Bots will never be dealt with.

[Deleted]

well problem is... bossland is a german company and in germany this isn't really illegal.
in my opinion they are wasting their money.

But IF Blizzard win, much like their victory against Glider, they will be forced to stop distribution or at least sign a compromise (cash payoff)

[willtron]

But IF Blizzard win, much like their victory against Glider, they will be forced to stop distribution or at least sign a compromise (cash payoff)

until the source code 'leaks' and another one starts up. Bots are like Hydras - get rid of a big one, two more will pop up in it's place.

It's ironic how automation and ingenuity in the real world is celebrated and constantly evolving - in games, it's a penalised.

Plus WoWs AH economy is pretty much stabilised by bots - you get rid of all of them - there is going to be a huge spike in prices. And a sizeable chunk of subs will go.

Moreover - some botting is done on hacked accounts, 90% of the time, it's not their fault they got hacked, do you ban them?

Personally, bots don't bother me. Idiots bother me.

[Deleted]

Last month I was at a lvl 80 Warsong gulch and from my entire team I was the only one who wasnt a bot...same for the Ally team 9 bots 1 player.

[Thelxi]

I take it you dont know that Blizzard are taking Bossland to court, I would guess at them spending a LOT of conkers doing so.

I take it you believe that even if blizzard emerges completely victorious ($$) there will be finally and actually less bots plaguing the game after all these years.

[Deleted]

I'll admit bots have been around for a while, but it is just me or is it WORSE THAN EVER recently?

I have just come back to WoW after a 2month break, going to isle of conquest for the call to arms was a flabbergasting experience.

I kid you not, 33 bots in one game, and this was about 9pm. Oh, and that was only horde players, god knows how many alliance bots there were. WHAT THE HELL? are blizzard even trying anymore? I'm not usually one to complain about stuff because I've always thought Blizzard try their best to stamp out this stuff, but I have never seen that many bots in one game, and it was almost as bad as that every match prior and after I did that night as well. What has changed? I reported as many as I could but if I sat there and reported them all i'd be there all day.

[Bryntrollian]

The technical advances of botters will always be a step ahead of blizzard

[Deleted]

I'll admit bots have been around for a while, but it is just me or is it WORSE THAN EVER recently?

I have just come back to WoW after a 2month break, going to isle of conquest for the call to arms was a flabbergasting experience.

I kid you not, 33 bots in one game, and this was about 9pm. Oh, and that was only horde players, god knows how many alliance bots there were. WHAT THE HELL? are blizzard even trying anymore? I'm not usually one to complain about stuff because I've always thought Blizzard try their best to stamp out this stuff, but I have never seen that many bots in one game, and it was almost as bad as that every match prior and after I did that night as well. What has changed? I reported as many as I could but if I sat there and reported them all i'd be there all day.

low level battlegrounds are really bad on both factions, not so bad at 90. a lot of people bot the bgs for easy xp i think. i did an isle of conquest a few weeks back and my entire team on horde, except like 5 of us. were moving around in one massive group, all following exact same path circling around the map

[Deleted]

The technical advances of botters will always be a step ahead of blizzard

Ive been both botting and hacking the WSG game drawing attention and after around 3 months of doing so i got a 3 h ban while sleeping.

It pretty much shows why there are so many bots now.

People still have faith and say "Blizzard takes care of these problems" yeah then i have to say that those 3 hours were pretty much well deserved. Its much harder trying to permanent yourself to break the addiction than breaking the addiction without trying to play that game.

I mean usually i keep this for myself but man, i think i didnt even get banned for hacking this game. I dont remember what it said but the ban reason made me confused. I didnt care much anymore, i just gave up.

Maybe i shouldnt say around three months, maybe around 100 days sounds more dramatic.

[RandomGamer]

Where/how did you get this 35% figure for BGs?

In my personal experience most of the time random BGs are filled with legitimate players, seems like you had a bad experience and terrible luck.

BTW blizzard does actively work against bots, thing is, considering how big the player base is they need to limit their changes to avoid false positives.

I would be seriously pissed if every time I take 30 seconds and afk during a BG or dungeon I would get disconnected and flagged as a cheater. Or whenever my game glitches and I would have to call support to unlock my account, or if a few idiots disagree with you in a public channel and report you would cause and automated ban. Convenience comes with a price, I don't like bots anymore than you do, but they don't really affect my gaming experience that BAD that I get emotionally invested on it.

I know it can be frustrating, in my realm there's a guy that automates re-listing EVERYTHING in the AH. Is he botting? of course he is, all I can do is report him and wait until Blizzard gets enough reports and info to take action, it's not the first guy that has appeared in the realm and does his this (there have been legitimate AH barons, this guy is botting) and eventually everyone gets the punishment they deserve.

[Orangetai420]

Bots don't bother me. They are free HKs, fill the AH with cheap mats, and in BGs they are better than the lower ~33% of the population

[RandomGamer]

The punishment for 1st offense botting is a 3 hour ban. Lol. Hell even I'm tempted to bot to get full pvp gear next patch if 3 hours of not playing wow is all I risk.

After you get flagged for suspicious / illegal behavior everything you do is logged on bigger detail and for longer periods of time.

Have fun pulling something barely wrong after your 1st ban.

[Glaziola]

Did he get banned in TBC or? Since the late CATA ive been noticing that Blizzard didnt take it serious, but maybe if it is true that your friend did indeed get banned then i must say that either hes lucky or im lucky.

It was like a month ago actually, but he had some suspension from tbc for some arena exploit so guess blizz took that into consideration aswell. But pretty much a perma for 24/7 (almost) bgbuddy.

[cFortyfive]

The only thing remotely efficient fighting bots is hiring additional staff to do it which blizzard is not willing to do.

[Arteous]

I saw a bot attacking the EFC in wsg the other day and actually returning flags.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team was fighting in mid.

God, I loved that stupid bot. Played better than most of the idiots in that BG. I don't know what bot program was being used, but I'd rather play with that bot than most of the retards that join random BGs.

(EDIT: I just wanted to clarify that it most definitely was a bot. My friend and I watched it closely. It ressed from the GY and followed the exact same path every time, down to the pixel, from our GY to the flagroom of the enemy base. Once there, it would run around randomly in circles for minutes at a time, but it did attack the first target it found. In most cases, this was an undefended EFC. So simple, yet so effective. It also had 3 flag returns, which I'm guessing is from some rapid auto clicking program, related to how it found a target in the first place. In any case, would rather play with this bot than 90% of the dipshits who queue up.)

this is the main reason i stopped pvping 1 1/2 expansions ago. seriously 90% of the people clog pvp ques don't try to win they try to be bg heros and when you try get them to help win they yell at you for sucking because you din't get as many killing blows. yet they don't try to get the enemy flag / nodes or do anything to actually help.

makes me sick it's like i'm perpetually stuck with cawadooddy all matches are tdm there is no such thing as an objective kids in bg's. I stopped caring about pvp since that audience has dominated the population of pvp in wow. hell i've even entertained the idea of botting just so i don't have to deal with those retards.

[Deleted]

It was like a month ago actually, but he had some suspension from tbc for some arena exploit so guess blizz took that into consideration aswell. But pretty much a perma for 24/7 (almost) bgbuddy.

I tried to get myself permanent banned like 6 months ago (well i dont care much anyways, i got banned for two days once for doing nothing back in TBC because the GM decided to ban all the people who said anything in the chat or something like that) and quit doing it 3 months ago, maybe im just lucky. Or he is.

[Deleted]

After you get flagged for suspicious / illegal behavior everything you do is logged on bigger detail and for longer periods of time.

Have fun pulling something barely wrong after your 1st ban.

No need. I would stop if I get told to fuck off. No sense poking the bear some more.

[omgmewmewcat]

Moreover - some botting is done on hacked accounts, 90% of the time, it's not their fault they got hacked, do you ban them?

Yes? In a vast majority of the cases, its the user's own fault for getting hacked. There should be a price tag on having your account hacked.

[Deleted]

Bots have been stopped multiple times, but bot programmers - within days - figure out how they were stopped, and make it so they arent stopped.
I understand the hate for bots, i myself hate them, but to be honest, i dont pvp, i dont farm, i dont play the AH, i just raid and make ends meat off selling off extra flask procs etc........ so they dont bother me.

But with whats said above, i dont see why Blizzard should invest so much time and money trying to stop the programs (and just ban accounts)when they can invest it in making MY experience better with higher detailed encounter design and character balancing.

Maybe im just being selfish

[Barnabas]

I think the first level 60 horde character on my server, in vanilla, was a rogue bot that just ran around in Felwood 24/7, so yeah they've been around since the beginning of WoW.

Bots are my WoW pet peeve, because I really REALLY hate cheaters, and my sense of justice, when these pests of lazy selfentitled people run around, is bumhurt. On my server botters have even made a guild where they seem to be safe from getting banned (some of us got them kicked out of all the normal guilds they tried to enter). If it's indeed true that a botter only gets a 3 hour ban for botting, the first time, then I'm superunimpressed by Blizzard. Even 72 hours is too little. Lately it feels like reporting bots is just as efficient as punching air... just nothing happens, seemingly. The bot guild I mentioned are online 24/7 doing their thing, being superobvious with their wonky stupid behavior (would a normal person run 1000 yards back and forth in a straight line and hit a few mobs, then run back to a quest npc x1000?), but sadly such massive stupidity is not enough for Blizzard to home in on them.

It kind of makes me wonder if there are bad corrupt apples in the Blizzard GM team, that are bribed by bot making companies to look the other way. Since it's such a big business, it certainly wouldn't surprise me if those companies would at least try to influence certain Blizzard people. Maybe it's just my tinfoil hat crackling again.

Of course the Korean model where you risk jail time is over the top, but a fine would suit me just... fine! Their eSports is pretty huge over there, so it'd be the equivalent to doping yourself, to bot, I guess.

[Thelxi]

Bots have been stopped multiple times, but bot programmers - within days - figure out how they were stopped, and make it so they arent stopped.
I understand the hate for bots, i myself hate them, but to be honest, i dont pvp, i dont farm, i dont play the AH, i just raid and make ends meat off selling off extra flask procs etc........ so they dont bother me.

But with whats said above, i dont see why Blizzard should invest so much time and money trying to stop the programs (and just ban accounts)when they can invest it in making MY experience better with higher detailed encounter design and character balancing.

Maybe im just being selfish

They could do both and still be the most cash cowey profitable gaming company.