Very Sad

Recently my account was hacked, according to customer service, by gold sellers. I admit, this is likely the fault of lax security in my part. I don't blame Arena Net in any way.

I was under the impression that when they restored my account, I'd have something left in it...but it's pretty much gutted. All the stuff I cared about is gone.

I'm an altoholic. I had 22 characters, 50/50 in my HoM and GWAMM title. I had every elite armor in the game. I also had every single minipet, dedicated, from years 1-4, stored amongst my characters, as well as several I really loved, including a dedicated kunna. Yep, I was enough of a fan to go buy factions collectors edition, just for the kunna (I started playing only three years ago and missed it when it was out in the stores).

I also had years of stuff I'd saved on 4 storage characters, normal drops that Nick the Traveler MIGHT want. That's because I hate farming. I'll play, do missions, explore, do almost anything but farm.

I have to say, I was stunned at my experience with customer service. I feel that there was a distinct lack of sympathy and it's put me off playing the game completely. Again, I don't really know what else could have been done, but the correspondence I had with them was absolutely horrible. When I suggested that it was too heartbreaking to play, customer server responded by saying, you still have all your characters, all their attribute points, all their heroes, and that you could start again just by farming for basic armor and weapons and that would help.

Oh really.

And the bits of armor they've salvaged for mats or sold, or did whatever to that are missing, including the entire set of obsidian armor, a set of vabbian armor, and bits and pieces from at least ten other armors, missing. Five of my characters are completely naked. My kunna is gone. Everything I saved for Nick is gone.

The helpful customer service rep also gave me the addy of PVX wiki to help me get started again. I was completely blown away by this.

Am I over-reacting, cause right now, I just can't bring myself to even load my account and look at it again.

sorry this happened bro it really sucks! maybe just take a bit of time away from the game then come back when/if you miss it.

The worst part is, I had been taking a break and this is what I ended up with upon my return. I'd been gone almost a month when this happened.

I was thinking of starting a new dervish from scratch, so I could play through what it was like now, but honestly, I just can't look at the character screen to even get to that.

I said good bye to my guild today, and they were pretty sympathetic. I just don't understand how customer service can expect a 3 year old veteran to literally start again from scratch with nothing.

I mean would you go and start farming so you could get max armor on characters that already had elite armor? Would anyone?

It sucks that your account was hacked and you lost everything...

...but it's not exactly not known that they can't recover lost items or money, or give you any boosts with that sort of thing.

Did your fellow guild members offer any assistance in getting you back on your feet? If not, that's what really surprises me.

Well, what do you expect support to say?
"Sorry you got hacked, here's a coupon for a free coffee at Starbucks"?

First, they have no way to tell what you actually had and what you are making up, so they aren't going to give you anything. For all they know, you could have been the poorest person in the game and want to take advantage of getting hacked to get free stuff.

Support tickets are handled by NCsoft, not ANET. NCsoft does not deal with anything in GuildWars and they have their own games to deal with. They are only the publisher, not the maker of the game. All they do is handle account support.

I do feel bad for you, but you need to get over the emotional part of it and think clearly about why they can't help you.

Thanks Reddog91.

In my emotion, I sorta forget that NCsoft isn't Anet and that makes the blow a bit less. I hate thinking bad at all about Anet while I don't mind thinking bad about NCsoft.

I understand the logic, but I don't understand the specific response. You'd have to actually see the dialogue to understand why I'm as upset as I am. You know, I"m not a kid either. I'm 49 years old and I don't get how customer service reps are trained, but the wording of responses was terrible. In fact, I'd say that the wording of responses I got from them has added a huge amount to my feeling sad.

When I said I don't have the heart to start over, it's just seems too much, I got a response that basically said, you still have your characters and heroes, and just farming for basic armor and weapons will help you get started. Then they gave me the URL to PVX wiki in case I needed builds.

You know, I can lie about what I had, but checking one of my character names on the Guild Wars 2 Hall of Monuments Calculator would prove conclusively what elite armor I had, at very least, cause it's all dedicated. Same with dedicated minis. Same with weapons.

So my tormented weapon and elite armors could easily have been restored and it would have cost what, exactly?

I'm sorry but farming for max armor, when I've already gotten every elite armor in the game just seems like a waste of time.

I do agree with you though. I don't know what else I expected. And I'm glad I can blame someone other than Anet for the shoddy response, so thianks for that.

Yeah, Account Support is a bit lacking in dealing with the emotional state that their users may be in. NCsoft is a Korean company doesn't seem to keep track of their staff training in their international branches very well.

I logged onto a few sites, defending Guild Wars 2 against people saying stupid stuff about it, like it wasn't going to be a real MMO, etc. Sometimes when I'm angry I don't think. I'm sure on at least one of those sites I used my Guild Wars password to register...so I can't blame anyone but myself.

Honestly I made a new account to post this here because my last account was a character name and frankly, I don't want to do that ever again.

So, no character names, unique passwords, yeah I get it. I just didn't think it through. So my fault.

But I still can't bring myself to play again.

At least the positive way to look at it is that you've still got all your titles and already have 50/50 for your HoM which means that you're quite done with most of GW for GW2.

Take a break again, and come back and perhaps having nothing will be a little bit of a drive to let you experience all of the entire game.

I feel for you man. But life is too short to worry too much over this. If I were you I wouldn't play again. This would be an end of a chapter in my life. I would walk away with memories and hope that gw2 will be a fresh new start. It's not like the hacker's taken away your memories of the fun you've had before away. You still got that. I don't play gw anymore and I've just given away practically all my hoards of stuff I've saved up to my suitemates. Take a break from guildwars and find some happiness. If you want to start over, start over, but forget the past if it can't be changed, it'll just be a burden.

Sounds like a great time to enjoy the PvP side of Guild Wars.

Feel sorry for you. Fortunate although unfortunate.....that you still have your 50/50HoM and GWAMM.
If I were you, I'll just wait for GW2 for a fresh start.

Well, no. It can prove what you had on your account at some point in time since EOTN came out, but nothing more than that. Just because you had it at some point and it was dedicated doesn't mean that you had it at the time of being hacked - lots of people sell/throw out/salvage minis/weapons/armor after dedicating it.

And at any rate, if they did do something like restore someone's items after being hacked...do you realize how many people would try and take advantage of that to scam things? Log in from a different IP, delete things or trade it to a second account, and then go "Oh, I was hacked, replace my stuff please!" It would be so amazingly abused.

It will cost the 10(0),000 other hacked accounts QQing that they didnt get their stuff back then, so why should you?

Yep once I thought about it, I understood why. Maybe they should use a different word when they are getting your account back than RESTORE though. And maybe they should tell you what to expect, so you can be used to it.

I didn't think it through. But don't you think it would be nice for them to have said, look we can restore your account, but not your possessions for this reason.

From someone who hasn't been hacked before, it would have made it a lot easier.

Look on the positive side.

You were planning on making a dervish from scratch... well now is your chance to do just that! Will you ever have what you had previously... probably not.

I was having a discussion the other day with guildies about what I would do if my account were hacked. I came to the conclusion that I would probably just start from scratch with nothing more than some old, naked characters (kept around for nostalgia), and a new main character. I would probably never bother doing all the grindy stuff that I have done so far, but hey, its not like grinding gets you anything functional. My advice is to start a new character and just have fun doing stuff that you enjoy with your guildies. Don't worry about titles, armor collections, and all that jazz!

Actually the hardest thing is logging in and seeing characters I've played for years, stark naked. But it just occurred to me.

I purchased like every single costume set so they don't have to be naked and I don't have to farm anything.

I'm going to go dress everyone up, so at least when/if i log in, I'm not looking at naked characters, cause that was depressing.

I had an account hacked once and all my stuff sold, I rebuilt that account to a walking god so its possible

I know it's possible to start over, it's just heart rending. At any rate, I already have GWAMM. At least they can't take that away. I just have to buy my main a new pair of shoes at some point. They must have gotten cut off when they were salvaging his armor and only got to his shoes. A lot of my other characters weren't so lucky.

Anyway I'm feeling a bit lighter about it. It's still a massive undertaking to start over, but I don't think I'm going to grind if I do.

I'll make a new character, and just play it, like it's a new character. Maybe just help some newbies (if there are any anymore) with missions and whatnot. Shrugs.

Better than giving up completely. If I did that it would feel like "they" won.

i had my account stolen by a hacker once

when i got my account back, i realized that my obby armor was gone

enraged, i swore revenge on this hacker and made it my life's goal to destroy him and all that his life was worth

i dabbled in necromancy and black magic for many years until i finally discovered an ancient curse in an old dusty text that promised to ensure that the target of the curse will get a boner while wearing shorts at the most inappropriate time

unfortunately, i needed to know who my hacker was

i then spent several months undercover in a gang of hackers, learning their ways and customs. i became fluent in L33TSP33K and found myself wearing ironic t-shirts. i was soon indistinguishable from the other hackers

i was ready

after a long night of preparation, i used my leet computer skills to track down my hacker. i busted down his door, and saw the fear in his eyes as i began to cast the curse on him. i felt something tug inside my heart, and stopped

then i realized how stupid i had been and played dragon age 2 instead

haha :P

but ya, i probably wouldn't have the energy to start over

If they were good at what they do, they could. It's true that the OP is screwed, but that's no reason to not put the blame where it's deserved.

LMAO! Very funny. Two thumbs up.

Well, given that you are GWAMM and 50/50 and that your characters themselves were not deleted, I would say you did not loose actually important stuff.

Cheer up, it could have been much worse!

I feel for you man. I do not know if will do much , but if there is anyway I can help in anyway dealing with anything I will be glad to help. Just give me a PM ingame. My IGN is

If you still have the GWAMM you don't have much of a grind to do. It would be worse if they had deleted your main just to troll you (like in the Diablo 2 days: any hardcore character was stripped naked and inevitably killed off), but your average RMT'er is too nerdy and mechanical to care about griefing. He has more phishing to do. Faster.

at this point in the game nobody could realistically expect that, but let's pop out of this far from earth bubble you seem to be stuck in for a second, do you really think arenanet, the developer of this game, is gonna send you support emails saying "well, sorry dude you're shit out of luck don't play anymoar."?

come on. i know guru loves melodrama but you can add a mark to the "people who sympathize" counter from me in hopes that you're all quenched, i care very much and am soooo sorry for your loss!!!

though this did made me giggle like a school girl

If it happened to me my first thoughts after the shock would be how and are they in effect still in my computer.
I would have to console myself with the fact that I spent a lot of good times in the game and that just about every title elite armour etc was only gained to put in the hom.
I didn't bother with any of that stuff till the hom came out and all of it is still safe.

On a personal level I probably wouldn't play gw again for a very long time if at all.
Its not the loss of stuff its the daily reminder each time I play that it happened.
So I would play other games and wait for gw2 which had better have great security.

I wonder if it an additional protection for players would be for items to have an extra option above customisation.
Might be possible for a player to set their elite armour etc as protected so even they cannot delete it.
In effect you cannot delete drop on the ground sell or salvage.

It would fix your armour set permanently on the character of course so you would have to be careful and they could always sell a pack in the store to change everything if you decided a change was needed.
Or the armour could just be made unsalvagable in some way and the costume seller enabled to sell you copies.
Doesnt really matter as long as it removes any profit motive and makes as much of an account recoverable except for things like cash cons ectos etc they are just impossible to protect.

But if the bad guys cannot delete stuff that players consider has a sentimental value its all to the good and even the players couldn't make anything from trashing their own account.
Must be possible to either make armour like costumes or fixed permanently.

Nagennif,

I am so sorry this has happened to you. I live in terror of it happening to me.

I am astonished tho that your guild does not seem to have helped you out, and I do not understand why you left your guild. Unless the two are related.

Good luck with moving on.

NCSoft, man. I've always found them to be rather brusque.

I'm very sorry you got hacked, I would of actually cryed at first and manned up all I have is people know me on my rit after 5 years. If I was you I'd delete the chars and start over if you can't stand the sight. Its part of the fun anyway, you know what your doing, so get stuck in again! Hacking someone is 1 thing, but leaving chars naked is totally wrong.

Cool Story Pugs Not Drugs.

Thanks for this, but I've decided, for the time being, not to play again. I don't know if I will come back or not, but if so there are many friends and guildies who would help.

The problem for me is starting from square one. I don't really like to take stuff from people, I've always been more of a giver. Being put into this situation is particularly hard on people who prefer to give than receive.

I do appreciate the offer though.

One last thing...I'm really not sure it's a great idea, security wise, to post game names on forums. I know you're doing this out of kindness, but after being hacked I can't really recommend it, just in case.

Once bitten, twice shy, I guess.

Oh sorry, I belong to Mara, and it's a great guild. Several people did offer to help me. I'm just more of a giver than a taker, and taking stuff makes me damned uncomfortable. I still might go and at least take mats for new max armor, but since I've decided not to play (for now), well...

My guild is always very supportive. The pain comes from losing stuff that are not the kinds of things I'd even think of asking a guild for. Two everlasting tonics, Obsidian and Vabbian Armor, my dedicated kunnevang which I loved. The celestial compass my wife got from the z chest and gave me as a gift.

To me, it's just painful to even start cataloging what I need. Mind you, it's a fresh wound and next week I might be able to creep back in and assess the entire mess.

But as for the guild, Mara is a stand up group of people. I have nothing bad to say about a single one of them.

Just wish I didn't hurt so much from this.

Yep, if they'd handled it differently, I wouldn't be as sad as I am now.

Go visit the Giveaway section of Ventari, it might give you a hand up at re-equipping your characters at the very least... sorry about your hacked account, good luck rebuilding if you choose to get back into it, thankfully your titles/HoM progress is unaffected by this.

Edit: OP, if you need weapons and equipment please visit my sale page here on Guru, you can grab up to 100k worth of weapons, equipment, mods etc for free... also if you need a hand with mats and cash for armor, feel free to contact me.

I went back in and put costumes on everyone. Even though some of them have missing armor pieces, or worse still, no armor at all, at least I had purchased most of the costume sets that had come out, so my characters are no longer naked.

I don't know if I'll log in again, ever, but if I do I won't be coming back to naked characters.

I even thought about starting over with a new character (using the character slot from one of my empty storage characters), buying the mercenary pack) and using my old characters as heroes for my new character.

Just spending more money on this game after being treated this way by customer service sorta sticks in my throat. My wife isn't greatly fond of me spending money on this game either.

well, secure your account next time and you wont have this problem again...

I really appreciate this but honestly I'm not looking for charity. If I do play, I'll get myself up and running. I don't want to inconvenience anyone else. I want to have what I've already worked for. If they can't restore that, I'll probably just start over slowly from scratch.

Just thinking, the runes for the heroes on 22 characters, OMFG. I'll never be able to replace all that stuff. And now you can use seven heroes. I'd been looking forward to trying that. lol

Seriously, thank you so much for the offer. People like you are the reason Guild Wars has such a great community.

There won't be a next time, with this game, I'm sure, but yes, I've already taken steps to make my account more secure.

Thanks for the advice.

Hello everyone!
I got hacked or not?
Today i cant login so i changed my password and tadaaaa i noticed my main char was naked and then i know whats going on.
He deleted my fow armor stole my black dye 200 silver zaishen token 200 war suplies my vabbian armor all hero supvigor(arround 20 whith my char armor supvigors) BTW my scarr patter and fow gloves not gone cuz i wearing chaos gloves thats gone too and he messed up my storge+ storage char and my interface...
INTERFACE wtf this isnt a hacker this is something what arenenet wont tell about bugs and network failure... How can a hacker miss a minipet what is 160 ecto? Holy Sh*t!
And why you hack somebody who dosent played for 3 month and come back just 1 week ago? Noo enemies No offens talk i did nothing wrong...
My pass is storng and got nothing realy nothing on my credit card... this is a realy nice comeback realy i just planned a lot of things what i want to do in GW till GW2 and now i have to do more work? No THX! Here is the end! Real life im comeing!!!!!!!!!