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  1. #1

    On botting and what ANet is doing about it

    We wanted to address some of the concerns around ‘botting’, and let everyone know what we’ve been doing about it, as well as our plans for continuing to tackle this issue.

    Our monitoring of ‘bot’ activity has already resulted in over 1600 account terminations world-wide in the last week alone, and we are actively tracking the most common ‘bots’ in use, so that we can continue to eliminate them from the game. As we continue to gather information on these ‘bots’, we will be increasing the rate of account termination to remove them. Please continue to report players that you suspect of ‘botting’ – your support is much appreciated.

    We are actively improving our means of detecting ‘bot’ activity in the game automatically. This includes tools for our customer support team to help them verify ‘botting’ reports and efficiently issue account terminations. Recently we have also hired a team of data specialists who will be helping us create more effective tools for analyzing reports of ‘botting.’

    As a side effect, these efforts directly impact the operations of third-party gold sellers (and spammers). In conjunction with ‘bot’ removal we also take Real Money Trading very seriously and actively remove hundreds of gold spammers and sellers each day.

    In short, we are fully committed to keeping this community free of bots and illicit gold sellers, and we very much appreciate your assistance in identifying and eliminating them.

    Thank you for your understanding and patience as we continue to improve our ability to deal with this issue.

    https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/foru...Doing-About-It
    Did you think we had forgotten? Did you think we had forgiven?

  2. #2
    I've said it before and I'll say it agian. Wasn't worried about the bots because Anet has a good record of comeing down hard on them. It is nice that they still give periodic updates for their players on whats happening however. I've missed that over the last few years with other MMO's. Seriously a little note like this goes a long way to leting folks know that action is being taken. The silent wall of "All account actions are private" to the point of even general figures being unavalible just raises questions about inaction.

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  3. #3
    Deleted
    The problem to me is even that 1600 account terminations / week will not actually make a difference in the grand scale of things. Botters are making a lot more than $60 off selling gold before they get shut down right now. Closing an account is a very minor inconvenience to them, since you can still AFK level yourself back up to 80 and they can have their bot back up and running the next day.

    It is the endless cycle that unfortunately all MMOs face, and I guess, policing a great deal of things faces - that shutting things down at the source is the most effective - yet often extremely difficult. Shutting down small time end-users stems a trickle for a temporary amount of time. In that regard...

    Recently we have also hired a team of data specialists who will be helping us create more effective tools for analyzing reports of ‘botting.’
    That's interesting, at least. I really hope that they can reach the critical mass of shutting down botters fast enough that restarting becomes too costly compared to the profits. I'm really glad that they are actually going to put more effort into this rather than furthering diminishing returns, which is already punishing genuine players harder than it punishes bots.

  4. #4
    I report all the time. Just today I sent about 6 reports.
    I'd be happy if they added an option to not receive mail in game from "players".

  5. #5
    Dreadlord Vexies's Avatar
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    Shutting down the source is a great idea in theory but in practice it becomes nearly impossible as you end up with all sorts of international law issues if you can even track down the REAL source of gold sellers / hackers.

    At the very least they are actively and aggressively attempting to stem the tide but as with any area in life where money is to be made.. if there is a will there is a way so all they can really do is attempt to keep them in check. Eliminating them altogether might be a bit of a unrealistic goal.

    I applaud there efforts and report all botting and gold spammers I see. I really appreciate playing a game with a Dev that gives a shit and takes a hard line against this stuff.

  6. #6
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    Plus now you can report mail as well, so they can't get around that.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Maythael View Post
    I report all the time. Just today I sent about 6 reports.
    I'd be happy if they added an option to not receive mail in game from "players".
    Agreed, you should have options to restrict who you can receive mail from, even if it's just something as simple as "Only receive mail from friends and guildies" or something to that effect.

    But this doesn't surprise me in the least, though I wish we saw a Dhuum usage on bots...that might be slightly hilarious if they do a ban wave and mass ban a bunch of bots in the same area

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    Yeah, Rhandric is right, as usual.

  8. #8
    I see they added a "Selling Gold" report function to both mail and player reporting.
    Did you think we had forgotten? Did you think we had forgiven?

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Shamanic View Post
    The problem to me is even that 1600 account terminations / week will not actually make a difference in the grand scale of things. Botters are making a lot more than $60 off selling gold before they get shut down right now. Closing an account is a very minor inconvenience to them, since you can still AFK level yourself back up to 80 and they can have their bot back up and running the next day.

    It is the endless cycle that unfortunately all MMOs face, and I guess, policing a great deal of things faces - that shutting things down at the source is the most effective - yet often extremely difficult. Shutting down small time end-users stems a trickle for a temporary amount of time. In that regard...



    That's interesting, at least. I really hope that they can reach the critical mass of shutting down botters fast enough that restarting becomes too costly compared to the profits. I'm really glad that they are actually going to put more effort into this rather than furthering diminishing returns, which is already punishing genuine players harder than it punishes bots.
    well i dont know, if they make botting non profitable for the peopel who do it, it might end, if they can ban the accounts before they get the 60 bucks they have to spend to bot.
    Gold and level not being very important in this game is also a huge plus, you dont need to bot if you want another toon just to pvp, you can get to pvp instantly.

  10. #10
    The Insane DrakeWurrum's Avatar
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    The gold sellers are starting to attach small pieces of copper to mail in order to prevent you from just deleting the e-mail. =\
    I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies.

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  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by DrakeWurrum View Post
    The gold sellers are starting to attach small pieces of copper to mail in order to prevent you from just deleting the e-mail. =\
    hasnt happened to me yet.

    my question is how many of these accounts are hacked accounts and how many are just the gold seller buying a new copy of the game.

  12. #12
    The Lightbringer Glytch's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tommo View Post
    I actually applauded them for this, its so funny seeing the evolution of gold sellers, from corpses spelling names in wow to attatching money in GW2. Its doesnt really bother me, but what does bother me and is driving an ever widening hole between me and ANet is the complete disregard for its customers playstyles.

    The botters have already won in GW2 because now you cant farm things thanks to restrictions, yet 99% of the shit at lvl 80 is heavy HEAVY farmable things.
    Kind of annoys the ever living crap out of me because sometimes I just want to take a few hours and farm up some gold or something so that I dont need to wait for a random event that isnt actually bugged.
    theres alot wrong with this post

    mostly all of it

    all of the changes to dungeons and events had nothing to do with gold sellers
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    then again i'm pretty sure you're smarter then the average dumbass

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Glytch View Post
    theres alot wrong with this post

    mostly all of it

    all of the changes to dungeons and events had nothing to do with gold sellers
    He's right about most high end pieces at 80 requiring heavy farm. Of one kind or another. The 30-50 people huddled at the 3 fort gates in CS with AOE auto-fire are pretty obvious. It's the absolute quickest and most efficient method of gear acquisition, money, materials and so on in the game.

    I make like 6+ gold & about 6k karma or so a day standing at those gates myself. Just afk farm fest.

  14. #14
    Scarab Lord Azuri's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fencers View Post
    Just afk farm fest.
    This just seems wrong to me on so many levels. /shrug

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by DrakeWurrum View Post
    The gold sellers are starting to attach small pieces of copper to mail in order to prevent you from just deleting the e-mail. =\
    I got one of those. Makes me wonder if ANet will implement some sort of "minimum amount" when sending money via mail. I say set it at 1 gold and then I'd be happy for the gold sellers to send me mails!

    /sarcasm

  16. #16
    I think their stance on botting is surprisingly amazing. Hopefully gw2 will continue strong so blizzard will have to actually take note and do something about bots in their games too.

  17. #17
    Fluffy Kitten Remilia's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Azuri View Post
    This just seems wrong to me on so many levels. /shrug
    When there's a quick efficient way to farm for money, why would others do themselves grief to get the same result. It may seem wrong but it is logical.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Azuri View Post
    This just seems wrong to me on so many levels. /shrug
    Indeed.




    I am not sure if you are aware. But how it works is there are 3 forts under constant Dynamic Event assault. All you do is load up on magic find, get in a group [grouping = higher drop rate] and stand at the gates in the zerg spamming AOE. When the DE ends the next fort along the road is under attack. When that one ends the 3rd is under attack. After all 3 are finished the cycle begins anew.

    Each event pays out tons of materials, karma, xp, gold and items per hour. Basically the best farming in the game. .

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Tommo View Post
    Theres a lot wrong with this post.

    Mostly all of it.

    (god being condescending is easy)

    If the changes to farming werent due to botters thats fine, but its still a pathetic system.
    There's

    Apparently not so easy?


    Mod Edit: Okay, cut it out. No bickering, grammar Nazi ridicule or useless smart-assery. Seriously. Be excellent to each other.

    Sorry, couldn't resist.
    Last edited by Stompalomp; 2012-09-29 at 07:09 PM.

  20. #20
    Scarab Lord Azuri's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Remilia View Post
    When there's a quick efficient way to farm for money, why would others do themselves grief to get the same result. It may seem wrong but it is logical.
    Yeah that statement just brings one thing to mind that you actually have to "AFK farm" which I'm sure she doesn't mean you can set up some macro and walk away but more that it just becomes mindless? It defeats the purpose of "playing" the game? Sounds like it's a chore more then actual player involvement don't get me wrong I'm not hating on the game I don't actually play anymore It just wasn't my type of game. I don't want to derail the thread any further as the topic is about ANets dealing with bots but that comment caught my eye I tend to value Fencers objective posts in all games not just GW2.


    Edit: Posted this before seeing Fencer's reply. I have a little better understanding now and it is kind of what I thought.
    Last edited by Azuri; 2012-09-29 at 07:09 PM.

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