So I had my GW2 account hacked last week.  I followed ANet's recommended procedure for reporting the hacked account incident and did receive some intitial responses from ANet support but have not heard anything from them since last Friday night (9/7), even after several follow-up attempts.

Considering that I hadn't made it very far in the game and wanted to play with some friends over the weekend, I simply picked up another copy from Gamestop (digital sales were halted at the time) and started a new account.

But this got me thinking...  Is it in ANet's best interest financially to drag out the account recovery process in order to fuel additional sales of the game?

Considering that there's no monthly fee, it really makes it easier to simply drop some coin on another copy of the game instead of waiting in limbo to hopefully have your account recovered, while all your buddies are enjoying the game.

Sounds crazy but is it really??   <insert X Files theme>

I saw conspiracy in the title so I had to click on it. I was hoping for something more, maybe involving aliens or a hidden group that controls all of the MMO studios in the world.

I give this conspiracy only a 3/10, partially because it has already been posted as an idea on these forums.

Of course they do.

What better way to increase sales and profits by ensuring you piss off a bunch of customers?

'Scuse me while I go walk across some fiery rocks.

It is not in Anets best interest to delay helping thier customers, unless they want to start being talked about in the same breath as SoE and Bioware.

Sure it might provide a few more sales from people like yourself, but the overwhelming majority will likely just move on from the game and never look back. No company thrives in the long-term by pissing off thier customers.

Considering that's a gamble equal or more likely to make them lose players, no probably not a part of their strategy.

They got swarmed before and had to close purchases, once they reopened they were probably swarmed again and have to deal with a lot of people going through tickets. I know when I forst hopped in it took a few days before I got a response that sent me to waiting a couple more days for another person to respond. They still fixed my account, but they're just too busy to cycle though everything with any speed at the moment still.

Being lucky to catch someone on support live not withstanding.

Don't get hack :  by using another combination, password / loggin on any other games, forum account, etc...

That easy, never get hack by having a different password for any different game and service, write it all down on a note, or in your phone, or on your desktop or all of those.

you'll see then that most of the hacks happens because most of the user reuse the same combination e-mail/loggin/password from other games or forum access.

Originally posted by SuperDonk

It is not in Anets best interest to delay helping thier customers, unless they want to start being talked about in the same breath as SoE and Bioware.

 

Sure it might provide a few more sales from people like yourself, but the overwhelming majority will likely just move on from the game and never look back. No company thrives in the long-term by pissing off thier customers.

Oh please, hacked accounts are being turned around in under two days if you give them all the correct information.   Compare that to Blizzard, or most every other MMO company, which takes 3-weeks to a month IF they'll restore your account.   And when they're not crushed, it's a matter of hours to get your account back.   Like when I had my GW1 account restored earlier this year.

This topic and these ANet bashing responses are just silly.     If you have a real complaint, make it.  But this pretend  "ANet bad customer service to sell more games' crap is both annoying and lame.

Originally posted by Yamota
No. Most likely people would be less inclined to give ANet money if they are not being able to use what they paid for.

This.

OP might be the only person to give a company more money in this situation.

/thread

Originally posted by Bushi131

Don't get hack :  by using another combination, password / loggin on any other games, forum account, etc...

That easy, never get hack by having a different password for any different game and service, write it all down on a note, or in your phone, or on your desktop or all of those.

you'll see then that most of the hacks happens because most of the user reuse the same combination e-mail/loggin/password from other games or forum access.

 

Yeah, the one guy in our guild that got hacked, got hacked because he bought WoW gold.   They keylogged him and not only hacked his WoW account, but he stupidly took no precautions with his GW2 account and they got him there over a year later...

And I know who -- PvPBank -- using stolen accounts on a daily basis to sell gold.   It's pathetic.   Sell someone gold.  Keylog them.  Then steal the guy's account then spam his guild mates with advertisements...   As if we were too stupid to notice it!!!

Originally posted by Jerek_
Nope, any extra sales they get will be offset by people like me-  my account was hacked at 4am this morning, first MMO account I've ever had compromised, and even if/when they get it fixed I'm done with thier game.  Admittedly I didn't care a lot for the game to start with but I had been intending to give it more time, but not now.  I had a fresh email and new password on the account and my gaming system is clean, people can blame the hacks on users all they want but if it happened to me I have to strongly suspect that the developer is the one with the problem.

That would be incorrect. Hacked characters are ALWAYS the fault of the user. Whether it's GW2, WoW, EQ2, Rift, etc. etc. If someone had their character hacked it's THEIR fault. End of story.

Originally posted by MosesZD

Originally posted by SuperDonk

It is not in Anets best interest to delay helping thier customers, unless they want to start being talked about in the same breath as SoE and Bioware.

 

Sure it might provide a few more sales from people like yourself, but the overwhelming majority will likely just move on from the game and never look back. No company thrives in the long-term by pissing off thier customers.

 

 

Oh please, hacked accounts are being turned around in under two days if you give them all the correct information.   Compare that to Blizzard, or most every other MMO company, which takes 3-weeks to a month IF they'll restore your account.   And when they're not crushed, it's a matter of hours to get your account back.   Like when I had my GW1 account restored earlier this year.

 

This topic and these ANet bashing responses are just silly.     If you have a real complaint, make it.  But this pretend  "ANet bad customer service to sell more games' crap is both annoying and lame.

 When I got hacked in WoW, took 15 minutes to get all of my gear back, I'm not sure what you are talking about.

Originally posted by Jerek_
Nope, any extra sales they get will be offset by people like me-  my account was hacked at 4am this morning, first MMO account I've ever had compromised, and even if/when they get it fixed I'm done with thier game.  Admittedly I didn't care a lot for the game to start with but I had been intending to give it more time, but not now.  I had a fresh email and new password on the account and my gaming system is clean, people can blame the hacks on users all they want but if it happened to me I have to strongly suspect that the developer is the one with the problem.

It's not like they haven't been clear what the probem is...  

Account Security

Hackers have lists of email addresses and passwords stolen from other games and web sites, and collected through spyware, and are systematically testing Guild Wars 2 looking for matching accounts. To protect yourself, use a strong, unique password for Guild Wars 2 that you've never used anywhere else! If your current password isn't unique to Guild Wars 2, change it today! Do not under any circumstances use the same password for Guild Wars 2 as you do for your email account.

We've observed hack attempts against hundreds of thousands of accounts that don't even exist. To protect those people in case they purchase Guild Wars 2 and create an account, we will now disallow customers from picking passwords that we've previously seen used in a hack attempt.

 

 

Day after day after day after day good ol' 'PvPBank' hacks at your account because they're methodical and punish people who foolishly think they can't be hacked with a harsh dose of reality.

Originally posted by MosesZD

Originally posted by SuperDonk

It is not in Anets best interest to delay helping thier customers, unless they want to start being talked about in the same breath as SoE and Bioware.

 

Sure it might provide a few more sales from people like yourself, but the overwhelming majority will likely just move on from the game and never look back. No company thrives in the long-term by pissing off thier customers.

 

 

Oh please, hacked accounts are being turned around in under two days if you give them all the correct information.   Compare that to Blizzard, or most every other MMO company, which takes 3-weeks to a month IF they'll restore your account.   And when they're not crushed, it's a matter of hours to get your account back.   Like when I had my GW1 account restored earlier this year.

 

This topic and these ANet bashing responses are just silly.     If you have a real complaint, make it.  But this pretend  "ANet bad customer service to sell more games' crap is both annoying and lame.

thats simply not true about blizzard anyway.  I've known 2 people to lose wow accounts, neither of which followed good practices with their info and neither of which used authenticators, and one got restored within hours and the other, which had been banned as well, within 2 days.  weeks and/or months?  I dont think so.

And there are people claiming a lot longer than 2 days on these forums for their GW2 accounts, although I don't know them personnally to know the truth of that.

Originally posted by MosesZD

Originally posted by SuperDonk

It is not in Anets best interest to delay helping thier customers, unless they want to start being talked about in the same breath as SoE and Bioware.

 

Sure it might provide a few more sales from people like yourself, but the overwhelming majority will likely just move on from the game and never look back. No company thrives in the long-term by pissing off thier customers.

 

 

Oh please, hacked accounts are being turned around in under two days if you give them all the correct information.   Compare that to Blizzard, or most every other MMO company, which takes 3-weeks to a month IF they'll restore your account.   And when they're not crushed, it's a matter of hours to get your account back.   Like when I had my GW1 account restored earlier this year.

 

This topic and these ANet bashing responses are just silly.     If you have a real complaint, make it.  But this pretend  "ANet bad customer service to sell more games' crap is both annoying and lame.

What are you talking about 3 weeks?  My wife has been hacked twice since they switched over to battlenet and neither time did it take more than a couple of hours to get it sorted out.  Within 12 hours all of her gold, her guilds gold/items that had been removed from their guild bank on her toons were returned.  I can't speak for any other game as that is the only game she plays and I've not been hacked on any game.  Though I do wonder what the heck sites she could be visiting to get a keylogger, I like to think she is smart enough not to click on random links in emails.