Random BG's are for bots?

[Nihilan]

Blizzard bans in waves. They track, identify, and flag accounts for a few months then perform a mass ban. The issue though, is that they only seem to do a few ban waves per year which gives the offenders plenty of time to operate before anything actually happens to them.

Personally, i have not set foot in a random BG yet this xpac, but if botting is getting half as bad as some are claiming, it might be worth jumping into a few just for giggles.

[Sunnydruid]

I guarantee when blizzard does another wave of bans people on this very forum will be WHINING and CRYING so hard about que times. Bots truly make up a large part of the casual pvp scene. I agree that it is out of hand right now with the way bots are just freely going about their business. I mean I understand that Blizzard is a business and they have to make money and those people with bots are paying monthly for a sub and whatnot but still blizzard should at least still be doing ban waves more frequently to make the average consumer happy.

Yes bots are traceable if they are programmed poorly. If the commands given to the botting program are done poorly it will be easy to detect when it isn't a player playing their character. However, there are many bots out there that you probably wouldn't even suspect because they are given commands to make themselves look like a normal player (ie-spin jumping,running to different nodes frequently, kiting commands, more in depth rotation commands ect). It's harder to detect a good bot than a bad bot.

The plain fact is that botters are buyers for blizz. They pay their 15 a month and blizzard makes money off of them. Stop thinking Blizzard is a non profit group, they are a large billion dollar company. THEY ARE A BUSINESS. What did business class in high school teach you all? That a business is there to make money...open your eyes guys. Wishful thinking is good however realistic thinking is better.

[Osmeric]

Personally, i have not set foot in a random BG yet this xpac,

I think this is why bots seem so prevalent: participation by non-bots has likely fallen off greatly.

[goblingirl]

Blizzard bans in waves. They track, identify, and flag accounts for a few months then perform a mass ban. The issue though, is that they only seem to do a few ban waves per year which gives the offenders plenty of time to operate before anything actually happens to them.

Personally, i have not set foot in a random BG yet this xpac, but if botting is getting half as bad as some are claiming, it might be worth jumping into a few just for giggles.

To me, this is the biggest problem: They take too long in between "ban waves". They literally only do it maybe 2-3 times a year. Within a few days, a new/adjusted botting program is out there, and within a few weeks, all of the botters, even the stupidest ones, have figured out how to make it work. Then we get to deal with them for another 3 months until Blizzard bans again.

If I was the cynical type, I'd say it has something to do with how and when subscriptions are reported as active on the quarterly reports. But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that there is no "business decision" going on, and that 4 months is just how long it takes them to figure out the botting program and ban the accounts using it. Except, if the latter is true, holy cow I thought they had better technical and development staff than that.

Which puts me back at the more cynical "It just isn't a business priority for them to aggressively police botting".

[Mormolyce]

I would say that it's now at a point where bots can be better teammates than actual players....

That is definitely true.

However if you have pugs with above average social skills, you can just tell them to help you cap bases behind the bot ball, and they will never have more than 1 at a time. It's kind of a retard test.

- - - Updated - - -

Ya it's ridiculous and blizzard doesn't seem to be able to do anything about it.

They do lots about it, modern bots are highly sophisticated and difficult to prevent. Also the demand for them is apparently extreme - that's the real problem.

- - - Updated - - -

To me, this is the biggest problem: They take too long in between "ban waves". They literally only do it maybe 2-3 times a year. Within a few days, a new/adjusted botting program is out there, and within a few weeks, all of the botters, even the stupidest ones, have figured out how to make it work. Then we get to deal with them for another 3 months until Blizzard bans again.

If I was the cynical type, I'd say it has something to do with how and when subscriptions are reported as active on the quarterly reports. But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that there is no "business decision" going on, and that 4 months is just how long it takes them to figure out the botting program and ban the accounts using it. Except, if the latter is true, holy cow I thought they had better technical and development staff than that.

Which puts me back at the more cynical "It just isn't a business priority for them to aggressively police botting".

Most of those bots use existing or highjacked accounts, and/or paid for with stolen credit cards, from which Blizzard makes nothing.

[Toc]

I haven't done a BG this expac. I dinged, I went to Ashran, I geared to all 620 gear in a couple hours, I moved on to Conquest. No BGs needed. Just glad my realm still has a lively world pvp scene to so I have something to do since BGs are cesspools of bots now it seems.

[goblingirl]

Most of those bots use existing or highjacked accounts, and/or paid for with stolen credit cards, from which Blizzard makes nothing.

I'm not talking about making money. I'm talking about including these accounts in the number of "active subscriptions" on the quarterly reports.

Besides, if it were only a matter of a stolen credit card, well, that would be fixed as soon as it tried to bill. So at most an account using a stolen credit card is going to be good for a few weeks, until it tries to bill and the card is rejected. The card thieves usually use this time to farm stuff they can make gold off of - BOEs, runs through old raids, etc., because their goal is to make gold they can then sell for cash. There's little incentive for account highjackers and credit card thieves to bot battlegrounds, because there's nothing in there that can be stolen or quickly converted into gold to then sell for cash. They can make a lot more money per hour for the few weeks the account is active by farming raids than BGs.

Otherwise, with regards to hijacked accounts, the account thieves' objective is to quickly liquidate everything on your character that can be vendored, sell what's not soul/account bound via trade, and make off with the gold before you wake up the next day and realize they got your account. They are not going to spend weeks botting your account in BGs.

All the BG botters I've heard of are regular players who want to cheat their way to The Bloodthirsty title or the weekly Conquest point cap. Or both.