Bots

StinkyMunkey · 16-01-2013 5:18pm #1

Anyone know if Blizzard are going to address the problem with bot's in Bg's.

Its getting so i cant play BG's anymore. I tend to play late at night because of the hours my job has. Is it that bad during the day?

Calhoun · 16-01-2013 5:39pm

Not as bad during the day but once you get between the 10-11PM mark they really start.

I dunno if they will solve it properly, to much money being made by those accounts.

nix · 16-01-2013 11:47pm

Main reason why i canceled my sub

Akarinn · 17-01-2013 1:36am

No no no no no.. Never!

I wish people would stop asking that!

Frolick · 17-01-2013 1:07pm

I think they ban them in waves. They aren't as bad now, but like when MoP came out, BGs were basically unplayable

johnf26 · 17-01-2013 1:58pm

aye they do there bans like every 3months or so but they only ban the people who are actually reported people see bots all the time but only report every second one you just gotta keep reporting and eventually itl ease off,people are getting accounts to cheap is why the bots keep coming back they buy SOR acount for like 10e blizz are copping on to that 2 and are getting there with sorting it out but bg will never be bot free

MurdyWurdy · 17-01-2013 2:03pm

I don't do bgs myself, how do bots make them unplayable? and what's in it for people having bots in bgs? I'm interested now

johnf26 · 17-01-2013 3:16pm

bots farm conquest and honor

StinkyMunkey · 17-01-2013 5:45pm

MurdyWurdy wrote: »

I don't do bgs myself, how do bots make them unplayable? and what's in it for people having bots in bgs? I'm interested now

Basically they run around in 1 large group, its very hard to win a BG if most your team are bots. It takes all the fun out of PvP:(.

MurdyWurdy · 17-01-2013 5:47pm

StinkyMunkey wrote: »

Basically they run around in 1 large group, its very hard to win a BG if most your team are bots. It takes all the fun out of PvP:(.

I see - do they use want the conquest and honour points to buy gear to then sell on? Presumable they're in it to make gold. I don't really do dungeons/raids/bgs but I thought that gear was soulbound so they would only be able to vendor it.

jabberwock · 17-01-2013 5:52pm

MurdyWurdy wrote: »

I see - do they use want the conquest and honour points to buy gear to then sell on? Presumable they're in it to make gold. I don't really do dungeons/raids/bgs but I thought that gear was soulbound so they would only be able to vendor it.

nope, these types of bots are just lazy players. there is usually no end result other than being able to get more honor/conquest to get gear to later play the character properly.

As for if blizzard does anything. large scale waves come over time, plenty of other types happen on daily basis as well.

Calhoun · 17-01-2013 7:18pm

What i find worse at times are not bots but really really poor people who spend most times farming honor, its so bad sometimes i think people pretend to be bots with the shame :P.

MurdyWurdy · 18-01-2013 5:20pm

I see - you learn something new every day

Akarinn · 19-01-2013 6:21am

Yeh... Sure...

TheDoc · 21-01-2013 11:08am

You can report a player ingame, or open a ticket if your suffering from bots in BG's, they act on them pretty fast.

nix · 21-01-2013 4:09pm

They don't really and they just get replaced by more bots, I prefer to play some pvp when i enter a BG, not spend most of the time looking at the map right clicking on peoples names to report them in hopes they dont actually fluke out and enter combat, as lets face it, thats all they have to do and thats what all bots programs do, run from base to base..

And I've seen no evidence of Blizz banning any accounts in the last few years..

Calhoun · 21-01-2013 5:12pm

Its funny seeing the really poor programmed bots, the one that run between all bases not fighting even though they could use a mount.

johnf26 · 21-01-2013 6:40pm

Not all bot programs run base to base there is some that say for instance goes towards were the biggest fights are and fight etc over the past 2 years there actually changing a bit not to much that you would notice them but they are changing.

jabberwock · 21-01-2013 8:11pm

nix wrote: »

And I've seen no evidence of Blizz banning any accounts in the last few years..

I could name a few sites that would say differently but I won't since it would most likely be against the forum rules.

johnf26 · 21-01-2013 8:56pm

[QUOTE=nix;82808479

And I've seen no evidence of Blizz banning any accounts in the last few years..[/QUOTE]

Untrue ive seen plenty of evidence myself to no blizz definitely bans for botting

nix · 21-01-2013 9:29pm

I'm sure providing links to wow news sites confirming such bans is happening cant be against the rules. Something like mmo or wowhead?

Unless your gonna be linking gold selling/bot sites??

Ive been watching mmo and wowhead like a hawk the last year and have seen no evidence of bans, and thats where i used to see them..

jabberwock · 21-01-2013 11:07pm

nix wrote: »

I'm sure providing links to wow news sites confirming such bans is happening cant be against the rules. Something like mmo or wowhead?

Unless your gonna be linking gold selling/bot sites??

Ive been watching mmo and wowhead like a hawk the last year and have seen no evidence of bans, and thats where i used to see them..

Much like here the talk of botting is not allowed on normal wow sites and is shut down very quickly.

There are plenty of middle of the road websites that deal in the "edge" of wow gaming tips that are flooded whenever there are ban waves. And then there are the ones that are just there for talking about how to cheat outright.

If you have never heard of the archaeology incident then you are not totally informed to say that blizzard do nothing.

Calhoun · 21-01-2013 11:42pm

I never heard of an archeolgy incident, sounds interesting but i can guess what they were doing.

nix · 22-01-2013 12:13am

So blizz don't allow websites to confirm that they have been actively banning cheaters of their game??

What?!?!

jabberwock · 22-01-2013 1:23am

nix wrote: »

So blizz don't allow websites to confirm that they have been actively banning cheaters of their game??

What?!?!

How do you jump to the conclusion that it's Blizzard that is stopping the sites?

Why do you think that threads about botting are so strictly moderated here?

/can't tell if trolling or not, nonetheless

The internet is a big wide thing with many search engines to help you locate information about lots of different topics. Check things out before stating there is no evidence of something happening. One day it might save your life.

nix · 22-01-2013 1:50am

jabberwock wrote: »

How do you jump to the conclusion that it's Blizzard that is stopping the sites?

Why do you think that threads about botting are so strictly moderated here?

/can't tell if trolling or not, nonetheless

The internet is a big wide thing with many search engines to help you locate information about lots of different topics. Check things out before stating there is no evidence of something happening. One day it might save your life.

Who else would care or have the power to stop websites from publishing information regarding a game other than the people who own and run it? Blizzard

And why would blizzard not want people to know they are moderating their game???

It defies logic and hence me being puzzled, and Mr smartypants, i have searched the usual websites worth searching on, anything else and im delving into the realm of unknown and may download **** like key loggers..

My question is, why are they so hush hush about proving to the many unbelievers/subscribers that they are indeed looking after their game?

If its so easy to find said confirmations on legitimate credible sources then by all means link it, if its breaching boards rules, pm it..

Edit: oh and im not trolling, I'm just curious as to where you're finding this credible information.

jabberwock · 22-01-2013 2:35am

This sums up why there is no information given out by Blizzard directly.

As for logic, why broadcast that you have figured out to detect a bot in the game, only thing that does it let the makers of the bot know they need to change it.

Also goes to why they do bans in waves. Here and there would alert bot makers faster.

The reason that sites do not allow a lot of talk about bots is because just like this thread someone will say something that will like to somewhere that will have a keylogger that will cause even more trouble.

As for keyloggers, there are plenty of sites that deal in exploits that are very easy to find and do not have malicious intentions for your pc. It would be pointless to infect your own readership that is getting you the traffic. Of course there are the ones that do have them.

nix · 22-01-2013 3:17am

So blizzard made a conscious decision to stop informing the masses of the thousands of accounts they ban to make the game fun and fair. In the hopes that it won't help the botters avoid detection even though feedback would do the same thing if they get banned.

And yet the botters are just a constant presence in BG's..

I've never seen such a strong bot presence in the last year in my entire wow life collectively, and it just so happens to coincide with Blizzard no longer boasting of accounts being banned.

Seems all a little too convenient.

jabberwock · 22-01-2013 4:32am

They never boosted. I don't think you read the post or understood the point really.

nix · 22-01-2013 3:08pm

boosted?! I never even said the word

Ivan · 23-01-2013 12:11pm

Glider was shut down by a massive, long-term court-case that nobody outside of being a Glider user or a Blizzard employee - would have heard anything about. That one case effectively removed several million bot accounts.

I assure you, that while botting in WoW is on the decline, their measures of banning botters has also suffered as a result. No longer is it possible to make 1 or 2 tweaks to warden, wait a week, and then announce a banwave of 150-300k accounts, by virtue of the fact that there is no longer one single engine that the majority of botters are using. Simples.

Canis Lupus · 24-01-2013 9:59pm

I quite liked liked farming. Weird I know but it can be relaxing. Flying my usual loop of a given area all I would see is bot after bot after bot. There's no point to farming when you then go to the AH and see the market flooded with goods that you know are primarily farmed by bots.

seven_eleven · 28-01-2013 1:31pm

Back in early 2010 I played WoW quite a bit. Remember those bots that used to spell out large words with their dead bodies? Well, they were happening so often, and everybody on the server was reporting them EVERY DAY so I decided to investigate a bit more.

I simply added one of the bots to my friends list to see how often they came online to spam. I cant quite remember exactly what it was but I think it was something like every hour.

I reported this particular bot for spam every single day...probably more. Including opening a ticket.

Anyway, the summer passed and I decided to shelve WoW for a while. 1 year later in summer 2011, I decided to check out WoW once again...and low and behold the bot was still in my friends list with recent activity. :rolleyes:

jabberwock · 28-01-2013 1:35pm

That one is a gold seller, unless I'm wrong we have been discussing people that use bots to play for personal gain.

How could you tell that it had recent activity? Friends list doesn't show activity.

Calhoun · 28-01-2013 1:54pm

jabberwock wrote: »

That one is a gold seller, unless I'm wrong we have been discussing people that use bots to play for personal gain.

How could you tell that it had recent activity? Friends list doesn't show activity.

I would also say it can be hard to tell pure gold sellers as well, allot of people these days from what i can tell use bot for gathering stuff. It would seem that its the only way to compete competitively with the gold sellers.

When i was on doomhammer the gold sellers had the markets cornered on most consumables you could barely make any money.

From this perspective i can clearly see why people use them, if it seems like blizzard aren't doing anything about it and looks like everyone is using them people adopt a "sure why not" attitude.

jabberwock · 28-01-2013 2:01pm

Take the stupidly priced bot mats and turn them into something else. Temp resetting the market and making sure that someone else doesn't get benefit from it.
I have managed to force a bot into posting at half the price that he should have by watching when they were online and posting up single items at a much lower price. Bot wades in and undercuts.
That to me is a hacked account not a player just botting the mats.
Hacked accounts will usually be the ones posting the ridiculous amounts of farmed mats.
Someone botting for mats will usually use them to make something else themselves.

At the end of the day there are 1) botters, 2) botters and 3) botters.

1) players.
2) goldsellers.
3) hacked accounts.

MurdyWurdy · 28-01-2013 2:17pm

I've never seen ridiculous amounts of mats on the AH on my server and I would usually sell most of the stuff I auction (using the auctioneer add-on). Prices are good too. I presume bots are much more active on certain servers. It would be interesting to see how much toe cost of an item varies between servers.

Saw this on Reddit last night
http://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/1794b3/well_i_guess_that_bot_really_wanted_that_herb/

And thought of this thread. Some interesting comments on bots too!

Calhoun · 28-01-2013 2:17pm

Ya thats another issue hacked accounts, in this day and age its hard to believe that there are still allot of hacked accounts out there because there are so many precautions to take.

Some cabbage in my guild actually used one of those account swapping sites and ended up being provided with a hacked account and not his main account is locked ect.

jabberwock · 28-01-2013 2:54pm

For all your AH comparison needs and a whole lot more.

https://theunderminejournal.com/
http://www.wowuction.com/

And precautions are only good if you take them.

StinkyMunkey · 30-01-2013 5:15pm

Was playing strand of the ancients last night, out of 15 ally, i was the onyl one not a bot:(.

Calhoun · 30-01-2013 5:24pm

thats good to hear

, i play horde :cool:

StinkyMunkey · 31-01-2013 7:58pm

Calhoun wrote: »

thats good to hear , i play horde :cool:

Damn horde, its all your fault:P.

shockwave · 31-01-2013 11:40pm

How would you know a bot if you saw it?

I wouldnt have a clue but then again I never pvp.

Calhoun · 01-02-2013 12:18am

can be hard at times as there are people as bad as bots, other times they just travel in a swarm doing the same thing. The funny times are the bots who run around all bases in a BG.

TheDoc · 07-02-2013 2:26pm

jabberwock wrote: »

For all your AH comparison needs and a whole lot more.

https://theunderminejournal.com/
http://www.wowuction.com/

And precautions are only good if you take them.

First rule of gold club............

Fenster · 24-02-2013 7:13pm

They are a huge problem on US realms too, and even with the understanding that Blizzard prefers to act in waves, the situation is a tad ridiculous.

jabberwock · 24-02-2013 7:18pm

I read today of a guy who just lost 40 accounts in a day to bans. He claims to have been making 14k US a month with it all.
One of the main botting programs has a special board on their forums just for people to report their suspension/ban so they can gather more info on what bliz are catching them on.
It's a lolfest of a read.

johnf26 · 24-02-2013 9:32pm

oh oh i no the site i read them to lol some people do be nearly crying there accounts are gone..dont bot on what you cant afford to lose

UCDVet · 05-06-2013 8:40pm

Sadly, it's an impossible problem to solve

red_ice · 11-06-2013 12:30am

UCDVet wrote: »

Sadly, it's an impossible problem to solve

its been solved. Noone plays for honor anymore, now that you get an extended conquest cap, there's no point in bothering to get honor. That coupled up with everyone having a base resilience

UCDVet · 28-12-2013 10:58am

red_ice wrote: »

its been solved. Noone plays for honor anymore, now that you get an extended conquest cap, there's no point in bothering to get honor. That coupled up with everyone having a base resilience

If it were solved - nobody would use bots

I happen to know a guy who wrote a simple bot for WoW. Just one guy, he wrote it in a weekend while he was in Uni 3-4 years ago. It's not a popular bot, it's not even a well known bot. And it still works. People still use it.

I asked him if people were still using it - and this is what he sent me

78k visitors but only 53k were actual users. they have to visit the site to get a code they can enter when they start the bot so I can see how many are real users verse people looking at the site.

Any junior/senior level computer science student who was determined could through together a crappy bot in a week or two....much longer for a more sophisticated bot though. Still, that's a pretty low bar. With WoW being as popular as it is, there are lots of people who are going to be tempted to write a bot. And, on a more serious note, it can be profitable - the guy that wrote WoW Glider made MILLIONS of dollars.

There is a huge demand for bots to popular online games (even though everyone says they hate botters, lots of people want to be a botter) and because it's quazi-legal legitimate software companies aren't going to write bots. This creates a nice little niche market. From what he tells me, he's still bringing in between 30 and 50 euro per month for a little hobby project he did years ago, when he was just a student and wouldn't have been able to find a real job writing code if he tried. Per hour - it's the best paying he's ever had.

It sucks - but I don't think bots are ever going away.

Bots

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