What happens when you report a player?

Does anything really happen when you report a player for breaking the rules?Should we get a report back from GM's with their review of the report and the action that will be taken?

This will give us more trust in the whole reporting system so that players know that the reports are taken seriously and being handled so that there are less abusive players that break the rules with no consequence.

Please let me know what you think in the comments below.

(I know the PvP crowd would love to have an answer to these questions)

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/351/how-to-report-cheaters-or-exploiters

Probably nothing, unless its gemstore related haxxwaffles or the like.

@"costepj.5120" said:https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/351/how-to-report-cheaters-or-exploiters

Lol, I know how to report, my question was what happens to the reports? How do players know that they have seen the report or have dealt with it in any way? These are questions i think need to be addressed, I was just wondering if more players agreed with me.

Gaile's post answers the question: "Please note that we generally do not reply to e-mails send to this address, but we do review all reports."

A recent thread here has shown that basically nothing will happen, unless someone buys from external gold sellers or finds a way to duplicate gems or affects the company's direct, short term, financial income.

@"costepj.5120" said:Gaile's post answers the question: "Please note that we generally do not reply to e-mails send to this address, but we do review all reports."

How does that statement answer my question?Firstly when you report a player in game you do not send an email to the email address mentions in her post.Secondly she is specifically talking about replying to emails send to report cheaters or exploiters.There are many other options for reporting a player in game. (Verbal abuse for example)Thirdly she only mentions that they review all reports (reports about cheaters or exploiters).That statement does not say anything about if they review any of the other offences that can be reported and what are the consequences of the reports.My hope is that every time we report a player in game, we get an in game massage telling the players that they have reviewed the report and that we have decided this or that. (No action/ warning or temporary ban for example)

In my experience - nothing.

@Sombra.3246 said:

@"costepj.5120" said:Gaile's post answers the question: "Please note that we generally do not reply to e-mails send to this address, but we do review all reports."

You will never get a confirmation of action and/or punishment of any report. This is standard across pretty much every company I have seen, possibly due to regulation. All reports whether in game or via email are reviewed by a member of the team will will decide whether to take action or not, whether immediately or as part of a large action "wave". also bear in mind, I suspect they get inundated with reports daily, so it likely takes time to review each one.

They have stated time and time again they review every report, but bear in mind that every report may have a wider context that they can see from their investigations, than what a player can see when they report.

Basically, report and move on. If you want to add extra context, do so by email, but otherwise just let it go.

All the Toxicness I've seen in PvP, and they same people I report are still there saying the same things they have for the last 3 years. Intruth unless it's really bad, or costing ANet money, or making ANet out to be the bad guy in something with zero evidence. nothing will happen.

It's just like sending a crash report to Windows.They'll claim it helps, but no one had tangible evidence a report has ever done anything

Reports have been acted upon but I think the team is taking more of a silent approach and focusing on ban waves then the grandiose that they used to do.Like this guy who was hacking in WvW [https://kotaku.com/hackers-mmo-character-publicly-stripped-killed-banne-1702670398]Or the ones that decided to find an exploit [https://kotaku.com/5940005/guild-wars-2-bans-over-3000-people]

Over all, reports do do something, however it's the amount of reports that do it. Want to see a change in toxic behavior in pvp? It all starts with getting people to actually report it and to do concise reports. Fill out the box stating what was going on. As someone who used to review reports for a smaller game, getting a report of 'they did this toxic thing and then having to sift through the chat of a 45 minute match upped the chances that I'd miss the infraction.' Reports of 'they told this person to kill themselves at XX:XX, became toxic at XX:XX and did this at XX:XX' gave me an exact place to start and review the report.If you aren't sure you can remember when what happened, screenshot it. That way you can go in after the match to do the report. Change won't happen though, if you are the only one reporting while everyone else goes 'nothing happens why should I bother?' That attitude is the one that helps foster why people see pvp the way they do.

@"Sombra.3246" said:Does anything really happen when you report a player for breaking the rules?Yes.

• Reports made via the in-game /report tool go to a support person who evaluates the reported account, depending on the category chosen
• Reports made via support ticket get similarly evaluated.

After that, according to ANet, the staff decides whether (a) there was an infraction and, if so (b) what the proportional response should be. That could be a mark on the record, a warning, a suspension, removal of funds (for gold trading), or other types of punishment.

Should we get a report back from GM's with their review of the report and the action that will be taken?Should we? That's hard to say.

We won't, because it's ANet policy not to comment on what they do. This theoretically reduces the amount of griefing (e.g. via specious reports). Plus, it's arguably not even of the reporter's business: if someone broke a rule in ANet's game, it's up to ANet to decide how to deal with it. Not any of us.

This will give us more trust in the whole reporting system so that players know that the reports are taken seriously and being handled so that there are less abusive players that break the rules with no consequence.Not really. Some players would be more outraged that the behavior they thought was horrid resulted in a warning. Some would be outraged that a few harsh words typed in the heat of the moment resulted in a suspension (without noting that the person punished had a long history of "a few harsh words).

Plus naming & shaming would be trivial, using outside media (such as Discord, over which ANet has no control).

That is, it would just change the nature of the trust.

In the end, it's still up to ANet to decide and (according to them) not any of the business of any other player

tl;dr ANet investigates and that's all that we get to know; it's their game to protect and their decision about the best way to do it.(in case it's not clear, I don't totally agree with their stance; I'm simply clarifying their policy and their right to set it)

Better questions to ask, in my opinion, would be:

• Would we prefer to see ANet react more quickly, at the risk of increasing the number of mistaken suspensions?
• Are we willing to give up some future game features in order for ANet to hire more staff to investigate more quickly?
• What sort of communication compromise between "no comment" and "here's what we did in these specific cases" would be appropriate or acceptable? For example, periodically, ANet has released stats on number of RMTs removed from the game or botters punished. Maybe they could do something like this with PvP.

And separately, regardless of ANet's current stance, I think it would be good to have some sort of back/forth discussion about cheating. We have a perception that it's bad, especially in PvP. What does their data say and why doesn't that align with what we think we see? What sorts of things do they already do to address cheating? What are the blocking issues for them in terms of dealing with it? They will issue smack downs on Reddit to people who try to stir up drama by making false claims about the game or suspension policies, so why doesn't that same logic apply to the alleged ToS violations in PvP? (assuming that the reports are correct, wouldn't match trading also stir up drama? shouldn't ANet address it more publicly, especially if it's not very prevalent or especially if it's common?)

There is no hard information bout how arenanet operates when it comes to player complaints. But based on observation here in the forum and reactions from officials, it seems that there is something like a queue of complaints. The position of a complaint seem to be based on several factors possibly including:

• amount of complaints (but do not complain without being the person who had the bad experience, as it is not allowed)
• Type of complaints
• The history of the account being complained about
• Location in game where the complaint was sent from

So depending on the complaint, there can be a severe amount of time for it to be handled.The outcome is something between Arenanet and the player. They have expressed being thankful for each complaint but they can’t go into reporting the outcome. People it is between them and the person receiving the action.

@"costepj.5120" said:Gaile's post answers the question: "Please note that we generally do not reply to e-mails send to this address, but we do review all reports."

Action generally speak louder than words.. we just don't see a lot of action regarding these players.. only those that report them on here generally get actioned... kinda funny really.

@Bloodstealer.5978 said:only those that report them on here generally get actionedPeople who name & shame are violating a rule and the only reason we notice is that the post gets removed. We don't necessarily see what happens in game, so e.g. if someone named and shamed in the game and got a warning, we'd never know.

I've got a funny question about this topic, which keeps me busy for a while now. I doubt I will get an official answer to this and I apologize for the cryptic writing:

If a person gets reported (= accused) by another person (= reporter). The accused is by definition innocent until proven otherwise. To do that, the staff has to check if the accusation is a gainst the rules. They further have to check the report and the evidence, if attached. In addition, they have to check the accused persons account, and the conditions of the report, for example chat-logs. Until this procedure is completely finished, the accused remains 100 % innocent and remains untouched.

The reporter on the other hand gets taged, the instant he does a report. According to the things above, due to integrity of the accused, he has to be seen as a liar (false accusation) until proven otherwise. No matter what the accusation is, the staff will check his account and the conditions arround the report as well. If he continues reporting more people for the same or different issues, the investigation on his account will be extended. If any problems are noticed, actions against the reporter will be taken instantly. There is no reporter for him, only facts, so he is never an accused and the issue is free of further investigations.

In conclusion reporting people leads to a higher risk for punishment than getting reported.

Is that correct?

-I do not expect to get an official answer from a staff member. But this question bugs me for years and I would really like to get an answer for it. It suits to the topic/thread anyway. Feel free to enlighten me.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Bloodstealer.5978 said:only those that report them on here generally get actionedPeople who name & shame are violating a rule and the only reason we notice is that the post gets removed. We don't necessarily see what happens in game, so e.g. if someone named and shamed

in the game

and got a warning, we'd never know.

@Bloodstealer.5978 said:only those that report them on here generally get actionedPeople who name & shame are violating a rule and the only reason we notice is that the post gets removed. We don't necessarily see what happens in game, so e.g. if someone named and shamed

in the game

and got a warning, we'd never know.

But when you see the same player, or players doing the same thing repeatedly for months and months... as I said, actions speak louder than words.Of course we never know for sure, but when that same player suddenly disappears from the radar that kind of action brings a hell yeah to some of us and restores a little faith perhaps

@HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:I've got a funny question about this topic, which keeps me busy for a while now. I doubt I will get an official answer to this and I apologize for the cryptic writing:

If a person gets reported (= accused) by another person (= reporter). The accused is by definition innocent until proven otherwise. To do that, the staff has to check if the accusation is a gainst the rules. They further have to check the report and the evidence, if attached. In addition, they have to check the accused persons account, and the conditions of the report, for example chat-logs. Until this procedure is completely finished, the accused remains 100 % innocent and remains untouched.

The reporter on the other hand gets taged, the instant he does a report. According to the things above, due to integrity of the accused, he has to be seen as a liar (false accusation) until proven otherwise. No matter what the accusation is, the staff will check his account and the conditions arround the report as well. If he continues reporting more people for the same or different issues, the investigation on his account will be extended. If any problems are noticed, actions against the reporter will be taken instantly. There is no reporter for him, only facts, so he is never an accused and the issue is free of further investigations.

In conclusion reporting people leads to a higher risk for punishment than getting reported.

Is that correct?

-I do not expect to get an official answer from a staff member. But this question bugs me for years and I would really like to get an answer for it. It suits to the topic/thread anyway. Feel free to enlighten me.

I would assume that unless you're reporting the same player way more than necessary, they would rear you as reporting players in good faith until you get too many that come back as not having broken any rules.

@"Bloodstealer.5978" said:But when you see the same player, or players doing the same thing repeatedly for months and months... as I said, actions speak louder than words.I've seen people claim someone was violating the rules, when there was no violation. I've seen people who were vile & vulgar in chat remain in the game... but also haven't seen them repeat the same behavior.

Without specific examples, I'm not prepared to say, "that was an actual case of no actions." The point is we don't know if there was an actual violation and if there was, whether there was a warning or a more substantial punishment. The only thing we can possibly observe is whether a player remains in the game or not.

Of course we never know for sure,That's the point; we won't ever know for sure.

@Sombra.3246 said:

@"costepj.5120" said:Gaile's post answers the question: "Please note that we generally do not reply to e-mails send to this address, but we do review all reports."

Now, whether reporting actionable behaviour actually results in said players really being actioned (and in a reasonable time) is a separate question.

@Sombra.3246 said:Does anything really happen when you report a player for breaking the rules?Should we get a report back from GM's with their review of the report and the action that will be taken?

This will give us more trust in the whole reporting system so that players know that the reports are taken seriously and being handled so that there are less abusive players that break the rules with no consequence.

Please let me know what you think in the comments below.

(I know the PvP crowd would love to have an answer to these questions)

Why do you need confirmation of a process you aren't involved with in any way beyond the initial report? Just let them do their jobs. This would only take resources away from policing the game. Besides, if they did this all you'd ever receive would be a form letter thanking you for your concern. You'd just be back on the forums demanding more.

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:When you report a player, an agent reviews your report -- in real time or after a period of time passes, depending on volume. (Don't worry, the in-game report is logged and archived, so it will be seen.) What the agent (or agents) researches is determined by what infraction was reported,so they may review chat logs or look at a character name or check out game activity logs -- things of that sort. Their first efforts go towards verifying that the report is about something that truly is a breach of the User Agreement and the Rules of Conduct. For unfortunately, as mentioned above, some reports are not factual. Someone may feel that a chat violation was more offensive than what our standards require, or may believe that someone is botting when a review shows that they are actively playing the game, or may even report out of malice.

Once an agent has verified a report, they will take the appropriate action. And to be clear, that action may not involve an immediate suspension or account termination. The outcome depends on what happened and our policy about that particular situation. For instance, back in the day we did not immediately suspend the account of someone for a disallowed name. Instead, the character would be blocked until the name was changed. That's one example of how things are reviewed and acted upon in a fine-grained and not one-size-fits-all process.

Last week, I sent a detailed message to several people at ArenaNet, mainly asking for confirmation that reports sent through the in-game system were being reviewed, and that appropriate action was being taken in response to player reports. The response I received said this: Agents are assigned to review in-game reports 24/7, reviews are made, and appropriate action is taken.

I'm sure that someone can point to an anecdote where a report wasn't responded to, or action wasn't taken. That's inevitable in a system that involves human beings handling a large volume of reports about several kinds of infractions. You should know that you always are welcome to submit a ticket, if you'd like to do so, in addition to, or instead of, submitting an in-game report. As a player, I consider the gravity of a situation, and leave most of my reports in the game. I submit a ticket only if I feel something is a major concern because I think of that priotization as doing my part to try to keep volumes reasonable (and response times short). Tickets receive a response. In-game reports do not receive a report, but again, they are reviewed and acted upon when appropriate.

Lastly, reports of cheats, exploits, or hacks should be e-mailed to Exploits@Arena.Net. That's the best, most direct route to get those important situations the attention they need.

I hope you find this info helpful!

Sorry Gaile but no it's not helpful at all.. sure we all know the process, but far too many offenses are just being leftout there to fester across maps, which have been reported endlessly both via process in game and on here.. yet here we are 6 months+ later and those same players are doing the exact same thing... so what would be helpful is for ANET to clarify to a reporter whether their report has indeed made evident a breach of ToS or not so that they don't waste their time reporting the same players for the next 6 months and that maybe they can join in the masses, safe in the knowledge we can lets say switch on a macro AFK all day and claim we are playing the game as intended..I am pretty sure ANET are aware of the mass epidemic of things like Necro MM's blighting every map AFK farming the same spots 24/7 for months and months on end. Or the endless videos, forum posts, reddits of bots/hacks etc that never seem to go away or something more obvious like repeated vulgarity or obscenity in LA/DR chat, or even the continuous use of LFG for promoting selling of items or.. you get the picture.We report them.. they keep happening by the same players or their alts... so yeah some of us loose faith, especially when its the players voicing the issues and wanting to discuss why it's not being sorted that get punished for doing so.Maybe its time for some proper naming and shaming.. used properly it can act as a deterrent not violation.To me the ToS are supposed to be the deterrent, but if they are muddied and worse, on appearance not acted upon, then what's the point.