Blizzard response to botting

[blackblade]

I recently submitted the following ticket:

A friend of mine has been botting excessively in BGs for a long time, you need to investigate the account with the character (name)-(realm). I would greatly prefer he not be banned permanantely, but this behavior really needs to end.


GM Response:

Greetings xxxxx,

I'm Game Master xxxxxxxxx. I definitely understand your frustration with your friend botting. >_< I also *really* appreciate hte report The issue is that our system currently isn't set up to address bot reports via tickets anymore. Instead, we use the right-click report method to investigate bots.

In essence, all that players have to do is select them, right-click their portrait, and select "Report Player For" -> "Cheating". Once we get it, we'll do our best to take a look into the issue! It's easy as pie for players, and helps us track these issues more easily and efficiently.

I know that this doesn't help in this specific case, but don't worry - players *hate* bots in BGs, so we'll get plenty of AFK and bot reports about this.

Thanks for your time, and have a good one!
-------------------------------------------------------

Keep in mind this guy has been BG botting all day, every day, for weeks now. Clearly "report player for -> cheating" is either way too slow or just totally ineffective. And now they ignore direct ticket reports, this guy will probably never get caught. I am starting to wonder, could they be deliberately ignoring cheaters to avoid losing subs by banning people? Is this GM actually helpless to do anything about it?

Edit: Lets clear a few things up

The point of this thread is to analyze blizzards new response to botting, not to focus on the fact that it is a friend of mine that happened to get reported.

Second, I asked him to stop quite a few times first. He knows very well my position on cheating, he hates cheaters too, but he cares only for himself.

Third, this 'grand betrayal' of mine only harms my friend in a video game, and even then I asked for just a slap on the wrist.

If there's nobody in the battleground not botting to right-click and report...

[Lolvanish]

You must have some seriously fucked up values to prioritize the integrity of a game over friendship.

This one comment > the whole thread.

[ATZenith]

Yeah, shitty friend you are.

Indeed he is.

Big bad admin reports his friends for a rank

[Cirque]

blizzard keeps track of all botters, study their access and movements, discover what bots they are using, and find a way to stop them from working.

than they ban all the botters in a huge wave.

it's a much more intelligent approach than just banning whoever you discover that's botting, even though it's a slower method. sometimes, you must let bad stuff happen for the greater good.

It's just that, the greater good hasn't really been served, as the botting issue has barely decreased - in fact, it has increased in MoP to stellar proportions (on my battlegroup anyway). I do notice it when happened, but the main issue with botting is that the popular ones simply cannot be detected and that is why botting has taken such a flight. The argument that Blizzard "studies" how the 'new' bots work is, as a result, really bullshit. They can go to the site of the most used bots any day and study it like that. Make note that I have never botted (but I have considered it, seeing as that seemed the only way to get out of what became a horrible honorgrind as a result of playing with so many bots), but I have studied the matter and discussed it with people who do bot.

What should be done instead is, I'm sorry to disagree with Blizzard here, accept personal ticket reports, drop the banning in waves (because that makes the reward much bigger! Imagine botting for ore as a chinese seller, one week of botting and he will have gained back the money he spent in buying/making/stealing this account), ban immediatly and ban furiously (perma-bans).

And then, change the system. People cheat a lot when something is wrong with the system. It is also super retarded that you have to do 2000 BGs in order to gear for a totally unrelated part of the game, namely arena. I'd personally suggest a totally different reward system for both, making previous-tier arena gear better than current-tier BG gear, so that players who dislike doing BGs will not feel like they *have* to grind BGs and possibly bot as a result. Furthermore, arena gear will be scaled down to BG gear whenever you join a BG. Something like that. ANYTHING to lessen the grind that a lot of players experience in BGs, and I believe we will have come a long way.

That said, I think it's 100% lame that you reported your friend and I'm happy to say I have no 'friends' like you. I don't see why you couldn't resolve the matter without running for a teacher, mommy, or in this case, a GM. This says a lot about you and the fact you come prancing here practically boasting about it actually makes me sick. I do hope you're not a very unhappy person, but if you keep this kind of stuff up with your 'friends', I'm pretty sure you'll become a very lonely one at the very best.

[Neforpubl]

You guys obviously know nothing about botting.

Personally I can think of one program (not going to say the same) that I personally use to bot on another account, that blizzard is in a legal battle with right now. Blizzard doesn't ban actual programs anymore, because blizzard has no way of knowing what program you are using. It has been said before and I will say it again, it is against the law for them to monitor memory usage of other programs on your computer. They patriot act doesn't mean they get to tap our shit too.
Yes the warden is there to weed out the idiots that use old programs because the warden blocks certain change in code. This is the reason botting is still be used by people today. Botting doesn't change coding of the game or alter server side coding. It uses controls on your own computer and the click to move method that is IMPLEMENTED in the game.
Now if you were to try and use something like a speed hack or a emulator, or even cheat engine; than you would get banned. When your client doesn't match with the server side packets is when the warden says "the fuck is this guy doin?"

tl;dr
Blizzard doesnt ban programs because they have no way of knowing what you are using. It's illegal for them to do that. Quit being stupid.

EDIT : If any of you know anything about botting also, you would know the easiest ways to actually get caught, which profiles get you caught faster, and when and where to bot.
Also Blizzards only way of fighting back at the herb/mining botters was to lower the node count and make them respawn less often, making it a bitch for actual farmers or botters to obtain herbs and ore.

[Aboubacar]

You guys obviously know nothing about botting.

Personally I can think of one program (not going to say the same) that I personally use to bot on another account, that blizzard is in a legal battle with right now. Blizzard doesn't ban actual programs anymore, because blizzard has no way of knowing what program you are using. It has been said before and I will say it again, it is against the law for them to monitor memory usage of other programs on your computer. They patriot act doesn't mean they get to tap our shit too.
Yes the warden is there to weed out the idiots that use old programs because the warden blocks certain change in code. This is the reason botting is still be used by people today. Botting doesn't change coding of the game or alter server side coding. It uses controls on your own computer and the click to move method that is IMPLEMENTED in the game.
Now if you were to try and use something like a speed hack or a emulator, or even cheat engine; than you would get banned. When your client doesn't match with the server side packets is when the warden says "the fuck is this guy doin?"

tl;dr
Blizzard doesnt ban programs because they have no way of knowing what you are using. It's illegal for them to do that. Quit being stupid.

EDIT : If any of you know anything about botting also, you would know the easiest ways to actually get caught, which profiles get you caught faster, and when and where to bot.
Also Blizzards only way of fighting back at the herb/mining botters was to lower the node count and make them respawn less often, making it a bitch for actual farmers or botters to obtain herbs and ore.

My question is how that friendly site is still running after all this time?

[Lexluger34]

I loled tooo funny what a horrible friend

[Neforpubl]

My question is how that friendly site is still running after all this time?

Blizzard was able to get the sales of it banned in Germany I think? I can't post a source because that would be sharing it lol.

[rullarn]

Blizzard was able to get the sales of it banned in Germany I think? I can't post a source because that would be sharing it lol.

No they didn't as far as I've red on various sites. The issue is that it's a german company, and they can't do shit about it, as it's something with german laws that prohibites them from shutting them down in a court case.

From an interview with one of the main people, at said company.

"About a month ago, Blizzard’s legal guy, Rod ****, came to our office in Germany and had some papers he wanted Bossland to sign. The papers were in English and referred to California law. So Bossland said, “Wait a second. Let’s meet my lawyer and see what he says.” and the lawyer said, “This is Germany and these documents are not appropriate.”

[Neforpubl]

No they didn't as far as I've red on various sites. The issue is that it's a german company, and they can't do shit about it, as it's something with german laws that prohibites them from shutting them down in a court case.

From an interview with one of the main people, at said company.

"About a month ago, Blizzard’s legal guy, Rod ****, came to our office in Germany and had some papers he wanted Bossland to sign. The papers were in English and referred to California law. So Bossland said, “Wait a second. Let’s meet my lawyer and see what he says.” and the lawyer said, “This is Germany and these documents are not appropriate.”

From my understanding they were trying to prohibit the sale in Germany though, but they realized that people would just work around it or something. I don't rmemeber the whole situation been a while since ive been on their website. I make my own profiles hahah

[Kulzan]

botting is something that taking the game down, it destroys alot of the gameplay for other people around you. sadly people are selfish, only thinking of themselves, or like a stupid reason my friend has. "I'm botting because blizzard don't care, and they don't do anything about it" therefore he think it is ok to bot because so many others do it. He also says he's hating cheaters, but do it himselves just because blizzard just not care. I've told him to stop botting, since I do not appericiate it, I want to report him for doing it, but he's my friend, so i won't do it.

I've given him a warning about that i won't be at his side if he ever get banned. He have been taking the "risk". I told him to stop (yes I would still like to play with if he ever get banned, although he would most likely quit the game then)

Blizzard is not really doing much about the bots. like someone said earlier in this thread. some bots are not only on for a few hours. they are moving around for weeks, being online 24/7. I don't get why blizzard is taking this suspecius. there's no way a guy can be online this much. and account sharing is also against their law. So in my opinion blizzard is slacking off, and just don't care enough about it. they care more about people saying "f*** you" to people from what I've seen through my 8 years in wow.

[Slant]

Yeah, shitty friend you are.

I think the dude cheating and forcing his friend into a position that he may not like (ie, punishing his friend for cheating) is probably the shittier friend, don't you think?

[Racthoh]

OP why rat out your friend like that? GM probably took one look at your report and considered banning you instead. :3

[alemaite]

I would never report a friend of mine. Also bots are going nowhere so get used to it. The best solution is to make honor farming fun if it wasn't that easy and simple to farm honor then you wouldn't be able to bot to earn it. Although as sad as it is, there are bots that actually play better than some of the players in the BG who just semi-afk or are terrible.

[rullarn]

From my understanding they were trying to prohibit the sale in Germany though, but they realized that people would just work around it or something. I don't rmemeber the whole situation been a while since ive been on their website. I make my own profiles hahah

Yes, that's correct. They tried, but weren't able to.
As under German laws they can't shutdown a legimate buisness cause they make an application that's not allowed to a EULA(which is not legally binding in numerous european countries, as it contradict actual laws, as far as i've red about the EULA, but that's a separate thing all together ^^).

Never used a bot myself, but have a few friends that use them a few hours a week, and cba with that. They do what they do, that's their thing.

[Aboubacar]

I don't think anyone can argue that it's okay or acceptable or good for the game etc. It makes random bgs unbearable, they've really never been fun because of them. As far as farming goes if everyone just stopped AH prices would rise and it would actually be worth your time to farm for yourself for a bit. The problem is everyone has to stop or one guy is reaping huge benefits while the rest of us suffer. Since Blizzard isn't stamping out the bots, sends the message that it's okay tbh or they don't care.

Also: if you can't beat them, join them. makes so much sense in this scenario.


edit: there's other situations like the guy using it for archeology. tbh archeology and fishing bots are blizzard's fault for making those awful professions the way they are.

[Deleted]

I don't think anyone can argue that it's okay or acceptable or good for the game etc. It makes random bgs unbearable, they've really never been fun because of them. As far as farming goes if everyone just stopped AH prices would rise and it would actually be worth your time to farm for yourself for a bit. The problem is everyone has to stop or one guy is reaping huge benefits while the rest of us suffer. Since Blizzard isn't stamping out the bots, sends the message that it's okay tbh or they don't care.

Also: if you can't beat them, join them. makes so much sense in this scenario.

Gotta love the community that is completely ok with people cheating and do whatever they want because "the problem is everyone has to stop" - guess what? won't happen as long as 90% seem to be ok with it.
YOU GUYS don't report them because they're your "friends"
YOU GUYS discourage people who actually do report cheaters by insulting them
YOU GUYS send the message cheating is ok.
Blizz doesn't.

edit: there's other situations like the guy using it for archeology. tbh archeology and fishing bots are blizzard's fault for making those awful professions the way they are.

There's absolutely no difference. You either cheat and deserve a ban or you don't.

[Deleted]

i sent in a ticket FROM THE ACCOUNT I WAS BOTTING ON saying i was botting, just gave me the same copy paste answer as anyone else

im trying to see how fqr i can push this and this was done every 2 months, sending another now

I bet they'll ban you for bothering customer service rather than botting.

[Deleted]

blizzard keeps track of all botters, study their access and movements, discover what bots they are using, and find a way to stop them from working.

than they ban all the botters in a huge wave.

it's a much more intelligent approach than just banning whoever you discover that's botting, even though it's a slower method. sometimes, you must let bad stuff happen for the greater good.

Out of interest, when was the last huge wave?

[Deleted]

Blizzard was able to get the sales of it banned in Germany I think? I can't post a source because that would be sharing it lol.

Well yeah, they removed collecting herbs/ore's and are able to sell again in Germany ("special version for Germans only, which is downgraded). They simply removed the parts, which are forbidden now in Germany, its not the whole bot xD

The Diabo 3 Bot is still banned in Germany, but there are so many cracked versions out there, which are running fine, it doesnt even matter.