F2P Accounts Should Not Have Access To Ranked

Makes it harder for hackers and bots to ruin the gamemode.

@shadowpass.4236 said:Makes it harder for hackers and bots to ruin the gamemode.

Also makes it harder for people to get into and enjoy the gamemode.

I like the idea of F2P accounts being able to be competitive, however it's clearly a problem. I can't disagree with them being restricted either and plus, if you like the game you can't complain about being at a disadvantage if you have to buy the expansions to enjoy competitive modes in the first place. Because yes, I've seen this before.

problem is.. Anet does nothing against bots/hackers.. today you will see even elite classes botting and hacking.. not only free to play why? because its safe

@noiwk.2760 said:problem is.. Anet does nothing against bots/hackers.. today you will see even elite classes botting and hacking.. not only free to play why? because its safe

Don't get your point, they could ban all the cheating accounts just to find more of the same people doing it again.

The more prominent an exploit becomes, the more information you have to fix it.

Does someone is really playing ranked with a F2P account? Are there any non-elite-profession in the meta?

Some young people are driving too risky and end up having more accidents than older people. Should we increase the age for being allowed to get a driver's license?

Don't punish many for the faults of a few.

Pointless, since at least half of the bots are scourges, in other words they have PoF.

@BadHealer.3608 said:Does someone is really playing ranked with a F2P account? Are there any non-elite-profession in the meta?

Symbols guardian was a thing last season till the symbol nerf.

Core necro has been a solid pick for like an year at least.

Condi core thief is still performing well high tier games.

I guess there are core rangers in top 50.

@BadHealer.3608 said:Does someone is really playing ranked with a F2P account? Are there any non-elite-profession in the meta?

you dont have to play meta build if you can teleport across the map, hacks turn any class into thief

@Shao.7236 said:

@"noiwk.2760" said:problem is.. Anet does nothing against bots/hackers.. today you will see even elite classes botting and hacking.. not only free to play why? because its safe

Maybe a few ways to do it is allow some added forms of verification on top of the account before being able to play in ranked, like SMS verification and ID Verifications for confirming. These options, while annoying, could be out of game examples. That won't stop all of them, it'll just make it harder to deal with and in some cases, too much work for the botters to do it as the added technicality vs reward is no longer worth it.

On the flipside, this could also end up being too much work for legitimate players wanting to simply get into a match quickly, so yea I'm not sure. The ID verification is a pain in the ass and would throw people off but could be an effective way to handle it.

If they are willing to neglect confirmation or verification methods prior to playing, then they need to employ a team to strictly enforce weekly bans and be consistent like BDO does. This is hard to do with a dwindling team though, so not sure.

With that said, you either do those things or just don't allow them to play ranked in PvP. Personally, with Steam coming up I think barring F2P from PvP will really hurt potential growth even though I personally think adding Guild Wars 2 onto Steam will have very little to no pull at all for new players or the retention in PvP. However, based on initial numbers and follow-through , if it doesn't maybe having a game limit put in place for F2P (5-10 games) as a "trial" prior to purchasing may be sufficient enough.

So I guess TL;DR:

1. Added account verification options like SMS/ID Verification prior to even being able to play ranked (seems over the top just to play pvp but may help a bit)
2. Employing a dedicated team to monitor memory editing accounts and botters
3. Trial period for F2P accounts, max ~5 ranked games a week and maybe ~20-25 for unranked? If you want to have the full benefits, you pay for a copy of the game.
4. If you want the extreme route, just don't allow F2P to do ranked PvP at all.

I don't think legitimate players should suffer because of a few bad eggs.

A better solution would be for Anet to improve their bot detection methods. _

Just ban pvp- ez

better yet don't allow people into ranked if they don't meet a minimum k/d ratio req

@Khalisto.5780 said:

@BadHealer.3608 said:Does someone is really playing ranked with a F2P account? Are there any non-elite-profession in the meta?

also old core ele can be quite rewarding if well played

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:better yet don't allow people into ranked if they don't meet a minimum k/d ratio req

This would be really questionable to do in a meta that has 3 nearly unkillable meta classes. Kills dont really show skill and especially when pvp is mainly build wars instead of requiring actual skill. Im not denying that people with skill can win its just unfair to those who choose not to build abuse.

I see nothing wrong with removing bots from any ranked competition on any game, in any game mode. Ranked play should be for human only. I don't care if its F2P or not. If the problem is "there wont be enough players playing the game mode" Well then make modifications to the loot tables to make it worth while. You need have the proverbial carrot.

As for players running bots they need to be gone all across gw2. I would love to see if an account is caught using a bot that it would be banned for the first offense for a week. 6 months for the 2nd offense and Permanent for the third. Anet should code their own bots to play in unranked games to make sure wait times are manageable. This would allow players to learn the mode and the bots could be scaled to the difficulty of the team they are playing.

Hackers should be full on hardware banned.

@Tanbin.2436 said:Maybe a few ways to do it is allow some added forms of verification on top of the account before being able to play in ranked

I would actually really like this idea if it was something in game and not an sms/email deal. You press enter match, and before you're placed in the queue a window pops up (in the same manner that your inventory pops up when you press i). It could be the usual thing where a letter is shown in a sort of abstract manner and the player needs to type the letter before going into the queue. It would be a little annoying, but it would help with the bot problem. Lets say it gives you 2 chances to type the correct letter and if you don't you get locked out of ranked for a specified period of time.

@shadowpass.4236 said:Makes it harder for hackers and bots to ruin the gamemode.

I Agree, If anything its more then fair enough that Anet lets you jump straight into a game go into a pvp lobby and boom insto, your Max lvl scaled on par with your class and the pvp amulet set up you desire... But yes i think 100% for any ranked Matches should not be available on a F2P account.. (This way we know for a fact we are getting matched with players in a similar skill lvl and not having to seem like you always have 2-3 thrash players on your team that clearly have 0 idea what they are even doing)

And in all honest i'm pretty certain that 98% of real PvP players out there would rather wait an extra 1-3 mins in Q each time, to be paired correctly against your match making .. not caring others, or have a Bot Fill in.. (PVP = Player vs Player, NOT Player vs BOT)

P.S Any Druid Buffs in the near for see able future lol...

@Jables.4659 said:I would actually really like this idea if it was something in game and not an sms/email deal.I used to hate these ones, since I never got it right. Later I did find a bot program that is doing this for me.

Do you think we will be allowed to use a bot to enter the information in these or will I be locked out forever in PVP, since I can't do these?

@BadHealer.3608 said:

Do you think we will be allowed to use a bot to enter the information in these or will I be locked out forever in PVP, since I can't do these?

Your sarcasm aside, that is just one example of how it could be done. Its unfortunate that you're incapable of reading and typing a single letter. Fortunately, there are many alternatives that are more difficult for programs to complete but easier for challenged humans. They are definitely annoying, but id rather have that than a bot problem.

Lol just make players solve a captcha when queue'ing. xD

I guess they still need to reach level 20 anyway, so they still have that experience. They might even become better when the time comes, too, from playing with a disadvantage.

this is great idea may be but topic creator know what:f2p account:Can only send mail messages to mutual friends.Can’t send gold or items.

but f2p account: Can buy and sell items from a select list. So some manipulation can be.
So we have 2 ways: cut them from ranked or cut access to use TradinPost. Let them audible buy only for gems.