The Botting Simply Must Be Stopped!

[Mormolyce]

I refuse to believe that it was simply "bad luck" that I was paired with this many losing groups,

You are the first person in the history of PVP to refuse to believe that losing a string of games wasn't just bad luck. The first!

but rather that most of my teammates were bots, as evidenced by their behavior, and lack of communication in the chat window.

So you actually have two problems - there's too many bots and they're all on your faction?

#pleasehelpus #botsareruiningbattlegrounds

#usinghashtagsonwebsitesthatdontsupportthem

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Blizz will never get rid of bots as long as those people botting pay for the accounts. They might do an occasional ban sweep, just to appease the player base.

The reality though, money talks and bullshit walks

Funny thing, is that's not true.

[Mouri Kogorou]

Funny thing, is that's not true.

yeah, keep burying your head into the sand screaming "LALALALALALA"

[Kaleredar]

yeah, keep burying your head into the sand screaming "LALALALALALA"

And how many people quit because of botters? Is it enough to be "worth it?"

For as long as there are botters, people will quit because of them. And botters aren't always your "Lazy-ass joe shmoe who thinks he's too good to do BGs," they're also compromised accounts used for botting, which, if "condoned" by blizzard would land them in a helluva lot of hot water.

[Deleted]

there is only one sure fire way to stop bot's, Remove the tools used to make them.

However since the programming tools (I assume it is a variation on C++) used in the creation of them are used for legitimate reasons then your SOL. its a game of cat and mouse, Sometimes the cat gets the mouse, sometimes the mouse gets away.

I do not condone Botting, but I accept that it is the nature of the game now.

[Deleted]

Sure it is. Just like the war on terrorism is. And the war on drugs. And the war on poverty. ON GOING BATTLE AKA: Theres really not much we can do about it so STFU and live with it or move along.

When I report a botter, a gm comes to see me ingame to find said botter and is not allowed to even suspend him then I consider that a crappy policy. Also that botter never got banned in the following year.

Banning waves are great and stuff, but if you willingly allow a bot to bot free for over a year then I have to ask myself questions on how effective it actually is.

[Kaleredar]

there is only one sure fire way to stop bot's, Remove the tools used to make them.

However since the programming tools (I assume it is a variation on C++) used in the creation of them are used for legitimate reasons then your SOL. its a game of cat and mouse, Sometimes the cat gets the mouse, sometimes the mouse gets away.

I do not condone Botting, but I accept that it is the nature of the game now.

No, you just have to destroy the way a bot can operate in your game by removing the ability for them to function.

They could remove point to click; that'd neuter botting right then and there. The next step would to be affect how characters interact with coordinates to disrupt waypoint botting.

[wickedbastard]

When I report a botter, a gm comes to see me ingame to find said botter and is not allowed to even suspend him then I consider that a crappy policy. Also that botter never got banned in the following year.

Banning waves are great and stuff, but if you willingly allow a bot to bot free for over a year then I have to ask myself questions on how effective it actually is.

You must be special. I never got a reply when i reported some bot.

[Mifuyne]

No, you just have to destroy the way a bot can operate in your game by removing the ability for them to function.
They could remove point to click; that'd neuter botting right then and there. The next step would to be affect how characters interact with coordinates to disrupt waypoint botting.

That's all nice and well but if you can think of the solution, a smarter person will create a bypass for it.
People always seem to come up with "pro" solutions but botting will NEVER be stopped.
Nothing is unhackable, the same applies to botting.

[Mouri Kogorou]

And how many people quit because of botters? Is it enough to be "worth it?"

For as long as there are botters, people will quit because of them. And botters aren't always your "Lazy-ass joe shmoe who thinks he's too good to do BGs," they're also compromised accounts used for botting, which, if "condoned" by blizzard would land them in a helluva lot of hot water.

no, it does not force people to quit, but it encourage them to bot.

[Deleted]

You must be special. I never got a reply when i reported some bot.

They aren't allowed to tell you what action they take against a botter, but it's very common for a GM to come look you up ingame if theres a problem. Nothing special about it.

I didn't just report a botter, I invited said GM to come find the botter in person.

[Kaleredar]

no, it does not force people to quit, but it encourage them to bot.

If you have fun PvPing, but are disheartened by the number of bots, you "botting" PvP isn't going to even the playing field in any way, shape, or form.

That's all nice and well but if you can think of the solution, a smarter person will create a bypass for it.
People always seem to come up with "pro" solutions but botting will NEVER be stopped.
Nothing is unhackable, the same applies to botting.

And the deeper they have to go into WoW hardware, the more easy it is for Blizzard software to identify those things, as it "legally" enters its realm of surveillance within your computer.

[Deleted]

Bots = usually paying customers = Blizz don´t care.. Accept it and life will be better.

[Golden]

It seems to me like the solution to botting is simply merging random BGs back with rated BGs. Then, it would be possible to form PUG groups using people's personal rating. Bots, AFKers, and people who just play terrible would naturally filter to the bottom away from most other people. If you also incorporated a system where higher ratings rewarded more conquest points, then bots would hardly gain anything from wins/loses.

The downside, of course, is that some PUGs would go up again premades from time to time. However, a 1500 PUG would still stand a chance against a 1500 premade...and let's face it, people are currently making premades in random BGs anyway.

[Thelxi]

Bots have been farming for years.. blizzard is doing a lot more than people give them credit for. Like numerous people have said in this thread the only way to catch a bot is by the GM's actually observing them. There are millions of subscriptions in WoW and the ratio of GM:Player is staggering in favor of players. They can only do so much.

The best we can all do is report a bot when and if we see one.

That is true but Blizzard also makes million and millions of dollars, more than any game dares dream about. If bots were an actual problem that actually hurt their income believe me Blizzard would find a way to actually battle the bots, expensive as it might be.

[ComputerNerd]

If other players are not voting in sufficient quantities to remove a bot from a battleground, then really is it the fault of the bot or the other players sticking their fingers in their ears and pretending that it is nothing to do with them.

If the bots were ruining the game that much, then surely 1 bot would cause the loss of multiple other subscriptions.
And so if blizzard cared as much about the money as some are claiming, then bots would be hurting their income and would be already be taking the action you say should be happening.

[Tharkkun]

When I report a botter, a gm comes to see me ingame to find said botter and is not allowed to even suspend him then I consider that a crappy policy. Also that botter never got banned in the following year.

Banning waves are great and stuff, but if you willingly allow a bot to bot free for over a year then I have to ask myself questions on how effective it actually is.

You're assuming they were able to detect it before the ban wave happened. Both authors are smart. They aren't going to write software that modifies Blizzard's files or memory because that's easy to detect. Actually some authors do but then their bot gets banned.

People act like Blizzard has no idea the bots exist. I'm certain they download the bot and use it in house, then attempt to see if it gives any identifying information when it's running. I'm sure Blizzard could scan your whole computer like VAC or punkbuster does but they have yet to go down this path.

- - - Updated - - -

Bots = usually paying customers = Blizz don´t care.. Accept it and life will be better.

BG bots are customers who paid leveling services to use their accounts. I'm sure some percent of players use AFK scripts but the majority are just feeding the illegal leveling services.

Gold farming bots are typically compromised accounts. Blizzard would rather clean the account and educate you on account security (authenticator) which
kills two birds with one stone. Your account will not be compromised in the future and gold farmers have 1 less account to abuse.

[ciggy]

Bot builds the team spirit. He always fight till the end.

hehe, that made me chuckle.



I honestly don't think folks realize how botting is a cat and mouse game between let's say, blizzard and honor buddy. blizzard finds out how it works, and bans it, honorbuddy switches up coding, gets better and works for awhile. blizzard finds out how it works and boom, process repeats on and on. Glider ran for a good while if i remember right. Honor buddy was up for nearly 2 years, if i remember right. And i'm pretty sure part of the settlement with glider was they didn't disclose any member lists. I haven't paid much attention to it for a couple years, but i do remember when honor buddy got sued, was all over a few of the darker wow sites. (mmowned and the like)

Something vaguely similar was the old dish network hacks, you could run a fake card and program it to work like a real one, every so often they'd "zap" the cards and they would have to be hacked again and redone. it was a cat and mouse game, and a good number, of legit paying customers got nailed. Seems big companies are always gonna have folks cheating and beating the system.


Bots suck ass, i agree completely, but anything thing like wow is going to have a rough time catching every botter. I do the same exact thing every single av i do, or everytime i start farming herbs/ore. Anything you repeat over and over can be automated/botted.. if you watch me farm, I do look bot like, been reported many times and gotten alot of messages from game masters asking me to /wave or let them know i'm at the keyboard. but that is very time consuming and takes away from folks that really need help getting help.

not sure you ran into bots or just jackasses

[Dabrix32]

Blizzard doesnt care about bots. I botted wow BGs for a good year and never got caught. Im talking 24/7 doing BGs and gathering. I tried botting in Rift and was suspended for 72 hours the first night I let the bot run while I was asleep.

[potatoe]

I tried botting in Rift and was suspended for 72 hours the first night I let the bot run while I was asleep.

When was this? How many players did they have when this happened?

Easier to spot bots with fewer players.

Also, ratio of players to GMs is better.

A quick google estimates fewer than 1 million active rift players.