Yes, Blizzard ban bots.... For 3 hours

[Indless]

From a PvP point of view, yeah it sure does feel that way. And it's been like this since...well ever since Cata launch. (experienced)PvPers are mass quitting pretty much, so much for the customer satisfaction.

P.S. Lol @ the 3h ban.

Experienced pvpers are quitting because of the shit state of pvp, no ones gives a crap about battlegrounds, its just another grind u have to do to be able to arena

[walkingtall]

People need to stop defending Blizzard as "working on it". Heck, even I believe they are working on it, but, if you know anything about this game, and anything of it's history you know that it will be months, at a minimum, before they fix the problem, if they even fix it, or at least that's always been their history.

Blizzard created this problem in several ways. First, they encouraged everyone to make alts. Well, guess what, leveling in MoP is fun, the first, maybe second time, but not the fifth. So guess how people solve that problem? Second, the pvp balance is terrible in this game. People feel compelled to have multiple classes to compete, so guess what they do? Third, the grind. Grinding gear for a single toon is easy, really easy, but do that for a second toon, and a third, and so forth? It's much less fun. Fourth, they didn't stop it early, they didn't stop it harshly and now it's out of control. Blizzard could invest in manpower and solve this problem really fast by policing BG's with guys at $15/hr and a magic boot. But, they don't, and they won't.

While I'm sure some of the bots are compromised accounts, it's also true that many of them are just people who looked at the game and said "there aren't any consequences so why the heck not?"

[Nyaldee]

Well, guess what, leveling in MoP is fun, the first, maybe second time, but not the fifth.

Oh man i agree so much - i lvled just 2 characters and that's it, can't bring myself into the "open world" anymore - not even for Sha of Freelootz. Worst leveling expirience i had since classic wow for sure.

[Rorke]

Experienced pvpers are quitting because of the shit state of pvp, no ones gives a crap about battlegrounds, its just another grind u have to do to be able to arena

Never understood this mentality. If they made the grind easier where you can get full season 12 in a week then what would you do? Play arena? Then what? Oh right... play more arena. Then what? Eventually you would get bored and find something else to do.

If you would stop thinking about gear and the grind, maybe you would enjoy the game more. If you don't like the game due to issues whether it be your issue with balance or blizzard, then there's nothing more I can say to you.

[Exeris]

Never understood this mentality. If they made the grind easier where you can get full season 12 in a week then what would you do? Play arena? Then what? Oh right... play more arena. Then what? Eventually you would get bored and find something else to do.

If you would stop thinking about gear and the grind, maybe you would enjoy the game more. If you don't like the game due to issues whether it be your issue with balance or blizzard, then there's nothing more I can say to you.

I'm fairly sure you didn't understand his post.

The battleground grind is over quick so experienced pvpers don't care it's ruined by bots. It's not there the competetive pvp is.

[Jeffrew]

It's all about the money, money, money!
Glad I quit a month ago. I'll go back when 60-70% of the people in BG's are REAL people......

[walkingtall]

It's all about the money, money, money!
Glad I quit a month ago. I'll go back when 60-70% of the people in BG's are REAL people......

That and they fix the burst and CC in the game.

But like it always is, the CC and burst will be fixed, the game will be playable and they'll blow it all up in the next expansion.

[Matt0193]

And I'd be willing to bet that the other humans in YOUR BGs think YOU are a bot... should you be banned if they think you are a bot? What say you?

I've been accused of botting because I run the exact same line every AV for many hours a day (Hoooray for easy XP/Honor for characters). I run that line because after playing in AV since it's launch, I've discerned the most efficient route to get from A to B and I can do it time after time. I also grab a HS as soon as I see a well if I don't have one, I also grab 80 food if I need any.

Just because I act like a bot, purely because I play efficiently, doesn't mean I actually a bot (Which as you elude to in a way, people don't think before they shout out in /bg). I personally don't jump the gun when it comes to bots, I'll call them out if I see blatant examples of (For an example, I was watching a destro lock from to the same point outside of Icewing Bunker. No pet, no buffs. He'd stand there and hardcast one Chaos Bolt and then do nothing until he was killed. This would repeat over and over until the end of the game) botting, but I don't jump around going "report bots" "bots in cave report" like most tend to.

Botting really does need seeing to though, it's kind of depressing when you see 30+ people run up a single tower, run down and then run to the next. It's like when you watch that steady stream of players that go from IBGY -> Just past SFGY's path, then upto the SHGY overlook and around into Balinda. The later you play, the more people take that line (which serves no purpose, as it is takes you out of the way for you to double back on) and you just know all the bots are out in force.

[Deleted]

Missunderstood, sorry;>

Strange, a few of my friends got permabanned about a year ago for botting. They didnt have any previous warnings or bans.

I got banned for 72 hours for joking about dead kitties.

I got banned for 48 hours for saying the F word.

It happened in TBC/WOTLK.

Since CATA ive been breaking so many rules and have only got a 3 hours ban in MOP for botting and sending death treaths, no warning. Lol this is retarded.

If i did what i did in CATA during the TBC time, i would get permanent banned like 50 times.

I'm told the "3 hour bot ban" is simply an automated thing for people who have been reported /afk too many times in BGs. It doesn't really have anything to do with botting. Whether this is true or not, who knows?

In vanilla/BC at least a bot was a permaban.

As you can see in my pic i laughed at Blizzard for giving me a three hours ban for botting, cheating and sending death treaths.

They said they reviewed it and the 3 hours ban is fine.

They dont want to ban us bots forever, they know we are so many they have to scare us to play normally in this game again.

[Blackeyecycle]

Well... the bots pay too. And Blizzard only sees cash. Why remove a source of income?

Exactly this. Don't ever think that Blizzard will choose morals over income. It would be a cold day in hell.

[Magemaer]

They don't want to lose subs. Therefore, they don't perma-ban anymore

[MasterHamster]

Seems like there's still people who can't grasp how botters are in reality costing them money

[Cowt]

Ooooooor, the friend was using a bot, but got a three-hour ban for something else.

The official reason for the ban was not stated, and we can't know what happened here until the OP or his/her friend posts a screenshot of the ban email.

[Flaks]

My stance is that Blizzard is working on it

Blizzard is working on botting like it is working on pvp balance...

---------- Post added 2012-12-06 at 04:44 PM ----------

Seems like there's still people who can't grasp how botters are in reality costing them money

Blizzard has become far too short sighted in this game's design in more recent years. It caterered to instant gratification which lead to players getting sick of the game faster in WotLK and Cataclysm. Then it flip flopped to a grindier game after setting a precedence. All this has done is get more players playing for shorter periods of time and it's been working for a bit but the loss of subs is inevitable. Whereas if they hadn't done the aforementioned they would probably still be sustaining/increasing their number of subs.

---------- Post added 2012-12-06 at 04:49 PM ----------

Yeah, I was hoping someone would post that Blizzquote. Not that they will read it, but that is the reality of the situation.

There's nothing to prove that's the "reality of the situation". Because the reality of the situation is that bots that have been reported for years get 3 hour bans and only come back to continue botting. The reality of the situation is that bots in bgs are usually players and not compromised accounts. The reality of the situation is you just got mislead by a blue who completely deflected the question on to a different discussion entirely (botting for gold is usually what compromised accounts are for, botting for honor holds literally no value to hackers).

[maulgryve]

They don't ban people for anything these days (unless it's a very extreme condition).

At this point blizzard prefers to concentrate on keeping their subs in every possible way they can, that includes keeping bots and goldsellers.

Sad thing, but blizzard doesn't really care for it's reputation anymore since people will keep playing regardless.

And to finish with an even greater thing, blizzard makes money directly of bots that provide gold sellers, hence why they ain't banned.

I have seen too many friends and guildmates get their accounts locked after they got hacked by goldsellers. They never got banned of course, but they had to call to get the accounts unlocked. I am not sure how the subscription would work in this case though since all of them got their accounts back.

[Flaks]

Never understood this mentality. If they made the grind easier where you can get full season 12 in a week then what would you do? Play arena? Then what? Oh right... play more arena. Then what? Eventually you would get bored and find something else to do.

If you would stop thinking about gear and the grind, maybe you would enjoy the game more. If you don't like the game due to issues whether it be your issue with balance or blizzard, then there's nothing more I can say to you.

Because people obviously don't enjoy competitive random pvp amirite? It's a fuckton more fun when everyone is equally geared and things are based more on skill/coordinating a random group (which happened A LOT before this botting bs got way outta hand). I've never had more fun in this game than when both sides in ANY bg were moderately geared and people actually played strategically in a random bg. Or even better when you joined a random bg against a premade and still beat them.

Anyways, if you want gear grinding then go do your pve. There's no room for "grinding" gear when you're playing against other players. Grinding for aesthetic awards I can understand in pvp but never for just becoming competitive for gear.

[jeremynative]

Funny thing: the plague of bots is one of the major signs an MMO is going to die soon. All dieing MMOs were infested with bots when the they unplugged the servers, last being City of Heroes aka City of Bots.

i think it's the opposite, if blizzard bans bots, it will die. Most people who bot (inc me) wouldn't play wow without the automation of gathering, honor farming and leveling. by keeping the bots, they get more money and botters are happy (While most players cant even really tell the difference between bots and players)

[Donald Hellscream]

sure some cunts may be using bots because they can't be bothered to actually play the game, but some bots are also compromised accounts which are funded by stolen credit cards. Now the owners of the stolen credit cards will report this to the bank who will contact blizzard and ask for a refund on behalf of their client which they will get so long as it is possible to prove that the transaction have been done by thieves and not the actual owner of the card. So flat out perma-banning anyone who may or may not be a bot is pretty silly.

[Feylor]

What I say is simple: I'm not mistaken for a bot.

I've had players flag me as a bot in a BG before when I was most definitely actively doing stuff. I came in after the initial rush in AV so I hung back at our base and recapped flags etc. and apparently people assumed I was a bot. Long story short, just because it looks like a bot doesn't mean it is. Botting discussions feel more and more like a good ol' fashioned witch hunt than any kind of useful discussion.

[Deleted]

I used to bot on multiple accounts (about 9 at a time) since TBC until I stopped playing WoW at the end of Cataclysm. And I did this on my own accounts following just a few simple rules. Since Blizzard's Warden and later Warden 2.0 were completely useless because good bots didn't use any memory injections of some sorts the only way to detect a bot was due to the character's behavior. Even with greatest efforts Blizzard isn't able to detect bots at all, except for those with noticeable behavior like those in battlegrounds.

I only used bots when I was sitting infront of the PC, whenever I was somewhere else in my flat I turned on my speakers in case I get a warning sound and run immediately to the PC.
I never used bots in battlegrounds, this is plain stupid. I enjoyed battlegrounds myself a lot and accumulated about 300k HK across several characters.
I sold my stuff only in private to people I know, those were redistributing farmed stuff just like in the drug business. I never sold raw materials on the AH, only produced stuff across several of my accounts undercutting each other to make it look real.
There was/is some sort of a botting community on my realm and we shared materials with each other to maintain our own supply and demand.
Having 3 screens on the desktop like I do allows you to run 8 bots without further concern while doing arenas or raiding on the middle one, this was my case.

TBC was the greatest time of all since the gold price was pretty damn high. The bots during that time weren't as good as the creme de la creme today, but they (it) did their job. I was selling my gold personally to customers who approached me and if I didn't have anyone I always had the Chinese on my side who paid less but they bought everything I had. Since time is a very important thing in this business I didn't care who I sold to. I had no account banned, I never received any warnings and I made enough money to sustain atleast 9 subscriptions, buy high-end hardware every couple of years and the list goes on.

The moral of my story is the fact that you cannot suppress botting. You have this in pretty much every game nowadays. It's the same on the streets. You cannot completely stop criminality because this is a part of the living organism we call society. Well if Blizzard would care just a little bit more about their customers, they could just start getting those people botting in battlegrounds, this made me rage several times aswell. There was a heavy banwave during TBC and the renowned Pirox bot which banned so many people. I miss those times.