Lack of accountabilty = Poor behavior in game

I'll keep this short and sweet.

The bad behavior in-game is getting ridiculous.
The general chat is being constantly spammed by jerks. When someone actually asks a question, half the time he is insulted. Some people I send whispers to don't even respond, not even a "Sorry sold it already".
The in-game scams are everywhere, no one cares about other players. Its a "I'm in it for myself" atmosphere.
People drop out of groups in both PVP and PVE at the drop of a hat, leaving others high and dry.
Worst of all, recently I've been seeing alot of guys purposefully misleading and 'messing' with people.
I was going to list some examples, but whatever.. I'm sure you've all seen this, either on the giving or receiving end. Suffice it to say that I've been purposefully screwed over and messed with too many times to count lately. I won't get into it, and I know that's what your ignore list is for, but REALLY.

Anyway these are just a couple examples out of at least 100.

We NEED some accountability in-game. This kind of an atmosphere ruins the game for many people. And don't try to say welcome to MMORGS, People in WOW and Everquest were not like this.

We need either in-game GMs or an easier way to report people INGAME.
Also maybe localized districts for PVE would help, so people don't disappear into anonymousness. I know that since we don't pay a monthly fee we have to deal with some stuff that other gamers wouldn't. But this is absurd. I'm sure ANET could find a way fro players to have some accountability in some way.

Anyway I love this game, I just can't stand to see this happening.

Thanks

We have in game GMs. There just isn't enough of them vs all the bad apples.

A way to report in game WOULD be wonderful, if it has hard to abuse.

It's the parents fault. When I see my kid being bad online, I spank him with stiff leather belt, make him scrub the floors with a tooth brush, and then copy 15 random pages out of a small print dictionary. Think I'm kidding?

Guess what he doesn't do, they next time he is online...It's not rocket science people, spare thy rod, spoil thy child.

On a side note, I'm impressed with the words he has learned from the dictionary.

Two things. First of all, the bad behavior in Guild Wars is not as bad as you make it seem. Secondly, these jerks, scammers, etc. have been here since day one. They'll exist in ANY online game you'll EVER play. Unless you're brand new to this game, I'm surprised you just now noticed them.

I've been trying to tell people on this forum the same thing. They're in a state of denial and think that GW is better than WoW. I for one don't really know which is better, but what I do know is that the social behaviour in WoW is much better than what I see in GW.

Sometimes I get so sick of the people in GW that I switch over to WoW. I usually come back to GW because the cartoony look of the characters in WoW kinda freak me out . But which do I personally prefer?

I prefer games which gives me fun and help me relax. NOT games where I get abused, scammed, trash-talked and exploited.

Out of a group of 5 friends that play GW with me I am the only one still playing. My other 4 friends have quit. Why? Well, even an idiot can figure that out, the social environment is horrendous. I've tried convincing them to come back and the 2 of them which I managed to convince were screwed around by other players within the first 10 minutes of logging into a district.

All 4 of them are WoW players now. One even offered to buy me the expansion pack for WoW if I could become a full time player with them. What do I do?

Yes, and their numbers have increased to ridiculous proportions. 8/10 people there are bad-mouthed trash talkers. The recent Dragon festival just showed us how many of them are playing the game.

Ever been to Shing jea when the prizes dropped?

Ever seen a guy get scolded and trashed-talked and scammed for asking about the dragon masks?

Have you ever played Alliance Battles? "GG Fuxons" "GG Kurdicks" "You suck" "noob"

Have you ever played enough PvE? "Your build sucks" "noob" "afk" "Skill cap leavers"

It's just too much...


Henchmen looks waaay more attractive than actual players. It's a pity Anet refuses to upgrade their A.I. I mean, sure promote more human player interactions, but please don't force me to team up with assholes...

I really wished that I could play it off-line. I'll gladly play an other 50 bucks for an off-line version. Just make it update with the day to day GW reallity on a regular base.

Of course I haven't just noticed. but it has gotten alot worse lately, especially in the low level areas. I think what really brought it to my attention was making a new char in Cantha and making a new monk who had to go through Pre-searing again. People were especially horrible in the newbie areas, and I'm afraid that's turning off new players. I've been playing GW since March '05. And I do think its as bad as I made out.
Have you ever played another online game? They're not usually like this. Not even in the Barrens in WOW, which was famous for being horrible. At least people were helpful.

I guess its really who you surround yourself with. I mean, theres just SOME districts and towns you learn to avoid and some you learn to love ^^;

was trying to type something but ya what you said there. it sums up what i want to say.

on another note:
of my few (real life) freinds i never get a message when there on! i have to call them on the phone to ask them what they want to do **sigh**.... but it's fun when we run/play together thoe!

Does that mean you are blaming it on the OP? The OP is to blame because of hanging around in a GW town, which is not moderated?

Lack of accountabilty = Poor behavior anywhere on the internet

Just be glad we don't have voice chat LOL

Strange. I've played dozens of online games ranging from TFC (A Half-Life mod) to WoW, from Everquest to BF2, and these jerks have been present in every game to the same extent. And there's nothing you or Anet or anyone can really do about it, nor should they. What's Anet going to do, ban someone because they took too many prizes dropped at the dragon festival?

Maybe o.o;; I dont know if "blame" is the right word to use. But if we are talking about responsibility and accountability, who is responsible for you?

Well really, if you are in a bad place, why leave local chat on? Why stay there?

This is NOT to say that we SHOULDNT hold people accountable for their bad actions. But its a lot less aggravating on you if you dont go "looking" for trouble.

I go to Newark everyday because thats where the main train hub of NJ Transit/Amtrak is at. Take a look at that link for its national crime statistics.

Now just looking at it, Newark seems like the worse place you could possibly go to everyday. But fact of the matter is, ive been going to Newark everyday for over 7 years. And heres the thing, I'm not gonna go to the parts of Newark where I know I will get killed/robbed/raped. And i've been robbed 3 times in my life, and beaten severely once, so im kinda familiar with crime :P So when I'm in Newark, I'm gonna go to the NICE parts. And yes, theres nice parts to Newark.

Yes people SHOULD be responsible for their behaviours and that includes YOUR behavior of staying out of trouble :P

>.>

<.<

O.o But these guys are everywhere in GW.... Sometimes I have no choice but to go to those major towns to sell my stuff, or to buy armor, or materials...

Or sometimes you need to get a mission done and there's no way around it...

P.s. I hate the gates in Factions....

I agree 100% with all the criticism. There is no accountability, jerks can just sit behind a keyboard and do and say what they want with no prospect of consequences.

How many times have you gone out with a group capping, only to have jerks leave after the first boss kill because they were able to get the cap they wanted early?

As a mission leader, I always communicate to the group our 'team' objectives...be patient...dont agrro everything on the board at once...stay as a group....call targets...etc. But there is always some Warrior (..dont knock me for this, I'm a Warrior) that just cant wait to run ahead and try to kill everything by himself, agrroing every monster in the area as he does it. Then he cant understand why hes not being healed when the monk is hitting Alt-Engergy to show him "I have 4 of 65 energy"....You try to instruct an out of control team mate and they either ignore you or leave...

I ran a jerk from Lions Arch to Beacons Perch the other day. The deal was 400g. I forgot to collect at Griffin Mouth so I just went ahead to Beacons in hope that he would pay. The guy died at every gate just seconds into the run...which is ok. I stopped once to fight a bunch of trolls he agrroed to try to save him so he could map. Then this guy had the nerve to tell me it took too long. He was tired of waiting for me to get him to Beacons. Luckily he told me this when I was about 5 feet from Beacons Perch. When I questioned him about it, he told me to practice more before offering to make runs. I told him to practice and do it himself (as I mapped back to Lions Arch).

Anyways, thats my soap box. I have found recently that I have better success in a lot of missions with the henchmen anyways. the only problem I have with henchmen are pulling groups.

Oh and by the way, if your going to sell something, do it in the TRADE window. Thats what its for....peace...

Chad, You do realize that you're the only one disagreeing with me so far? This is definately a problem that many people have with Guild Wars. If you're denying it, I don't know what to say. People were MUCH nicer in-game in WOW and Everquest. Yeah the forums sucked, because there was no accountability. But in-game people were really nice. If you asked a question, you got multiple responses. There were't scams everywhere.

Why would you argue about this anyway?
If you don't see a problem in the GW community, you could at least listen to the people who do have a problem and work toward understanding in the interest of improving the community.
You're actually proving my point in a small way.

Listen, I just want this game to do well. I cancelled my WOW account cause I hated raiding. I REALLY WANT Guild Wars to succeed. And I'm worried.

No. I'm sorry but you can't avoid the jerks in this game. Its an online game, in which we have to interact with others at some level. I don't go looking for trouble. I actually usually solo. Yet, I still have to buy items sometimes. And I don't want to have General chat turned off ALL the time.
You can't avoid it.

Welcome to the internet, where Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Jerk

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2004/20040319h.jpg

I do agree that more could be done to control GW players - I've run into some pretty horrible folks myself that deserved the ban stick... but all in all it's been fine. I've seen much more good than bad in GW.

Again, there's nothing Anet can do about it. If they ban people who are "jerks", they might as well ban you in the process for making this thread. Then they should ban me too, since I've spoken against Anet before as well. That would make absolutely as much sense to me. Heck, let's just ban everyone, problem solved.

Guild Wars is doing fine, and trust me, if anything kills it, it won't be the fact that there are jerks in the game. That's just ludicrious.

I found a new player while I was in ascalon trading my hides for fur...

"Ok this is a really newb question... But how do I hire henchmen?"

Me: "Hun you don't "hire" them, you just add them to your party window or click on them and press enter"

Me and ONE other person tried to help... and 3 other people had stupid sarcastic remarks. I didn't stop helping after answering the question, I went on to let them know that if they have a friend playing they can add them to their party in the same manner. He/she thanked me for my help and remarked about how he/she was afraid they would get yelled at for the newb question and THEN proceeded to appologise to me for being newb...

"Everyone is a newb once, most just try to forget - and I to couldn't figure out why the healer hench wasn't in my party when I went out the door so don't feel bad. -_-"

I went on to warn that person about guilds that might try and rip them off and so forth, as well as scammers and trash talkers and not to be put off by them to much. It is REALLY sad.

It felt really good to be able to help someone. I prompted our guild to take a day and spend it in Ascalon helping people. My leader likes to do trivia that every low lvl should know. I just like waiting around for the "I know this is a newb question... but?".
I don't think we will be able to help everyone and this is going to be strictly choice with our guildies if they want to do it (no runs, or uber quests/missions allowed .. and if a money hand out, let it stay small)... And maybe, just MAYBE it might help these new people to get out of the nest and on to better and brighter things eh?

I don't want it to be a handout, I want it to be a helping hand.

Personally I would encourage others to do this as well.

I havnet encountered the rudeness/insensitivity that you are talking about, No one has tried to scam me that I am aware of. I cant compare it to wow or eq, because I don't believe in paying for a game, then paying for the privelege of playing it... However so far, I have had a great experience with guild wars.

Again, there's nothing the police can do about criminals. If they arrest people who are "criminals", they might as well arrest you in the process for making this thread. Then they should arrest me too, since I've spoken against the government before as well. That would make absolutely as much sense to me. Heck, let's just arrest everyone and put them in prison, problem solved.

Do you see the logic in your own post?

The answer is not to lower yourself to their level. Not that it helps much but then at least not everyone is a jerk.

I always have local chat off unless i feel...brave? I keep a pool of friends, and i rarely pug nowadays.

Its true that there is a lot of jerks in this game. And yes they should be accountable for being jerks. Whenever i do have local chat open, i try to be helpful.

Plus its what else WE can do individually. Do you report obvious scammers? Do you report people selling keys or accounts? Do you call out people who are being jerks? Do you report racists/sexists/guildcists/alliancists/etc/ plain asses?

In the absence of noble hearts, evil will thrive.

Yes we need a faster/easier way to report EULA violators.

The thing is, they've built this beautiful game with great graphics and dynamics, and its all ruined by some of the in-game players. I know for a fact that ANET is trying to improve their PVE game right now, because that's what many players are crying out for... And its a wasted effort if the game 'feels' like this because of the other gamers.
Look above, one of the posters talked about all his friends going back to WOW. I've seen this happen at least 100 times with different people. I actually did it for awhile (I left because of the crappy communication in GW), but I came back.
WOW is losing a huge chunk of their playerbase right now due to emphasis on raiding, thousands of people are looking for a new game. They are coming to GW and leaving right away. That is not good business practice.
Yes, this does have the potential of at least severly handicapping Guild Wars, in an industry where you MUST stay competitive.

/signed

I can sympathize with this.

Actually, just yesterday, I invited a new member to my guild. He had challenged me to 1v1 and he won a few times, and he seemed pretty cool. I come back on ~8 hours later to find out that he's invited a friend and that they've been griefing my guild all day, doing stuff like telling my guild leader to kick one of our officers, and being cocky because they won a 2v2 match against me and our guild leader. I told them that they weren't acting like the cool guys I invited to the guild that afternoon and that I didn't have a problem with friendly competition, but I did have a problem with their cocky attitude.

They refused to take me seriously, so I kicked both of them on the spot. Then I heard them both chant "yahoo! one guild down, 100 to go!" as if they're going to try to join and get kicked out of 100 more guilds. I was so disgusted that I didn't even try to give them a decent goodbye, I just told them to f--- off.

I've heard that griefers were widespread in GW, but never something this invasive. I think that bans for bad behavior should be much more liberal.

It amuses me that some people say: Well if it sucks that bad there, don't go there!

Errm fixing the issue would make it a happy place, cause really there are places you need to go and there is NOT excuse for hate. Joking is fine and well and that I can deal with.... Kinda like those people who make it to Hero's Ascent and do: LFG for Mission and Bonus!
... o_O;;;

We make fun of them, sure because its obvious they haven't looked around and such and its funny lol. But in the end we straighten them out and let them know its NOT a mission and that they've finished the game and get to do some pvp now ^^

I just think that we and Anet let that hate breed.... Few ever try to fight it or go against it and most newbs will just crawl off into a corner feeling inferior and then eventually go back to where they feel like they belong (which is usually WoW). It doesn't have to be that way! We shouldn't have to turn off local and trade chat or go to the last/international district. We shouldn't be in the middle of the best mission run of our lives and suddenly our pug gets a cap and bolts leaving his minions to decimate the party..

Why should we just have to deal? Granted nothing is ever going to catch them all, but there should be a way to start. I hate writing a report to Anet, it feels like a waste of time -_- There has to be a better way!

I got a taste of good community when Factions pre-order head start began. There was no crap on the chat, questions got kind and informative answers and discuss topics were mostly about the game itself or something civil. However, it didn't last long. Unfortunately couple hours after first morons came with caps, bad wording and insults.

But the couple hours were wonderful time. Hopefully some day I can enjoy from those moments again. :'(

Public community is just too bad. Private guild communities are the solution but their numbers are very limited.

I see a lot of good people doing great things too so I think the terf is balanced

If they come and try GW, it doesn't matter whether they like it or not--Anet's gotten their $50 either way.

I don't understand how you people are honestly bitching about people ingame. Even if other games are like this (and what does it matter if they are or aren't?) we're talking about THIS game, and THIS game has been like this from day one. You think you'd be used to it by now. If you can't take people calling you names on the internet you should just unplug your modem now.

I'm sure there was a perfectly valid reason to bring up your gender but I have no idea what it was.

Enough flaming/counter flaming/flamebaiting. Keep it civil.

Before the festival I'd already strapped a few layers of Naga Trappings around my boots because it was starting to feel like I was walking around in a cesspool.

I don't play in CA, I avoid trading anyone other then materials with other players, and even then rarely. I only go to disreputable areas when I HAVE to, and I take a few hours every few days to INVITE newbies to ask me questions discreetly. (No Storyline/Pricechecks/Begging.)

But after the festival...god...it was...god...indescribable. I hadn't realized this disease had progressed so far so fast.

(This happens to every game eventually, if the rules aren't held firm. I'm not blaming A.Net they're outgunned.)

Now I'm having my armor refitted with a gas mask and light oxygen tanks. I hope to have newbie Q&A session in Shing Jea or Ascalon every day (hopefully) and I plan to do more giveaways soon.

But or those of you wondering what to do. Listen.

These people are like an invading enemy, an army. Hellbent on the destruction of everything decent and virtuous. Don't argue that point, again, I've seen this many times beore. They will not stop, they will not quit, they will continue to grow like a malignant tumor on the community. And the only real solution is, once again, shut them out of the community. Don't trade/speak to/aid/relate to them at all.

The other solution is A.Net's to dole out. They need to deputize about 30,000 people. (Noted pillars of the community, all around good eggs.) with the following powers.

-Insta-Report. (Notiies A.Net of basic transgressions against the rules)
-Mute. (turns off the player's chat function for a short time.)
-Perma-Mute. (Turns off the players chat function till the Player GM turns it back on.)
-Request for ban. (Used against those who bot, or otherwise violate the EULA. Sends a request up to A.Net to investigate or ban said player.)

Yes, giving power to the people is scary, and there are always ways to abuse it. But it's be easier for A.Net to moniter the behavior of their deputies then the whole of the community.

The good people of this game need champions, with real power. There needs to be some recourse against this behavior, because regardless of whether one is directly effected or not, it indirectly effects all, and it needs to stop.

The game is a year+ old. Yeah, people are gonna get called noobs, led in the wrong direction, and laughed at. What do you want to do? report people for being mean to you? seriously, lighten up.

YOU have CONTROL over your social environemnt in game. I have nearly 3k hours logged in this game and I have NEVER been harrassed or offended personally in game to the point of reporting someone. My ignore list is empty. I have no idea what it is you people do to make everyone else rage pm you and try to scam you all day.

if you ask me, there are WAY to many people running around with hall monitor sashes waving report warnings about whiny petty bullshit. I can understand disciplining individuals who personally offend/harrass others in ways that cannot be amended by the chat filter/ignore list. Offensive character names, persistant and personal harrassment should not be allowed in game. Otherwise, if there is a built in way to avoid the kind of treatment that SOOO offends you, then USE IT.

I am sad at the way the community acts...

Check out Pre-Sear if you want to see a bunch of losers picking on new players. "want to buy black dye. pm price" is a regualr occurence. I actually talked to one of these people and s/he pretended like s/he didn't know the price of black or when I said it is worth 10-12k "is that 10-12 gold? I have 12 gold" "I only have 12 gold, I'll buy black dye for that price"

I have seen many people who have sexual, or worse racist, names for their characters.

I would love it if there were a way in-game to report these people rather than having to take a SS and then email it...

Theus, your attitude is EXACTLY the problem (lyra song, your attitude doesn't help much either). Should we just deal with racism because it is there and we can't/shouldn't do anything about it? Should we jsut let children get molested (in real-life or in-game) because it didn't happen to us? Should we pretend that women aren't equal to men? (I don't mean that women and men should be treated exactly the same because we are different, but different IS still equal). Should we have let Hitler go forward with his plans as long as he didn't try to come to our country? And then only if his armies came to our town or our neigborhood?

The internet does NOT have to be this way. Nor do online games.

See the thing here is that you're confusing real life with the internet. This is a bad thing, because the two are not even remotely similar.

Ive seen multiple mention to everquest in comparison in this thread in which one person said it was the same as guildwars. I TOTALLY disagree with this since it you could report a theft and actually retrive your items back. Some times all you had to do was contact the guild leader of the guild too and they would handle it in house. There was less spam and just less scamming period since at any point a gm could be on hand to deal with it. Im not saying it never happened but it sure happened less and was a more pleasant atmosphere.

Until anet has an online gm presence that is noticable and not just sneaking around the issues will still arise. I am pretty sure they could get people to do it for free on their spare time. I know i could do it since nothing else to do in the game now lol.

She brought it up because Theus was acting like an ass and telling her to take it like a man.

Anyway, I do think there should be a level of tolerance for all this crap and sometimes you just have to let it go. But that doesnt mean ignoring everything all the time. No, not at all. If people get out of line, then yeah they should be reported. But sadly all the reports in the world isnt going to fix the attitudes in GW. There are no GM's in the game to babysit and these kids know it.

Oh so because it's the internet, no one's a person, therefore everything is alright.

WRONG.

Social interaction and morality are but abstract concepts. Planes of exsistance are irrelavent. Real or Virtual you have the same unspoken resposibility to behave like a decent human being.

The above quote is precisely the problem with these people. They fail to think in the intangible, the abstract.

They can't "see" it so they think it's not real or doesn't exsist, or anything within.

They are like small children who think that their parents vanish when they hold up the blanket while playing peekaboo. Out of sight, out of mind.

What responsibility? Who gave it to me? No one told me about any responsibility. I didn't get a warning page when I first signed onto the internet that told me I had to act the same way online that I did offline.

Hahaha. You can't actually be typing that with a straight face can you?

This is the INTERNET. This is where teenagers THRIVE because no one knows who they really are so they can be jackasses to whoever the hell they feel like with absolutely no repercussions.

Trying to change this is trying to change the nature of every single adolescent. Good luck with that failed campaign.

Wow, I'm sure you offended much more than one person comparing what did Hitler tryed to do with chat in a video game.


-------------------------------------------------

Anyways, What did any of you expect? Its the rule of the internet...Normal Person....Plus People not knowing who you are....Plus people you don't know around you.....Equals Complete Jerk. Didn't anyone follow that link?

Anet can't do much about it on a large scale (they can do seperate situation suspensions and such..but that doesn't solve any global problem that yall are wanting gone).