Bots, Bots Everywhere

If only that was the case. But the problem is that more gold farmers = more gold in the economy = more inflation.

This means higher prices for in game trades. Meaning more people can't easily farm the gold for what they want, so more turn to buying gold, meaning more gold farmers.

Um right. You actually think most bots come from purchased accounts? How would they make money if they did that?
Most bots use stolen accounts. Gaile even said so herself. They can't just go banning accounts because someone emailed them saying "My account got hacked" since they can't always be certain that the email came from the owner of the account.

That won't always work. You know why? Because of these guys.


I got that picture out of my local newspaper. They're all WoW gold farmers.

it seems that this is similar to the US Justice departments war on drugs... bust the end user that buys the drugs, not the producers that make them.

If the EULA prohibits the purchasing of in-game items with RL money and the selling as well, then there is definitely a similarity as ANET's only announcement is warning players that they can lose their accounts for buying.

I have been playing since May '05 and have noticed a dramatic increase in the last 6 months. I don't know the particulars, but you can't tell me that drops aren't affected for us, the real pve'rs, particularly green drops. Then again, maybe i am wrong about that too... anyway, here is a link to a screenie i took in Rilhon tonight...

Bots

pretty sure that the easiest way to spot a bot is the non-sensical names they use... (edit begins here) at least that seems to be the case at the forums i manage. the majority of bots use names that no living person would create, English speaking or not. names like Sssdf Rj, Doigj Dsf, et al...

in other words, duh...

Sell enough gold before Anet closes the account they bought.

Link?

Anet can't go banning accounts? They don't know if the e-mail came from the owner of the account?

I guess that was a huge oversight that Anet never got an e-mail address and linked it with a guild wars account. They could even use it for people's account name. That sure could have helped....

oh wait, they did.

And it's too bad they only have the choice of banning an account straight up or doing nothing....

oh wait, they could freeze and account and e-mail the user with an automated process to unfreeze if they're the actual owner.

They can also see what ip address/addresses people use when they log into a hacked account. So they could just block the ip addresses that keep showing up for stolen accounts.

WoW gold farmers are endorsed by Coca Cola?

i just had a thought, could they come up with a way to make scripts un-runable? something like in game A-V? probably not for some reason or another, but like i said, it is a thought.

As long as a game is playable its not possible

Oh God, I LOL'D. XD

Anyway, I guess there's not much of a suggestion I could make. If the game can be played, it can be botted. They're definitely getting smarter, as noted, and all we can really do is send in our screen shots and hope ANet's doing something about this.

i was just gonna say that genofreek

quit bitchin bout it and send in the screenshot and screen names of all the bots you see and i mean ALL.
This may take time but if more than 1 person sends in the same names they will most likely get banned.

I keep pointing out that the only way to eliminate the bots is to eliminate the need for their service. Open the drops. IF ANet does not open teh drops then they are by default admitting a need for the bots.

Fact: Prohibition always creates and generates illegal industry.

Fact: The Loot Scaling and especially denying loot to normal play, limiting it to hard mode only, is prohibiting access to players. (Hence generating the illegal industry).

Fact: Every restriction ANet makes has increased lack of player opportunity to get what they want, need, and enjoy while inspiring players to seek an alternative means to get them.

Opening up drops does not mean eliminating player ability to trade with one another. It does lessen the need to charge exceedingly high prices if the drops are more readily available. When Superior of Absorption hardly ever dropped it was running 95 to 105 k. When supply was increased it dropped and now only costs a hundred or so. It is the lack of supply to players that is generating the interest in EULA violation.

ANet can only want the EULA violation if they do not increase the Drops. If they increase the drops, and open up the Nightfall system of inscriptions to all campaigns then they are not looking to maintain the underhanded economy. If they do not open up the drops in both supply and quality then they are complicit in and supportive of the EULA violations. Which ever one of these choices they make will tell all of the players whether they are for the player or for the violator.

jenim, what ur basically saying is that anet encourages bots since they generate profit for anet.
hmmm, sec, i want a second look.
mmmmpphh
wtf?
I'll tell u why ur theory is BS. Johnny Johnson farms for gold. Johnny Johnson is a devoted GW player that bought all games, and even some online store stuff. Johnny Johnson sees many bots in his farm spot. Johnny Johnson feels angry about this, but Johnny Johnson is a good man and he doesn't download bots. Johnny Johnson sees the game economy crumble under the hand of bots. Johnny Johnson thinks that there is no point in doing PvE cuz game economy is dead. Johnny Johnson thinks that there is no point in doing PvP cuz its dead (that's another issue...). Johnny Johnson thinks that there is no point in playing GW. Johnny Johnson leavs GW. Johnny Johnson will not buy Gw:en, GW2 and any other future GW products. Johnny Johnson talks with his friends from GW, they all left GW for the same reason he did. None of them will buy any future GW products. Time passes, and the number of Johnny Johnsons rapidly increases every day. The GW community shrinks. GW dies. No one buys GW:smiley, GW:happiness, GW:2, GW:3, GW:etc.
Anet lose money.

I have to say, that behaviour like hacking, botting and professional farming, affects Guild Wars players a lot less than they do to players of other games.

This is for one reason and one reason only, all the playing areas are instanced. You bump into farm bots in half a dozen outpost, but never when you are out playing.

Imagine if the stream of farm bots you see in the outpost was out there with you in your playing area.

Many responses here talk about how people are being put off GW by farm bots, or A-nets reactions (or lack thereof) to farm bots. But once these same people buy another game and pay subscription on it, they'll realise that almost all other games have their share of hackers, bots and professional farmers.

My worry, of course, is for the future. GW2 will have large persistent areas.

Of course, having many gold farmers, can be a gauge of the popularity of a game. I am quite sure a fair chunk of WoW's 8 million accounts are farmer accounts. Farming is a business.

A-net must have done some study before deciding that PvP players would pay an extra $10 to have all skills unlocked, and give up on PvE content. Whether gold availability for cash actually encourages more people to play than it puts off people, is a study that I am sure major game companies have done.

For the sake of reputation, and shareholder sentiment, I am sure none of them would admit to having done such a study, and would never disclose its results.

Ok, so I've mentioned this before, forget where, but to reduce the number of bots, could Anet flag POTENTIAL bot's, and then a little program kicks in which monitors the player input and (x,y) coordinates, as well as the timing in which the server receives the information from the client. The program does this for an allocated amount of time, and then runs some sort of function to try and find patterns within the input, i.e. a bot will input the same sequence of input at exactly the same time 50 times.

I just saw some E/A bots in Riholn refuge. They had jibberish and a few Chinese names and they were running towards the gate/merchant solo.

Anet says they ban bots but do they really ban as many as they say per week or is that just a one time high? They never actually show it and it never shows in the botting towns. And what was with that warning to players, is that supposed to make us think that they're dealing with gold buyers? Isn't it implied when you play an online game with other people that gold selling is cheating and therefore not allowed? /dodge distracting shot

It's not prohibition that makes and generates illegal industry, it's profit/greed and supply/demand. Prohibition only makes the illegal part true. Alcohol was on sale before the prohibition act. The illegal drug industry only exists because it's addicting/stimulating, if it wasn't people would'nt buy it.

A program that could flag and follow a bot would have to be pretty complex to distinguish between a bot or a human. I mean like million dollar grant complex. A bot telling if a user is a bot or a human, that's pretty much what it'd have to be. Most people are repetative in this game in that they hit \ to target closest monster then press 1-8 or whatever skill order then move on to the next monster.

i have to disagree. i used to run a DoD server. there are a ton of HL hacks and scripts out there. as well, there is a community of developers that constantly work on ways to kill them. there are plugins that dis-allow a script to function. a script must, MUST, function in tandem with the game it is running in. it should be simple enough to update their servers with a script killer; something that recognizes on log-in the presence of a script and simply disconnects the account. why they don't may be a technical reason... or it may just be something not thought of....

one other thing occurs to me. maybe anet doesn't care about this because it doesn't affect them. for instance, when Gaile Gray is on line, her status is Do Not Disturb.... do you think that when an ANET employee is playing they have all chat on? or trade? i wouldn't. what i am saying is that bots may not bother them; spam may not bother them (it doesn't bother me as i don't use All Chat or Trade Chat hardly ever).

as for drops, if you have been playing GW since the very beginning, and i mean pre-beta, what wouldn't you have in your inventory? i mean, really, if at every development stage you were the first ones in? the first ones to see an IDS, or a Colossal Scimitar, i would guess that you would have one....

bah, i'm probably wrong about that too though...

but they could make a bot-killer if they wanted to... hell, it could be graphical. imagine that all of a sudden some uber monster came tearing through Granite Citadel devouring bots... lol... that would be a screenie worthy of my desktop man, the more I think about that, the more I hope that that is the next update... PLEASE ANET, BRING IN THE GRAPHICAL BOT KILLER...

Anet....selling gold...for some reason that strikes me as a great idea...think about it...

BUY FROM ANET OR RISK GETTING BANNED and/or SCAMMED FROM SOME OTHER GUY!

And they would make money. We would make money. Everyone wins...right?

Moved to Riverside.

Honestly? There's no real suggestion here. It's just another rant thread about how the bots are somehow ruining everyone else's fun. Sardelac isn't the place for rants and QQing.

All Anet has to do is:

1. Look up bot threads in forums.
2. Learn bot locations.
3. Go to bot locations.
4. BAN BOTS.
5. Bots buy new accounts.
6. If bots change places, see 1.

This would minimize bot impact as they would be dealt with quite quickly, yet Anet is still getting income from the botters buying more accounts.

YAY!!! Rilohn Refuge now has a set of E/A bots... I assume they are farming the boss outside for its green bow...

When will the madness stop!