Guild Wars 2

On Anet’s end, their concern is 1) finding the point in time when your account was compromised and 2) getting your account rolled back to as close to that date as possible. The fact that you didn’t know about the compromise until this week doesn’t change the fact that it happened month(s) ago.

Hackers got access to your account, but didn’t do anything to it initially. This happens. Some accounts are taken over immediately to sell Gold or bot-farm, while others are held in reserve for future use. So while you went on your merry way playing, someone knew your login and pw combo, and waited to take over when they needed to. It could be possible that they were, in fact, playing your account when you weren’t online.

It does suck that you’ll have to lose progress and items. But on the flip side, at least you still have your account.

>OP

You mean “Soccer”. Football doesn’t have any teams called Manchester United.

SadieDeAtreia.8912:

Amun Ra.6435:

Anet flat out said they would not give early news on the scavenger hunt. I don’t know why people keep asking.

Link please?
Thought so…

See below:

John Smith.4610:

Any official reply to this would shock the precursor market. All I can say is we’re watching.

On a side note, I’m writing to Anet to try and convince them to not implement the Scavenger Hunt. Precursors and Legendary weapons should be rare, and making it too easy to get would take away from the prestige of these items.

I look at all this and say “I’m glad Anet is careful with verifying an account owner”.

Now OP, there’s some misunderstandings I see from your attached pix. You had said you lost your forum password, but could still log into the game. This alone would have me assume that you didn’t know the game login and forum login was the same. You mentioned that you saved your login and password in the browser. No where in the beginning did you mention that your login and password were saved in the GW2 client, which is why you could still log into the game. Had this misunderstanding been cleared up before your 5th mail, your reset would have been faster. Having a calm response instead of a tantrum is always best.

Side note – It’s one thing to lose your serial key, but to not even have a record of your previous creditcard?

Astral Projections.7320:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I think I see the problem. OP mentions that his account was hacked once before the 4/22/13 date.

harbinger.2698:

That would be wonderful if you could roll me back to within a couple days within the hack which occurred 4.22.13. I know the support ticket suggests my account was compromised before that, but as of 4/21/13 I hadn’t lost anything and would love to be rolled back to that date.

So basically, Anet Support will roll back the account to when the initial account compromise took place, which would most likely explain the 2 month time frame. If that’s the case, I doubt they’ll allow him to pick and choose which point to restore the account to.

You may have something there. Ms. Gray said it could be restored to 2 days before the hacking.

Gaile Gray.6028:

Update: An agent just checked and it appears you can be restored to within 2 days of the hacking. Update your ticket if you need to, so that an agent can assist you.

And please give me the ticket number so I can troubleshoot any communication issue.

If so, that means his account was hacked back in the middle of February, which is why they are saying 2/19/13. If this is why then it appears he has the option to either take the rollback or keep it the way it is now. They don’t allow you to pick your roll back date. It’s either at the time of the hack or not at all.

To add to this, allowing an account to be restored to a later date, after an initial compromise, would be like letting the account holder keep all the hacker’s gains up to that point.

I now know the reason why my profit stream dried up…

Every time a silly conspiracy thread pops up, your character must drink a Flask of Firewater.

TiF.6589:

Based on your logic, can I requested that they nerf the drop rate of Sparks since I already have my Incinerators and if more people have them it would make me feel less awesome?

Well, not nerf the Precursor drop rates. But perhaps make them all Account Bound, so they can never be sold on the TP?

Ellisande.5218:

If I can paraphrase the opener’s post:

“I got my legendary and now I want to make sure noone else can get their legendary so that I can feel like an extra special snowflake.”

Exactly! If I see too many around, the Legendary will no longer be rare. I farmed my rear off to craft it. But if it becomes easier to get/make, then it loses it’s “awe” value.

I think I see the problem. OP mentions that his account was hacked once before the 4/22/13 date.

harbinger.2698:

That would be wonderful if you could roll me back to within a couple days within the hack which occurred 4.22.13. I know the support ticket suggests my account was compromised before that, but as of 4/21/13 I hadn’t lost anything and would love to be rolled back to that date.

So basically, Anet Support will roll back the account to when the initial account compromise took place, which would most likely explain the 2 month time frame. If that’s the case, I doubt they’ll allow him to pick and choose which point to restore the account to.

I agree. Precursors should also be super rare. That’s why I feel opening the door to a Scavenger Hunt shouldn’t be implemented. But I think they’re rare enough as is from the MF. Perhaps making them Account Bound would add to their forging values (for individual players of course). Then Legendary wielders would be truly Legendary.

The TP does use browser based technology, so it was probably planned from the very beginning. It wouldn’t be too difficult to merge an App or website login with the ability to make trades. One thing that Anet will need to look at very carefully is the security of such an option. If a hacker found a backdoor to mess with the trades, the economy would break.

I was speaking from my own farming experiences in the temple. Sometimes I would get 2 in an hour, sometimes none. I averaged it out to 1 per hour or two. But RNG is RNG. There are others out there who probably get the same rate as me, which explains why there are so many for sale on the TP.

1) How do you know the others didn’t get suspended?
2) They probably baited you, and when you responded, they reported you. People usually do this with alt accounts, so their mains are safe.
3) If the person moved a whole guild from your server from simple verbal fighting, you should really take another look at their value.
4) I doubt two people are able to take down a whole server.

I love this game. I love having epic looking weapons. And I love having epic RARE weapons. That said, I feel that Anet should make Lodestones, esp. the Charged variety, drop less. Granted, I personally would love to be able to get them more often. However, there’s a part of me that understands if the rarity didn’t exist, everyone would be running around with the same weapon as me. And when that happens, the epic weapon that I loved so much, wouldn’t be epic anymore.

Bolt. Wings of Dwayna. Sunrise. All epic looking weapons. All need Charged Lodestones to forge. By my own estimates, these can be farmed at a rate of at least 1 per hour or two. Couple that with the high availability of them on the TP at a decent price, and that makes them not-so-rare.

So it is my opinion that certain high demand items be more rare than they are now. Doing so would actually add to the end game, since it gives reason to continue playing. Then, getting that Legendary, or any other epic weapon, will feel so much better. On top of that, those weapons will be admired even more once they become rarer.

I also had a change of heart regarding Precursor Scavenger Hunts. Since that would make Precursors easier to get, I now think it shouldn’t be done. Move the goalposts a little more back, and it adds that much more to the adventure!

It’s been said too many times already. Anet doesn’t undo player mistakes.

Warruz.8096:

As i have said before the issue i seem to keep running into (mind you this was w/e they changed the event to only require 1 pack invasion, before you had to wait for all 3) is at the bottom of the hill.

Still cant pin point what causes it, to the best of my knowledge it is a mob in the back that spawns. However on top of that there is also members of the pack that lag behind and take a strange path getting back with the group which causes several of them to clump up.

You just verified that it’s not a bug, but rather poor game play. But with time, your server’s players will learn the strategies, and one day beat the evil monsters.

I didn’t know that Mjolnir was required to craft.

>Titan

I’m actually enjoying this thread. All the complainers are basically people who feel “entitled” to free stuff. Gems too expensive to convert? They blame someone because they can’t get their luxury goods for cheap. Items in the TP too expensive? Blame non-existance “manipulators”.

The list goes on and on and on.

Kaiza.4618:

Why would anyone transfer Gems -> Gold when its half the value? Please fill me in if Im missing some major detail here but the system seems broken. I get it that ANet needs to make some cash on Gem sales, I really do but if the common player like myself or a new player is unable to even buy bag or bank slots for a reasonable value with what he/she earns, this game is going to die a quick death Imo.

FYI – I’m partly responsible for the rates coming down. I went and took advantage of the good Gem to Gold rates when it peaked.

PS – You’re welcome.

Personal account security is up to the individual. See the following thread for helpful tips to prevent this from happening again:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Mike-O-Brien-s-Article-on-Account-Security/first#post391516

>OP

Not getting your way does not equal poor customer service. But if losing one item makes you this upset, perhaps you should seek professional help? Real life is far more unfair than a game crash.

Aedil.1296:

it’s not a macro program -.- you can just insert the number of click u wanna have.

Ok. Then I’ll rephrase. It’s a Botting program.

SnowHawk.3615:

What are your thoughts on this?

He’s my thought. Perhaps you should consider converting your Gold to Gems when rates are low? For people who tend to wait to make the conversions until something good in the Gem store shows up, they usually get the short end of the stick. This is because there are a lot of people converting at the same time, thus driving up the amount of Gold needed for each Gem.

Side note: I helped bring the rates back down, since I got some good deals for turning my Gems into Gold.

This is a macro program that allows you to “bot”. I highly suggest you not use it, or face Dhuum’s wrath.

You can not get that restored. The restore function is only available if your account meets certain requirements, one of which is that you were hacked.

On a side note, the character restoration was only made available recently. So even if you were hacked, there’s a chance you can’t get your character back if it’s been a long time.

There’s a huge thread dedicated to this issue. It’s labeled: Email from “ArenaNet?” Please read!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Email-from-ArenaNet-Please-read/first#post1807876

Release the Tin-foil Hats!!!

Ahem. All items and all bids on the TP are made by players.

We need to organize a 50 vs 50 vs 50 all Glam Mes battle. We could meet in the Obsidian JP start area in EB.

The TP is only the primary source of items if a player chooses that path. I, personally, have been farming T5 mats, mithril and elder woods. I then craft Greatswords until my inventory is full, and make runs with the Forge. I rather enjoy the feeling of tossing stuff in, and hoping a Precursor pops out.

I’m really happy this discussion is in the open forums for all to see. The more players are educated in these scams, the less complaints there’ll be about security breaches and such.

Lafiel.9372:

Sorry in intrude in this even though it’s not my issue but I was curious as to what has happened here. Is this player terminated from his gold/scamming abuse or is he just temporary banned for crude language but a termination message is popped up in error or did this player abuse both areas and he is serving both a termination and a 3 day suspension?

I’m not sure Gaile will post any reasons unless it’s in direct reply to the OP. I’m sure it’s a privacy issue between a player and the company, up until a player openly challenges Anet in its decision.

FourthVariety.5463:

snip

Sorry mate. I’ve taken your opinions, and applied the law as it stands. Because you don’t understand law, I can tell why you are so confident in your responses. Yes US and German laws are different, but as the quoted statues you posted stand, Anet is no where near the definition of “gambling”. But you insist on having a debate, so allow me to further educate you. The following is taken from the User Agreement:

“vii: You acknowledge that Gems are digital material with no cash value, that no interest is paid or earned with respect to Gems, that Gems are not personal property, that the quantity of Gems in Your Account may be increased or decreased by NCSOFT in its sole and absolute discretion for any reason or no reason whatsoever, that You have no right to a refund related to Gems, that there is no right to transfer or exchange Gems, and that NCSOFT may limit Your license to use Gems with respect to any Item, service, Content or time period related thereto. You further acknowledge that additional restrictions related to Gems, as determined in the sole and absolute discretion of NCSOFT, may be applicable if, and when, Gems are made available to You or thereafter. NCSOFT may restrict the award or use of Gems based on Your country of residence or other factors.”

While you may have purchased Gems for your personal use, nothing you pay for is owned by you. You are paying for the right to use the software, and the right to use Gems. So the following applies: 1) Gems have no monetary value. 2) You do not own Gems

So by your own words:

FourthVariety.5463:

Gambling is defined at the moment where you enter a game of chance in exchange for money. Gambling is not defined by the outcome. Gambling is not defined by the availability of alternatives to purchase any of the prices. This is the very European cultural distinction/misunderstanding at the core.

There has been no exchange of money when opening Black Lion Chests, no matter how you look at it. You used Gems (0 value) to open chests (0 value). Your argument might have more merit IF you paid money directly for a chance to open these chests (i.e. $10 for 10 chests). But a stipulation would be that you couldn’t get Black Lion Chests any other way.

As it stands, your argument can be countered in multiple ways, regardless of which assumptions you base your theories on. Case dismissed.

FourthVariety.5463:

German Gambling F.A.Q.:

Why can you buy BLKs? As long as nobody sues, you can pretty much do what you want in Germany.

Does the BLC constitute gambling as defined by German law: YES.

Does it matter in Germany whether you win real money or pixels: NO

Does it matter that buying a chance to win with money is but one chance among others? No

When does “gambling” trigger in Germany? The moment you pay more than 50 cent for a ticket to win something.

So what if BLCs cost 50cent? People tried with, people were shut down: Beschluss des VG Münster vom 14.06.2010, Az.: 1 L 155/10.

What is the deal with German law being split into gambling for money and gambling? If you “gamble for money” it is called lottery that’s all. Semantics.

Is GW2 a public venue? German gambling legislation also applies to non-public venues and membership-only environments.

When does gambling take place in Germany in the eyes of the law? Whenever you can participate in any type of gambling while your body is in Germany. Playing poker on a Chinese sever while sitting in Berlin still means you are gambling.

Do you need a legal precedent in Germany to start legal battle over this? No.

What other risks are involved in case of a legal battle? For players, it is the police securing evidence, i.e. bagging and tagging servers.

Anything else? All advertisements aiming at participation at gambling (make no mistake, there is a giant state monopoly on gambling in Germany) must declare the chances of winning.

So what if I challenged for a game of dice in the pub? Devil may care.

Who is in the crossfire the most? German government running lottery and sports bets is huge business, they will defend this market aggressively. f2p and video games are just below the radar.

What has the EU to say about it? They are in a tug of war with das Merkel about the German state monopoly on gambling.

What do the heads of the federal states of Germany say? Do you want to be the governor explaining why gave away millions in revenue by opening up gambling schemes to companies?

My father-in-law is a Sous Chef. He taught me some recipes for braised short ribs, to which I now make for my wife. That doesn’t mean I’m now an a expert cook, nor does it mean I can call myself a Sous Chef on my resume either.

Your insistence on quoting German law, something which you admit you aren’t an expert in, to argue gambling might have other reasons. I’ve already shut down your argument from my legal background, but now allow me to assist you with my psychology background. I think, and tell me if I’m wrong, that you’re angry at the Black Lion Chests because you failed to get what you wanted. The emotional pain you are feeling is a byproduct of the desire to get a certain item, through a means with no guaranteed outcome. I feel your pain, as I too have rolled the dice. It is human nature to feel anger and regret, but realize that attacking the game for personal choices you’ve made is not the best solution. I think the first step would be to take a deep breath outside, and allow your anger disappear into the air.

A wise man once said: Anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.

FourthVariety.5463:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

No problem. You’re free to make claims, just like the rest of us. But when you do, it becomes open for debate. I simply ended the debate quickly.

You claimed “Black Lion Chests and BL Keys don’t require money” invalidated my legal passage quotes.

Exactly.

Google is a fascinating tool. With it, anyone can become an expert in anything with a click of a mouse. Recently, I became a 5 star Dessert Chef, because I looked up how to bake Pfeffernüsse.

Ooshi.8607:

No, what you mean is american football. What you call soccer is what the rest of the world calls football.

American football is the only football. Besides, I think we invented soccer in the 1800’s (like baseball, basketball, football, and golf), so I’m not sure why everyone else wants to call it “football”.

FourthVariety.5463:

The entire topic came to my attention after I recently made a video about Black Lion Key Speedruns and a lawyer friend brought it up after I told him how the keys work. I found this thread afterwards.

Talk to my armchair all you want, I provided the legal text in question for further reference.

No problem. You’re free to make claims, just like the rest of us. But when you do, it becomes open for debate. I simply ended the debate quickly.

Gaile, as you can see, some of us have been trying to assist other players with the latest phishing attempts. While I believe a majority of the GW2 playerbase understands what a Phishing attempt is, there are those who firmly believe what they see/read. I kinda feel bad for the guys who still insist Anet is trying to close their accounts because of this fake e-mail.

While, computer security is up to the individual, I can’t help but feel the Support Team is going to get flooded with “Hack” tickets. Will Anet be releasing a news post explaining that these e-mails are scams? If it shows up in the news area when we first log in, that might help to spread the word on the situation.

FourthVariety.5463:

European GW2 Servers are in Germany:

Relevant Legal Passage #1

Legal Text
§ 3 Abs. 1 des Glücksspielstaatsvertrages (GlüStV)
Ein Glücksspiel liegt vor, wenn im Rahmen eines Spiels für den Erwerb einer Gewinnchance ein Entgelt verlangt wird und die Entscheidung über den Gewinn ganz oder überwiegend vom Zufall abhängt.

English Translation:
Gambling is defined when money is being charged for the chance to win something and the decision over what is won being subject to a totally or partially randomized process.

Important Detail:
It does not matter if the thing you win has any value. In the eyes of the German law gambling happens when access is being sold, not when earnings are given back to the gambler. This is to accommodate certain local varieties of gambling under this law and how the one armed bandit industry killed arcades at the height of their popularity.

Relevant Legal Passage #2

§ 284 StGB
(1) Wer ohne behördliche Erlaubnis öffentlich ein Glücksspiel veranstaltet oder hält oder die Einrichtungen hierzu bereitstellt, wird mit Freiheitsstrafe bis zu zwei Jahren oder mit Geldstrafe bestraft.

English Translation
Anybody operating or providing a venue for gambling without license shall be punished with two years in prison or a fine.

No, you cannot simply get a license. The EU has criticized Germany for its strict way of clinging to all gambling being a state-run monopoly. But apart from loophole remnants originating in former East Germany, there is little to no chance of getting a gambling license. If you are an NGO, such as the Red Cross, you might get the right to operate a lottery booth at the Oktoberfest, but that is about the extend of leeway you can expect.

As long as nobody sues you, chances are good you will remain under the radar, but it is not a good situation.

There’s a term I’ve heard before. It’s called Armchair Quarterback. It means that someone thinks they are an expert because they watch football (real football, not soccer) every Sunday from their chair.

Now to take what legal background I have, I’ll negate your arguments with one sentence:

Black Lion Chests and BL Keys don’t require money

Jski.6180:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Jski.6180:

@ Vanthian.9267 i like how you leave out earrings neck and back items the rings are an outlier for the set and the different of rares to exotic is much larger then exotic to Ascended.

The same applies if you add the whole set together. The extra added stats above max Exotics don’t make you a better player. They give you a small boost, which helps, but is not game breaking.

Come back with the same argument when Ascended gear gives a +50% stat boost over Exotics, then I’ll side with you.

Well show the math of rare vs exotic i am trying to work it out now but its going to take some time. Your just simply throwing out numbers with no backing.

Numbers don’t matter to me. I don’t sit around and add all my damage while I’m killing something/somebody. Case in point, I kill people in WvW without having full Exotic gear. Heck, I used to run around with MF runes and gear. I even checked my gear last nite, and noticed that I’ve been running around with a Green Amulet.

I don’t need Ascended gear. I acknowledge that I want it, thus I play to earn it. But until I can get it, I can still do well with the mid/high level gear I have on now.

Scala.1340:

I never found the story to be all that interesting. The only story I’ve actually liked in an MMORPG was in Star Wars the Old Republic, mostly because it reminded me of other single player bioware games (which I enjoyed a lot more than the swtor).

In this game, I am not sure why I am leveling. What is the point?

I think having to read most things at the small font sizes is also taking me away from the game. My vision isn’t so good, so reading lots of stuff gives me a lot of eye strain. I want everything to be twice as big.

The “why” part of your post is what we’ve been getting at. You can’t enjoy epic dragon fights at lv 5. Mobs will 1-shot you if you step foot in high level areas. But basically, the same is with all MMOs. You level so you can enjoy high level content areas. But if you don’t have fun in the process, then try something new.

At your level, I assume you’re in the same area, which I can understand is boring. I also assume you haven’t done Jump Puzzles, which can be both frustrating and fun at the same time.

Geikamir.6329:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

My OCD compels me to play MORE so I can get top 100 in Achievements!!!

Oh silly Anet. Stoking the flames of competition in my heart. <3

I am also pretty compulsive about these things. But now that the list is out and I’ve got a screen shot that I’m on the first page, I almost feel like slacking off now. It will be much easier playing not thinking things like “Should I be using this weapon? I’ve already maxed out the points from it. I should switch to X.”

Slack off too much, and I’ll catch up to you. Now I have a reason to finish those 4 Jump Puzzles I’ve been missing, along with making new characters to do their Story.

Jski.6180:

@ Vanthian.9267 i like how you leave out earrings neck and back items the rings are an outlier for the set and the different of rares to exotic is much larger then exotic to Ascended.

The same applies if you add the whole set together. The extra added stats above max Exotics don’t make you a better player. They give you a small boost, which helps, but is not game breaking.

Come back with the same argument when Ascended gear gives a +50% stat boost over Exotics, then I’ll side with you.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Sera.6539:

I’m not super competitive by any means, but I’d like to see my ranking overall, not just the top 100.

Additional functionality will come on-line through-out the next couple weeks showing more players, more sorting options, and allowing all players to search to find what % of the over-all player base they fall into rank wise.

I love you man. And I say that in the manliest bro-way possible.

Some of the lower level areas can be a bit boring, esp. when everyone else is hanging out in lv 80 areas. You’d probably change your mind once you start fighting dragons, or making friends and joining a guild(s).

gennyt.3428:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

stof.9341:

Don’t put stats behind a grind. Only put skins and titles and achievements. And put them behind some CHALLENGING grind, not mindless.

Skill > Stats. That extra stat boost a max Ascended gear gives won’t save you if you don’t know how to kite/dodge.

And the player with Ascended gear who can kite and dodge is in a better position than one who is equally skilled in exotics. They added a power creep and the resulting typical level cap stat grind, there’s no dancing around that.

I hear you. But also consider how much of a difference there really is between max Exotic and max Ascended gear stats (disregarding Infused/AR). The advantage is so small, that it really doesn’t matter.

Imagine that you had 1,000 HP left. If you get hit for 1,100 damage or 1,150 damage, you’re still downed. (based on TGH)

Same is true if you deal 1,100 or 1,150 damage (based on STR), and the enemy has 1,000 HP left.

If you changed your password, and there was another attempt using the new password, I suggest formatting your HD and reinstalling your OS. Either you have a keylogger on your PC, or the hackers got really lucky guessing your new password so quickly.

Sokina.8041:

I read the entire thread, and my response is still this.

ITT: “Dailies are bad because it makes players feel like they need to do them.”

The game, or the devs, aren’t responsible for obsessive and/or compulsive behavior. They do not need to massively change design choices just because a few people whip themselves into a frenzy thinking they NEED to do everything, that they NEED to have everything.

^ This

I would recommend to everyone that if they feel they have a problem playing a game in a virtual world, and can’t live life without achieving everything in said game, you should seek professional help. Or you should take a break from playing and smell the roses outside. I hear the sun is quite beautiful in the morning.

My OCD compels me to play MORE so I can get top 100 in Achievements!!!

Oh silly Anet. Stoking the flames of competition in my heart. <3

Welp, we tired to help you. You refuse to believe that the threatening e-mail is fake. I understand your pride is at stake, but the link provided by other players clearly shows a fake login site.

This isn’t an account issue. You should just create a Support Ticket, and provide this information to Anet.

stof.9341:

Don’t put stats behind a grind. Only put skins and titles and achievements. And put them behind some CHALLENGING grind, not mindless.

Skill > Stats. That extra stat boost a max Ascended gear gives won’t save you if you don’t know how to kite/dodge.