Remember the WTS/WTB "fix"?

Good God! It's been ages since this spamming "fix".

If you don't remember, anet (capitalization ommited on purpose), in their infinite wisdom forced all chatting starting with wtb or wts to automatically appear in the trade channel and not in all chat.

This "fixed" the spammers right? Right? After all this time, you'd think they would have compiled a freakin database of all the workarounds (w t b, selling, w.t.s., etc.)

So where's the fix? How on earth is anyone supposed to cut through this crap? An answer not laced with rhetoric would be nice from the team that bought us loot scaling, and encouraged us to sell to other players.

KANE

ps: I know this post is dripping with frustration, but that's exactly how trying to buy or sell something feels.

Let the flames and cries of, "We need an auction house" begin.

We need a new guild wars!!! ... oh wait

If you think you're getting an auction house in GW, don't get your hopes up.

this is the same paradox anet forces into:

1. There will be no auction house. The current trade system, if you want to call it that, is all we get.
2. The amount of trade spam is unacceptable. Possible bans for spamming may occur at any time, and the rules for these bans may change without notice

pick your poison.

Ah i remember that... the most pointless update Anet have ever done. I just wish they'd at least add a huge list of things to that. w tb, wt b, w.t.b. You could make the list a few miles long, it would be funny seeing Anet filter literally every coherant WTS/WTB straight to Trade Chat ^^

use the party pannel.... or at least try
i allways put somethig at the party pannel and it gets sold.
U should try it to.

disable copy/paste/uparrow in local chat = fixed

There is no solution for bad mentality

If the party panel didn't delete every time I changed districts, I might use it.

Never planned on one or counted on one. Re-read my post if you're confused.

KANE

Trade improvements have been asked for since beta, and they still refuse to do anything about it, it seems they are happy with how it is, even if it is on the same level as the trade system on a game as horrible as runescape.

Bear in mind that Anet already have your money. If you leave the game because of the broken promises, then their profits go up (through reduced server load), not down. This is in contrast to the likes of Blizzard (yes, WoW is horrible, but I'm using Blizzard as an example of a subscription MMO developer) whose profits go down when a player leaves.

This will probably turn into another 'fanboys vs whiners' flame fest, but I would ask that anyone defending Anet at least understands a basic point: Guild Wars is not a free to play online game. Unless you shoplifted your copy of GW, you paid to play this game and therefore you (like me) are a paying customer of Anet. Paying customers of Anet have just as much right to demand value for money as paying customers of Blizzard or anyone else.

This gets my vote.
actually, this would be PERFECT! get rid of tons of spam and only get people actually typing messages!

you know that if you press up you will get your last message back, right?

you know that the post i quoted included removing that, right?

And no one gets banned!

/signed to the 100th power.

If you're not allowed to copy/paste/up arrow, then you'll see a huge influx of people using Keyboard Macros, weither that's legal or not. Just imagine. If you use a Macro, you can advertize quickly to all districts 10 times faster than anyone else, and nobody can find out. You press a key on your board, and it types out a string of characters. How can that be detected? What if there are timing imperfections coded in? It's clear to me that would never solve the problem.

Without the ability to at least advertise to each of the different districts once, trading overall will diminish fantastically. In a bad way.

I use the copy/paste/and up arrow all the time, and not just for trading. For Handing out builds, repeating what I last said to people after a map change, conversing in an auction with bids, or answering the same questions from two people at the same time. It's a useful function, and practically, it will never even consider being removed.

Except in RuneScape you get more boxes =P

And since the topic is heading towards Auction Houses, my guess is our only chance lies with GW2, or even 3...

the proposal is to not allow it in LOCAL chat. it would still work in trade, group, guild, alliance, and tells. Gets rid of the problem of local chat spammers, still leaves the functionality there for all the legit uses.

And as for macro programs, the person would then be using a 3rd party bot program, and deserve to be banned for that spamming.

Here's an easy way around disabling copy past/Up Arrow.

Type out your message. Say it in All Chat. Switch to Trade Chat. Press Up Arrow/paste. Switch back to All Chat. Say it in All Chat.

So, maybe you should put more though into the idea.

they'd still have to type it out each time they want to say it in ALL chat, which most spammers won't take the time to do.

Disabling Copy/Paste/Up Arrow is the most retarded idea I've heard. Do you guys even play Guild Wars? Trading isn't the only thing that uses copy/paste/up, I use it HEAPS for other things. Such as Guild Chat, Team Chat, for builds, explaining something...AGAIN, etc etc.

Stop suggesting stupid things, and get over it. Anet aren't changing ANYTHING to do with Trade, ever. GW2 is where they correct all their stupid mistakes, by throwing a GW skin onto WoW.

Did you actually look at the suggestion?

It says disable in LOCAL. Guild, Team, Alliance etc wouldn't be affected.

Yes, but that's a stupid idea anyway. Too much effort for something that will cut down a little on whining.

THen you're asking Anet to modify the entire chatting interface/system underlying it.

Right now, the chat has only 1 system all across the channels, with one filter to redirect WTS/WTB to Trade channel. To make the chat input bar work differently depending on the channel would mean Anet has to differentiate the chat input system into at least 2 systems.

Too much work for such a small fix. Besides, I'd say they should fix the REAL issue here instead.

Exactly. The chat system carries over to all the different types, which is why disabling buttons is stupid. It'd either do it for all of them, or they'd have to completely change the chat mechanic. NICE IDEA GUYS!

ok so we all know that anet reluctance of AH is somewhat in the programing aspect of it...

so y not instead of a auction like status have a seller like houe in which players set amount..people buy..vendor takes X% of sale.. the end GG kthnxbye

Dude, all I see you posting is constant bitching and whining about Anet and GW, go play with a rubix cube ffs... Noone is making you stay but you... Don't start any crap about "I bought the game, so I have a right to stay", because as I mention below, if you've been playing longer than 6 months you've got your money worth based on the general lifespan of other games. Either that, or just take a damn chill pill, because I would JUST LOVE to se you do better than Anet...

That goes to all you whiners, show us that YOU CAN DO BETTER! I'd PAY to see you all try... Oh wait, you're content sitting at your PC bitching nstead of actually doing somthing CONSTRUCTIVE...

Hmm, let's see... If I buy an offline PC game, I might get 1 or 2 update patches released, if I get a console game I get no updates, period. Yet, I paid the same price as I did for GW... You're lucky we get updates at all ffs...

Err, can you tell me how their profits go up by the whiners leaving? If a whiner leaves, they tell their friends, their friends don't purchase GW. GW purchases are Anet's ONLY income from it's customers (aside from additional character slots).

GW states FREE ONLINE PLAY, not FREE GAME, so you're paying the cost of ONE game (or two or three) that alot of people have been playing for longer than 2 years! Show me a console game you paid full price for that you're still playing as much as when you first got it 2 years ago, and that the developers have constantly added updates and new content for you for free? Working in a game shop, I see people trading in XBOX 360 games they purchased for AU$119.95 in only 3-4 weeks after they bought it. Same goes for many console games: 2 weeks-2 months is the general trade in time for most console game purchases, so playing GW for 1-2 years is pretty good driggin value... 90% of mainstream MMORPG's have a subscription fee, yet all you guys do is bitch and moan and whine and complain about a game that YOU ARE PLAYING FOR FREE. Yes, there is the initial purchase, but THAT'S IT!

Having worked in customer service, there is one thing that is relevant regardless location: The more you give a customer, the more they want/expect! You guys are NOT paying for these updates, you are NOT paying for server upkeep, you are NOT paying for Anet's staff wages, but that is exactly what you are paying for MONTHLY with WoW. If you bought GW: Proph 2 years ago, do you really think you're money is still alive? Your game purchase is less one days wage, or if you have all 3 campaigns, less than 3 days wage. I can't believe you can actually find logic in you comment:

Paying customers of Anet have just as much right to demand value for money as paying customers of Blizzard or anyone else.

A little math... (in Australian dollars, over a 26 month period from GW launch)

GW (all 3 campaigns) = AU$300 (for Collector's Ed.)/ AU$260 (for Sandard)
WoW (Original, Exp, & Subscription) = $680

So yeah, we totally deserve the same treatment as WoW players, even though we're paying less than half of what they do, IF you have all 3 campaigns. You still get all updates etc even if you only have 1 campaign, but WoW gives no choice but to constantly pay subscription. Gee, us GW players have it SO hard... Also, if you think WoW players are getting more value for money, they've had some pretty spectacular arse-ups and blunders over there, not to mention the hours of downtime... You want that kinda service too? Again, I reiterate: The more you give a customer, the more they want...

Feel free to hate me, but it is FREE TO PLAY!, and Anet don't need you're bitching when you ain't paying them monthly... You say they never listen, I say they shouldn't have to ungrateful little pricks. I'm no fanboi, it's just logic, if you purchase a product, that's what you get. But Anet are trying to keep things up and running, adding events, new content etc. at NO EXTRA COST, and all you do is moan. Shall we start e-mailing abuse to Rockstar demanding more San Andreas content? No, but it cost the same amount...

Whatever... whine away and watch GW go under so you can screw it up for those of us that appreciate Anets efforts, so then we can whine to YOU and see how you like it...

I am not asking for anything. I merely restated what someone else had said to clear a bit of confusion.

Gaile has already stated that there isn't going to be an Auction House and any improvements they might do won't be for a while.
Whatever improvements they decided to do, again if they decide on any, brings up the question of why did they bother with the sub par ones from before?

Either way, I've let it go.

I'm not sure it would really be that much work. They already have differentiation for some things like skill templates...
Basically it would just be a little snippet that triggers when ctrl-v or up arrow are pressed, and if the user has chat set on the all chat tab, it ends action. not much coding work at all for that.

Of course The real issue is idiots that can't keep trade to trade chat channel, so if you'd rather they just ban all those people, thats fine by me.

Well, I'll chime in with the "We need an auction house" crowd :P Actually, we don't need a house persay, but a well thought out auction system. You can get a "house" thats nothing more than a singular place where everybody goes to spam. We've already got LA district 1. House also has the implication that it is one specific location. I'd like to see a system that isn't limited to areas in districts. Perhaps a system of NPCs who all know what the other ones have. At any rate, someone in Kaening should be able to see items just put up for sale by some other guy in Lion's Arch.

But really, I have no idea why I'm posting. People have been posting this since prophecies came out. I know there isn't a chance that Anet will actually act on this. Back to Oblivion for me!

just disable local in large cities and ur fine -.-

funny how these rather simple threads tend to turn into a flamefest of hell. the original idea was that, a widely accepted fact, trade in GW is broken to all extents that the word broken can be taken to, and needs to be fixed badly. the removing copy/past/up arrow shpeel is essentially a good idea since obviously there is some differences between typing in different channels...i will explain. You type wts/wtb on all channel you get re-directed to trade, you type wts/wtb in party, guild, alliance, and whisper and you stay on that chat....so not all chat functions are the same. also doing the type somethin on all chat, paste into trade or whatever, and click all then enter can be dealt with very easilly....as when switching between a channel and whisper or vice versa it will erase the message...problem solved. an AH is quite obviously something we wont be getting because...gw2 will be enough like WoW so we dont need a damned AH. and if you want someone to do better than anet fine...i can do it without lifting a friggin finger.

WTB PROGRAMMERS! min. 4 years experience or bachelors degree in computer programming. gg?

but in all seriousness my $.02 on the issue is add a town that is relevant to all 3 chapters no matter how many of them you owe (like the battle isles) ment for trade. Before factions, LA and droks were swarmed with the spam. at the release of factions keineng and somewhat shing jea got swarmed...LA is still the trade central but droks and ascalon died down a lil bit. At the release of nightfall kamadan is still quite obviously bustling with spammers....droks is all but dead, kamadan has a few districts during the prime time of the day, and LA is still packed. Now even with an AH i dont see spam dropping at all whatsoever because now we would see "Req 9 Fellblade at Ah for cheaper than anyone else blah blah" constantly. at least with a town there is somewhere to go to try and pawn off your wares. There will always be spammers no matter what they put into the game but its more or less a matter of which idea may stem the tide just that much more. flame me if ya want, work is slow today and ive got about 3 more hours of nothing to do.

To the OP:

I think you're being unfair to Anet. Spammers are frustrating, and the lack of a good trade system is frustrating, but really, the WTB/WTS "fix" that you are complaining about is merely Anet giving us exactly what we had asked for: a simple fix to the spam. As you can see, a simple fix doesn't work. Is that their fault? As long as there's a way to get around something, people will. As they say, beware of what you ask for -- you might just get it. In the case of the community, we asked for something, and got it. It just turned out not to be what we needed. If you have a proposal on how to filter every line of chat text to make sure that someone trying to sell something gets shunted to the trade channel without generating thousands of even more frustrating false positives, we'd be interested to see it.

eudas

If the BEST Anet can do regarding this whole trading system debacle is to MESS with the chatting system, I'd say I don't have much hope for anything else, really. Fix the real issue here. Filtering out the chat message is like inventing better air-conditioner to fight Global Warming.

Get my point?

(Unless they make trade channel global OR at least linked between 3 major towns, that is.)

well, a decent complimentary fix to go with the previous suggestion could certainly be to make trade channel have more scope, at least to all districts of the current town. actually, if the ALL chat spam is cut down, can even make it be city-wide...

The simplest solution to the WTB/WTS spam is to dissable allchat and tradechat completely... then if you wanna use them enable them again... Towns like Kamadan and LA are soooo peaceful without the spam running, I can actually talk to my guild in those towns now. When I wanna buy or sell something I enable Tradechat and read thru it there, I NEVER have a problem buying or selling anything in tradechat. I know people use allchat for LFP and LFG, which is fine, but no ones does that in Kama, Kein or LA and if they do, it's normally random and arb stuff.

So yeah, the point I am making is adapt! The community has been crying for a better sale system for 2 years now, but it hasn't happened yet... SO, ADAPT!!! Work around it!!!

For a start they get a lot of extra content added regularly but they are paying for it, server down time is rare apart from early Wednesday mornings 3-4am GMT to restart the servers/updated them with new content.

GW is an online game they have to add new content and keep stuff fresh because there is so much competition out there, they have to listen to the users or they won't stick around for long. How long do you think the servers are going to stay up and running if there next instalment doesn't sell well?



Totally different game so is a stupid argument, also there is a load of extra content for it thanks to modders.

Also stop using ellipsis!!



Back on track, they do to do something to solve this problem because it isn't going to solve itself.

Do you realise the number of possible combinations they would need to filter to prevent anyone from selling or buying.

It wouldnt just include the possible combinations of WTS and WTB, it would have to include the actual words selling and buying.

If you put too many filters in, it would have a knock on effect on casual conversations. What if you happen to use a combination of letters in a conversation that are filtered out?

You cant filter a long list of random, possible combinations of letters or you risk effecting casual conversation.

What we need are visible precence of mods occassionally in capital cities to keep an eye on spamming.

In-game mods to keep an eye on spamming?!?

Ok. Let's imagine this together.-

Imagine there's no such thing as "spam" in this world. Everyone who wants to repeat his/her message only do so once in a minute.

Now, imagine there're 100 people who want to do the trade in your district. How many messages do you think you'll see per second? Do you consider these people spammers? The messages will scroll so fast to the point that you won't notice any differences between spamming and no spamming. So what's the point?

As I said earlier. FIX THE REAL ISSUE HERE.