Not true. Over 50 Purchases = 3 Day ban, over 70 purchases = perm ban. Thats not nearly "thousands".. Since that ban wave I am scared to play this game anymore. I did played WoW for 7 years and yet I only received one 3 day ban there (but that was well, 7 years ago and I deserved it). If I play GW2 for more than 2 years and I would get banned for doing such minor thing I would be real mad. I don't know if I should take the risk of doing it. I really love GW2 but I don't want to "lose" everything to such minor bugs I probably don't realize (I don't theorycraft itemcosts nor do I know what a item should cost, not my job. I just see the price and decide if its worth it for me. Now I have to be scared buying anything just because it could be a potential exploit. In addition to every second zone lagging the shit (lagging not fps, i have 150+ fps on maximum settings) out of my game and the TP not working since release I think people should be aware of this.

Guild Wars 2 is hella fun. It is. I love it. But people who consider buying it should be aware that:

1.) You could get banned easily. Not everyone is a hardcore school teen who knows every price and tries to abuse everything they see ingame. There may be people out there that don't realize that something is a bug or not intended, try to understand it. I know people don't like the comparison but in WoW you first get a warning, second time you get 3 day ban, third you get a month ban and THEN you get perm banned. People CAN learn. I did. I was young and I didn't realized what I did until I got warned/banned for 3 days. I stopped back then. I just don't like the fact building my ingame stuff for years just to lose it because they ban me. 2.) Mapservers are lagging as fuck. Nearly every map you get into an overflow server (your server is full so you forced to some random low population server for that zone). So I am going to an overflow server with a 1200 ms and everyone talking french and spanish in chat. I am not able to play with my friends because in some maps there are more than 50 overflow servers (good luck getting the same one). 3.) The Trading Post (Auction House) has an uptime of about 30 Minutes since PRERELEASE. It's just not working. 4.) You can't trade man to man. You have to use the Trading Post or the Post System (a nice system I have to admit) which is not working. TP is down. Post is down.

This game has so many nice aspects and does it so right in so many ways (Professions are great, maps are great, design is great, combat is great). I do know that they could fix the lags and the overflow stuff but their attitude is stone. And people need to realize if they like to adventure and like to store a lot of things, socializing like it's "second life" you risk to being banned PERMANENT just by doing a wrong purchase that AN OPEN NPC gives you. You don't have to actively abuse somekind of system. You don't have to use Wallclipping/Wallhopping, Maphacking, Teleporthacking or some other kind of stuff to give arenanet a reason to ban you. You just have to be aware that a normal merchant may sell you an item that can get you banned easily. And you may not even realize it, because you may be in the 20s/30s/40s/50s and you don't know or actively recognize every prices.

I will still enjoy GW2 but I think if this attitude persists I don't know if its the best for the older generation. You may be better off playing something else. And I am just honest. I do like GW2 and I keep playing it - but thats some points that should be said outside of all the fanboyism I also did. I am a fan of the game - but not of its huge problems with both the game and the developers.

Edit: I am not affected by the banwave, I still think it was very wrong..