I received a reply that my ticket resulted in action being taken against a gold seller

SilverBride

I reported a gold seller that was spamming in zone chat and replied to the automatic email including a screenshot of the chat. Usually that is the last I hear, but this time I received a reply that they had been found to be in violation and action had been taken.

It's good to know that our concerns are being addressed and action being taken against these bad actors.

"Greetings,

Thank you for filing this report. We have reviewed your reported concern in ESO. After a thorough review of this report, it was determined that a violation of the ZeniMax Terms of Service or Code of Conduct did occur. As a result, we have taken appropriate action.

Thank you for your report and helping us maintain a healthier gaming community.

Respectfully,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team"

Tandor

Let's hope that's the start of a major change in letting us know what's happening. Its not like we want to know the name and address of the offender, or even what the disciplinary action was, we just want to know that our report was justified and acted on.

Thanks for letting us know.

SilverBride

I hope this is the start of improved communication.

JavaRen

I received a similiar message from support a couple days ago, also someone spamming 'come to xyz website and buy gold' in zone chat.

EF321

I'd bother more if I seen feedback like this.

spartaxoxo

That's excellent. I'm glad to see that as it's something I have seen on other games and sites. I don't need the full breakdown of who I reported and what punishment they got. But, just a note knowing that the report was worth the time taken to make it is good.

AlnilamE

I've reported about half a dozen gold sellers since I came back, and I did get a reply for the last two saying the same as the above, so that was encouraging.

TheMajority

I think it's only ok to recieve a reply like this if it's a bot

I don't think it's ok if its a real player and that what happen on another person account is not the buisiness of a person who reported them

it lets people tally up reports so they can find menial reasons to report players and then they search for reasons to report them to get perma ban, then they account in danger even if they try to be good and change

i think its unsafe and should remain a confidential thing

I don't support that bad people do bad things but I think this just encorage people to issure report for non-issue to get the satisfaction of knowing they got someone into trouble, I think it is dangerous and I hope that the company protects all players from such things.

i think bad actors and bad intentions can be on both sides. someone who likes to report and likes to get people into trouble could really misuse this, and to me I think no one need to know if action is taken to prevent such behaviors and misues of reports

thats my concern

SeaGtGruff

I got one, too.

SilverBride

I don't think a gold seller being caught and having action taken is going to lead to players looking for ways to get many other players banned. And no personal info on the gold seller was disclosed, nor was the action that was taken.

Gold selling is bad for the game and I found it encouraging to know that this was followed up on.

Monte_Cristo

I've gotten that for the last few I reported, too.

Personofsecrets

I've received the response messages for reporting the gold sellers. Other reports though are going without response, even after asking multiple times if the evidence of foul-play that I submitted had been reviewed.

Destai

I'd submit more Bot reports if I knew it was making a difference. There's so many zones where I can reliably find bots. It's been that way for ages. IMO, a gamemaster needs to sit in the capital and starter zones and just go to town.

DeadlySerious

I wouldn't get too excited. This is just another automated response to reports that are made.

SilverBride

DeadlySerious wrote: »

I wouldn't get too excited. This is just another automated response to reports that are made.

This response wasn't the first one I received after submitting my ticket acknowledging that a ticket was received. I replied to that one and attached a screenshot of the gold selling spam in the chat window.

This response came a day after that and gave information we never used to receive before. They never used to tell us if they found the player in violation or not, or if any action was taken.

Stafford197

Honestly, I have very mixed feelings here.

On one hand, there was actual transparency about a bannable action being taken seriously by Support. That’s great - simple as that.

On the other hand, ZOS is still 100% fine with gold selling as long as we utilize the Crown Store as a middle man, so they can rake in money.

EX: Spend $1000 USD on Crowns, gift away your Crowns in exchange for Gold, and congrats. You have purchased Gold for real money the “correct” way. The difference is doing it the “bannable” way leads to a greater payout for your cash.
Simply put it is a Risk vs Reward situation, not a No Goldselling Allowed situation.

In the end I just roll my eyes at stuff like this. Gold selling will always be alive and well in this game, because it is fully allowed so long as we do it the TOS-approved way.

SilverBride

I have played a few MMOs over the years and none of them allowed direct gold selling.

But selling Crowns is not a new concept.

WoW has a similar system with tokens that other players can purchase for game time with real money, then sell them to other players in game for gold.

ArchMikem

There's a specific website that's been advertised in zone chat for years now. I wonder if that's the one you reported.

VouxeTheMinotaur

PS/NA server has been plagued by this bot that keeps spamming " BUY CROWNS GOLD ITEMS SWAT_GOLD" along with a link to a website for players to go to. no matter how many times this gets reported, the guy makes new bots with absurd usernames / character names and continues to keep spamming zone chats with a different URL link for more gold selling.

i wouldn't be too hopeful or surprised if the guy you reported just comes back a week later with fresh links and usernames.

get rid of one, two come back

SilverBride

Yes they will probably just keep coming back. But if I can make it less profitable to do so, I will.

LootAllTheStuff

VouxeTheMinotaur wrote: »

PS/NA server has been plagued by this bot that keeps spamming " BUY CROWNS GOLD ITEMS SWAT_GOLD" along with a link to a website for players to go to. no matter how many times this gets reported, the guy makes new bots with absurd usernames / character names and continues to keep spamming zone chats with a different URL link for more gold selling.

i wouldn't be too hopeful or surprised if the guy you reported just comes back a week later with fresh links and usernames.

get rid of one, two come back

I've seen that repeatedly on XBox-NA as well. I wondered what the heck it was about.

SilverBride

Gold sellers wouldn't be a problem if players weren't violatiing the Terms of Service by buying from them.

They would go out of business if no one was buying from them.

kyle.wilson

shouldn't the chat ai be tuned to spot the kind of behaviors that gold sellers use?
The system that they have monitoring private chat should be taking action long before someone can take the time to report it and then update the ticket.
@ZOS_Kevin

manukartofanu

That's encouraging

Elsonso

SilverBride wrote: »

I reported a gold seller that was spamming in zone chat and replied to the automatic email including a screenshot of the chat. Usually that is the last I hear, but this time I received a reply that they had been found to be in violation and action had been taken.

It's good to know that our concerns are being addressed and action being taken against these bad actors.

"Greetings,

Thank you for filing this report. We have reviewed your reported concern in ESO. After a thorough review of this report, it was determined that a violation of the ZeniMax Terms of Service or Code of Conduct did occur. As a result, we have taken appropriate action.

Thank you for your report and helping us maintain a healthier gaming community.

Respectfully,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team"

Cool. How many years ago did you submit that ticket?

SilverBride

kyle.wilson wrote: »

shouldn't the chat ai be tuned to spot the kind of behaviors that gold sellers use?
The system that they have monitoring private chat should be taking action long before someone can take the time to report it and then update the ticket.
@ZOS_Kevin

In theory that would be a great idea. But in practice it would take an infinite number of patterns of words and letters to identify them all.

They don't just say "Go to thiswebsite.com". They disguise their web sites with punctuation and other symbols between the letters.

I don't know how they could configure AI to identify every possibility.

DeadlySerious

SilverBride wrote: »

DeadlySerious wrote: »

I wouldn't get too excited. This is just another automated response to reports that are made.

This response wasn't the first one I received after submitting my ticket acknowledging that a ticket was received. I replied to that one and attached a screenshot of the gold selling spam in the chat window.

This response came a day after that and gave information we never used to receive before. They never used to tell us if they found the player in violation or not, or if any action was taken.

Everyone, including myself, has received the exact same response. It is not a response that is generated by an actual person. It's an automated response. That's why every word of the reply is identical for everyone who gets the response. It's just more automation on ZOS' part.

SeaGtGruff

Stafford197 wrote: »

Honestly, I have very mixed feelings here.

On one hand, there was actual transparency about a bannable action being taken seriously by Support. That’s great - simple as that.

On the other hand, ZOS is still 100% fine with gold selling as long as we utilize the Crown Store as a middle man, so they can rake in money.

EX: Spend $1000 USD on Crowns, gift away your Crowns in exchange for Gold, and congrats. You have purchased Gold for real money the “correct” way. The difference is doing it the “bannable” way leads to a greater payout for your cash.
Simply put it is a Risk vs Reward situation, not a No Goldselling Allowed situation.

In the end I just roll my eyes at stuff like this. Gold selling will always be alive and well in this game, because it is fully allowed so long as we do it the TOS-approved way.

By extension of your argument, exchanging anything at all in the game for in-game gold could be deemed "gold selling."

Psst! Hey, you in the zone. Yes, you! Do you want gold? Lots of gold? Well, just mail me all of your purple and gold tempering mats, all of your Cornflower and Colombine, all of your Mundane Runes and Heartwood, and I'll send you GOLD! Lots and lots of GOLD!

And you don't even have to buy me anything from the Crown Store for it.

Except exchanging something for gold isn't "gold selling." Going to a third-party website, entering your credit card details, and forking over IRL funds (as well as probably opening yourself up to getting your credit card details stolen) in exchange for gold is considered "gold selling."

Exchanging in-game gold for an item from the Crown Store isn't considered "gold selling," whether or not the person gifting you with the requested Crown Store item had to spend IRL money to get the Crowns to buy you the gift with. As far as I know, that sort of thing used to be frowned upon-- and it might still be looked at suspiciously depending on the specifics, such as the amount of gold being exchanged and how frequently the person with the Crowns is "gifting" things to other players. If I'm not mistaken, people have been banned for that-- at least, judging by what they came to the forums and posted about it afterward-- presumably when it looked too shady and suspicious.

Even buying things from a Guild Store for outrageous amounts of gold can be suspicious, and may result in an investigation for possible "gold laundering" or whatever, and can lead to action against the account.

Amottica

TheMajority wrote: »

I think it's only ok to recieve a reply like this if it's a bot

I don't think it's ok if its a real player and that what happen on another person account is not the buisiness of a person who reported them

it lets people tally up reports so they can find menial reasons to report players and then they search for reasons to report them to get perma ban, then they account in danger even if they try to be good and change

i think its unsafe and should remain a confidential thing

I don't support that bad people do bad things but I think this just encorage people to issure report for non-issue to get the satisfaction of knowing they got someone into trouble, I think it is dangerous and I hope that the company protects all players from such things.

i think bad actors and bad intentions can be on both sides. someone who likes to report and likes to get people into trouble could really misuse this, and to me I think no one need to know if action is taken to prevent such behaviors and misues of reports

thats my concern

This would be correct. Responding like this if it is an actual player carries too much risk.

You are also correct about false reports. Players can do so to harass, but also gold sellers can easily report their competition.

Amottica

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Stafford197 wrote: »

Honestly, I have very mixed feelings here.

On one hand, there was actual transparency about a bannable action being taken seriously by Support. That’s great - simple as that.

On the other hand, ZOS is still 100% fine with gold selling as long as we utilize the Crown Store as a middle man, so they can rake in money.

EX: Spend $1000 USD on Crowns, gift away your Crowns in exchange for Gold, and congrats. You have purchased Gold for real money the “correct” way. The difference is doing it the “bannable” way leads to a greater payout for your cash.
Simply put it is a Risk vs Reward situation, not a No Goldselling Allowed situation.

In the end I just roll my eyes at stuff like this. Gold selling will always be alive and well in this game, because it is fully allowed so long as we do it the TOS-approved way.

By extension of your argument, exchanging anything at all in the game for in-game gold could be deemed "gold selling."

Psst! Hey, you in the zone. Yes, you! Do you want gold? Lots of gold? Well, just mail me all of your purple and gold tempering mats, all of your Cornflower and Colombine, all of your Mundane Runes and Heartwood, and I'll send you GOLD! Lots and lots of GOLD!

And you don't even have to buy me anything from the Crown Store for it.

Except exchanging something for gold isn't "gold selling." Going to a third-party website, entering your credit card details, and forking over IRL funds (as well as probably opening yourself up to getting your credit card details stolen) in exchange for gold is considered "gold selling."

Exchanging in-game gold for an item from the Crown Store isn't considered "gold selling," whether or not the person gifting you with the requested Crown Store item had to spend IRL money to get the Crowns to buy you the gift with. As far as I know, that sort of thing used to be frowned upon-- and it might still be looked at suspiciously depending on the specifics, such as the amount of gold being exchanged and how frequently the person with the Crowns is "gifting" things to other players. If I'm not mistaken, people have been banned for that-- at least, judging by what they came to the forums and posted about it afterward-- presumably when it looked too shady and suspicious.

Even buying things from a Guild Store for outrageous amounts of gold can be suspicious, and may result in an investigation for possible "gold laundering" or whatever, and can lead to action against the account.

The issue is not the trading in the game. As you noted, paying real-world money for that gold is the issue. The red flag in the game is selling one purple upgrade mat or a single potion for 100k gold since that is clearly way off the going price.

What I find odd is how Zenimax justifies trading crowns for gold or other in-game items. They consider crowns (or the crown item) to be in-game items, even though this is directly tied to real-world money without question. I am surprised they have not created a direct conversion system similar to what GW2 has, as it does provide a cost to the trade but also keeps it clean trade without the risk of scammers.

Stafford197

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Stafford197 wrote: »

Honestly, I have very mixed feelings here.

On one hand, there was actual transparency about a bannable action being taken seriously by Support. That’s great - simple as that.

On the other hand, ZOS is still 100% fine with gold selling as long as we utilize the Crown Store as a middle man, so they can rake in money.

EX: Spend $1000 USD on Crowns, gift away your Crowns in exchange for Gold, and congrats. You have purchased Gold for real money the “correct” way. The difference is doing it the “bannable” way leads to a greater payout for your cash.
Simply put it is a Risk vs Reward situation, not a No Goldselling Allowed situation.

In the end I just roll my eyes at stuff like this. Gold selling will always be alive and well in this game, because it is fully allowed so long as we do it the TOS-approved way.

By extension of your argument, exchanging anything at all in the game for in-game gold could be deemed "gold selling."

Psst! Hey, you in the zone. Yes, you! Do you want gold? Lots of gold? Well, just mail me all of your purple and gold tempering mats, all of your Cornflower and Colombine, all of your Mundane Runes and Heartwood, and I'll send you GOLD! Lots and lots of GOLD!

And you don't even have to buy me anything from the Crown Store for it.

Except exchanging something for gold isn't "gold selling." Going to a third-party website, entering your credit card details, and forking over IRL funds (as well as probably opening yourself up to getting your credit card details stolen) in exchange for gold is considered "gold selling."

Exchanging in-game gold for an item from the Crown Store isn't considered "gold selling," whether or not the person gifting you with the requested Crown Store item had to spend IRL money to get the Crowns to buy you the gift with. As far as I know, that sort of thing used to be frowned upon-- and it might still be looked at suspiciously depending on the specifics, such as the amount of gold being exchanged and how frequently the person with the Crowns is "gifting" things to other players. If I'm not mistaken, people have been banned for that-- at least, judging by what they came to the forums and posted about it afterward-- presumably when it looked too shady and suspicious.

Even buying things from a Guild Store for outrageous amounts of gold can be suspicious, and may result in an investigation for possible "gold laundering" or whatever, and can lead to action against the account.

Selling Cornflower on a guild trader is not bannable and is not considered “gold selling”.