Dhumm in Kamadan?

Hahaha would have loved to have seen that

If Dhumm was in JQ cleaning house, I wish I was there earlier to see it. I know more then a couple bot's named "FU" who were asking for it a looong time now.

Was this Eric Flannum's idea? Those images reminded me of Sacrifice, the legendary RTS game by Shiny, where Eric worked a while back... The game had a spell called Death that summoned... well, Death in the form of a laughing Grim Reaper that continued to kill stuff randomly. Luckily this wasn't as random

Damn i don't see it, but what i can say?

Really Applause to Anet, this is the Best thing i see in game in the last 4 years!!!!!!!!! GZ!!!!

I missed but what if people get killed and they are no botters :O !!
edit : just saw the movie , so not everyone got killed :P

Nice, ANet. Despite the anti-farming stance, at least you figure out a very creative way to deal with bots.

Bring in the banhammer...I mean...banscythe!

It was a good idea untill I read that even texmodders are banned. Hmm I have to go see if I am banned when I get home, I was using this program to get my Elona cartagropher cause I had No idea what I missed.
That would be kinda harsh to get banned for using a relative innocent program like that.

Maybe the people getting banned for botting are saying they only used Texmod just to make others nervous about using Texmod.

Haha, she was probably like... /ban
and at home she wispered to herself 'pwned, yeah'
lol

Nah, they are probably conveniently omitting information regarding what they did or did not use prior to their bans. I've been using KSMod, Texmod and Multi-Launch for a long time and haven't been banned, neither have dozens of people in my alliance who use all those 3 programs. I know of only one person in my alliance who has been banned, and he used a raptor farm bot.

Also, if you read through the whole thread about the bans, you will find a post by and a screenshot of Anet officials stating that KSMod, Texmod and Multi-Launch (in their current forms) are okay and not banworthy.

So if all you use is Texmod, you will be alright.

I've used TexMod in the past to play with textures and I was never permbanned for "Third Party Software". I have also been using KSMod for as long as it's been out (both the old one and the injected one) and I have still yet to be banned for "Third Party Software".


I think it's pretty darn safe to assume that TexMod and KSMod are ok to use (for now).


Although... I still consider mapping with the cartog texmod thing as cheating and should warrant a permaban. Regardless what people want to believe, cartog via texmod is giving people an unfair advantage whether disagree or believe otherwise.

Ok that would be good news, I think I am save then. Probably will be a while before I have the nerf to start texmod again :P

Except that the source code for these bots is actually on google.com, not on the sites. Any simple search for the name of the DLL over at code.google.com would've returned it; I know that I've looked at it myself (And it was really well done - Seriously, whoever they are should look to working at ANet.)
I never said that it was in the EULA. I said they used this as a way to determine who botted.
I used this as an example, and it still works. If you read, I stated, not "I'll use it as a blu-ray player and not as a gaming system."

I want to say this; I never said there were not investigations. It's entirely possible there were in conjunction with the IP lists (Think of the IP lists as starting places.) I'll agree, it's hard to believe that ANet would blanket-ban based on a few sites that offer bots for downloads.

Somehow, they recently obtained a large amount of knowledge of people that bot. It's possible that they modified the game to detect which DLLs are being used by it, but that wouldn't explain people who only used bots for 5 minutes then removed them, several months ago. Unless, of course, they did this a long time ago, arranged a list of names, then suddenly went ban-scythe-happy on 3700 people collected over the course of whatever amount of time it was.

Also, following up on player reports is cumbersome, and is also only effective when people report. Banning a lot of people, and in this fashion, is HUGE publicity for ANet, brings them into a positive light, and throws up a billboard saying "Hey, look, we did something right!". Believe it or not, it's actually quite easy to hide under the "We really did investigate, and found you guilty" default auto-reply given to people who complain to ANet. Not only this, but people who really did NOT bot, but were caught up in this whirlwind of bannings by accident wouldn't believed by the community (You see it all the time "Hey, I got banned but didn't do anything!" "Yea, you did. You just don't know it.") and ANet can hide behind the clause in the EULA "We have the ability to terminate your account for any reason we deem necessary."

I'm not saying that I like it, I'm not saying I want to believe it. However, it seems to me that this is the most reasonable explanation for what they did. I'm also not saying that they did not do investigations as well - They might have done full investigations on every single one of the 3700+ accounts that were banned. If you can show me any other reasonable explanation that would put Anet in a positive light for this, I'd love to hear it. I want to believe that I paid 100$ to a company that isn't going to shit on me one day because I got linked to a site once by a guild mate, and that didn't do this whole event for little more then a publicity stunt.

roflcopter @ vid. Judgment of Dhuum! That was inspired

Agreed. Where did the idea that Anet followed IPs of those who downloaded bot programs from websites get started, anyway? How would Anet even get that data? They have the data of their own servers, not 3rd party servers. Would the people who host bot files tell Anet "We host something you don't like, and these are the people who downloaded it"

I mean, having access to those files, not THAT would be grounds for paranoia...

P.S.
Pumpkin, Green rock, Blue rock or Red rock ones? And that's quite a paycheck you demand

Kudos, Anet! That's the funniest thing I've seen! Nice way to put it out there for everyone to see and know that you aren't messing around!

*in my best Gir voice* I'm going to sing the Dhuum song now...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqcn_TPu4qQ

Same here. be cool if he did this again but doing it for something else.

EPIC!!

That's awesome, and you failed to respond to or acknowledge the other example I gave of how somebody might down load but not use a bot... or are you still insisting that it's inconceivable? Uh huh...

You insisted that ArenaNet banned people based purely on an IP list of downloaders with no actual in game checking to see if they'd actually botted... if that's the case then surely downloading a bot MUST be a violation of the EULA?

Really, you compare something that is free and easy to download to spending hundreds of dollars on a game console? I've downloaded crap that I never ended up using... I don't recall ever buying an expensive gaming console with no intention of ever using it... I mean, sure, if you're retarded...

Yeah... you still didn't address that did you?

Yeah... you never said that they just got an IP list of bot downloaders and blanket banned them based on those IP lists... lol.

*Yawn* Sorry you were saying something? Oh um right... something about a reasonable explanation for the sudden shit load of bans being dished out?

Okies, how about this... Anet has been monitoring and detecting bots for a while, refining the detection algorithms used on their servers automated bot flagging, this involves studying the bots behavior/response times and such until they have a set of factors that can accurately discern bot 'behavior' from regular player behavior for all known bots (that is, bots that they know about)... voila, after much work they create a script to flag bots behavior and use it to monitor both in-game activity, and to back check the server logs for such tell tale signs of botting... much banning follows.
All without a conspiracy theory, all without accusing them of blanket banning people based on an IP table from a bot site, all without having to be a genius.

It would be amusing Dhumm with a BANana scythe

Shame i missed it, looks like epic fun!

Great way of swinging the ban scythe around, and i thank you Anet.

This made me proud to be a Guild Wars player! It's really great to see this kind of effort put into the game still.

I would have loved to be in an argument with a botter and then just have him struck down by Dhuum mid-sentence. Ultimate victory!

Cool, Justice has been served.

Feels like a proper player and my reward is all those delicious tears.

Apparently Shadow Form did not protect them bottars!

To bad I didn't play while the botters were getting banned, if I knew I would be getting myself some popcorn at the locals. Good Game!

i wonder if there is a pile of bot bodies in dhuums lair......

once he got round the botters can he be the 'on call scam evader'....'/report helps i is getting scamzed!!...'Dhumm is here never fear'....SWOOOSH ...pwned.

It's not inconceivable. But, it's a somewhat involved process to install a bot. First, you need to download an injector for the DLL (Some bots come with these, but for this, we'll ignore it), then the DLL itself, then you have to set up the bot to use, if not write one yourself. Why would someone go through that entire process just to stare at a shortcut on their desktop?
Not to mention that even installing a bot is against the EULA (It modifies the executable)

I never said soley (Well, it wasn't intended, but I see how it could be taken that way) - But that they did use the IP list in their bannings.

I didn't address that because it didn't merit addressing. But, since you seem so keen on this, here goes: There is not any appreciable difference. Just because you spend money on something does not mean that you'll use it. You seem to take stock in how much something costs vs how much you'll use it; I'll beg to differ. I spent 400$ on my PS3, but I still use my 4$ Ikea frying pan more often. Not to mention, that if you buy something, that shows intent to use it. I don't know about you, but I don't download random executables without first knowing what they are and knowing that I'll at least use it once.

Blanket banning does not (In how it was meant) show no investigations or something to the matter. I overused the word "Blanket ban", to be sure, and yes, it was a mistake.
So you're saying that instead of banning people spot on, and instead causing grief for legitimate players for the time they were "Studying" them, they watched them? Not to mention, it's hard to recognize botting when it's a well-made bot. Any freshmen in college for computer programming/sciences can make a psudo-random pathing algorithm - Hell, that's exactly how the ghosts catch Packman. As for server logs, I honestly don't know how well they keep logs, so I can't say much about it. (I honestly thought they only kept trade/chat logs, and then only for a couple of weeks, but I could very well be wrong.)
And while your theory makes sense, keep in mind that bot behavior is very hard to discern for even a mediocre bot. Sure, there's a few tell-tale signs (Interrupting 1/4th second casts, always running the same route) but getting the well-made bots that I know were used is harder then it looks. While someone can say "Oh look, this guy has botting behavior", it's much harder for a computer to do the same thing. (Keep in mind I'm not talking about the obvious interrupt-bot, or the Mo/Xs in Burgen) - What qualifies a human instead of a bot? Interaction? This last weekend I was farming the dragon mosses for res scrolls and golds (As well as faction) - During the 5-7ish hours I was farming, I maybe said "Hi" twice, and that's it.
Alright, so what else? They random check hero stats (pressing H), guild and friend lists? Bots do that too. In fact, it's almost standard now. As well as the inventory, buying and selling what they need to.
Bots do everything in the exact same order every single time? So do I, when I raptor farm. Hell, aside from a few bad spawns, I do that with Vaettirs and random other stuff (Can't think of any other things I've farmed recently).

And keep in mind, even if they did check to see if there was an extraneous DLL being used, it's still possible to bot without it. Simply hook into the WinAPI and use that. The DLL used by most bots just make it convenient to others making bots so that they don't have to deal with all the bullcrap that is WinAPI. (Also makes it more compatible on stuff like WINE, etc)

This is purely.....awesome! Too bad I missed it.

lol, it seems that your petition was answered eh?

man i am really sorry I missed it too! anet should put up vids, dhuum is so cool! Like, bam! Reaped: p

Looks like it! Man, I'm still kind of shocked. I only got online 2 hours ago.....and so much happened.

Too bad so many guys got banned using KSMod and Multi-launcher. That doesn't seem fair, but hey....Anet warned everyone using .dll injection that it could lead to a ban, so meh.

Luckily, I never touched anything like them

So they say. I'm not so sure I believe those stories. As I said in another thread, I know dozens of people who use KSMod, Texmod and Multi-Launcher (including myself), and none of them have been banned.

I only personally know of 1 person who was banned for using KSMod and didn't bot. However, I've heard reports of others.

But the one guy I know already has his account back.....so they're working on it.

Agreed.

Safe bet a large percentage are botters wanting to discuss the issue while dodging the label.I'd imagine any legitimate claims with legitimate mod use that haven't been reported or un-banned yet will be resolved in the next few days.

At the moment it's a window of opportunity for denial I guess.

OMFG That's AWESOME! I missed it. Hopefully it will continue so I can see it.

used textmod extensively back in the day for carto, just checked and I wasn't banned, not that I really care since I've stopped playing since half a year ago, but this event makes me want to log on and stay for the lulz while it lasted.

If this isn't ongoing then it should be one, like over a span of 2 or 3 days or something. More people get to see it, and it plays mindgames on the botters. "phew i wasn't banned lol A.net suc---oh crud...."

Can anyone confirm whether they ban based on IP address?

All my family play GW, I do not believe that any of them would bot - frankly I do not think they would know how - but I woud hate to have my account banned for something someone else did.

QFT!


12chars

That's all well and good, but then, we're not talking about installing a bot are we, no we aren't... we're merely talking about an IP list of people who downloaded a bot. Downloaded, changed their minds and never installed or used it is still downloading it... or are you suggesting that an IP list of downloaders from a bot site would somehow include data on who later installed the bot?

Well, actually you did, that's why I quoted you saying it. Multiple times.
You might not of meant it (IN HINDSIGHT) but you certainly said it.

Right, and how many half a million dollar houses do you go out and buy, with no intention of ever using them in any way? Yeah, silly I know... just like your Ikea frying pan notion.

My point, people don't generally go out and throw down hundreds of dollars on something that they never intend to use. People are far less discriminating about grabbing some that is free and readily available, even if it turns out that they might decide later not to use it.

That is to say, your PS3 argument was silly and irrelevant. And by 'was' I mean 'still is'.

Just as your argument that if somebody downloads something, then they are sure as hell going to install and use it... it's not possible that they could CHANGE THEIR MIND.

I obviously disagree with you, what's more I don't think downloading something, but not installing and using it would meet the threshold needed for ArenaNet to declare that a breach of their EULA has indeed occurred.

But then, I also think all that should be readily obvious, I'm sorry that you disagree.

But you did more than just state a blanket ban, you even denied the possibility of Anet having a method of bot detection and instead resorting to simply banning those on the IP lists... which is why I quoted you saying that.

Yes, that's what I'm saying... exactly like when they did their last big bot sweep, also exactly like when they did their gold seller crackdown...
In each case there was a (seemingly) large period of relative inaction by ArenaNet, as they investigated their targets and prepared for a mass ban, in both cases being careful to track and ban alt accounts used for botting as well as linked accounts that might not have used the bot but that were used for storage or as a main account.
And just like those other times, Anet's supposed reason for not acting on a case by case basis or otherwise keeping us up to date on their activities was... so as not to tip off of the violators that they were targeting, to help ensure they traced and then banned as many of the accounts as possible.

Yes, well crafted bots designed to avoid detection methods are, by their design, hard to detect. Not relevant to our discussion, no one is claiming that Anet got them all, no one is claiming that the best (in terms of detection difficulty) bots even got touched. Irrelevant.

Honestly, I doubt Anet took a single approach to catching bots, instead attempting a multilayered approach based on what resources and knowledge they had available to them. And no, I don't mean they blanket banned IP lists of bot downloaders

Given the nature and availability of many of these bots, Anet had the opportunity to study them first hand and devise detection methods... be that detecting certain .dll injection methods, observable patterns of behavior or any other criteria that could be used to flag a bot as not being normal human behavior... playing for three days straight, no breaks and never missing an interrupt, no player is that good, one would hope no bot user is that stupid... but it seems many were.

Again, this is all irrelevant. What is relevant...

Downloading something doesn't mean that you installed and used it.
Installing and using it means that you installed and used.

Simply blanket banning a list of IP addresses that downloaded a bot doesn't ensure that every IP address banned ever botted the game, or indeed violated any aspect of the EULA.

That simple.

If Anet did such a blanket ban based solely on an IP list of downloaders, then yes... FAIL ANET FAIL. Thankfully I have a little more faith in Anet than that.

Im born necromancer, and started as such in June 2005. My only complaint would, why wasnt I there and why wasnt I allowed to play with their corpses and raise funny stuff from them?
Yes anet has been lenient and let botters live for a long time, so long that ppl started to believe it was OK.
There was no new announcement stating that GW1 is dying, now you can all bot along while waiting for gw2.
Bots have all the time been officially forbidden and despised by me, im a proud incorrigible ale hound from manual clicking, I just rejoice if some cheaters get killed.
No doubt there are more undetected botters left, but I think the game has been cleaned a bit.
Most important, someone said we were having a meta with botting, with dhuum killing the scum we wont ever having a botter meta environment.
I hope my god Grenth can forgive me for raising a bottle to honor Dhuums feast

can ANET comment on the fact that at least one guild seems to have been blanket-banned?

Good job Anet on sending a visual reminder of what happens if you bot.

It'd be great if they could hang the bodies form the town gates for a while.