[Suggestion] We need a report feature that tackles harassment

[Morsheira.6102]

It exists because very few games take the trolling of RPers seriously.You can report until your fingers fall off and it is very seldom that anything is ever done. If there were a means to report things outside of text, where it was taken seriously, we would.Instead the only option we're left with is to try to gain public support in hopes that with enough outcry people will actually start paying attention to the fact that this is an issue. But really, unless someone is cussing you out and jumping accounts to bypass ignore to cuss you out, they won't do anything. But they certainly can follow you around and spam out weaponskills on everything you try to do without even getting a finger waggle.

[Bloodstealer.5978]

@Felipe.1807 said:Wow, people wasted 1~3 hours just to harrass you, kitten thats some dedication man lol...anyway, dont think theres a way that you can stop this kind of behavior from players, but theres a few things you can do...like most RPs that i saw, usualy use chat commands that go like emotes...whats up with that? Why not make a party or squad or whatver and use that to communicate? This way nobody will know what you are doing, which means, no harrasment...other way to avoid this...go to instace, nobody other then the people in group will be there, i know that this isnt a ideal solution, but its something...you can also try to go to other map instance and dodge the trolls...i mean, you also gotta se the other side, i know people that legit get annoyed when they see RP on the chat...should they have the right to get offended as well and report you guys?

This.. which is why I believe there might be more to this tale than what we know about here... a lot of the RP I come across in the game is done specifically in map or /S chat purely to put out stuff for wider effect. Legit RP finds places to play out the fantasy not just sit near a WP in DR to spam much of the stuff that is blatantly not for RP sake, its done specifically to draw attention to themselves on purpose.Genuine RP'ers will as I say group up and find different locations for their fun fixes and that's totally cool and to limit their exposure to unwanted attention they utilise their party chat.Of course every game has its larkers and that's why there is a report system for ANET to make a judgement call.. whether that is effective enough in controlling obnoxious behaviour in game (from both sides of the argument) well that's another discussion, but the feature is there, as is blocking out some

[MarshallLaw.9260]

@"Neural.1824" said:Ah, the wonderful community of GW2.

A thread is posted asking Arenanet to enforce their own rules and show some support for human decency.Thread immediately flooded by literary vomit justifying a "right" to ruin the game for others.

What a great way to exaggerate and twist the comments of the thread and stir the pot. Brilliant effort, my dude.

As stated previously, the majority of the non-RP community have no objection to role-players or their activities. Also, the majority don't interfere because they don't care or have other things to do.I agree there could be a small minority (as with any community) who choose to be obstructive on purpose but OP has been way too vague about what they classify as "harassment" .Note: some people here asked for examples and they were not provided.How do you expect the community or ANet judge if something is or isn't acceptable behavior when it's not been described or explained?

[Mewcifer.5198]

I hope people don't take this too negatively. But whenever I see people rping in my chat window I try and hunt them down and find them. Usually they are ridiculously far away from where I started. The range of emotes is weird and I don't understand it, they seem to extend farther than say chat and that is excessive.

When I find them I stand in the back and watch them for a bit. Sometimes I get near and stand next to them. I don't try and stand on them with my mount or be obnoxious. I just want to see what is going on.

One time I saw two people who turned out to be roleplaying (I didn't know they were before I spoke to them). They were wearing the spiky cultural armour for charr. I commented the that helmet reminded me of a unicorn. They apparently considered this harassment and sent me a snooty message about how they were now blocking me. It was ridiculous and a little funny.

A few times the rpers see me standing close and try and bring me into the rp with them. At that point I either leave or join in depending on whether the current rp looked fun.

[Blocki.4931]

@"artemis.6781" said: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

I take "this didn't happen" for 500, ty.

Was this a starter area and they just one shot everything with their mounts? Because respawn rates and you simply having to tag an enemy with a single hit make this story highly implausible ;)

[artemis.6781]

@Blocki.4931 said:

@"artemis.6781" said: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

I take "this didn't happen" for 500, ty.

Was this a starter area and they just one shot everything with their mounts? Because respawn rates and you simply having to tag an enemy with a single hit make this story highly implausible ;)

Actually I will take this did happen for 1k Alex. And this was awhile ago. Before mounts. I said I was doing a heart. And hearts sometimes took awhile to do before we had mounts. But ty for playing. I'll enjoy my 1k. ;)

[second account.8947]

When it comes to RPers being the abuser, you can simply report them, you shouldn't have to put up with that just because they deem an open PvE area theirs, that's not how it works. What PvE reason is there to be in a random tavern in DR which is out of the way of sight of everyone else?

PvE player runs around a tavern, follows RPers who try to leave? A warning, then if it continues a temp ban.

RPers/PvErs who report a PvE player who's doing PvE content? Unless they're actively trying to sabotage an event, like killing boss mobs before the other squads are ready, or pulling mobs to groups to try and make the team wipe, nothing happens.

You can already do everything that I'm asking, btw. I just want it to be more clear within the in game ticket system, so players aren't told by griefers "You have to put up with it." as it misinformation and unless you actively look into your options, you'll never know because the current report system doesn't do a enough job at saying "People are not allowed to grief you."

In WoW, they have a harassment section that you can report people under and you also have GM's telling you how you can make reports easier for them. As mentioned, on a budget, if they simply said "Email X with any proof you can." just as a drop down menu on the report feature.

[Obtena.7952]

@"second account.8947" said:When it comes to RPers being the abuser, you can simply report them, you shouldn't have to put up with that just because they deem an open PvE area theirs, that's not how it works. What PvE reason is there to be in a random tavern in DR which is out of the way of sight of everyone else?

PvE player runs around a tavern, follows RPers who try to leave? A warning, then if it continues a temp ban.

RPers/PvErs who report a PvE player who's doing PvE content? Unless they're actively trying to sabotage an event, like killing boss mobs before the other squads are ready, or pulling mobs to groups to try and make the team wipe, nothing happens.

You can already do everything that I'm asking, btw. I just want it to be more clear within the in game ticket system, so players aren't told by griefers "You have to put up with it." as it misinformation and unless you actively look into your options, you'll never know because the current report system doesn't do a enough job at saying "People are not allowed to grief you."

In WoW, they have a harassment section that you can report people under and you also have GM's telling you how you can make reports easier for them. As mentioned, on a budget, if they simply said "Email X with any proof you can." just as a drop down menu on the report feature.

Wait what? So you think labeling someone should remove reasons for them to be in certain areas of the game? I knew there was something not right about your original post ... and now I know what it is.

NO players have exclusive rights to areas ... all players have the same rights to areas. I mean, what you are saying here is certainly ridiculous to me ... you want Anet to ban players who you think are in areas you don't think they should be in ... because you don't think they don't have any business being there. I want you to have a long hard think about why that will NEVER be a reason to call that harassment.

[Deepcuts.9740]

I hoped this kind of problems happens in RL only :) And only in some countries.Don't forget: usually offense is taken not given.And I have never ever seen anybody "harassing" in GW2 without being provoked at least a tiny bit.Even in ice hockey they understand that before a fight there must be some sort of trash talk happening.

I also met some players that got on my nerves. Blocked and moved on;switched maps;took a break.For lack of evidence, my opinion is: you started and then got upset because they "joined the party". Seen that a LOT.

[Blocki.4931]

@artemis.6781 said:

@Blocki.4931 said:

@artemis.6781 said: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

I take "this didn't happen" for 500, ty.

Was this a starter area and they just one shot everything with their mounts? Because respawn rates and you simply having to tag an enemy with a single hit make this story highly implausible ;)

Actually I will take this did happen for 1k Alex. And this was awhile ago. Before mounts. I said I was doing a heart. And hearts sometimes took awhile to do before we had mounts. But ty for playing. I'll enjoy my 1k. ;)

So it was around 12 players instantly killing everything because every single heart in the game has either a secondary way to finish it or close to 20 mobs in the general area simultaneously. Just stop lying ty

[Bloodstealer.5978]

@Obtena.7952 said:

@"second account.8947" said:When it comes to RPers being the abuser, you can simply report them, you shouldn't have to put up with that just because they deem an open PvE area theirs, that's not how it works. What PvE reason is there to be in a random tavern in DR which is out of the way of sight of everyone else?

PvE player runs around a tavern, follows RPers who try to leave? A warning, then if it continues a temp ban.

RPers/PvErs who report a PvE player who's doing PvE content? Unless they're actively trying to sabotage an event, like killing boss mobs before the other squads are ready, or pulling mobs to groups to try and make the team wipe, nothing happens.

You can already do everything that I'm asking, btw. I just want it to be more clear within the in game ticket system, so players aren't told by griefers "You have to put up with it." as it misinformation and unless you actively look into your options, you'll never know because the current report system doesn't do a enough job at saying "People are not allowed to grief you."

In WoW, they have a harassment section that you can report people under and you also have GM's telling you how you can make reports easier for them. As mentioned, on a budget, if they simply said "Email X with any proof you can." just as a drop down menu on the report feature.

Wait what? So you think labeling someone should remove reasons for them to be in certain areas of the game? I knew there was something not right about your original post ... and now I know what it is.

NO players have exclusive rights to areas ... all players have the same rights to areas. I mean, what you are saying here is certainly ridiculous to me ... you want Anet to ban players who you think are in areas you don't think they should be in ... because you don't think they don't have any business being there. I want you to have a long hard think about why that will NEVER be a reason to call that harassment.

I kinda had a feeling there was a reason for not giving any kind of info surrounding the Ops harassment claims... this appears to come down to "you invaded my personal openworld space" in an online video game ..ANET I think it's been established that this is a big nothing burger and this thread has run it's course :)

[aspirine.6852]

While it's a real bunch of stupid and annoying people. I do not think banning them would be a good idea. A warning perhaps yes.

[Zedek.8932]

@Topalai.4789 said:

@"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.

So when the chat is flooded with:

(10:22) [Name] is looking up [Name²]s face and slowly pokes him.(10:22) [Name] does not move.(10:22) [Name] pokes back, with slighty more power.(10:22) [Name] giggles.(10:22) [Name] puts his hand closely around [Name²](10:22) [Name²] enjoys it much.(10:22) [Name²] screams.(10:22) [Name²] screams.(10:22) [Name²] screams.(10:22) [Name²] screams....

While I just want to buy stuff in Rata Sum or literally somewhere else, then start to spam emotes with their soundeffects, aren't the Roleplayers then drawing "unwanted attention"? Since they usually gather at public places like this, are they now "harrassing" me?

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

@"second account.8947" said:What PvE reason is there to be in a random tavern in DR which is out of the way of sight of everyone else?

It has chairs to sit in and I'm trying to do the chairs achievement. For one particular chair type I had to run all over hell and gone because everywhere I went, all of those chairs were full of RPers just sitting.(1)

(Yes, an example where the RPer's fairly "natural" activity directly interferes with my gameplay.)

(1) Reference to "Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits."

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

@"Zedek.8932" said:While I just want to buy stuff in Rata Sum or literally somewhere else, then start to spam emotes with their soundeffects, aren't the Roleplayers then drawing "unwanted attention"?

No, because they are drawing attention you don't want them to draw, but to themselves. The ToS/Rules of Conduct ban giving unwanted attention to other players.

Example (from SWTOR, but the same sort of rule exists there): I was on a particular map (the planet Quesh, ugh), on a female character wearing a specific and rather skimpy outfit. Some moron decided it would be fun to follow me around and say things like "sexy" repeatedly. I largely ignored him, and eventually switched to an ugly and definitively non-skimpy outfit, at which point he got bored and went away. That said, however, what he was doing was unwanted attention, and if I had wanted to get into that, I could have reported him for it. (I'd probably have had to ask him to leave me alone first, so that he couldn't claim to not know. Switching outfit seemed more productive.)

EDIT: that said, spamming emotes is probably against the letter of the rules of conduct, and is almost certainly against the spirit of those rules.

[Linken.6345]

@Steve The Cynic.3217 said:

@"second account.8947" said:What PvE reason is there to be in a random tavern in DR which is out of the way of sight of everyone else?

It has chairs to sit in and I'm trying to do the chairs achievement. For one particular chair type I had to run all over hell and gone because everywhere I went, all of those chairs were full of RPers just sitting.(1)

(Yes, an example where the RPer's fairly "natural" activity

directly

interferes with my gameplay.)

(1) Reference to "Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits."

Dident they make it so all you had to do was click the chair if it was occupide and you would get the achiv pop anyway?

[Zedek.8932]

@Steve The Cynic.3217 said:

@"Zedek.8932" said:While I just want to buy stuff in Rata Sum or literally somewhere else, then start to spam emotes with their soundeffects, aren't the Roleplayers then drawing "unwanted attention"?

No, because they are drawing attention you don't want them to draw, but to themselves. The ToS/Rules of Conduct ban

giving

unwanted attention to other players.

Example (from SWTOR, but the same sort of rule exists there): I was on a particular map (the planet Quesh, ugh), on a female character wearing a specific and rather skimpy outfit. Some moron decided it would be fun to follow me around and say things like "sexy" repeatedly. I largely ignored him, and eventually switched to an ugly and definitively non-skimpy outfit, at which point he got bored and went away. That said, however, what he was doing

was

unwanted attention, and if I had wanted to get into that, I

could

have reported him for it. (I'd probably have had to ask him to leave me alone first, so that he couldn't claim to not know. Switching outfit seemed more productive.)

EDIT: that said, spamming emotes is probably against the letter of the rules of conduct, and is almost certainly against the

spirit

of those rules.

No, when they scream and re-apply emotes forever, they are giving unwanted attention.How to even "draw" unwanted attention? Do I have to walk up and say "Do something nasty please!"

Look, this happens when I was going back to my always-home, Metrica Province. I kicked in my NV_ENC and let it happen. Actually enjoyed these guys, but they did it before I showed up, they kept doing it and when I left, I still saw it happening:

You know, they having their minions do nasty things with their precious parts, they spammed instruments, screamed and talked about, uh, stuff like that.:

I liked these particular guys, but still, they spamming made my eardrums explode. Female Asura can scream like crazy!

The problem here is: Who is interfering with who? Is the "RP" guys having fun on their alternative accounts, or is it me because I happen to walk in that mess and feel offended? Who is in the right? Who is "drawing unwanted attention"? Me by observing the spectacle? Or they for doing it in the first place?

I am strongly against this very topic of "I said first I am offended, so I am in the right". You know, that's what happens when you have siblings and both make faces, but the one who first yells "Mum, he makes faces" is the one that gets the attention while the sibling would be brushed off with "Don't defend your wrongdoings". And that's what this thread is going into.

Excelsior.

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

@Linken.6345 said:

@Steve The Cynic.3217 said:

@"second account.8947" said:What PvE reason is there to be in a random tavern in DR which is out of the way of sight of everyone else?

It has chairs to sit in and I'm trying to do the chairs achievement. For one particular chair type I had to run all over hell and gone because everywhere I went, all of those chairs were full of RPers just sitting.(1)

(Yes, an example where the RPer's fairly "natural" activity

directly

interferes with my gameplay.)

(1) Reference to "Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits."

Dident they make it so all you had to do was click the chair if it was occupide and you would get the achiv pop anyway?

No idea, and it's not even remotely obvious that it would work like that.

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

@Zedek.8932 said:

@Steve The Cynic.3217 said:

@Zedek.8932 said:While I just want to buy stuff in Rata Sum or literally somewhere else, then start to spam emotes with their soundeffects, aren't the Roleplayers then drawing "unwanted attention"?

No, because they are drawing attention you don't want them to draw, but to themselves. The ToS/Rules of Conduct ban

giving

unwanted attention to other players.

Example (from SWTOR, but the same sort of rule exists there): I was on a particular map (the planet Quesh, ugh), on a female character wearing a specific and rather skimpy outfit. Some moron decided it would be fun to follow me around and say things like "sexy" repeatedly. I largely ignored him, and eventually switched to an ugly and definitively non-skimpy outfit, at which point he got bored and went away. That said, however, what he was doing

was

unwanted attention, and if I had wanted to get into that, I

could

have reported him for it. (I'd probably have had to ask him to leave me alone first, so that he couldn't claim to not know. Switching outfit seemed more productive.)

EDIT: that said, spamming emotes is probably against the letter of the rules of conduct, and is almost certainly against the

spirit

of those rules.

No, when they scream and re-apply emotes forever, they are giving unwanted attention.How to even "draw" unwanted attention? Do I have to walk up and say "Do something nasty please!"

Of course not, and that wasn't what I said, and nor did I say anything about the politics of being offended. (I wasn't offended by that guy following my character, just annoyed.)

"To draw attention to yourself" covers a wide range of things, and many-but-not-all of them can be bundled in the phrase "Look at ME!", including but not limited to:

• Spamming emotes with the evident intention of filling everyone's chat logs.
• Dancing in skimpy / revealing outfits (including male characters with chest/shoulders/glove armour removed)

But it also includes some stuff that probably doesn't merit being bundled into "Look at ME!". Examples:

• RP in general
• Adventuring in skimpies (as in my SWTOR case)

So, RP can draw attention (that is, make people notice that you are doing it) because it is a distinctive activity. Use of custom channels and/or party chat will, of course, mitigate that to a certain extent.

What else, though, hides behind that word "attention"? Now we can start to talk about "giving" attention. That dude following me was giving me unwanted attention. I didn't want him following me around like that, but he did anyway. Perhaps it was partly my fault for having a nearly-naked character.

"Unwanted attention" clauses in rules of conduct and terms of service almost always are directed at people giving unwanted attention (following others around, persisting in whispering them, etc.(1)). Various obnoxious ways to draw attention are covered by OTHER rules, but not the "unwanted attention" rule(s). Most "unwanted attention" rules fall into the category of harassment-prevention.

(1) Another example: in games that have the feature, challenging someone repeatedly to an in-game duel. One dude in SWTOR just wouldn't let go of the idea of duelling my character, or at least not until, after six cycles of Challenge/Decline, I just said "harassment" in /say. At that point he stopped and left me alone.

[Dondarrion.2748]

@seinka.4823 said:

@Yamazuki.6073 said:If you walk up to someone with the sole intention to annoy them, then yes, that is harassment.

I think you have pointed out the problem. How does ANet recognise person's

intention

?

They don't have to though... they only need to see the harassment report by the person being harassed, which needs evidence in the form of screencaps or video of the incident to back the proof. If these trolls go out of their way to hang about and ruin the session for a bunch of RPers, it should be a very small task to gather that proof.

[Morsheira.6102]

When someone is spamming an emote like that, they aren't RPing, they're trolling.They're doing the same thing us RPers are talking about right here. So please, don't try to paint us with that brush. We hate those people too.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

If you feel you are being subjected to verbal harassment, please report the player in the game using "Offensive Chat" as the reason. There is no reasonable way for an agent to know that someone followed you around, or got into your personal space, but chat violations are presented to the agent for review, in context and in a clip, rather than a single string, so that may be the way to help address this.

For instances involving non-verbal situations, you would need to submit a ticket. Remember that videos or screenshots don't really show some situations, but you can offer to share those if you feel they support your complaint.