WARNING: your never safe in an MMO ...

not even jokingly ... just heed this as a warning to all who have ever had a suspension, been banned prior, or are just acting of poor character when logged into guildwars.

A small story ... I was logged in a few nights ago ... only 2 other guildies on atm, one of them told in guild chat he is going to do FoW runs to farm his sephis axe. I was on for about 2 hours traversing the world of tyria, waiting for this euro to log on to purchase a staff head. I noticed in numerous tombs visits the plagued 'virgoods.com' bot spammer ... almost as humourous as the guild that was singing in D1 a few weeks ago. So this guildie said he was farming this impossible perfect axe ... which led our other guildie to respond ... Go to LA (Lions Arch) D1 ... our friend told us he hadn't enough gold to purchase the axe, and was too proud to accept the amount if offered.

Here is where I made the mistake ... I pm'd the guildie (not the one looking for the axe, the 3rd party) jokingly saying that the guy looking for the axe should just buy it from some guy spamming buy gold in tombs 5.99 virgoods.com so he didnt have to farm for months ...

BIG NO NO ... I realized after that even though I was joking with one guildie behind the other guildies back (who I appologize too, but speed was more important than farming imo), about saving time, I was breaking the EULA by even typing that in my pm. So heed my warning ...

communicate solely by voice chat ... cause now I face a 1 week suspension, for shooting the beer fueled breeze. it sucks but I deserve it, and they do a great job protecting us here. Just want others to be careful of what they say cause NC Interactive Support has no time or patience to hear you, they have a solid system, it not apealeable bottom line.

Hexin X

Are you saying that the guildie you whispered reported you or that Anet searched the logs looking for any mention of virgoods and banned you because of that?

That's ridiculous. You said you "face" a 1 week suspension, meaning it has yet to be decided whether you'll be suspended or not? Or are you suspended right now?

I can't believe that, just sounds crazy and way over the top. Surely they're intelligent enough to understand what context the message is in. Any chance you can quote us the exact message you sent the person?

I think there should be a distinction by the game masters between being jocular and being serious. I for one do not want my conversations policed to the point where whispers are considered serious business. If this is indeed what happened, and if you did get a suspension for one week because of it, maybe Anet needs to rethink its stand on such matters.

I would like to be able to joke in-game. If I need to be serious within-game and watch my speech in the whisper channel, I may rethink my position on Anet's policy.

Still giving them the benefit of the doubt, though

I wish they spent half the effort into actually trying to fix this problem instead of conducting witch hunts on innocent people.

sanji, nearly all my reports on the bots spamming virgoods have been handled within a reasonable timeperiod, the last few i reported were fixed in less than 15 mins.

In reality, you wont get caught for saying anything and banned unless a couple things happen, you say it publically while a GM is in the area. or two, you get reported by another player. Then the third way is that while reviewing chat logs of another incedent, the GMs happen upon the statement you wrote.

What happened here was likely #2, the dude you whispered that to reported ya.

That's some guild you have there...

I don't understand, are you suspended, been warned that you could be suspended, or just worried you actions are going to get you suspended?

If you are suspended let the week pass, the game's not going anywhere.
Just don't do it again.

<---slowly pushes GW a little further away...

your story is very weird.

*scratches head*

Well, if the guy reported you, I'm glad he wasn't biased, though he should probably have asked if you forgot the sarcasm tags :X

Seems that a lot of people need to learn to stop "joking" about illegal stuff.

If you go into a bank and say to the teller, "I have a gun, give me some money" and then say... "Oh don't worry, I was just kidding!", then you are gonna get put in jail just the same. Disclaimer: do not try this in real life, it is merely a hypothetical example.

OP is right that it's his own fault.

He said his comment was a private message to a guildmate about another guildmate.
It would be like going to a bank and saying privatly to your friend, "John ought to rob this place so he doesnt have to work for money"
Then some law enforcment at the bank reads your lips and they kick you out of the bank and all of its branches for a week until you learn how to talk in a bank.
The OP has a wonderful attutide in taking responsable for all his actions.
But as far as right or wrong, if I was in the OPs shoes, I wouldnt feel wrong by what I said (apparently neither does the OP. His solution, "communcate soley by voice chat") - just misunderstood by someone that wants to prove a point and make examples.

I am already starting to serve my 1 week suspension, and no my guildie did not report me. Anet searched the chat logs for virgoods.com

i am confused...

"I was breaking the EULA by even typing that in my pm"

So how exactly is typing in a private message breaking any rules again?

maybe it was just an intern that found your text while searching for virgoods and saw that you suggested to use their services...they probably didn't even read the whole conversation to get that it was a joke

sorry for your luck, but a week isn't that long...i hope to see you ingame again soon

Even if you were saying that and meaning it, now I know you are not, you are just small time. There are bots, or people that spam like that all day, and they take you out for a week because of some small time pm, I guess if you ever do this in game without realizing it, be sure to type jk in afterwords? If I were you I would email support about that, its absolutely outrageous.

Wow thats really stupit they just saw u said something about virgoods.com and didnt even take the time to atleast look at the conversation, before banning you? I guess now becuase of the stupit companies selling gold we cant even joke about it ingame... this is crazy

okay ... I received pm'd one of my guildies ... about another guildie who was farming his perfect sephis axe ... we said ... farm it in LA D1 like WTB pef sephis axe blah ablah blah ...

he said he didnt have enough cash, we said we'd give him ours, he said no (pride) ... I pm'd the guildie (not the farmer) saying some guy is spamming 100K in tombs on virgoods.com for like 6 bucks ... said why waste 3 months trying to get the axe, he should just go buy it (<<<---- bam ... thats where I get banned, it breaks the eula) sorry if that was not so clear in my original post but point is, they caught it by searching there logs for virgoods.com and checked my chat (not public chat, a pm) even though it is within my guild, I clearly break the eula.

easy cheese, think about what you say before you say it
keep logs of all conversations incase you need evidentiary support

if all else fails, ONLY say what you want in voiceover's as it is a third party software and is not subject to the gms log surphing it, unless your bud was recording the conversation

They are. The biggest debate internally is wither to keep the trade button at all. A lot of of effort is going into GW version of auction system. This was a very highly requested option, and a feature that will expand trader offerings beyond dyes, runes, and materials. So the debate became... Do they eliminate the Trade channel and Trade button for interpersonal trades, and force everyone to use the new system, which is free of exploiters, and scammers? Its a hard question... though personally I kind of like the idea, I know this would ruin an aspect of the game for many people. So in general I am hoping they still keep the existing Trade button functionality for them.

Once we see this auction system in place, much of the farming, and grinding to find decent weapons will not be needed, and Should revalue in game gold again. Meaning. it will be a legitimate gold sink that allows real controllable fluctuations in gold amounts and item values in the market. If Anet sees a large influx, a formula can be derived to balance that in the gold or item amounts dropped. thus securing the value of gold in game.

All of these concepts are being considered. But many feel they will not be ready till Chapter two, as it represents a fundamental change to the game-play in regards to the trading system as represented.

What this means if you do not buy Chapter two? Nothing really. Though I say its something expected for chapter 2, it is expected to be an engine update over all. Thus allowing everyone to gain benefit. It will just be a part of the update at that time. The chapter 2 content is primarily a story extension for PvE, and it will add more to PvP and possibly classes as well. But all the other updates from the next chapter should propagate down with the engine itself. so even those playing the original retail product should see something from time to time benefit them still with each update.

Example: Chapter two gets the guild auction NPC. you buy Chapter 2 and go to your guild and give stuff to the auctioneer and set a price base price for your wares. you go away and wait for profits.

Now a original retail owner goes to a town, and talked to the Auction NPC cause he is looking for stuff to buy. He looks at your guilds offerings and buys and bids on a item for something, and wins. Bingo he now has the item and you have your gold waiting for you back at your guild.

So you see? even the original retail player without chapter two sees at least some benefits from many of the upgrades, its just they will not have the extra stuff available to them for continued expansion of the game unless they buy the next chapter.

ingram.

[EDIT]However I suppose they could make it that the auction NPCs only appear in the towns from Chapter 2. So in that way, yea I can see a need for everyone then to buy chapter 2. I was planning on it anyway, but people have been asking me a lot lately what to expect if you do not. To which I normally say, I have no idea... its hard to guess based on testing materials. cause while testing a concept, it has no in game limitations, so little clue as to placement of something. Like chess. its all in what you have on the board and where you place them. A legitimate strategy of Anet would be to offer those NPCs only in towns from chapter two. so although the benefit is to everyone engine wise, the only ones able to use them are those that bought chapter 2.

i think the new auction system will be in place before chapter 2 so they can swat the bugs before exposing all the fresh new players to a buggy bad first experience.

An auction house would be a nice feature, been a bone of contention for a long time. This however probably won't stop outside the game gold/item selling. It happens in most games and the only way to stop it is if people didn't buy from them. It's as simple as that.

I do think however that if the OP's story is true that is some major weak sauce on Anets part. I'm sure they have the right, but talk about big brother watching everything you say and do. I'm totally against buying stuff outside the game, power leveling, ect...but this is cheese.

I don't see why they ban you and not the bots, there must be one in every district of the tombs...

i actually found the bots in game manifestation and attempted to cajole it/him/her into joining my pug. we had a disagreement over the finer points of the build, and the bot was banned from the game so it turns out i was right after all

that's so messed up

how is it messed up

That's a little harsh.

There is a difference between walking into a bank with a 'joke gun' and playing an online game. I agree that these bots need to be sorted - and I'm sure Anet are working hard to address them, but there needs to be a little discretion.

Surely they review the logs in context. Otherwise big brother is watching, but he ain't listening.

lol you said big brother is watching. no one ever said he is listening.

case in point... US Governemnt...

lol Sorry. back on topic...

touche

they did not ban me, just suspend me for the duration of 1 week. I too think that we will likely see the implementation of an auction house before the new content. If you really think aout it, the people who will be playing gw at the end of the year, before the chapter 2 release are basically faithful to the game and they can use us as testers, as they realize we wont run and flee if something goes amiss.

fyi on topic ... I am now known as the guild cheater in my guild

Another fine example as to why my opinion of how A-net's idea of how to run a game is on par with that of utter idiocy.

A-net: "Oh N O E S! Someone jokingly told a guildie to buy an item off a website. Quick, suspend his account for the week! This is just not acceptable."


A-net needs to read over their EULA. Sooner or later someone is going to file a counter argument, as many of these stories I hear are over-zealous actions that do not fall under the EULA, rather, they are just statements by A-net thinking that banning is a reasonable excuse regardless of the situation.

I will laugh when that day comes...read the EULA word for word and you will begin to see my point.

Well, if this is true, and they do search for virgoods.com within conversations, and posts... then that makes me want to state "and buy from virgoods.com, not!" after every one of my posts, if just to spite what may have happened...

But, there are no true facts that can show this to me, so my spiteful ways will have to hold off.


Edit:: Waited a little while, but anyhow. Just joking! (I know, i know... some people can see sarcasm and some can't...)

it didnt hit me at first, but the 'get the auction house and dump the trade window' would be a huge blow to the botters. im all for it now. they could still farm the items and the gold, but they couldnt deliver it effectively.

The same thing happend to me. The thing is, I suppose, not to even talk or think about the Virgoods people in any way, shape or form.

It has nothing to do with "Oh, you shouldn't promote illegal stuff!!1"

How can you possibly compare threatening to rob a bank with joking about the EULA restriction to not advertise, ingame, the sale or trade of ingame currency or items for real life currency or materials?

How can you possibly compare joking about robbing the bank of a teller - to them, while in the bank- who you don't even know with making fun of the Virgoods website, in private chat, to a friend?

Please. Is there a point to defending NCsoft's every move against their dedicated and paid customers?

Were you the guy that made the joke in tombs about virgoods.com calling them cheese.com and cussing them out? You got a 1 day ban right? I remember reading your post last week. Not sure if it was you though ...

This is great news, no offense to Stumpy and I'm sorry for you getting banned.

This is what everyone should be after, 6 dollar sellers will ruin a game.

I think that everyone selling and everyone buying should be banned permanently to send the point home. More than that I think A-Net should set up stings where they have their own site which changes name where they intentionally sell people gold for cash and then ban them.