baned for helping freinds?

#3 - Jan. 31, 2013, 12:11 p.m.

There are very few “false positives” related to account terminations. Account terminations don’t usually involve “Oh gosh, that guy just sent another account 10 gold — ban him!” There are other details that are reviewed before an account is flagged as a possible gold seller.

More importantly, each appeal is carefully reviewed with an eye to getting that player back into the game. I don’t deny that errors may be made, but they are, truly, quite few in number and I think that legitimate players should not be worried about this.

#5 - Jan. 31, 2013, 1:53 p.m.

This is actually a good thing, in general, although for you specifically I certainly understand that it caused you distress, and I’m sorry for that. Without looking into the case specifically, I would estimate that what happened was that the first response was given with the information available at that time, but that something triggered a second look, and during that second look the team determined that it was appropriate to reinstate the account.

Why would I say that’s in any way “a good thing?” I feel it’s a positive note that a secondary review took place, that the error was caught, and that your account was reinstated. It’s awkward for us that an agent may say, “Nope, that’s it—the account remains banned” only to see the resolution changed. However, we’ll accept that awkwardness (and ask for the player’s forgiveness) if it means getting a legitimate player back in the game.

Again, I’m real sorry that you had that time out (and the resulting distress) and I wish you well in your continued adventures in Tyria!

#8 - Jan. 31, 2013, 2:01 p.m.

Rising Dusk.2408:

The support team should send players chocolate chip cookies (I would also accept muffins) in-game if they accidentally ban an account. This would make up for everything.

Wow, I read that and for a minute had a vision of trying to bake and mail real cookies.

Let’s just say “I will take your suggestion under advisement” and leave it at that.

#16 - Feb. 1, 2013, 3:37 p.m.

Kraggy.4169:

Gaile Gray.6028:

There are very few “false positives” related to account terminations.

You cannot assert that as a fact, you cannot know how many there are.

By definition, a ‘false positive’ only gets recognised as such if sufficient evidence is provided by the accused in their defense which causes Anet to accept the initial guilty verdict was incorrect: same thing as real-world ‘miscarriages of justice’.

If the accused can’t provide that evidence the verdict stands, but that doesn’t mean it also isn’t a ‘false positive’, it means Anet were unimpressed with the defense.

You may like to think that ‘false positives’ are rare, you may genuinely believe it, but there are no facts on which to base such a view because you cannot know how many went undetected; it’s entirely subjective.

You’re mistaken. If I took every single ticket in a week, it would still be a small number compared to the number of accounts. Extrapolate the data to the percentage of those tickets—submitted and/or resolved—related to false positives and the number drops even lower. If we reviewed every single account suspension and termination, it would still be a small number.

So yes, I can say this as fact.

tehnimsy.4162:

False positives are not that rare in my experience and friends. I am trying to get my main account back as we speak based on sending ecto from an alt to my main. This is the 2nd time this has happened and I know several other people who have been in the same situation.

I understand having an automated system but a system has failed when it is hurting legit players much like DRM solutions to software. It is even more aggravating as every server I have been a participant of as had things like “gw2 XXXXX seller” all over lions arch. The automated system is most certainly failing in this case and many others.

That’s very sad to hear. (And I want to point out, the situation describe here really does not refute my comments above.) I checked on possible upcoming changes. There are team members looking into the detection code to improve it, as it has been improved over time. I think we’ll see far fewer instances of this situation in the future.

Michael.4791:

There is no way to avoid mistakes – not with humans and not with programs. So I am pleased that there IS a review process in place.

And there always will be. Our hope is to keep people in the game whenever we can, not terminate accounts.