Better Bot/Scam Reporting

"But the plans were on display..." "On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them." "That's the display department." "With a torch." "Ah, well the lights had probably gone." "So had the stairs." "But look you found the notice didn't you?" "Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of The Leopard."

- Douglas Adams Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy.

Yes, funny story, but all too true of the Violation report system of Guild Wars. But finding the report forms was only the beginning.

I've captured screenshots of serial scammers offering 99 gold for 11 Ectos, I've captured screenshots of Bots at Granite Citadel farming 24/7 contributing to the ruination of the GW economy for regular players. I've sent them in. I got a form letter. I got two form letters.

Wow! I thought, action is on the way! Three days later, the scammer is still in LA D1, occasioning the odd, brief wail of an unwary victim. Three days later, the Bots at Granite Citadel are multiplying in number, and if such a thing were possible... I swear they have a kind of swagger in their step.

Justice delayed is justice denied. If there are any moderators online in Guild Wars - where are they? Playing PvP or something? I presume so, based on the balance changes we get. But I digress.

Who else thinks it would be a good idea to have an easier and more efficient violation report system? Or, failing that - How about some volunteer moderators with powers of reportage (but *not* action) so the ANet can give their reports some priority or something?

Offering 99 gold for 11 Ectos is not a scam, it's the careless trade who loses. Boting well... it take's time for accounts to be ban.

I must say they I have noticed this too. I've reported the bots in the Granite Citadel...nothing has changed since. I think moderators should be in the major cities, checking out what's going on. If someone's offering a rediculous deal like that, one of the moderators should take up their offer and see if the seller tries to scam them. If they do...simply give them a warning or ban.

Uh, yes it is! I'm assuming that the buyer is spamming trade or local chat with "WTB 11 ectos for 99k!!!!" or something similiar to that. Then when you try to trade him the ecto he puts up 99g in the window. That's a scam. He told you he'd pay a certain price but then tries to trick you with a different offer.

I also encountered a similiar buyer just this morning in LA. He was spamming local chat non-stop with "Need 3 ectos paying 9k each. Fast trade I gotta go!!" He probably put up that message at least 100-200 times within 10 minutes. In between his spams I saw a few folks saying to beware that he was a scammer offering 27g for the ectos.

I have no proof, but I also think this was a bot buyer and not an actual human. I whispered to him that I wanted to sell him some ectos, but got no response. I asked him where in town he was and again, no response. I found him on my own and tried to trade, but he was running a pre-set circuit around town and never stopped to trade. I'm smart enough not to get scammed, and was hoping to just waste a bit of his time and possibly save someone less savvy. (And collect a screenshot or 2)

I'm not sure how I feel about the reporting system. I tried to report someone once and I found the support e-mail with a bit of effort. I suppose if I were reporting more often I'd find it quicker, but I'm rarely going to the trouble.

I agree that the game needs in-game moderators, but I also think it's unreasonable to expect them in a non-subscription game. Volunteers would be nice, but a company will not want to give that kind of power to unpaid non-employees. The first time a volunteer mod goes throws a "Power!!" temper tantrum and bans or reports the whole town, A-Net could have a lawsuit.

I told anet many times they should have an online gm system. Their reply is we have people around in the game and we cant afford it. I told them I would gm for free. Just give me a ban button. I would get rid of racists, scammers, spammers, bots, online gold sellers for rl money. Let me have like a big lighting bolt and blam when its hits them it says banned and they turn into smoke and ashes and are out of the game.


Now, the report system with their lame tickets is broken. A person can violate so many times and get so many tickets then behave for a week or so and the tickets are gone and then go back to what they are doing. Half the time I think the report system on anets side is all bots since always same replis and messages. I also think that anet doesnt care. Gaile has made promises on gwonline I know for sure , as for here not sure about dealing with these people strictly but other then the gold sellers (which I must say they have been banning the advertisers for the three main gold selling sites) I have seen no changes to scammers, spammers, racists and bots. Oh yeah I know why, Gaile is pr lady and only here to sell us on buying new expansions lol( in which they say are not expansions). Also note that the ones they do ban are the ones that are making money off the game other then anet while the others are still around.


I hope gw2 fixes some of these issues

I especially agree with bots being a major problem, however I feel not much is done when I report bot activity because I always see the same ones I reported weeks ago.

I don't know, seeing all those bots just irks me so.

I agree for bots (especially in Granite Citadel and Yolhon Haven inter. district), they must do something, its worst than the plague of Shiro (Bad joke but true). I usually stay in international district because of my connection problems and I see the way where the bots travel (For Granite, we can see them going through Deldrimor Warcamps and get a run). Anyway, we know how they like, they look the same... to bad, I wished to get tattoos for my monk but they look all the same with these bots

For scam, just take your time to look carefully even in a hurry. I am sure with some free time GM, like Meo Yeong said, we can rid some "Botching players".

Even if someone become a GM, can we trust them not to do overused the ban button for nothing, this can ruin and lose good players?

I don't think you understand economics as well as you think you do.

I lost faith to Arenet long time ago in dealing with scammers. I myself was scammed when making trade while on the phone with my gf. Anyway, its my own fault too but I captured every single chat text with him plus additional pictures of how I was scammed.I didnt see them online for like 2-3 days but then they were online everyday after that. Not sure if they were banned for those 2-3 day period. I even saw 1 of them (2 of them helped each other to trick me) boasting about how many FOW armors he was having in Granite Citadel the other day.

Since then I always play around with scammers when I know they are but have never bothered to send any report. Why would you do that if it does not solve or help anything?

Anybody visit Ascelon City International District 1 Lately? I don't how many offers I get to buy Ebay gold online. Webadress and everything :/.

He may not fully understand it, but what is universally known is that the bots are a contributing factor to the ever...."interesting" economy of GW

Bots are present in Arkjok Ward too (international district) between 1.00 a.m 8 a.m GMT +1 (you'll see tons of monks most of them chinese)

Omega hit the nail on the head right there, even though Bots are bad, shouldn't exist and are occasionally an annoyance, what would happen if all the Bots suddenly disapeared? frankly i have no idea on what would happen, less money being curculated perhaps?

What would happen though? anyone got any idea?

Anyway, back on topic, I find Scammers to be very rare, and if there are any they are dealt with. the most recent one i came across was someone who didn't pay the 15k to get past Thanakai(Sp?) Temple which he said he'd pay, gave him a little warning afterwards that if he continued doing that he'd get banned, i put him on my friends list so i could keep track of him, for about 3 weeks i've not seen him online. so i guess he either quit or got banned, either way it's 1 less scammer around.

So yeah, on European servers, or atleast the ones i go in(English) i see more people doing something like this:

Person A:"So and So's a SCAMMER"
Person B:"What's he tried to do?"
*No responce from Person A for 2 minutes*
Person A:"So and So's a SCAMMER"

I see more of the above then scammers themselves, but this is only what i've seen, i'm sure Scammers exist in a larger form in other places.

Wait a sec. Are you saying here that you were charging 15k to run the Temple mission?? Are you kidding? That's outrageous.

Or was he just standing in town spamming "Paying 15k to run me thru mission!!!"? If so, you should have smelled a rat before running him. Nobody is gonna pay that for a run.

I also find that finding the support email is a mission o.O

I first (logically) tried plaync.com because they handle support...and found nothing there. Then I managed to dig up a link on the GW site. Every time I type my ticket and click send, it asks me to register an account though (even though I've registered and the ticket goes through). There's no confirmation email, I just get a response usually 24-48 hours later.

I say you give the power to the people. You could try some sort of "trail" program for those willing to help out....maybe allow them to hand out warnings and not bans. Heck, I think even a large "GM" over these people's names while they're standing in town will make people think twice about scamming while they're around.

They aren't going to have GMs because then you have power hungry and abusive GMs.

They don't ban bots instantly because they often trying to track the movement of money amoung various accounts and thus try to shut down the entire system at once (shutting down the botters, sellers, buyers, launders, levelers, and distributers of a specific bot network all at once).

Bots (both spam bots and farm bots) are going to be everpresent because its much easier to set them up than it is to shut them down. Also I'd like to think Hawk is correct, but I dunno if Anet would actually dedicate enough resources to organize such a sting operation =/

Raven, i meant your 2nd example, i don't think i will ever charge for a mission, as i've not reached a mission in Guild Wars yet that i would ever pay for, let alone run people through it, unless theres' a distinctly hard mission after unwaking waters i havn't seen yet. Infact Raven, i did smell the rat, took Screens of it, even my guild, who i was doing the mission with smelled the rat and also took screenies of Before, during, and After the mission.

I disagree with making normal players GMs, there's only a few of them for a reason, most of them are people who work at Anet and don't use their account as often as players without the power.

Although Lydz's idea i like, simply having someone with a GM sign would radically reduce Bots, even if the people standing there acting as authority were bots themselves, recording conversations and having access to whispers if possible, which can then be checked by a real person looking for keywords and finding bots and scammers.

If that happened though, wouldn't it be ironic? the Bot problem solved by bots themselves?

XD It would be, but as they say: Fight fire with fire!

Nah, it just leads you to the conclusion that Anet don't actually give a flying f*ck about bots and don't do anything about scammers anyway. There reporting is just for show...

Wonder if those bots are all owned by Anet? No respectable gaming company would go out of there way to ban players for 'botlike' behaviour but leave 1000s of bots free to wander in and out of the same town for hours on end without action if they didn't have a finger in it somewhere.