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

[Kissme]

let me just ask you something. why would the most played, biggest subscriber mmo care about massaging numbers to the point of not banning cheating players?

exactly blizzard doesnt care about trolls on the internet saying wow is dying if it loses a small amount of players and dont try to claim bots make up any large portion of the playerbase since 99% of bot complaining comes from pvp players which make up less of the playerbase then hardcore raiders

Assuming banning bots cancelled a paying sub then the equation from their end is simple - Cost of banned bot accounts vs cost of accounts lost due to anger over botting. If 10% of their published sub numbers are botting accounts (and thus paying accounts in theory), then to justify banning the botting accounts (from a financial standpoint) they would need the number of accounts that quit due to rampant botting to be over 10% of their sub numbers. Otherwise inaction is better. Taking action to ban bots costs them the bot accounts plus whatever the costs of tracking and implementing the ban are.

Basically, the cost of tracking down, breaking, and then banning bots might exceed the cost of players leaving due to botting. If that is the case, then there is no reason for them to ban the bots. Everyone constantly reminds people that Blizzard is a business and so reputation and player satisfaction have to be balanced against costs.

They might not care at all about massaging numbers, but rather about the bottomline. The bottomline might simply be that it's more profitable to not ban the bots.

[The High Druid]

It's the keyloggers and shit that steal your account to strip it for resources that is the bigger, true, problem, really.

In quite a few cases it's the same people. Afterall, once you've stolen the account, why not run a bot on it? It's not like you care if it gets banned.

[hammock]

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.

I'd go with this.
Solving the cause of the problem is far better than just banning everyone.

[Deleted]

Blizz wont ban the bots, but they do forum ban you, if you complain about the bots too much lol

[walkingtall]

They might not care at all about massaging numbers, but rather about the bottomline. The bottomline might simply be that it's more profitable to not ban the bots.

Anyone who thinks they don't run those numbers is crazy. Even 10,000 accounts is almost a couple of million dollars, absent other variables, and no one gives up that kind of money easily, no matter how big the business is.

[Deleted]

Odd how you knew before the match even started that several of them were bots so you decided to jump the gun and begin reporting. I suppose if they choose not to laugh at your childish jokes during preparation they must be a bot.

What made you think I reported them before the game begin?

I clearly wrote that they needed 1min min to exit the door while in one group running up and down the ramp, and then when they exit they ran right to left all battle never standing still. Why the hell do you say I reported them before the game started?

---------- Post added 2012-12-11 at 04:28 AM ----------

Why do people make such a big shit about WoW bots?

There's really not that many of them and they don't really hurt the game much. I mean, sure, they're there and all, but they're not doing much harm.

It's the keyloggers and shit that steal your account to strip it for resources that is the bigger, true, problem, really.

Try and play some late night battlegrounds and enjoy the game you pay for. Then make the same comment...

[Choptimus]

They used to, but don't care any more as bots have moved away from accounts being hacked/stolen and paid for with stolen credit cards to fuel the gold-selling market. Most bots are average players who just cba with all the boring grind in wow (which has gone through the roof in MoP) and so they buy a bot. Blizzard won't ban because it's actual players (which results in a total loss) rather than comprimised credit cards which they have a long winded process that loses them money to get it all sorted out.

Keep botting, nobody cares.

[Moinaldo]

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.

^^^^^^^

Seems OP was a bot... if we are to judge just because of those screenshots

[Xeraxis]

What made you think I reported them before the game begin?

I clearly wrote that they needed 1min min to exit the door while in one group running up and down the ramp, and then when they exit they ran right to left all battle never standing still. Why the hell do you say I reported them before the game started?

The battle begins in 1 minute!
Complaint Registered.
Complaint Registered.
Complaint Registered.
The battle begins in 30 seconds!
The battle has begun!

Or did you think that because all of your other threads have been about bots that people would blindly jump on your side without looking at your screenshots?

[Mormolyce]

Yes they definitely do. In fact I believe there was a ban wave this week.

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)

What an original sentiment!

People who bitch on the forums about GREEDY LYING CORPORATIONS ZOMG and bots will never be convinced otherwise, because ban waves are something you won't ever see directly. You only see the bots that get through, not all the ones they've banned.

[Choptimus]

Yes they definitely do. In fact I believe there was a ban wave this week.



What an original sentiment!

People who bitch on the forums about GREEDY LYING CORPORATIONS ZOMG and bots will never be convinced otherwise, because ban waves are something you won't ever see directly. You only see the bots that get through, not all the ones they've banned.

Ban waves happened when bots were mainly compromised accounts feeding gold selling, now it's just players who cba to do the boring grind.

[Eviriany]

As a BANNED ex-botter... YES, They ban bots, In waves... I was 1 of about 20 thousand or so

[Mormolyce]

Ban waves happened when bots were mainly compromised accounts feeding gold selling, now it's just players who cba to do the boring grind.

Nothing has changed in that regard, both kinds of botting always have and still do occur. And both can result in a ban.

[Choptimus]

Nothing has changed in that regard, both kinds of botting always have and still do occur. And both can result in a ban.

It was 90% gold sellers, 10% players.

Now it's more like 30% gold sellers, 70% players.

[Mormolyce]

I'd go with this.
Solving the cause of the problem is far better than just banning everyone.

You misunderstand. They learn how the bot works, take measures to break it to ensure it no longer works for anyone... and THEN they ban everyone.

It was 90% gold sellers, 10% players.

Now it's more like 30% gold sellers, 70% players.

Source? Or is this ex podex?

[rektbrah]

ITT: 1200 players complaining about bots as an excuse to quit the game because they're too shit to do arena

[Kuja]

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.

That would explain why all battlegrounds and few instances are full of bots and why some bots have been online continuously for 5 months if I recall correctly. Not.

[EqualWin]

people really think banning bot is easy? XDDDDD

god those people around this forums, stop qqing, and enjoy the game

(if u enjoy the game doing random bgs then lol)

[Lawnmower]

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

This. It all makes sense now as to why they ban in "waves".

[Nyaldee]

Why do people make such a big shit about WoW bots?

No clue, seriously. I don't even want to imagine at what prices raw mats would be going if not for dozens of bots collecting them. I've never used a bot for gold making, probably becouse i'm fluctuating around 200Kg for a long time without any efforts (made a fortune on gems/enchants/glyphs). Actually imo Auctioneer and similar addons bring more harm to economy then all dat farming bots simply becouse it's so easy and effortless to control market with them.

I used bot for BGs though with carefully selected profile that actually contributes to the game. Could i contribute more - sure, would i want to go through it for Xs time in my live - no. Item upgrade system drove a final nail in the coffin for me - i googled bot, took my time to research ins and outs about customised profiles and set it on the farm. You can blame me and peoples alike, but take a look on Blizz increasing farm by 15000 honor for no reason, denying ppls a right to have adequate pvp weapon aviable for honor (even ilvl 458 honor weapon would be great to start with becouse of insane amount of PvP Power it gives), decreasing valor points gain again for no reason and forcing everybody and their moms to do stupid dailies to get ready for raids.

What was wrong with runing dungeons for faction rep through tabard system? Nothing. Blizz just wanted ppls to go to open world, but it's time to admit that open world in WoW sucks and can't be remedied. In GW2 world provides insane amount of randomized content, great gfx, events, jumping puzzles, exploration. In WoW it provides you with dailies that no normal human would enjoy after 85-90 pandaria quest grind. It's RBGs, arenas and raids community is after in WoW. And Blizz simply forced a botting issue themself increasing grind twofold in 9 years old game, seriously their developers aren't bright at all...