House Security Warning - Waterbarrels

[von Beck]

I'm posting this as a 'general security advisory' for anyone with a public house that is accessible by anyone. As we found out the hard way tonight, GMs do not consider placing waterbarrels all over someone's house to be griefing or harassment. As the GM kindly suggests (in the attached screenshot) you may like to consider making your house private if you wish to avoid this sort of harassment. Note that the house in question tonight was a Luna vendor shop, and I don't think making it private is a very helpful suggestion.

Some background on the situation on Oceania at the moment, for anyone who's interested. There's a large Trammel based guild currently under attack from a small group of PvP / Griefers. Yesterday our fishing event (as advertised on FoF) was disrupted by this group. They filled up Cove harbor with boats and lagged out the whole area by placing a large number of 1gp coins in a hidden stack. Tonight they amused themselves by filling up the guild's Luna vendor shop with waterbarrels.

Personally, I am disappointed (but not overly surprised) that EA GM's will ban people for in-game URL's but fail to deal with real troublemakers such as this group of ill-intentioned players.

 

[Remy_of_GOR]

ya, cause everyone has to play how I want to in a mmorpg.

i realize they are being jerks, but this is not illegal. it is not illegal to place barrels. it is not illegal to go into public houses.

see, wouldnt it be nice if you could serve them justice? oughta move to felucca, where you can stop this behavior yourself instead of waiting on a gm to fix your 'problem'.

 

[Black Sun]

I am on both sides of the fence here.

The only thing I can say is, water barrels should be removable from a house by the house owner/co-owner using an axe on them.

 

[Amathist of PoC]

The sad fact is this is not the first time they have done it and not the first bit of grief we have had from the SSO guild on oceania shard - they have been griefing for months on stratics and in game.

And nothing is being done - we have had two lots of water barrels now, we have had boats blocking a shard event, coins placed to lag a shard event, we have a character running around impersonating myself with the same guild name just a full stop being the difference and nothing is being done.

I have even had this clone character spouting out my personal information in game and on stratics that they got from an old guild member - and again nothing is done.

I have sent emails off to ea members today I hope one of them takes the time to read it and act.

 

[Orvago]

have been griefing for months on stratics and in game.

In situations like this I always take comfort that when kids grow up, they will realize the error in their ways. If not, then I take comfort knowing that karma will eventually bite them in their behind.

I'd strongly suggest to get in contact with Jeremy about this stuff hapenning in Game. I will continue to be vigilant here at Stratics.

 

[Azureal]

I am on both sides of the fence here.

The only thing I can say is, water barrels should be removable from a house by the house owner/co-owner using an axe on them.

Win. You sir, deserve a cookie.

 

[Amathist of PoC]

In situations like this I always take comfort that when kids grow up, they will realize the error in their ways. If not, then I take comfort knowing that karma will eventually bite them in their behind.

I'd strongly suggest to get in contact with Jeremy about this stuff hapenning in Game. I will continue to be vigilant here at Stratics.

Thank you Ovargo I truly appreciate it. I have emailed Jeremy and pmed several ea stratics members here on stratics and included screen shots. I really do not what else I can do and the griefing continues.

And me posting here will only make them grief all the more and me ignoring them does not work either.

I have never had the compulsion to want to grab a GM and shake them before tonight. But to continuing to get a canned we cant help you response when someone is causing you frustration and you can not do anything about it will do that.

And you saw the picture on oceania forums if thats true (which I am not even close to 100% sure it is more like 95% its not) but if that is a correct screen shot - what point is there???

 

[ShadowJack]

lol, any old thieves remember when Joe did that to Jelly???

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

I am on both sides of the fence here.

The only thing I can say is, water barrels should be removable from a house by the house owner/co-owner using an axe on them.

/signed

 

[ShadowJack]

anddddd



Karma over waterbarrels in a house on a game???? Are you ****ing kidding me? Are you seriously ****ing kidding me?




This is why insurance needs to leave fel, the modern day UO player (from what I see on these boards and by no means a generalization to everyone) is not much more than a huffed up middleschooler.

 

[FrejaSP]

I am on both sides of the fence here.

The only thing I can say is, water barrels should be removable from a house by the house owner/co-owner using an axe on them.

Agree, that would solve the problem.

It should never be the GM's job to remove them.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Sad that this happened.

Sadder still that anyone here would so much as think of defending it, or seeing "both sides," or using it as a platform for the pet issue of the moment (such as item insurance).

But oh well.

-Galen's player

 

[Bomb Bloke]

Quick way to shift 'em - put the house into customisation mode. They'll all get dropped under the house sign, water and all.

That'll only clean the house out (not actually destroy the barrels), but it's something at least.

See, technically they aren't locked down, so the only way to allow house owners to axe them would be to allow them to be axed anywhere... Which would take all the fun out of barrels.

 

[FrejaSP]

Sad that this happened.

Sadder still that anyone here would so much as think of defending it, or seeing "both sides," or using it as a platform for the pet issue of the moment (such as item insurance).

But oh well.

-Galen's player

There will be two sides of this case.
The question is, why would someone want to use alot of time placing waterbarrels in someones house?
Is the house owner really so innocent or did he/she annoy someone to much?
Lets hear both sides

 

[Bomb Bloke]

I see the house is already cleaned up.

 

[drinkbeerallday]

that GM should be fired. what a mess as usual from CS. they are always more worried about policy then they are about doing the right thing.


I'm confused though why you say "PvP'ers / Griefers" are griefing you. There's no PvP in Trammel and only griefers grief. Not all PvP'ers are griefers.

Also why is this group of people bothering you and your guild? What did you do to provoke this?

 

[drinkbeerallday]

I am on both sides of the fence here.

The only thing I can say is, water barrels should be removable from a house by the house owner/co-owner using an axe on them.

yeah and in the meantime a GM should pull the person into jail and say "if you continue to do this i will mark your account"

 

[drinkbeerallday]

This is why insurance needs to leave fel

this is happening in Trammel.

Quick way to shift 'em - put the house into customisation mode. They'll all get dropped under the house sign, water and all.

if it's a Luna house it probably has vendors.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

Agree, that would solve the problem.

It should never be the GM's job to remove them.

Except, of course, in a situation wherein the game allows these silly things to be filled to infinity, thus causing a MAJOR pain to the player whose house has been attacked.

And frankly, I'm EXTREMELY disheartened that in an MMORPG, the GM's response is akin to "The best way to protect your house is to remove it from being an ope plot that the community can access."

Score one for griefers.

Game is now Griefers, 10,003,010,104,243, RPers, 10.

 

[Bomb Bloke]

if it's a Luna house it probably has vendors.

Sorry, I've never used vendors before. Having filled vendors blocks you from customisation mode, yes?

 

[Amathist of PoC]

Quick way to shift 'em - put the house into customisation mode. They'll all get dropped under the house sign, water and all.

That'll only clean the house out (not actually destroy the barrels), but it's something at least.

See, technically they aren't locked down, so the only way to allow house owners to axe them would be to allow them to be axed anywhere... Which would take all the fun out of barrels.

We knew of this trick as we did this when they griefed our guild hall - but as the house was a vendor home with vendors placed in luna you can not customize....can you?

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Except, of course, in a situation wherein the game allows these silly things to be filled to infinity, thus causing a MAJOR pain to the player whose house has been attacked.

And frankly, I'm EXTREMELY disheartened that in an MMORPG, the GM's response is akin to "The best way to protect your house is to remove it from being an ope plot that the community can access."

Score one for griefers.

Game is now Griefers, 10,003,010,104,243, RPers, 10.

Well, in all honesty, it's always been that way.

-Galen's player

 

[Bomb Bloke]

We knew of this trick as we did this when they griefed our guild hall - but as the house was a vendor home with vendors placed in luna you can not customize....can you?

I don't know, hence my above question.

I assume I post ninja'd you.

 

[Amathist of PoC]

I'm confused though why you say "PvP'ers / Griefers" are griefing you. There's no PvP in Trammel and only griefers grief. Not all PvP'ers are griefers.

Also why is this group of people bothering you and your guild? What did you do to provoke this?

Basically PoC is one of the biggest and active guilds on Oceania 2nd on vet list - we do alot of shard and guild events and are actively trying to build the community.

These griefers basically started really targeting us

a) when we became a big guild

b) after they where booted from an event house during a shard Halloween event for swearing and carrying on like jerks.

C) I do confess that me telling them there actions are childish or ridiculous does not help.

D) we are mostly trammies and they just think its funny to act this way...the same said griefers are known for racist, sexual and just plain rude posts on stratics...they where at one time banned but with the forum change got a second chance.

As for why I say PVP griefers its because these people causing this issue basically claim to be the PVP gods of Oceania - untouchable the best of the best the elite.....anyone else see the irony in there trammie pvp style barrel placement?

That is the other reason they are griefing in trammel because fel is dead on Oceania no one wants to really associate with this group and do not want the grief so they stay away from fel.

 

[Yalp]

Peeps actually have the gall to blame the victim here? Griefing another player is not conducive to polite society.. not to mention against TOS. If the target did something prior which got someone upset.. it actually has no bearing here.. 2 wrongs don't make a right... anyone ever hear of that?

If there where prior "bad acts" on the part of the op, then the GM's should have taken action... that does not give license to this guild harassing the op. The GM's and EA customer service has once again lived up to their sinking standards of customer service.

Not to mention the immaturity and childishness of the harassers.

 

[Amathist of PoC]

I see the house is already cleaned up.

Yes guild members and a few nice members of Oceania got stuck in with water jugs and cleaned up the mess.

The other upsetting bit for me is the person's house they targeted would never even speak to them, post against them or anything he just goes about his business he has the biggest heart and helps everyone.

And they targeted him purely because it was PoC house in Luna and they wanted to grief me and in turn the guild.

THANK YOU THOSE WHO HELPED CLEAN UP THE BARRELS - UNLIKE THE GMS

 

[Petra Fyde]

The sentence 'talk to the people on your friend and co-owner list and let them know you do not wish to have water barrels in your home' shows a total lack of knowledge of water barrels and how they behave. The GM is assuming they are placed by people authorised to lock items down in the house!

 

[Amathist of PoC]

I just thought I would share others examples of there grief that I have emailed to Ea Mythic staff and PMed.

This is them trying to wreck the "PoC Big Fish Oceania Carnival" a shard event we hosted just last sunday. - and of course this was not the only attack on the event we had lag issues caused by coin placement some how, and the harbour blocked off with boats during a boat race.

This is there attack on our guild hall - 3 floors worth - again no gm help

And lastly the impersonator - who goes around spouting my personal information that he gained from a disgruntled ex guild member. As well as swearing and basically trying to kill my reputation he has even gone as far to have the same guild name the only difference being a full stop - again GMS no help

 

[Rix/\]

You must of really done something to make them want to do this to you. Ya I'd be annoyed but then again I don't go out making enemies or act rude to others in or out of game. Not saying this is what you've done it could be that they are jealous and can't find any other mature way to get your attention. Could even be ones those grade school kids with a crush one ya.

 

[Yalp]

You must of really done something to make them want to do this to you. Ya I'd be annoyed but then again I don't go out making enemies or act rude to others in or out of game. Not saying this is what you've done it could be that they are jealous and can't find any other mature way to get your attention. Could even be ones those grade school kids with a crush one ya.

I am offended you would blame the victim...

 

[Bodhi]

Owner coowners should be able to axe water barrels placed in there house, or water barrels need to have a decay status on them if they are not locked down. As for the matter of somebody else owning the same name as you, thats something i would not change. As far as the barricade, thats funny

 

[MoonBeam[TBD]]

You must of really done something to make them want to do this to you. Ya I'd be annoyed but then again I don't go out making enemies or act rude to others in or out of game. Not saying this is what you've done it could be that they are jealous and can't find any other mature way to get your attention. Could even be ones those grade school kids with a crush one ya.

I am offended you would blame the victim...

Sadly thats how the world is... Wuld so and so bother so and so ?
the one guy must have done something?

Yes maybe so
but As Ama has explained she had to banne one guy from a house event for swearing and being childish.

so they had there feelings hurt and now are acting like babies.

thats the happy joys of online games your bound to run into some jerks.

best to just ignore them, put them on your ignore list. dont comment about them, dont post about them, Your friends should be smart enough to realize who is the real one and not listen to there dribble. They will eventaully get bored and go hound someone else or go play a new game.

I've had this happen before . for 2 years someone annoyed me.. I couldnt go to haven and they left barrels on my house... I eventaully moved to fel (my stalker was a crafter) they evanually got bored and left the game ....
Ama cant do this being the fact she stalker is a pvper..

anyway thats my two cents.

 

[drinkbeerallday]

I am offended you would blame the victim...

Yalp we get the point.

I just wanted to know if this was totally unsolicited, which it isn't.

Griefing a vendor house with water barrels should be illegal.

Spreading personal information in game IS illegal but the fact that a GM did nothing doesn't surprise me.

I would think leaving a note saying "This is only the beginning" should be considered harassment (in Trammel), but again with these GM's who knows.

Griefing events in Trammel is illegal. At the Whispering Rose Radio Seattle Town Hall event on Lake Superior the staff at the house allowed someone to spam the event for over 10 minutes just so a GM could come and punish the person. It disrupted the event but the GM's did take action. So the GM's should have moved the boats.

Is it possible to mass reveal your house in Trammel? If so you shouldn't have trouble banning the people but I do understand you need to sleep at some point and shouldn't be forced to guard your vendor house in Trammel.

Basically what we have here is another GM Staff failure. This I hope is no big surprise for anyone. They don't work in the same building as the developers and they don't even work exclusively on UO. They probably don't even play UO. Terrible job by EA.

 

[Wenchkin]

I would be tempted to sit hidden in that house and see if they come back to try placing more barrels. Then don't even pop up to say "I ban thee", ban them from the house sign menu, then they don't see who caught them. If you can take turns with other friends of the house, that'll get the job done sooner, but hopefully you could see the end of them filling your house with rubbish. Or insert a door into the house to prevent access beyond a certain point.

Just so you know players don't have to be inside the house to get banned through the house sign menu.

Also, if they're going to track you for events and such, only reveal meeting points to start the event off at, then gate players elsewhere once you're sure none of the bad sorts are around. Or failing that, give folks a rune personally so you can exclude troublemakers. You can also try meeting up within one of your buildings before you go somewhere, then you can just cast the gate from inside that house when the troublemakers are banned.

If this guild are going to target you over a period of time, is there an unguilded character one of your guild could infiltrate their guild with? That way you might get some warning about what they were planning and be more prepared. Though I'd be tempted to give their details to some thieves and PvPers. They sound the sort to have enemies elsewhere.

Wenchy

 

[Desperado_SE]

And before anyone starts calling me a griefer or an ******* or anything along those lines, this was a RL friends house that I did this to shortly after he returned to the game, and really had a good laugh about it afterwards.

 

[drinkbeerallday]

Then don't even pop up to say "I ban thee", ban them from the house sign menu,

i don't even think I ban thee works anymore. I thought only remove thyself works.

 

[drinkbeerallday]

And before anyone starts calling me a griefer or an ******* or anything along those lines, this was a RL friends house that I did this to shortly after he returned to the game, and really had a good laugh about it afterwards.

now that is funny.

 

[Shamus Turlough]

You do know that, even with vendors in the house, all you have to do is change the house foundation. This kicks everything not locked down (water barrels included) outside. Careful though, you need to reset security on any doors and teleporters you have.

 

[ShadowJack]

2 or so years ago I found a sweet house spot that had waterbarrels blocking what I knwe for a fact to be a tower spot, I spent weeks trying to get the barrels up and never even put a dent in them.


As soon as I got one up, there'd be another one right underneath it, the gms wouldn't do anything to delete them, and it was beyond my time and ability to do so



oh well, lived with it






We used to water barrel each other for jokes between friends, are you sure someone wasn't just playing with you?

 

[BartofCats]

that GM should be fired. what a mess as usual from CS. they are always more worried about policy then they are about doing the right thing.

Fired? For what?? Doing his job?? Get a grip. The GM cant do anything because the water barrels are removable by the home owner at a great deal of time. Big Deal. This whole thing smells fishy like someone did something and now this is retaliation.

If the OP wants to take it up with them in Fel... go for it. Im not going to stop you.

I too have been saying for about a year now that water barrels should be allowed to be axed. Doesnt seem like the dev team cares or want to listen to the smart ideas. Just dumb ones.

 

[It Lives]

Its a Pain to do so but re-build your house add some doors set the security on the doors so only your friends can enter.

You can limit access and keep it a public house.

Because you have the choice to do this is why a gm wont do anything about it.

That water barrels can be used like this Still sucks. Sorry to see it happen to ya.

 

[Wenchkin]

i don't even think I ban thee works anymore. I thought only remove thyself works.

You need to remove then ban I believe. Which is why I often use the house menu as it seems a bit less buggy. Note the "a bit" in that last sentence

Wenchy

 

[Landicine]

In the old days, GMs could be called on players for disrupting events and grief tactics. I'm guessing that policy is long gone, and has been replaced with a zero tolerance policy on URLs. Classic.

I think waterbarrels is probably a grief tactic since if a person is using a macro, they can make it time consuming to remove. Since the tactic is only used to frustrate (there is no gain for the griefer), there should be a fix for it.

You probably will just need to go a bit ban happy at the house for a bit. The griefers only have so many accounts, unless they are specifically using temp accounts to bother you, in which case even a GM won't be able to do much long term.

I also would like to say that these problems aren't new. Eight years ago, I had a few friends in game who liked practical jokes, and they had their barrel phase. If there are very few actual new players in game, then doesn't this mean the grief players are using the same stuff the rest of us outgrew 8 years ago? Congrats to them for being annoying AND unoriginal.

 

[Kayhynn]

Unfortunately, having played on Oceania for a few years, I know t he group they're talking about and they can be quite...immature...when it comes down to it. It's sad they grief every event these guys do when they're trying to do a shard event. Yet then they bash them and say they should play in fel....right.

Ama, sorry this happened to you, I've seen it happening on many shards and its disheartening. Best of luck to you.

 

[Lady Michelle]

heres away to turn the water barrel griefing to a postive advantage for you and your guild.
Turn it into a waterbarrel event.
call it the waterbarrel removal game event. have all the players who show up to your event remove the water barrels once the waterbarrels are all removed have the players bring the water barrels to guild members they count and keep track of who turn them in and the one who removed the most waterbarrels when a prize or have 1st place, 2nd place, and 3rd place winners. prizes could be a checks for so much like or a deed for so many colored boards.
just dont forget to thank the water barrel griefs for helping you setup this event by placing all the water barrels for you to bring the community together

 

[Rix/\]

I am offended you would blame the victim...

I'm offended you misread/misunderstood my post. I didn't BLAME anyone just wondering what would cause this person to do this. It isn't like they were picked at random to greif there has to be a reason behind it. Maybe they won't to role play the bad pirates?

 

[drinkbeerallday]

Fired? For what?? Doing his job?? Get a grip. The GM cant do anything because the water barrels are removable by the home owner at a great deal of time. Big Deal. This whole thing smells fishy like someone did something and now this is retaliation.

If the OP wants to take it up with them in Fel... go for it. Im not going to stop you.

I too have been saying for about a year now that water barrels should be allowed to be axed. Doesnt seem like the dev team cares or want to listen to the smart ideas. Just dumb ones.

they left a book saying "This is only the beginning" in the house. that is harassment. especially in Trammel

 

[Yalp]

I'm offended you misread/misunderstood my post. I didn't BLAME anyone just wondering what would cause this person to do this. It isn't like they were picked at random to greif there has to be a reason behind it. Maybe they won't to role play the bad pirates?

You are offended because I am offended at your attitude? that post is a bunch of hogwash.. laying responsibility on the person who has this happening to them is the definition of blaming the victim.. it's bad form, bad policy, and bad for humans in general.. it is an ugliness of spirit on the part of the person blaming the victim and needs to be called out every time it is done.

the blame and responsibility lays squared and SOLELY on the shoulders of the people doing this kind of acts. The fact that GM's refuse to do anything about it is bad customer service, but oddly, not something that surprises us. Which is sad in it's own right.

 

[Skylark SP]

water barrels should be removable from a house by the house owner/co-owner using an axe on them.

/signed

-Skylark

 

[Viper09]

Wow, just wow. You'd think some people would have a life. It's people like these griefers who really need a slap in the face.
It really is sad that they would spend their time online doing stuff like this.
But hey, soon all the schools will start and these people will, hopefully, no longer be able to spend all their days in this game acting like a bunch of immature children.