In our message to our community in March we announced that we'd be addressing a number of your concerns. We said we'd be releasing four blogs to talk about the support we offer. The first of our blogs is here and it talks about upgrading our systems. The next blog will tackle account security, recovery, and lost items.
Since the blog we've focused heavily on fixing older content, we've hidden poll results, and we've published a blog detailing our plans for PvP following a PvP player visit.
I still got the crabs ready, just in case.
Not sure if a threat or medical concern.
Any chance you guys would consider adding more MTX apart from bonds?
Not everyone's opposed to more P2W options.
We are opposed to pay to win options.
We could always try to get the reportable offences menu updated. It's kind of outdated and there's a lot that could be added like phishing and so forth.
Currently I'm not even sure what the most effective option would be to remove those phishing bots in the GE that use hijacked accounts and youtube links. Adverting websites? Scamming? neither of those seem to describe it well enough.
Fair point ... in truth it won't make a huge difference if you get the categorisation wrong, the important thing is that the incident gets reported - for the example of phishing you provided, the website advertising option would be the best fit report category
I am very concerned about this "lost item return service" I've said it before and i'll say it again. It won't work for a game like this, it'll crush the economy once people figure out how to exploit the system. Ofcourse if its a system that grabs the item from the hacker/scammer's account and transfers it back to the original owner, perhaps it could be a good service.
We will expand on that topic in a future blog, we've mentioned it in this blog because we want to be transparent and open about some of the things we'd like to explore further. Lost items return (or lack of it) is a common criticism aimed at us, so it's only right that we listen to that feedback and see what we might be able to do to help. It really is early stages though, but for now you can be assured that we will give it careful consideration.
If I would suggest something, is to do like Blizzard and ask for real IDs and documents when someone is trying to recover the account or password, at least one of your document will match with account details, chat log or something. My friend got his smartphone stolen and lost the authenticator, Blizzard asked for real ID to recovery the account, together with a lot of question about the account data, just by seeing he trying to recovery his own account, I was relieved because I was sure if any person besides the true owner won't have the answer for a lot of questions Blizzard questioned.
Thanks for your comment, the topic of recovery will be part of a future blog - but in relation to your suggestion I'm afraid it isn't quite that simple. There is a huge volume of accounts that wouldn't have any sort of account management data that could be verified against ID, and that also assumes that all players have sufficient ID they could actually supply!
It's a sensible suggestion though, and this sort of dialogue is really useful to us, so keep it coming!
But I still cannot access any type of account support since the email I used was a school based one that I no longer have access to, but Jagex says to check my email.
How can you help me? Recovery doesn’t work even though it’s my account. I know when I made it and what city I was in and previous passwords.
Any help would be great.
I tried over a year ago but did not get thru Reddit Customer Support: https://www.reddit.com/r/2007scape/comments/8gvrep/changing_an_old_account_email_no_longer_accessible/
If your email is old/inaccessible, you need to update it by providing some supporting info and the new email address you would like to set - we'll review that and provided everything adds up we'll set your new email to the account and you will be good to go. It sounds like you have already tried that route and your requests are being denied, in that case I'm afraid you do need to strengthen the request - see our denied password reset tips to help improve your chances of a successful recovery.
I agree, but there are many on this sub who think that wilderness griefing should be bannable or following someone to crash them should be bannable. Now personally I think none of that should be bannable- if it's in the game and not clearly a glitch then it should be allowed- but in 2019 people think lots of shit should be bannable that isn't even chat related at all.
In the upcoming survey we will specifically ask for player views on toxicity, it is a complex issue that isn't just text based and does bleed into things like ragging and griefing, and everyone will have a different tolerance level and view on severity - we need to get those survey results to really understand any concerns the community have (if any) and then use those results to make informed decisions moving forwards
You know what, I'm actually optimistic about Jagex's future regarding player support. We will have to wait and see what the end result will be, but the transparency and honesty here is fantastic.
The Current Situation
I think we secretly knew that Jagex's systems were heavily outdated. I didn't expect it to be this bad though. Glad they're finally upgrading. It definitely won't be easy going from a legacy system to a modern one.
Answer Bot
I always like these kind of bots on other websites. There it's a great tool that fits a certain niche between a regular search and 'human' support. It basically just narrows down your search results by asking follow-up questions.
Not sure where Jagex is going with this though. The wording almost make it seem that it will be something hidden away, that you'll only see when making a ticket. I don't know, I just hope it's going to be good.
The Support Center
Live chat sounds awesome. I thought that it would be impossible for Jagex to help this way, as there's no ideal way for Jagex to identify the account owner. So I'm curious as to how Jagex intends to use this system.
We find that the majority of complaints and concerns raised on places such as Reddit could be addressed either through existing support articles or by contacting our team. The problem this does highlight, however, is that some of you find it too difficult to access the information and support you need.
I'd say that it is indeed correct that players find it too difficult to find the information they need. Not only that, but also players that simply don't like or don't quite understand the answer they received.
Just imagine that someone lost access to their account. Filled in the recovery form with all the information they know, but the recovery appeal keeps getting denied. They're barely informed on why their appeal gets denied. It is just frustrating and so they'll come to Reddit.
What they don't know is that Jagex usually has a good reason for the things they're doing. When they reveal too much it might help potential hijackers. After all, the player failed to identify themselves as the account owner. While going to social media might help the player provide Jagex with additional context, Jagex is unable to help the player there. As Jagex is unable to verify the social media account (Twitter & Reddit) with the RuneScape account.
Thanks for your considered response, we'll expand on live chat in future blogs but you are right to identify the verification issue, getting the balance right between helping people quickly in live chat but also verifying who we are speaking to is a challenge. The natural approach (I think) would be to only offer the service where verification is not important, for example to offer general advice, tech support etc.
Maybe for account security also give us
1) OPTIONAL authenticator delay 2) optional 5 recovery questions (not possible anymore, and can't change if you have them) 3) link your ID or something to your account
All topics we will comment on in the next blog, don't worry we know these things are on peoples minds but they deserve a dedicated blog so we can fully explain the issues
We completely understand that many of you expect an email response to your enquiries. Currently we are only able to reply to some messages via email and others via the message centre, which can sometimes lead to our messages going unread. This will be changing so all responses will indeed be emailed out.
This is kind of worrying, so much for "Jagex will never email you" etc.
That stance relates more to phishing. In the context you have quoted the player will be expecting a response because they will have instigated the contact, and the email message will be regarding the enquiry the player has raised, which is a bit different to receiving an unsolicited email out of the blue.
I feel like this is coming because Jagex now has plans to become the largest MMO. Well Jagex, you need to do a lot of work. Blizzard's support is basically what you should aim for. You may not be #1, but Runescape is the #1 MMO game that releases their numbers. No other MMO is sporting/showing off they have 100k people playing at one time.
There are some major issues not addressed in this blog.
Refunds/returns. Currently, Jagex official offers no support to players who are victims of hacks or glitches besides niche cases. If I hacked 199atatime right now and got him 2 slayer, Jagex would not reset his account. If I hacked a guy for his rsn like "red," you would not return that guys runescape name. If I hacked a guy for 2b, you would not return his gp; even if you find the hacker and ban him with 2b on his account, you won't put that 2b gp back on the OG guy's account. If I experienced a bug, and got unwanted xp, I would not get rolled back unless the bug also affected. thousands of people (Jagex recently did a rollback for the last bug, but... the bug isn't fully fixed, the bug existed in 2013 and those accounts weren't offered supported, kbow bug wasn't offered support).
Account security just isn't there. I know this is a hard problem to solve. The main issue is that we are human. Jmods are going to make mistakes and give the wrong person access. Heck they let Mod ash's wife be hacked and gave away access to Mod mat k's account and his wife's . If the jmods aren't safe, they how are we expected to be safe. If you want quick suggestions: 1. allow us to attach person IDs to accounts like steam. 2. give each account a limbo period of 1 week where a dispute can be provided. So if my account got hacked, I would receive an email and text message saying my account was recovered. Now yes there is a world where I am inactive on rs, dont check my emails, and dont have the same phone number, but 99.9% of people will probably notice if the above happened. 3. actually provide refunds like pointed in in the first bullet point. that way it doesn't matter to the people if they get hacked.
Authenicator isn't 2 factor authenication. the way 2fa works is you need access to 2 things to access the major thing. However, I only need access to one's email address and I can change their password and remove authenicator. So I get access to their password and account with just 1 thing. That isn't 2 factor authenication. Please actually require 2FA to remove authenicator.
Many will point out that it's at the fault of the account owner. Even if we ignore the fact that email providers do not have a perfect track record, and likely won't in the future, Jagex is in the position to help everyone, even the fools. I'm sure that people who get hacked, tend to not enjoy the game as much, so are more likely to quit. This hurts Jagex financially and hurts us because we have less people to play with. So it's in our best interest to help everyone.
edit: just saw this comment by /u/jagexgambit
Looks like everything I pointed out should be address in the next blog. I'll leave this here so we can be prepared for the next blog and what to look for. Heck maybe even a jmod will read this comment and something could change.
edit2: also people do try to do something about twitch phishing. Quick suggestion. Twitch allows you to connect your runescape to your twitch account. Why not make talk to twitch and try to make this a requirement to stream, threaten to pull ur permission to stream runescape. And why not on your end, make it so you need 1000 total to connect the account. If the runescape account password changes, it disconnects from twitch (so phished accounts cant be used for twitch). This means that for every twitch stream, they would need a 1000 total level account. if that twitch acc gets banned, you would need another account. That would mean the phishing streams couldn't remain up 24/7 or at least cost the phishers more money to spend on buying rs accounts
Hey - as you mentioned, the above topics will be covered in future blogs, so I'll address the Twitch side of things.
We are working with Twitch to find a solution and are trying in-house methods too to stop this at the source. Thank you for your suggestion, but given that 99% of the phishing streams use VODs from existing streams, rather than actually playing the game, I'm not sure this would work - and would only punish those who genuinely wanted to stream for enjoyment.
I have to give Jadex credit. They are one of the few games out there that actually listen to their player base.
I think from a support team perspective we have always listened, but that hasn't always been entirely obvious because we haven't always been good at letting you know the things we are working on as a result of your feedback - this blog, and the ones to follow, are a good step at putting that right.
[deleted]
In short 'yes', although right now it is no further developed than a cool concept, it is something I'm personally quite an advocate for!
Sadly the only mention of an authenticator delay was that they are aware of our requests... very disappointing
That isn't being ignored, but it lends itself well to the next blog - don't worry we will speak about it!
Will the blog on account recovery/lost items, also include things like restoring hardcore statuses? I don't have a HCIM, but if returning lost items is something you're considering, I think it should be looked into whether or not HCIM statuses that are lost due to bugs could be fixed.
I hate seeing people lose their status because of an in-game bug, or a server-side DC.
That isn't part of the plans we are looking at, and I'd probably want the expert J Mods who make the game and are close to the community to express their views, but if the need exists and genuine players are frustrated, then as a service team we would be happy to at least explore feasibility
Hey Steve whenever this system launches I did just recently lose 6 twisted bows which I would like back. You can just put them right in my bank (in tab 5, that's the ranged equips tab). ty m8
Sounds legit. I'll round up to 7 just in case you miscounted ;)
"Wow, this account with over 100 viewers has like 3 followers" You can write a simple scraping tool to check the rs sections of twitch and see their creation dates, follower count, if they have links in their description, in sub only mode and many other things. It's not something that takes years to develop a solution
We can report them, yes - and do - but it's ultimately up to Twitch to remove the accounts (most do get removed within 20 mins but sometimes that's enough to do a lot of damage). They're like hydras too, and another pops up pretty much straight away.
It's a solution that we'll need help from Twitch with, ultimately.
u/Mod_Stevew I didn’t know you were an OSRS JMod, I thought you focused on RS3?
My team works across both games, but I am the primary liaison between the support team and the OS team
I’d like to see changes to your criteria for handing out permanent mutes to require a more extreme offence.
Permanently muting someone in a video game is a very extreme punishment. Let alone in a game such as runescape where player interaction is a large part of the game.
There are cases where players definitely do not deserve a PERMANENT mute but still get declined when appealing.
To be fair, permanent mutes are only issued for really persistent offending or behaviour that is very concerning, we actually apply far less that you might think and when we do it's with good reason. The option to appeal exists for most perm mute cases, so there is almost always an in road to have a review and get a double check.
Legit question:
If my account gets hacked, and the hacker decides to bot on it, and then it gets banned. How do I get this fixed? Because If I manage to recover my account, I'm still banned - and the ban appeal will autodeny because the hi-jacker was botting. There's no way to currently appeal this through the support system.
Legit answer:
pop a ban appeal into us, response times are up to 14 days but are quite often in the region 3-5. If an appeal hasn't already been used, the type of ban is an 'appealable' offence and the ban was caused by a hijacker .. we'll get the ban removed.
I'd like to see more PMods in the game to mute the bots and toxic people and scammers. I can't even tell you the last time I saw a PMod in game.
We've recently added a few hundred more, and we have an active recruitment drive rolling over the next few months
First paragraph under “Email Responses” first sentence spelling error just so you’re aware. Love the closer interaction on these very important issues though
I don't see the error .. what is it?
I thought it was meant to be inquiries.
Ah right, I think they are fairly inter-changeable, inquiries may be more American-English but I'm not an expert!
I still cannot recover my super old account, made in 2005, Richkid1012
I've had a courtesy look for you, in your latest recovery request you didn't match a single password or recovery answer. Your request is not coming from an ISP that has ever been used on the account and your geo location has no matches. The creation ISP you are providing is also incorrect. The only thing that links you to the account is that you live in the same country. We are happy to help if we can, but we need a bit more than that as I'm sure you can understand.
Can we DM, the problem is I set those questions a long time ago. I was a child and lived with my parents. I think I can get close to the previous password. The account has no value and the stats are not good. Runescape is just a big part of my childhood and modern say life and id like to recover my original account.
Sorry but I can offer far less help through DM than you using the recovery process, checking passwords for example - try the recovery route
devtrackers.gg