best support I've ever seen...

Well I suppose you can interpret things however you wish, hypothesizing situations until the sun sets. But no, that was not the intent of my statement. Something which I had hoped, myself not being a troll, you could take for granted.

After all, I am hopefully making a positive contribution here, not arguing semantics.

Hm... that reminds me, I'm pretty sure Chief Bromden does succeed where Jack Nicholson failed. In which case I would point out that as a customer you have a right to make a reasonable request such as refining a name filter, but that as a reasonable person you realize such a request is unlikely to be fulfilled.

However, if you post on the forums and by some freak miracle the idea gains steam...

You made me ask : What was the intent of your "nazi"-statement?

I feel, stateing that whoever would sue over something considered to be meaningless must be a nazi, is hardly a positive contribution.

Exactly.
The point Nicholson was making when he tried something his inmates? considerd meaningless is, that it's better to try and fail, than to sit back and take things for granted which you don't agree with.

I'd rather take beatings from support and posters on this forum for acting like a little girl than to stand back and do nothing.

You never know until you try.

I've seen and experienced miracles. So I shouldn't give up hope yet.

But to get on-topic again:
I started this thread because I felt that support was not as good as it should be, and I wanted to hear how others feel about that matter.

Turn out that most posters are pretty happy with the support they get.

So I'm the minority here. Mission failed. At least I tried.

No you ae not
I played a lot of mmogs and i would say that Gw support is good only for stubborn ppls who know how to "fight" for own case ( 72h ) ...but what about all those kids who dont have much knowlege about computers , or its their first online game?

The structure and wording of my statement clearly indicated I believed that people who are habitually offended and proclaimed righteous indignation followed by aggressive legal action in regards to such things as naughty names are Puritanical Neo-Nazis. Puritanical because they are afraid someone is having a good time, and Neo-Nazi because they are dictating their way of thinking to others.

Of course, in your subsequent statements it seems you ignored context and homed in on just the word Nazi, taking offense from it. This is understandable given your location and history.

It is also understandable as there are several connotations associated with the Puritanical label that you may not know, again given your location and history.


Again you are taking my words out of context and reinterpreting them to suit your axe you insist on grinding.

An admirable stance.

However, I think any more posts in this thread will simply aggravate the misinterpretation and lead to nothing constructive, so I will gracefully bow out.

Ashley Twig

i do not know if the word *WEED* is a common term for marijuana where you are but in the states where Anet is located it is one of the most common along with *grass* and *pot*

the name you wanted *MAYWEED* was caught by the filter on the *WEED* part of the name

since Anet can bar any name for any reason to begin with baring a name with a clearly recognized drug reference is to be expected

There you go: You believe.
That's all I wanted to hear.
In your original statement it sounded like some generalization.

I knew my location, sooner or later, would be part of this, even though that is completely irrelevant in this thread.

What exactly is it with my location and my history, that you keep mentioning it all the time?

Calling people a nazi, puritanical or not, is always an offense.

Ah, so that's how it is?
You throw accusations at me and then you leave for the sake of having the last word?

What name are you trying to use?

I have made several Rules of Conducts Violation Reports in http://support.guildwars.com/

Well, all of my Violation Reports were replied by GMs.

So I guess yeah, they do answer our questions.

Gaile
shes trying to use Mayweed (at least thats what I gathered and I hope that she will correct me if I'm wrong)

Mayweed
And please don't tell me, that 'weed' is the offensive part because
a) I experienced that from trial and error
b) support told me
c) some posters here told me

Funny enough I would've expected, that a sentence like
"Hi, my name is Ashley Mayweed", being typed in the chat would result in
"Hi, my name is Ashley May----", but it doesn't.

While "I'm attacking damned cleric" as somebody pointed out in another thread
results in "I'm attacing ----ed cleric".

So much for a consequent concept to prevent profanity.

And I noticed something else.
I believe I saw my character using foul language in-game automatically.
It was knocked down by some spell and it said "!§#$" or something like that.

So I can't use offensive terms in my name, but I can use the offensive part of my want-to-be-name in the chat, and my character uses "!$#$" as "symbolic" foul language automatically without me wanting that.

Isn't that odd?

That's why I suggested the use of a white-list in some other thread.
That would be a list of names and terms, that, although part of them gets a hit on the black-list would still flag non-abusive, if they get a hit on the white-list.

I don't know why people keep saying: "Oh,it's just a name".
Doesn't anyone care about their characters names?

Please: no more explanations why the name got rejected.
I know that already.

So, www.wikipedia.com is not a reliable source for looking up terms, words, etc.?
Because, last time I checked, they didn't mention the word "drug" when I searched for "Mayweed".

Arena.Net has been good about maintaing their game and trying to keep it exploit and bug free (which, sadly, is more than I can say for most companies), but what really aggrevates me is the decisions they've made, and the promises they haven't kept.

All over the box and the site, it says ~"no huge prep times for fun". Then a couple months after some of the most recognizable and respected guilds go to pieces and leave GW, we get Faction of Balthazar. It takes longer to unlock skills through Faction than through normal PvE play (not even hunting skills). This was the last straw for many players, who were hoping for a miraculous fix.

During the beta, if a new player came along asking what the game was all about, he was told "this game's for PvPers" with enthusiasm. A haven for all those RTS and FPS players who wanted a fast paced PvP game that didn't require them to level players, etc. On release, it seems that they changed the game around. A lot. Skills became harder to aquire, some are nearly impossible unless you get your guild to come help you - like Feast of Corruption. On top of it all, the economy has gone out of control as a side effect of the recent drop nerfs, and I haven't seen it stabilize yet (lucky for me, I had 4 ectoplasm sitting in my inventory from a single drop in my first entry to the Underworld, post release which I sold for cheap: 36k!).

I ask myself where are all the familiar faces? Looking at the join date tag under names, most of the players joined in june or july, while a population just as big prior to release has disappeared, and with them, all hope of intelligent conversation, or ideas that don't try to push GW further towards a cliche MMO. The hardcore PvP community, with the exception of a few guilds which managed to preserve their sanity, has deteriorated. Some guilds are completely inactive, others are looking for mergers. Don't play that "what could have possibly caused you to dislike Guild Wars" thing with us. During the beta, I thought "whoever is responsible for using henchies in GvG battles needs to get the boot". These days, rather than having to painfully leave behind guildies who wanted nothing more than to GvG because we had too many, we are sometimes outnumbered by our henchmen. You should have stuck with your original target audience, which I could easily quote from your own sight, but would prefer to save myself the trouble.
/Vent


Onto the part you should have skipped to if you don't like being told you screwed your most loyal fans that hung on edge waiting until midnight PST for the beta to open, postponing work, and staying up into the wee hours of the morning to watch their spectacular end, for nearly 7 months strait. Filling their hard drives with screenshots so that they could have something to occupy their minds, making new signatures* out of while discussing the next big weekend, and the builds of the month, and the top ranked guilds like the Fianna, WAR, or PALO your guild got to get stomped by.



The names which have, most humorously, been blocked, are any name in which the letter G stands alone. I'm not sure about the others.



*PS: People who say "go play another game" don't understand that there was no other game like it, and if we despised the current version enough not to play it, we would.

^^
I'm insulted I joined in June and have felt that I have made (generally) intelligent posts and suggestions. I have played the game in Beta on a friends account but never got around to buying it until sometime in may. Then I never bothered to join the forums until I had something to say (in june sometime like the first day actually).

Are you telling me, that I can't use Harry Potter to be my next characters name, because the term *pot* is part of the name?

How did a book/movie get that popular without being baned for being a clear reference to drugs?

I have asked for the entire block list for another review. You're absolutely correct, Ashley, the word "weed" was on there. And I agree with you -- it should not have been and I cannot for the life of me imagine how it was added. It's a long list, but still!

"Pot" is not on the list. Potter, Harry or otherwise, would not be blocked.

Thanks for pointing this out so that we can take measures to correct it. I wonder if you would be willing to do one more thing: I believe you mentioned you have had discussions with our Support Team about this, right? Could you please forward me the entire email thread with Support? I want to make sure that you have been given accurate information. This will help all of us in the future, so I would really appreciate your sending it: [email protected].

It will undoubtedly take a few days, but I have every expectation that the word will be unblocked very soon. Thanks for your patience with this, and your help in resolving a small problem with the best possible outcome.

But but... "Harry Potter" should be blocked!

There's a joke in here somewhere about earning unblocking points for unblocking your char names

Actually, it does work.

As for ANet support, granted that I've had my complaints in the past with PvP issues, etc. However, ANet communication and support is STILL by far the best that I have ever seen. Despite all my frustrations over the last few months, the ANet company involvement has been unparalleled. Sure, it can be better, of course, but in an imperfect world, this is the closest I've ever seen it come to being done "right."

Now, debates on where the direction of the game went is another matter. If you wish to drag that old argument up again, please use another thread instead of hijacking this one. Or, better yet, come up with suggestions to solve the problem and hop on over to the sanitarium to share it.

This reminds me of an MontyPython sketch where people are trying to have an argument and in the end it goes like : "Yes it is", "No it isn't" "Yes it is".

I don't know if there are MP fans in her, but all I can say in this matter:
I pressed every valid key you can press in GW. I followed exactly the solution I was given on this thread and believe it or not: It did not work for me. Minority again.

Since I avoided trying to walk around trees by using the water, I never got stuck again.
Maybe the problem is even fixed. But one thing is certain: neither Gwen nor my pet continued with their idle-movement. After 3 minutes I map-travelled back to Ascalon.

Anyway I'm starting to reconsider my feelings about support.
I won't become a fan over night, and I don't think that my problem would've been solved, if it hadn't been for this thread, because the "official" means of getting thru with my support-request had been at an end, BUT, I think it's a start.

I lit up a candle, instead of cursing in the dark (somebody posted this on this thread, I think) and it's burning at the moment.

I wouldn't call it steam, but some kind of "freak miracle" happened.
The block list got reviewed and hopefully the term "weed" will be off the list one day.

And last but not at all least:

Tons of thanks to you, Gaile.
You'll get the eMail-chain today.

I had one support issue when I was getting Err=7 all the time. I sent in my report and the support staff at Anet kept emailing me back suggestions and clarifying questions. Some dude named Josh made it seem like it was his personal mission to fix my problem. Even when the problem got solved and I emailed them back saying thank you, and not really expecting a response, some dude named John sent me a response essentially saying "No problem, and please let us know if it starts again."

For online gaming, that's first class service. From the prompt responses to knowing exactly who is replying to you, I think Anet has the best support around... at a very reasonable price. You know... the people you hire are a direct indication of the type of outfit you are running. So far these dudes have been great.

Sorry for casting "Resurrection" on this post. However, I've been asked to do so by the OP and out of respect for him, I will do so. Here is the situation as it stands:

• The OP would like to use a particular name that contains a word that is currently blocked on the word filter.
• The word was blocked intentionally, but I believe that the block was an error.
• I checked, saw that it was blocked, and with all honesty felt that it would be an easy change to make to unblock it.
• As it turns out, though, it is not an easy change to make because it involves global reimplementation of the filter list, and any changes involve six (and growing) languages.
• With significant changes in the form of Sorrow's Furnace and other planned updates, I decided to not request that we pull a programmer off of global changes for a single player's personal name request. (And let's be honest, if I had asked it, I would have been denied the request! "We're working on a major update, and you want us to what?" )
• We regret that it is not possible for us to unblock the word at this time. It simply is not as high a priority as are many other things that benefit all players.
• I personally apologize if some of the many PM's and the Support tickets on this matter went unanswered. I have answered many of them and I really felt that I was being exceptionally accommodating for messages about a personal request from a single player.
• I will be as forthright as I can with this now: We have not made the change. I errored in stating that it could be changed soon and I regret that. It was not a lie, and it was in no way a dismissive response. It was made as a friendly gesture and with the belief that we could make the change in a short timeframe. When I learned that this was a elaborate process, that it involved six languages, and that it would be impractical to open up the process for a single name, I tried but apparently failed to communicate that to the OP.
• I believe that focusing on global changes that benefit all players is the correct choice, and that we should not prioritize a personal request above working on matters that positively impact hundreds of thousands of players.

I hope that this satisfies the matter fully, and am hopeful that everyone will see that this was handled as fairly and appropriately as possible.

Gaile, while you're here, any idea why the guild name "Guild Medieval" would fail the censor test? Just curious, no request to change anything at this time...

This here is living proof of how good the support is.

I cant name another game that gets this much spoken attention from the workers themselfs.

Still makes me wonder why the Underworld bug still exists. I'm sure that has been reported. I'd bet it is on todo list though.

No idea! I will put this on my "to look at" list as well, but it'll be a while until we can examine it and make changes. I can't even think of that letter combination being a problem in any language, but maybe someone else will have a thought on that. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Thanks, that's very kind.Do you mean soloing of UW with Monks? Yes, we're aware of it. If you mean something else, do tell and I'll check!

Not a worry, and no hurry. Thanks!

Keep up the excellent work!

I'll try this again. (Database error last time I tried to respond)

There is a bug in the Underworld that prevents the doors from opening on the first quest.

I think it may have to do with killing enemys through the door with firestorm and skills like that. However, I dont see using firestorm through a door as much of a problem. But, even after that, the doors still should open after all the Grasping Darknesses are destroyed.

I am not sure why soloing the UW with a monk is considered a bug...Does that mean that very soon this won't be possible anymore?

The frog said something about the invincible monks not being invincible soon.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=48689

Oh, no, you are correct! It is not a bug, but it's being reported as such. Agree, it's not a bug.

Ok, thanks! That helps me, as I wasn't sure which you were writing about. I'll double check that's on the list.

I've had this bug. It's always caused by one of the group of 4 grasping darknesses spawning behind the door, and not in front of it.

I wonder -- have any of you reported through support.guildwars.com? I just checked internally and they said that would be the best way to submit it. Thanks if you have, or if you do.

*tips her hat to Gaile~~

Thank you for taking the time to speak with everyone... There is not another game that puts this much effort and thought into keeping members happy....

Well, no. Honestly I did not report it. Because at the time I ran across the bug, some one in my group mention he/she had reported it. Now I am not so sure if that is true.

I'll keep in mind, next bug I find. The suport is rather easy to use. And since there is no custom mapping or modeling for this game, there is only a few ways to be constructive.

And some of you may love how much I love being constructive.


EDIT: And in all of my constructivity, I just burned my pizza.

Dont feel bad Dark, I just burned my roast....My house smells like I burned a cow with its fur still on

They are good!


I bet i reported a bug every 30 min after release the first 12 hours. And as you can remember the amount of new builds were enormous. Bugs were fixed at once, except the flying circus henchies that lasted a while.

I emailed Gaile TWICE and got a response back within 6 hours, both times taking care of my issue. Very good Gaile!

Anet is doing great I think on the support issue. If thye only would pick up the balance wand and fix PvP - things would be wonderful!

Ratatass

Its to bad its not as easy as /bug was. So I figure I'll gather a list of bugs and report them all at once.

Starting with the unreachable chest I found today hehe.

You respect me? Wow, you sure sound different in your PMs.

Let's assume I believe this, which I have to for I don't know better:
Who designed this?
And what does 'global reimpelemntation' mean? Is the list actually on my computer and would be downloaded again on an update if the change would be made?

Ah, so you now know about how the list works, and you gained that knowledge without asking for the change?
In your PMs you gave me the impression that you did ask for the request.

First of all, YOU didn't answer a single support-ticket I put on.
You answered my PMs but only after I put some preasure on you.
That's not what I would call 'exceptionally accommodating', but that's my point of view.
If I hadn't kept asking, my guess is, that I'd still be waiting for 'a few days' to pass by.

You still don't get it, do you?
The majority about my PMs were about the fact, that you promised something before knowing how much work it would be, and that you didn't keep your promise.
They were about you, not replying to my PMs and if you did, the response was dismissive.
Let me remind you:
first: a few days.
then: a bit more time
then: in the near future
then: elected against it.
Those answers were given to me by you over the period of some weeks.

Removing a term from a block list that shouldn't be on it, IS something that would benefit all players.

Appropriately?
My request is how old? 2 months?
My support tickets were answered by how many different supporters?
I think I counted 5, maybe more.

This is not exactly an example of good support.

If you had come up with your polished explanations that you posted here within 1 week after you promised to help, you could've saved yourself, me and others quite a lot of time and distress.
But it took you 2 months and a lot of preasure from my PMs to you, to come up with that.

I don't measure the quality of support by saying: if they help me it's good, if they don't it's bad.
I meassure it by speed and plausibility etc.
Neither have the first replys to my request been fast nor plausible or understandable.

This is, what this thread is about.

I post an "error=40" support-request, again I get 5 or more different people answering the request in 2 different languages.

Each time I reply, somebody new has to read the whole request (that's why most supporters don't read the whole thing and make up some non-problem-related reply)

So in the end I get: "error=40 is network related". Uhhhh, surprise.

If you want to improve support, make sure that each ticket is, answered by the same person, unless that person is on vacation, sick or dead e.g.
That way, the person will know, what the ticket is about, and won't have to re-read it again and again.

Another example?
I requested support to delete my support-account.
What do they reply?
"We can't delete your account or reset your CD-key."
They're obviously talking about the GAME-account, when my initial request was 'Please delete my SUPPORT-account'

This is how good support is, and that's why I requested my support-account to be deleted.
It's useless, because if you don't get support, why have a support-account?

And don't tell me that the support-account is directly connected with the game-account.
That would be ridiculous.

Ashley Twig: you obviously have some personal beef with the guild wars support, why not take it to email and KEEP IT THERE?

Do you mean on thier HP or ingame using /bug?
Remember how many people play GW and how many bugs are getting sent.
You will hardly ever get a reply unless the devs want specific info from you.
In cases of names it would take longer to reply to you then it might be to fix the problem.
And in case of a well known bug, doubt they will spend the time replying to everyone with 'thanks but known'.

Happend once to me, probably hard to reproduce.

Probably lag issues.
I have had my char attack a monster in meele even though it was rendered 20m away. Is it a bug? yeah. Does it hurt? nope.

Like I said above. Answering would take longer then changing the name.

Probably because they cannot fix it (lag issues) or it is not worth mentioning.

Please keep in mind that work costs money.
I have sent in bugs for countless games and never heard a thanks or whatever and to be honest I am fine with it because satifying my need for attention deprives the project of precious time.

Not to mention the GW team has shown some of the greatest support I have EVER seen!

WOW, you even got a dev to reply to your post.
I envy you!

@Ratatass:
'except the flying circus henchies that lasted a while'
Would dead & floating enemies count as well?
Outside of copperhead mines.btw

@Word-blocking:
As long as it is not as bad as WoWs word filter where the german word 'bitte' (please) was blocked.

Gaile Gray is the community relations manager. Customer support is customer support. These two are not the same -- by far. In this case and from what you've said, Ashley, Gaile has indeed been very accommodating in answering your PMs repeatedly on top of her numerous other responsibilities. I'm sorry that you feel slighted by the efforts of Guild Wars support, but launching a public denouncement of both Gaile and of support will neither help nor further your case. Unfortunately, since this thread will go nowhere, I am going to close it.

If anyone wishes to reopen the thread for a constructive discussion on how Guild Wars support differs from that of other games, etc, please PM me and I will let you know.

Thank you,
Aria