Guild Wars 2

You’ve probably read today that the PC and Mac Tech subs are being merged with this sub.

Given the amount of info in the stickies for these three subs I’ll be making some sort of FAQ for those topics to reduce the number of stickies that would be required on the 9th when the merge happens.

Just wanted to let you all know that I’ll be messing things up for a little bit.

I assume you guys are now able to buy it, but to help clarify anything in the game that is purchased (gold, gems, items from the store) are not available at the same time as the patch – it’s a separate push so there is a delay.

If you’re still unable to buy post your ticket numbers here so I can take a look for a problem.

I’ll have someone make sure our ticketing system is behaving. Thanks for the reports!

Raguletto,

I’ve got someone looking at the ticket and making sure our mail system doesn’t have you blocked (if you ever opted out it may put you on there, but we can clear that). We’ll be in touch soon. =)

1041374 Ticket solved, will not discuss further here due to privacy laws.
933607 Waiting a month to reply to us caused the ticket to close so I can’t reply in ticket – there was a mistake made by the agent where the reply meant for you was instead added as a note. We are not able to move players to full servers but you should be able to keep checking as server volumes fluctuate VERY often. Odds are you’ve already noticed this and gotten into your desired server. Apologies for the mistake!

1034418 Solved
1045342 Duplicate, original solved.

Jeknar wins this round. This post is specifically about cheating in the live game environment which I am responsible for. It is my job to find cheats and develop the plan to remove them whether it be terminating offending accounts or walking over to Devon to let him know there’s a problem. Now… let’s get back to keeping this constructive.

Also, I’ll see you on the battlefield this weekend. Keep an eye open for me.

Srsly, commission rates wanted /drool

narcolic.8105:

Support Ticket: 1017846

Hello, I have requested for an account restoration. Its the second time im being hacked. I have retrieved my account back with the help of the support 4 days ago. I haven’t been on the game since 1 month before my first hack. I would like to come back but all my items are salvaged/deleted.

This is being looked at right now.

Just letting you know I’m still reading. =)

Ellieanna.5027:

@GM Talon Thanks. A lot of the stickies that were there people used to point people to look at. We can’t link the Knowledge Base as it pops up a warning, so something that can be pointed to easily for people to see and trust would be appreciated.

I’ll be sure to include a link in the updated sticky for all of you. =)

1019378 I’ve assigned this back to GM Talon to get your account recovered so you can finish up. =)

Lord Kuru.3685:

coglin.1867:

What do we do to tend to trolls or spies who are burning supplies by building rams in the middle of no where near supply locations?

There is a line in the Tos/Eula/Tos or somewhere that states it is a violation to degrade the experience for other players (close guess paraphrasing here.) How do we draw attention to this?

When I played games like EQOA, they had a tab in the report/bug panel for this and GMs showed up very very quickly. It was also made well known that you could be very easily suspended for false reports, to limit that.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

There was recently a big incident (Halloween) where a player was griefing others who were farming ambients. They suspended/banned (not sure which) the guy. This is clearly precedent for punishing griefers (siege trolls, supply drainers) in WvW.

The only question is, this is WvW, not PvE so will anything be done? Likely not.

Your pessimism across multiple threads is just going to cause people to tune you out. This thread has been constructive and we’ve no room for the negative tone. I’ve made it clear I’m working on (not just talking about) the problem and your sarcasm is insulting and unwelcome.

With that said, to the others keeping this positive and moving forward:

THANK YOU!

Pavel.8531:

Michael Henninger.7451:

Arantheal, ignore the haters. If you find an exploit we want to hear about it.

We (ANet) recently caused some confusion about the exploites@arena.net address but it is indeed the place you’ll want to send the info.

Aww, “hater” – I am just speaking from experience, both with mails to the customer support and this. I had him on my block list so I could see when he was logged on – for months after my reports/emails.

By the way, I am keeping tabs on the other thread and I appreciate your involvement – both the ingame and forum one. Your replies have been like rays of hope, thanks for that.

Fair enough. =D

Elrey.5472:

Michael Henninger.7451:

We (ANet) recently caused some confusion about the exploites@arena.net address but it is indeed the place you’ll want to send the info.

Fixed this for you: exploits@arena.net

Delete this post once fixed

I’ll just leave it as proof of your superiority. Thanks for catching it

Arantheal, ignore the haters. If you find an exploit we want to hear about it.

We (ANet) recently caused some confusion about the exploits@arena.net address but it is indeed the place you’ll want to send the info.

*Edit Typos are typos and I typo often.

epborden.7492:

we are now reporting every member of a guild should it have members that have been caught.

Do NOT do this! False reports make getting to legitimate reports take longer and in a cheating report there is a very short window for our GMs to react. Actions like this (false reporting) will lead to your account being terminated.

You can set your kebind to any key (F11→Control Options→Dodge[V by default]) and map that key (V) to your Naga; but you can’t macro it to double-tap a key to dodge in a particlar direction.

With the allowed bind you will be able to use your right hand to dodge while still using WASD for the direction.

Hope this helps.

995780 Account Closed; No Further Review Being Taken
1017972 Solved
1008492 Account Closed; No Further Review Being Taken
1013208 Solved
1017578 Solved
1020220 Solved
1017494 Solved
1017489 Solved
1013557 Waiting for your response.

Snowreap.5174:

one of the key takeaways I’m getting from this thread is that, at least for now, if you cannot click on the cheater or otherwise get their name you cannot report them.

it doesn’t matter if you can’t identify them because they are underground, or because they are using invisibility hacks, or because they teleported away before you thought to click on them, or if you can’t report them for zoom hacks because they are behind a wall and you would have to be using zoom hacks yourself to see who they are.

I hope this gets fixed at some point. we do need some kind of “help! I’m being victimized by a cheater and I don’t know who or where!” option.

-ken

I’m working on this as well. =) Especially where the invisible player is concerned.

Torsailr.8456:

Michael Henninger.7451:

Also included are some unique ways for you to notice a GM when we’re online.

So when a GM enters the map there will be a crack of thunder, a towering font of lava, a roiling cloud of brimstone and the sound of maniacal cackling laughter to announce his presence?

/squee!

Zaxares.5419:

Also, can I point your attention back to this post?

Jeknar.6184:

GW2 need more Dhuum

Oh, we really want something like that as well. I have a design document built that we (CS) haven’t moved on because of higher priorities (getting you guys back in the game faster if hacked, etc>) but this is on the list. Also included are some unique ways for you to notice a GM when we’re online. I can’t promise any of this, of course, but it’s a direction we’d like to head if time allows.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

Michael Henninger.7451:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

@Michael,

did your tests with these new tools yield any results? I also hope that you will be spending time outside of T1, because there are still thousands of us down on the lower tiers.

Yep, they work. You’ll see us from time to time, though generally we’re invisible. And we never forget lower tiers. I’ve played on Anvil Rock, Maguuma, SBI, TC, and several others. My direct reports and I try to join a different server every season to get a feel of what’s going on for each of you (EU included). The account in my signature is open for friend invites or follows and you can always say hi.

Disclaimer! I will sometimes ignore whispers, don’t take it personally I’m very busy when online and get tell-kittened as I’m sure you’d imagine. I’ll pop my commander tag most of the time so you can find my toon and come say hello directly.

*Edit to update signature.

That is awesome to know. I have another question, though (so many questions!). Do you have the ability to jump between servers at will? You mentioned being on servers during seasons, but that isn’t exactly a catch-all. We had our adopt-a-dev Melnetta on our server during S3 and she would ask us after every matchup if this was the kind of thing we were dealing with all the time. After 23 weeks without a win, it was a bit of an exhausted “yes, every time.” She would routinely observe wrongdoing but had no power to do anything about it.

We need GMs on every server, and not just during the seasons. We had a flamboyant and very vocal person using foul play on our server during this current matchup, and while I see that he’s no longer ingame (kudos, btw), it took weeks to get that result. We really do need a full spread of people like you to deal with, well, people like him. Is that a possibility?

Whoops! I blurred a line here. When I was talking about us joining during different seasons I was referring to our play accounts. My team and I play the seasons in addition to working them. As for GMing WvW we’re here all year. I checked out some servers last night and got some great feedback – but I’m going to ask for more.

Stay tuned!

Michael Henninger.7451:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

Vote for best red post update in 2014, Michael Henninger. Mike (can I call you Mike?), you have no idea how in the dark we were and how little we knew about how emails to exploits@ and ingame reports were handled. Thank you for your attention.

edit: and please don’t be afraid to come in here and talk to us. We have been desperate for any dev or support responses about WvW and “wrongdoing” for a long time. You’ve clarified many things for us. You have, honestly, done more for the WvW community by posting in this thread than any CDI or meager update has done in the last year. Bravo.

D’awwwww (blushing Japanese emoticon)

Thanks! (and for the seconded and thirded!)

*edited my emoticon, forums didn’t like it

Also, please don’t take my responses personally. These were awesome questions and my writing voice was addressing all of you as a community, not an individual.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

@Michael,

did your tests with these new tools yield any results? I also hope that you will be spending time outside of T1, because there are still thousands of us down on the lower tiers.

Yep, they work. You’ll see us from time to time, though generally we’re invisible. And we never forget lower tiers. I’ve played on Anvil Rock, Maguuma, SBI, TC, and several others. My direct reports and I try to join a different server every season to get a feel of what’s going on for each of you (EU included). The account in my signature is open for friend invites or follows and you can always say hi.

Disclaimer! I will sometimes ignore whispers, don’t take it personally I’m very busy when online and get tell-kittened as I’m sure you’d imagine. I’ll pop my commander tag most of the time so you can find my toon and come say hello directly.

*Edit to update signature.

Easterbunny.6170:

Hi Michael:

Thank you so much for responding here. I would like to point something out which hopefully you can take into account.

You state that a GM must physically see the person hacking, however with the exception of speed hacking, most hacks happen in a limited time period, for instance jumping over a wall, glitching through a gate, and rezzing underground.

This effectively means that since it takes probably a while to work through the que these intermittent hacks cannot be caught yes?

Michael, the system as it is now in its unprioritized state leads to hackers hacking unmolested for months. Not a couple months either, it took half a year to get GOMs worst hacker banned…for a couple weeks.

WvW hacking is public. It hurts server reputation. It hurts player morale game wide. It becomes a toxic topic and it breeds more hackers to “fight the hackers”

It is, as far as I know, the only public cheating ingame, viewed by thousands who get the impression that ANET does not and cannot stop cheating. This makes people think they can cheat the markets, bot the game etc, because hey they cant even stop that one jump hacker.

Perhaps prioritizing the public, in your face, cheating that does instant damage to WvW ranking, server morale on BOTH sides of the cheat, and your reputation would be valuable?

Ok, first about us getting to cheaters before they disappear. Yes, it happens. The reports come into what we call the stream and are served in the order they’re submitted. However, our coverage allows us to keep on top of these in a very small window (sometimes seconds, sometimes a few minutes).

The reason for physically seeing the cheater is that we can then 100% say during an appeal that they were cheating. We have multiple methods of detection for a multitude of offenses but we’re always going to put eyes on the situation so we don’t accidentally terminate an account unjustly.

Cheaters fighting cheaters is a really bad idea; especially given how public the situation is and how I’m currently focused on the situation. If I catch someone cheating “I only did it once” isn’t a valid defense. Nor is “but they did it first”. If it feels wrong; then it’s wrong. If you’re not sure call up your Kindergarten teacher for guidance (an old joke from a friend).

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

Michael Henninger.7451:

As for the exploits are ANet address, this isn’t a Customer Support address. Exploits is more of a ‘I found a way to cheat here’s how to do it’ thing and Quality Assurance reviews those.

It’s great to see another red post in the WvW forums, and another one that seems like action will be taken.

But sorry we’ve been hurt before, many of us although thankful someone replied, wont expect much to be done.

However, if the exploit email if not for reporting hackers, then why is it for the last 2 years our posts about such have been closed and we’ve been told to send an email to exploits@areana.net?!
Your post here just shows we’ve probably been wasting our time for the last 2 years trying to report these hacks.

You’ve made several posts already, my advice is that, unlike all the previous red posters, it would be appreciated if you could keep up updated on these matters and not disappear into PvE

I’m around. You’ll usually find me posting in the Account Issues sub-forum. I rarely crawl out of it’s darkness for I find new things out here and I frighten easily.

Shadow.3475:

That we cant speak with GM or pm then I understand and think is ok, but would be good if a map wide report came when a GM ban a player, like Player xxx banned 2weeks for flying, for all 3 servers on the map.

I’m looking at ways to let you all know when we terminate players, at least the most prolific ones.

FrouFrou.4958:

Michael Henninger.7451:

Michael Henninger.7451:

I can’t speak to tools. I can tell you that using the ‘botter’ option is indeed sufficient.

As for the exploits are ANet address, this isn’t a Customer Support address. Exploits is more of a ‘I found a way to cheat here’s how to do it’ thing and Quality Assurance reviews those.

GMs don’t belong to a server so wondering if you’re server has a GM is futile. We’re everywhere >=).

To further clarify – exploits@arena.net is not used for reviewing reports of cheaters. This is for notifying us of found exploits so that QA can work on reporting fixes.

Well this is a bit awkward as we have always been told by the mods and whatnot to report hackers that way as there was no hacking report option in the in game tool. I guess this explains why none of the reported people got banned then if it’s not their job to do that in the first place. Thank you for clarifying this! I have one question tho, if one happens to have video footage of someone doing some sort of naughty business, should we send it in via normal ticket or just rely on the “botting” report to do the thing instead?

In-game for botting is always the right way to go. This is (generic, I understand) a report that a GM sees and responds to by going into the game. I am looking at new ways to let players report but I’m going to need a few days to poke holes in my methods.

Good morning (I’m on the west coast, be gentle)!

I tested some new tools yesterday – thanks to BG, JQ, & TC for putting up with me while I figured things out =D. There are multiple things from overnight I want to address so let me get my day rolling and I’ll pop back in and do so.

See you in a bit.

Fay.2357:

Michael Henninger.7451:

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

Michael Henninger.7451:

so you must use the in-game reporting tool. .

Great! So I’ll just click on the invisible unclickable Unknown player and report them using the in-game reporting tool under the options for hacking……..oh wait.

Are you referring to players under the terrain?

A commonly seen hack in WvW makes the player/golem/what have you invisible and untargetable. Damage taken from them shows up in the combat log as belonging to ‘unknown’. You recognize them existing by noting the golem rockets coming out of thin air.

K, I’m on it. I’ll talk with Game Security and make sure we’re not missing these.

Michael Henninger.7451:

I can’t speak to tools. I can tell you that using the ‘botter’ option is indeed sufficient.

As for the exploits are ANet address, this isn’t a Customer Support address. Exploits is more of a ‘I found a way to cheat here’s how to do it’ thing and Quality Assurance reviews those.

GMs don’t belong to a server so wondering if you’re server has a GM is futile. We’re everywhere >=).

To further clarify – exploits@arena.net is not used for reviewing reports of cheaters. This is for notifying us of found exploits so that QA can work on reporting fixes.

NonToxic.9185:

Michael Henninger.7451:

I can’t speak to tools. I can tell you that using the ‘botter’ option is indeed sufficient.

I can’t help but feel that reporting a ‘botter’ does not quite have the required urgency when a player is speedhacking, flying, and disrupting the normal play of all 3 servers.

Every report is served in order. Even if it were a separate report option no extra weight would be given to a cheater in WvW over a botter, or a griefer, or someone spouting hate speech in DR. Well… maybe that last one.

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

Michael Henninger.7451:

so you must use the in-game reporting tool. .

Great! So I’ll just click on the invisible unclickable Unknown player and report them using the in-game reporting tool under the options for hacking……..oh wait.

Are you referring to players under the terrain?

Ryinn.4127:

Michael Henninger.7451:

All of us (GMs) have character names starting with GM (GM Proheals, for example). We are online 24/7 and responding to reports sent by you via the in-game reporting system. 98% of the time we’re invisible clearing bots and the like.

To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool. The only exception is if you can point us to chat where the player cheating has said they are using a 3rd party program.

Hope this helps, I’ll check in later for questions.

1.) Can we please have a “cheating” selection on the reporting screen (as mentioned numerous times already)?

2.) Can you impart some information explaining why we are seeing players – who have been verified as abusing the system – return to the game within a short time frame (weeks, as said by others)?

3.) Could we please see a little more open communication from Anet, such as a message from the GM resolving the issue to let us know our reports have been received? This will cut down on your players feeling neglected and unanswered.

This one is tricky but I’ll see if there are some sort of numbers I can share with you.

4.) If your GMs are overloaded with botting and other in-game bugs they are attending to outside of WvW, would you consider dedicating a small team of GMs to monitor WvW issues (not just cheating but general bug reports as well, of course)? WvW is a competitive environment that players pour hours of work into in order to scale the ladders of their tier. It seems almost negligent on Anet’s part to not provide ensured coverage for regulating the battlegrounds, both on and off tournament seasons. I understand the need to make all aspects of the game fair and balanced, but I would think WvW / PvP would be treated separately because of what is involved during seasons.

Thanks.

1. I will bug the appropriate teams and see if that can be squeezed in. =)

2. First offense in many cases is a 2 week suspension. Further violations (of any kind) will result in account termination.

3. This one is tricky because we have a strict policy against allowing GMs to make contact in-game outside of a few unique circumstances for reasons of security. I’ll take another review and see if we can help further.

4. This is an issue we are currently working on. I know it seems to you (any outside observer) that nothing is getting done but that’s simply not true. My team was given another set of tools today that allow our hunting in competitive to yield faster results and you should see results this week. .

I can’t speak to tools. I can tell you that using the ‘botter’ option is indeed sufficient.

As for the exploits are ANet address, this isn’t a Customer Support address. Exploits is more of a ‘I found a way to cheat here’s how to do it’ thing and Quality Assurance reviews those.

GMs don’t belong to a server so wondering if you’re server has a GM is futile. We’re everywhere >=).

All of us (GMs) have character names starting with GM (GM Proheals, for example). We are online 24/7 and responding to reports sent by you via the in-game reporting system. 98% of the time we’re invisible clearing bots and the like.

To remove someone using hacks (teleports, speed, etc) we have to witness the act in game so you must use the in-game reporting tool. The only exception is if you can point us to chat where the player cheating has said they are using a 3rd party program.

Hope this helps, I’ll check in later for questions.

Using a macro to gain an advantage any time there is a reward or game progress involved would not be allowed so; No, macros would not be allowed for use to complete the Bell Choir event.

1010316: Escalated your request.
1010633: Escalated your request.
1007863: In Queue

996200 In review
1000132 Solved
1012175 Under Review
999096 Waiting for you
1002428 Solved
1008324 Under Review
1012713 Duplicate ticket

Phandemia.7609:

you’re the best

I’ll upvote this! +1

1005098 In appeals, which is being looked at rigorously. These often become cases where a compromise was involved which slows things down a bit. We’ll get him playing asap!

1005776 Also in appeals (same reason).

1006292
1005066

Both tickets in appeals (usually means compromised account).

Omnip.1897:

I am ticket number 999026. I do not mean to sound disrespectful in any way and I thank you for your response. But why would it take 2-3 days after my initial 3 days to review whether or not I read the agreement and did a virus scan?

The response asking you to perform those actions is sent as the ticket is assigned to an agent to review the security of your account. There are other things being checked as well and yours is one of hundreds of cases like it. It’s simply a matter of volume – which is something my team and I are actively working on correcting so you’ll see shorter times for general login issues starting immediately and other ticket types in the coming days.

808731 We last replied to you on the 5th in response to your inquiry the same day. You did not write to us on the 6th. If you still need help please create a follow-up ticket.
996850 Solved
994195 Solved
993100 Waiting for you to verify ownership.
994366 Solved
995971 Solved
995409 Solved
994328 Solved
996021 Solved
995871 Solved
995935 Solved
995030 Account was terminated, will not discuss with 3rd party
971804 We do not allow transfer/sale of accounts.
997744 Solved
997500 Solved
995280 Solved
995925 Solved
996065 Solved
997746 Pending restoration
996346 Solved
996461 Solved
996582 Solved
998087 CS does not weight in on design or gameplay questions. If you feel this is a bug you submit a report in game.
996330 Solved
998703 Solved
999020 Solved
998574 Solved
998290 Solved
997918 Pending restoration
998460 Solved
989295 Solved
1000092 Solved
984028 In Queue
92756 In Queue

Obilux, we won’t discuss another account with you. Your friend will need to wait for his ticket to be updated.

996200 Is being reviewed, given your request this is waiting for Lead GMs.
999026 The second contact is a side effect of new (temporary) procedure, but the agent should have noticed the block on your account. It’s being reviewed, but I wanted to apologize for missing the block.
993890 Bumped for review
1001718 Still pending ownership verification
Reminder that this thread is for GW2

994195 Not 72 Hours Old