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Originally Posted by Gaile Gray
I fear this is going to be a long post. I apologize in advance.
We do not authorize the use of any third-party programs within Guild Wars. The OP asks about voice-chat programs, but they operate side-by-side, not within the actual framework of the game programming.
With the release of Guild Wars Prophecies, we did have a partnership with one of the voice-chat programs (SpeakEasy) but again, it was "in addition to" and not "within" Guild Wars. Yes, as commented by Chthon, this is a good observation: "The text if the EULA plainly states that only third party programs that 'influence or advantage your use of [GW]' are forbidden." Ice Queen's statement, "A third party tool is any tool that can't run without GW being active. i.e they have no use if GW is not running at the same time" is quite good, as well. MikesSmikes' Post, No. 79, should be read (twice) by everyone with continuing concerns about how Guild Wars operates. And please read ShiningSquirrel's post, No. 112, for insightful commentary based on experience.
I think most of us--the wise ones, anyway --run a virus protection application or two. We might run a program that detects spyware, such as that added by some online advertising. All of us have operating systems, mouse programs, video card drivers... we each have lots of things on our systems that make it possible to run Guild Wars in the first place! Some run within Guild Wars, some run in addition to Guild Wars. But if they do run within the system--and frankly some must and a few should, in order effectively to be doing their job--we'd not want to recommend that people turn them off to avoid breach of the User Agreement. I mean, please, think about this clearly!
Frankly, I agree with Tranquilis here: People are taking their concerns to a ridiculous extreme. Don't ask for a list, because making a list would be impossible. "You mention XYZ Virus Scanner, but do you mean XYZ Virus Scanner Plus? It's not on your list." So listing by name is impossible. What if we made a generic "Voice chat programs" statement, and someone released one that included a handy-dandy bot program as a side benefit? "Why, it's (primarily) a voice chat program (with a little side goodie for item sales). Because it falls under the Voice Chat category, clearly it has been approved by ArenaNet and NCsoft!" So listing by generic category seems, also, undoable. Therefore, I do not believe we'll be able to offer a list--more info below--but I think it's pretty clear why that is.
Once again--abusing that deceased equine again?--occasionally there are erroneous account terminations. With regrets, yes. Just as there are erroneous blocks on a credit card account or infrequent holds on a bank account. I'd say they all relate to security. I know some of you have taken on these infrequent errors as a cause; after all, posting history catches you griping about them in theads about baked goods and shoe sizes.
But seriously, don't tell us not to block bot users. Don't suggest that we scape the system until it's perfect. Understand, instead, that we will always work to improve the system, but that the system is required to keep the game world and the game economy in good shape. Know that the margin of error is very, very small. Again, all those who follow up are immediately attended to with a review of the data that resulted in the termination. In some cases, the numerics uphold the termination, and the "appeal" is rejected. In others, a personal review, sometimes by more than one individual, for surety, results in reestablishment of the account. I'm not even going to get into "There should be no errors" or the self-righteous pontifications on "If there are any errors, then stop banning." Thinking individuals know that we must continue to terminate accounts of those abusing the game, using parameters of such detail that, again, we have an accuracy rating of nearly 100%. I think a few people are getting a bit carried away with this issue, sort of taking it on as a cause, and as politely as possible, they need to stop. While it grieves me that any member of the community may be blocked in error, I have full confidence that he or she will be reinstated if there indeed was an error. I believe that everyone should embrace the fact that the greater good is being served by the blocks of many hundreds of bot users and item sellers a week.
I have never heard of anyone being banned for the use of a keyboard that has hotkey functionality. I will ask Support for their feedback on that, but seriously, I've never seen that done, and I don't see any such use on the termination parameter checklist.
About volunteers: I worked with volunteers on fansites, and that required a very high level of oversight. (Turnover was high; failure to uphold site policies occurred too, from time to time. And we were not dealing with global laws nor accounts purchased for real-world cash as a developer/publisher must do.) There are a dozen reasons why we would not use volunteers, at least at this point, and certainly with the level of powers outlined in Post #125. You only have to look at gaming history to discover unfortunate issues of small and large scale problems. Consider Posts No. 115, No. 116 (last line made me smile), #120 ("one bad apple" comment -- I've seen it, it was ugly). We provide the services suggested for volunteers, except the warnings, and we feel that warnings are in place with the acceptance of the UA and ToC, both explained in the Conduct Breaches and Outcomes document.
I'm very happy to answer questions or address concerns, but please, no rants or continued repeats of the same issues, already addressed. I think many concerns have been addressed by us, here and elsewhere. And many have also been responded to, admirably, by members of this forum community. I hope that everyone has greater clarity on the matter now.
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