“You may have noticed a new feature came out today. You can now swap upgrades in legendary weapons for free! If you were wondering why it wasn’t accompanied by the usual fanfare for such a highly-requested update, that’s because it slipped out early. It wasn’t intended to go out until the next release, but since it’s out there now, enjoy!”
So that’s the good news. The bad news in the community right now is the mess ArenaNet’s making of RMT bans. MMO vets surely remember the old Warframe griefing trick whereby innocent players were being caught up in goldseller trades unknowingly; we covered it back in June. In Guild Wars 2, the sellers aren’t laundering gold through the legit market; they’re just being used as a direct griefing weapon.
Apparently, it’s possible to pay an RMT service to direct money to somebody else’s account; then, when the money is accepted, the victim will be ensnared in ArenaNet’s RMT trap. One such player posted the support email chiding him for receiving RMT items he didn’t actually buy (it does appear he was only temporarily banned threatened with a ban, but the scolding the support person gave him – the victim! – is breathtaking). Best thing you can do, we suppose, is never open mail, ever.
“When the Support Team detects that RMT gold has been sent to an account, their goal is to remove the wealth and items while ensuring that the account is protected against misuse or tampering,” says the studio. “If you suspect you’ve received items or gold from a gold seller or RMT account, the best action is to report the message, return it if it still contains the items, and contact support if you are concerned that further action may be taken. We will work with you to secure your account and track the items back to the RMT account(s).”
As we noted yesterday, the player bringing all this to light on Reddit did accept the money at first, not realizing it was coming from a goldseller paid off by a griefer, before returning it and explaining the whole thing to ArenaNet, which is presumably why support didn’t permaban him. Other victims say they have not been so lucky. That does appear to be the way ArenaNet prefers it be handled: turn yourself in and hope the support people who get your case believe you.
As multiple people on the official forums have pointed out, the new additions to the FAQ do not technically promise that players will not suffer consequences of being targeted by these types of griefers, nor is there truly any way to tell whether mails to your account are coming from RMT vendors; for example, anyone working in the gate economy is going to be sent lots of tips from strangers. It also does not address claims on Reddit that bans are being issued to accounts before RMT emails have even been opened, nor does it address the playerbase’s call for more stringent mail controls.
Lead GM apologized in "200g RMT trick"-case and restored the lost 200g from Guildwars2
