Bot mania in Bergen hot springs

I make about 2-5k per run, im guessing you arent in HM or just have horrid luck.

Anet is definitely making a difference. I went bot hunting tonight. I saw some in Granite Citadel and some in Bergen Hot Springs, but nowhere near the number that was there a few days ago.

Also about a week or 2 ago I saw a ton of Bot sellers in Yohlon Haven hawking their wares. (Yes they were bots, not players) Tonight the town was deserted. Only about 10 people in the INT district and they were real people as far as I could tell.

It's impossible to ban every bot out there but to state that A-net doesn't care and isn't doing anything to stop it is ridiculous. If you're gonna start ranting and griping at least get your facts straight first.

If you new how many bots there were you wouldn't of said that. ANet bans a bunch of bots one night, next day they're back.

Ahhhh....YABT

It's funny sometimes to just read through and see the various levels of ignorance on the matter....as well as the religious fervor that seems to pervade the majority of posts.

Running bots is not a legal offense of any nature. Running bots is a violation of the EULA which is essentially only enforceable from within the game.

Do I run bot programs? No....but neither do I care if someone else does. Why? Because it has no effect on my enjoyment of the game. Neither does it divert money from Arenanet. In fact....if anything it ensures a steady flow of cash from those who must constantly purchase new accounts to replace the banned ones.

I understand that some of you probably don't care that farmers (which is what bots are used for) make rare items somewhat more readily availabe to the general masses at a reasonable cost. Even if those masses are simply veteran players who don't want to bother farming for that Green or gold weapon they want for their new Necro build for themsleves but would gladly pay a fair sum of gold...that they have farmed mind you, to have it now for testing the viablity of the new build.

Body blocking: I did get quite a laugh....aside from the fact that you can't do it in towns....it exhibits the lack of understanding of what a "bot" really is and the complexity involved in the scripting. In much the same way as the comments about moving the exit signs, placing barriers at strategic locations, and having random spawn locations.

I'm not really sure how it is you could perceive that he actually uses bots simply because he doesn't want to get his account suspended pending "official" investigation by Anet staff, simply because he told in whisper to some vindictive child that the level 5 Wamo should go level up before expecting to be taken along in groups in the desert.

Please....do a reality check. Bot kick button WOULD be bad.

I think I could say Narcism has a similar opinion to mine regarding bots and farming....though I would not presume to put words in his mouth.

Hmm....I believe I have gone on long enough here.

Cheers
and enjoy the game however you see fit.

me too.. and Im guildless atm, although my granite tats are dyed black

Hmmm

2000 per week x 52 weeks in the year x 2 years = 208000 accounts

3000000 accounts sold

That means the banned bots account for just under 7% of all players.

Add in the ones who are not caught plus the fact that a bot can play 24/7 means there is a significant portion of guild wars players that are bots.

Makes me wonder if the so called results of the recent loot scaling are actually due to bot activity.

Purchased gold jumped in price - ANet claims that is because they limited supply. However, increased demand could have done the same thing - could it be more players are seeking to buy gold from all those bots?

They claim that players have been playing more since the loot scaling - could it be that now that gold is more valuable and they can charge more, the number of bots just skyrocketed and it increased bot playing they see instead of actual players?

hmmmm

This is a great example of a good well-thought out post.

2000 bots per week banned * $50 per account = $100,000 a week in new account purchases to replace the banned bots.

Bots are paying for the servers & personnel that provide the game you enjoy. Embrace the bots. Don't be a hater.

But she replied to MY post!



To phrase this in terms everyone should understand... That'd be like using Spiteful Spirit on a single enemy when you should be using Spoil Victor. Perhaps in another way, it is as likely to kill the trade as putting 5 health degen on an enemy with 6 health regen.
If you're removing 2000 bots a week... and the game is still swamped with them.... then what is ideally needed is a way to remove 10,000 bots a week... or 20,000.

Sorry if this is too tough.... but the bots aren't going away yet...

Im so glad Guild Wars is the type of game where botting doesnt give you any sort of real in game advantage, since theres no mandatory grind.

I think AFK botters in PvP are more of a pain than these, because they DIRECTLY ruin players' fun.

For all I know farmer bots have no idea what item they get and just sell it all like they got it, unindentified even. Only players farm rare/valuable items, so bots have no effect on the avaibility or cost of those items, except in the sense of inflation that has been explained by anet which actually causes prices to go up and make stuff less avaiable for the majority of people.

Body blocking is a factor if we take in consideration the Fort Aspenwood bots who follow another player around the entire match.

Exactly, that's the kind of individualist mentality that allows terrible stuff to go on in the world.
"3rd world is hungry, what do I care, I live in a nice place, have food put in my table and I can afford to play online games."
"Global wraming, pollution, to hell with that, it's just much easier for me to dump this can on the street than to find a recycle bin."
We are all responsible for NOT CARING.

OK, you're babbling. I said he gives the impression of being one who used bots mainly by his defense of them. By basic human nature there will be three categories (primarily) of people... those against bots, those who use and/or support botting, and those who don't care either way. Again, by our very nature, these three categories will as a rule respond in very specific way. The anti-bot person (such as myself) will invariably post in opposition. The bot-user will post defensively in support of bots, yet will try to feign indifference in attempts to deflect from other people the knowledge that he actually uses the bots. The third group, those who don't care either way, will most likely not waste the effort posting to something irrelevant.

That's the nature of the beast, so to speak.

So, when I see someone posting in support of bots, yet claiming to not care, the impression is that they actually use bots yet don't want anyone to know.

People who truly don't care won't even bother posting.

This is also why methinks Necrotic doth protest too much.

Ah... now this will also draw to light a fourth group... those that don't actually care but will now post to deliberately try to skew the results.

Just a warning I'm a mo/ whatever suites my farming location, and shock horror I run to the sign as well, Why?

I'm lazy... its easier to ; space. Then pay attention to running towards a portal.
And if your one of those people who like ranting in local about bots, I'm going to ignore you... Why? Zone to LA dist 1 NA servers. After 2 secs you'll uncheck local and never touch it again.
I never have local enabled.

And yes I wear tatts, part of which are un-dyed!

And I over-active-ly farm! but its no big hush hush secret, if ya see me I'll even teach ya the tricks of the trade..... For a price mawahahaha

edit: most questionable characters in bergen hotsprings don't actually run into the sign, just tab your auto-run button and the location design will zone you 8/10 times, it appears to be what there doing

im glad i dont farm in tatoos

I think its a bit presumptuous to assume that because someone does not oppose bots that they must therefor be users of bots.

Do bots have a place in the game? I would say resoundingly yes for one simple reason - the profit Anet receives from botters replacing banned accounts with new ones is a great revenue stream for them. Its not too shabby to look at the 2000 bots a month as more then enough to buy more memory/diskspace/bandwidth/developers...


Yes, its a shame that these bots are tending to bring more gold into the GW economy. Yes, its a stinker that folks can obtain the wisdom title by buying from these bot shops (and thus allowing gold to be *re*sold). Yes, its obvious to most human observers when a bot infestation pops up in a town... Do I care? Nope not a bit.

I like it when Anet gets more sales and can thus turn out more and better products.

And yet here you are... supposedly not caring, but posting to support bots. Hmm.

Bob Rath = Bot Rath?

Interesting...

And I didn't say that failing to oppose bots tends to imply a bot user... I said that supporting bots implies a bot user. Those that don't care tend to not reply regardless.

Many? Appearantly not too many that I can't even count them. I can count no more than 30 bots on both US and International Districts.

Saying a kick button available to anyone is not supporting bots. For example I form a party and kick X because a guildie is coming, X gets kinda mad and boots everyone in my party under "suspision of botting". We're all suspended and X is laughing. The point is a kick button is not a good idea. I'm not supporting bots, i'm not supporting a kick button, different issues I believe.

Now onto the actual subject, sure botting is bad and it's against the EULA but it does not directly affect my fun. It may even benefit it, if I legitimatly farm to afford a dead sword/sephis axe etc. and none had been farmed then i'm screwed , but if at least 2000 players a week are farming these items for me they are readily available for me to buy.

Please be so kind as to show me where I ever made such a request.

Doh!!! time to go back to almost 2 years ago when I signed up and change my name to be less indicative of my support for Anet's policies.

I do still think that just because someone takes the opposing view, well it doesn't mean they are a bot user. You say "implies a bot user", and we could quibble that you're being overly expansive in your blanket assignment. Of course you could also state that I'm the fourth kind of poster you mentioned. I'm only posting because I disagree with your statements and have no real opinion for or against bots...

I highly doubt that a bot user really cares what people think about what they do and it's probably even less likely that they'd take time away from their bot-watching duties to post about it here.

I did consider that valid point, however can easily see them wanting a voice in the discussion.

You never know, there's always one or two of them self-righteous talkative folks...

You didn't make the request....but apparently you also were not reading the posts ahead of you either. The quotes of you and Narcism were specifically about this "kick bot" button. He was pointing out the potential abuse of such a button while you were attacking him for "defending bots". Pay attention now...everything I say is a lie....I am lying now. :P

Okay first of all....Unbound00: Comparing the use of third party software in an online game and peoples opinion of it....to their supposed lack of inaction about third world hunger is....well it's just unacceptable. So until you can tell me how you are preventing the killing of innocent people in Africa every day, take your serious discussion elsewhere...it does not belong here.

Seriously MSecorsky....I doth protest too much? Shame on you....I almost spewed Coke all over my keyboard when I read that.

I think you are forgetting the possible fifth personality type: The bot user who, wanting to distract the "hounds" from his own activities, goes online posting vehemently against the bot invasion, protesting that enough is enough and something must be done about them. Hoping that he will be seen as obviously someone who would never bot himself while including just enough information as to mislead any real investigation into the matter.

Ohhh...methinks MSecorsky hath missed the subtleties of my comparisons...and the connection to the whole religion/fervor... thing.

In case you are suspicious of the true motives I chose to post here....I will express it in one word:

Entertainment

After all, Spiderman 3 only premiered just today

If what you said is a lie, then you're lying? But then that would be the truth!

jk

Lets think about it then. You are saying you don't care if there are people running bots in the game because it does not affect you. So in that you don't care that people in China are being offered next to nothing for programming and running hundreds of bots so that their employers can profit without any effort whatsoever from their part. How is that different from not caring about sweat shops run by other kinds of corporations that take advantage of peoples needs to eploit their labor for crums?
My point is, is just so easy for you not to care, but that makes you part of the problem. People are struggling to go by through whichever means necessary whilst you see them through a computer screen and accept it, laugh it out even.
Maybe this scenario is not true to all cases.
So lets think that some guy is running bots because he just needs to be a hot shot and crack the system without getting caught, or even if just for the prestige stuff he will be able to afford, or that he maybe simply MUST have that prestige and can't get it through the regular venues. Well that's just sad. Imagine the amount of importance this person places on a computer game. Maybe his account being banned will provide the reality check this guy needs to pay more close attention to his life. Once again to most people he just shows up as a pile of pixels running automated errands, so who cares about the person in need of counseling behind it.
Another thing, people running entire businesses based on exploiting online games to sell gold for money. That doesn't only concern in-game economy, it concerns economy itself, but in a more social manner. This enterprise (Anet in this case) develops a game and sell it as an entertainement service (an entertainement is a merchandise, or can be), so this other group of people buy the product, design something to exploit the product and profit over it. To me that's a parasite. If it were my product I know I wouldn't accept it, and even it not being my product I don't accept it. There's only one acceptable way to earn money in society and it is through work, and the fact that working most of the time doesn't make you rich, and the rich usually get their fortune marginally, stands to show that the individualist not-caring attittude perpetuates this. And don't say that programming bots is work because it's like saying that cheating on a test is studying.
That's my two cents.

If you don't know what a grow-op is then you need to get some friends/ and or go outside more.

come on, not all monk/whatever secondary is a bot?