GM Team Now Giving (Some) Warnings

#1 - Aug. 28, 2014, 4:04 p.m.

In the past, we’ve made it clear that GMs (aka Customer Support agents) would not send players in-game warnings. Today, we’re going to start giving warnings in specific cases. This will not involve a lot of hand-holding, “second chances,” and do-overs. But please note this important information:

If you get a whisper in gold text, pay heed. This is a official warning and you need to immediately rethink what you’re doing. Once warned, if you continue what you’re doing, you risk an account suspension, even an account termination.

This new policy does not imply that everyone will get a warning. If you use offensive chat, you will be suspended or amass another mark towards suspension. If you cheat, your account is headed on a one-way trip to Termination Territory. But for certain infractions, we’re going to try warnings to see if we can “pull players away from the abyss” and allow them to continue playing our game.

#2 - Aug. 28, 2014, 4:12 p.m.

I had initially thought I’d want to lock this thread. At this point, I’ll leave it open. However, here are some guidelines:

• We’re not going to say “this infraction will get a warning” and “that infraction will earn a suspension.” Please don’t ask that.
• We’re not going to get into a philosophical discussion about “If you’re warning about XYZ, then you are required to warn about ABC.” Just… don’t go there because any form of warning is a kindness, not a requirement.
• Any mention of “Freedom of Speech” or your other constitutional rights, or a citation of legal action, will be smote with my Bow of the Mighty Slaughtering of Fools. But then, I always have that bow at the ready.

#9 - Aug. 28, 2014, 5:02 p.m.

ConfusedDave.4271:

I really want one of those Bows :-)

Sorry, it’s mine all mine and I’m not sharin’!

Deified.7520:

I’d heavily advise the GMs to take pictures of the incident BEFORE the whisper. It’s amazing how someone’s actions/attitude will change when a GM whispers them. This is just so that if the person in question goes to a social media page and tries to start drama, the GM’s/Anet have a picture of what they were doing wrong before they were contacted.

No worries, we don’t rely on screenshots. We have a trump card: game logs, and they cannot be altered or fudged for personal reasons by someone trying to grief another player.

eekzie.5640:

On a serious note, nice to see this happening

I think so, too!

Nkuvu.2570:

Will the whispers be recorded internally, amassing marks (as you state it)?

For example, I do something stupid and GM Bob whispers me saying “oi, knock it off.” I stop, then return the next day or the next week and start doing the same something stupid again. Will GM Suzy know that GM Bob already warned me about it?

(disclaimer: Any resemblance to actual GM names is purely coincidental and unintentional)

We’re not giving warnings for chat violations, but yes, chat reports are amassed and over time can impact one’s account. We will keep account notes for instances when a warning is given for other sorts of infractions, so yes, our fictional Suzy and Bob will know the account’s history.

#13 - Aug. 28, 2014, 5:14 p.m.

Sorin.4310:

How detailed will these warnings be? Will it be more like “you need to stop what you are doing.” or more like "At ##:## you started “doing such” and is in violation due to “such rule”, or somewhere in between?

Will we be able to respond to the GM’s comment, assuming we are polite and courteous?

Let’s face it. If you’re engaging in a disallowed activity, you know it. So the message may be specific or it may be a little more generic, but in the end, we believe it’s a kindness to let you know “You’re doing something right now that needs to stop.” (As far as I know, the warnings will not come later, they’ll be at the time of the disallowed activity.)

No, you may not enter into a dialogue with the GM. You may, of course, contact Customer Support, which is what the message will direct you to do if you have questions.

Hopefully, players will be smart enough to recognize what they were doing and not try to engage in a huge exchange defending their misbehavior or arguing against a friendly warning. We have a lot of players with legitimate issues we’d like to help, rather than trying to quell a “No, i didn’t do it” or “But is that precisely wrong, or is it your fault?” sorts of discussions.

#15 - Aug. 28, 2014, 5:24 p.m.

Dan.4398:

Quick question: These golden whispers will they be blocked from players view if the chat box settings are on don’t show whispers and game messages or are they considered something else?
I don’t plan on ever getting one hopefully but i would still like to know.

If someone has turned off whispers, then I believe that player will not get the warning. This is the player’s choice, of course. We will not make a different or additional effort to contact the player. Again, the warning is a courtesy, and whether (1) a player puts her- or himself in a situation that earns a warning, and (2) blocks whispers, is entirely the choice of the player.

#19 - Aug. 28, 2014, 6:07 p.m.

Dreamslayer.7659:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Dan.4398:

Quick question: These golden whispers will they be blocked from players view if the chat box settings are on don’t show whispers and game messages or are they considered something else?
I don’t plan on ever getting one hopefully but i would still like to know.

If someone has turned off whispers, then I believe that player will not get the warning. This is the player’s choice, of course. We will not make a different or additional effort to contact the player. Again, the warning is a courtesy, and whether (1) a player puts her- or himself in a situation that earns a warning, and (2) blocks whispers, is entirely the choice of the player.

May I humbly suggest you consider some sort of screen print message in large font and some godly thunder / reverb.

That some may be turned from their wicked ways and resume the path of righteousness – or at least harmlessness.

I could have SO much fun with this! For instance, I totally want to record a “Turn away from the Dark Side” message. Or maybe “This is a warning. Go forth and sin no more.” Or “You are standing on the edge of an abyss. Step away! Take the path of non-cheatiness!!”

Ok, I should stop now.

#24 - Aug. 28, 2014, 6:39 p.m.

who want blood.8765:

would be awesome to see the old ‘dhuum’ killing players who have infracted policies be a visual reminder to other players that offences will not be taken lightly….but thats just me

I dream — DREAM, I tell you — of the Return of Dhuum™ with his Awesome Scythe of Banning© action.

However, on the serious side, I should reiterate that the warnings will come in private chat (whispers) and will not be visible to others. So this is a confidential system that warns, without sending any sort of public message, verbal or visual.

#40 - Aug. 29, 2014, 11:27 a.m.

Errant Venture.9371:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Sorin.4310:

How detailed will these warnings be? Will it be more like “you need to stop what you are doing.” or more like "At ##:## you started “doing such” and is in violation due to “such rule”, or somewhere in between?

Will we be able to respond to the GM’s comment, assuming we are polite and courteous?

Let’s face it. If you’re engaging in a disallowed activity, you know it. So the message may be specific or it may be a little more generic, but in the end, we believe it’s a kindness to let you know “You’re doing something right now that needs to stop.” (As far as I know, the warnings will not come later, they’ll be at the time of the disallowed activity.)

No, you may not enter into a dialogue with the GM. You may, of course, contact Customer Support, which is what the message will direct you to do if you have questions.

Hopefully, players will be smart enough to recognize what they were doing and not try to engage in a huge exchange defending their misbehavior or arguing against a friendly warning. We have a lot of players with legitimate issues we’d like to help, rather than trying to quell a “No, i didn’t do it” or “But is that precisely wrong, or is it your fault?” sorts of discussions.

Any chance of having this policy enforced retroactively? I know I’ve got a couple friends whose accounts were terminated for the 2012 snowflake incident and they never got a warning/temporary suspension =(

None whatsoever. To go back and review thousands of suspensions to determine if they would have received a warning at the time, coupled with the impossibility of knowing if the warned player would have stopped the exploitative action takes such a retroactive review off the table completely.

Lytalm.5673:

Gaile Gray.6029:

No worries, we don’t rely on screenshots. We have a trump card: game logs, and they cannot be altered or fudged for personal reasons by someone trying to grief another player.

I’m wondering Gaile, what does the game logs consist? Replayable footage of an instance? Message, combat log? Other information on written form? I’m just curious : 3

I think it would be best for me to decline to get into specifics on this subject. Suffice to say, we know your shoe size.

#41 - Aug. 29, 2014, 11:35 a.m.

DunkinFresh.9678:

It seems you possess a very particular set of skills…

Anyway, can you please clarify for me- offensive chat?

We all slip occasionally, dropping a s- or f-. Is this okay as long as it isn’t malicious, excessive, or discriminatory?

Hmmm… It seems that anything I say here might be taken as an Outline for How to Get By With Swearing.

But in the spirit in which the question was asked, and in a general sense, we are all gamers, and we all understand the occasional “slip of the tongue.” Dropping a Naughty Word Bomb can be overlooked from time to time, it all depends on the circumstances, whether it was targeted or not, and exactly what was said.

Clearly, “Oh #(*%^, we lost” is entirely different than “You are a #*% @)%$&-ing @O%&(^.” Not just because of the increase in words, but because it’s directed at an individual.

My best suggestion: Think before speaking. It’s really that simple. If you can’t say it at work, in school, or around your sainted Aunt Bessie, you should resist saying it public channels. And to predict the question, yes, we’re more lenient in what is said in Guild Chat, as long as those listening are ok with it and do not report it. Reported offensive chat via any in-game medium is reviewed and has the potential for being acted upon.

Hope that information helps.

#42 - Aug. 29, 2014, 11:37 a.m.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Gaile Gray.6029:

[…]

I dream — DREAM, I tell you — of the Return of Dhuum™ with his Awesome Scythe of Banning© action.

However, on the serious side, I should reiterate that the warnings will come in private chat (whispers) and will not be visible to others. So this is a confidential system that warns, without sending any sort of public message, verbal or visual.

I say we go to Godslost swam and try to devise a ritual to bring him back. It’s unlikely he ever got destroyed, but just sealed, as you can’t kill ‘death itself’. Now that Zhaitan has been defeated, Death-attuned magic is not being constantly sucked anymore out of the ambient and so it should be possible to strengthen entities attuned to it like Dhuum or Grenth. Once we have the ritual, we wait until Halloween when the borders between Tyria and the Mists are weker and boon: Ban-scyther.

I like the way you think.

Truga.5897:

Gaile Gray.6029:

• Any mention of “Freedom of Speech”

Hello, Gaile. I think you’ll like this: http://xkcd.com/1357/ (especially the alt text)

~snicker~

#43 - Aug. 29, 2014, 11:51 a.m.

biofrog.1568:

I would only ask that there be some disambiguation from the yellow/gold message that we see in Squad messages.

Despite my desire to remove the non-commander commanders from the game, It would be all far too easy for someone to see a commander tag, join their squad, then send a squad message along the lines of “You have received an infraction for…”.

This is an excellent point. I will look into the colors, but I’m told they are substantially different.

I’d also like to say that someone sending that sort of message would be guilty of impersonation of an ArenaNet employee, a serious offense. I just responded to a ticket yesterday where someone was sending those sorts of fake messages, so yes, sadly, people are foolish enough to pull that sort of nonsense. (He argued. I pointed out that saying “We will terminate your account” is definitely and positively impersonation, particularly coupled with a name that is intended to imply official status. ~rolls eyes at silliness~)

If you believe someone has impersonated an ArenaNet staff member, report it immediately. Select the player and, because we don’t have an “impersonation” option in our in-game report system, choose “offensive chat.” If you’re really concerned about it, submit a ticket with the exact name of the impersonator, the map, the time and your time zone, and the date.

Impersonation is a very serious infraction, and we’ll take swift and direct action on those who do it. I would hope that our players are intelligent enough to believe that it would not be worth risking their entire game history and their account, in perpetuity, in order to get a few random giggles from a fake message. If they fail to realize that, they soon will.

#55 - Aug. 30, 2014, 12:21 a.m.

I take your comments on board: If that screenshot is representative of GM and squad chat, the gold is very similar and that can cause confusion (and possible griefing).

Let us have a few days to look at this (due to the holidays) and see if there’s a way to make GM/Gm chat more obviously different from other in-game chat strings.

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

#61 - Aug. 30, 2014, 12:06 p.m.

Torsailr.8456:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Dreamslayer.7659:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Dan.4398:

Quick question: These golden whispers will they be blocked from players view if the chat box settings are on don’t show whispers and game messages or are they considered something else?
I don’t plan on ever getting one hopefully but i would still like to know.

If someone has turned off whispers, then I believe that player will not get the warning. This is the player’s choice, of course. We will not make a different or additional effort to contact the player. Again, the warning is a courtesy, and whether (1) a player puts her- or himself in a situation that earns a warning, and (2) blocks whispers, is entirely the choice of the player.

May I humbly suggest you consider some sort of screen print message in large font and some godly thunder / reverb.

That some may be turned from their wicked ways and resume the path of righteousness – or at least harmlessness.

I could have SO much fun with this! For instance, I totally want to record a “Turn away from the Dark Side” message. Or maybe “This is a warning. Go forth and sin no more.” Or “You are standing on the edge of an abyss. Step away! Take the path of non-cheatiness!!”

Ok, I should stop now.

So…where’s the kickstarter for that feature?

~snicker~

Torsailr.8456:

Inverted? Black text on a white background?

I do not think that’s technically possible.

wwwes.1398:

Simple solution to all of this: Rainbow text.

<3 this idea!

Pandaman.4758:

Gaile Gray.6029:

(He argued. I pointed out that saying “We will terminate your account” is definitely and positively impersonation, particularly coupled with a name that is intended to imply official status. ~rolls eyes at silliness~)

If it’s who I think it is then this grin on my face isn’t going to go away anytime soon.

I’m not sayin’ a word here.

kiwituatara.6053:

Could use a different font for the colorblind.

Ps. On a side note, having trouble seeing red aoe circles, differentiating between rare/masterwork/exotic champ bags and other items, and differentiating between /whisper and /party chats. Thanks!

-A colorblind player

On a serious note, I’ve seen and contributed to continued internal discussion about this subject. We do understand the situation. Years ago, I got a very nice e-mail from a Guild Wars (original) player who told me about how both he and his brother were colorblind and what challenges that posed for them to play games. I did some research and was quite surprised to learn that approximately 11% of males have some form of colorblindness. I truly understand the challenges, and I know the team does, as well.

#67 - Sept. 2, 2014, 5:46 p.m.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I take your comments on board: If that screenshot is representative of GM and squad chat, the gold is very similar and that can cause confusion (and possible griefing).

Let us have a few days to look at this (due to the holidays) and see if there’s a way to make GM/Gm chat more obviously different from other in-game chat strings.

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

Put the ArenaNet logo at the start! The same used by ANet employees as a guild tag.

That’ll make sure it can’t be faked.

Hey I like this idea. Unfortunately I don’t think we have the capacity to add images to chat string. (Otherwise, I’d have had a frog preceding every single line of my chat, since 2004. ) I will ask about it, though.

#70 - Sept. 8, 2014, 2:44 p.m.

karisma.8960:

It’s a relief to see this. I admit this with trepidation, but I always have this nagging fear that my thousands of hours in play will eventually net me a ban, just for some exploit I didn’t realize was an exploit, or something else. It’s nice to see that it won’t come without warning.

And of course you’re always welcome to discuss the matter in a support ticket if you’re in doubt about something. Rest assured, too, that in the very unlikely event that your account were inaccurately flagged — and again, that’s a very, very rare situation — the team will react as quickly as possible to your ticket.

But I agree with you that having warnings for certain activities is a good thing.