I would propose, just like forum moderators, there should be a few hand selected "full time" players, that are game moderators. When said game moderator marks someone as spam they are then reviewed for banning. Not sure how hard it would be in the game files to give flagged playes as moderators an extra option to mark as a 3rd party vendor.
I played Diablo 2 back in the day, and the spamming was just as bad, if not worse. You could download, a 3rd party program, to auto squelch all the spammers when you logged in. If moderators cant be done, how about a legit add on to NW that blocks chars/account that have been flagged for spam more than 50 or so times? If any legit player has an issue with that, they also have an issue with ctrl-c/ctrl-v.
I'm afraid of player mods, I think it'd reopen some doors to very bad things that happened in beta. I can't mention exactly what they are because I'm not sure how well they've been fixed and I don't want to give people ideas. So player mods is a horrible idea and I'm pretty sure spammers get banned now, so you're trying to get support for a policy that has zero chance of improving anything with in-game mods.
Hey guys, this is a really cool idea and I really appreciate the desire to make Neverwinter better. Unfortunately, it's not quite within the scope of what we'd be able to support technically or logistically. I hate to be a buzz-kill, but it's just not something we can support at this time. I will, however, keep this idea in mind for future if something like this becomes feasible though.
What I'd rather see is a few "sages". People you can ask questions, people who will help you on your way.
Yes this is what we had in Grand Fantasia and I think all Aeria games have them ( at least they did have when I played their games) they answer questions , help new players by running them through dungeons and showing them the ropes , advise them on what equipment and stuff they should concentrate on to get the most from their class and help explaining skills and in game etiquette and in return they got a monthly stipend of Aeria points but most importantly they had no powers (e.g mute , ban etc ) , giving any powers like that to regular players who aren't under the supervision of GM's or staff is just asking for all sorts of trouble.
I don't know whether i can mention the brand name...but i will and if it gets edited then i apologise in advance ...I know that Aion had in-game moderators, my nephew was one, he spent a couple of hours each night roaming the game and playing with others, moving around the world on the look out for bots...etc.
1. People often forget there are DOZENS of instances/shards for each zone. So "a GM for PE" really means THIRTY people. Hiring like that is not something that's going to happen in a f2p game.
2. We already have spam-reporting (unfortunately broken at the moment) where if five or so people flag someone as spamming, their chat priviliges are instantly disabled and account flagged. I don't think a GM "watching" for spammers is going to be any more efficient then that - by the time the GM flags them, the userbase has already flagged them probably hundreds of times. ...and the spammers just autologin with the next spambot and it spews it 3-4 lines of spam before it gets disabled. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Hey guys, this is a really cool idea and I really appreciate the desire to make Neverwinter better. Unfortunately, it's not quite within the scope of what we'd be able to support technically or logistically. I hate to be a buzz-kill, but it's just not something we can support at this time. I will, however, keep this idea in mind for future if something like this becomes feasible though.
At least one of the problems with spam is, that it is controlled by one (1) instance - some poor lonely programmer who has to come up with a regexp that covers all w w w.filth.c o m and vv vv vv.sell etc. etc.
Now, the BAD thing about this is, that a spammer only needs to find one (1) weakness in the regexp of the programmer to circumvent the intended protection. And the gold spammer finds out that he has found a loophole by seeing that he spams - instant success gratification, reward and verification.
It would be much better, if there would be a predefined (as is now) protection, but there is in my vision of the future an added regexp slot that can be edited by players.
This way, I could add the new "w . vv . w" to my filter and be rid of the spam. BUT - and this is important - the Gold seller WOULD NOT KNOW that he ca not reach me! Thus he stays on his stupid w . vv . w thinking he is advertising a filthy and dirty business practice, when, in fact, he is not.
Imaginary Friends are the best friends you can have!
I guarantee the F2P model like Neverwinter has makes more money than a sub based game like Wildstar or World of Warcraft. In fact I read something somewhere recently that said WoW makes significantly more money from their cash shop than they have in sub fees for the past couple years.
Also, Eldarth said that due to multiple instances of PE you'd need more and more Mods to view it all. This is true, you'd definitely need more than one, but all zone chat for one area is viewable from all instances. Say I am on PE instance number 15. If I jump to instance number 12 to be with a friend I am still going to be seeing the exact same chat conversations and posts that I would on 15. Its all one chat server, despite being multiple world servers.
I could support a system like this as long as it had a process similar to applying for a real life job. Noone under the age of 21 would even be considered for the position, and you'd have to pass some sort of check in their system (like your account has never been suspected of cheating or buying illegal zen or anything like that. they have to keep records of stuff like that). With strict enough criteria I think it could seriously reduce the chance of being abused.
And for the age old, "you can lie about your age on the internet," thing: yes, you can, but require that you fax them a copy of your driver's license. After all if they offer say 2K to 5K zen per month of doing this for them, I'd be willing to fax it to them.
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I personally hope we never see any in-game addons/mods. They are a detriment to any game I have played, with the bad outweigting the good in my opinion. Then there's the issue of always having to rely on other players to update and fix broken addons/mods and check for updates to them every session. Nay, it is annoying and I wish I never even started using addons/mods in other games that got me addicted to them. Nay, let's keep the game how the Devs intend their game to be, not how a few players imagine it.
This thread is using mod in the sense of "moderator" (scurvy knaves, all), rather than modifications or addons.
EXACTLY! I played that game for years! (it was my addiction for some time)
They seemed to do a good job selecting the right mods and mods who were found to violate rules/behaviors were stripped of their mod status promptly. It was very well run, in my opinion.
myles08807 said, "Back in my day, we didn't have any of this fancy Mulhorand gear while we were leveling . . . we walked uphill both ways while dying once every five seconds while leveling, and we liked it fine!" . . . Now, get off my lawn, you kids!" pointsman said, "I don't rue the game. In fact I don't feel any regret for the game at all." looomis said, "I don't like people changing to alts and then bragging about their mains like schizophrenic role players."
When I talk of a moderator, I don't mean someone that HAS TO stay in PE and ONLY report spammers. This person would have been around for at least a year, be a known productive member of the forums, and have some level of trust from the powers that be. Would only take a handful of people playing a few nights a week to achieve a peaceful PE. The "mods" would do everything they normally do when playing, however, when they see a .com spammer, he is reported by them. That is all. Not an 8 hour shift of nothing but reading chat in PE. After a few weeks of the spammers losing there lvl 15 chars daily, the spam will slow down. This will never get rid of all of it, but would reduce it dramatically.
Was only a suggestion, and I thought not a difficult one to implement.
I use Firefox, so I love add-ons!!
As for this being F2P, and since it is we shouldn't expect much? Rubbish. I've spent more on this game than any other in my life.
When I talk of a moderator, I don't mean someone that HAS TO stay in PE and ONLY report spammers. This person would have been around for at least a year, be a known productive member of the forums, and have some level of trust from the powers that be. Would only take a handful of people playing a few nights a week to achieve a peaceful PE. The "mods" would do everything they normally do when playing, however, when they see a .com spammer, he is reported by them. That is all. Not an 8 hour shift of nothing but reading chat in PE. After a few weeks of the spammers losing there lvl 15 chars daily, the spam will slow down. This will never get rid of all of it, but would reduce it dramatically.
Was only a suggestion, and I thought not a difficult one to implement.
I use Firefox, so I love add-ons!!
As for this being F2P, and since it is we shouldn't expect much? Rubbish. I've spent more on this game than any other in my life.
myles08807 said, "Back in my day, we didn't have any of this fancy Mulhorand gear while we were leveling . . . we walked uphill both ways while dying once every five seconds while leveling, and we liked it fine!" . . . Now, get off my lawn, you kids!" pointsman said, "I don't rue the game. In fact I don't feel any regret for the game at all." looomis said, "I don't like people changing to alts and then bragging about their mains like schizophrenic role players."
0
zebularMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 15,270Community Moderator
This thread is using mod in the sense of "moderator" (scurvy knaves, all), rather than modifications or addons.
Ooops, my bad. I read a different post and misunderstood it, thinking it was the OP of the thread. I moved my OT and the replies to their own thread. I also updated this thread's subject title. Thanks!
I posted this in a different thread, which was very soon locked. Just wanna get a feel for this.
I would propose, just like forum moderators, there should be a few hand selected "full time" players, that are game moderators. When said game moderator marks someone as spam they are then reviewed for banning. Not sure how hard it would be in the game files to give flagged playes as moderators an extra option to mark as a 3rd party vendor.
I played Diablo 2 back in the day, and the spamming was just as bad, if not worse. You could download, a 3rd party program, to auto squelch all the spammers when you logged in. If moderators cant be done, how about a legit add on to NW that blocks chars/account that have been flagged for spam more than 50 or so times? If any legit player has an issue with that, they also have an issue with ctrl-c/ctrl-v.
I used to be a Lead Counselor for Ultima Online back from 1997 until it was disbanded (Counselor Lord Magister of Oceania and later I got to travel to any Shard I wished). I personally believe that any game can benefit from Volunteer Player Guides and Counselors, as long as there are checks and balances to keep the positions and powers from being abused.
abishai3705Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 40
edited August 2014
Here's an idea! Keep the game "free to play" but require a credit card number to validate identity... if a botter gets banned he can't just use the same CC to create another account. If you are not old enough for a CC you need "Parents Permission" and put their CC on it. Anyway, some means of tracking the actual name of the person and not just a random email address.
Abishai the Blessed - 60 Sun Elf DC
Shazaam - 60 Tiefling CW
Link - 60 Menzoberranzan Renegade (Drow) HR
Naruto - 60 Half-Orc TR
Moose - 60 Human GWF
T-Wrecks 60 Half-Orc GF
Drag King - 60 Dragonborn SW
0
zebularMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 15,270Community Moderator
Here's an idea! Keep the game "free to play" but require a credit card number to validate identity... if a botter gets banned he can't just use the same CC to create another account. If you are not old enough for a CC you need "Parents Permission" and put their CC on it. Anyway, some means of tracking the actual name of the person and not just a random email address.
I am all for this idea. It will also force parents to be more aware of their children's activities.
Here's an idea! Keep the game "free to play" but require a credit card number to validate identity... if a botter gets banned he can't just use the same CC to create another account. If you are not old enough for a CC you need "Parents Permission" and put their CC on it. Anyway, some means of tracking the actual name of the person and not just a random email address.
I think PWE wants to advertise and introduce more players as much as possible and adding a credit card as a barrier for entry is not their style in a F2P game
0
abishai3705Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 40
I think PWE wants to advertise and introduce more players as much as possible and adding a credit card as a barrier for entry is not their style in a F2P game
I agree this might detour some players from trying the game but I think it will massively decrease the amount of players that manipulate the F2P model.
Think about it as a business; the "Free to Play" model is designed to attract players to try out the game risk free. At the end of the day they still need to earn money from their product so they offer various things in game that can be purchased. (i.e. booster packs, in game currencies, bonus rewards, VIP areas) The players who "try" the game and enjoy it are happy to pay real money to support the game... It is the job of the game to put a value on what they are selling, some people will think it's worth it while others scoff at the prices.
All that said, I think there is a misconception of what F2P really is, it should really be called, "Risk Free Download" or "No Commitment or Contract Play" (but remember they are trying to lure you in)
I think if they added an identity verification procedure to the account creation, such as attaching a CC number to your account, they would weed out A TON of botters and probably a lot of players who wouldn't really get into the game enough to support it anyway.
The value of having a "happy community" of players would totally outweigh the small inconvenience of linking your CC to your account and you wouldn't need to make all of the in-game changes that make it a pain for legit players, like the bound keys and stopping low level players from tells and zone chatting. Word of mouth that this game supports its community would sell the game WAY better than making it a bit easier to create an account.
Abishai the Blessed - 60 Sun Elf DC
Shazaam - 60 Tiefling CW
Link - 60 Menzoberranzan Renegade (Drow) HR
Naruto - 60 Half-Orc TR
Moose - 60 Human GWF
T-Wrecks 60 Half-Orc GF
Drag King - 60 Dragonborn SW
Here's an idea! Keep the game "free to play" but require a credit card number to validate identity... if a botter gets banned he can't just use the same CC to create another account. If you are not old enough for a CC you need "Parents Permission" and put their CC on it. Anyway, some means of tracking the actual name of the person and not just a random email address.
Been suggested on many forums for many FTP games. But it will never happen. I can't think of any FTP game that does this. And for good reason. They want people to try the game out *then* lure them into a transaction. People would be wary of any game claiming to be free that required their CC up front.
Basically it would scare off potential customers. Nothing beyond that matters. The whole idea of having a 'Happy Community' doesn't work if to many of those people never reach the point of becoming part of-that happy community in the first place.
IN Game mods work!
If you don't believe me go to World of Tanks public chat and try to get away with swearing or being a troll.
You will see red script pop up within thirty seconds telling you which mod banned you , for how long, and why.
These aren't game bans, just chat bans.
PAID moderators DO work, and they do make chat a friendly place by removing all the spammers and trollish nonsense quickly.
Also you dont have a mod in each zone, they read chat logs, which all games have.
Player volunteer mods would not work no matter how many zones they sat in. You have to have an employee with access to chat logs.
I understand that WoT has a huge playerbase and muy grande revenue stream compared to this game and NW probably can't afford to pay people to scan chat logs all the time, or have a live moderator in chat helping folks...but they do work.
0
abishai3705Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 40
Been suggested on many forums for many FTP games. But it will never happen. I can't think of any FTP game that does this. And for good reason. They want people to try the game out *then* lure them into a transaction. People would be wary of any game claiming to be free that required their CC up front.
Basically it would scare off potential customers. Nothing beyond that matters. The whole idea of 'Happy Customers or Community' doesn't work if to many of those people never reach the point of becoming customers/part-of-the-happy-community.
Good point. I still think it could be presented in such a way that it tells the customer this is for "verification purposes only" it could work. It makes sense to a potential customer that you wouldn't want your game riddled with spam bots, and like I was trying to say... people not willing to attach proof of identity to their account will probably not end up being a paying customer anyway. It actually doesn't need to be a CC, I just suggested this as it is probably the most universal worldwide.
I see the argument both ways tho.
Abishai the Blessed - 60 Sun Elf DC
Shazaam - 60 Tiefling CW
Link - 60 Menzoberranzan Renegade (Drow) HR
Naruto - 60 Half-Orc TR
Moose - 60 Human GWF
T-Wrecks 60 Half-Orc GF
Drag King - 60 Dragonborn SW
Comments
CRAZY MIKE - 14.6k PvE CW
Backbone - 16.7k PvP HR
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Hey guys, this is a really cool idea and I really appreciate the desire to make Neverwinter better. Unfortunately, it's not quite within the scope of what we'd be able to support technically or logistically. I hate to be a buzz-kill, but it's just not something we can support at this time. I will, however, keep this idea in mind for future if something like this becomes feasible though.
Yes this is what we had in Grand Fantasia and I think all Aeria games have them ( at least they did have when I played their games) they answer questions , help new players by running them through dungeons and showing them the ropes , advise them on what equipment and stuff they should concentrate on to get the most from their class and help explaining skills and in game etiquette and in return they got a monthly stipend of Aeria points but most importantly they had no powers (e.g mute , ban etc ) , giving any powers like that to regular players who aren't under the supervision of GM's or staff is just asking for all sorts of trouble.
1. People often forget there are DOZENS of instances/shards for each zone. So "a GM for PE" really means THIRTY people. Hiring like that is not something that's going to happen in a f2p game.
2. We already have spam-reporting (unfortunately broken at the moment) where if five or so people flag someone as spamming, their chat priviliges are instantly disabled and account flagged. I don't think a GM "watching" for spammers is going to be any more efficient then that - by the time the GM flags them, the userbase has already flagged them probably hundreds of times. ...and the spammers just autologin with the next spambot and it spews it 3-4 lines of spam before it gets disabled. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
At least one of the problems with spam is, that it is controlled by one (1) instance - some poor lonely programmer who has to come up with a regexp that covers all w w w.filth.c o m and vv vv vv.sell etc. etc.
Now, the BAD thing about this is, that a spammer only needs to find one (1) weakness in the regexp of the programmer to circumvent the intended protection. And the gold spammer finds out that he has found a loophole by seeing that he spams - instant success gratification, reward and verification.
It would be much better, if there would be a predefined (as is now) protection, but there is in my vision of the future an added regexp slot that can be edited by players.
This way, I could add the new "w . vv . w" to my filter and be rid of the spam. BUT - and this is important - the Gold seller WOULD NOT KNOW that he ca not reach me! Thus he stays on his stupid w . vv . w thinking he is advertising a filthy and dirty business practice, when, in fact, he is not.
Don't drop the f2p card. They are f2p to make more money than they would otherwise not out of generousity. Otherwise I agree.
Also, Eldarth said that due to multiple instances of PE you'd need more and more Mods to view it all. This is true, you'd definitely need more than one, but all zone chat for one area is viewable from all instances. Say I am on PE instance number 15. If I jump to instance number 12 to be with a friend I am still going to be seeing the exact same chat conversations and posts that I would on 15. Its all one chat server, despite being multiple world servers.
I could support a system like this as long as it had a process similar to applying for a real life job. Noone under the age of 21 would even be considered for the position, and you'd have to pass some sort of check in their system (like your account has never been suspected of cheating or buying illegal zen or anything like that. they have to keep records of stuff like that). With strict enough criteria I think it could seriously reduce the chance of being abused.
And for the age old, "you can lie about your age on the internet," thing: yes, you can, but require that you fax them a copy of your driver's license. After all if they offer say 2K to 5K zen per month of doing this for them, I'd be willing to fax it to them.
...
Tired of running dungeons with exploiters and cheaters? Join the legit channel by visiting http://goo.gl/1zfnTS to apply!
Performing ritual pony sacrifices to Tiamat to earn favor with the RNG Gods since 2014.
...
This thread is using mod in the sense of "moderator" (scurvy knaves, all), rather than modifications or addons.
EXACTLY! I played that game for years! (it was my addiction for some time)
They seemed to do a good job selecting the right mods and mods who were found to violate rules/behaviors were stripped of their mod status promptly. It was very well run, in my opinion.
myles08807 said, "Back in my day, we didn't have any of this fancy Mulhorand gear while we were leveling . . . we walked uphill both ways while dying once every five seconds while leveling, and we liked it fine!" . . . Now, get off my lawn, you kids!"
pointsman said, "I don't rue the game. In fact I don't feel any regret for the game at all."
looomis said, "I don't like people changing to alts and then bragging about their mains like schizophrenic role players."
The OP did suggest user packages for spam blocking as well, so both meanings have been used.
Was only a suggestion, and I thought not a difficult one to implement.
I use Firefox, so I love add-ons!!
As for this being F2P, and since it is we shouldn't expect much? Rubbish. I've spent more on this game than any other in my life.
I agree on all your points!
myles08807 said, "Back in my day, we didn't have any of this fancy Mulhorand gear while we were leveling . . . we walked uphill both ways while dying once every five seconds while leveling, and we liked it fine!" . . . Now, get off my lawn, you kids!"
pointsman said, "I don't rue the game. In fact I don't feel any regret for the game at all."
looomis said, "I don't like people changing to alts and then bragging about their mains like schizophrenic role players."
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
Shazaam - 60 Tiefling CW
Link - 60 Menzoberranzan Renegade (Drow) HR
Naruto - 60 Half-Orc TR
Moose - 60 Human GWF
T-Wrecks 60 Half-Orc GF
Drag King - 60 Dragonborn SW
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
I think PWE wants to advertise and introduce more players as much as possible and adding a credit card as a barrier for entry is not their style in a F2P game
I agree this might detour some players from trying the game but I think it will massively decrease the amount of players that manipulate the F2P model.
Think about it as a business; the "Free to Play" model is designed to attract players to try out the game risk free. At the end of the day they still need to earn money from their product so they offer various things in game that can be purchased. (i.e. booster packs, in game currencies, bonus rewards, VIP areas) The players who "try" the game and enjoy it are happy to pay real money to support the game... It is the job of the game to put a value on what they are selling, some people will think it's worth it while others scoff at the prices.
All that said, I think there is a misconception of what F2P really is, it should really be called, "Risk Free Download" or "No Commitment or Contract Play" (but remember they are trying to lure you in)
I think if they added an identity verification procedure to the account creation, such as attaching a CC number to your account, they would weed out A TON of botters and probably a lot of players who wouldn't really get into the game enough to support it anyway.
The value of having a "happy community" of players would totally outweigh the small inconvenience of linking your CC to your account and you wouldn't need to make all of the in-game changes that make it a pain for legit players, like the bound keys and stopping low level players from tells and zone chatting. Word of mouth that this game supports its community would sell the game WAY better than making it a bit easier to create an account.
Shazaam - 60 Tiefling CW
Link - 60 Menzoberranzan Renegade (Drow) HR
Naruto - 60 Half-Orc TR
Moose - 60 Human GWF
T-Wrecks 60 Half-Orc GF
Drag King - 60 Dragonborn SW
Been suggested on many forums for many FTP games. But it will never happen. I can't think of any FTP game that does this. And for good reason. They want people to try the game out *then* lure them into a transaction. People would be wary of any game claiming to be free that required their CC up front.
Basically it would scare off potential customers. Nothing beyond that matters. The whole idea of having a 'Happy Community' doesn't work if to many of those people never reach the point of becoming part of-that happy community in the first place.
If you don't believe me go to World of Tanks public chat and try to get away with swearing or being a troll.
You will see red script pop up within thirty seconds telling you which mod banned you , for how long, and why.
These aren't game bans, just chat bans.
PAID moderators DO work, and they do make chat a friendly place by removing all the spammers and trollish nonsense quickly.
Also you dont have a mod in each zone, they read chat logs, which all games have.
Player volunteer mods would not work no matter how many zones they sat in. You have to have an employee with access to chat logs.
I understand that WoT has a huge playerbase and muy grande revenue stream compared to this game and NW probably can't afford to pay people to scan chat logs all the time, or have a live moderator in chat helping folks...but they do work.
Good point. I still think it could be presented in such a way that it tells the customer this is for "verification purposes only" it could work. It makes sense to a potential customer that you wouldn't want your game riddled with spam bots, and like I was trying to say... people not willing to attach proof of identity to their account will probably not end up being a paying customer anyway. It actually doesn't need to be a CC, I just suggested this as it is probably the most universal worldwide.
I see the argument both ways tho.
Shazaam - 60 Tiefling CW
Link - 60 Menzoberranzan Renegade (Drow) HR
Naruto - 60 Half-Orc TR
Moose - 60 Human GWF
T-Wrecks 60 Half-Orc GF
Drag King - 60 Dragonborn SW