Taking Action Against Cheaters in ESO

TwistedRiddlesb14_ESO

avangoreb16_ESO wrote: »

TwistedRiddlesb14_ESO wrote: »

brandonedward wrote: »

Mempomaniac wrote: »

I wouldn't fret too much over it. Generally*, getting a complaint is the beginning of an investigative process, not the end of it.

Say that to a bunch of people who were banned "permanently" simply by just trading gold to their friends, guildies, and even people on the same IP address (20k-40k+), along with some that just put gold into their shared bank, then took it out with an alt, only to be banned.

I'm afraid to even trade now, or even put gold into my bank... or to have it on me... or to even play!

I really hope this gets resolved. This is like the biggest customer service mistake I have ever seen in an MMO.

This seems to happen in any game that has to ban accounts in the thousands. An error margin of zero percent would be quite Utopian. I think this includes any online game ever, where players can trade with each other.

My issue is not that there was the occasional mistaken ban... It's that after that mistaken ban, they went through a review, and after that review, the ban was deemed permanent. And THEN after that when people came out and made it public that they were not gold farmers and were banned for things like trading money to their friends or... just nothing... Zenimax said nothing at all... They have just ignored those posts and not commented on them. Which is probably the worst thing they could have done. So yeah, mistakes happen, but they need to acknowledge them and say something to restore faith to their players who, right now, are not sure what they are allowed to do before getting a no warning, permanent ban.

Ysne58

I'd hardly call an admin requesting a ticket number so that she can send the ticket to someone higher up, failing to respond. There have been comments in most if not all of those threads. I do not know whether they have been resolved yet, but they are not being ignored.

TwistedRiddlesb14_ESO

Ysne58 wrote: »

I'd hardly call an admin requesting a ticket number so that she can send the ticket to someone higher up, failing to respond. There have been comments in most if not all of those threads. I do not know whether they have been resolved yet, but they are not being ignored.

I was not aware of any thread where there has been a response. If you're right, then I am happy to hear that. Though, I still have not heard anyone mention that their issue has been resolved.

merk

I REALLY REALLY hate spammers - I'd LOVE to help fight them any way i can.

I also have a few comments/suggestions

1. When i report a spammer, i get a totally useless email reply back from ESO saying thanks, but we're not going to tell you anything useful. So my 'reward' for reporting a spammer is basically to get spammed by ESO with a useless email. Either dont bother sending me the email, OR actually tell me 'yeah, we nuked that ***'. And I'm not saying i want a reward. But I definitely don't want a useless email that says the same thing every time i report a spammer. Personally, i don't see why you can't tell us if the spammer has been nuked or not.

2. I think a fairly simple way to cut down on the ingame gold spam is to limit someone's ability to communicate until they are a certain level. Maybe have a 'new players channel' that all new players belong to, and that anyone can turn off. And only allow people past a certain level to use the zone channel.

3. And/or restrict how quickly they can send a message. Don't let someone send the same message twice in a row to any channel within a given time period.

4. The spammers will create a couple of variations of their message to get around #3 above, so you might also block anyone from sending a message that has any keywords - and for me the keywords would really just have to be their domain name. That's really all it comes down to - you block them from giving out their domain name and you win. There's only so many ways they can cleverly distort their domain name before it becomes so distorted that you can't tell what their domain is.

5. Apply the same level restrictions to sending emails, but make the level much higher. If i'm friends with someone this restriction doesn't apply. ABSOLUTELY prevent anyone from sending more then X mails per hour (other then to people in their friends list)

6. Create a player volunteer group whose only power is to mute someone (no zone, yell, email or whisper - except to friends) until support can review the spam complaint and either perma-ban that offender or unmute them. Obviously if a player abuses this too much you kick them from the volunteer group and/or penalize them somehow. It's pretty obvious if someone is spamming, versus muting someone just because you don't like them. So it should be pretty obvious if anyone abuses this ability.

Rantog

merk wrote: »

I REALLY REALLY hate spammers - I'd LOVE to help fight them any way i can.

The unpleasant truth is, we can't do anything. We report - they send a canned response and nothing gets done.

They Claim they banned thousands, but you would expect to see Hundreds claiming they were wrongly banned if this were the case..
We've seen what? 2?

The bots we were reporting should be gone - Every One Of Them that I've seen, were operating last night - after they made the claim.

Same thing with teleport harvesters, same ones running the same automated route they've been doing all week. (if they banned Anyone, these should have gone First, there is no way to mistake them for Real Players)

And just logged in with 4 gold seller mails, and 2 of the first 3 comments in chat, were gold spammers.


Even if they HAD (I have seen No Change- and do not believe the claim) banned thousands, it does no good if they don't close the security holes that allow the exploits in the first place - otherwise the hackers just make more -human-seeming- hacks to avoid detection, and continue business as usual.

Pinkenbah

Puts her hand up as another banned illegitimately, who is attempting the labyrinth of appeal process which so far has only fruited generic responses that have not addressed any points raised within the appeal. Four days and counting.... what a shemozzle.

Tipsy

that explains why chat had less spam and goldselling past day keep up the good work

TwistedRiddlesb14_ESO

Pinkenbah wrote: »

Puts her hand up as another banned illegitimately, who is attempting the labyrinth of appeal process which so far has only fruited generic responses that have not addressed any points raised within the appeal. Four days and counting.... what a shemozzle.

Is the appeal process just e-mails? Can you call them on the phone? I really hope that when they restore your account (And I REALLY hope they do for everyone's sake) they credit you the time they stole from you because of this.

Pinkenbah

there is an option to request they call you. I did this days ago. the response is apparently to be longer than an hour but gives no end limit. "to infinity" who knows. the other way of appealing is through emails, which gives you the generic responses that are written as though they have not actually read your issue. here is an example, apparently even the recipient of the ban is not permitted to know the reason for it.

Greetings, Adventurer!
The dwellers of Tamriel thank you for taking time from your quests to report this offense. Maintaining the integrity of the land is a priority; we will investigate this matter and take the appropriate action.

To protect individual privacy, we do not disclose the outcome of our investigation.

Jessabella

Glad to hear it! I hope any one who was accidentally banned along side the legitimate bans has patience and understanding. While not a happy place to be in, your sacrifices are greatly appreciated so we can all have a better experience once ZOS gets everyone back in the game.

TwistedRiddlesb14_ESO

Pinkenbah wrote: »

there is an option to request they call you. I did this days ago. the response is apparently to be longer than an hour but gives no end limit. "to infinity" who knows. the other way of appealing is through emails, which gives you the generic responses that are written as though they have not actually read your issue. here is an example, apparently even the recipient of the ban is not permitted to know the reason for it.

Greetings, Adventurer!
The dwellers of Tamriel thank you for taking time from your quests to report this offense. Maintaining the integrity of the land is a priority; we will investigate this matter and take the appropriate action.

To protect individual privacy, we do not disclose the outcome of our investigation.

That is really truly awful. Can we get some sort of response here? This is really making a lot of people very nervous about playing this game right now, myself included. If even one person is permanently banned from this game for no reason, it's not worth it. I would rather have ten million gold sellers then one innocent person permanently banned. Especially if the system continues like this unfixed. Imagine playing ESO for five years and then waking up one morning and being permanently banned when you did nothing wrong. Losing all the work you did and not being able to play a game you enjoyed and made friends in. I really really hope that they promptly restore everyone's account who was unfairly banned.

Pinkenbah

At this point Twisted I would have to agree with you, it has made me think twice about investing further, or recommending any of my gaming family to join me in ESO. Especially as once a suspension has been placed by the ESO banning gods, it seems to be open ended as to when or if there will be resolution.

Ysne58

@ZOS_GinaBruno‌ or @ZOS_JessicaFolsom‌ could you respond about Pinkenbah's issue? about 3 or 4 posts up?

Malaari

I really like to hear this, keep up the good work

TwistedRiddlesb14_ESO

Pinkenbah wrote: »

At this point Twisted I would have to agree with you, it has made me think twice about investing further, or recommending any of my gaming family to join me in ESO. Especially as once a suspension has been placed by the ESO banning gods, it seems to be open ended as to when or if there will be resolution.

That's why it is so important to get some word on what is being done about the people who were banned unfairly. I really wish ZOS would give some official word on it. Ideally on this thread where it is being discussed, and we know they are looking, since it is a thread started by someone from ZOS.

beasthuntr_ESO

Found a big batch of farmers. Highgs, Goders, Xilam, Blackdj. All farming with bots in a dungeon in stonefarm. Can't get the exact one, just found it by random, but they're majorly annoying me

DBHAShadow

KerinKor wrote: »

This news would be better if it weren't for the several blatant 'false positives' that have happened, one mentioned in this thread, another concerning a boy-friend giving his girl-friend some gold to buy a horse several days ago, where the perma-ban has NOT been reversed.

So, these figures of thousands of accounts clearly include collateral damage Zeniman don't seem interested in fixing

how do you know they aren't interested in fixing it? Do you work there, CEO said "naw f*** em'" ? you know the old saying about assuming right?


As for people saying "But how could they have banned people, I see gold farmers still" Do you honestly think that A ) they got em all tex, and B ) that the gold farmers go, oh they ban me, me no sell gold no more. In the last days of me playing WoW, I was getting upwards of 10 real ID requests a day from gold farmers, a game as established and old as WoW having been around a decade, still has gold farmers, spammers, sellers. This problem doesn't go away, people will buy gold, and as long as people do that, there will always be farmers / sellers.

I mean honestly, saying that they aren't actually banning people because you still get spam would be like saying "the police said they arrested 10 prostitutes, but I was still able to go down town and pick one up, they must be lying."

Anex

Rantog wrote: »

IMO, dealing with these people should take priority over even the Bug fixes on all but the most important of those.

If you need a reason why... look at Vanguard.

Vanguard is the perfect example of why fixing BUGS is more important. I agree that these bots etc need to be squashed fast (the gold sellers actually seemed WORSE yesterday after then ban than before it, perhaps in defiance?), but the bugs that are blocking progress must be addressed.

I played Vanguard from day 1 release (or tried to anyway but I couldn't do much of anything). I was excited! The game had GREAT ideas but it was buggier than I don't know what. It was just unplayable. What killed Vanguard in the beginning was not bots but simply being unable to play because so many things were so broken. Its reputation as a buggy game spread, it got terrible reviews.

Gamespy awarded Vanguard the "Biggest Disappointment" award for 2007. Vanguard also won the awards in the categories for "Least Fun", "Most Desolate" and "Lamest Launch" in the MMORPG.com MMOWTF Awards for the worst games of 2007.

There have been numerous criticisms of the game by the game press and the fanbase.

The game was released before it was ready, leading to:

-Content was low for high-level players, and spotty even in some lower-level areas. Much planned high level content was not included at launch.
-Large numbers of bugs and performance issues, which make gameplay difficult, and on some systems rendering the game virtually unplayable.
-At release, performance was poor on many systems, including some high-end configurations. For example there was no anti-aliasing, and anisotropic filtering support was buggy.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard:_Saga_of_Heroes#Reception

This is what I fear happening to ESO, it going the route of Vanguard bugs. There are quests in the starting areas that are STILL bugged and unable to be completed. There are quests that are still blocking character progress. This must be addressed. I even posted about how I feared this game was being released too soon just to have a fancy 4.4.14 release date while beta testing. Too many bugs can turn people off quickly.

I'm not trying to turn this topic into a bug post, but your use of Vanguard as an example is not a good one in the manner you are trying to use it for (bots before bugs).

Tiqwah1984

yeah great job...or wait...no? Because you also have baned people like me who only trade with a friend ingame! Waiting now since 5 day for something happend! reallllly good job ZOS...not!

Fransiscus

Cant find the forum for bugs so this is what is happening to me at the wyrdquests the ghosts speak german to me it is very annoying, and when i enter doisha "dourstone" my group gets split up into everybodys own version of the lair and we are alone against Doisha and yes we have all the same point in quest..... tried everything relogging etcetcetc

MrGlad8

You have to stop the little "exploit" that happens 24/7 in all public dugeons!
The end-boss drops quite nice items.. and that end-boss spawns every time 1 new player enter that dungeon, but everyone can kill the boss every time he spawns!
I guess everyone is doing this to farm potions, souldhards and gold/items.. but this will ruin the in-game economy eventually, don't you agree?

I'd say you need to change it so that when you kill the end-boss in a public dungeon the second time you wont get any loot !

Sarenia

This is Zenimax debut into the gaming world, as a collective organization. I'm really hoping they can weather the storm.

I'd like to be playing this game in several years' time, but between bugs, bots and bad attitudes I know ZOS has a lot on their plate. It will either break them, or forge them into something strong.

I enjoy tearing apart software and modifying files as much as the next geek, but I really have a special distaste for the black hats who ruin games like this. That's the world we live in though. Gold Spammers are expected, bots are as common as bytes, and DDoS attacks are just a few bitcoins away.

SypherDiass

Fransiscus wrote: »

Cant find the forum for bugs so this is what is happening to me at the wyrdquests the ghosts speak german to me it is very annoying, and when i enter doisha "dourstone" my group gets split up into everybodys own version of the lair and we are alone against Doisha and yes we have all the same point in quest..... tried everything relogging etcetcetc

you ever think that doisha was a single player phase ? rather than moaning you cannot all do it together , try looking for some tactics so you can solo it .... i have done it several times with my various characters , once you know the mechanics its EASY .... too many players moaning things are broken in this game when in fact, they are working as intended , its just too many people are too dumb to work out the mechanics and play accordingly. they see people moaning they are unable to do it, then they moan its bugged , when really they havent tried very hard at all.

this is not a game for players that wish to be spoon fed levels , nor is it a game for people with no common sense the game is great the way it is , the idiots and morons that huddle around an npc spawn , they should phase out after 30 seconds or so , cos its those idiots / *** that stand on the npc spawn and demand it spawns immediately that cause people to think there is soo many bugs in this game.... yes some quests are bugged , but others that people complain about being bugged , it is merely a case of people not allowing the game / phase a chance to reset / respawn......

i have lost count of the amount people moaning about balreth 'keeps going into the lava and getting his health back , he goes from one side to the other ' .....

people either DO NOT or CAN NOT read the simple instructions that say use the rune or w/e it is called that stops him in his tracks for a few seconds allowing you to get a bit of extra dps on him ....

this is not a bug thread , it is about the fact that players are still being harrassed by gold sellers in both zone chat ( which yes it can be turned off, by why should i ignore most of the games population that may need help because of a few *** ? ) and in game mail ... we are getting more and more in game mails from gold sellers and people offering power levelling , so it is EXTREMELY hard to swallow the info that they claim they banned thousands when in game the situation is not visibly improving ..

any word from ZOS yet ?

DoZakar

Thousands? Wow. Pretty cool to see you guys are on top of this.

Rev Rielle

MrGlad8 wrote: »

You have to stop the little "exploit" that happens 24/7 in all public dugeons!
The end-boss drops quite nice items.. and that end-boss spawns every time 1 new player enter that dungeon, but everyone can kill the boss every time he spawns!
I guess everyone is doing this to farm potions, souldhards and gold/items.. but this will ruin the in-game economy eventually, don't you agree?

I'd say you need to change it so that when you kill the end-boss in a public dungeon the second time you wont get any loot !

I agree, it's very frustrating in dungeons at the moment, other players doing this completely ruin the feel of them.

Isende

Rage_Frost wrote: »

Great News!

And anyone trading 40k+ in gold should have there Account looked at this point in the game. Heck I been buying bank upgrades and Inv Upgrades and with Repair Bills just out right silly in this game I'm lucky to make anything lol...

Hope they banned all the Invisible Node Jumping d bags also. I had this happen to me so many times it just silly. And the funny thing is they have that monkey out which you can see... but you never see them. And no its not lag.

Also A note on cheaters they will always and I mean always deny it go to the forums and make some sad post about It to stir the pot.. To make weak people think Oh no if I trade gold I get banned...If I send mail I will get banned...

Come on Folks do not fall for this Troll Trap.
Wish these Dev's would respond to some of these folks with oh yeah you were banned and I know deep down they want to so bad. But they cant

(On a side not with the guild AH set up where does all that gold go to for sales it not going into a Guild Bank that's for sure... I should know I run a Guild with about 400 people in it and I don't see nothing going into the guild coffers) now that to me is a gold sink and a pricy one at that.

where are these guild coffers of which you speak? i manage our gbank and had to roll an alt to keep track of the gold transactions, so i could keep them separate from by own gold stash. all this because zmax decided not to give us the option to deposit/withdraw gold to/from our guild banks.

TwistedRiddlesb14_ESO

Thalesianulathrwb17_ESO wrote: »

MrGlad8 wrote: »

You have to stop the little "exploit" that happens 24/7 in all public dugeons!
The end-boss drops quite nice items.. and that end-boss spawns every time 1 new player enter that dungeon, but everyone can kill the boss every time he spawns!
I guess everyone is doing this to farm potions, souldhards and gold/items.. but this will ruin the in-game economy eventually, don't you agree?

I'd say you need to change it so that when you kill the end-boss in a public dungeon the second time you wont get any loot !

I agree, it's very frustrating in dungeons at the moment, other players doing this completely ruin the feel of them.

They have said in another thread that while this is not necessarily courteous, it's not technically against the TOS, and I would agree with that. You can't ban people for not being nice. They are trying to get gear. That happens in an MMO. I suppose they could just remove the gear or change the way the mob spawns.

ZeroNeonix

merk wrote: »

I REALLY REALLY hate spammers - I'd LOVE to help fight them any way i can.

I also have a few comments/suggestions.

...

2. I think a fairly simple way to cut down on the ingame gold spam is to limit someone's ability to communicate until they are a certain level. Maybe have a 'new players channel' that all new players belong to, and that anyone can turn off. And only allow people past a certain level to use the zone channel.

I played AION, and they had a level limit to communication. I hated that. It completely killed my ability to roleplay, or to cooperate with others that I didn't already know before starting the game. If it's just the /zone chat that they limit, I might be able to tolerate that. But I definitely do not want a limit on /say, /yell, /whisper, /g(1-5), or /group.

Cloakofwinter

Keep it up. Really want the gold spammers gone.

ZeroNeonix

I'm happy to hear that you guys are taking action, but like many others, reading this thread makes me nervous. It seems that at least a handful of mistakes were made in the massive banning crusade, and those are enough cause for concern. I hope that these people's characters, items, and progress were not wiped. That will make it a lot harder to make things right.