[Suggestion] Bring back character restoration service for players.

[Ydeirt.3905]

I know this topic is quite debatable but the service provided by anet's team for restoring deleted character is needed.
Some of us might make some mistake deleting a character, while some getting deleted by hackers, ex or maybe their children while the pc was unattended hence the prove of the service actually needed.
But a safety measures should be put in place to make sure the players requesting the service isn't exploiting the situation [at least from what i've read], maybe like make an ability for the support team to temporarily check mail and tp transactions of the account of the person requesting the restoration or to check whether there are indications of exploitable items/patterns of the requested characters.
Current policy hurts players who needed the service badly, so i hope the service be returned with additional measures put in place.

[Sunchaser.9854]

Yeah honestly, i haven't heard too much gw2 hacking, but i did have a couple 9 year old launch characters made who got deleted before i was aware of the birthday presents. (They were literally joke/meme creations for the character creators), but it still kinda sucked to lose them at launch and all the dyes and birthday celebration items. I just had no idea since i wanted to start fresh and i got over it, but it was kinda lame knowing i missed out on 5/5 birthday prizes.

 

Thankfully my 2/5 have been pretty good. I have a birthday cake launchers and i got 2 shadow dyes instead of 5 and im still happy with what i got. But man, if there was a 1 restore a month service, i'd probably definitely buy like some character slots during the next anniversary sale just to get them. Being a potential win win of buying more character slots to recover old accounts, and players having piece of mind. 

To prevent abuses, they could probably throttle it like most mmorpgs. Limit it to like one player selected restore of once per month and most people wouldn't bother. maybe unlimited if hacked just for peace of mind with hackers. 

[Ydeirt.3905]

19 minutes ago, Sunchaser.9854 said:

Yeah honestly, i haven't heard too much gw2 hacking, but i did have a couple 9 year old launch characters made who got deleted before i was aware of the birthday presents. (They were literally joke/meme creations for the character creators), but it still kinda sucked to lose them at launch and all the dyes and birthday celebration items. I just had no idea since i wanted to start fresh and i got over it, but it was kinda lame knowing i missed out on 5/5 birthday prizes.

 

Thankfully my 2/5 have been pretty good. I have a birthday cake launchers and i got 2 shadow dyes instead of 5 and im still happy with what i got. But man, if there was a 1 restore a month service, i'd probably definitely buy like some character slots during the next anniversary sale just to get them. Being a potential win win of buying more character slots to recover old accounts, and players having piece of mind. 

To prevent abuses, they could probably throttle it like most mmorpgs. Limit it to like one player selected restore of once per month and most people wouldn't bother. maybe unlimited if hacked just for peace of mind with hackers. 

Yea hackers are rare but i read about it few times already. Some players have their sole character deleted few years back and didn't know about the birthday things when they finally give GW2 a real chance and missed out a lot on those passed birthday gifts.
Myself honestly wish a character can be restored because of the time spent and memories that stays with the character, even though it is my fault for deleting but the option to restore helps me deal with my weird set of mind of alt, since it stress me a lot if i have a lot of characters. Now that i'm trying to cope with it, its saddens me the option is no longer here.
So i hope if someone with the same experiences or needed it can get help with the service if it were to return.

[Danikat.8537]

I thought they did restore deleted characters, unless they were deleted a long time ago or there's some other complication. The one I remember hearing about was a player who always used the same name, race and profession for their key runner and wanted 1 specific one back but couldn't remember which week it was, so there was no way for Anet to find the right character to restore.

Are you saying they don't do that any more?

[Sunchaser.9854]

Restoring a Deleted Character

Character restorations are no longer a service that we provide. We urge players to be careful when making the decision to delete a character.

While we may not be able to restore a character back to your account, please still let us know if there is an item-related issue for our team to look into. It is not guaranteed that we will be able to assist, though we will do our best to resolve any outstanding matters.

Warning: Deleting a character will permanently destroy any items in that character's inventory, as well as any character-based unlocks associated with the character. It is very important that you carefully consider the impact that deleting a character can have on your overall game experience before doing so.

 

https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010181213-Restoring-a-Deleted-Character

 

Only thing I found when I was looking into restoring my other 3/5 deleted 9 year old birthday booster characters for the dyes. Most of them were honestly meme characters lvl 1-3s but the birthday boosters and dyes were deleted before I had a clue they were there or their value. I still had enough to level my characters with 2/5 of the accounts so I didn't want to make a fuss but if recovering the 3/5 ever became conveniently possible I'd probably go for it after a confirmation and character slot sale. well. At least to recover the items then start new toons haha. XD. Or maybe a appearance change kit. At least lmao. 

[Ydeirt.3905]

28 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

I thought they did restore deleted characters, unless they were deleted a long time ago or there's some other complication. The one I remember hearing about was a player who always used the same name, race and profession for their key runner and wanted 1 specific one back but couldn't remember which week it was, so there was no way for Anet to find the right character to restore.

Are you saying they don't do that any more?

They can actually find the specific character given the player can give them the exact name, level and date of their character deletion unless it was at the same day or maybe the same hour [which unlikely] as i restored a character that way before.
And yes don't offer the service anymore as @sunchaser.9854 wrote there.
[ref. https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010181213-Restoring-a-Deleted-Character]
Edit: I also forgot to mention, they didn't offer character restoration anymore since end of last year if i'm not mistaken.

5 minutes ago, Sunchaser.9854 said:

Restoring a Deleted Character

Character restorations are no longer a service that we provide. We urge players to be careful when making the decision to delete a character.

While we may not be able to restore a character back to your account, please still let us know if there is an item-related issue for our team to look into. It is not guaranteed that we will be able to assist, though we will do our best to resolve any outstanding matters.

Warning: Deleting a character will permanently destroy any items in that character's inventory, as well as any character-based unlocks associated with the character. It is very important that you carefully consider the impact that deleting a character can have on your overall game experience before doing so.

 

https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010181213-Restoring-a-Deleted-Character

 

Only thing I found when I was looking into restoring my other 3/5 deleted 9 year old birthday booster characters for the dyes. Most of them were honestly meme characters lvl 1-3s but the birthday boosters and dyes were deleted before I had a clue they were there or their value. I still had enough to level my characters with 2/5 of the accounts so I didn't want to make a fuss but if recovering the 3/5 ever became conveniently possible I'd probably go for it after a confirmation and character slot sale. well. At least to recover the items then start new toons haha. XD. Or maybe a appearance change kit. At least lmao. 

Ah for me its really the time spent on the character that makes it worth the trouble since i mostly use shadow abyss dye anyway lol. Also 1 oldest character is still with me, but i spent much more time with the deleted character which now i very much regret not keeping.

Edited July 28, 2022 by Ydeirt.3905
additional info

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Account Restoration is still a thing, so there isn't any issue with getting back your characters and items from being 'hacked'.

https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/230555167-Account-Restorations-Rollbacks-

[Ydeirt.3905]

53 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Account Restoration is still a thing, so there isn't any issue with getting back your characters and items from being 'hacked'.

https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/230555167-Account-Restorations-Rollbacks-

Its a one time feat and theres never a guaranteed accounts can't be hacked over and over again.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

If an account is 'hacked' over and over again, there would seem to be a security issue.

Regardless, there is such a thing as Account Restoration which was questioned above. 

[Ydeirt.3905]

1 hour ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

If an account is 'hacked' over and over again, there would seem to be a security issue.

Regardless, there is such a thing as Account Restoration which was questioned above. 

Sure that checks one marks but it doesn't mean it'll solve other issues with different problems.

[Khisanth.2948]

14 minutes ago, Ydeirt.3905 said:

Sure that checks one marks but it doesn't mean it'll solve other issues with different problems.

and now it sounds like someone trying to abuse a service

[Sobx.1758]

8 hours ago, Ydeirt.3905 said:

while some getting deleted by hackers,

2fa might help.

8 hours ago, Ydeirt.3905 said:

ex or maybe their children while the pc was unattended hence the prove of the service actually needed.

If you want your children to have access to your pc, make them a separate profile and don't give them the password to yours?

If ex has access to your account, it's account sharing and pretty sure it's not allowed. 😄

6 hours ago, Ydeirt.3905 said:

Ah for me its really the time spent on the character that makes it worth the trouble since i mostly use shadow abyss dye anyway lol. Also 1 oldest character is still with me, but i spent much more time with the deleted character which now i very much regret not keeping.

I mean, just... don't delete your characters.

[Danikat.8537]

Is this really a frequent problem? I've deleted a lot of characters over the years, probably hundreds. Some were level 80 and at least 2 were ones I had intended to keep. I've never wanted one back after deleting them. The nearest I've come is remaking them as a different profession.

Even if someone is allowing kids to use their account unsupervised (which is against the rules, probably for this reason) the kids would have to read the instructions (which explain what will happen) and copy the character's name into the confirmation window exactly in order to delete them. If they're able to do that then they're able to understand the consequences of what they're doing, or at least to be told never to do it again after the first time.

If anyone is around who you can't trust not to mess with your account it's best to log out instead of leaving it unattended. If they know your password then change it. For one thing there's worse they could do than delete characters. Anet's policy is 1 account = 1 player so if someone else gets you banned telling them it wasn't you, it was someone else you allowed to get onto your account isn't going to change anything.

I agree Anet should restore characters if they can (there's only so many backups you can store for a 10 year old MMO) and there's exceptional circumstances, but I find it hard to believe anyone is frequently needing to request deleted characters restored for reasons that couldn't have been prevented by basic account security.
 

8 hours ago, Ydeirt.3905 said:

They can actually find the specific character given the player can give them the exact name, level and date of their character deletion unless it was at the same day or maybe the same hour [which unlikely] as i restored a character that way before.

Yeah that was the problem in the case I heard about. It was a key runner so there were many characters all with the same name and level and the player couldn't remember when they'd made or deleted the specific one they wanted back.

[Ydeirt.3905]

7 hours ago, Khisanth.2948 said:

and now it sounds like someone trying to abuse a service

Not sure where you're going. Asking for a service doesn't equal to abusing unless its done with malicious intent.

5 hours ago, Sobx.1758 said:

2fa might help.

If you want your children to have access to your pc, make them a separate profile and don't give them the password to yours?

If ex has access to your account, it's account sharing and pretty sure it's not allowed. 😄

I mean, just... don't delete your characters.

Sure 2fa helps until a hacker bypass that, there were few cases i've seen on other app that happens with that.

And yet what i said isn't something like lending the children the pc nor the account. Theres some instance of say when a parent left their pc for a bit to take a break [which takes pc unattended for longer] but unfortunately left the pc unattended thinking no one would touch the pc, but sometimes kids would just do that whether they want it or not and may or may not accidentally doing something bad to the account.

As for your third point, i never said i'm in the wrong but thats what the service for in the first place.

3 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Is this really a frequent problem? I've deleted a lot of characters over the years, probably hundreds. Some were level 80 and at least 2 were ones I had intended to keep. I've never wanted one back after deleting them. The nearest I've come is remaking them as a different profession.

Even if someone is allowing kids to use their account unsupervised (which is against the rules, probably for this reason) the kids would have to read the instructions (which explain what will happen) and copy the character's name into the confirmation window exactly in order to delete them. If they're able to do that then they're able to understand the consequences of what they're doing, or at least to be told never to do it again after the first time.

If anyone is around who you can't trust not to mess with your account it's best to log out instead of leaving it unattended. If they know your password then change it. For one thing there's worse they could do than delete characters. Anet's policy is 1 account = 1 player so if someone else gets you banned telling them it wasn't you, it was someone else you allowed to get onto your account isn't going to change anything.

I agree Anet should restore characters if they can (there's only so many backups you can store for a 10 year old MMO) and there's exceptional circumstances, but I find it hard to believe anyone is frequently needing to request deleted characters restored for reasons that couldn't have been prevented by basic account security.
 

Yeah that was the problem in the case I heard about. It was a key runner so there were many characters all with the same name and level and the player couldn't remember when they'd made or deleted the specific one they wanted back.

I never said its a frequent problem but at least thats one more option to support players who need it. Also for other point, please read what i just wrote in this post. Plus the restoration is never guaranteed in the first place but i'm okay with it because at least there was a chance but its gone now.

I never meant this for an abusive use, what i suggest is put more safety measure behind the restoration process. Maybe like what Sunchasser points out, 1 restoration cap permonth, ability for the anet team to run a check to the players that ask for a restoration to prevents exploits from happening.

I know some people don't have the same way or mind or attachment to their characters like i do. But i believe there are people that feels what i feels towards this. Its easier for them to judge when they aren't the one who needed it.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

4 hours ago, Ydeirt.3905 said:

Not sure where you're going. Asking for a service doesn't equal to abusing unless its done with malicious intent.

Sure 2fa helps until a hacker bypass that, there were few cases i've seen on other app that happens with that.

And yet what i said isn't something like lending the children the pc nor the account. Theres some instance of say when a parent left their pc for a bit to take a break [which takes pc unattended for longer] but unfortunately left the pc unattended thinking no one would touch the pc, but sometimes kids would just do that whether they want it or not and may or may not accidentally doing something bad to the account.

As for your third point, i never said i'm in the wrong but thats what the service for in the first place.

I never said its a frequent problem but at least thats one more option to support players who need it. Also for other point, please read what i just wrote in this post. Plus the restoration is never guaranteed in the first place but i'm okay with it because at least there was a chance but its gone now.

I never meant this for an abusive use, what i suggest is put more safety measure behind the restoration process. Maybe like what Sunchasser points out, 1 restoration cap permonth, ability for the anet team to run a check to the players that ask for a restoration to prevents exploits from happening.

I know some people don't have the same way or mind or attachment to their characters like i do. But i believe there are people that feels what i feels towards this. Its easier for them to judge when they aren't the one who needed it.

If character restoration was capped at once a month, that would be waaayyy more liberal than it was when it was offered:

If you delete a character that you'd later like to recover, you can submit a ticket to our Support Team requesting a one-time restoration of that character. If, upon investigation, the character is eligible for restoration, we will journey into the Mists and return the character to your account.

https://web.archive.org/web/20201111193150/https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010181213-Restoring-a-Deleted-Character

[Ydeirt.3905]

1 hour ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

If character restoration was capped at once a month, that would be waaayyy more liberal than it was when it was offered:

If you delete a character that you'd later like to recover, you can submit a ticket to our Support Team requesting a one-time restoration of that character. If, upon investigation, the character is eligible for restoration, we will journey into the Mists and return the character to your account.

https://web.archive.org/web/20201111193150/https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010181213-Restoring-a-Deleted-Character

Again that was just a suggestion and wasn't meant to be set in stone, ofcourse a tighter restrictions and security measure must be put in place to prevent exploit. As its already been said there
 

Quote

If, upon investigation, the character is eligible for restoration, we will journey into the Mists and return the character to your account.

Doesn't mean this have to be 100% guaranteed but with the service being there, we at least got more option and chance.
This honestly can be made better if players could adds genuine feedback and suggestions instead of just trolling and baiting like most people in the forums.

[Sobx.1758]

6 hours ago, Ydeirt.3905 said:

And yet what i said isn't something like lending the children the pc nor the account. Theres some instance of say when a parent left their pc for a bit to take a break [which takes pc unattended for longer] but unfortunately left the pc unattended thinking no one would touch the pc, but sometimes kids would just do that whether they want it or not and may or may not accidentally doing something bad to the account.

Then make it a habit to press winkey+L when you're leaving your pc unattended around children/other people for enough time for them to secretely come in, launch the game, log in and delete the characers while specifically typing their nicknames into the text box. I mean... it just looks you're hard set on making any excuse you can, but the actual situation here is that you just deleted your character, no need to make these hypothetical sytuations that are rather easly prevented. If you're not abusing the character restoration in one way or another, the current version of it seems to be enough.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[Ydeirt.3905]

9 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Then make it a habit to press winkey+L when you're leaving your pc unattended around children/other people for enough time for them to secretely come in, launch the game, log in and delete the characers while specifically typing their nicknames into the text box. I mean... it just looks you're hard set on making any excuse you can, but the actual situation here is that you just deleted your character, no need to make these hypothetical sytuations that are rather easly prevented. If you're not abusing the character restoration in one way or another, the current version of it seems to be enough.

Not sure what you're on about, I never said i'm not wrong on deleting a character. I merely just pointing some possibility of certain situation thats not only about me. Since i saw few other post talking about different issue regarding their deleted character.
Not everyone knows every shortcut there is or every function on their pc like you did and i'm not sure where your logic comes from, no one is expecting anyone to touch their pc unattended everytime. Sure you can say that because i already put a specific set of situation but then again thats if they haven't open the game yet, i bet many like i do too, i use autoplay for convinient login then sometimes i just left my pc unattend to do something, kitten happens and no one can expect that.
Expecting every person have to be in the perfect situation and expecting everything is just illogical.
I don't even know what current version you're talking about, what stand now is no option for players to restore their character without reverting everything [account restoration] which is a one time feat.

[Astralporing.1957]

3 hours ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

If character restoration was capped at once a month, that would be waaayyy more liberal than it was when it was offered:

If you delete a character that you'd later like to recover, you can submit a ticket to our Support Team requesting a one-time restoration of that character. If, upon investigation, the character is eligible for restoration, we will journey into the Mists and return the character to your account.

https://web.archive.org/web/20201111193150/https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010181213-Restoring-a-Deleted-Character

Depends on the reading. Sure, that original service was limited to once per character, but there was no limit on the amount of characters you could restore. That (and there not being any serious control over the whole process) was, btw, one of the reasons that indirectly led to Anet deciding to discontinue that service. It was just way too lax, and that caused... issues.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Astralporing.1957

[Sobx.1758]

18 minutes ago, Ydeirt.3905 said:

Not sure what you're on about, I never said i'm not wrong on deleting a character.

I don't know why you keep repeating it, which part of my post is this responding  to?

It's just that how many times will you need to delete your character/s to understand you don't want to delete them? Chances are you've deleted it once and -quite clearly- you're now aware you don't want to do it anymore. At that point, why are you so bent on repeating that "what if I need to do it more times?!" ?

Quote

I merely just pointing some possibility of certain situation thats not only about me. Since i saw few other post talking about different issue regarding their deleted character.

Ok, then please stop worrying about your made up situation in place of other made up people. If the actual people will have these problems, they'll be able to contact support and most probably solve their problem that way.

Quote

Not everyone knows every shortcut there is or every function on their pc like you did

Which is also why I didn't tell you "just do x", but instead told you how to do it. Now you know. And again, there's no need for you to forcefully make up random situations in order to claim other hypothetical people are the reason you need that change.

Deleted your character and regret it? Try contacting support.

Someone else need to recover something from their account? They'll need to contact support. That's all it is.

Quote

and i'm not sure where your logic comes from, no one is expecting anyone to touch their pc unattended everytime. Sure you can say that because i already put a specific set of situation but then again thats if they haven't open the game yet, i bet many like i do too, i use autoplay for convinient login then sometimes i just left my pc unattend to do something, kitten happens and no one can expect that.

Yes, you make up some situation and since I give you an easy/obvious solution, now it doesn't count.

Whatever even semi-important data anyone has on their pcs, if they have children that are able to randomly(?) type in specific nicknames in the box in order to delete a character, they will want to start locking their pcs. How many random excuses do you need here?

Quote

I don't even know what current version you're talking about, what stand now is no option for players to restore their character without reverting everything [account restoration] which is a one time feat.

Contacting support.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[Dayra.7405]

This is a game, and the best thing you can expect from a game is that it helps you to learn/improve.

Without character restoration it teaches you a set of important lessons:

- think and inform yourself before you act.

- act careful

- life with the consequences of your decisions

I fully support that ANet doesn’t waste money offering a service that hinders learning.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Dayra.7405

[Ydeirt.3905]

8 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

I don't know why you keep repeating it, which part of my post is this responding  to?

41 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

I mean... it just looks you're hard set on making any excuse you can, but the actual situation here is that you just deleted your character, no need to make these hypothetical sytuations that are rather easly prevented. If you're not abusing the character restoration in one way or another, the current version of it seems to be enough.

I believe i don't need to repeat this anymore. Again you don't get what i'm saying, this was an option before but was taken away due to certain people exploiting which what i was saying which a lack in supervision or checking from anets end. I was saying they can provide the service with additional security measure on their end to prevent such abuse and exploitation.

14 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Ok, then please stop worrying about your made up situation in place of other made up people. If the actual people will have these problems, they'll be able to contact support and most probably solve their problem that way.

Which is also why I didn't tell you "just do x", but instead told you how to do it. Now you know. And again, there's no need for you to forcefully make up random situations in order to claim other hypothetical people are the reason you need that change.

Deleted your character and regret it? Try contacting support.

Someone else need to recover something from their account? They'll need to contact support. That's all it is.

Yes, you make up some situation and since I give you an easy/obvious solution, now it doesn't count.

Whatever even semi-important data anyone has on their pcs, if they have children that are able to randomly(?) type in specific nicknames in the box in order to delete a character, they will want to start locking their pcs. How many random excuses do you need here?

Contacting support.

Actually they don't, recently i read someone got their characters deleted by their ex iirc and anet denied them of character restoration. Sure they got most of their QoL items back but at what cost? A lot of time lost on the character, levels, crafting profession, birthday gifts that will get reset with new characters, etc.

Please stop being ignorant and say i made up random stuff, I'm merely presenting example that already happened. Sure i do need the service but it doesn't mean people don't have issue with these as well. Like i said, we can't expect perfect situation everytime.

On your point regarding the shortcut, i was saying it because its not a very known stuff for people. Sure you can tell me here but it doesn't mean everyone who play this game automatically know how.
If you don't like options sure, have it your way but for me more options, the better.

12 minutes ago, Dayra.7405 said:

This is a game, and the best thing you can expect from a game is that it helps you to learn/improve.

 

Without character restoration it teaches you a set of important lessons:

- think and inform yourself before you act.

- act careful

- life with the consequences of your decisions

I fully support that ANet doesn’t waste money offering a service that hinders learning.

Sure like this isn't a game at all that we need life lessons.
Yet the service was there for 9 years before they took it away because they didn't check the people enough to let exploits happens.
Not saying anet is 100% at fault for this, most of this happens because the exploiter ofcourse.
And who finally at loss here? Yep, the players who needed the service.

[Healix.5819]

Even if they tried to check the character, they couldn't guarantee it. They would have to wipe the character of practically everything to prevent exploiting it. They would either need to properly backup your character when it's deleted, or do it like the other games where your character isn't truly deleted until days later, allowing you to recover it yourself within that period (would probably cost gems).

[Ydeirt.3905]

22 minutes ago, Healix.5819 said:

Even if they tried to check the character, they couldn't guarantee it. They would have to wipe the character of practically everything to prevent exploiting it. They would either need to properly backup your character when it's deleted, or do it like the other games where your character isn't truly deleted until days later, allowing you to recover it yourself within that period (would probably cost gems).

I think this isn't bad suggestion. What i guess right now is that they backup a lot players data but idk up to how many year but the build up from so many players just doesn't seems cost effective but can be mitigated if they back up only until certain numbers of years per account so it won't clog up their database.

I for one don't mind paying gems for this service.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Ydeirt.3905
Typo

[Dayra.7405]

1 hour ago, Ydeirt.3905 said:

Sure like this isn't a game at all that we need life lessons.

To me it looks like you do 🙂

And in general: Humanity seems to need these lesseons even more, given how careless we destroy the foundation of our existance. So I welcome anyone teaching it.

1 hour ago, Ydeirt.3905 said:

And who finally at loss here? Yep, the players who needed the service.

It's a gain for everyone that doesn't need the service, less money spend on careless people = more money for content development for everyone

Edited July 29, 2022 by Dayra.7405