (courtesy of Jee) and you shouldn’t go wrong really.
That’s probably all I can think of for now, I’ll try to update this in the near future.
Cheers,
-A.
P.S: The forum text formatting is whack out. I need to get used to it..
The security of the game effects EVERYONE people who can get into the game and those that can’t. I don’t blame them for giving priority to hacked accounts. I for one don’t want to be hacked during a time when “roll backs” aren’t available. I was hacked on WOW once at lvl cap and you can’t even go out and do anything to farm more gear/money with a naked toon in WOW. I can’t imagine getting hacked and having no way to restore your stuff. Not to mention that dirty feeling that someone’s been touching your stuff (those of you that have had a house broken into know what I mean).
I don’t think Anet was prepared for the tidal wave of hackers just slobbering at the doors when this game opened. They had support staff but their nightly updates indicated they were helping 2,000+ people a DAY. That’s a lot of issues to fix and those are just the hacked/account issues. I know it’s hard to be patient, I have issues I’m waiting on too, one of which is I can’t get into an account because the website says my serial has been applied, the login says my grace period is over sigh so I’m right there with ya.
And it would take a CS rep just 1 minute to key in the serial code you provided and grant you access to the game again. See the problem here?
I agree on giving hacked accounts primary focus tbh, and mine wasn’t hacked. But I think a 7 day turn around time is absolutely unacceptable.
To top things off, some of the non-hacked account issues would only require two minutes at most to resolve — and yet these people have been standing in line for four days and up.
Wouldn’t it be more simple, effective (and not to mention pleasing to the customer) to resolve these issues really quickly?
Agents are involved with all types of issues. Hacked accounts are a priority, but they are not the only focus.
Your ticket is one day old. Please understand that it will be necessary to ask for understanding while the team staffs up, gets trained, and tackles issues that preceded yours.
Haha, I hope the they are trained well since its quite unheard of to have tickets being addressed half-way by a CS rep. only to be dropped shortly thereafter with no resolution
I wouldn’t be so hasty to throw this into the same category as bots. What Folji is doing, as far as I understand it, is only re-routing some keybindings from mouse to keyboard, while retaining the golden rule of “one button pressed = one action done”, it doesn’t automate anything. I’d wait for official word on this, but I can’t see any issues with this personally. Forbidding this would be like forbidding different keyboard layouts, after all.
Yep, but it’s using same scripts Allowing it will open wide door for bots Question was: is it safe? ; and answer always would be – no. Using such macro legal or not , – is absolutely another question only official can answer
And the post above is an official response, by the founder no less.
[–]Mike-OBrien-ArenaNet 30 points 5 days ago
If it’s just translating a key-click to a mouse-click, that’s fine. If it’s looping or automating gameplay, that’s not fine.
~ MO
Look, if you have nothing to contribute to the topic, please leave. If your posts getting deleted weren’t a big enough hint, then I am asking you nicely to leave.
Just saying that some of the CS reps you (ArenaNet) have hired do not fit the criteria for your job application form. Where can I leave feedback on individual CS reps? This may help you with the quality of your staff members.
All I’m asking for is that your customer service department resolve tickets that they’ve made an effort to respond to and to NOT leave a customer hanging mid-resolution.
suffer guys, exploits are well known to be strictly against EULA if you squirming in the wind is making you edgey, you guys deserve it, compromised accounts are way bigger issues then people who exploited a bug and abused the game…you guys will be unbanned, your just not a priority compared to bigger issues, world select is a bigger issue then exploiters, to be fair, with it being such a well known rule, your lucky it was temporary.
A bit harshly stated but the core of it seems correct, the game came out only a few weeks ago so there’s a lot of stuff that needs addressing and fixing. Eventually the bans will be lifted, so sit tight and ride it out.
I would not mind, but the thing is we actually DID get responses to our tickets (some even approved, some pending) and yet the tickets were abandoned half way. What kind of customer support does that?
All the while, others have had theirs fully seen through to the end. I understand that hacked accounts are prioritized (and I would definitely want theirs to be resolved, look at those 8~10 day no-resolution tickets!) but how can customer support just leave a customer halfway through an opened case and completely ignore said customer?
I want an answer to that.
P.S: All I want is some quality service from CS. Bad CS reps should have their contract terminated. I don’t want my fellow gamers who’ve been hacked to have the same terrible support I’ve been getting for all my cases — and that’s what’s been going on right now for all of us, regardless of hacked accounts or karma exploit or anything else for that matter.
Don’t know if related, but account display name (name.####) changed itself while banned for Karma Weapons — no trace of logins from anywhere else but my PC. Sincere apologies if this is not the place to post the ticket number.
#120830-017629
Almost 4 days since support got back to me citing non-existent account. Still pending approval on my ban, would very much like to be unbanned as per the announcement.
Mine’s still stuck at pending for the last 3~4 days as well. To clarify, while I was banned, my display name changed from Alexandriea.2901 (now, non-existent) to Lyralei.5920. I did not have any hand in this — The last response I got from support was that my account could not be found.
Would appreciate some follow up for all of us still locked out from the game. We really do want to play again and we really do want to delete the karma vendor related items, but support really hasn’t been around at all.
I understand that Monday was Labour Day in the states, but no news as of today? I’ve even had guild mates who submitted tickets many hours after getting approved.
I don’t click links for the most part too, never hurts to be safe!Question was: is it safe? ; and answer always would be – no. Using such macro legal or not , – is absolutely another question only official can answer