Process improvement suggestion - trade dispute

[Smurfo]

Dear all,

Based on recent events multiple players seems to experience lately and STS standpoint on the particular issue I raised, I have created following process improvement suggestion which I believe all legit players would benefit from and it might help to improve customer satisfaction rating.

Pre-notes:
This process assumes there was a claim raised and initial investigation showed there is a reason to believe the trade/gift function was used by a different individual than the rightful owner of the account in question. (e.g. different than usual IP range used at the time of trade, different IS provider, trade was a "freebie", etc. – refers to your internal documentation/investigation processes which are not known to me)

Flowchart:



Affidavit (declaration on word of honour):

Statement must be authenticated by public notary, so it is a legitimate document that can be used in further escalation via regular legal process outside of Spacetime Studios if required.


I [Name, Surname, ID number] hereby declare:
I am the only rightful owner and user of the Google account [name Google account]
I declare I did not consciously or willingly participate in a trade or gift of following items within Arcane Legends game owned by Spacetime Studio Games Company:
[list items]
I also hereby agree that this statement can be used by Spacetime Studio Games Company in order to support my claim for the listed items return process as necessary.
Place: ………………..
Date: ……………….. Signature: ……………….



Conclusion:

- Given I am operations guy, I specialize in process creation/improvements only – the correct legal wording of the affidavit to be acceptable for given purpose is something that definitely needs further improvement – something your legal dpt. Can have a look at.
- 99% of players that are attempting to cheat won`t go through the additional notary costs/process to prove they did not attempt to cheat, while the players that are really the victims would gladly do it – just to have a chance to have their items returned (I rather pay the notary fee, postal cost and even accept the ban that assumes I tried to make real money business even though I didn`t than not having any chance for justice at all)
- There are no additional costs and minimal additional effort to your company/support dpt. Any further disputes on the given topic are carried via regular legal processes outside of your company / support structure
- I might be overlooking something and given you are more experienced I am looking forward to see what constraints/blocking points you see in this process improvement suggestion.

Regards,
Peter.

[Foebegone]

There are a few points that may make this a no go.

1, you can game this system by changing IP. this can be done simply via a VPN of a wifi hotspot or a host of other means. then sell your stuff launder the gold and claim back. That flaw will prevent this from working.

2, does the item get duplicated? it sounds like you advocate taking it from account B who may have innocently brought the item, and now gets punished due to you not keeping YOUR account secure.

3, legal is a pointless term in a MMO that spans continents.

Don't get me wrong I feel sorry if you got your account hacked and I would hope you would get the toon back based on IP range and email confirmation. I think a better Idea is to use google sign in and use 2 step identification with a un brute forceable password (mine is 30+ alphanumeric with symbols) have that linked to another account where if the NSA decides to hack you you can claim back your account via the linked address.

I believe that a lot of accounts that get hacked are done so via social engineering and not 'hacking' the others I've seen have

Toon name: BobTheRogue
Email add: BobTheRogue@yahoo.com
Password: BobTheRogue

This happened to a guild member. (sorry if BobTheRogue is a char! even sorrier if this is ur account info o.O)

[Smurfo]

Hello,

thank you for your feedback. Find below my comment to your points:

1. Assumption is a legit player has no need to change IP via VPN if he is about to do a legit trade

2. Item doesn`t get duplicated. It is returned from B to A, however I got your point. If the intruder controlling A does a legitimate trade with B and transfers gold to C, there is a log about that which can be investigated further. However, "freebies" or obviously underpriced trades should be considered as phony or suspicious at least - in such a case there is no gold "laundering" as you claim but an indication of a theft.

3. Legal is legal, no matter what you say, public notary authenticated document is valid in any country, and as mentioned clearly - legal dispute between A and B is then carried outside of company/support model purely between 2 individuals - nothing related to STS anymore. (based on Terms&Conditions - real money trades are violation of it)

I didn`t get you wrong, but please stop assuming people are stupid. I have never shared my credentials, nobody had ever access to my device than me, my dog, my cats and my completely computer illiterate mother, yet I ended up like I did. My IGN differs from my email address and my password differs from both and has included a upper case, number and special character. Truth is I did not use 2 step identification until now, however this only protects your google account, not AL account. My password into google and into AL differ.

Regards,
Peter.

[Smurfo]

..so I listened to your suggestion and went ahead and asked STG to change my login from email that can be brute force entered to google to use 2 step verification.. Guess what, this migration is not possible. So either I can start a new character with gmail and be protected, or use my current and wait until I am robbed again

[Foebegone]

Hi mate sorry was not implying that you were stupid (tho I wouldn't trust the cat) or in any way at fault. More to inform others as to common dangers, I am a programmer and unfortunately have to assume the worst in users behaviours.

The comment about legality is more to do with the ability of individuals to take effective action and not so much about international contract law.

The IP vpn issue is that non legit players will try and scam the sys.

I agree there should be investigation as to the trail of items, its easy to see good trades from fake. as it is relatively easy to see a hacked acc, google mail does it if the IP jumps continent.

I also agree that STS should be able to transfer an account from one login sys to another. I can see it being copy paste job after setting up a new acc.


Again really sorry if I came across as rude it was not intended. I too would like to see this flaw fixed as it affects many of my guilds (surprisingly regularly for some).

PS. if I see ya in game I'll give ya some locked to get going again