Reporting gold spammers in WAR now easier than ever

by James Egan Oct 5th 2008 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Economy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, News items

The gold seller scourge has fallen upon Warhammer Online, as you've likely noticed. But Mythic Entertainment has taken some rather extreme measures to silence the incessant spamming. To help reach that goal, they're making it easier for players to report gold selling activity and harassment. In keeping with their zero-tolerance policy on gold spamming, Mythic states, "We are committed to making life as hard as we can for Gold Sellers in game and maximizing player enjoyment. To that end we have added a new tool to streamline the gold seller reporting process."

That tool is found within the Appeal Interface, as the stand-alone category "GOLD/PL SALES" -- and is not found within the Violation category (which is used for most other types of harassment) as you might expect. Submitting these appeals via the GOLD/PL SALES category is a straightforward matter, as shown below the cut:

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Make sure you place the player's exact name in the first window, which asks for the player name.

Place the text the player sent you in the second window, which asks for details about what was sent. Also note if this solicitation came in the form of in-game chat (any channel), or through the mail system.

Only submit one appeal per solicitor. Do not try to place multiple names in the first box, as the appeal will fail.

There you go. Pretty simple, but what's your take on this? From what you've seen thus far, is Mythic doing a good job in stemming the tide of gold spam?

Tags: appeal, business-models, ea-mythic, fantasy, game-mechanics, gold-sellers, gold-selling, gold-spammer, harassment, mmo-industry, mythic-entertainment, petition, spam, spammers, war, warhammer-online, zero-tolerance

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

david said on 4:35PM 10-05-2008

I don't think they actually do anything to them. I have been getting spammed for the last 4 days from the same guy. I reported him multiple times and he is still doing it.

Also, the CSR will not respond to any of my appeals. It feels like they are on a break. The first 2 days, their support was amazing but now it seems like they don't care... :-\

Basic said on 4:54PM 10-05-2008

Doesn't mean that CSR's still won't be useless.

p.s. WAR has awesome content that's totally worth the buggy mechanics, lag, deleted items, weak dungeons, and missing cities

I'm really serious it's enough to keep me from playing WoW and leveling alts.

UnSub said on 12:36AM 10-10-2008

No, Mythic isn't doing a particularly good job of blocking gold spam. It is ridiculous for Mark Jacobs to blog about how important blocking gold spam is, only to have a chat system lacking even the most basic of reporting features or a simple way at launch of reporting them.

Gold spamming in WAR is as easy as doing a search for who's online and then copy and pasting /tells. That isn't making life "as hard as we can" for gold spammers, especially since it should have been obvious that gold spammers would flock to WAR in numbers.

Russell Clarke said on 12:14AM 10-06-2008

The interface is still clunky and takes effort to use, which is why it will not be successful - people will get bored (as I have I already) navigating to a new page, typing a bunch of stuff that could be picked up programmatically, and sending it off. Bad usability = not used.

How about a simple right click on the spammer name and select a "Report Gold Spammer" menu item?

Jack said on 12:31AM 10-06-2008

That will be too much like Blizzard does it. they do not want it to look like they copy and pass there way :P

Anyway I agree with you it will be much more easy that way.

redrinn said on 12:27AM 10-06-2008

From what I can see, nothing is being done. I still get the same amount of spam every day, and now as a bonus - also in my mailbox!

Its not so simple to report gold spammers. In fact, to stop playing your game long enough to hit the appeal button, try and spell the guys name right, spell out the website and that yes its gold spam, then go back and type /ignore hekkinaoooiuye (example name).......yeah its not an easy process at all.

Until Mythic makes this a 1 button process Ive given up. I get the same gold spam from the same named guy all day long (if I forgot to ignore him).

You guys need to put down the coolaid and report things from a players perspective instead of from a patch note.

Nadril said on 1:26AM 10-06-2008

"Spam me not".

They even posted it on their website. Download it.

Jeromai said on 3:01AM 10-06-2008

The annoying factor in this new tool is the complete inability to cut and paste the relevant text they want into the appeal box.

Now I actually have to READ the gold spam and type out letter by letter the text of the message AND the website they are advertising? Wtf?

Suddenly, I am extremely conversant in the exact spelling of the gold selling websites that are spamming me with advertisements. I think the gold farmers are celebrating.

Try again, Mythic. Try again fast please.

The spammers seem to be deleting the character and re-using the same names over and over. One notorious name sent me adverts for at least two different sites. You need a way to trace the account creating those names.

Admiral Awesome said on 6:31AM 10-06-2008

are you guys serious? typing a name and a website is to much work for you?

GRT said on 7:38AM 10-06-2008

They (Mythic) don't ask for the name and the website. They ask for the complete text of the tell. Typing this once isn't a big deal, but when you get to your 10th report of the day you really start wishing for a way to cut & paste.

Admiral Awesome said on 1:46PM 10-06-2008

Guess its diffrent in europe, they ask for the name and what company/url

Zerbe said on 9:52AM 10-06-2008

I should be able to right-click the spammer, click submit report, opens a window with their name, and text sent already populated and then simply choose a violation. The violation should be blank by default so as to not submit something in error or atleast lessen it.

The 'easy' way they changed it too, is still a PITA, so what if finding the proper place is easier, I still have to transpose the players name and all the crap they typed. I dont even bother anymore.

DeathMutant said on 11:02AM 10-06-2008

As an above poster suggested, the new method of reporting spammers seems like it was DEVELOPED BY THE SPAMMERS THEMSELVES. It would be any on-line advertiser's wet dream if you are forced to re-enter all of the information they just sent you which, coincidently, is exactly what we have to do to report that same guy that has been spamming us FOR DAYS. Re-entering information requires you not only to read the original message but to immediately regurgitate it by retyping it -- which is a common technique for memorization.

If Mythic really wants reporting spammers/harrassers to be effective they MUST implement the ability to click on a name in a chat window so we can /ignore and/or /report with a single action. I do not even bother reporting them now since it appears ineffective and is faster and easier to just /ignore them; which is a pain in itself since we have to retype the long non-sensical (sp?) name.

/ignore should have be storing the Account ID instead of the Character ID so if a new character on the same account is created it is immediately ignored. This would have prevented the method the spammer currently use to bypass /ignore by re-using the same character name.

Kyoji said on 11:19AM 10-06-2008

Everyone should just get SpamMeNot, automatically blocks and reports incoming gold spam messages, works a charm.

Aen said on 1:23PM 10-06-2008

if you get Curse's client and get the addon "SPAM ME NOT" it will automatically report them. Their new process is dumb, you got to type in their message??? You know how long it will take from your game play?

Spam me not will automatically appeal them and all you get is a message saying "spammer reported" (not exact words) and you can see what was reported also.

Good try Mythic, but you need to look at what other's have done.

csavarda said on 1:30PM 10-06-2008

The thing I don't understand, they've banned over five thousand accounts and yet the spammers continually buy new boxes just to spam?

It seems like the cost wouldn't be worth it for these companies. Unless Mythic is banning characters only, and in that case wtf how pointless. It just doesn't make sense to me either way.

infornography said on 3:47AM 10-08-2008

I get spammed about once every 5 to 10 minutes it seems. The spamming is at an absurd level. I was diligently reporting each and every message until the spam started coming in too fast for me to stop what I am doing and file a report every time. Now I just don't even bother.

Wow had a good system and I wouldn't begrudge them in the slightest for copying it. If it took a couple of clicks to report the scumbags I would gladly do so, but stopping what I am doing, finding a safe place to stand for a while, opening up the menu and then the appeals, typing letter for letter the character's name and URL, and then submitting before going back to what I was doing is an absurd waste of time.

Josh said on 4:46PM 10-08-2008

Hey guys. I have a solution that you may or may not know about by now. If you press the "O" key (or whatever button it is for your Social Menu), and then click on the "Options" tab, then you should come up to a screen that gives you the option of making yourself Anonymous (sp?) and Private Parties and Hidden. Click on the "Hidden" box that is next to the word and, shazam, you are now hidden and are untracable by the scum. However, I must warn you of the drawback:
Your friends will be unable to see you when you log in or out. The only way I am afraid is if you are in the same Guild (they can still see you there for some reason) or if you text or call them to tell them that you (or they) are online. For me and the incessent spamming every 5 min, it was a sacrifice that was well worth it.

Hope this helps! :D

Josh said on 4:50PM 10-08-2008

Note:

Please disregard the WoW thingie next to my name. I don't know how to change it lol. I don't play WoW anymore. The comment was was Warhammer Online. I would highly recommend the aformentioned game.

James Egan said on 5:33PM 10-08-2008

Josh, the WoW icon is just the default one... note that it's next to my name as well, and I don't really play WoW. I just never assigned a different image.

If you want to do so, just click on your name there above your comment, it'll bring you to your profile where you can set a different pic to accompany your comments.