Are ArenaNet Being Too Strict With Their Guild Wars 2 Terms Of Service?

Since Guild Wars 2 launched only a week ago at least 3,000 players have had their accounts suspended and even banned. From that statistic alone you might think that its development team, ArenaNet, is a real hard ass. But there’s two sides to every story.

First of all, if you’ve spent any time browsing Guild Wars 2 forums—or Reddit—the past week you’re well aware that there are quite a few upset people out there. Actually, that’s probably an understatement. Starting at launch, ArenaNet began enforcing their Terms of Service in what many would consider a forceful manner, and commotion ensued.

In the beginning there was talk about people being suspended for 72 hours for using profanity in map chat, and even for doing something as normal in the MMO world as calling a new player a ****ing idiot. However, in the past couple days “exploiting” mispriced items from vendors has become the talk of the town. Players who decided to buy dozens of improperly priced items to turn a profit on the trading post were in for a rude awakening a day later.

Since players have gotten used to how companies like Blizzard Entertainment handle similar issues with rollbacks and item deletion, it came across as extremely surprising when bans were handed out liberally. As such, forums exploded and the world of thousands were turned upside down in an instant.

The thing that’s important to understand is that ArenaNet isn’t Blizzard Entertainment. They don’t necessarily have to handle issues in the same manner we’re accustomed to. More importantly they aren’t nearly as large of a company. Their decision to allocate so many resources to enforce policy means that they consider it to be an absolute priority.

What the last week has done is set a precedent that ArenaNet values keeping the Guild Wars 2 environment as fair and friendly as possible, even at the expense of their reputation. Some consumers might think they’re ban happy, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’d be a lot easier to just let everything slide, delete the items in player inventories that haven’t already done significant damage the game’s early market, and let mouthy users continue to call everyone racial slurs.

For someone like me who values respect more than anything, it feels good knowing that I don’t have to fill up my blacklist and deal with cheaters getting away with everything. ArenaNet ensures that every player agrees to the Terms of Service before playing, and if the player decides to take advantage of loopholes or drag down the experience for others, a three-day timeout is in order.

ArenaNet is the last line of defense against World of Warcraft and in the past eight years we’ve seen a handful of MMOs fall to its blade. They have several years of experience in the industry and fully understand the odds they’re against. If they feel enforcing the rules is important, then so be it. In the meantime, treat others with respect and don’t cheat. It’s really that easy.