[Suggestion] We need a report feature that tackles harassment

[second account.8947]

From a RPers point of view, I've had people spend 1-3 hours doing anything and everything they can to ruin myself and my guilds enjoyment of RPing in Guild wars 2, trolls do this because they know that they're technically not breaking the rules, meaning that they can ruin our enjoyment and get away with it, worse yet, they know that by ruining our enjoyment and us being powerless to stop it, they can target certain people in hopes that the person they're bullying swears at them and then they can report them for verbal abuse, and try to get them banned, it's messed up.

What we need is a new ticket that mentions harassment or/and unwanted attention. The player will have to ask the person to stop , as there people who just don't really understand that people are RPing, which is absolutely fine. However, for those who will gloat on how there isn't anything we can do about it and get several tickets about what they're doing, then a GM can act on it accordingly. Of course, there should be a punishment if this rule is abused and that players are reminded to let the person know before hand or their ticket will become void.

The reason why this is so important is it makes it that people who are here just to bully people for their own enjoyment are not welcome, though this is a small number of people, it still happens quite a lot, more so with RPers who are forced to find ways around it, sadly, sometimes you just have to put up with it and as mentioned, I've had raiding guilds run around in a Tavern we were Rping who did everything they could to disrupt it (and they eventually did) for a good three hours straight.

I would love a GM response on this if possible, or at the very least have a comment on which one which ticket we could file it under, that way we know we aren't wasting a GM's time with reports they can't action and we can also use the comment made as a defense if we are banned for filling a report under spam, for example, when all that player is doing is running around and jumping or dancing in front of us.

Thanks

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

You can choose any category when creating a Support Ticket, and explain further in the field(s) provided. You can attach screenshots (or links to video), if desired, to any responses, including the initial automated response.

Good luck.

[DarcShriek.5829]

If they're not breaking any rules, then why should they be punished?

[Topalai.4789]

@"DarcShriek.5829" said:If they're not breaking any rules, then why should they be punished?

Actually it seems to be the first rule according to the Rules of Conduct

1. While playing Guild Wars 2, you must respect the rights of others and their rights to play and enjoy the Game. To this end, you may not defraud, harass, threaten, embarrass or cause distress and/or unwanted attention to other players.

[DarcShriek.5829]

But the first post said they weren't breaking the rules.

[Bloodstealer.5978]

What are you doing that seems to get you targeted.. the RP'ers I have seen being ripped in game on occasion have been basically swamping mapchat and /s with vulgarity and distasteful stuff that gets other players backs up.. .. never seen anything in game to suggest an RP grp just get targeted for harassment sakes if I'm honest

[mercury ranique.2170]

As mentioned, it is an offense. But please understand the business model. Arenanet doesnt use monthly fees. They do not have the budget and Manpower to intervene and take action within minutes, they also will not just take action on a single incident. And to be honest, they should have to. Roleplay in a private chat that you are not comfortable and propose to go somewhere else. It is in the end what you would do in a simular situation in the real world. Some childish people are disturbing a bench in the park, you inform the police and get out of the conflict

[Ardenwolfe.8590]

May I ask why you didn't just block them? These kinds of players live for your reaction. If you ignore them, they tend to troll elsewhere. That said, I'm sorry you encountered this level of nonsense. The Guild Wars 2 community is better than this.

Really disappointed to hear about your experience. :(

[Morsheira.6102]

Blocking is only effective on the speech portion. It doesn't stop them from standing on top of you with their mounts. It doesn't stop them from spamming weapon skills (Which has audio effect too.) It doesn't stop them from doing every visibly distracting and immersion breaking thing they can think of. Yes ignoring them works to an extent, but there really should be consequences for peoples actions. The reason why trolling of RPers is such a problem (in this game and others) is because very few companies will ever do anything against people harassing RPers. If there were actually consequences, the amount of trolling would most certainly drop.
And to the person saying just RP in Party? Why should I have to 'hide' and keep my gameplay (because it is a form of gameplay) to a private channel and everyone else can spam everywhere else out however they want? RPers have just as much a place in MMO's as anyone else. Also, the Trolls will specifically go to places like the cities etc to disrupt larger scale events. So why should entire communities be forced to 'hide' because people cannot show basic respect?Bottom line is, there needs to be more people can do to report those who are harassing RPers. And GM's need to start taking it more seriously.

[Endless Soul.5178]

@Morsheira.6102 said:Blocking is only effective on the speech portion. It doesn't stop them from standing on top of you with their mounts. It doesn't stop them from spamming weapon skills (Which has audio effect too.) It doesn't stop them from doing every visibly distracting and immersion breaking thing they can think of. Yes ignoring them works to an extent, but there really should be consequences for peoples actions. The reason why trolling of RPers is such a problem (in this game and others) is because very few companies will ever do anything against people harassing RPers. If there were actually consequences, the amount of trolling would most certainly drop.

And to the person saying just RP in Party? Why should I have to 'hide' and keep my gameplay (because it is a form of gameplay) to a private channel and everyone else can spam everywhere else out however they want? RPers have just as much a place in MMO's as anyone else. Also, the Trolls will specifically go to places like the cities etc to disrupt larger scale events. So why should entire communities be forced to 'hide' because people cannot show basic respect?Bottom line is, there needs to be more people can do to report those who are harassing RPers. And GM's need to start taking it more seriously.

Thank you! ~claps

[Vanive.3804]

It's an online game, with other people. Unless they make a strict roleplay server, or add a feature to remove all players outside your group you will just have to deal it or find something else to play.

[Zaklex.6308]

@Vanive.3804 said:It's an online game, with other people. Unless they make a strict roleplay server, or add a feature to remove all players outside your group you will just have to deal it or find something else to play.

Actually no, it's a form of harassment, harassment doesn't only come verbally and not only is ArenaNet going to have to understand this sooner or later but so will all games companies. It's an online game, online harassment has been deemed punishable irl, it should be punishable in game as well. It's not that hard to take a screenshot, write a ticket with a detailed description and send it to support...then it's up to them to do their job.

[Bloodstealer.5978]

@Zaklex.6308 said:

@Vanive.3804 said:It's an online game, with other people. Unless they make a strict roleplay server, or add a feature to remove all players outside your group you will just have to deal it or find something else to play.

Actually no, it's a form of harassment, harassment doesn't only come verbally and not only is ArenaNet going to have to understand this sooner or later but so will all games companies. It's an online game, online harassment has been deemed punishable irl, it should be punishable in game as well. It's not that hard to take a screenshot, write a ticket with a detailed description and send it to support...then it's up to them to do their job.

So your saying if I want to harass your RP parades by /dance around you for a time for kicks I can be punished in RL... seems harsh, and laughable.

I think your mistaking harassment for something much, much less sinister in an online gaming environment.By your same standard then should we be calling in the police when RP players begin chucking out the, I wanna play with your kitty and other such vulgarities aimed at people around them, purely because they are in the same screen view... or do you prefer one rule for you, other rules for everyone else.

Look I don't think its cool someone purposely larking around when your playing RP stuff out, but I would imagine RL harassment runs a heck of a lot deeper than what your describing here .

[MarshallLaw.9260]

@"second account.8947" said:From a RPers point of view, I've had people spend 1-3 hours doing anything and everything they can to ruin myself and my guilds enjoyment of RPing in Guild wars 2, trolls do this because they know that they're technically not breaking the rules, meaning that they can ruin our enjoyment and get away with it, worse yet, they know that by ruining our enjoyment and us being powerless to stop it, they can target certain people in hopes that the person they're bullying swears at them and then they can report them for verbal abuse, and try to get them banned, it's messed up.

What we need is a new ticket that mentions harassment or/and unwanted attention. The player will have to ask the person to stop , as there people who just don't really understand that people are RPing, which is absolutely fine. However, for those who will gloat on how there isn't anything we can do about it and get several tickets about what they're doing, then a GM can act on it accordingly. Of course, there should be a punishment if this rule is abused and that players are reminded to let the person know before hand or their ticket will become void.

The reason why this is so important is it makes it that people who are here just to bully people for their own enjoyment are not welcome, though this is a small number of people, it still happens quite a lot, more so with RPers who are forced to find ways around it, sadly, sometimes you just have to put up with it and as mentioned, I've had raiding guilds run around in a Tavern we were Rping who did everything they could to disrupt it (and they eventually did) for a good three hours straight.

I would love a GM response on this if possible, or at the very least have a comment on which one which ticket we could file it under, that way we know we aren't wasting a GM's time with reports they can't action and we can also use the comment made as a defense if we are banned for filling a report under spam, for example, when all that player is doing is running around and jumping or dancing in front of us.

Thanks

Although I loosely understand your concerns, I think it's important to have an accurate picture.If you are able to provide several examples of exactly what's occurred to "ruin your enjoyment", it would be easier for non-RPers to judge if they consider this unacceptable behavior or your tolerance levels being too low.With all due respect, of course RPers will be more sensitive when it comes to "immersion" details so perhaps that is the issue. On the other hand I fully support the reduction in harassment for any player.

[second account.8947]

Just to clarify a few things...The current rule system - https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-rules-of-conduct/

While playing Guild Wars 2, you must respect the rights of others and their rights to play and enjoy the Game. To this end, you may not defraud, harass, threaten, embarrass or cause distress and/or unwanted attention to other players. This includes posting insulting, offensive, or abusive comments about players, repeatedly sending unwanted messages, reporting players maliciously, attacking a player based on race, sexual orientation, religion, heritage, etc. Hate speech is not tolerated."

So, the ground work is there, it just needs to be implemented properly.

Reduce the emote range (suggested on reddit) - As a middle ground (and it being one less excuse for trolls to use) I would say this would be fine. It won't solve the issue though. People who enjoy to troll RPers will still go to their hubs, that are out of the emote range anyway and harass people for hours on end.

The system would be abused by trolls - Let's say that Anet system doesn’t have the budget to have GM's randomly appear in the game to see what's going on like they can in WoW and rely heavily on physical evidence from screenshots and recordings like they did back in Guild Wars 1.

Just on the ticket that talks about Harassment and Griefing say…

“You need to send any evidence of physical harassment or griefing to this email.”

Link the terms and conditions as shown at the start of this post which makes it clear that if you’re using it maliciously, you’ll be banned…that should be enough how could you abuse it?

Trolls are so obvious that, using OBS studio or simple screenshots with time stamps is enough to prove what’s going on, or at least enough for GM to look through chat logs.

No funds for it - In GW1, you had to email them and then they would action it, so why not in GW2 if we’re trying to scrape for cash? Plus, leaving a problem like this costs money, more people will leave the game and go elsewhere because they feel there’s no customer service.

RP in PvE areas - If people are staying in heart areas and RPing, then complaining about people being there, I think a bit of common sense would apply there and the GM would just ignore it. Keep in mind, you’d have to prove they were purposely trying to be a problem, not just playing the game and…they also risk getting banned themselves.

What use will this have for other game modes - If goes down to you having to prove you're being griefed, it could get rid of people purposely throwing Meta events or people standing around in PvP matches/Fractals because they don't like that someone isn't playing the current "meta"

It wouldn't be a tool that will force people to play the meta because they would be considered griefing, also, how could you even prove that without looking at their gear and skills?

Rpers and Money - Seen a few comments about RPers not bringing in the cash but..I run an RP-PvE guild I've had a few free to play players who are from other RP communities such as WoW, SWTOR and Elderscrolls who ended up buying the core game and the expansions just because of the niche RP scene I've created and wanted to RP in the new areas and have mounts/gliders.RPers love cosmetics and considering Anets market for this game is mostly about cosmetics...the two go hand in hand. You're more likely to have an RPer spend RL money to get the gems, to get the 500g casual clothing tonic and get an outfit for their level 2 character than any other player.RPers buy more character slots, some have 20+ AND buy second account just so they can even more character slots.

[Linken.6345]

you may not defraud, harass, threaten, embarrass or cause distress and/or unwanted attention to other players. This includes posting insulting, offensive, or abusive comments about players, repeatedly sending unwanted messages, reporting players maliciously, attacking a player based on race, sexual orientation, religion, heritage, etc. Hate speech is not tolerated

And none of this cover having a parade inside a tavern for 2 hours since they might be training for a parade they will have at some other time elsewere and you just happen to be there nothing was directed at you personaly.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

@"second account.8947" said:Just to clarify a few things...The current rule system - https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-rules-of-conduct/

While playing Guild Wars 2, you must respect the rights of others and their rights to play and enjoy the Game. To this end, you may not defraud, harass, threaten, embarrass or cause distress and/or unwanted attention to other players. This includes posting insulting, offensive, or abusive comments about players, repeatedly sending unwanted messages, reporting players maliciously, attacking a player based on race, sexual orientation, religion, heritage, etc. Hate speech is not tolerated."

So, the ground work is there, it just needs to be implemented properly.

Reduce the emote range (suggested on reddit) - As a middle ground (and it being one less excuse for trolls to use) I would say this would be fine. It won't solve the issue though. People who enjoy to troll RPers will still go to their hubs, that are out of the emote range anyway and harass people for hours on end.

The system would be abused by trolls - Let's say that Anet system doesn’t have the budget to have GM's randomly appear in the game to see what's going on like they can in WoW and rely heavily on physical evidence from screenshots and recordings like they did back in Guild Wars 1.

Just on the ticket that talks about Harassment and Griefing say…

“You need to send any evidence of physical harassment or griefing to this email.”

Link the terms and conditions as shown at the start of this post which makes it clear that if you’re using it maliciously, you’ll be banned…that should be enough how could you abuse it?

Trolls are so obvious that, using OBS studio or simple screenshots with time stamps is enough to prove what’s going on, or at least enough for GM to look through chat logs.

No funds for it - In GW1, you had to email them and then they would action it, so why not in GW2 if we’re trying to scrape for cash? Plus, leaving a problem like this costs money, more people will leave the game and go elsewhere because they feel there’s no customer service.

RP in PvE areas - If people are staying in heart areas and RPing, then complaining about people being there, I think a bit of common sense would apply there and the GM would just ignore it. Keep in mind, you’d have to prove they were purposely trying to be a problem, not just playing the game and…they also risk getting banned themselves.

What use will this have for other game modes - If goes down to you having to prove you're being griefed, it could get rid of people purposely throwing Meta events or people standing around in PvP matches/Fractals because they don't like that someone isn't playing the current "meta"

It wouldn't be a tool that will force people to play the meta because they would be considered griefing, also, how could you even prove that without looking at their gear and skills?

Rpers and Money - Seen a few comments about RPers not bringing in the cash but..I run an RP-PvE guild I've had a few free to play players who are from other RP communities such as WoW, SWTOR and Elderscrolls who ended up buying the core game and the expansions just because of the niche RP scene I've created and wanted to RP in the new areas and have mounts/gliders.RPers love cosmetics and considering Anets market for this game is mostly about cosmetics...the two go hand in hand. You're more likely to have an RPer spend RL money to get the gems, to get the 500g casual clothing tonic and get an outfit for their level 2 character than any other player.RPers buy more character slots, some have 20+ AND buy second account just so they can even more character slots.

I'm not sure what you are suggesting. You can already attach screenshots or links to videos in your Support Ticket responses, if desired. In GW2 a web-form is used for the initial CS Ticket contact, rather than an email (ease of use for the player and the CS Team, not to mention streamlined). The resulting responses are always email (to which you can respond).

[Fenom.9457]

Kind of unrelated but also what about when you’re in wvw just trying to map it or get to your group and you pass one enemy and make it entirely clear you want to be friendly and you keep a distance but they used 5 or 6 teleports, slow you down with cc, and murder you in 3 seconds without a downed state?

[mindcircus.1506]

@Fenom.9457 said:Kind of unrelated but also what about when you’re in wvw just trying to map it or get to your group and you pass one enemy and make it entirely clear you want to be friendly and you keep a distance but they used 5 or 6 teleports, slow you down with cc, and murder you in 3 seconds without a downed state?

Why would an enemy allow you to make it to your group ?

[artemis.6781]

@Fenom.9457 said:Kind of unrelated but also what about when you’re in wvw just trying to map it or get to your group and you pass one enemy and make it entirely clear you want to be friendly and you keep a distance but they used 5 or 6 teleports, slow you down with cc, and murder you in 3 seconds without a downed state?

Because they are jerks. Just like the ones who camp monuments in invisible state (usually a group of 3-4 mesmers and thieves) when all u want is to do your daily and not fight.

[Ardenwolfe.8590]

Honestly? ANet's support team is so overwhelmed with nonsense from certain players, it's not even funny. Sadly, and I don't mean to dismiss your experience, but this is nothing compared to other situations. That said, I have nothing but respect for the RP community. I specifically choose an RP server, official or otherwise, to join because of their maturity.

However, in this case, I fear it's a situation of getting thicker skin and ignoring trolls. I know that's absolutely not what you want to hear, but given ANet's stance on an RP server or lack thereof, you're asking ANet to correct the behavior of obviously immature people. They can't do that. The best they can do is ban or suspend and, while that may be satisfying to you, it's going to make things even worse for the community because it also makes ANet look like they're playing favorites.

Again, I know that's not what you want to hear, but ANet's already had its fill of drama lately. They're not likely to champion another one so soon.

Sorry.

[Strider Pj.2193]

@artemis.6781 said:

@Fenom.9457 said:Kind of unrelated but also what about when you’re in wvw just trying to map it or get to your group and you pass one enemy and make it entirely clear you want to be friendly and you keep a distance but they used 5 or 6 teleports, slow you down with cc, and murder you in 3 seconds without a downed state?

Because they are jerks. Just like the ones who camp monuments in invisible state (usually a group of 3-4 mesmers and thieves) when all u want is to do your daily and not fight.

It's WvW. A PvP environment. If you choose to try to do a WvW daily, you run the risk of getting jumped.

Is it nice? That doesn't matter.

Would I do it? Probably not.

WvW has a saying: if it's red it's dead.

[artemis.6781]

It can go both ways also. I once had a group of RPers berate me because I was doing a heart and "trolling" them by doing so. I even tried to explain what I was doing but they got even more kitten and started killing everything so I couldn't finish the heart. Honestly, I just logged characters because it wasn't worth me arguing with them. Shrugs

[Bloodstealer.5978]

@Ardenwolfe.8590 said:Honestly? ANet's support team is so overwhelmed with nonsense from certain players, it's not even funny. Sadly, and I don't mean to dismiss your experience, but this is nothing compared to other situations. That said, I have nothing but respect for the RP community. I specifically choose an RP server, official or otherwise, to join because of their maturity.

However, in this case, I fear it's a situation of getting thicker skin and ignoring trolls. I know that's absolutely not what you want to hear, but given ANet's stance on an RP server or lack thereof, you're asking ANet to correct the behavior of obviously immature people. They can't do that. The best they can do is ban or suspend and, while that may be satisfying to you, it's going to make things even worse for the community because it also makes ANet look like they're playing favorites.

Again, I know that's not what you want to hear, but ANet's already had its fill of drama lately. They're not likely to champion another one so soon.

Sorry.

TBH that's not always been my experience of RP'ers in any MMO I have played.. I too have no problem players wanting to go that extra mile when seeking the experience of it all, but sadly that often comes with a lot of unwanted stuff in map chats and on screen.. DR and LA are especially bad for those that seek to take RP to a very different kind of experience. So while I don't disagree their are decent RP'ers seeking nothing more to enjoy their time in their own little fantasies, there are many more that take it way beyond that, which unfortunately does tend to draw attention from others around. That is why I tend to prefer RP'ers to have their own servers to play out some of their more vulgar and darn right ugly stuff, but that of course comes at a cost to ANET.

[Ardenwolfe.8590]

@Bloodstealer.5978 Oh yes . . . the dark side of RP. Well . . . that's another discussion for another thread. :o