GW seems to be flooded by: "I don't care" ppl, more GM's needed?

I play GW since the beginning and right now something really anoyes me about GW players. Districts are being flooded by spammers, loads of people try to scam, people leave while in missions, battles or whatever and hardly anyone is willing to help you with certain things unless they make some kind of profit.

I was once in a district where I talked for like 2 hours to people who where spamming like crazy in the chat window. I managed to have the district being clean for over 1 hour without spammings in the chat that took more then 1 rows an advertisement. Afther that hour people came in who where just ruining everything, spamming like crazy and stuff. When I told them at the friendly way that spamming isn't that nice, they just ignored me, even when I told why I was doing this stuff.

A day before I did that anti spamm stuff, I was in cantha just afther the last gamers event, and there was no one spamming in the district. People could hardly believe it and enjoyed the chatting a lot as well I did, this I why I tried to get a district almost spammless just to see how people would act on the chat. And yes it was more ofthen used for just social talkings instead being domminated by pugs spamming all kind of crap, from WTS, WTB up to "I want to have sex". People actually started to believe that Anet was taking action on the spammers and thought I was from some sort of team. Loads of thanks I got from them who saw no spamm, and the people to which I wispered about not to spamm that much actually said sorry in most of times and agree with the fact that a spammless chat would be really nice. But well nice things won't last long and afther 1 hour...

Same for missions, Alliance battles. I formed a team and each time I made sure that I wasn't taking a leaver with me. People in my team enjoyed, said I was a nice team leader to really take care about not taking any leavers and actually said in a social chat, that everyone should do the same.

It seams that GW is being overwelmed with people who ruine just everything, as long you try hard to avoid those things, you can actually see how much people love to play GW. Load of people are a victim of those who ruine a lot.

I also played a lot of WoW which I like as well, and I saw that on the server I played there is a huge social community. People help, totally no chat spamming, nobody cursing except towards AI and the people that are actually pugs .. well they don't bother others with it. I would love to see GW being the same social game, but I think that won't happen unless Anet introduces a monthly fee.

Also I'm wondering how another people experienced the social gaming in GW. Do you think someone should actually take action to certain things happening in GW or do you totally not care about the problems that are going on right now? Maybe we should have some social gamers involved to be a Game Master and moderate GW a little, actually I would really like to help Anet at this point if it was possible.

I was going to read all that until i noticed i'm one of those "I Don't Care" people.

Well introducing moderation by players is potentially double edged, with great power comes great resposability(sp?) mod staff would require some kind of self moderation, and also lots of whine tickets complaining would be generated. so i don't see it coming. :/

Theres nothing that can be done against, people leaving , people not being helpful , or people spamming.
So you only really got scamming,which Anet handles good if you have proof..

You put too much effort into being nice.

tl;dr

Nothing in local chat is worth reading unless you're buying in any town, and you can disable those channels for a reason.

Play with people only you know, do you think those leavers who don't care enough to stay for the whole round care enough to not join the party to spoil your experience?

That's just the way things go, sad but true.

because GW doesnt have a monthly fee, you get a much wider spectrum of ppl. having to shell out $15 a month helps keep some of the riff raff off the servers.

the solution is usually just finding a good guild in a good alliance, and deal largely with them. youll have a large communtiy of ppl willing to help and chat with.

The biggest problem ANet would have with GM's is the number of districts they would have to cover as well as the number of regions...it could end up being a full time job for a number of people!!!

As for the SPAM in towns, you kinda get used to it (and avoid district 1 if you dont want to buy or sell) and can always put up your chat filters. It would be nice if ALL people actually used the TRADE chat to buy and sell.
If you want quiet districts, i find that the international district is normally ghostly quiet except in the prime towns.

Your problem with some people just playing to ruin others peoples game experiences is an unfortunate truth. They are almost professional quitters.
I do not know why these people do it, or what joy the get out of screwing other people over, but as this happens in the 'game' areas, you could not Gm this anyway. Luckily, these poeple are still mostly in the minority and there names soon end up on ignore lists so that you dont get them again.

I think guilds and alliances have totally monopolized the social aspect of the game. Speaking for myself, I only ever have the Team and Guild chat modes enabled. Team for when talk involves the actual play our party is engaged in, and; Guild for general banter. (I do, occasionally, check the trade channel.) I'm afraid I might not be alone in this.

you get the nice people and the not so nice people .some people just dont care about the feelings of others ,its just the world we live in .ive learned to accept it

You are note alone. I never have local chat on unless I'm in my guild hall. I keep Guild, Team and Alliance chat up most of the time, but not local or trade.

You create your own kharma....If you want to live in a positive world...be positive. I play the game and see a LOT of juvinile crap. It does not, however, effect me anymore...I tend to read through it to see if someone needs help. In pre-searing I have a character that does not much more than kill charr and give the drops to lvl 1s appearing in Ascalon for the first time. I run ppl from place to place for free...I give out information...and without being rude, or appearing offended, I say things in local chat like "Will the Hitler Youth rally participants kindly move to district 14, your party is waiting for you there" (usually after the racist crap starts to flow and there are only 10 available districts)....A sense of humor can go a long way. If someone bugs you personally, put them on ignore....or better yet....on your friends list...When they are online you can whisper to them things like: You get a hug today? Are you in a positive space today? How's the anger management coming along? Sure, they will put you on ignore....but they might get creeped out enough by your lack of negativity that they will think twice about spewing hate...Sounds hokey and kinda weird? Yes! It is...that's why it works....especially when they start crying "harrassment" and you say..."please print and send the chat log to ANet...I've been nothing but kind." You can't really kill anyone with kindness, but you can bug the hell outta them with it...Seriously, though, helping those who need it is more than a distraction from the negativity...it sets a mood, an expectation and a model for behavior. Do a good turn and it may come back to you...Let's face it: anonymity breeds stupidity...all you can do is try and combat it with what you find good in the game...

You can only really get rid of spammers by denying them what they are screaming about...

Which isn't gonna happen........(Of course you could exploit their desperation)

If more players were proactive about cleaning the districts (friendly whispers asking spammers to stop and such) then those 1 hour periods would magnify. As shown by many of the above responses right now many people don't think it is their problem and won't lift a finger to help. They want somone "in power" to do it for them and they know there is no such thing coming, so instead go blah and say just ignore it if you dont like it. I really don't think GM's or such are needed if more regular players would just stand up to the junk. Like recycling, it only really works if everyone stops being lazy and turning blind eyes to the neccessity.

I will say that district 1 of the major cities are and will be spam free for alls. And I am okay with that, I know to avoid them when I dont want to see it and to go there when I want to wade through and look for trade. I write them off as lost causes and if Im looking for gaming I will move to 2 or up.

I'm in the minority. The spam doesn't bother me. I expect the see the endless trade messages in town. The only thing that I really can't stand is the immaturity of the kids in these towns.
Mac: "Hey Joe! ------ off"
Joe: "Shut Up, I enjoyed your momma last night"

We all know Joe and Mac. They'll be in the towns for hours and hours spewing garbage that you don't want your kid reading. If you are unlucky enough to invite Joe or Mac into your party, you'll hear endless streams of cussing until your leader decides to kick them or Joe ragequits.

Sometimes, you gotta wonder where these kids parents are. In this age of online predators I'm shocked that parents still allow their kids into online games like this unsupervised.

Sure, I'd love to see some GMs introduced into the game, but it's not financially viable for a game without a monthly fee. GMs aren't the answer, responsible parents are.

It's a game, peoples have the right to acted like the way they are!

I was afk in presearing Ascalon for a while, and that was all I saw in the chat -- sex this, sex that, leud yo momma jokes, crude and fowl language, etc, etc. I'm still undecided as to whether these are really hormonal prepubescent teenagers, disgusting sex-starved "adults", or a combination.

In either event, I just ignore it and generally turn local off altogether whenever my guild/alliance is doing something. Can't remember when I last had the spam channel (trade) on. Every now and again I come across a district where people are having mature, friendly discussions, or joking around lightheartedly, but it's few and far between. And unfortunately I doubt it will ever improve in GW.

Then I have the "right" not to be exposed to the filth that some people spew. Unfortunatly "rights" are a sorely misunderstood, greatly abused, and sometimes completely fabricated notion.

It's a social setting. They should have been taught what behavior is inappropriate. Before reaching adolesence I had been taught it is inappropriate to curse, describe sexual acts, and generally be a twit in public. If people want to act like that with their friends, fine, but don't do it in a public area and subject others to such idiocy.

I am very much the same...unless my guild is largely off line (We span 9 time zones, so when I get on, the Eurpoean players are signing off, as I logg off, the left coasters are getting organized..

Our alliance is small and our guild is mid sized, but to be honest, I don't play GW for the community aspect. If this game was a stand alone game on my pc I would not be affected...that is not to say that I do not appreciate the community.

Recently I posted about Rude behavior, I am afraid it is part of the game...When I started there were not a lot of people selling in the local chat...I would occasionally, but I turned the trade chat off and if you want to reach a broader audience, you spill over into the local chat...Its like supermarkets that have ads on the floor..its obscene, but you get the message.

GW is never goign to be the Utopia it was when you first started...my advice is to go the guild/aliance route. I hope you have a good one, if not whisper me ingame, we can talk.

Hey,

Deal with it or Leave. I don't like how People act on BF2 or on AA, but I deal with it.. I don't like it how people act on Total War Mutiplayer, but I just play it once a week and deal with it..

Just Deal with it or Leave. Put up or shutup. harsh yes, but true..

I actually experienced one of those rare quiet moments when nobody was spamming the local chat in Kaineng during the server problems in Europe. Everyone who was stranded in the city without a guild and unable to leave without getting errors ended up chatting nicely with each other (mostly about the lag and server problems, but still). Lots of people commented that this was the first time they saw anything sensible in local chat, and they enjoyed it.
As soon as the first spammer made their way into Kaineng, everyone just jumped on the guy, telling him to shut up.

I'm pretty good at ignoring spam, but I think this topic goes beyond it. It's not just "whine whine whine", the OP is only lamenting the fact that public chats are used for such crud when people could have fun actually talking there. Sure the chat can be turned off, but that's not the point. It's like turning a blind eye to the real problem and ignoring it entirely - it won't help make anything better.

I'd love to have something done about spammers. I'd even be willing to work as a mod for free for a few hours a week, just to get the problem taken care of. I love the social aspect of the game and it's sad that these days the only decent social interaction is with your own guild. Sometimes you might run into interesting people if you stumble into a good PUG, but usually playing GW is a very lonely experience. Getting good chats without spam in outposts would help a LOT towards having a better experience.

As for the immature conversations... well, those will always be a problem. Only a mod would be able to take care of it, and even then they'd get a lot of crap about overstepping their authority. But it's still better that someone is actually trying to do something, rather than just letting things be.

You should act like you are in a public place, for you are. If that is how these people act in everyday life they have a serious problem. Just because you are in a virtual world doesn't mean you can throw all civility out the door. Maybe they should have a "Guild Wars for Ignorant People" version so they can all get together.

Just the idea that there might be GMs in the game that can silence or temp ban you for spamming would keep spam down. We don't need 100% scanning just that there's a chance to get caught. As it is now, there's no control so people just don't care about spamming, scamming, or trying to sell gold.

Someone in my guild recently tried to sell gold or trade it for RS money. told him to knock it off since it was against the EULA and he responded with disbelief that someone actually complained but said he didn't care anyways since no one else had ever said anything (apparently didn't think it was against the rules or thought that as long as he didn't get caught, it would be fine). Ended up kicking the guy from the guild.

Yea and the day a GM shove's a suck down your throat, you'll bitch and whine cause there is GM's

If done correctly, they won't be doing that unless you deserve it.

compare how things are done in WoW and CoH.

WoW: anyone reports you, its pretty much an automatic warning. For repeat offenders, 3 day ban, and eventually perma ban

Don't like this way since false reporting is a problem.

CoH: Anyone makes a report, GMs investigate situation and if it can be shown that the person was intentionally causing problems, they can get banned.

Like this way since the people who really are causing problems are stopped.

Currently in GW, there's not really any moderation at all beyond the suspected banning of scammers and mass banning of botters. This doesn't really help against spammers, or people spreading hate messages.

A little self-policing goes a long way. I keep all the chat channels open where ever I go, and if I'm spending any amount of time in town, I don't hesitate to let someone know that their spam is inappropriate. But, I try to do it in a courteous way.

Spammer: Selling a super-neato thingie for 100k + 25 ectos
Spammer: Selling a super-neato thingie for 100k + 25 ectos
Me: No, you are NOT selling a super-neato thingie. You are Spamming, please stop.

And they usually do!

The moral of the story is this: If you've got a problem with the way someone is acting, politely let them know of their discretion.

If they're flat out jerks, politely let them know that being one can possibly result in their account being banned. If they persist, thank them for the SS - it's amazing how fast that shuts them up.

GMs are one of the things a monthly fee pays for.

Peace,
-CxE

We really need an auction house to get rid of the spamming. Not only will it get rid of the spamming, but you can actually quickly and efficiently look for the item(s) you are looking for and buy them without trying to advertise you're buying something admist the flood which takes a VERY LONG time.

It doesn't have to be fancy or complicated, it can just be as basic as talking to the auction house NPC, and searching what item you want to buy, and it showing a list of people selling that particular item with the price they want for it. I can't see any visible flaws to having an auction house in this game.

I'm suprised how many people posted on this topic, and how many people feel a little bit the same. I thought it would turn into a flame war, but instead it turned into a nice topic. Thanks for that.

I think if everyone who loves GW just do a little Moderating work with a nice voice and act they could be someone from Anet. We could deal in a nice time span with certain problems. Like I was being able to keep Lions Arch district 1 for 1 hour quite clean, I think if a bunch of people while they are helping out others or enjoy GW and see people spamming or doing another bad things, just give them suggestions what would be better to do. Maybe this way we can introduce a bit GW moderating and let the gamers do the rest like the way they picked up the WTS and WTB spamming when they started playing GW.

I refered a lot of spammer towards the search window, and it was really intresting how many people started to use it in just 1 hour. I said that more people look at the search function then you might think, and suddenly 30 minutes later I saw a huge list on it and people chatting it worked quite well. Ofcourse an auction house would be better and spamming WTS and WTB does have sometimes more effect, but well it was a start.

The same for another things that should need improvement to get back the social stuff again. Maybe it won't work for the first weeks or months, but if everyone puts a little effort in it, maybe we can less certain bad habbits ingame.

Maybe Anet should introduce a "Weekend of kindness" event, where people do all kind of good things and actually get rewards for it. XD
About more GM's, I think that would help a bit, because when I wisper certain people and tell them for example: not to spam that much, they say: "Oooh, what are you gonna do then?" And I think having a GM behind your name would actually make them say: "NP, sorry for that". Maybe Anet should recruite gamers to be GM's or something, like the way they hired a few gamers to develope and test GW.

Hey, "I don't care" post.

Much of behaviour in game is in violation of RoC, and is detriminial to other people's gameplay.

Leeching, scamming, prophanity, spamming - all of these are in violation of RoC. But because of lack of moderation, or even just fear of moderation, nobody cares about these rules.

If someone dislikes the gameplay, they should leave. If someone dislikes the behaviour of others, when RoC supposedly guarantees such behavious shouldn't occur, then it's not fine.

You are spot on. I'm the exact same way. Local/Trade chat is now a cesspool of sewage in the form of words. Its either some lame conversation where flames are flung everywhere or some spammer trying to sell something that no one wants.

I know that people say "Tolerate it or leave" but they failed to see the other option. The option where you find a good guild/alliance and turn that garbage off.

People shouldn't have to deal with that crap ever. ESPECIALLY in a game.

People: Sucking since 50,000,000 BC. Deal with it.

As Ensign said, there's not enough money for ArenaNet to hold a well-staffed GM team. Look at how long it took for the website to be up-to-par...ArenaNet's appears to be on too strict a budget.

That is by far the saddest thing I have every read!!!!

Welcome to narcissistic paradise...aka Guild Wars. And yet people wonder why the PUG is dying.

This is what guilds and alliances were invented for. You can have a select amount of people you can invite with you to places, do missions, etc... Whom you know aren't gonna be utter twats or the guild leader would've kicked them by now.

Spammers are just annoying. Would be nice if the ignore list blocked local chat, i could've sworn it did at one time... now it doesn't seem to work anymore :S

Fixed that for ya.

I'd love to run around in-game tossing out bans for all of that spam; do it enough here on Guru afterall. Give me something to do while waiting for favor.

Heh. Some of the people in this thread are prime examples of what's wrong with the GW community which is by far the worst I've seen in an MMO. But yeah GW is free and GMs cost money. I just hope you already have friends and guildies that you can play with.

PUGs were always dead. Always.

WTS Uber Sword of Superiour Imbalance 100k+500E.....1

will become:

WTS Uber Sword of Superiour Imbalance 100k+500E....CHECK AUCTION HOUSE.1
WTS Uber Sword of Superiour Imbalance 100k+500E....CHECK AUCTION HOUSE.2

We would't need gm's 24/7

I believe that any one at anet should be able to go into a district, relase a polite message about not unsing the all channel for spmming, selling, and buying ( in a nice blue/green/red colored letters that no one can hide).

Any one who ignores this cannot use the all channel for 24 hours.

Do this one or twice a day during peek times in busy towns, that could reduce spamming alot without using a lot of ressource.

Well thats my opinion anyways.

You are aware that trading one games items for guild wars items is not against the eula? It was dicussed yesterday and the wording suggests that it is not. Looks like you kicked someone when they were innocent. If I kicked every guildie who broke the eula and I reported every friend who broke it I would #1 have a very small guide and #2 have very few friends.

gw is free so they cannot afford tons of gms. in wow it is much nicer community but you pay for extra staffs and gms to control population.