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Forum Moderators get heavy handed

cptndunselcptndunsel Member UncommonPosts: 136

Players have been pointing out issues with bots, bugs, in-game changes they don't agree with (nerfs, class changes, monthly achievement changes, dungeon loot etc) and for the most part it had been polite feedback.

 

Now, however, as Anet has failed to address basic items like bots and bugs, has not listened to feedback around their changes in game, and have made other odd moves (such as the recent change in WvWvW to remove Orbs because of hacking issues and Anet inability to fix the game - so poof - gone now along with the bonus to stats they provided) people have become more vocal.

 

Moderators are now taking a very heavy hand, deleting threads they don't like, issuing bans etc. even if the "complaint" is voiced in non-hostile, non-vulgar way.

 

This is never a good sign. Moderators have far too much power, restrict the honest exchange of ideas and feedback, and the forums become the realm of fanbois. Same thing occurred with TSW - its not at all player friendly.

 

Restrict vulgar people -yes. Shut down discussion and feedback on broken elements of the game? Epic fail.

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Comments

  • SaintPhilipSaintPhilip Member Posts: 713
    Originally posted by cptndunsel

    Players have been pointing out issues with bots, bugs, in-game changes they don't agree with (nerfs, class changes, monthly achievement changes, dungeon loot etc) and for the most part it had been polite feedback.

     

    Now, however, as Anet has failed to address basic items like bots and bugs, has not listened to feedback around their changes in game, and have made other odd moves (such as the recent change in WvWvW to remove Orbs because of hacking issues and Anet inability to fix the game - so poof - gone now along with the bonus to stats they provided) people have become more vocal.

     

    Moderators are now taking a very heavy hand, deleting threads they don't like, issuing bans etc. even if the "complaint" is voiced in non-hostile, non-vulgar way.

     

    This is never a good sign. Moderators have far too much power, restrict the honest exchange of ideas and feedback, and the forums become the realm of fanbois. Same thing occurred with TSW - its not at all player friendly.

     

    Restrict vulgar people -yes. Shut down discussion and feedback on broken elements of the game? Epic fail.

    -That is why you come here. =)

    This is really the best place online to discuss any and every game.

  • DibdabsDibdabs Member RarePosts: 3,203
    People still visit the Anet forums?  How quaint.
  • SaintPhilipSaintPhilip Member Posts: 713
    Originally posted by Dibdabs
    People still visit the Anet forums?  How quaint.

    LOL =P

  • ToxiaToxia Member UncommonPosts: 1,308

    I browse the ANET forums daily, havent noticed any threads getting deleted. I DO see many threads about said issues though, so i guess they are deleting multiple threads of the same thing.

     

    *shrug*

    The Deep Web is sca-ry.

  • Crazy_StickCrazy_Stick Member Posts: 1,059
    They are running a business and they don't want the forums to become a sink of dissatisfaction that drives potential new players away. It is not like they are the first company to do this and it is why I value unofficial posting boards for input more so than the company ones. I am of mixed opinion. I can't blame them for protecting themselves but by its nature one expects the freedom to post their mind within a reasonable set of rules.  It is what it is.
  • bcbullybcbully Member EpicPosts: 11,838
    Originally posted by SaintPhilip
    Originally posted by Dibdabs
    People still visit the Anet forums?  How quaint.

    LOL =P

    The GW2 official  forums are super duper slow atm. A 10 post thread will stay on the first page for days.  

    "We see fundamentals and we ape in"
  • Creslin321Creslin321 Member Posts: 5,359
    I just looked through the ANet forums and did not see any deleted threads.

    Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?

  • HarafnirHarafnir Member UncommonPosts: 1,350
    What an odd place to suddenly start bashing The Secret World...

    "This is not a game to be tossed aside lightly.
    It should be thrown with great force"

  • BaselineBaseline Member Posts: 503

    This always comes around to bite the game in the *** though. When the majority knows there are problems with a game/community but the community feedback portals are seemingly spotless, they users feel like they are being deceived.

    On the flip-side of the coin, potential newcomers to games/communities are on cloud 9 thinking about playing it, watching vids on youtube etc, and then they view a forum that has little or no moderation, and all of the users who are debbie downers ruin the mood, and the person who was going to buy the game suddenly starts focusing on the issues.

    The thing is though, how valuable would systems like the Amazon 1-5 Star review system be to shoppers, if there wasn't the 'critical review' category of 3, 2 or 1 star ratings sorted by most-helpful?

    A lot of communities intentionally try to eliminate honest negative/downside feedback so they can retain morale for their product/service.

    And even on top of that, people game the Amazon review system by paying third world services to submit positive reviews, which you can see when there are a lot, similarly-written, new accounts with only one review.

    The world is full of deception and power games, and it's really up to the users to see it or get fleeced. Not to sound cynical, but even if I do, I'm in similar company with MMO vets.

  • botrytisbotrytis Member RarePosts: 3,363
    Originally posted by cptndunsel

    Players have been pointing out issues with bots, bugs, in-game changes they don't agree with (nerfs, class changes, monthly achievement changes, dungeon loot etc) and for the most part it had been polite feedback.

     

    Now, however, as Anet has failed to address basic items like bots and bugs, has not listened to feedback around their changes in game, and have made other odd moves (such as the recent change in WvWvW to remove Orbs because of hacking issues and Anet inability to fix the game - so poof - gone now along with the bonus to stats they provided) people have become more vocal.

     

    Moderators are now taking a very heavy hand, deleting threads they don't like, issuing bans etc. even if the "complaint" is voiced in non-hostile, non-vulgar way.

     

    This is never a good sign. Moderators have far too much power, restrict the honest exchange of ideas and feedback, and the forums become the realm of fanbois. Same thing occurred with TSW - its not at all player friendly.

     

    Restrict vulgar people -yes. Shut down discussion and feedback on broken elements of the game? Epic fail.

    I will say this once - THEIR FORUM, THEIR RULES. They did not have a forum before, in GW1 as they used GWonline.com and others to get information out. They were going to do the same with gw2 and people complained. So, they put up a forum and people are complaining because they are following their own rules on the forum?  Don't like the way they are moderating, don't go there.

     

    I was a mod on another internet forum and I can tell you it is a pain in the arse and it is a thankless job.  People seem to think it is easy and it is not.


  • ToxiaToxia Member UncommonPosts: 1,308

    Here are a few threads i found with a quick search, they are still going and not locked or nothing....

     

    https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Getting-Fed-Up

    https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Orbs-will-be-removed-from-WvW-in-an-upcoming-build

    https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Why-Orb-Removal-Will-be-Very-Bad-for-WvW

     

    so yeah, if they are deleting threads, its most likely because they are duplicates.

    The Deep Web is sca-ry.

  • evolver1972evolver1972 Member Posts: 1,118
    Originally posted by Baseline

    This always comes around to bite the game in the *** though. When the majority knows there are problems with a game/community but the community feedback portals are seemingly spotless, they users feel like they are being deceived.

    On the flip-side of the coin, potential newcomers to games/communities are on cloud 9 thinking about playing it, watching vids on youtube etc, and then they view a forum that has little or no moderation, and all of the users who are debbie downers ruin the mood, and the person who was going to buy the game suddenly starts focusing on the issues.

    The thing is though, how valuable would systems like the Amazon 1-5 Star review system be to shoppers, if there wasn't the 'critical review' category of 3, 2 or 1 star ratings sorted by most-helpful?

    A lot of communities intentionally try to eliminate honest negative/downside feedback so they can retain morale for their product/service.

    And even on top of that, people game the Amazon review system by paying third world services to submit positive reviews, which you can see when there are a lot, similarly-written, new accounts with only one review.

    The world is full of deception and power games, and it's really up to the users to see it or get fleeced. Not to sound cynical, but even if I do, I'm in similar company with MMO vets.

    You haven't been to the GW2 official forums have you?  There are many threads about in game issues.  Many are locked because they've either been addressed or because they are duplicates.

     

    I have yet to see ArenaNet do one dishonest thing.

    image

    You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???

    Be afraid.....The dragons are HERE!

  • evolver1972evolver1972 Member Posts: 1,118
    Originally posted by Creslin321
    I just looked through the ANet forums and did not see any deleted threads.

    LOL....took me a minute, but I got it.  :)

    image

    You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???

    Be afraid.....The dragons are HERE!

  • SaintPhilipSaintPhilip Member Posts: 713
    Originally posted by Harafnir
    What an odd place to suddenly start bashing The Secret World...

    AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-

    Damn you man- Now my keyboard need replaced due to coffee flying out of my nose...And my nose needs replaced because the coffee was hot.

  • AerowynAerowyn Member Posts: 7,928

    not only is there a sticky about it

    https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/On-Botting-and-What-We-re-Doing-About-It/first

    there's another post by the lead dev

     

    Hey folks,

    Since it has been a few weeks since we gave an update on this, just wanted to quickly update where we stand. We recently hired an entire new team of people with one mission in mind: operation bot destruction.

    They’ve been getting everything in place to accomplish our goal of making botting, hacking, spamming, and malicious behavior as non-existent as possible in Gw2. In the last few weeks, over 10,000 bot accounts were banned from the game alone. Another area of massive improvement has been in account security, where our two-factor authentication as well as your password changes have led to account thefts dropping to a tiny rate. A vast majority of account thieves use those accounts to run bots and/or perform RMT transactions, so our serious beefing up of account security has led to fewer bots, and most importantly fewer stolen accounts. That being said, we have massive improvements on the way in the next couple of weeks that help us detect, verify, and remove botters.

    What we don’t want to do is have someone report you as botting, we ban the account, the bot appeals, and we have no data to prove they were botting on file so we have to give them the account back. Ensuring we have 100% clear data on bots that’s incredibly easy for our GM team to quickly verify, and when an appeal is submitted verify within seconds if the person was truly botting is our most important goal. We don’t want to ban people who were not botting, and we want to keep the people who are permanently locked out.

    Bottom line: We’re doing ok, but we know we can and need to do much better on this front and are putting massive resources behind ensuring we have a permanent solution to this issue. You’ll see a dramatic improvement in this area in the next few weeks as our remaining detection and bot destruction tools and staff come online.

    We’ll continue to keep updating on this front as we go forward, but rest assured we are aware of issues folks are raising and take them incredibly seriously. From FOV to bots, account restoration to more awesome stuff to do at level 80 we have teams working like mad on all of these fronts.

     

    really not sure what else you want from them.. they said they just got a whole team working on it I know on Rall I haven't seen any bots in over a week now

    I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg

  • fenistilfenistil Member Posts: 3,005
    For few years already official game forums are usually heavy handed.   In almost all mmoprg's. There must have been some research or data-mining that proved that forums are used by bigger amount of players and potential customers than previosuly beleived.
  • The_KorriganThe_Korrigan Member RarePosts: 3,456

    Sure that one million threads about bots, and another millions of ridiculous suggestions by people who obviously never wrote a line of computer code themself, will help solving the problem... NOT!

    They are just clearing the useless spam.

    Respect, walk, what did you say?
    Respect, walk
    Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
    - PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
    Yes, they are back !

  • Creslin321Creslin321 Member Posts: 5,359
    Originally posted by evolver1972
    Originally posted by Creslin321
    I just looked through the ANet forums and did not see any deleted threads.

    LOL....took me a minute, but I got it.  :)

     Womp womp womp... :)

    Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?

  • TamanousTamanous Member RarePosts: 3,025

    What is with these threads lately?

     

    You answered your own question of why threads are being closed. Everyone is posting the same topics over and over and over again. This is a violation of every single message board's rules since the dawn of message boards. Post under a singular thread without spamming like an upset child and you won't see threads closed so often. Every thread being closed is not a vindictive act on behalf of their staff (other than them likely speaking under their breath, "Damn these posters are idiots ... read the rules"). 

     

    Also when a thread is created the moderators are not obligated to respond. They do so when management confirms action and only upon confirmation. This does not mean, "Oh well. Let's create 5 other threads on the same subject until someone responds!".

     

    Every single time I see someone whining about accounts being cancelled or threads being closed they have clearly outlined why it was their fault to begin with. Over 13 years of playing mmos myself and every single player in every single guild I have ever played with has never been banned or reprimanded on forums for no reason (typically issues may have arrose over the severity of the punishment which may not have been fail). If you want answers to your questions look into a mirror.

    You stay sassy!

  • bcbullybcbully Member EpicPosts: 11,838
    Originally posted by fenistil
    For few years already official game forums are usually heavy handed.   In almost all mmoprg's. There must have been some research or data-mining that proved that forums are used by bigger amount of players and potential customers than previosuly beleived.

    Seems to have gotten really bad with the WoW forums during the end of wotlk. Other companies have adopted the same strat. 

    You don't want potential customers seeing bad stuff.

    "We see fundamentals and we ape in"
  • umie214umie214 Member Posts: 123

    i agree with OP. i was just issued a "Last Warning" by the mods after too many infractions for not contributing meaningfully to the disccusion. All of my deleted posts were noninflammatory and on-topic. if i keep posting the way i am, im going to get perma banned from the forums apparently. i sent them back a message saying that im too scared to post and that i'll be taking all my discussion over to Reddit and Guru. No response of course. 

    this is very unbecoming of a company wanting to build a community, and i think this needs to be exposed. it's getting absolutely ridiculous.

  • TamanousTamanous Member RarePosts: 3,025
    Originally posted by bcbully
    Originally posted by fenistil
    For few years already official game forums are usually heavy handed.   In almost all mmoprg's. There must have been some research or data-mining that proved that forums are used by bigger amount of players and potential customers than previosuly beleived.

    Seems to have gotten really bad with the WoW forums during the end of wotlk. Other companies have adopted the same strat. 

    You don't want potential customers seeing bad stuff.

    Are you sure things were actually deleted? I thought Bliz only moved threads (even into a deleted folder but still viewable) but never outright deleted them. Even so it is usually very clear why threads were closed or moved.

    You stay sassy!

  • BrizlynBrizlyn Member UncommonPosts: 81
    Originally posted by cptndunsel

    Players have been pointing out issues with bots, bugs, in-game changes they don't agree with (nerfs, class changes, monthly achievement changes, dungeon loot etc) and for the most part it had been polite feedback.

     

    Now, however, as Anet has failed to address basic items like bots and bugs, has not listened to feedback around their changes in game, and have made other odd moves (such as the recent change in WvWvW to remove Orbs because of hacking issues and Anet inability to fix the game - so poof - gone now along with the bonus to stats they provided) people have become more vocal.

     

    Moderators are now taking a very heavy hand, deleting threads they don't like, issuing bans etc. even if the "complaint" is voiced in non-hostile, non-vulgar way.

     

    This is never a good sign. Moderators have far too much power, restrict the honest exchange of ideas and feedback, and the forums become the realm of fanbois. Same thing occurred with TSW - its not at all player friendly.

     

    Restrict vulgar people -yes. Shut down discussion and feedback on broken elements of the game? Epic fail.

    I'm glad the orbs are gone.  Aside from people ninja'ing the orbs with hacks, the orbs were not a good idea in the first place.  Why give the most powerful team even more bonuses to just crush the weaker teams even more easily?  It just didn't make sense.  9 times out of 10 the server in the lead had the orbs - and just made it even harder for the other servers to catch up.

    So I'm happy the orbs are gone, but maybe they can replace the orbs with something different.  Actually, something like the buffs the orbs provided might be good as a replacement for the current useless undermanned buff, but that could get sketchy also.

    Anyways glad they're gone for now! 

     

  • cptndunselcptndunsel Member UncommonPosts: 136
    Originally posted by Harafnir
    What an odd place to suddenly start bashing The Secret World...

    Was not bashing the game - I still play TSW. Comment was directed at their forums - same thing happens on their board to anyone who posts anything deemed complaint or too controversial.

  • bcbullybcbully Member EpicPosts: 11,838
    Originally posted by Tamanous
    Originally posted by bcbully
    Originally posted by fenistil
    For few years already official game forums are usually heavy handed.   In almost all mmoprg's. There must have been some research or data-mining that proved that forums are used by bigger amount of players and potential customers than previosuly beleived.

    Seems to have gotten really bad with the WoW forums during the end of wotlk. Other companies have adopted the same strat. 

    You don't want potential customers seeing bad stuff.

    Are you sure things were actually deleted? I thought Bliz only moved threads (even into a deleted folder but still viewable) but never outright deleted them. Even so it is usually very clear why threads were closed or moved.

    Deletes and locks mostly locks.

    "We see fundamentals and we ape in"
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