Rumors of a bot ban wave

[goblingirl]

Well, I did some random BGs last night, on both Horde and Alliance side. Queues were a bit longer than normal on both sides, most likely because people were choosing not to queue with their bot software down for the night. However, I'm okay waiting an extra 10 minutes for a BG with no botters in it.

PvP in WoW is fun again when (the software which shall not be Named) is down. Playing field is really evened, no pun intended. Lost some BGs. Won some BGs. It was interesting to see the comments of my teammates in BG chat: things like "wow we never win this bg" (spoken by a Horde player in ToK when we roflstomped). Also of note, there were virtually no players AFK'ing on any team I joined. Everyone was actively playing.

Personally, I don't think that many people actually got banned. From what little I gathered from reading people's comments about (the software which shall not be Named), it has some sort of safeguard that stops it from running when Warden knows about it, or something like that. So for most people who cheat with it, it just didn't load when they logged in yesterday, so they didn't get banned. As soon as the developers of (the software which shall not be Named) update it, they will go right back to cheating.

It would be nice if Blizzard kept updating Warden constantly over the next few weeks. Every time they update it, they WILL catch some number of cheaters who are online at the time. If every time they update it they manage to catch 10% of the cheat botters, then by a process of attrition eventually most of these people (at least the ones who are too stupid to uninstall it) will end up with the six month ban.

As an aside, I'm also unclear on why they haven't sued the makers of (the software which shall not be Named), as they sued the people behind the old Glider years ago. I wish they would.

[Deleted]

Yeah, ban for 72 hours. What a joke.

[goblingirl]

Yeah, ban for 72 hours. What a joke.

Meaning, you got one? If so, I'm sad it wasn't for a full six months, or better yet, perma.

[Deleted]

Meaning, you got one? If so, I'm sad it wasn't for a full six months, or better yet, perma.

No, it should be 6 months for the 1st offense and permanent at 2nd. 72 hours is a joke considering so many idiots are at their 1st offense and won't suffer like they deserve for ruining the game for everyone else.

[Deleted]

Meaning, you got one? If so, I'm sad it wasn't for a full six months, or better yet, perma.

Botting should always give you a perma-ban, no matter what.

[goblingirl]

No, it should be 6 months for the 1st offense and permanent at 2nd. 72 hours is a joke considering so many idiots are at their 1st offense and won't suffer like they deserve for ruining the game for everyone else.

Agreed. Many of the reports I saw, people said six months. I wish it was permanent, too, but I'll take six months if that's all they're willing to do.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

This makes sense. Coins come out so put so pressure on that side while opening the gates on the other. Plus who complains about bots being banned.

[Tart]

pmsl, so they've had the power to do this all along but only do it when they can cash in.

[Beet]

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

They rarely do. In fact ive got a guildie thats botted since vanilla and he only lost one of his accounts when he got caught selling a couple mil gold in a period of 24 hours. Shit ive even reported another guy in my old guild who botted and nothing happened. I even reported the way the,bot worked and the name of the bot. Didnt matter. So yeah thr fact that the WoW token is coming is the only reason were seeing bans now.

[goblingirl]

I am doing random BGs again this evening, and still no sign of botters. i guess they are not back up and running yet. It's awesome.

[Schmeebs]

pmsl, so they've had the power to do this all along but only do it when they can cash in.

thats not how it works
they don't instantly ban all the bots once they have a good detection method

they perfect their detection method, then see how many people they can catch using the bots (not all botters use the same schedule, and it lets them catch people who may only do it during weird offpeak hours and sporadically.) Then once they feel they can make a big dent, they ban them all at once, conveniently they are mixing this with a clientside patch which likely has its own countermeasures to the bots, making it so it will be a longer time before people can get the bots back up and running again.

[Illiterate]

thats not how it works
they don't instantly ban all the bots once they have a good detection method

they perfect their detection method, then see how many people they can catch using the bots (not all botters use the same schedule, and it lets them catch people who may only do it during weird offpeak hours and sporadically.) Then once they feel they can make a big dent, they ban them all at once, conveniently they are mixing this with a clientside patch which likely has its own countermeasures to the bots, making it so it will be a longer time before people can get the bots back up and running again.

They haven't done anything like this for as long as I can remember (at least 5+ years). The only time there were ban waves was when the bot did something that specifically screamed "HEY LOOK I'M A BOT". PQR did this last year (with PQI), pirox did this back in cata with archeology (literally spammed chat channels), etc. I don't recall blizzard ever creating a detection method without the bots doing something obvious to get caught and tbh I don't think they are even capable of doing that.

[Backstreet]

good for blizzard, good for us

[SL1200]

Good start, I would like to see them be more agressive about it.

[geniebsmart]

My friend is botting as we speak, as he has for 8 years now. Only got a ban once, 72 hours one, a few years ago

[SL1200]

I've always wanted to; but the thought of losing my main, it's just not worth it.

[Gadzooks]

As an aside, I'm also unclear on why they haven't sued the makers of (the software which shall not be Named), as they sued the people behind the old Glider years ago. I wish they would.

Blizzard did sue them - even won the case, the last I read, they can't sell the software in Germany - so they moved the company to another country. There are multiple threads about it on their site - be warned, however, reading the threads will lower your IQ with the complete lack of knowledge of how the law works, and some of the posts will turn your brain to pudding being exposed to them, they're so idiotic. Everything from "Blizzard is a Masonic company, don't give them money!" to "Argh how dum all blizzard wants is munny we should class action soo themb!"

It's astonishing to me, the smug stench of entitlement coming from cheaters who think Blizzard is in the wrong stopping them from cheating - and the anger and rage and chest thumping displayed because Blizzard had the nerve to sue that company.

[Deleted]

good for blizzard, good for us

Good start, I would like to see them be more agressive about it.

You might want to read more than first post and actually verify its content. There is no ban wave.

[Deleted]

From what I've seen this "banwave" only affected people using a cracked version of Honorbuddy.

[Deleted]

From what I've seen this "banwave" only affected people using a cracked version of Honorbuddy.

Lol, guess the bootleg was not up to date with the latest anti-warden defenses.