Abuse through the "Mail"

[Buzzbugs.1236]

I just wanted to give a heads up on this issue.

Even if you set yourself appear offline, turn off all chat types in the chat panel, and turn off speech bubbles, players can still simply right click your name and select Send Mail.

Sure, I can individually block each person who sends me hate. But that doesn't stop the first initial piece of fan-mail they decide to grace my inbox with. This needs to be addressed because the GW2 community is toxic and there's currently no way to completely avoid being abused by them.

Put a tickbox selection in the Mailbox that toggles in-coming player Mail on/off. The solution is that simple.

Edited January 6 by Buzzbugs.1236

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Actually a good idea.

Simply let Blocked People not send you Mail.

I would have asumed that would already be the case.

 

[Healix.5819]

You can't send mail to players blocking you.

[Buzzbugs.1236]

1 minute ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

Actually a good idea.

Simply let Blocked People not send you Mail.

I would have asumed that would already be the case.

 

They are not blocked people. Blocked people cannot send you mail, as far as I know.

I'm talking about people you've never interacted with before, who try to send you a Whisper but realize they cannot because you're set to appear offline. So they right click your name and use Send Mail instead. Then I have to block them, but by then they already had the opportunity to say what they wanted to say, so it kind of defeats the purpose.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

1 minute ago, Buzzbugs.1236 said:

They are not blocked people. Blocked people cannot send you mail, as far as I know.

I'm talking about people you've never interacted with before, who try to send you a Whisper but realize they cannot because you're set to appear offline. So they right click your name and use Send Mail instead. Then I have to block them, but by then they already had the opportunity to say what they wanted to say, so it kind of defeats the purpose.

To be fair, just ignore it.

Cant be this big of an issue can it?

And i hope you report them all.

[Buzzbugs.1236]

3 minutes ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

To be fair, just ignore it.

Cant be this big of an issue can it?

And i hope you report them all.

It's an issue for me. I just want to play and enjoy the game I pay for. MMO or not, I shouldn't be forced to have to deal with these kinds of people. Abuse reports are useless. At least give us the tools to opt-out of all social aspects of the game.

[Chyro.1462]

How often are you getting hate mail from random strangers that this is an issue?

Can't imagine there's many people just going around sending hate mails for no reason.

[Buzzbugs.1236]

4 minutes ago, Chyro.1462 said:

How often are you getting hate mail from random strangers that this is an issue?

Can't imagine there's many people just going around sending hate mails for no reason.

Multiple times per day on a bad day.

[Zohane.7208]

2 hours ago, Buzzbugs.1236 said:

I just wanted to give a heads up on this issue.

Even if you set yourself appear offline, turn off all chat types in the chat panel, and turn off speech bubbles, players can still simply right click your name and select Send Mail.

Sure, I can individually block each person who sends me hate. But that doesn't stop the first initial piece of fan-mail they decide to grace my inbox with. This needs to be addressed because the GW2 community is toxic and there's currently no way to completely avoid being abused by them.

Put a tickbox selection in the Mailbox that toggles in-coming player Mail on/off. The solution is that simple.

This seems like a really good idea. I would suggest a filtering option where you can turn mail on/off from friends list, guild members, and others.

[LSD.4673]

What are you doing to elicit hate mail? Even the maddest 1v1er won't do much more than a few /whispers. Did you run over the guy's dog?

[Gotejjeken.1267]

Yeah, how exactly are you getting multiple hate mails 'on a bad day' OP? 

Also, in PvE or competitive?

If competitive, there's nothing to stop someone from BM'ing through emotes / siege / etc. even if they don't directly message you.  So, I would probably stay away from sPVP/WvW if a little troll mail is bothersome.  

If PvE, hate mail would be a new one, as I've never seen someone angry over open world as to mail someone, and instanced content you usually do with a guild or group you know.  

EDIT: Actually, nvm--this topic kind of explains everything:

 

Edited January 6 by Gotejjeken.1267

[Passerbye.6291]

On one hand, OP is right, there should be a way to simply prevent this, but on the other hand, imagine annoying people so much that they go out of their way to be vindictive and send mails to reach you. Report and move on OP.

Or alternately, this will sound like victim blaming, but here goes, there is usually a reason for these things to happen. This never happens to me for instance (feel free to send me some onions etc. in game for lulz though, I don't mind). So you might want to try to identify the root cause. What prompts people to mail you? Do you whisper them and just go offline in an attempt to avoid getting responses? I'm not saying you do, but I have seen people do childish stuff like that to get the last word in. If this is anywhere in the ballpark of what happens, you could personally solve the problem for yourself until anet implements a way to block mails (not sure if they will).

Edited January 6 by Passerbye.6291

[Passerbye.6291]

2 hours ago, Demonhead.7584 said:

People tend to send hate mails to roamers in wvw. I used to receive about 2 mails per every 8 or so hours I played in wvw. Being a thief player tends to make you a magnet for this kind of harassment as well, sadly. 

I've seen people use friends, or log in on alts, to continue sending the hate mail after you've blocked them too. It's very annoying. 

As for reporting in-game, I agree it seems to do little. What I have found works better is to take screenshot and open a ticket with support. You may not be told of their actions taken, but you'll get a more certain reply as to whether or not they're looking into the incident.

Aren't those mails essentially the champagne (Edit: Fruit juice if you're underage) of victory though? If anything you should just enjoy clicking through those :)

Edited January 6 by Passerbye.6291

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

This happens to you during or after sPvP matches?

We have a very nice solution in WvW for that problem, which works surprisingly well. In sPvP, you always see the name of your opponents and team-mates. In WvW, you only see the player-rank as a name. Even in the damage/effect-protocol. If you right-click on an enemy, you can only select block. No whisper, no invite to party, no friend. If you want to talk to the player or send them a mail, you have to block them. Go to your blocklist. Find the new entry, which is in most cases very hard, because people almost never organize their blocks. Friend the person in question and then either mail or whisper them. By the time you have done this, most of the anger has already vanished. It is way too complicated for most people. And the few jerks who still go for it can be blocked manually.

But in sPvP, it is just one click.

So instead of enforcing a full block, which would also harm all the nice, charming, friendly mails and newbie-help from veteran players, I would suggest to apply the WvW treatment to sPvP. No more visible character/account-names. If it would be too messy, auto-generate some names, as you auto-generate team names already.
 

Edited January 6 by HnRkLnXqZ.1870

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

29 minutes ago, Passerbye.6291 said:

Aren't those mails essentially the champagne (Edit: Fruit juice if you're underage) of victory though? If anything you should just enjoy clicking through those 🙂

I got sent a bag like 2 weeks ago by a guy on Gandara saying this is the closest thing to a condom they can send me.

[Ishmael.6740]

So you have multiple people per day go out of their way to send you abuse via mail? Something that literally never happened to me in like 10 years of playing this game?

Weird. 

[Crono.4197]

10 minutes ago, Ishmael.6740 said:

So you have multiple people per day go out of their way to send you abuse via mail? Something that literally never happened to me in like 10 years of playing this game?

Weird. 

Same, never happened to me or anyone I know and I'm playing since release, so dunno...either it's a mode I don't spend much time in (WvW or PvP) or OP is doing something to make people send those mails.

[Buzzbugs.1236]

1 hour ago, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

EDIT: Actually, nvm--this topic kind of explains everything:

 

You're suggesting that because I dislike the way story boss encounters are made in the game, it is justified that total strangers send me abusive hate mail? People I have never even spoken a single word to or interacted with on any level?

Case in point. The community on this game is toxic. You're the reason this thread even exists.

Edited January 6 by Buzzbugs.1236

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

9 minutes ago, Buzzbugs.1236 said:

You're suggesting that because I dislike the way story boss encounters are made in the game, it is justified that total strangers send me abusive hate mail? People I have never even spoken a single word to or interacted with on any level?

Case in point. The community on this game is toxic. You're the reason this thread even exists.

That's what happens when you talk down story bosses, they'll send you hatemail for insulting them.

[devzero.4093]

I only ever get unsolicited gold and love through the mail. We must be playing different games.

[Cyninja.2954]

45 minutes ago, IAmNotMatthew.1058 said:

I got sent a bag like 2 weeks ago by a guy on Gandara saying this is the closest thing to a condom they can send me.

Not okay, but I'll be honest, this made me chuckle. Gotta appreciate the ingenuity. Hope you took it as just that: high five to your skills. 😁

On topic: I myself haven't been subject to much hate mail, maybe an occasional whisper for kicking someone who didn't meet the squad LFG in the past or when I was roaming more. Still not something which I've noticed to much, and I am usually an outspoken person.

That being said, I am male and generally less phased about people exploding. Females do have a harder time online still, especially in video games, and chances of toxic interaction increase with exposure to more individuals (I usually run with guildies and friends, my regular PUG days are behind me atm). As such I do agree that proper protection and means to shield ones self are good. I'd put GW2 at okay-ish in that regard, with some improvements possible here and there.

My general approach and thus advice I give: report, block, move on.

Don't get involved in meaningless drama, especially in map chat (I blocked someone just yesterday for his nonsense in DR map chat, and after returning 1.5 hours later, the chat was still going). It's just not worth your mental health (and actual health with stress etc.).

Edited January 6 by Cyninja.2954

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

7 minutes ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

Not okay, but I'll be honest, this made me chuckle. Gotta appreciate the ingenuity. Hope you took it as just that: high five to your skills. 😁

I was laughing for a solid minute, it being a 5 slot bag made it even better.

[Taclism.2406]

Ah yes, the main character syndrome : Refuse / ignore all form of communication and tips, then complain when your willful ignorance comes back to bite you.
That's barely less toxic than sending hatemails in the first place as far as I'm concerned : They chose toxic words, you chose toxic attitude. It's a group setting, strangers care more about their collective success than your experience and that's normal.

I gotta wonder tho, why even play a MMO rather than a RPG at this point? You'd have your difficulty settings and lack of communication as you wanted. 
 

[Buzzbugs.1236]

17 minutes ago, Taclism.2406 said:

They chose toxic words, you chose toxic attitude.
 

I don't even know WHO they ARE!

I never said a single word to them, nothing. All I did was play the game. How can I have an attitude when I've never even talked to them before?

All I'm asking for is a way to block my Mail from being used by Trolls, THAT'S ALL.

Edited January 6 by Buzzbugs.1236

[Passerbye.6291]

52 minutes ago, Buzzbugs.1236 said:

Case in point. The community on this game is toxic. You're the reason this thread even exists.

Oh boy, here we go again.
Look man, you are welcome to dislike the people you interact with all you want. But when you make such generalized statements, you can't expect people to react well to it.
As said, getting spammed via mails shouldn't be a thing, but at the same time, you seem to uniquely be targeted by this. Maybe stop poking a bee nest if you don't want to get stung?
You keep actively saying very questionable or downright false things, then blame the community for not agreeing with it. What did you expect, a medal?

At some point, instead of blaming literally everyone else, you might want to try some introspection to identify the problem. To me, you sound like a person who goes to the UK and then complains that everyone is driving on the wrong side of the road.