ANet, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Shadis

Shadis

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Oct 2006

Good thing you got your account back.

I keep hearing Gaile talk about how thorough they are before they ban, yet these situations of people getting banned then unbanned keep coming back up. Something doesn't quite make sense there. Also as stated earlier, would it have killed the GM spying on this individual player to send him a whisper and see if he got a real response?

My Sweet Revenga

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2005

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bale_Shadowscar
If you sit at a computer all day doing chest runs then I think the ban did you a lot of good, sitting at a computer screen all day is definitely not healthy.

If you hang around outside a bank looking shifty you're going to be accused of being a robber. If you're going to behave like a bot then don't be surprised if you get accused of being a bot.
Well obviously he wasn't going to keep doing it forever. Just til he got his title. Then he'd go back to sitting in front of his computer all day faction farming =b

Ludo

Ludo

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by MSecorsky
Actually, that is the topic. It's not the hours he spent, but the hours he spent mimicking a bot that are relevant. If you play golf for eight hours you're not making the same shot repeatedly, you're walking the course and every shot is new. This guy stayed at the tee on the one whole and hooked the same ball into the same pond every shot for days.

Methinks the OP doth protest too much.
Actually, that is not the topic. What you call "mimicking a bot" was nothing of the kind. He had a goal and was pursuing it in the most expeditious way he knew. It is not against any rule to play 6-8-10 hours in a row. It is not against any rule to do an easy chest run. Anet can't seem to distinguish a true bot user from someone who plays alot.

He was banned for using a bot when he wasn't. That's the topic.

MSecorsky

MSecorsky

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

So Cal

The Sinister Vanguard

Me/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ludo
Actually, that is not the topic. What you call "mimicking a bot" was nothing of the kind. He had a goal and was pursuing it in the most expeditious way he knew. It is not against any rule to play 6-8-10 hours in a row. It is not against any rule to do an easy chest run. Anet can't seem to distinguish a true bot user from someone who plays alot.
However nothing he did in that time period distinguished him from an actual bot?

Quote:
He was banned for using a bot when he wasn't. That's the topic.
It certainly appears that he may actually have been using a bot despite his claims to the contrary. 6-8-10 hours in a row (as you put it) doing identical behavior... that's nearly inhuman. Food, restroom breaks... something should have made him stand out as a breather, but nothing did?

Patrick Smit

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Nov 2006

NiTe

LOL ever heared of autism? Or just plain obsession?

MSecorsky

MSecorsky

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

So Cal

The Sinister Vanguard

Me/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Smit
LOL ever heared of autism? Or just plain obsession?
Sure. But there's still going to be a degree of deviation from one 'run' to another, as well as a complete stoppage for 'biological necessities' if the actions are performed by a biological entity.

VanDamselx

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2006

Buffalo, NY

[TTBH]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Smit
LOL ever heared of autism? Or just plain obsession?
Please don't bring in a disorder to "explain" the OP's behavior. This type of repetitive behavior is not what someone with autism would do. On topic, MSecorsky is right, no matter if a bot was used or not, if it was non-stop doing the same thing over and over and over again, that is bot-like behavior which leaves reason for suspicions.

Wulfgast

Wulfgast

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2007

Louisville, KY, US

Rite of Passage [RP]

W/Rt

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fril Estelin
Utter non-sense, from a technical and legal standpoint. One can have what one wants on itc PC, it's the client-side and under control of the player, not Anet. But one has to accept the EULA that says: no "modifications" to the client, or ban. One can challenge legaly their means of checking "modifications" (since they don't and can't fully access the client ... and shouldn't!) but I doubt you'll gain anything else. We all paid for the game UNDER THIS EULA, don't like it (meaning the whole process, including the 9x% who play fine and the few rare people who are banned while not being bots, but their accounts are unbanned) then buy another game...
My post was utter nonsense, but you're talking about "modifications"? Which modifications did the OP discuss? All I noticed was that he exhibited repetitive behavior over a long period of time. The EULA does in fact prohibit the use of "third-party tools" and "any other method by which the Service may be played automatically without human input", but it does not prohibit repetitive playing styles. By purchasing the game, we are free to play however we wish, so long as we are in accordance with the user agreement. The OP claims that he was within those boundaries, and given that his account was unbanned, there was no way for Anet to prove otherwise.

Quote:
How do you (or we) know that the OP wasn't covering a bot behaviour with this story? (I don't trust or distrust him, but I would rather tend to believe him given the length of his message and the thousands of hours played)

Well put yourselves in Anet's shoes: facing a real "threat" such as bots, you DO NOT assume the best when there's a "bot-like behaviour", because otherwise you'd hurt the whole community (every botter would invent a story ...) It's sad for the OP, and the other ones, but let's hope he's not lost all faith in Anet!
It's always necessary to view arguments from different perspectives. Anet is trying to extinguish an ongoing problem in their game, and that is perfectly understandable. However, the "ready, fire, aim" approach is a poor business strategy, as evidenced by this individual case. As long as we play their game, they have the right to ban any account they wish -- however, that's bad practice if there is no clear evidence of a EULA violation. Repetitive behavior is merely a lead.

Quote:
The OP should provide a video of himself typing like a bot for several hours in a row, that's THE solution!
Anet has been very creative in their development thus far. The real solution would be to devise a way to actually verify the usage of third party tools, rather than rely on fallible theories and observations. We can't pretend to understand their architecture or the technology running GW, but we do have the right as customers to ask for fair treatment.

Before dissecting one of my posts and calling it "utter nonsense", please try to actually consider the content first. I stand by my original statement.

Vamis Threen

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2006

E/Mo

Magic Chest? Where? Where?

Age

Age

Hall Hero

Join Date: Jul 2005

California Canada/BC

STG Administrator

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Loviatar
explain the people posting here willing to buy another copy but ANET wont give them the written permission to start a new account?

profit? where?

and didnt you quit long ago with zinger?
Twickey is right in way the more accounts they ban from the real botters the more they just buy another account.I would estimate is about 30% of the total sales of the game.

To the OP don't just do one chest run do random chest runs and take break from it.

Ludo

Ludo

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by MSecorsky
However nothing he did in that time period distinguished him from an actual bot?



It certainly appears that he may actually have been using a bot despite his claims to the contrary. 6-8-10 hours in a row (as you put it) doing identical behavior... that's nearly inhuman. Food, restroom breaks... something should have made him stand out as a breather, but nothing did?
I see no reason to doubt his claims, but you're free to if you want. My brother was banned once for exhibiting "bot like" behavior. It was over turned. I assure you he eats, uses the bathroom, etc. He never used a bot and yet was banned. So I have seen this happen up close and mistakes are made.

You seem to to think that there is a specific, precise metric used to identify bots. There is none. There is appreantly a net they cast that players who are not using bots are sometimes caught in. Who says they don't take breaks? No one said that.

zenatomiser

zenatomiser

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2005

Mo/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by MSecorsky
Sure. But there's still going to be a degree of deviation from one 'run' to another, as well as a complete stoppage for 'biological necessities' if the actions are performed by a biological entity.
Yes, afcourse there would be and I sure as hell didnt spend 5hours completely repeating the same thing, that would be humanly impossible simple, because you spawn in different places in towns and you need to sell of purple items/salvaged runes. And if you read my first post you can see I mention talking to guildies during the runs. So my best guess is they check me when im not talking to guildies and have my backpack empty... I really doubt they checked me more than 5-10 minutes.

To those of you who don't believe me, frankly I don't care I'm just posting a warning(my original intention) and posting my theory on how bots are banned and how inaccurate it might be (my case).

Also bots use the outpost name flags (or whatever you wanna call them) to get to the exit, I believe i'v done that less than 10 times in all my runs due to being lazy. They also use various npcs, ever been to Granite Citadel? Just look at all the bots running up to the mesmer henchie and talking to him. Most likely for x number of seconds to allow time for the bot to get from any random spawn location in town. Afterwards following a pattern to get to the exist, atleast that's my take on it.

And one final note about people suggesting I actually used a bot, it's illogical I'm posting a thread about the ANet's flaws in finding bots, because I was wrongly banned. If I were to use a bot and get away with it, it would be in my best interest to keep quite and milk more from the account. Logic ftw?

Patrick Smit

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Nov 2006

NiTe

Quote:
Originally Posted by booooYA
Please don't bring in a disorder to "explain" the OP's behavior. This type of repetitive behavior is not what someone with autism would do. On topic, MSecorsky is right, no matter if a bot was used or not, if it was non-stop doing the same thing over and over and over again, that is bot-like behavior which leaves reason for suspicions.
But the OP shows repetitive behavior,...... he must suffer from autism!





you get the point?

Loviatar

Underworld Spelunker

Join Date: Feb 2005

[QUOTE]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Age
Twickey is right in way the more accounts they ban from the real botters the more they just buy another account.I would estimate is about 30% of the total sales of the game.
30 % OF ANETS GUILD WARS SALES ARE REPETE BOT ACCOUNTS BUYING AGAIN

I THINK THAT TAKES THE MORON AND I MADE THE STATISTIC UP AWARD FOR THE YEAR SO FAR

Mercury Angel

Mercury Angel

Avatar of Gwen

Join Date: Apr 2005

Wandering my own road.

Not even going to try to clean up the thread at this point. There are excessive amounts of off-topic and overly personal posts. For the record, if you have something personal, not appropriate for a public thread, to say to someone, there's a PM system to communicate with. If there's something that has little to nothing to do with the topic at hand, but you want to know the information badly, again, please PM the poster.