Blizzard response to botting

[Synbaby]

At this point in wow, I believe bots are here to stay. In the end what it comes down to is Money. These are still accounts that are paid for, and blizzard isn't about to ban thousands of accounts and lose all that money. Now I know that blizz does ban accounts in waves, but that is just to appease the players holding torches and pick axes screaming for blood.

[Aboubacar]

Because some shitty cheaters BUY THEIR STUFF. If the community wouldn't fucking cheat there wouldn't be RMT sites. end of story

I mean idk what you want man. I don't bot myself and never had just because the bots are so frustrating to me and I would never risk my account on something so dumb as laziness.

I'm just saying I've given up on reporting them because I can't change things on my own, no matter how hard I have tried. It's like swimming upstream at this point and I've just reached a point where I ignore it/don't care because it's been the same since I started playing. BGs specifically are actually worse now than 5-10years ago.

What do you want me to do? Get angry and frustrated? "Yell" about it on the forums? Report every individual one I see? Because at that point my caring about it starts to erode my own game experience. Sure, maybe a few more get banned when I put in a ton of extra effort to maybe stop them, but they come right back. I will see more in a few days. The ones I report might even be there tmmr or next week or a month down the road.

[Deleted]

I mean idk what you want man. I don't bot myself and never had just because the bots are so frustrating to me and I would never risk my account on something so dumb as laziness.

I'm just saying I've given up on reporting them because I can't change things on my own, no matter how hard I have tried. It's like swimming upstream at this point and I've just reached a point where I ignore it/don't care because it's been the same since I started playing. BGs specifically are actually worse now than 5-10years ago.

What do you want me to do? Get angry and frustrated? "Yell" about it on the forums? Report every individual one I see? Because at that point my caring about it starts to erode my own game experience. Sure, maybe a few more get banned when I put in a ton of extra effort to maybe stop them, but they come right back. I will see more in a few days. The ones I report might even be there tmmr or next week or a month down the road.

You don't have to do anything. The community is fucked up and supports cheating and bots. Neither you nor i will change that (just look at this thread... OP was behaving perfectly and tons of people hate on him)

[SDMF]

You would end a friendship with someone for cheating in a video game?
Most ridiculous thing I've seen in a while.

I can only imagine what the "break up" would sound like.

Hey listen, I caught you cheating...in World of Warcraft. Don't try to deny it, I know it's true. At first I didn't want to believe it. I said to myself over and over: but he's such a nice person, he'd never do such a disrespectful thing. Then it dawned on me that you are indeed cheating in a video game.
We've had some great moments together but this behavior is unacceptable. I thought we were friends, how could you do this to me?! I never want to see you again!!! *runs away crying*

[Trisrx]

There are thousands and thousands of bots, they won't investigate them personally and one by one; that's useless.

Once upon a time blizzard did personally investigate reports of botting, and bots seemed to be less common back then, although I cant be sure if this was because less people were botting, blizzard dealt with it more seriously, or both. Now I understand the new system has the potential to be much more efficient, and its cut back greatly response time for other ticket issues. The only problem is that it doesnt seem to be getting the job done.

Once you've really been an administrator on a game you realize it's absolutely nothing to brag about or even mention. It's a job. You wouldn't reply to this poist saying you were the fry cook at McDonalds, because how is it relevant? How does being an "Administrator" on another game have anything to do with you reporting a friend out of spite?

This thread shouldnt even be about me, but your right, this post was very foolish, I was getting defensive. It is a job, one I try to avoid, but in any smaller community I almost always end up assigned because no one else is willing, able, or trustworthy. Even in real life my friends come me to resolve any disputes, but Unreal tournament I would consider my main game admin experience. I managed to enjoy playing that a long time before cheaters really got to me. I eventually criticized the admin team for not doing their job, and they requested my assistance. Anti-TCC, the cheat detection program, was as useless as blizzards detection systems, only capable of catching the oldest, poorly designed programs. To catch a clever cheater you have to put in the personal effort required, collecting evidence could take days or weeks. When we did find convincing evidence we still didnt just slam the ban hammer, we would present the evidence and get feedback from the community. Even if I liked the person I was assigned to investigate, it had to be done for the good of the community. Its a pain, but it was fairly successful at keeping the servers fair. Thats my point I guess, if blizzard had some GMs assigned to deal with botting personally, the botting would not end, but if they really made the effort I think it could be reduced. Its not like bots are difficult to detect. It seems like they gave up or dont really care, which is unfortunate.

[Rumred]

Reporting a friend is rather shitty. Its not like you are turning in a friend to the cops for murder you are just being a crappy friend. If i had a friend who did that to me i prob either wouldn't be friends with them anymore or very least less of a friend to them.

[Deleted]

Blizzard bans bots in waves, once they figure out how the current generation of bots works and how to disable them.

That is their approach. But not 100% true. I botted all throughout cataclysm with a fishbot. I know at least 7 people reported me (threats via wisps, bot used to take screenshots whenever I got a wisp). Never got banned.

Oh wait I did get banned once but that was because I was challenging people to play the poker addon against me for gold -.-.

[judgementofantonidas]

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.

Their response to harassment and real life threats is about the same. As in they do nothing if you do not use their new feature, and little if you do.

[Deleted]

Worst friend ever? Who even comes up with the idea to report your friends? That is beyond me. *shrug*
This is just a game afterall, and if you value the game over your friends then it's really sad and tragic.

[Deleted]

Intead of you guys asking him what kind of friend he is, you should be saying: "Why are you still calling that cheating piece of shit a friend?"

end friendship cause someone uses a bot :P? Lol, most people iv known over the years have used bots at one time or another. Today it requires so little work, but back in the days id say kodos for putting down the work on building good profiles and setting up script/macros and custom profiles so that it actually did a good job.

[tangers58]

To revisit my earlier analogy, when you're an adult you will learn that if you are pissing in the pool, your friends aren't guaranteed to like it.

Except the "friends" are the ones pissing in the pool... the pool that we all share

[tey]

You are part of the problem. Sad

cant be part of the problem ir im part of the solution, blizz is the problem

[Khaza-R]

Okay so when I get older I will realise that the best thing is to backstab all your friends and be a douchebag even if there is absolutely no personal benefit?
Sorry but I think this is bullshit. Guess I'm just a good friend and I will never do crap like this.

Yeah, enabling people's bad behavior is the definition of a good friend.

[Sierra85]

Yeah, enabling people's bad behavior is the definition of a good friend.

as a good friend you should do what you feel is right even when you know your friends are doing wrong.

[Cuicatl]

You would end a friendship with someone for cheating in a video game?
Most ridiculous thing I've seen in a while.

You call an acquaintance you met in a video game a "friend?"
Now THAT'S the most ridiculous thing ever.

Just because you add someone to FB or follow their Twitch/Twitter does not make them a friend. Granted, OP called this guy a friend and, whether he's a RL friend or just some guildie, is unclear. I suppose real friends now are FB/Twitter/Reddit/Twitch or even cell phone contacts, but back in the day all that type of long-distance communication got you was a pen pal (lol).

I guarantee if you met someone in RL that did something wrong in RL (e.g. cheating, assault, stealing) and you were some sort of ethical, you'd ask that friend to stop and/or ditch him/her altogether. If you keep that kind of company or are fine with it, you're probably of the same ilk. Again, real friends (and family) know better than to put you in a compromising position.

I had a guildie that was banned for botting about 2 months ago. He hasn't returned. He would openly profess his botting in voice chat and even joke about it in in-game conversation. In addition, he was botting probably more than he actually sat down to play. He spoke casually about how much gold he was making, how easy it was to convert profits, and which programs to use. Perhaps he was just stupid, and he damn near encouraged doing it as well. I was well acquainted with this guy and he seemed like a good person from voice chat conversation, but I can't help but shake my head and think that he got what he deserved in the end. More recently, another guildie that has claimed he's botted or currently bots was banned for 3 days simply for appearing to bot. That's right--appearing to bot. He was helping another guildie powerlevel his alt and his movements were deemed bot-like.

And to those continuing to profess and justify their reasons for botting and how enforcement is futile, let's apply that thinking to real life. How about law enforcement and courts just stop worrying about crime altogether? Next time someone breaks into your house, just throw your hands up in the air because you have no chance of getting your stuff back or bringing someone to justice. Just let it go because everybody's doing it. If everyone's doing it, it must be OK, and law enforcement shouldn't give a damn because it's just gonna happen again. Of course, you can take the matter into your own hands and purchase a firearm to protect yourself, but if you're gonna complain every time you have to do it yourself (i.e. use the Report > Cheating option), then I guess there really is no helping you.

[Terridon]

Ive been an admin for years on various games, being my friend never saved anyone, people get what they earn

Same here. Being a friend doesn't give you the right to be an asshole. Neither online nor IRL.

To all of those responding with "shitty friend" etc. I would never be friend with people like you because you're just horrible people. The kind the only want justice for your group. The kind that will defend one raping another because "oh well he's my friend <3<3"
Fuck you :P

I long ago learned to judge people as to how they are to strangers, and not to how they are to their friends. Of course. If they can tell their friends off it gives them a lot of credit, but people forgiving their friends for everything, and at the same time being an ass to a waitress is just a shitty human being, despite their own glorified idea of friendship>everything.
And yes. I have friends. Friends that tells me off if i'm being an ass, and the other way round. Funny enough that doesn't happen a lot, because none of us go for those patting our backs, regardless of the situation.

To OP.
Hopefully it's just the banwaves they are waiting for, but yeah. They are too slow, and the consequences are far too lenient for firsttimers. That being said i don't see a lot of bots, and those i see often are better than the players.

[RoKPaNda]

I haven't reported friends, but I've votekicked them for being AFK in LFR. If they do something stupid to ruin the game experience of others .. yeah they deserve it. Friend or not.

And you might say that makes me a bad friend because you're an enabler or unethical or whatever, but my friends tell me I'm a great friend, so that's good enough for me.

[Dangg]

You call an acquaintance you met in a video game a "friend?"
Now THAT'S the most ridiculous thing ever.

He was using the word 'friend' in the OP right? So I assume it isn't an acquaintance from a video game, you brainless inbred mongoloid.

Infracted.

[Deleted]

And to those continuing to profess and justify their reasons for botting and how enforcement is futile, let's apply that thinking to real life. How about law enforcement and courts just stop worrying about crime altogether? Next time someone breaks into your house, just throw your hands up in the air because you have no chance of getting your stuff back or bringing someone to justice. Just let it go because everybody's doing it. If everyone's doing it, it must be OK, and law enforcement shouldn't give a damn because it's just gonna happen again. Of course, you can take the matter into your own hands and purchase a firearm to protect yourself, but if you're gonna complain every time you have to do it yourself (i.e. use the Report > Cheating option), then I guess there really is no helping you.

But in this case law enforcement doesn't do anything. Its like you got robbed, went to police. They asked you to fill report and then thanked you for filing that report. And then they did nothing.

[Cuicatl]

He was using the word 'friend' in the OP right? So I assume it isn't an acquaintance from a video game, you brainless inbred mongoloid.

You either didn't continue reading or lack comprehension. In the following paragraph, I stated, "Granted, OP called this guy a friend and, whether he's a RL friend or just some guildie, is unclear." I know this and I'm acknowledging the fact that gamers use the word "friend" liberally. Belay your personal insults. It makes you look mad.

But in this case law enforcement doesn't do anything. Its like you got robbed, went to police. They asked you to fill report and then thanked you for filing that report. And then they did nothing.

Or, maybe they do as any person with physical limitations does and prioritizes which cases they address first. Like I mentioned, my guildies got bans, so maybe yours are next. There are way too many posts about how Blizz does nothing, but fewer about what they have already done. They have, after all, stated countless times that they do care, are committed to addressing botting, and that it's a long, difficult, ongoing process.

I'm not a Blizz fanboy by any means, but this is the same mentality that goes into thinking that clandestine services (e.g. NSA, CIA, NSC) don't do enough to combat terrorism, yet the general public is outraged when they overcollect information--that is, listen in on your calls and read your e-mails. How the heck else do you think they catch terrorists? And, honestly, even if such services heard your latest phone sex exchange, they don't have the resources or hours to prioritize you or care. This is how customer service works. It's a priority system. If they've yet to do anything, it's probably because they've got bigger fish to fry. I swear this generation has no patience.