Holy fleet spam

[JimG]

If you limited the chat posting frequency of F2P (not preferred players) under level 20, that would be a huge help. It's too easy for these guys to level another character high enough to get them onto the fleet to spam.

[Telanis]

We definitely have quite a few systems in place to try to stop this type of thing and we are always continuing to improve them. As you can imagine, those spammers are doing the same.

 

What is really important is that you always report them when you see them. It helps us immensely in tracking and removing that spam!

 

-eric

 

This is patently false. Spammers have been using the same messages for months. You haven't even done the simplest possible thing -- blacklisting "MMOWIN.COM" and other text of site names. Blacklisting text is a really poor way to deal with spam, but it would be *something*. You haven't done any sort of heuristic improvement because they can straight up say the most obvious and easily blocked messages like "Buy credits for $amount at stupidspammer.com" and never once get blocked. I don't see why there's a need to lie about it.

[Golathe]

How do you figure cartel market (i.e. microtransactions) contributes to the problem? If anything, it provides players with an official way to convert real money into in-game credits (after a fashion). I'd say GTN is more of a problem, since much of the credits bought from gold spammers are probably going there. As well as the plethora of other money sinks, like strongholds and guild ships.

 

Solution: Remove credits from the game and/or prevent all trading between players (any tradeable item can become a substitute currency; barter economies in MMOs are a pipe dream). Then the gold farmers will have to move to selling powerleveling services instead.

 

Looting items through in-game mechanics on a subscribed account (as MMO's have been). Micro transactions have no place on paid accounts to be honest, no? It will kill MMO's and this is the effective manner in which it will happen (i.e. is happening right now). Credits in-game should remain, and be for the commonality of small in-game purchasing of items.

[Twin]

I actually think YOU would make a good candidate for a warden Andryah. So would someone like Dulfy.

 

There are members of the community that have demonstrated a certain measure of restraint and maturity. You would be one of those folks IMO.

 

And note, this is despite the fact that we disagree often.

 

I was gonna reply to that post as well, but yeah i agree. There are obviously players that can use common sense and are mature enough not to abuse such power granted.

 

And sure, there might be some folks who abuse it, and thats why the punishment for abuse should be extremely severe. Account closed permanently. And anyone who signs up for warden and is approved should also be informed that this will be the case if "mute" is abused.

 

If people are aware that abuse will lead to punishments of magnitude, then i think it won't be a big problem after making examples of the ones who possibly would abuse.

 

But just pointing at the players saying "they are too immature to handle it", is just the type of attitude that makes stuff in this game less entertaining then it could be. Free placement deco-system as a somewhat recent example.

[DataBeaver]

Looting items through in-game mechanics on a subscribed account (as MMO's have been). Micro transactions have no place on paid accounts to be honest, no? It will kill MMO's and this is the effective manner in which it will happen (i.e. is happening right now). Credits in-game should remain, and be for the commonality of small in-game purchasing of items.

This thread is about gold sellers spamming fleet chat though. What do microtransactions have to do with gold sellers?

 

Personally, I don't mind microtransations as long as they are cosmetic items or minor convenience unlocks only and don't provide shortcuts through the game. I don't think SW:TOR is being killed by them either.

Edited December 17, 2014 by DataBeaver

[Rankyn]

I've always wondered why MMO's don't build dynamic chat filters so that new phrases could be inserted into them with relative ease so that as soon as the spam message changes, something could be added to the filter that would go in with the next patch.

Any chat containing these phrases would be blocked completely.

 

Also, the game desperately needs a single "report and ignore" button.

The current system is entirely too cumbersome, especially if you're standing in close proximity to the spammer and have to dig through sub-menus to get to the functions.

[fushnchips]

Bioware knows that the current filter system in this game is bad it's not hard to code something to allow players to insert filters that actually work and can be updated by the end user. Also with an auto ignore system that will flag once a certain trigger is activated.

[JumperPenn]

This might have worked with players a decade ago. But the modern MMO player base.. not a chance. Seriously.. the modern player base is beyond any expectation of reasonable responsibility and diligence. Evidence: coming to the forum to complain about credit spammers, rather then using the report features in game to actually let the security team at Bioware know who/what/where/when (all data automatically included with a /report).

 

Besides.. it will just mean players will be on the forum complaining about "Wardens" not doing their job, yada, yada, yada.

 

And if you think a Warden system would not get abused and cause more problems then it solves..... I have water front property in the high desert to sell you.

 

TL;DR we are all defacto wardens who can report any offender for review and action by Bioware.

 

Please, BW could have implemented a simpler system with less power to players who consistently report gold sellers and add 'weight' to their reports so that when one or a few of them report a goldseller they are instantly muted from all communications. Things like validating that reports of gold spam etc are correct and following up on those to see how many/often players abuse these and do as you suggest report anyone they don't like or feel like for fun. Obviously BW hasn't done this as gold spammers are reported for hours and keep spamming.

 

That however requires work to link accounts that report and the investigation into the reports to prove the players reported the spammer which seems to be too much to do for bw.

 

I report every gold spammer and yet I still see them spamming for over an hour at best and hours at worse when I return to fleet or log in with another character who also reports them.

 

When you mention it in chat, most players are wise to how slow BW is and just suggest you ignore them becasue report seems to do nothing.

 

I'd be fine with a warden system that required wardens sign an agreement to only mute gold spammers and face account bans no matter how many little brothers they allegedly allowed access to their pc's.

 

I'd much rather BW had their report system shut spammers up faster with more 'trusted' players who's reports are actually and only real spammers of gold selling but as I said that seems to be too much to ask. They seem to be favoring their real time investigations (when someone is online to deal with the spammer) or perhaps dozens/hundreds of reports to mute a spammer when they are offline.

[TravelersWay]

Is it not that "Free to play" is only half of it, in tandem with the "Micro transaction" business model?

 

If players were required to acquire items in the game more like days of old, and earn them through actual game play?

 

Many of the issues could be quelled with ease quite honestly.

 

That would be incorrect - the "good ole days" of gaming were just as rife with gold spammers and RMTs as there are today, long before F2P became vogue. To this day, WoW stands as the biggest home to these types of these things, (including before their cash shop).

[Deewe]

Client side:

 

1. Start with right click ignore AND report spammer.
   
2. Automatically ignore the character for the player on all his chars
   
3. Ignore is then extended to all characters for the spammer
   
4. Allow players to set up client side chat filters so they can update spam messages immediately.
   

 

Just the first point would be of great help and a good mitigation.

[Banthabreeder]

I can't believe the number of spammers now sending me in game mail. I report all of them, which does create a ticket, and all are still OPEN.

 

What shocks me even more is i have some mule alts that never go to fleet, stay in my stronghold the entire time, and yet they get spam mail as well?!?!?

 

Where on earth are these spammers getting all our character names from?

[ekwalizer]

Credit/Gold sellers are a problem that all MMOs have. There is a very simple solution, but one that most companies will not take.

 

Any game with a micro-transaction store has the ability to annihilate credit sellers by selling credits directly from the MT store. It costs the company virtually nothing ... they can dictate a cash to credit value well below the sellers price and make it an unsustainable business in their game.

 

Will some players boohoo about it, sure, but players get booboo-lip over anything anyway.

 

This would benefit players in two ways. First, it would eliminate credit spam. Second, those players that do engage in credit buying would be buying directly from the game company - that they already share their banking info with.

 

Is there a monumental difference between players who buy CM items and sell them on the GTN vs. players who buy credits on the free market? No, they are still spending real money to generate in-game money. The only real difference is that Bioware doesn't profit from it.

[Transcendent]

I can't believe the number of spammers now sending me in game mail. I report all of them, which does create a ticket, and all are still OPEN.

 

What shocks me even more is i have some mule alts that never go to fleet, stay in my stronghold the entire time, and yet they get spam mail as well?!?!?

 

Where on earth are these spammers getting all our character names from?

 

Probably an automated script that trawls who is online at a specific point in time, then send the mail out to all of those characters. Annoying as hell getting those in the mail, I don't even take the 1 credit that comes with it and simply report it.

 

My tickets for those are still open as well, used to get those quite a while ago, so a little surprised we're getting them again (well not really ).

 

The simple answer is for the fleet spam is for multiple ignores / reports of a player resulting in "squashing" any further chat messages for a set period of time in general chat. I have yell turned off by default in chat settings, so stopped seeing those types of messages a long time ago.

 

An even simpler solution is to set up your own chat settings for guild chat / ops / flashpoints etc and only use that if feasible.

[ravenmisfit]

The barrage of spam from bots is getting very irritating...very surprised they can't implement some kind of spam filter to weed these out. My ignore list is just growing and growing

 

Even getting spam whispers and messages in my inbox

 

 

At least you have room on your ignore list, I have 2 toons with completely full ignore lists and just have to suffer and weed through all the spam when on fleet, I'd love to get more slots on the ignore list or an ignore account option that only "counts" as one slot

[AdrianDmitruk]

We definitely have quite a few systems in place to try to stop this type of thing and we are always continuing to improve them. As you can imagine, those spammers are doing the same.

 

What is really important is that you always report them when you see them. It helps us immensely in tracking and removing that spam!

 

-eric

 

What is really important is that report functionality also include, WITH THE SAME CLICK:

 

1. Report sent to Bioware (what presently exists)

2. Automatic ignore

3. All previous messages from the reported spammer deleted from your chat window

 

All of that needs to be bundled into a single action. Presently ignoring is a separate action, and 3 is downright impossible. (3 ia also necessary as spammers can scroll off legitimate chat that you might be looking for, such as LFG advertisements in fleet).

 

Presently because report spam and ignore are split into two different actions, the temptation is to go straight for the ignore without necessarily bothering to report. The spam is the first interruption to our gameplay, ignoring it the second, and reporting it the third. We just want to be done with it and if we're doing anything other than waiting around on fleet....well you know.

 

EVE Online combines all three functions into one "REPORT ISK SPAMMER" click. Coincidentally, isk spam (which would be credit spam here) is practically nonexistent there. I played EVE when REPORT ISK SPAMMER was implemented into the game in its present form, and overnight the spam dropped by an order of magnitude. Within a week the spam had dropped by two full orders of magnitude--yes I mean literally by 99%. By the time SWTOR launched, I would see spam in EVE Online only about once in five months, and EVE was what I played right up until SWTOR launch.

 

The solution is simple. Yet when I brought it up at the Seattle Community Cantina event, the devs were...surprisingly blind to it.

Edited December 17, 2014 by AdrianDmitruk

[Fidelicatessen]

What is really important is that report functionality also include, WITH THE SAME CLICK:

 

1. Report sent to Bioware (what presently exists)

2. Automatic ignore

3. All previous messages from the reported spammer deleted from your chat window

 

All of that needs to be bundled into a single action. Presently ignoring is a separate action, and 3 is downright impossible. (3 ia also necessary as spammers can scroll off legitimate chat that you might be looking for, such as LFG advertisements in fleet).

 

EVE Online combines all three functions into one "REPORT ISK SPAMMER" click. Coincidentally, isk spam (which would be credit spam here) is practically nonexistent there. I played EVE when REPORT ISK SPAMMER was implemented into the game in its present form, and overnight the spam dropped by an order of magnitude. Within a week the spam had dropped by two full orders of magnitude--yes I mean literally by 99%.

 

The solution is simple. Yet when I brought it up at the Seattle Community Cantina event, the devs were...surprisingly blind to it.

 

Yeah, this is one of those no-brainers that the devs are oblivious of. When I mentioned it in Suggestion Box, the community told me to shut up because it wasn't that hard to click two buttons. I'm all for it, though.

 

Those of you who've got your panties in a bunch over this influx of gold spammers (I don't like it either, but I'm not particularly fussed) can console yourself with this silver lining: the more successful the game is, the more gold spammers there will be and the more tenacious their tactics.

 

So having this much gold spam just means the game has gotten a bunch more successful in the past few weeks. Gold spammers go where the money is. Tell THAT to the people who say the game is dying.

[Cox_The_Beast]

I don't usually like to talk of this matter, but starting lately I have noticed a new routine into spamming. Before, it was just spamming General or Yell, and tbh I couldn't care less, one message every minute was bearable.

 

A few days ago, however, I started receiving PMs with 1 Credit and the invite to purchase from them. Reported EVERY SINGLE ONE as Spam. Didn't see them again. Little annoyance, though I had to log on all my chars to report them. And I have quite a few...

 

Yesterday, however, one of those goldspammers began whispering me. At the speed of a whisper a second, my chat panel became unreadable.

I placed the guy in my Ignore List and reported him for spam and Harassment - because all in all, that's Harassment, in my book, the guy was actively preventing me from enjoying hte game.

 

Now, I logged for hte afternoon and returned in game about 3-4h later. Well, the guy was still there. As I logged I decided to have a look at my Ignore List and took him out by mistake. I'm not full, mind you, but I dislike to keep Goldspammers in there, they vanish fast anyway... And the fact I can't add notes to Ignore doesn't make it easy to distinguish, I've seen Goldspammers with a name htat made sense a few times.

At any rate, as soon as the guy came out of my Ignore List, my Chat Panel got filled with his whispers. AGAIN. Back into Ignore he went, but seriously, this is damn annoying...

Edited December 17, 2014 by Cox_The_Beast

[Joesixxpack]

Also, the game desperately needs a single "report and ignore" button.

The current system is entirely too cumbersome, especially if you're standing in close proximity to the spammer and have to dig through sub-menus to get to the functions.

 

This.

 

At a friggin' minimum do this please BW. Understandably you guys don't explain your trip wires and processes for dealing with gold spammers, but it's obviously in large part like the typical whack-a-mole approach.

 

So, for us to help you help us help you etc. how about streamlining this? The incentive of more convenience I'm sure would inspire more people to report.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Joesixxpack

[Mubrak]

A few days ago, however, I started receiving PMs with 1 Credit and the invite to purchase from them. Reported EVERY SINGLE ONE as Spam. Didn't see them again. Little annoyance, though I had to log on all my chars to report them. And I have quite a few...

 

Yes those 1 credit spam mails are cute.

 

I've reported one of them, the game automatically created a ticket which is still open after 2+ weeks and I can't close it myself. Well, since then I take my credit and delete the mail.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Mubrak

[LordArtemis]

So far the ones I have reported have been closed. It's three so far.

 

This is getting a bit out of hand with 4 guys I had to ignore today because of gold sale whisper spam.

 

Is there some way to turn off whispers globally?

Edited December 17, 2014 by LordArtemis

[Deewe]

Is there some way to turn off whispers globally?

This is supposedly a MMO so having people willing to go as far as turning off whispers is quite a big deal...

 

The devs and the producer knows pretty well a one button ignore/report would mitigate the issue.

We've been asking this even before launch. They simply don't care otherwise it would have been prioritized long time ago.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Deewe

[Pagy]

We definitely have quite a few systems in place to try to stop this type of thing and we are always continuing to improve them. As you can imagine, those spammers are doing the same.

 

What is really important is that you always report them when you see them. It helps us immensely in tracking and removing that spam!

 

-eric

again, another lie. I've seen the same credit spammer post the same message for over 24hrs straight.

 

the truth is, you're doing LESS.

 

how hard would it be to have one person, once a day review the spam reports and ban the accounts? it seems like a 20min task.

 

why not chat-ban accounts after x number of spam reports?

 

the truth is: bw probably doesn't even ban these spammers or investigate who they are selling to because that would mean you'd lose subs.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Pagy

[Frybert]

again, another lie. I've seen the same credit spammer post the same message for over 24hrs straight.

 

the truth is, you're doing LESS.

 

how hard would it be to have one person, once a day review the spam reports and ban the accounts? it seems like a 20min task.

 

why not chat-ban accounts after x number of spam reports?

 

the truth is: bw probably doesn't even ban these spammers or investigate who they are selling to because that would mean you'd lose subs.

 

What good would come from banning the account? The game is F2P so they would just get another account (like they're probably already doing.)

[Deewe]

For the record they used to have a team dedicated to spamming (source):

 

we have a team of 30 people to get rid of people that credit spam – they get banned as soon they show up. We can track all credit transfers.

[FourPawnBenoni]

A legacy ignore would be awesome; so i don't have to ignore the same bot on all my alts Edited December 17, 2014 by FourPawnBenoni