Rumors of a bot ban wave

[Stormspark]

They're reporting 6 month bans, starting today. Seems to be a new thing. First time is 6 months, after that, perm.

Because I totally trust people who bot in WOW to be honest about it and the punishment they receive, right? Because people who lie and cheat always tell the truth on the internet.

[Gadzooks]

Because I totally trust people who bot in WOW to be honest about it and the punishment they receive, right? Because people who lie and cheat always tell the truth on the internet.

What possible benefit would they get for lying about getting caught? Are you being serious, or just trying to pick a fight?

[Illiterate]

Yes, it's a new ban wave targetting the well known bot.
6 months ban for first offenders, permaban for others.

We don't know what comes after the 6 month ban until Sept. It could be a perm, another 6 month ban, a free cookie or anything in between.

[Deleted]

And so many people say that Blizzard likes botters and never bans them.

There was a total of 6 bans reported on the HB forums, in my books that is "nothing" considering the 10mil player base.

[Stormspark]

What possible benefit would they get for lying about getting caught? Are you being serious, or just trying to pick a fight?

People that make the botting software have a vested interest in people using it (since they make money from it). Thus, they make fake posts saying that they got suspensions instead of bans, or make false claims that they were able to have bans overturned, so that people feel "safer" using their bot. Astroturfing at its finest.

[Sumatran]

Personally I would rather run a LFR with 24 botters rather than play with the mouth breathers in there.

[Deleted]

Happy to see them finally take action, might bookmark this page for future reference... Still wish they would do it more often though, as well as scour the battlegrounds at night and ban the droves of them that come out at that point.

Yeah yeah I know they need "solid evidence" to determine whether someone really is or isn't a bot, but I really feel that they are being way too cautious with that stuff, it's not that difficult to tell them apart when they run as one big group from the same spot to the same spot, back and forth in one large group.

[ryanmahaffe]

http://imgur.com/gallery/4U8yhH9/new

[Glaziola]

Personally I would rather run a LFR with 24 botters rather than play with the mouth breathers in there.

You would be surprised how many people do that.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Still waiting for the inevitable message that gold-earnings have been nerfed to the ground in Cataclysm raids. I have seen and reported so many obvious bots by the entrances to Dragon Soul, Blackwing Descent and Bastion of Twilight that I lost count...several of them also seemed to use some sort of flying hack to get to the entrance of Blackwing Descent, guess they don't wanna pay gold for the Azeroth flight skill.

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What possible benefit would they get for lying about getting caught? Are you being serious, or just trying to pick a fight?

Is it really so hard to believe...? The people doing it, same as the people selling boosts for real money, want to lull the customers into a sense of security. Fairly sure I even saw someone advertise "Help with unban for free if you against all odds get banned!" in chat, selling boosts to RBG.

[Gadzooks]

People that make the botting software have a vested interest in people using it (since they make money from it). Thus, they make fake posts saying that they got suspensions instead of bans, or make false claims that they were able to have bans overturned, so that people feel "safer" using their bot. Astroturfing at its finest.

You're trying too hard to create a conspiracy here.

[Zantos]

Still waiting for the inevitable message that gold-earnings have been nerfed to the ground in Cataclysm raids. I have seen and reported so many obvious bots by the entrances to Dragon Soul, Blackwing Descent and Bastion of Twilight that I lost count...several of them also seemed to use some sort of flying hack to get to the entrance of Blackwing Descent, guess they don't wanna pay gold for the Azeroth flight skill.

That is literally the worst place a bot could go for gold. Its once a week and then done. Try the better places for bots like Grim batol, Lost city of tol'vir, Halls of lightning and other five man instances. You make 1k per hour in grim batol Easily just from selling trash items.

That being said, it is obvious when people are bots or are human. All the level 90 pre-made toons running halls of lightning over and over and over. Ugh. Hit the dungeons if you Really want to catch the bots.

[Deleted]

That's my point...there's a lot more users than there are posters. 230k on forum implies a lot more actual botters.

Or that they never clear their forum from auto-spambot registrations?

[Deleted]

And so many people say that Blizzard likes botters and never bans them.

Yea it only took them 6 months while BGs were full of bots...........

[Deleted]

If there was a ban wave, ban section of most popular botting software would be spammed with ban reports.

Yet as far as I can see there were only 9 reports for last 24 hours. Its a bit more than usual, but nowhere near what would have happened if there was a ban wave.

Probably some newbie GM just decided to look at reports and banned few people instead of ignoring/deleting those reports.

Because I totally trust people who bot in WOW to be honest about it and the punishment they receive, right? Because people who lie and cheat always tell the truth on the internet.

All 9 people who got their accounts banned reported 6 months bans. They are usual posters, not freshly created 1 post accounts, so there is no reason to doubt their honesty.

Maybe its just a ban policy change. There could be more reports than usual because many botters didn't bother reporting 72 hour suspensions, but 6 months ban is something report worthy.

[Sanguinesun]

People that make the botting software have a vested interest in people using it (since they make money from it). Thus, they make fake posts saying that they got suspensions instead of bans, or make false claims that they were able to have bans overturned, so that people feel "safer" using their bot. Astroturfing at its finest.

Wholly counterintuitive and doubtful. If you're selling a product, you sure dont want to venture into astroturfing it with -any- negative publicity be it a suspension or a ban. I think you're grasping at straws with that line of thinking.

That is literally the worst place a bot could go for gold. Its once a week and then done. Try the better places for bots like Grim batol, Lost city of tol'vir, Halls of lightning and other five man instances. You make 1k per hour in grim batol Easily just from selling trash items.

That being said, it is obvious when people are bots or are human. All the level 90 pre-made toons running halls of lightning over and over and over. Ugh. Hit the dungeons if you Really want to catch the bots.

Some of those raids people are farming trash, resetting, and going back per the 10x an hour limit. There are vids all over the place of people farming the first room of BoT in that manner for example for cloth and greens while PoTF potted.

[Lochton]

About time, we needed to sweep out a bit. Wouldn't mind if they did it more often though.

[Darsithis]

That's my point...there's a lot more users than there are posters. 230k on forum implies a lot more actual botters.

I see your point, though I can't imagine the number of botters is worth enough financially to keep vs the damage they cause.

[Lochton]

I see your point, though I can't imagine the number of botters is worth enough financially to keep vs the damage they cause.

Considering most bots, but the world farm bot, all ruins the game for other players then no botting is worth enough to keep. Almost all bots cause more problem than actual use as income. And even so, always found all bots to be the problem no matter, there's no excuse. Something you don't want to do, then don't do it.

[xenogear3]

Rumors - any account has 10 million gold is under review.

Blizzard wants to keep token price low.
People buy more tokens.