Why couldn't this work to prevent bg botters?

[Demolocklol]

What if there was a captcha everytime your queue popped up? Although, it would not prevent the botters that actually monitor their bots but it would to those that do not. Seems simple but something that could work...

[Kuthe]

Yeah lets punish the players.
They tried this in what is now Runescape Classic with swags.
IT. WAS. A. TERRIBAD. IDEA!
Seriously.

It might punish the bots, but damn it's annoying, punishes many players.

[Demolocklol]

How does that punish players? it takes 5 seconds. C'mon now.

[Ch0plol]

Seems like it would be a huge hassle for the non-botting player.

Besides, with honor gear handed out at the speed it is now, BG botting isn't as detrimental to the player as it was before. You're able to get full honor gear in a day and never queue random BGs again.

[Feel The Power]

Did you know that many captcha's are actually parts of texts from old books or publishing's that a computer (at let's say a university) can't read with it's scanner when trying to digitally archive said book, so with the Captcha people "solve" what it says. At least that's what I've read.

[Matt0193]

I've already stopped doing BGs because PvP's just a shitfest of Melee and Hunters, if I had to put in a captcha I'd just never bother going back to it. So no, no thanks.

[Stormspark]

Because bots are MUCH better at solving captcha's than humans are. MUCH MUCH better. There are bots that specifically specialize in it.

Captcha's do not work, ever, anywhere. They only serve to annoy the legitimate users, while the bots don't even blink and go right by them. Take your horrible ideas elsewhere, please.

[Mellrod]

How does that punish players? it takes 5 seconds. C'mon now.

Your queue popping up isn't going to last forever for starters. Second of all, no one wants to waste any amount of time typing in a bunch of vague looking numbers and hard-to-see shapes just to enter a BG, it's stupid. That with the knowledge that it's to punish bots (which I don't see how it "punishes" them in the first place) also makes feel punishing for us. There are A LOT more human players than bots so going to such a great length to try and weed out such a minority is not worth the amount of backlash and turn-off from pvp this would encourage.

I think this captcha thing could only work if there was a "report player for botting" feature. It'd work sort-of like the DG vote to kick, where if enough people report that one player for botting, they'll recieve a captcha they have to fill out, and if while it wont work for monitored bots, any automatic bots that fail the captcha will be booted from the BG after a certain number of failed attempts. However, as the guy above me said, captchas are a very weak defense nowadays. For every defense you make against something, that something will find a new way to take your defense down, and at this point, every bot and their mother can get through a captcha, while us humans are forced to squint and click "new image" until we find one we can actually make out. That combined with the constant action that's required of you in a BG or arena is just a recipe for disaster.

[Dejablue]

Did you know that many captcha's are actually parts of texts from old books or publishing's that a computer (at let's say a university) can't read with it's scanner when trying to digitally archive said book, so with the Captcha people "solve" what it says. At least that's what I've read.

If the computer can't read it then how does it know that you entered the correct information?

[klogaroth]

If the computer can't read it then how does it know that you entered the correct information?

Because it has been told what the correct answer is by manual input.

[Soisoisoi]

I wonder if they could use Google's new click-captcha thing. Same button to tick and queue to make it no different than it is now?

[Airwaves]

Gross. I have a hard enough time understand ones you use one. I would never BG again if I had to do that.

[Ballrug]

(1) Every so often (let's say, on the average, every 120 minutes of random BG play) a CAPTCHA pops up at some random moment in a BG.
(2a) If you resolve it successfully, to back to (1)
(2b) If you don't interact with it within 30 seconds, or fail to solve it, you are removed from the BG with a deserter debuff and on to (3)
(3) Another CAPTCHA will be presented randomly within the next 10 minutes of random BG play, with a special alert indicating importance.
(4) If you don't interact with it within 10 seconds, or fail to solve it, you are
(a) Automatically reported/escalated for possible automation, and
(b) Banned account-wide from the random BG queuing system for 1 week (first offense) or permanently + account action (second offense)

Simple.

However, as the guy above me said, captchas are a very weak defense nowadays.

Boy, that's not true at all.

However, there are other things Blizzard can do to identify automation, along the lines of what Google does in order to avoid presenting so many CAPTCHAs, such as tracking mouse and keyboard activity. The way in which people use their mouse and keyboard is highly individual.

[PomPyro]

No, please, no. I don't like to guess at them because if I get it wrong it ends up wasting more time. So it takes me a full minute to keep refreshing until I get an easy one. By that time I would have lost my queue.

[corebit]

The OP's suggestion wouldn't deter bots at all, the botters would answer the captcha at the start of the BG and go back to botting.

(1) Every so often (let's say, on the average, every 120 minutes of random BG play) a CAPTCHA pops up at some random moment in a BG.
(2a) If you resolve it successfully, to back to (1)
(2b) If you don't interact with it within 30 seconds, or fail to solve it, you are removed from the BG with a deserter debuff and on to (3)
(3) Another CAPTCHA will be presented randomly within the next 10 minutes of random BG play, with a special alert indicating importance.
(4) If you don't interact with it within 10 seconds, or fail to solve it, you are
(a) Automatically reported/escalated for possible automation, and
(b) Banned account-wide from the random BG queuing system for 1 week (first offense) or permanently + account action (second offense)

A captcha appearing at random every 10 mins is disruptive as hell. What if you're in the middle of a fight, you're frantically CC'ing/preventing the opponents from capturing an objective, and BOOM a captcha appears. Like this is not going to piss off legit players at all /sarc.

[darkwarrior42]

Ok, so are people objecting specifically because it's Captcha and Captcha is sometimes difficult to work with? Or are they objecting because they can't be bothered to deal with a simple pop-up to enter battleground.

Edit: I''m assuming we go with a system that's difficult for the bots to work with, of course; a system that doesn't work at all shouldn't be used regardless of how easy it is to use. Responses of the "that won't work" variety are not the ones I'm commenting on here.

The former I can kinda understand, but the latter is sheer, abject laziness, and would go a long way toward explaining why Blizzard doesn't more aggressively pursue botters. If the players care so little that even the easiest (type a word) of tasks is too much for them to handle, why should Blizzard make it a priority?

[ohshift]

(1) Every so often (let's say, on the average, every 120 minutes of random BG play) a CAPTCHA pops up at some random moment in a BG.
(2a) If you resolve it successfully, to back to (1)
(2b) If you don't interact with it within 30 seconds, or fail to solve it, you are removed from the BG with a deserter debuff and on to (3)
(3) Another CAPTCHA will be presented randomly within the next 10 minutes of random BG play, with a special alert indicating importance.
(4) If you don't interact with it within 10 seconds, or fail to solve it, you are
(a) Automatically reported/escalated for possible automation, and
(b) Banned account-wide from the random BG queuing system for 1 week (first offense) or permanently + account action (second offense)

Simple.


Boy, that's not true at all.

However, there are other things Blizzard can do to identify automation, along the lines of what Google does in order to avoid presenting so many CAPTCHAs, such as tracking mouse and keyboard activity. The way in which people use their mouse and keyboard is highly individual.

Congratulations. You managed to get an unbelivably bad diarrhea of a suggestion and make it 10 times worse

[Ballrug]

A captcha appearing at random every 10 mins is disruptive as hell. What if you're in the middle of a fight, you're frantically CC'ing/preventing the opponents from capturing an objective, and BOOM a captcha appears. Like this is not going to piss off legit players at all /sarc.

In what way is 120 minutes "10 mins"?

Congratulations. You managed to get an unbelivably bad diarrhea of a suggestion and make it 10 times worse

Sorry if human-testing interferes with your botting.

The system could present some CAPTCHAs or other challenges when players were known to be "available" -- e.g. while dead.

But to be effective it needs to occasionally present challenges at completely random times, including when players are in combat, capturing objectives, et cetera.

It would be a very, very, very small price to pay for battlegrounds that were purged of bots.

[arcaneshot]

What if there was a captcha everytime your queue popped up? Although, it would not prevent the botters that actually monitor their bots but it would to those that do not. Seems simple but something that could work...

I see people suggest this all the time, but can't name a successful game that even uses this.

Almost everyone forgets that if a computer can make a Captcha they can also solve one.

[endersblade]

Oh please. Most NORMAL people have a hard enough time figuring those fucking things out in the first place. I usually have to refresh the captcha 5+ times before I can get an image I can even read.