Should you be able to use the report function or block list in WvW to circumvent anonymity?

[Acemos.2856]

So, in world versus world, The game hides the name of enemy players and replaces it with the name of their world and rank. This seems to have been made with the intention of trying to obscure the identity of players. If this was their intention, the block and report functions in the game have a secondary function to allow players to obtain the names of opponents. Needless to say, this isn't the intended use for the block list or report tool. This isn't really a huge problem, just something I thought was strange because it seemed counter intuitive. I thought it was designed with anonymity to sort of prevent toxic behavior, but this trick circumvents the whole thing. Most of the time, people who use this trick don't do it to say GG or compliment me on my fashion. They use it to say nasty things and then follow it up with a block so I don't have a chance to reply. 

 

Anyway, what do you guys think? I don't think it's imperative that anything be done about this issue, I just think that it's kind of strange. It seems like it'd be easy to fix. Just don't allow blocking in WvW (why would you need to block someone who shouldn't be able to communicate with you in the first place) and hide account names on reports.

[GutterRat.1269]

They considered fixing this and many other matters, but at the end of the day it was decided that the Off-line issue had to take priority.

[lodjur.1284]

You should. 

 

The only player I interact with that I actually met in this game I met that way. 

 

Don't head to make this game more anti social

 

Also the salt is just fun

[Acemos.2856]

1 minute ago, lodjur.1284 said:

You should. 

 

The only player I interact with that I actually met in this game I met that way. 

 

Don't head to make this game more anti social

 

Also the salt is just fun

Salt might be considered fun, but I'd rather not be called all sorts of racial and homophobic slurs lol. 

[lodjur.1284]

7 minutes ago, Acemos.2856 said:

Salt might be considered fun, but I'd rather not be called all sorts of racial and homophobic slurs lol. 

I am rather in favor of them wielding the banhammer.

 

While those things don't bother me as I can rationalize it and see it as a win. I completely understand that people's experiences are different and that other people might find those things far worse than me.

 

Letting the offenders in question set the terms seems like a poor way to handle it. 

 

Also as far as insults go, same team names in sPvP are by quite a margin the worst offender.

 

Anet can ban people, it isn't particularly hard, once people understand what's not acceptable, it should be rare enough to not be a significant resource drain and participation in certain gamemodes would go up.

 

As I said, in my experience the enemy team is essentially the only chance one has of making friends in this game. Deleting it would've been a loss

Edited May 22, 2021 by lodjur.1284

[ArchonWing.9480]

I think we should allow direct messaging but let it be opt-in. I personally would opt in because I always post salt of any kind publicly so usually at least a dozen or two people get to know how stupid they are.  Basically, you can harass me, but not in private.

 

 

Block should just be block. It's just kinda stupid it does other things. My opinion is that people that don't know what settings are, are probably too carebear to handle these things and given the nature of this game may be the majority.

 

But then again most of the toxicity I've observed comes from my own teammates so maybe this is all moot. We really need a friendly fire week. Sometimes I  consider saving up some gold so I can temporarily transfer to kill my own server mates but they do such a good job of getting themselves killed anyways.

 

The current system sucks and needs more features for control.

Edited May 22, 2021 by ArchonWing.9480

[Choppy.4183]

5 hours ago, Acemos.2856 said:

Salt might be considered fun, but I'd rather not be called all sorts of racial and homophobic slurs lol. 

 

Why not just block the person if that happens? And, the nice thing is we can all set our own thresholds for block based on our own criteria. 

 

Honestly, I find the ability to start conversations with people on other servers a huge plus to the game mode. Under the current configuration, salt merchants can't bring toxicity on a large scale (no access to anything but whispers, not especially easy to cause widespread harassment, etc) and if they go through the hassle of initiating a direct conversation to be a jerk, they can be blocked with less effort than they already put in. Really egregious people can be reported as a bonus.

 

Meanwhile, it opens up a broader sense of community, creates opportunities for people to improve their game play (e.g. skill and tactic discussions while dueling), etc.

[LetoII.3782]

If you can't stand interacting with other players, an MMO may be wrong for you.

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

Some of the most entertaining interactions I've had have been from someone salt whispering me in WvW using the block function. If you don't want to do that then you can always set yourself offline for the time you're in WvW, you can't see guild chat when offline which can be a pain but if you're in discord/teamspeak you won't be missing much anyways.

 

Edit: Depending on their level of vitriol, their experience and my mood, sometimes I reply nicely (usually if it was a low rank player I will be nice), sometimes I just laugh at them (usually when I dare to offend someone simply by existing), sometimes I ignore them entirely (when people try too hard to get a reaction) and sometimes I just hide whispers altogether. It's free entertainment as far as I'm concerned I but don't feel like I'm obliged to reply or even read any of it. 

Edited May 22, 2021 by Jugglemonkey.8741

[Bristingr.5034]

Just let us message the enemies easier. Makes it easier when I want to coordinate with the other server so we can beat the crap out of Maguuma.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Bristingr.5034

[Acemos.2856]

1 hour ago, LetoII.3782 said:

If you can't stand interacting with other players, an MMO may be wrong for you.

I don't think anyone was saying this.

[Acemos.2856]

It seems we're in favor of having the social aspect there, in which case, we should just have the names visible instead of having to jump through strange hoops to see them. it could just be: 

 

[TAG] Name

<Worldname Rank>

[Junkpile.7439]

Can you make some kind of auto translate system so german and french players understand my rage messages. 🤓

 

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

33 minutes ago, Junkpile.7439 said:

Can you make some kind of auto translate system so german and french players understand my rage messages. 🤓

 

One of the sillier salty whispers I got was in German. I replied saying sorry I don't speak French, and he just apologised. 

[Justine.6351]

A toggle to block whispers from members of a different team color maybe should have been implemented long ago. Put it on by default and anyone who wants to open themselves up to that can make that choice.

[dank.3680]

That's funny, I've just come back to this game after being away around 5 years and I remember this exact topic from back then.  My answer was, I like the "feature" and I've met so many cool people from enemy teams. Block is a thing, and I think it is enough. 

[Choppy.4183]

5 hours ago, Acemos.2856 said:

It seems we're in favor of having the social aspect there, in which case, we should just have the names visible instead of having to jump through strange hoops to see them. it could just be: 

 

[TAG] Name

<Worldname Rank>

 

I'd prefer it personally, but with names it would be easier to have a server dog pile people or spam them with whispers than the current setup. Plus, the current setup confines it to people who know how and have at least a bit of motivation to start talking. So, from a risk management point of view, maybe leaving it as is would be better....

[Vavume.8065]

15 hours ago, Acemos.2856 said:

Should you be able to use the report function or block list in WvW to circumvent anonymity?

 No, and you should not be able to receive salty mail from enemy players while invisible either.

[Mokk.2397]

If at any time you receive hateful , racist , harassing  or threatening messages  that is in direct contravention of the game rules  , take a screen shot of the conversation and submit a ticket and report .  I'm sure that a character name can be cross referenced to an account by ANET.

Salty comments about play style are one thing , but personal hateful messages are another .

If people get so angry that they need to resort to this type of behaviour need to log off and cool off .

 

[Chaba.5410]

The report function doesn't reveal an account name which makes reporting hacking more difficult (filed under botting and going into a black hole).  When I see hacking I want to know exactly the account name so I can get as much information as possible when emailing the exploits address.

Edited May 23, 2021 by Chaba.5410

[Cyninja.2954]

8 hours ago, Acemos.2856 said:

It seems we're in favor of having the social aspect there, in which case, we should just have the names visible instead of having to jump through strange hoops to see them. it could just be: 

 

[TAG] Name

<Worldname Rank>

You are going from one extreme to another.

 

Having a reasonable bar in place to prevent cross opponent interaction makes sense, if that is the intent. Immediatly stiffling and locking down all interaction, no matter how creative players circumvent the system is a step far beyond that.

 

Players who want to grief, offend or annoy will find other ways to do so. You being unable to find the block and report function is on you, and you absolutely should report offensive behavior.

 

Finally the system, with the ability to circumvent it with additonal effort, in place has a ton of benefits. It is not uncommon for commanders to message each other and coordinate fights for example without having to rely on out of game messaging.

[Virdo.1540]

Block option and the Invite-Group option (right upper corner) need to be removed for WvW-Enemies.

 

Report function hides identity already.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I'd be in favor of removing the anonymity altogether... except for one thing.  Commanders are habitual, so once a commander becomes known by his enemies it becomes ridiculously easy to focus and take him down.

 

Then again, that could be intended gameplay.