Belorn.2659

> @"HardRider.2980" said:

> / g g its soo simple, you can do it in like .5 second.

It is for raiding. One hand resting on awd and second hand on the mouse, so it takes more than 0.5 to move the hands for typing. Thought about macro key since the keyboard has those, but sending so many key presses seems bound for failure and was hoping that I had just missed feature to enable single key emotes.

Maybe a QoL update for the future unless the /gg rework in fractals also get translated into raiding.

> @"GreyWolf.8670" said:

> > @"Belorn.2659" said:

> > > @"trueanimus.4085" said:

> > > > @"ArchonWing.9480" said:

> > > > > @"trueanimus.4085" said:

> > > > > > @"ArchonWing.9480" said:

> > > > > > > @"trueanimus.4085" said:

> > > > > > >

> > > > > > > > If you're in Germany or the EU in general try reading the EULA. You have a remedy. You can have your money refunded and your account deleted.

> > > > > > >

> > > > > > > EULA means everything in situations like this... basically by signing in , you are agreeing to let them do whatever they want. But that is kind of funny when you state it like that lol

> > > > > > >

> > > > > >

> > > > > >

> > > > > > Could you point out the part of the EULA that allows them to do whatever they want? What if they wipe out your hard drive in case you might be cheating? Can they use it to mine bitcoin?

> > > > >

> > > > > When there is a patch... you agree by loading the launcher to add the patch correct? It has to make changes to your HD to do so.. correct? By loading the game, you have already given them access to your HD.

> > > > >

> > > > > They cant legally snoop your pc for your information... bank accounts, cc numbers etc.. but.. as a part of the software (as with most software these days) they can gather information reliant to the game and making sure it runs correctly on your system, i am sure there is a section in the EULA about agreeing to a listing of processes running on your pc for diagnostic use or something pretty close.

> > > > >

> > > > > Most software EULA's has this and a section that by running said program, you agree not to sue them in case of damages etc.. blah blah.. you know the drill.

> > > > >

> > > > > I didn't mean they could wipe your HD etc for cheating.. but they can snoop simple things such as processes lists if it pertains to diagnostics.

> > > >

> > > > Well, you said "everything" and that was going on a bit not just by you, and I was wondering where that went. And them updating the game is a necessary thing to even be able to play the game. They may install updates. it doesn't mean they can install anything.

> > > >

> > > > >

> > > > >

> > > > > Oh and btw.... i think that is covered under montoring

> > > > >

> > > > > 7. PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

> > > > > It is Your responsibility to read, understand and accept the Privacy Policy in effect in connection with Your use of the Service. You acknowledge that ArenaNet may make changes to the Privacy Policy at any time. You also acknowledge that each and every time You click “I ACCEPT” You warrant and represent that You did read, understand and accept the most recent version of the Privacy Policy in effect at that time.

> > > > > ArenaNet has no obligation under any circumstances to review any information, feedback or communication related to the Game. ArenaNet may, in its reasonable discretion, choose to review any information, feedback or communication **related to the Game**. ArenaNet may take any action, or no action whatsoever, based on any information, feedback or communication **related to the Game**, including but not limited to publicly commenting upon or publishing the foregoing. ArenaNet has no obligation to explain any decision to take any action, or no action whatsoever, based on any information, feedback or communication related to the Game. **You acknowledge, and further agree, that You have no obligation to provide ArenaNet any information, feedback or communications **related to the Game.** In addition to the provisions of Section 13 below, You further agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless ArenaNet with respect to any claim related to any information, feedback or communications You provide under this Section 7(b).

> > > > >ArenaNet has no obligation under any circumstances to monitor Conduct or other activities related to the Game. ArenaNet may **in its reasonable discretion**, choose to monitor Conduct or other activities **related to the Game**.You consent to the foregoing monitoring and acknowledge that ArenaNet may conduct such monitoring, including but not limited to monitoring in-Game communications and Message Boards provided by ArenaNet as well as third-party Message Boards and the like. You also acknowledge that ArenaNet may take any action, or no action whatsoever, based on such monitoring, including but not limited to action under Section 5, and that ArenaNet has no obligation to explain any decision to take any action, or no action whatsoever, based on such monitoring.**

> > > > > **

> > > >

> > > > Emphasis mine.

> > > >

> > > > When it comes to the game itself. I agree you have no privacy because you are playing in Arenanet's house. They call the shots and can ban you as they see fit. As a result, they can definitely check my computer to see if I am running a hacking program. But past that, they're in my house.

> > >

> > > Think you missed this part in section d

> > > INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO MONITORING COMMUNICATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS INTERFACES, STORAGE DEVICES, RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY, OR CPU PROCESSES RELATED TO HARDWARE YOU USE WITH THE GAME. SUCH MONITORING MAY ALSO INCLUDE, BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO, MONITORING FOR THE PURPOSES OF DETECTING THE GAME UNDER SECTION 8© or 8(e). YOU CONSENT TO THE FOREGOING MONITORING AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT ArenaNet MAY, AT ANY TIME, AND IN ANY MANNER, COMMUNICATE ANY INFORMATION BETWEEN HARDWARE YOU USE WITH THE GAME AND ANY MECHANISM ArenaNet MAY CHOOSE FOR SUCH COMMUNICATIONS.

> > >

> > > they can monitor you at any time and ban you for anything they see fit. This includes monitoring your process list, ram and HD and even the connection to the server... period.

> >

> > But do they have a right to store keep that in records and then for how long. Privacy laws and especially EU law focus more on the storage and record keeping rather than MONITORING.

> >

> > GDPR for example focus large parts on pseudonymisation and data breach protection. If it just monitoring in order to determine cheating that is a mostly fine. Its a cost that many players is willing to pay. If they keep permanent records that later can be part of data breaches, without any salt or other protections, then there is a major issue with the method they employ to catch cheaters.

> >

> > Could you quote the section about data retention from cpu process lists?

>

> You just quoted your answer. It's the last sentence of the paragraph:

>

> "YOU CONSENT TO THE FOREGOING MONITORING AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT ArenaNet MAY, AT ANY TIME, AND IN ANY MANNER, COMMUNICATE ANY INFORMATION BETWEEN HARDWARE YOU USE WITH THE GAME AND ANY MECHANISM ArenaNet MAY CHOOSE FOR SUCH COMMUNICATIONS."

How many years is that? 6 months, 1 year, 10 years, 25? Can they sell it? use it for advertisement? Is it pseudonymous stored?

Since it require my informed consent I should able to tell what I have consented to. In eu consent has some meaning other than "I agree to blank and thus anything and all is permitted". Even in the US a blank permission is usually not worth that much.

A clothes shop usually have some MONITORING that COMMUNICATE INFORMATION BETWEEN HARDWARE through ANY MECHANISM they CHOOSE. By entering such shop, do you consent to them uploading images from the changing room to porn sites? Does the word MONITORING convey such informed consent?

Hopefully they deleted the records but this is something anet should confirm.

> @"trueanimus.4085" said:

> > @"ArchonWing.9480" said:

> > > @"trueanimus.4085" said:

> > > > @"ArchonWing.9480" said:

> > > > > @"trueanimus.4085" said:

> > > > >

> > > > > > If you're in Germany or the EU in general try reading the EULA. You have a remedy. You can have your money refunded and your account deleted.

> > > > >

> > > > > EULA means everything in situations like this... basically by signing in , you are agreeing to let them do whatever they want. But that is kind of funny when you state it like that lol

> > > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > > > Could you point out the part of the EULA that allows them to do whatever they want? What if they wipe out your hard drive in case you might be cheating? Can they use it to mine bitcoin?

> > >

> > > When there is a patch... you agree by loading the launcher to add the patch correct? It has to make changes to your HD to do so.. correct? By loading the game, you have already given them access to your HD.

> > >

> > > They cant legally snoop your pc for your information... bank accounts, cc numbers etc.. but.. as a part of the software (as with most software these days) they can gather information reliant to the game and making sure it runs correctly on your system, i am sure there is a section in the EULA about agreeing to a listing of processes running on your pc for diagnostic use or something pretty close.

> > >

> > > Most software EULA's has this and a section that by running said program, you agree not to sue them in case of damages etc.. blah blah.. you know the drill.

> > >

> > > I didn't mean they could wipe your HD etc for cheating.. but they can snoop simple things such as processes lists if it pertains to diagnostics.

> >

> > Well, you said "everything" and that was going on a bit not just by you, and I was wondering where that went. And them updating the game is a necessary thing to even be able to play the game. They may install updates. it doesn't mean they can install anything.

> >

> > >

> > >

> > > Oh and btw.... i think that is covered under montoring

> > >

> > > 7. PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

> > > It is Your responsibility to read, understand and accept the Privacy Policy in effect in connection with Your use of the Service. You acknowledge that ArenaNet may make changes to the Privacy Policy at any time. You also acknowledge that each and every time You click “I ACCEPT” You warrant and represent that You did read, understand and accept the most recent version of the Privacy Policy in effect at that time.

> > > ArenaNet has no obligation under any circumstances to review any information, feedback or communication related to the Game. ArenaNet may, in its reasonable discretion, choose to review any information, feedback or communication **related to the Game**. ArenaNet may take any action, or no action whatsoever, based on any information, feedback or communication **related to the Game**, including but not limited to publicly commenting upon or publishing the foregoing. ArenaNet has no obligation to explain any decision to take any action, or no action whatsoever, based on any information, feedback or communication related to the Game. **You acknowledge, and further agree, that You have no obligation to provide ArenaNet any information, feedback or communications **related to the Game.** In addition to the provisions of Section 13 below, You further agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless ArenaNet with respect to any claim related to any information, feedback or communications You provide under this Section 7(b).

> > >ArenaNet has no obligation under any circumstances to monitor Conduct or other activities related to the Game. ArenaNet may **in its reasonable discretion**, choose to monitor Conduct or other activities **related to the Game**.You consent to the foregoing monitoring and acknowledge that ArenaNet may conduct such monitoring, including but not limited to monitoring in-Game communications and Message Boards provided by ArenaNet as well as third-party Message Boards and the like. You also acknowledge that ArenaNet may take any action, or no action whatsoever, based on such monitoring, including but not limited to action under Section 5, and that ArenaNet has no obligation to explain any decision to take any action, or no action whatsoever, based on such monitoring.**

> > > **

> >

> > Emphasis mine.

> >

> > When it comes to the game itself. I agree you have no privacy because you are playing in Arenanet's house. They call the shots and can ban you as they see fit. As a result, they can definitely check my computer to see if I am running a hacking program. But past that, they're in my house.

>

> Think you missed this part in section d

> INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO MONITORING COMMUNICATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS INTERFACES, STORAGE DEVICES, RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY, OR CPU PROCESSES RELATED TO HARDWARE YOU USE WITH THE GAME. SUCH MONITORING MAY ALSO INCLUDE, BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO, MONITORING FOR THE PURPOSES OF DETECTING THE GAME UNDER SECTION 8© or 8(e). YOU CONSENT TO THE FOREGOING MONITORING AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT ArenaNet MAY, AT ANY TIME, AND IN ANY MANNER, COMMUNICATE ANY INFORMATION BETWEEN HARDWARE YOU USE WITH THE GAME AND ANY MECHANISM ArenaNet MAY CHOOSE FOR SUCH COMMUNICATIONS.

>

> they can monitor you at any time and ban you for anything they see fit. This includes monitoring your process list, ram and HD and even the connection to the server... period.

But do they have a right to store keep that in records and then for how long. Privacy laws and especially EU law focus more on the storage and record keeping rather than MONITORING.

GDPR for example focus large parts on pseudonymisation and data breach protection. If it just monitoring in order to determine cheating that is a mostly fine. Its a cost that many players is willing to pay. If they keep permanent records that later can be part of data breaches, without any salt or other protections, then there is a major issue with the method they employ to catch cheaters.

Could you quote the section about data retention from cpu process lists?

Is there a good way to bind that so I can have one key to do the single action gg?

> @"STIHL.2489" said:

> > @"Faaris.8013" said:

> > Shikigami.4013 said:

> >

> > >Except ArenaNet does not need proof. You already know it but you are too deep into your crusade against them to acknowledge this. Instead you choose to ignore all the posts where people have correctly stated and/or proven that ArenaNet can suspend or ban anyone they want to without proof of anything.

> >

> > That may be true in countries that have no laws to protect customers from predatory companies (China? North Korea?). In my country, if you pay for a service, you have a right to use that service and the company that has taken your money is obliged to provide that service as long as you follow the rules. If you buy a ticket for a movie and it is explicitly forbidden to record it with a cam, and you start recording, the theater is absolutely in the right to kick you out without refund, you broke the contract. If you merely carry a smartphone that is capable of recording the movie, and they kick you out, they better refund you. If they don't, they open themselves up to law suits because they refused to provide the service that was paid for.

> >

> > People here might have stated that Anet can ban without proof, but I highly doubt anyone has proven they can do that without consequences. If security guards you out of that theater because you carried a smartphone (and bans you for 6 months), you won't resist in that moment, but you will seek a refund later on. You might even make their actions public on social media and in your circles. If you really care enough, you will get your refund for the service you paid for that was not provided. And it doesn't matter if you bought a gift card to watch a movie weeks earlier with your money, in case you think gems are not like real money. Usually, companies back off quickly when confronted because they don't want to deal with the legal consequences.

> >

> > The "without proof" claim is inaccurate. The company better has some proof for locking my money for 6 months. They can try that and hope that only a few people actually call their lawyer. Most probably won't, but if you had just bought gems for 120 bucks and got banned without proof that you broke any rule, it might be worth it.

> >

> > This was a highly unprofessional chain of actions on Anet's side. If your company lacks the skills, knowledge and experience for a project, that's what external consultants are for. But maybe they thought they had the skills, knowledge and experience, and came up with this method believing everything is fine. If that's the case, it's time to review your business processes.

> >

> > btw, none of my accounts has been banned, I just don't get why some people defend clearly wrong and autocratic behaviour from companies. Even White Knight No 1 here on these forums stated that he doesn't agree with how Anet conducted this raid, because he's somewhat rational despite his love for the company.

> >

> >

>

> The thing is, no one likes this. No one wants this. But it has become the price we need to pay to have the semblance of a legit game to play. The Company needs to protect it's Property, and it's clients understand that.

>

> It would be great if this was just a game and people could log and and play to the best of their abilities and be content with that. But, that is not the case, players feel the need to cheat any game they play, and thus make the game worse for everyone. Now, when people cheat at single player games, no one else is affected, but when they cheat at MMO's, they affect everyone in their game, and the other players realize that the Game Company needs to police their game to keep the cheaters out.

>

> Much like bouncers in a bar, do I like some ogre looking at my licence, and a goon squad that keeps looking for trouble while I am just trying to have a drink and enjoy the show? Nope.. but.. the problem is, there are too many people that come into the bar that can't be trusted, that cause problems, and simply don't want to follow the rules, so, yah, that ogre at the door, and the goon squad, is needed to keep the place running smoothly.

>

> Just like, anything that gets built to enforce the laws and rules, no one likes the idea of having some security measure shoved down our throat, but they are needed to keep things running correctly. Would be great if a company could trust it's players not to cheat.. yah that would great.. never happen, so we stuck with this invasive BS, but, that is the price we have to pay.

>

> If that is not a price you are willing to pay, I can respect that, but understand, in doing that, you have made a choice to play a game that won't take the needed measures to combat cheaters, so, that is your alternative.

I have no desire to stop the bouncer, but I have some objects if the bouncer start to take nude pictures of customers and store it for later use. Bouncers are useful but when they start to do things which isn't related to bouncing and has severe ethical issues then its time to ask the bouncer to either stop or at minimum communicate that the records that has nothing to do with bouncing at the bar is deleted and gone.

Data collected by anet on players which has done nothing wrong should be deleted. If the only method they had was to collect this data then it should be deleted the moment they find out that the player has not cheated and is innocent. It not too much to ask a game developer to not keep those kind of records against the express will and interest of the customer.

> @"Faaris.8013" said:

> > @"Shikigami.4013" said:

> > > @"Faaris.8013" said:

> > > > @"Shikigami.4013" said:

> > > > German people who think they can do anything and ArenaNet can do nothing should get a lawyer and fight it out if they are so sure. You know, like those people who have been fighting against the "GEZ" for years.

> > > >

> > > > For all non-germans, all germans who have an own home address and no longer live with their parents have to pay money for their ability to watch TV and listen to radio, even if they prove that they do not have a TV or a radio.

> > > >

> > > > Good luck with getting a better or faster outcome of your case of "ArenaNet may not check my running processes because the EULA is invalid in germany".....

> > >

> > > No, they should not try to take legal actions from Germany against a company that sits in Seattle, it would be a waste of time and money. That might change in May when new legislation takes place in Europe, everybody doing business in Europe will have to adjust then.

> > >

> > > The point is that Anet didn't do anyone a favour, not the players who trusted them and not themselves. They kitten up, again, and people wait for a reaction. I want to see an official statement with an apology, I want to know what exactly was sent to Anet servers, what happened with the data after the investigation was done, and I want to see a promise that they will not do it again in the way they did.

> >

> > I have to tell you that his will have zero effect because the new european legislation (in germany called quite lengthy EU-DSGVO) aims at -and regulates- only personal data (in german "personenbezogene Daten") which means data that may use to identify you like names, date of birth, address, data about accounts that are required to know your personal data like bank accounts and so on. The new legislation does not apply to hashes of processes running on your PC.

>

> It's not that easy, and really depends on the data that was collected in specific cases. If you have "word.exe" running on your computer and Anet knows, it's not really sensitive in my point of view. If you have "applicationmain.exe" running, things change dramatically when it comes to "personenbezogene Daten". Now Anet and whoever captured the data on transfer knows you have diabetes. I can think of other possible processes running on a computer that reveal sensitive information.

>

> We will have to see how the Datenschutzgrundverordnung affects real cases in the coming years.

It is not that they know you got "word.exe" installed but rather "word.exe" version 1.2.3.4 with known vulnerabilities A and B . But instead of word.exe it might be that banking software that people installed 10 years ago and not been updated since. It could be that VPN that is illegal to run in your country but who would ever find that out. It could be that tool that leakers use and is ground for dismissal at that company you work at. It could be that command and control software from work which should normally not be install on a private computer for security reasons but it has just been so convenient when working from home.

I have said it before. if the information is harmless then anet should prove it by posting the process list of a developers computer here on the forum. If their security personal will sign off on that then I would be massively surprised.

After 2-3 years the game has had a rather steep inflation in dps and a matching difficulty. It very likely that what you had was once a useful and contributing character, but now it is not contributing anything worthwhile to the objectives in fractal and as such the other four players has to either replace you or carrying you through the content as if they were just four people doing five people content.

You don't need dps meters to see this. 99cm for example has a game mechanic where if you can't solo a specific target then the whole group take massive damage and all will know who failed. DPS meters makes the work of seeing who is doing what easier and more convenient in all the other fights, but in the end it is always rather obvious when four people are doing the job of five. Even worse when a single player is doing the job of three, which is usually when the "toxicity" start to bubble up on party chat. Personally I just leave at that point, as carrying more than one person is a hassle that I rather avoid most days.

Not sure if people are avoiding to give details here in order to prevent more people from doing it, but I will explain why people are repairing walls on smc for participation.

Repairing a wall gives 2m, but (and this is the critical aspect) object defender gives 10m. This mean that a afk person can repair a wall and gain 12m of participation from a single repair action.

If they disable that for SMC then it won't be any skin of my nose, but for "good" afk farmers the impact is rather minimal. The initial 25 supply is 36m. An hour is less than 50 supply. You have to have quite a large horde of afk farmers, or a very starved smc to actually cause a dent in the supply .

AFK farming is nice on outnumbered maps and work as a kind of reserve force to be called on when emergency wp is called, but they do cause harm when there is a map queue. A good player should be aware of this and not afk farm in eb during such times.

There is a simple test to see if data collection is done in an unethical and wrong way. If anet would not be fine with having the process list from developers computers posted publicly here then they should treat their customers data as sensitive and important as their own data.

This has nothing to do with the suspensions (regardless of the topic merge). This has nothing to do with the 5 identified program being targeted. This has also nothing to do with steam and their anti-cheating methods. If I went to steam and asked for a record of all users who has a specific vulnerable version of a banking app, then their reply would be that they do not have that data. Their scanner only report if a specific targeted program is running, but send no records of everything else from their customers machines. I could not ask them for a list of how many people has VPN installed in nations where this is illegal. In contrast, anet could provide such lists. Anet could tomorrow go and send a bunch of people to jail by just providing their collected data to the regime of such countries. They collected that information and has yet to make any statement about what they did with it.

To echo a thread from yesterday, please delete the data. Please change the spyware so it operate like a anti-cheat program and only report targeted programs. Do not collect or keep records that has nothing to do with gw2. Do not keep records for which people could go to jail if leaked.

We know that they sent the whole process list to their servers, and they have not said anything about what they did with the collected data. If its gone it would be as easy as tweet it out that only the hash of the 5 processes are stored. Would not even take them 5 second to do so.

If we find this so unbelievable that it can be exploited then let have some developer post their process list here on the forum. If its just a meteorite risk then no reason not to. Be brave and go on and post it! It is perfectly safe! No harm can happen if the developers of this game to publish a list of all the processes running on their machine, and they don't even need to post their IP address or email.

> @"Shikigami.4013" said:

> > @"Belorn.2659" said:

> > > @"Anthony.7630" said:

> > > Your worried about a mmo video game called guild wars 2 is spying on your computer ?

> > > Spying is everywhere man. Cortana from windows 10 spies on you. So does avast antivirus and other anti viruse softwares. Also google chrome tracks all your search engines on your android or your computers.

> > >

> > > Android phones are not any better than iphones. Both apple and google / and even amazon take all your information and spy on you.

> > >

> > > Also email accounts track your messages and know what you're doing sending and searching / buying.

> > >

> > > The best way to be untrackable is to move to africa and use no technologies and stay away from governments and authorities. Oh and your ID tag for being a citizen tracks you.

> > >

> > > That's what is happening in 2018. The modernization and global collection / tracking of human data.

> >

> > And this is good and we should celebrate that a game developer do this, because...?

> >

> > There is a lot of bad things happening in the world. I would prefer that a game company avoid doing harm when there is no reason to do it and a very easy solution to do harm reduction. Do not store data that is not related to the cheat tools. Delete it any unrelated data that got caught by the spyware code. Reassure your players that information won't be suddenly leaked because the data is permanently deleted.

>

> They don't even know who you are. How would they leak anything that could harm you if they have no personal info about you anyway? All purchases are handled by DigitalRiver, which is a company that is not connected to ArenaNet in any other way than handling the commercial transactions for them. ArenaNet knows that you are Belorn.2659 and an email address you used to sign up (which is probably hosted anonymously because people concerned that much about their privacy would likely not use an email that is publicly tied to their realworld identity). When you purchase something, DigitalRiver handles your data and just notifies ArenaNet in an automated process if the payment was successful or not. They do not send your 20 Dollar to ArenaNet with a note attached saying "These 20 dollar come from John Doe, age 22, living in randomstreet 123, randomtown who used the credit card with the numer 1234-4321-1234-4321 to pay.

>

> Is a gameaccount name and the name of a process found running on your pc too much information for your taste so that you fear you could be "harmed" if the hypothetical fact that Belorn.2659 used a program called cheat engine on his PC in march 2018, would leak to the internet? Maybe you could tell us what exactly you are afraid of that could happen.

If they only store the information about cheat engine and those program listed then we don't have a problem. If they are storing IP addresses along side which machine has banking software installed, or has backdoors running, or has company specific control software, then guess who would be very interesting to have that leaked so that those users can be targeted explicitly. Even better, have the email address attached so they can launch some spearfish spam emails, like those that Anet themselves accidentally clicked on a few years ago.

Imagine that you got access to a list of all Google, Apple and Microsoft employees who happen to run gw2 on their work machine, together with their complete process list. I am sure that no such computer will have old software with know bugs in them that is just waiting to be exploited.

The easiest test to see if this information is sensitive is just ask anet developers to publish the same information about their own computers. I would eat my hat if their security staff would allow that.

> @"Anthony.3207" said:

> Please lock or delete this whole entire thread.

>

> 750 posts of useless arguing.

>

> The most important thing is that - when you clicked accept on the terms of service - you created a legal binding with anet and in that binding it says..

>

> Anet can ban your account for reasons...or no reasons at all.

>

> So this entire thread is useless. Doesn't matter whether you had cheat engine running in the back ground but not using it. anet can ban you for no reason and that's legal the moment you clicked ok to make a legal binding.

>

> And even if you're in Europe ....arenet net made special laws for Europe so they wouldn't get in trouble.

>

> And after the new law comes in effect you would have to spend thousands of euro to hire 4 good lawyers to fight a large video game company. A useless case for a waste of money. The only thing you'll get is an account band and your 50$ back.

>

> Good riddance. Some people are so ignorant it makes me wonder how they survived for so long.

A large portion of those posts is related to the gather and storing of information from those that has not been suspended or been accused of any wrong doing. Anet has now stored information about who has backdoors installed on their computers, who got bank software, or is running company software along side with guild wars 2. This kind of information is likely not going to cause any harm in Anets hand but if they got hacked and it leaked, then what? Who is responsible for any fallout if that information get into the wrong hands?

> @"Anthony.7630" said:

> Your worried about a mmo video game called guild wars 2 is spying on your computer ?

> Spying is everywhere man. Cortana from windows 10 spies on you. So does avast antivirus and other anti viruse softwares. Also google chrome tracks all your search engines on your android or your computers.

>

> Android phones are not any better than iphones. Both apple and google / and even amazon take all your information and spy on you.

>

> Also email accounts track your messages and know what you're doing sending and searching / buying.

>

> The best way to be untrackable is to move to africa and use no technologies and stay away from governments and authorities. Oh and your ID tag for being a citizen tracks you.

>

> That's what is happening in 2018. The modernization and global collection / tracking of human data.

And this is good and we should celebrate that a game developer do this, because...?

There is a lot of bad things happening in the world. I would prefer that a game company avoid doing harm when there is no reason to do it and a very easy solution to do harm reduction. Do not store data that is not related to the cheat tools. Delete it any unrelated data that got caught by the spyware code. Reassure your players that information won't be suddenly leaked because the data is permanently deleted.

> @"Ashamir.9574" said:

> Funny how now the fact that they banned people takes a backseat to the fact that they gathered user data they shouldn't have gathered.

>

> In my country, this is against the law. It doesn't matter what I accepted in the ToS, if it's against the law it's the against the law. If someone would bother to take them to court for this they'd be kitten.

>

> I seriously don't understand how people argue here that because it's in the ToS they are allowed to do that. I can sign any sheet that says that I am selling myself to person X to do whatever they want with me, and it will still never be legally binding, because ... guess what ... it's illegal. How hard is that to understand?

This. The anti-cheat system is useful but there need to be clear guidelines on how they collect non-gw2 data from players computer and for how long they will store it. Files names, windows user accounts, and so on should not be stored for ever on Anet server. VPN usage, tor, malware and backdoors, this is information that could cause some real harm if it got leaked.

Be transparent about it. If you collect non-gw2 information about your players computers then please be transparent and open on how it is handled and processed! With all those facebook and other privacy issues in recent times it should be obvious that some minimum respect and consideration is needed when dealing with private information. This goes even beyond the legal aspect, and should just be human consideration that such information should only be collected for a single purpose and then discarded once its fulfilled.

They could have a developer write a statement on the forum that information from users not suspected of any wrongdoing is now deleted. It would help a lot and reassure that paying customers that have done nothing wrong get treated with respect and understanding.

I doubt there will be any legal issues of this, but I find it utterly disrespectful to not delete the information about users which has done nothing. Sure there might be others that do worse things (Facebook?), but this is suppose to be a game that we do for enjoyment. Why ruin that when they can just delete the collateral damage from this intrusion?

Is it really too much to ask that they act a bit customer friendly and delete the collected information?

I just hope that no player games on a work computer and has a program running named "trade secret project X". Whops, now that project name got leaked.

Or that no player live in a country where gaming is allowed but running a vpn or tor browsers is illegal with the potential risk of jail or fines. whops. Better pray that the database information can be kept a secret as long as the current regime is in power.

At least the spyware did not look at open files and what kind of movies that might be playing, right?

As is known, Anet added in the March 6th patch a piece of spyware to detect cheating software that resulted in the recent suspension wave. In order to do so they also collected and stored every program that people had running on their computer, location on their drive, windows user account names, and possible more. For all of us who did not get suspended and was just collateral damage, please delete the data. Delete it from your server, delete it from the backup, just delete it. I do not want to see that data leaked, I don't wan't to hear in a few years when some hacker get into your system that the data is now out in the wild somewhere. Please give us the minimum amount of respect and delete anything collected that is not strictly related to gw2 processes or gw2 cheating tools. Thank you.

As a bonus you could also inform users who has virus running, as you kind of have that knowledge and the ability to do so.

> @"mercury ranique.2170" said:

> > @"Belorn.2659" said:

> > I must say this dealt with in a rather punitive and heavy handed. Usually suspension of this caliber is done against people who actively profit from expolits and bots, but here we have people that got suspended for 6 months for simply having the wrong and outdated dps meter. Impersonal, with no human touch or empathy as can be seen by the policy of not even hearing appeals of those affected.

> >

> > I did not get suspended but I am very disappointed. Is this kind of game company that we should expect Anet to be from now on?

>

> There is a lot of speculation, but we do not know the reason for the suspension. Personally I do not give a penny for those being suspended and claiming not using any third party app. It is their word against that of Arenanet. The reason for suspension is between them and arenanet. So even if they try to claim a or b, arenanet seems to know different. If that is correct, is between them as well.

> Don’t get me wrong, I’m dying out of curiousity, but I know from these situation to not jump to conclusions and not to trust someone on their word. I have seen people claiming they didn’t do anything wrong, while they actually used a third party teleportation hack.

>

> TL;DR Everything in this thread so far has been speculation but the fact that 2k-ish people have been suspended for using a third party app as arenanet confirmed that.

I can respect that I don't know the whole picture and only got the word of those suspended and anets statement, but not even listen to appeals is just out there. 6 months deserve a case per case handling with a human in control. What ever human resources they saved on this move will likely cost them in the long run.

I have played anet games since gw1 beta. Not once have I heard of anyone getting 6 month suspension for anything less than clear evidence of rewards gained from botting and cheat tools in pvp, handled in a case per case fashion. It looks like we are not dealing with that reality any more.

I must say this dealt with in a rather punitive and heavy handed. Usually suspension of this caliber is done against people who actively profit from expolits and bots, but here we have people that got suspended for 6 months for simply having the wrong and outdated dps meter. Impersonal, with no human touch or empathy as can be seen by the policy of not even hearing appeals of those affected.

I did not get suspended but I am very disappointed. Is this kind of game company that we should expect Anet to be from now on?

I am personally very glad for the moderation on the forum. It is very common if not likely that insults are repaid in kind with the same tone and language. Moderation is what prevents this vicious loop from continuing.

At least it is not time gated like turning blade shards into equipment bags. 100 blade shards for a single green, and you can only do it 5 per day!

But anyway, seems like what they did here is the exact same thing as they did with excess fractal potions. A minor trade in so its slightly more worth than deleting the item.

Do I find it fun when the whole arena is covered in multiple last laugh circles on top of each other or when you get combined aoe circles of different mechanics that all have identical size and color but have major different impact?

I don't. I like mechanics which is visible and clear. I like mechanics where you can plan ahead. In the last 10% in 99cm, how many tacks of stability do you need? 1, 2, 5? Do the suicide ads during Siax create 1 or two circles of aoe which just happen to be identical in size and color?

If last laugh is used it need to be distinguishable from other mechanics. Preferable they could also get a nerf similar to meteor shower / icebow 3 where you can only get hit so many times per second until they don't effect you any more.

In the past we had the same thing with achivement points. a Player with 4k AP is less likely to be experienced than a player with 15k+ (or in todays numbers, 30k+).

Today we have KP, titles, API keys and DPS meters to do it better and easier for everyone involved. Anet could improve it but we have gained a lot since the beginning.

As I understand the instabilities will be randomized each week so thankfully we won't see a return to rerolling-the-instance, right?

As for changes that I would like to see, toxic trail could really use a bit of extra distance between where it spawn and the mob so it work as a trail and not aura. The most punishing aspect of the trail is for melee range when attacking the front of the enemy and that don't feel thematically like a "trail".

As many others have pointed out, last laugh is no laugh for several fractals. Cliff side, 100 second boss, categorized during jumping, 99 cm (all bosses). CM in general feel like it need a more custom approach rather than letting randomness do the job.