90% bots in Temple of Kotmogu - 9 bots and me; Do YOU think blizzard ban bots?

[Deleted]

Do you think blizzard is banning bots? I don't...

I think it's simple math for this greedy company. Look on this advanced equation I did:

Bots + ban = less profit
Bots + "lie to customers" + ignore = more profit (short turn, but that's all that matters for bonus and shuffle profit to next game)

In my last battleground I ended up with 9 bots in Temple of Kotmogu. If you wonder how I can know they are bots, they all took 1 min to exit while running up and down the ramp. Finally they all exit, and run back and forth for some seconds until they finally start running their normal path. Thats left to right outside entrance. Running up and down, up and down all battleground the same path. They all moved in the same way, not like a multiboxer, but like bots. This is 100% sure bots if anyone have any doubts, it was bots, it was 9 bots in a 10man battleground.

Here are some screenshots:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s9duvrefg8sjwsi/PQ6vpoMAHV


I did report all the bots, I had nothing else to do. And like usual, while reporting many players I get DC (probably some function from Blizzard to prevent people from using this function, many people get dc for this), I got 3 DC while reporting the bots as a thank you from Blizzard.

In the end, what can we expect. This is only the most profitable game in History and we only pay around 130euro/year to play and Blizzard can't spend all (any) money on costumer support, even if that is the main reason they say that we have to pay so much to play this game, to get good support.

On top of this. When I this summer made a post of the official forum complaining about bots, I was rewarded with a Perma Ban from the forum for promoting the use of bots. So I can never again post on the official forum.

[Jamber]

Yes, they do, after a set limit.

If you'd like, you can think of it as an algorithm that takes into account the number of bots reported, how many times each bot was reported, and the remaining time left on their reoccuring sub. They balance the amount of money they gain by keeping them around against the rising anger of players. Once the players voices reach a high enough volume, their value of potential loss will be greater than that of many bots, and so they will mass ban a large number (but not all) of the reported bots (these reported bot, though, need to have been confirmed botting). After that's all done, rinse and repeat.

/tinfoilhat

[Missbenedict]

I'm not a scientist but i think blizzard is currently working on shutting down honorbuddy and various other bots instead of just playing the short term ban everyone they see using it sort of thing, trust me im a scientist.

[Guns]

When I was leveling 3 months ago and queued for Isle of Conquest, pretty much every game had at least 20 bots on each side.
Just queued for one the other day... same thing.

Great work by Blizzard, really.

[Bryntrollian]

I don't think blizzard is capable of pushing a button that instantly bans all bots at once...

[Bayhas]

I see you standing there taking screenshots and have exactly 0/0/0 just like everyone else. Pretty substandard proof besides you screencapping yourself as a bot.

[But I Hate You All]

I'm not a scientist but i think blizzard is currently working on shutting down honorbuddy and various other bots instead of just playing the short term ban everyone they see using it sort of thing, trust me im a scientist.

http://bossland-lawsuit.blogspot.com/

Seems blizzard is loosing the honorbuddy suit

[Buxton McGraff]

I think you're heavily exaggerating on the number of bots. I rarely see more than 1 bot in my BG's, if that. Just because you think somebody is acting strange, doesn't mean they're a bot. And I highly doubt you did any real investigating as to watching their movements and whispering all of them. You can say you did, but you'd likely be lying.

[minititan]

I noticed that a lot of the players on your team were from the same server, maybe it was just a bad premade?

[igame]

Hahaha...why would blizz even want to do anything about bots when anyone who complains is immediately pounced upon by 10 that think this is asking too much and blizz is great.

[Deleted]

First of all, good thing you reported them!

Blizzard do not automatically know everything that is going on, in every battleground, ALL the time.
It has been stated many times that reporting such behavior is the first step to stop it. So, unless you report it, you get bots. (apparently, not a lot know this.)
I've never had any reporting related DC'ing. Maybe you should write a ticket about that so they can look into it.


Secondly, as Blizz has stated before, they prefer to ban botters in waves instead of one at the time.

This is simply because its easier, they write a way to detect the behavior that indicates it is a bot and not a human player.
And removing the problem at the root is often a more effective way of dealing with the problem than to ban individual botters.
It usually also sends a strong message to those making the bot programs, usually forcing them into make a new bot program, and thus the cycle begins anew.

[nyc81991]

Have you ever considered the fact that new people choose to bot all the time? Thus making it harder to get rid of them? Its not like the only bots in the game are the people who are doing right now....

[lordjust]

Yes, they do, after a set limit.

If you'd like, you can think of it as an algorithm that takes into account the number of bots reported, how many times each bot was reported, and the remaining time left on their reoccuring sub. They balance the amount of money they gain by keeping them around against the rising anger of players. Once the players voices reach a high enough volume, their value of potential loss will be greater than that of many bots, and so they will mass ban a large number (but not all) of the reported bots (these reported bot, though, need to have been confirmed botting). After that's all done, rinse and repeat.

/tinfoilhat

I don't think that how it works. As Blizzard said they need to check every report if it was really a bot and they have limited resources to do that so that it's highly possible that only a very small amount of bots will be banned because at the time someone has the time to check the ticket the bot is already offline and from logs alone it's very hard to say if it was really a bot.

Also Blizzard tries to shut down the sources of bots which is very hard because there aren't really any laws that say you aren't allowed to make a bot but instead Blizzard has to try to stop these companies by suing other things like copyright because they use art from WoW and so on.

It's a war that Blizzard can't win and bots are getting better and better and it's a lot easier and more safe to buy and use one as in the past.

[Deleted]

uggh this old chestnut..... again

1 - Observe the bots to work out how they work
2 - Make changes behind the scenes to break the bots.
3 - Test to make sure the changes break the bots.
4 - make the changes go live
5 - Ban the players using the bots in a single wave.
6 - Repeat the process all over again.


Now all of this takes time. A LOT of time. it doesn't just happen over night.

[Boogums]

Do you think blizzard is banning bots? I don't...

I think it's simple math for this greedy company. Look on this advanced equation I did:

Bots + ban = less profit
Bots + "lie to customers" + ignore = more profit (short turn, but that's all that matters for bonus and shuffle profit to next game)

Bots + ban = more profit
Bots + tell customers the truth + ignore the stupid ones + ban = more profit

See how my equations are correct and yours aren't?

Also, you do know that most bots don't pay a sub fee right? Once the credit card holder of the stolen credit card that they used to pay for the sub fee contacts Blizzard about the theft, that money is given back. So how exactly does not banning bots generate less profit?

[Lucetia]

http://bossland-lawsuit.blogspot.com/

Seems blizzard is loosing the honorbuddy suit

Your source is an article that dates back to November 2011? Might want to look for an updated source before you use that as part of an argument.

Secondly, what they sue them over is one thing (such as profits that it caused them to "lose"). They can still go through and ban it in game (which isn't affected by the lawsuit). It's just a matter of banning certain algorithms/strings that pertain to the program so that it doesn't cause it to ban normal people. Then the bot comes up with new things and it's a constant back and forth battle.

[Paladin885]

they ban bots almost daily, but at the same time hackers update the bots almost bi-weekly. It's a never ending fight with gamers who want to cheat to win.


I'd almost argue that blizzard's bot team sits and waits by having the wow forums on one monitor, the wowbot community forums on a second monitor, and then they monitor wow in real time on the 3rd.

[But I Hate You All]

Your source is an article that dates back to November 2011? Might want to look for an updated source before you use that as part of an argument.

Secondly, what they sue them over is one thing (such as profits that it caused them to "lose"). They can still go through and ban it in game (which isn't affected by the lawsuit). It's just a matter of banning certain algorithms/strings that pertain to the program so that it doesn't cause it to ban normal people. Then the bot comes up with new things and it's a constant back and forth battle.

and from 2012

http://www.bossland-gmbh.com/

I don't see honor buddy going anywhere. Since they did not break any German law..

infarct from their own forums and the last update

"A short resume on todays trial, the second trial on the case Blizzard vs Bossland.

The trial had to start at 11:45 and end 12:00, which looked like a joke since 11:45 there was the next trial planned for the judges. However we did not manage to get to our trial before 12:50 and it lasted around 45 minutes.

As usual, all the plannings we made, on how the case can be turned .. failed, because somehow the judge thinks this is all about the game ludo. And in ludo you are not supposed to dice only "6"'s.

besides this phenomenal description, he made clear that there is no problem at all to say that we are competitors. That what we do is an obstructional competition and if the EULA and TOS are bound in the contract between the end user and blizzard will not be looked at, as its not mattering.

Also he said that each game has rules, so called rules of the game, and the user has to get to them, read them and follow them. That they are public and can be read online. This leads to, that the rules are somewhere hidden within the EULA and TOS, but since they do not matter, how do they expect them to be read and followed.. around here i lost it completely.

But it was not yet over, also one of the main aspects of the game is the communication between players, and since bots can not communicate, they are obstructing blizzard. However Blizzard never mentioned anything like that in his lawsuit, so i am really interested how he came up with that fact, and why bots can not be communicating ...i have seen at least few plugins that let you communicate with players.

I hope you are still following, till here we have no paragraph, no law rule that is mentioned. Its just ... the game has rules, people need to know them upfront and to follow them. This one will soon lead us very fast to the next higher court, some when in 2013.

Another interesting facts are that, we will soon not be allowed to use the terms "WOW Bot" and "World of Warcraft Bot" ... i mean since when is BOT a protected trademark ?

Blizzard had to take back the sentence that ment that our software automatically levels, which in this case is untrue, as blizzard does the level switch not our software.

Blizzard had to take back that we had to destroy the memory on the servers, where the trademarks where used ... how in hell would you come up with that in the first place ... instead of changing the html source code and removing the trademark infringed words, they wanted me to delete for example the index.html ..that was also turned back to something that makes sense. Not that its right by our opinion, but its what we will need to live with until the next higher instance.

Now the important things:

The ruling will be on 29th January. From this point on we can no longer distribute Honorbuddy in the territory of Germany, just Germany.

This means more or less, that we will stop the sales of Honorbuddy in the territory of Germany and the distribution of updates for Honorbuddy in the territory of Germany.

However since the ruling will be fully written on 29th January, i can not go any more into details, since i have none. After that we appeal and go to the next higher court, and the chances fro that are pretty good, after the show we had in the LG of Hamburg."

They do not seem to be going down like glider

[whatthefudge]

There sure are a lot of people in this thread that know exactly how blizzard operates behind the scenes.

[Vongimi]

they ban bots almost daily, but at the same time hackers update the bots almost bi-weekly. It's a never ending fight with gamers who want to cheat to win.


I'd almost argue that blizzard's bot team sits and waits by having the wow forums on one monitor, the wowbot community forums on a second monitor, and then they monitor wow in real time on the 3rd.

I doubt the bot makers do it because they want to cheat. They do it so they can sell the bots for lots of money. Speaking of greedy under-handed groups, people shouldn't be looking at Blizzard, they should be looking at the bot makers.