Mass Bannings?

Swingline

Swingline

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2010

Somewhere far away from you

The Mirror of Reason[SNOW]

W/

Apparently there are mass bannings going on right now. My ally had recorded 13 of them so far. Anyone know if its JQ bots getting dhuumed?

rb.widow

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2009

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/m...t10494683.html

RA and JQ yup.

StormDragonZ

StormDragonZ

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2008

New York

W/R

One of my guildmates said he found out one of his accounts that got hacked about two months ago was seen getting Dhuum'd about twenty minutes ago.

It's mass hysteria!

LifeInfusion

LifeInfusion

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

in the midline

E/Mo

Might be a stealthy reason for this flux tbh

Lithril Ashwalker

Lithril Ashwalker

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Dec 2008

Alabama

A/

i have a notification from Arenanet confimring all but 1 of 23 accounts submitted in a ticket that are banned for botting. may be a way to let others know that missed Dhuum that they are still at work. what better way than coming back from AFK to see ur dead...OH COOL ANET BANNED SOMEONE...CUZ IM DEAD FROM THE MINIONS

Saint Scarlet

Saint Scarlet

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2010

Everywhere

Rise of Corruption[RoC]

R/

I would just like to say thankyou to Anet for finally doing something and banning all those bots. Yes it took a while but at least when the majority of the populace starts to complain they take note and act. Lets hope that it never gets as bad again.

chuckles79

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Mar 2009

FILA

P/

I'd like to do a self congratulatory victory lap for saying yesterday that the current flux could be a vehicle to finally clear out bots in PvP.

Nice to know we get a twofer for this Flux.

Oblivion Seeker

Oblivion Seeker

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2011

United States Est. Time Zone

Broken Legion [?????? ??????]

A/

This tends to happen in a game when mass amounts of people run bots which make mass amounts of players who have lets say, "achieved Savior of ... without botting" and complain to ArenaNet.

Dar Drakor

Dar Drakor

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2008

Ancient Dragon Disciples [ADD]

N/A

That's what people get for cheating. Never understood why people need to do this. Pathetic.

Lithril Ashwalker

Lithril Ashwalker

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Dec 2008

Alabama

A/

thought i could share a link - privacy given but...there were about 20 names listed and u can see i asked them to check the account logs of those accounts...thats all i do, find a suspected bot, screenshot, finish playing then send in a ticket with a bulk of names, wait for reply...tada...

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...untitled-9.jpg
=
results=WIN


welcome to a day in my shoes

WELL i gotta get the image to update, but i give a copy of my screenshot of what it looked like in my email(email will be hidden of course)

Elnino

Elnino

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2008

In a house

Proof Of A Nets Laziness[HB]

A/W

Wait, was there actually a mass bot ban or was it just one guy getting dhuumed and the minions killing everything else?

Swingline

Swingline

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2010

Somewhere far away from you

The Mirror of Reason[SNOW]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Elnino View Post
Wait, was there actually a mass bot ban or was it just one guy getting dhuumed and the minions killing everything else?
I got reports from in game friends saying multiple people were getting dhuumed in RA and JQ. I think around 20-30 accounts are no more and mass might have been too strong a word.

bennyandthejets

Academy Page

Join Date: Apr 2011

Thanks Anet, this was desperately needed

akelarumi

akelarumi

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Nov 2009

E/

Great to hear there are people banned for botting. But it also made me wonder, the damage from the quickening terrain flux also worked in outposts (the flux where you take damage when you run too fast). When people are dhuumed in a PvP outpost, is this months flux kicking in as well?

-edit, never mind, didn't see other posts and the update notice -

lemming

lemming

The Hotshot

Join Date: May 2006

Honolulu

International District [id???]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Saint Scarlet View Post
I would just like to say thankyou to Anet for finally doing something and banning all those bots. Yes it took a while but at least when the majority of the populace starts to complain they take note and act. Lets hope that it never gets as bad again.
Try to keep in mind that it's doubtful whether the botting problem would be so widespread if not for Anet's insistence on keeping mum.

Star_Jewel

Star_Jewel

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Mar 2010

Denizen of Tyria since Feb. 2009

While I'm hopeful that the bots are being hit by a ban-sweep, I'm wondering if all the Dhuuming happening right now is people forcing a temp-ban by being really offensive in local chat just to trigger the flux.

Since the Dhuum visit was implemented for bans, I've seen various people do this "for the lulz." I'd imagine after word of the first outpost Apocalypse spread, people might be aiming for "extra lulz."

Reverend Dr

Reverend Dr

Forge Runner

Join Date: Dec 2005

Super Fans Of Gaile [ban]

W/

Have they hit the new pvp bots yet?

Lithril Ashwalker

Lithril Ashwalker

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Dec 2008

Alabama

A/

Just added a link at my above post, check it out

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...untitled-9.jpg

i listed enough names in the RED stacking each name on top of each other...thats about 20 names....and read the response from the GM's

Jcpsr

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2006

AW

Rt/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Star_Jewel View Post
While I'm hopeful that the bots are being hit by a ban-sweep, I'm wondering if all the Dhuuming happening right now is people forcing a temp-ban by being really offensive in local chat just to trigger the flux.

Since the Dhuum visit was implemented for bans, I've seen various people do this "for the lulz." I'd imagine after word of the first outpost Apocalypse spread, people might be aiming for "extra lulz."
That is very is true.

One of my friends got himself banned on purpose which caused the Minions in RA to start, a guy b4 him got banned but the minions targeted someone with high HP and they died. The minions he caused ended up being the ban that kept the minions up the longest in RA. He sent me a few screenshots of his ban.
He saw the minions in JQ and wanted to start one in RA.

Fluffy Kittens

Guest

Join Date: Dec 2009

hope they gonna do something about new pvp interrupt bots

papryk

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2006

Nancy

The Autonomy[?????????]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rezz Anna Nicole View Post
hope they gonna do something about new pvp interrupt bots
they are not "new"

ErrantVenture

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2010

Social Darwinism [SaD]

A/W

Quote:
Originally Posted by papryk View Post
they are not "new"
They may not be "new" in the sense that they operate in a fundamentally different manner but there is a "new" generation of interrupt/bulls dodge/cripshot dodge/prot bots around.

papryk

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2006

Nancy

The Autonomy[?????????]

they are not new in the sense they are in gw for a long time. they are just not so popular because they are not for free. you have to pay and buy them. some are still made in gwca, some in gwa2. and no, this not a new generation of bots (at least those made in gwca). gwa2 is a new engine.

ErrantVenture

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2010

Social Darwinism [SaD]

A/W

Quote:
Originally Posted by papryk View Post
they are not new in the sense they are in gw for a long time. they are just not so popular because they are not for free. you have to pay and buy them. some are still made in gwca, some in gwa2. and no, this not a new generation of bots (at least those made in gwca). gwa2 is a new engine.
It's not even a new engine. It's almost entirely the same as GWCA, just written in autoit instead of cpp (which makes it slightly less capable).

Reverend Dr

Reverend Dr

Forge Runner

Join Date: Dec 2005

Super Fans Of Gaile [ban]

W/

Most notably it avoids the auto detection that the old .dll injection had.

Even then its really about the waves of botting. The first mass wave of PvP bots ended after the mass bannings. What we are seeing now is a separate wave, hence new.

There is also an interrupt bot that is (or at least was) free.

papryk

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2006

Nancy

The Autonomy[?????????]

there is a third engine known as gwmi. not the best one but totally undetectable imo.

ps. free bots will always be the one that will be detected and then banned as the first ones

Riot Narita

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by papryk View Post
you have to pay and buy them
People actually pay real money, so they can bot/cheat in a game?

That's possibly the saddest thing I ever heard.

papryk

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2006

Nancy

The Autonomy[?????????]

for the best ones? yes
they go for around 30$ or 300 ectos

Yol

Yol

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2007

GameAmp Guides [AMP]

E/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Riot Narita View Post
People actually pay real money, so they can bot/cheat in a game?

That's possibly the saddest thing I ever heard.
I suspect it's the prospect of making a profit from selling in-game gold/z-keys etc that makes the initial outlay of buying a bot programme so appealing to them.

StormDragonZ

StormDragonZ

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2008

New York

W/R

I remember someone on this forum made a reason for botting to be acceptable because some people don't have time to get everything in the game due to work and/or outside influences.

I'll say it again: Don't have time. Sad thing about that is it is very much the common "excuse" used. Due to the fact one's job/life is more important, he/she resorts to botting so they don't feel like they're missing out on anything and obtains the important stuff for later use.

In fact, some people bot because they want to be prepared for GW2 when it comes out. I would bet at least 75% of those who do this will, most likely, resort to botting in GW2 thanks in part to what I just said up there. Too busy to play, but too lazy to try when given the time to do so.

Concise Description: People bot because they can and figure ANet's too busy with GW2 to give a GO RED ENGINE.

tummlykins

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jun 2010

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dar Drakor View Post
That's what people get for cheating. Never understood why people need to do this. Pathetic.
Kotaku said it best when they reported on the bans last year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kotaku
Earlier this week, 3700 accounts were banned by the developers for “botting and match manipulation”, “botting” being the use of automated programs to run through the game’s boring stuff for you.
If so many players find content in your game so boring they are risking their accounts and resorting to botting to complete it (faction titles, old school drunkard etc) then you've done something wrong in game design. No-one enjoys grinding faction to level up their EotN titles every time they make a new toon. People don't love that speck of dust on the horizon that is the Luxon or Kurzick faction title - if they did they'd keep farming Mount Quinkai once they got it, but they don't.

I get most of these bans were for PvP botting, and aside from increasing the number of players in the arenas resulting in more matches taking place this harms real player's experience, but not all cases of botting are some big mystery where you think; why did they do that? Sometimes it's really obvious why people botted and maybe the developers should stop making boring content that makes people want to bot.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Riot Narita View Post
People actually pay real money, so they can bot/cheat in a game?

That's possibly the saddest thing I ever heard.
Just like gold buying, bot programs will cost less than the money they earn when compared with a minimum wage job. The time it takes to farm the items or gold or complete the boring and reptitive grind titles in the game could easily be spent flipping burgers at McDonalds for minimum wage to pay for 100 times the amount of gold or time saved not killing raptors.

Put into that context, who is sadder - the one who has enough of a real world investment to save time and money (in the form of opportunity loss) by purchasing an in game objective that was built around intense time sucking grind or the person who spent hundred of hours in front of their computer grinding out the same content they didn't enjoy but felt passively satisfied by (aka near catatonic state) achieving something in a virtual world in the form of multiple GWAMMs?

I don't support botting and I think it's important ArenaNet action those accounts but I'm not going to pretend it's a big mystery why people bot instead of "play" the game. I think a more important focus for ArenaNet would be to create more engaging gameplay with far less intense grind. It's a shame every time the botting issue comes up, people don't look at what ArenaNet could be doing to positively discourage botting - or here's a thought - what are they doing wrong to make people bot in the first place?

cormac ap dunn

cormac ap dunn

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jul 2007

Mystic Empires III [xMEx]

Me/

Funny thing about using the excuse of no time, you have time to get said ill-gotten goods from your botting, and time to show them off... you have time to play... also, if you find the game so boring as to use that excuse, don't play... Did you get to use a bot in school when you were bored? How about at work? Those things can be far more boring... don't feel like listening to your wife yelling at you about not doing houshold chores? Get a bot to listen to her, heck, get one to do those chores... oh wait.... Come on, if you don't have time for the game, don't play. Or bot, get banned, come on here and bitch about it. I'll keep reporting botters, they'll keep getting banned, we'll keep on seeing Dhuum!

tummlykins

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jun 2010

Quote:
Originally Posted by cormac ap dunn View Post
Funny thing about using the excuse of no time, you have time to get said ill-gotten goods from your botting, and time to show them off... you have time to play... also, if you find the game so boring as to use that excuse, don't play... Did you get to use a bot in school when you were bored? How about at work? Those things can be far more boring... don't feel like listening to your wife yelling at you about not doing houshold chores? Get a bot to listen to her, heck, get one to do those chores... oh wait.... Come on, if you don't have time for the game, don't play. Or bot, get banned, come on here and bitch about it. I'll keep reporting botters, they'll keep getting banned, we'll keep on seeing Dhuum!
When you're optional recreation activity is held up to the same standard as work, chores, relationship management and study it's time to get a new game. You've completely missed the point of why most people play computer games. They play games to escape work, chores, nagging, study etc, not so they can experience those things in virtual reality.

BuD

BuD

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2006

Nunya

E/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Swingline View Post
I got reports from in game friends saying multiple people were getting dhuumed in RA and JQ. I think around 20-30 accounts are no more and mass might have been too strong a word.
Im going to go with this. There was never an outcry from the banned people like when Anet banned 3700 accounts a while ago. They probably hit a big support ticket & the banned accounts happened to be in between maps in town.

Also Anet isnt gloating that they suspended X number of accounts.

I doubt there was a mass banning.

Skyy High

Skyy High

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: May 2006

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by tummlykins View Post
If so many players find content in your game so boring they are risking their accounts and resorting to botting to complete it (faction titles, old school drunkard etc) then you've done something wrong in game design. No-one enjoys grinding faction to level up their EotN titles every time they make a new toon. People don't love that speck of dust on the horizon that is the Luxon or Kurzick faction title - if they did they'd keep farming Mount Quinkai once they got it, but they don't.

I get most of these bans were for PvP botting, and aside from increasing the number of players in the arenas resulting in more matches taking place this harms real player's experience, but not all cases of botting are some big mystery where you think; why did they do that? Sometimes it's really obvious why people botted and maybe the developers should stop making boring content that makes people want to bot.
Don't see how this is relevant, considering we're talking about PvP bots here. This isn't Runescape or some BS like that where you set up a bot to go grind for you because playing the game is too damn boring.

Plutoman

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jul 2010

E/

There's bots in every game, to get the far-off achievements that are given. ANet doesn't provide those so everyone can get them (the odd assumption), they're provided so the people that really enjoy the game have goals to complete.

And then people (in WoW, Runescape, and other games) go and bot to buy off everything or complete everything. The entire point is so they can feel better than others who don't have those titles/money/etc. I know, I had a buddy who was that type. Problem is they don't enjoy the game enough (there's plenty who do, though) to complete everything, so they pay out the money for it all. Sad, but true.

Riot Narita

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by tummlykins View Post
<It's developers fault that players "need" to bot>
I can understand chinese gold farmers using bots to make real-world money.

But I cannot agree that the developers "force" ordinary players to bot.

If people find a game is crap or it doesn't suit their lifestyle... the smart ones simply walk away. Find another game.

Players who turn to bots instead of walking away... aren't being forced into it by the game or the developers. They make that choice all by themselves - I can only presume because they are either morons, or the saddest of low-self-esteem BillyNoMates... who need in-game "achievements" at any cost, to makes themselves "special" or pretend that it earns them respect.

Lithril Ashwalker

Lithril Ashwalker

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Dec 2008

Alabama

A/

Quote:
Originally Posted by tummlykins View Post
When you're optional recreation activity is held up to the same standard as work, chores, relationship management and study it's time to get a new game. You've completely missed the point of why most people play computer games. They play games to escape work, chores, nagging, study etc, not so they can experience those things in virtual reality.
what he means is why get the game when ur not going to play it to enjoy it? no reason to bot unless u want to get a load of money just to brag about something u didnt earn...least they could do is bot professionally and make the team they are on win.

on another note, anyone seen my bot reports in post 10?

MMO Player

MMO Player

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Oct 2011

Living on the fault line between the 7th and 11th dimension.

The Imaginary Friends [TIF]

N/Mo

I am of the opinion that if people are so lame they need to bot let them. No skin off my nose. :P Personally I think it is just as bad when others resort to buying gold etc.. If they would stop paying real world cash for power ups etc., then your bot population would drop considerably.

Also as far as detection software goes, you can't detect custom bots that are not sold or given away. Without the source there is just no way to detect something like that. The tried and true method is the GMs. GMs can always detect a bot by common sense. Chat with the person, no response might be a bot. Watch them follow them around in the game and see repeatable odd behavior then more likely a bot. Playing for 24 hours a day etc..

Not that I am into buying multiple accounts, but do they allow people to multibox this game? I know some WoW players who had/have up to nine accounts going and I thought that was pretty lame behavior as well. But Blizzard allowed it. Mainly because of the money they were making off those fools.

chuckles79

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Mar 2009

FILA

P/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lithril Ashwalker View Post
what he means is why get the game when ur not going to play it to enjoy it? no reason to bot unless u want to get a load of money just to brag about something u didnt earn...least they could do is bot professionally and make the team they are on win.

on another note, anyone seen my bot reports in post 10?
Yes we saw the three different pics of bot reports. *pat on the back* GJ