Why so many gold sellers?

ACWhammy · July 1, 2016 at 11:36 PM

Does anyone have any insight as to why there is no action taken against the gold sellers? I have emailed Anet twice over the past few months and they are giving me very unclear responses. In fact, the first time I emailed them they thought I was referring to Guild Wars 2, even though the number "2" was not in the email at all, and in the drop-down menu I selected "Original Guild Wars." Shows how much they pay attention to this game.

Do you think there is anything we can do as a community to fight this?

AC

cosyfiep · July 2, 2016 at 12:34 AM Official Post

a few insights into your thoughts.
1 anets "customer service" is directed mostly for 2 so they dont even bother to read that it is NOT about 2.
2 when they did the mass bans a while back those gold sellers were STILL in eye, LA, Kamadan, GToB..so they dont seem to really care as much about that as other things.

as for fighting it...just dont buy from them and tell everyone you know they are scammers? perhaps if they get a bad enough rep they will just leave.

Iaerah · July 3, 2016 at 6:40 PM Official Post

The best way to combat them is by simply don't buying from them... I highly doubt ArenaNet will take any actions against them :(.

ACWhammy · July 5, 2016 at 12:29 AM

For anyone interested, here is Anet's response. I asked them "If that's the case then why is no action being taken against them?"

Response: "Reporting these players get information to the proper team that will investigate and take appropriate actions deemed necessary.
We are not able to discuss actions made on accounts.

Regards,

GM Wonder Tree"

and this was their response the first time around:

"The fastest and most efficient way to report someone is in game. Reports in game get no reply but I do assure you they are looked into and handled appropriately.

If you have any further questions or concerns please let us know.

Thank you for your time and for your help in improving Guild Wars 2.

Regards,

GM Exalted Lord Googly Eyes"

I say we just bombard them with support tickets. They're obviously not doing anything unless its GW2.

AC

bsoltan · July 5, 2016 at 12:36 AM Official Post

I've just started reporting them when I see them.

Oh and adding them to my blocked list.

wind fire and ice · July 5, 2016 at 2:48 AM

As discussed in this GW Guru thread (http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/rmt-spam-t10546857.html), I made a ticket and had an identical response. Not sure Anet bans will ever solve our problems. Definitely feels like we have to get more creative, especially considering the arguments I made there - the gold sellers are making 1k+ a week and are small operations. People are making livings off of those sites. They'll buy more accounts and will care far more than Anet even if we do get some admin support.

Iaerah · July 5, 2016 at 10:46 AM Official Post

Perhaps we should send an email directly to the top of ArenaNet, to Mike o'Brien?

While it might not solve everything, it might do SOMETHING.

ACWhammy · July 5, 2016 at 7:57 PM

Yes I just read the thread. I'm glad other people are taking action as well. They told me to report gold sellers under "botting." I also told them they could log into Kamadan at any given moment and see around 8 people either selling gold, GW accounts, or trading for other game currency. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to "investigate" accounts.

Oh and by the way, in my second email to support I asked them if gold-selling was legal now since nothing was being done about it. They said no. Maybe we can approach support with different questions rather than just "ban the gold sellers."

My next tactic was to quote directly from the EULA, but I read in the EULA that "marks" will be given to those accounts and we have no way of accusing them of not giving "marks" to accounts so I don't know if that will help us.

Quote from wind fire and ice

As discussed in this GW Guru thread (http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/rmt-spam-t10546857.html), I made a ticket and had an identical response. Not sure Anet bans will ever solve our problems. Definitely feels like we have to get more creative, especially considering the arguments I made there - the gold sellers are making 1k+ a week and are small operations. People are making livings off of those sites. They'll buy more accounts and will care far more than Anet even if we do get some admin support.

cosyfiep · July 5, 2016 at 8:01 PM Official Post

I guess every bit helps...worth trying (will report again those idiots that have been there for years now in eye, la, gtob...)

Flint Lightning · July 18, 2016 at 1:21 AM

rumor is Big Blonde was banned recently. just saying they do do things still.

Sadness · August 12, 2016 at 3:39 AM

.....
[hr]

Quote from Kevin

Perhaps we should send an email directly to the top of ArenaNet, to Mike o'Brien?

While it might not solve everything, it might do SOMETHING.

That's actually a great idea. I have been longing to someone propose something like this for a huge amount of time - maybe since 2011 when I definitely decided to quit the game.

But how would you achieve him? Or approach this matter?

As far as I could see he pretends to be at Guild Wars 2 forum from time to time, but never compromise on answering anyone, so does Gaile Gray.

The best idea of all would be to interview him by an email, send a lot of questions about a array of things and expect honest answers, knowing that he would settle feedback.

I for sure have at least two things on my inquiry list.

1) How does he views the Diablo III success on the same business model that Guild Wars 1 has and not take advantage of that to bring the game back from the dead (PvE).

2) How can he watch something that he started 12 yrs ago (PvP and e-sport) flowing affluent and not take benefit from a solid game that is just waiting for skill updates and being f2p to take massive players coming back again.

To be honest I don't even care, I wish that either Patrick Wyatt or Jeff Strain could answer this too. I know that they have left ArenaNet for a quite good time but I would love to see their insight on this too.

PS: Don't scold me or even get started with the rant that Guild Wars doesn't need to go f2p model because it's cheap. When even them recognized that GW2 needed this model to keep and held advantage from them, why that wouldn't be true to Guild Wars too?

Iaerah · August 12, 2016 at 9:37 AM Official Post

Quote from Sadness

.....
[hr]

That's actually a great idea. I have been longing to someone propose something like this for a huge amount of time - maybe since 2011 when I definitely decided to quit the game.

But how would you achieve him? Or approach this matter?

As far as I could see he pretends to be at Guild Wars 2 forum from time to time, but never compromise on answering anyone, so does Gaile Gray.

The best idea of all would be to interview him by an email, send a lot of questions about a array of things and expect honest answers, knowing that he would settle feedback.

I for sure have at least two things on my inquiry list.

1) How does he views the Diablo III success on the same business model that Guild Wars 1 has and not take advantage of that to bring the game back from the dead (PvE).

2) How can he watch something that he started 12 yrs ago (PvP and e-sport) flowing affluent and not take benefit from a solid game that is just waiting for skill updates and being f2p to take massive players coming back again.

To be honest I don't even care, I wish that either Patrick Wyatt or Jeff Strain could answer this too. I know that they have left ArenaNet for a quite good time but I would love to see their insight on this too.

PS: Don't scold me or even get started with the rant that Guild Wars doesn't need to go f2p model because it's cheap. When even them recognized that GW2 needed this model to keep and held advantage from them, why that wouldn't be true to Guild Wars too?

Display More

Honestly, I would rather have that they don't make Guild Wars F2P. They don't have a support team in place right now and the game clearly wasn't built for it.
In GW2, you have the gem store that is completely integrated to make it easy to spend money, while in Guild Wars there is no such thing, except for the external shop which doesn't really have that much except for some costumes.
They would seriously need to ramp up the security measures of this game and start making sure that there are quite a lot of measures against gold sellers, because it's already a huge problem.

Unless they decide to drop a big bag of money on Guild Wars, I don't expect that to happen.
I would however like if they would put a small team on GW1 again... but one can dream.

For the rest, I would like to ask an interview yeah; but obviously we would need to talk about GW2 as well in order to get their attention..

cosyfiep · August 12, 2016 at 4:22 PM Official Post

they wont put any money into guildwars anymore, the game is not making any money and ncsoft is basically running the show on what they work on. You can ask Mike tons of questions, but I dont think you will get answers. (or the answers you get are not going to be what you want to hear). Guildwars is barely on maintenaince mode, and I am sure if they could get away with it they would get rid of it altogether (now more than before with the hack of Gailes account).

Sadness · August 12, 2016 at 6:28 PM

Quote from Kevin

Honestly, I would rather have that they don't make Guild Wars F2P. They don't have a support team in place right now and the game clearly wasn't built for it.
In GW2, you have the gem store that is completely integrated to make it easy to spend money, while in Guild Wars there is no such thing, except for the external shop which doesn't really have that much except for some costumes.
They would seriously need to ramp up the security measures of this game and start making sure that there are quite a lot of measures against gold sellers, because it's already a huge problem.

Unless they decide to drop a big bag of money on Guild Wars, I don't expect that to happen.
I would however like if they would put a small team on GW1 again... but one can dream.

For the rest, I would like to ask an interview yeah; but obviously we would need to talk about GW2 as well in order to get their attention..

On that matter I completely disagree with you. Most of MMORPG's weren't made or meant to be on f2p model. Guild Wars 2 is no exception. It's the need that changes everything and time has demonstrated that going f2p brings a lot of revenue. Guild Wars also has a huge advantage towards others games and his younger brother, because either in PvE or PvP the game is instanced, which mitigates a lot the stress from the servers.

About having a structure in game to spend on store I agree on that part with you. While that would be good, honestly, I can't tell difference on the model that was made on Guild Wars 2 from the model implemented on Guild Wars "1". I've played Guild Wars 2 for 3 yrs straight and the only difference on Gem Store was that 1) It held more costumes and skins for players 2) It was essential to spend gems if you wanted miniatures in game 3) Buying keys to open stupid chest earned in game; and LAST BUT NOT LEAST 4) Trading the gems that you bought with real money for gold and bypassing everyone else with money. Just not to forget there were "tokens" too, to boost leveling up or rate dropping and such.

All of that can be done easily on Guild Wars if the game went free to play. And would bring the same joy that GW2 generates in terms of money.

The only downside about going f2p model it's that without active Game Masters on the game Gold Sellers and botters would have a fairly good life, cuz even if they were banned making another account would be a piece of cake.

But for the important part of all this, it would be awesome if we didn't let the idea die. Would you Kevin be willing to do this?! Make Contact, organize an interview and so on?!

I can't die until I have heard enough that simple don't care about us, LoL.

Smoke Nightvogue · August 14, 2016 at 2:11 PM

Quote from Sadness

The only downside about going f2p model it's that without active Game Masters on the game Gold Sellers and botters would have a fairly good life, cuz even if they were banned making another account would be a piece of cake.

That's not exactly the case as it would greatly depend on the model used for the creation of F2P accounts. They can be limited in allowed features such as the ability to post in Local & Trade chat channels, the availability of trade function or the drop / pick something up interactions, etc.