Guild Wars News: Bots Banned

are you emailing them or did you open a support ticket?

did you respond to the automated response in less than 24 hours?

if it has been this long without a response make a fresh support ticket and do the above.

Its a good thing bots are beein banned but the damage was already done in the economy for this long time they waited monitorin them, dup gold and items crashed the economy more than once and will still goin since e-bay finaces more accounts for them to dup more stuff and f**k even more the economy.

learn a bit of what you speak of before babbling.

everything is SERVER SIDE not CLIENT SIDE.

which means no duping of gold or items.

go back to diablo

Wow it took them THIS long to ban 1,000 acounts?? They could've gotten double the number by camping GM's in Elona, Droks, and a few other spots for a week! Sorry this announcement by Anet dissapoints like someone saying *We acheived world peace! Too bad there's no habitable world left*

A shame that Elona is still Mo/W paradise. What i've been noticing alot lately is the major spamming of WTB for -50 offhands. They must be in a rush to recreate their 55ing bots

Down with bots! Taunt them by offering the item, but never completing the trade

what are they offering as i have a bunch of them gathering virtual dust

Most of the Chinese farmbot spammers are offering 5K, but don't give in to them

You can't miss them. Just visit Ascalon or Droks D1, and you will see them spam WTBs non-stop...like every 2 seconds.

I was just wondering what if the game didn't allow anyone to sell/transfer items or gold to other players only to merchants, wouldn't that stop the botting, since there's no incentive to bot anymore?

for that price i would give them away (not to a bot though)

Done, they added it to the previous ticket since it pertains to the same incident. Just wish they would hurry up and give me a reason as to why...

what so great about Elona? I don't get why so many Mo/Ws farm there....they must have made a profit or something hmmm.....

That's not a totally bad idea and has been mentioned before. The thing is many people enjoy the trader game. I personally hate it, but that doesn't mean that players shouldn't be allowed to create that in the game for themselves.

I read in another thread a slightly better (in my opinion) take on your idea. It is to have traders for weapons and mods, not just merchents. That way players can make more for their mods than 25 - 50g and many people wouldn't waste their time spamming the trade chat channels. But it would still give those who enjoy that the opportunity to play trader.

Arlan and Tickle all I can say about your situation is that if you're innocent then I feel for your long battle with support. NCSoft support is fairly meticulous and it will likely take some time to get your issues resolved. I have had a few support tickets open with them over the years and I usually end up just giving up whatever issue I emailed them about.

Thanks, hopefully if NCSoft can just manage to get back to me or even check my account history then that might sway them.

My account has no history of trading with other GW players (except with my brother) and I don't play with anyone else except RL friends and family.

My account has been banned I believe because of my character from Cantha was in Droknars International 1 to buy some Prophecy skills who happened to be a Mo/W... neither is my character a 55 monk, she does not have any sup runes and no -50hp offhand.

People are still making statements as facts while incorrect:

- Bots are not people, they are computer programs
- They don't pay 50$ a copy for them, they steal accounts using so called cheat/exploit program's
- They are not 100 people running 100 bots, more like one or a few organisations running a lot of bots
- Bot's were gone for a few hours at most, while running for about a month now. It's crowded with bots again in elona's. The thread title then seems very overoptimistic to me then.

- Sending A-net (or there support) screenshots of the bots hasn't changed anything, sending them lists of names of bots doesn't do anything, sending them a copy of the script itself apprently can't help either.

It sure feels to me like they just don't care.

Bots were banned for a few hours???

I feel cheated by Anet. I thought they were going to permanently ban the bot accounts. Instead, they ban the botting accounts for a few hours and also banned some innocent bystanders in the process.

My friend has been thinking of getting WoW. Pretty much all this hoo-ha about what Anet is doing is convincing me to get WoW as well.

Playing devil's advocate, so then it's a choice between allowing botting and trading game or neither. I say trash both

I am pretty sure they banned the 1000 accounts permanently. But then the botters just recreated their accounts and went back to botting.

Why the botting, because botting is profitable. It's the same in Diablo. People bot to make real money.

I'm beginning to think player trading is bad for MMOs and online games with some kind of economy, as it's one of the primary reasons for the existance of botting. WOW arguably does a better job controlling botting and ebay sales than GW but they have a recurring charge.

i really hope you were joking on that post otherwise.............

in case you were actually serious about that here is what was said.

the permabanned accounts are still PERMABANNED.

they have activated NEW accounts to continue business.

CLEAR NOW?

My account was possibly mistaken as a bot account and was banned PERMANENTLY. Not sure how that guy managed to think it's banning for a few hours only.

I think Anet's finally taken notice of the economy. I doubt the "no ecto/shard drops" bug was REALLY a bug. They did that to raise the price on ectos and shards, and have it subside a week later at a price a few k's higher. Now they're cutting down on bots. Round of applause for Anet. Doing what REALLY matters to many of us. Now, the rest of us farmers just want some in game auction system and we're set. I could care less about 20 new quests and whatnot. <_<

Do you farm a lot?

Nope, at most I farm 3~4 times through a particular instanced map, then I go off and play PvP, mission, or watch observer mode. I don't like farming, I farm to make some money and possibly some good items.

I don't think farming an instance 5 times in a row is called a lot compared to some of the players. I casual farm, and I never farm a lot.

EDIT: What I mean by mistaken as a bot is that I visited Droknars Int 1 to buy some skills for my Canthan Monk who happens to be a Mo/W. And as you people know, Droknars Int 1 are full of Bots who are Mo/W, so I was mistaken as one of them....... so sad....

Why was I doing in International District you ask?? Because my account is Taiwanese, and I need to meet up with my brother who was playing a US account. So we both met up at Lions Arch International District, then we both teleported to Droknars Int 1.

Or maybe it runs deeper, perhaps some of the farming sweat shops operates in Taiwan using the same ISP as you.

Can't be certain, but likely.

Well if that's the case, they need to look at my account history. I am innocent... *sigh*...

But I doubt there are any sweatshops for GW in Taiwan, the game isn't that well-known.

OK guys/girls

Here is what i see, there was a snipit of the rules with a highlighted word, but the other words that wasn't highlighted stated that accounts were not transfereble. Arlan if I remember correctly you mentioned that one of your guildies left and gave the account to you to use (for whatever reason). That might be a reason for your banning I don't know

Another thing is that we are all shouting "KILL THE BOTS" but what about all the players that support them, I can't understand that someone will pay money to have a GAME then go and spend more money for NOT REAL INGAME MONEY in order to buy something.

Why the heck buy the game in the first place if you can't play it, or are they the type that has always had everything handed to them and did not have to put in a bit of work to get what they want.

That back in those days are why I stoped playing Age of Empires LAN games, because every tom dick and harry came up with cheats to cheat the game, what's the use then of playing the game.

I have tree characters in the game that i play a lot with. One is R/E the other is W/Mo and my new one now is N/Me. I play because it is fun not because i can say in-game I AM THE RICHEST AROUND, if I want something i will go and work for it. I wanted Drago's Flatbow for my Ranger, I did not go and buy it, I went to sf and worked for it untill I got it, same with all my other characters.

Anyway this is just how I feel about the BOTS and everyone that supports them, that means the guys actually going to ebay and paying money for something virtual that will never ever be real

It's sad really

Really and truly, the bots wont ever go away. Theres a market, theres money in it, so they will stay.

In an ideal world, we wouldnt have websites that sold gold, or weapons etc. and we would have no botters. Everyone who gained their stuff did it the nice and boring way.

QFT

And the latest one on this front I heard today...someone buying gold on Ebay to buy dwarven ale with it to get the drunkard title...to me that beyond pathetic.

Sounds good to me. I can understand the speculation maybe. And even if someone who is banned doesn't buy another copy, I guess it's a little less strain on the Arenanet servers. Of course speculating that as a reason is more farfetched. The less bots, the better. I enjoy the sort of live action Sims aspect of the game. Chatting with real people in outposts, using emotes, trading just for the joy of trading, etc.

Now if only they (Anet) took time to check my account then they will find I'm a really boring person...

hey question about bots i was farming uw and i found a 55hp monk and he could only type some things i asked him are u a bot and he said yes is that some stupid little kid or should i send in the screen shot i got of it didnt know if serious or not so if i could get some privte mesage from some 1 that wpould help thx

1 more thing if bots where banned on farming that would make running bots more active running is another way i c bots i went to beacons last moth 4 dists where full i went today and 1 wasent full so i think that there is posably running bots as well that where abnned

I do not understand either of the last two posts. Spelling and grammar ftw!

Duly, dsd wants to know if he should send in a screenshot of a 55 monk saying hes a bot, also something about running bots, hes noticed a few less runners around the districts hes been in (sorry my broken english interpretations is a little rusty).

Update on my banned account.. NCSoft still hasn't contacted me (nearly 96 hrs after I made the 1st ticket). Their automated response said they will contact me in 24 hours... Which 24 hours is NCSoft going to contact me within? Here I am, an innocent person wondering why I was banned and they cannot even give me a reply, I am sorry but as time goes on I keep thinking that the bans are driven by profit margins. Factions isn't doing as well as they initially thought so why not ban bots/ppl so they have to go out and get another copy, and if this isn't so then I apologise but if the support team isn't going to answer what else should I be thinking? Yes I agree with banning of bots, no I dont agree on banning of innocents... NCSoft doesn't have a conscious, if so they would contact those ppl with tickets within the due time they give themselves. In my opinion this is gross neglegence by NCSoft.

Hey Tickle

Same boat here - no response for over a week now (and previous responses were the standard/auto replies.
I figure we're in this for the long run.........looks like there have been alot of innocents caught up in the recent bot ban and they are dealing with all the tickets - hopefully someone will get back to us. :-)

I cant agree that Anet have done this purely for profit - earlier posts reckon bot controllers just hack another account anyway. Plus thge amount of acounts closed (approx 1000) is nothing compared to the 800,000 units sold!!!

I also can't beleve that Anet would rather ban and leave banned genuine accounts without giving that account holder a specific reason.
Maybe we bought/sold to a player who regularly buys/sells to a bot or something. How far down the bot trading line have they gone and checked?

Even if they dont reinstate my account ( i wont be buying again!!!) i want to know exactly why and let player mates know why - my guildies are worried that if i can be banned then anyone is in the firing line!!!

Will let you know of developements or reponses from Anet - they have to come up with something - the wall of silence is slowly being taken as a 'dont care - tough' attitude. Not the best PR for a company.

the auto responses are auto closed after 24 hours as solved if you dont respond immediately that this did not help.

sitting for a week is 6 days wasted before starting another ticket.

even a auto respond we will contact you needs to be responded to as it is the auto not a person

you have to keep the ball rolling not wait on them

It would seem I'm the latest to the recently banned club, and judging from this thread, it's because I purchased items in Forge Int 1. I bought at least 1000k a week in unidentified gold items, which were then resold to the highest bidder. I can read/type simplified chinese and have had no problem communicating and making deals with chinese players. What is truly bugging me is what's wrong with what I've done? I've certainly never installed a third party tool, nor have I exploited the game any more than players buying and selling in Ascalon or LA. Let the flames begin

Guys,

A bit of information on the bans, blocks, and dealings with bot users and gold sellers. We deal with them--take action against them--on a regular basis. As I've said before, the news post in question in this thread was just a form of update for the community about our enforcement of policies and our taking action to their benefit. It wasn't an update on all recent activities, but a report on one recent activity, you see? We take action all the time and don't post about it at all. (For instance, more than a thousand UA abusers were taken down, removed, given the ol' heave-ho today but we're not posting it.)

Now to anyone who was innocently caught in such a sweep: If you have been banned and you were assuredly not using a third-party program, bot software, etc., then click Support on the main page of the GW site and fill out a "Ask a Question" page, also known as a ticket. If you filed a ticket and got a response, you certainly may follow up after a decent interval, say, 24 or 48 hours, to inquire about it. (Tickets are not marked as "closed" for 72 hours, btw, not 24 and are not marked as closed while the topic is still being worked towards a resolution.) If you have not had a response at all, well, I guess I'd suggest that maybe the system burped and your ticket was lost, because I know the team to be very dedicated and very prompt in their responses. Given that, you may wish to submit a new ticket. But please do not submit a new ticket if you have any means of responding to an existing one, as it makes sorting out and working on the real issues more and more difficult.

So, submit a support request, follow up on a response about which you don't understand, provide the information that might be requested, and check to assure that you don't have a response of some kind--and therefore a ticket number to keep active--before submitting a new ticket.

We do want to assure that all innocent non-bot-users are restored, in the rare occasion when someone is blocked by accident. That number is very small, by the way, and we will continue to make sure it's smaller still in the future.

My ticket was started only 4 hours ago, and as I work for an IT help desk, I'm certainly not ranting about a touble ticket taking too long

I also sympathize with ANet and the issues with managing such a huge enterprise as Guild Wars must be. I've always believed that mistakes work themselves out, and that the past year of playing won't go down in flames.

Your comments are well received, Miss Gray. I may yet sleep well tonight.

Thanks for an official response Gaile. That's always nice.

Arlan and Tickle ~ I've had several NC support questions (tickets) over the last (i think it's been almost 4 years now) and almost always after the 1st automated response I get a real person asking me questions or requesting further information. With a little persistance you will get the evidential reason you were banned or you will have your account restored. I don't like dealing with support and I don't always like the answers I get, but I have confidence they will give you one of those answers.