[MERGED: Bannings] Wanna see ANet ppl right here, right now ! (this is insane) - Guild Wars Guru archive powered by Guild Wars Legacy

dmndidjit

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2006

07 Jul 2006 at 02:53 - 361

Quote:

Originally Posted by VitisVinifera

this had better be sarcasm, though I can't really detect it.

because.....anyone who could consider this good pr, and that we should be honored by this, and isn't being sarcastic, is on cracketycrack!

If you can't tell that was sarcastic, you really need to get your sarcasm detector adjusted. Although, in all fairness, I am on cracketycrak anyway.

Edit--I made a minor adjustment to the sarcasm level. You were right, I was kind of sending mixed signals. Feel free to recheck the post to see if your Sarcasm detector is now fully functional.

Spiral

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2006

VNGD

W/Mo

07 Jul 2006 at 03:56 - 362

Just got hit with the ban stick.

No idea why, just was. I wasnt even here over the 4th weekend...

sinican

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2006

SAW

D/

07 Jul 2006 at 04:24 - 363

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spiral

Just got hit with the ban stick.

No idea why, just was. I wasnt even here over the 4th weekend...

to be perfectly honest i dont believe that this mass banning was just a mistake one what bot detecting paramater where met... im more inclined to believe that it just went hayway from faulty coding and started banning in a pattern that had nothing to do with botting type activities...

i would even go as far to say that i wouldnt be surprized if more than half of the 4000 banns were actually unjustified...

imagine the only accounts right now that are getting unbanned are those that are following this issue or have the instingt to submit a support ticket on the issue...

that means there are still people out there on vacation that have no clue they got banned (similar to you situation i assume)

there are people out there that are just taking extended breaks from GW and when they attempt to com back a week/month whatever from now to find there account got banned..

and there are still those who dont read these boards or others with the issue and simple maybe to young to know what to do by themselves on the issue...

oh and dont forget the folks that are "convinced" or "accepting" that they did something wrong when they actually didn't and are to timid to confront the situation so they just accept the punishment and move on

i mean the GW site doesnt have any statement about the "accidental" bannings even...

dmndidjit

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2006

07 Jul 2006 at 04:38 - 364

Quote:

Originally Posted by sinican

i mean the GW site doesnt have any statement about the "accidental" bannings even...

Nor will it ever, unless it gets reported in a news story. ANet reps may sometime seem like imbeciles but even they can't be stupid enough to openly admit to making this kind of mistake on their own website unless they have to. Sure if there's an article in a game magazine or if some tech article or show mentions it, but as long as it stays only on the forums the damage is contained. At most you might see a new link on their support site concerning the issue but even that might be admitting too much culpability.

Spiral

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2006

VNGD

W/Mo

07 Jul 2006 at 04:53 - 365

I understand what you saying.

I have a 55 monk, yes, but I dont bot. I hope everyone with a 55 got banned.

I also did chest runs alot, FoW, Raisu Palace..etc. Hope that didnt effect my ban.

And no one had access to my account while i was gone, so that isnt the problem. What a great surprise for my return from vacation.

WLlama

Caged Mongrel

Join Date: Jul 2006

Cage in a Dungeon

Flaming Turtles

N/

07 Jul 2006 at 06:57 - 366

Ok, so I hear a lot of gripes here about how 'instantaneous' the bannings were. Do you realize they've had about 1 1/2 months to collect data since their last publicly announced bot purge? That means it is very possible that the information they used for the current set of bans was based on that entire time period. With the number of people on GW, I'm sure it takes the scripts a while to accurately (or inaccurately as some of us have seen) tag a bot account. As I said earlier, I got banned without reason and reinstated so I'm not just playing devil's advocate. Please note that I'm not saying that there wasn't something wrong with the search algorithm this time, but don't think that it was necessarily shoot on sight.

Elri

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2006

Liverpool

Vm

Mo/Me

07 Jul 2006 at 07:01 - 367

I jus recently got unbanned,although i am reliived this is the message i recieved;

Thank you for contacting the Guild Wars customer support team. A game moderator did witness automated behaviour in game while observing your character, this indicated the use of an automated third-party program, which is why we closed the account. In this case, as you are a one-time offender, we will remove the ban. However, please be aware that if we notice similar behaviour in the future, we will have to close your account permanently. Please allow 24 hours for this to take effect.

now having never ever used bots of ebay or whatever i suppose im walking on eggs,i was after fissure armour for my monk so what do u do to attain such amount of money? so i solo farm the fow,i do solo chest runs ,farm elonas,trolls,napui quarter,etc etc,sell my top items for cash,now i am scared to do anything,thank u Anet for Dangling the carrot and taking it away..

dr_james2k

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Sep 2005

The Guild of Kings

Me/E

07 Jul 2006 at 07:07 - 368

The assasain dance makes you look like a robot, so this is obviously the fault.

exiled mat

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

The netherlands > friesland > balk

[JAMM] Justified Ancients of Moo Moo

E/Me

07 Jul 2006 at 07:27 - 369

Quote:

Originally Posted by dr_james2k

The assasain dance makes you look like a robot, so this is obviously the fault.

They i must be lucky to have a female assassin then

I haven't been banned so i'll guess i've been lucky

(just once

)

Silent Kitty

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Mar 2006

Netherlands

[TYW] "The Young World"

A/Me

07 Jul 2006 at 07:37 - 370

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elri

I jus recently got unbanned,although i am reliived this is the message i recieved;

Thank you for contacting the Guild Wars customer support team. A game moderator did witness automated behaviour in game while observing your character, this indicated the use of an automated third-party program, which is why we closed the account. In this case, as you are a one-time offender, we will remove the ban. However, please be aware that if we notice similar behaviour in the future, we will have to close your account permanently. Please allow 24 hours for this to take effect.

now having never ever used bots of ebay or whatever i suppose im walking on eggs,i was after fissure armour for my monk so what do u do to attain such amount of money? so i solo farm the fow,i do solo chest runs ,farm elonas,trolls,napui quarter,etc etc,sell my top items for cash,now i am scared to do anything,thank u Anet for Dangling the carrot and taking it away..

Let me guess; You are playing a lvl20 Mo/Wa and standing on a pile of other Mo/Was in Elonas, or you don't stop when the message of overfarming has been given?

Ps. Congratz for having your account back

Cory M

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jun 2006

A/Mo

07 Jul 2006 at 07:40 - 371

first step by anet in dealing w/ bots... didn't went all too well but hopefully they do the job better next time since from what Elri posted anet seems to be identifying the bots based on observations (probably human observations(?) which is prone to *human* errors. continue to ban those bots anet.

if you get banned but never used bots then i suppose some inquiries at their customer support might solve your problem. but for those who do use bots and for a very long time already.. i for one support anet 100% in their crusade to ban *YOUR* accounts. /wave

Guillaume De Sonoma

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2005

aFk

Me/Rt

07 Jul 2006 at 07:47 - 372

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elri

I jus recently got unbanned,although i am reliived this is the message i recieved;

Thank you for contacting the Guild Wars customer support team. A game moderator did witness automated behaviour in game while observing your character, this indicated the use of an automated third-party program, which is why we closed the account. In this case, as you are a one-time offender, we will remove the ban. However, please be aware that if we notice similar behaviour in the future, we will have to close your account permanently. Please allow 24 hours for this to take effect.

now having never ever used bots of ebay or whatever i suppose im walking on eggs

I wasn't banned and I don't know anyone who was but I find what happened pretty bad. I find it funny that Anet said only a few hundred accounts where unrightfully banned when the reports are staggering.

In this letter they probably can't admit that they made a mistake so they are giving this as a default message to everyone who was banned wrongfully. My guess as to why people like you where banned is because they noticed you having patterns like when you chest farm, or farm (taking the same path every time), or really doing anything that makes you look like a gold farmer. Then later they come back and check on you and you are still farming doing much of the same things. That can make you appear as a bot, but I really think Anet RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOed up.

And if anyone is walking on eggshells it is Anet.

I'm not a representitive of Anet or anything, but that seems like a reasonable explanation.

WLlama

Caged Mongrel

Join Date: Jul 2006

Cage in a Dungeon

Flaming Turtles

N/

07 Jul 2006 at 07:54 - 373

Just as for comparison, here was my final response from PlayNC Support:

Quote:

Hello,

Thank you for contact Guild Wars Support. After reviewing the issue, it appears that your account was blocked in error. Your account is now released and you should be able to log in to Guild Wars. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

This was received relatively early (07/05/2006 09:39 PM) given others' experiences here after submitting a support request within two hours of being banned (07/05/2006 02:54 PM).

Elri

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2006

Liverpool

Vm

Mo/Me

07 Jul 2006 at 07:56 - 374

I have played this game for over a year so i can tell u i know the pitfalls of farming,and can honestly say i have never had an overfarming message,and i use a mo/me to 55,i use my warrior in the fow,and a ranger to chest farm in factions ,believe me i am careful,are we bieng castigated because we play a lot?
Next i will be banned for fame farming so i will probably never reach my rank 10..

hks

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2006

lets farm green {lfg} tc alliance

W/R

07 Jul 2006 at 09:56 - 375

just too relax you guys a bit i got banned on the dragon festival

first day got my acount back on the thirt day after sending 1 mail too support if you are sure of your innocene just send them a mail they will realy look in too that when they realised my acount i got the messege that it was banned in error

standing afk in the rings does not count as botfarming
also too permantly ban you without warning you must use either bot programs or use exploit selling game stuf for real money in other cases you get marks and warnings before they ban you permantly

i woudent advise people too spam support if you sent 1 mail be sure they got it and they wil reply as soon as they can keep in mind how many people contact support
but i woudnt worry im sure you all who got banned wrngfully will get your acounts back the longest ban i heard that was wrong was like 3 weeks soo good luck too al of you

Loviatar

Underworld Spelunker

Join Date: Feb 2005

07 Jul 2006 at 14:37 - 376

Quote:

Originally Posted by sinican

to be perfectly honest i dont believe that this mass banning was just a mistake one what bot detecting paramater where met... im more inclined to believe that it just went hayway from faulty coding and started banning in a pattern that had nothing to do with botting type activities...

i would even go as far to say that i wouldnt be surprized if more than half of the 4000 banns were actually unjustified...

...

i would go so far as to call that a WAG (wild ass guess) with nothing at all to substantiate it

Sjeng

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2005

in my GH

Limburgse Jagers [LJ]

W/

07 Jul 2006 at 14:47 - 377

Quote:

or you don't stop when the message of overfarming has been given?

The WHAT? I've farmed a lot, never ever seen that happen...

Quote:

RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO

What's up with that? what does it mean? I've seen ppl say it online. Thought it was just a guy being annoying... ???

eudas

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2006

Tx, USA

The Infinite Monkeys [TYPE]

W/

07 Jul 2006 at 15:13 - 378

having worked in a customer support environment before, i'm pretty sure that whoever is in charge of bans made it very quickly to the top of the Support staff's sh*t list...

eudas

Silent Kitty

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Mar 2006

Netherlands

[TYW] "The Young World"

A/Me

07 Jul 2006 at 15:44 - 379

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sjeng

The WHAT? I've farmed a lot, never ever seen that happen...

I have never seen it either, but I believe it happens when you farm a lot.

I personally believe that when a Mo/Wa keeps on farming, even after the anti-farm warning has been given, it is determined with 95% predictability to be a farm bot. Nobody, in his/her right mind, will keep on farming when the loot is rapidly declining. I don't think that bots are sophisticated enough to act upon that message.

victo bei

Academy Page

Join Date: Apr 2006

The Little Nutter [PWN]

07 Jul 2006 at 15:47 - 380

What is overfarm?
this entire thing is just stupid.. i understand how those ppl use bots are banned.. but wt* is OVERFARMING?? how the heck do u know that i was farming not kiling monsters for fun..

if u can't use those F words in game.. W T * is that chat filter for???

god damit these crap makes this game feels like im in shool that is up to the f****** teacher if i could use the bathroom

=L=A=M=E=

Anet made this game basically they want EVERBODY TO BE POOR AND NOOB

Crotalus

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

07 Jul 2006 at 15:57 - 381

As many people who posted in the 1k/skill topic, you simply do not need 15k armor or rare skinned items. Collector items will work just as fine or sometimes better.

Except for buying skills, you simply do not money in this game. Kudos to Anet for busting these types of people who obsessively farm and act like a bot.

Beat_Go_Stick

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2006

07 Jul 2006 at 16:20 - 382

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loviatar

i would go so far as to call that a WAG (wild ass guess) with nothing at all to substantiate it

Actually, if you consider the number of people in this thread alone, then look at the fact that gwonline, gwvault, and other boards all have similar threads, it makes the numbers much higher than they suggested with their "115 accounts unbanned!" comment. People are always saying that for every person who says something on a forum, there are a good number of people who share the same issues but don't bother to come create an account and post. It may have been a 'WAG', as you put it, but I seriously doubt it's very far off. To ban a couple hundred innocent people who post on this forum alone really makes me think that the number of innocents banned was likely more staggering than they would like us to know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sjeng

What's up with that? what does it mean? I've seen ppl say it online. Thought it was just a guy being annoying... ???

It means someone said the F-word

Quote:

Originally Posted by victo bei

Anet made this game basically they want EVERBODY TO BE POOR AND NOOB

The only thing "POOR" and "NOOB" here is that remark. Wealth is an illusion and being a good farmer doesn't make a good player. Stay on topic please

As for me, my account was unbanned last night with no email back. My friend, however, was judged guilty and remains banned. Funny thing is, I know him quite well IRL and I know he doesn't bot. He farms a lot but it's all him....hell, he goes home from work and plays Guild Wars all night.

Well, it was kind of a wake up call for him. I guess it's a good thing considering this game was dominating his life but it still kind of sucks to lose everything this way....

He hasn't decided whether or not pursue the matter further or just start playing something else while simultaneously reclaiming his social life. I'm urging him to let it go and start hanging out with me again *chuckle*

EDIT: Stay on topic please. -Swampgirl

Dwiggit

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2005

Heroes Unlimited (HaCK)

R/Mo

07 Jul 2006 at 16:25 - 383

Is the banning automated?

I know the code looks for certain patterns, etc. to determine if botting is occurring, but does the software give a recommendation for a ban, or just go ahead and place the ban?

I would hope that the code would just flag the potential offenders and print out a list for an actual person to review. Unfortunately, this whole fiasco has the appearance of an automated screw-up. If a person at least took a quick look at the logged "evidence" they could quickly see if a ban is justified, or at least know if the anti-bot code is working properly!

Understandably, ArenaNet want to automate the process as much as possible to reduce costs and quickly rid the game of economy-breakers. After seeing many problems in other online games, I'm sure they want to do the best they can and be on top of anti-botting technology. Hopefully these are just hiccups in the learning process.

I would suggest that an in-game notice be given to anyone prior to being banned. Maybe even a warning that your character has been identified as a potential bot (against EULA), is currently under scrutiny, and continued use in this manner will lead to a ban.

Dwig

Crotalus

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

07 Jul 2006 at 16:40 - 384

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beat_Go_Stick

Dude, you should really read a thread before making yourself look like a drooling moron. Many of us who were banned don't farm at all. I played an average of 4-5 hours a week for the past month and I was banned. Your comment reeks of ignorance

People are 100% honest on the internet? Dont be so naive.

Dwiggit

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2005

Heroes Unlimited (HaCK)

R/Mo

07 Jul 2006 at 17:10 - 385

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beat_Go_Stick

My friend, however, was judged guilty and remains banned. Funny thing is, I know him quite well IRL and I know he doesn't bot. He farms a lot but it's all him

Obviously, the ban was intended for bots, which is against the EULA.

But as far as I know, farming is NOT against the EULA, and therefore not a bannable offense!
(It may be discouraged with the anti-farming code, but still within terms of the EULA.)

Can someone double-check me on this?
If you find a part of the EULA that talks about farming, please post a clip.

Thanks,
Dwig

Beat_Go_Stick

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2006

07 Jul 2006 at 17:17 - 386

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crotalus

People are 100% honest on the internet? Dont be so naive.

I'm sorry for the "flaminess" of my earlier comment. I don't want to turn this into anything lame. I just wanted to point out that A.Net banned hundreds of real people. Regardless of what those people do for fun, they do not deserve to be banned unless they are in violation of the EULA or TOS.

Honestly, I don't see why you would even care about bots unless you were concerned about the economy and you claim to not care about that at all. So tell me then how it's a good thing to ban legitimate players along with these bots that do nothing to you?

As someone who doesn't care a lick about the economy (since it really makes no difference to me), I can honestly say I don't care if they ever ban bots. I will certainly say that I don't think praising A.Net for banning innocent people just to get at the bots is the right way to go...

Anyway, this topic has been beat to death. I think I'm done here. Happy playing, all

Crotalus

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

07 Jul 2006 at 18:48 - 387

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beat_Go_Stick

Honestly, I don't see why you would even care about bots unless you were concerned about the economy and you claim to not care about that at all. So tell me then how it's a good thing to ban legitimate players along with these bots that do nothing to you?

A farmer with ample supply of skill points and enough gold to supply a small army of newbies could walk into Kaineng Center and unlock all non-elite skills for that character. Does Anet see this as a problem? I dont know but for me this cheapens my efforts to get a skill as would a PvPer who got insta-UAS. I think all those arguments for not having a UAS system applies to a farmer.

I also question how many people were being truthful about their game playing. Were they acting like bots enough to make Anet aware? or were they actually using a bot program but complained anyways? I am sure Anet didnt just walk into a district and start pulling name.

Carinae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2005

Inside

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

07 Jul 2006 at 19:10 - 388

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beat_Go_Stick

Actually, if you consider the number of people in this thread alone, then look at the fact that gwonline, gwvault, and other boards all have similar threads, it makes the numbers much higher than they suggested with their "115 accounts unbanned!" comment. People are always saying that for every person who says something on a forum, there are a good number of people who share the same issues but don't bother to come create an account and post. It may have been a 'WAG', as you put it, but I seriously doubt it's very far off. To ban a couple hundred innocent people who post on this forum alone really makes me think that the number of innocents banned was likely more staggering than they would like us to know.

I was not banned and I am NOT here to flame Anet, indeed, they are trying to fix the situation.

However, if there were 4000 bannings and 115 of those were restored within 1 day, then that STRONGLY implies there were a large number of false bannings.

Players might be on a break, might not be forum visitors, might not know what to do to restore their account. Many of those will simply walk away from the game.

When I first saw that 115 were restored in the first day, I though "OMG...that's *huge*....almost all of these aren't legitimate bannings!"

Consider that a 10% false hit ratio is attrocious, and they reached 3% on their first corrective action....this isn't good.

But, they ARE TRYING to fix it, so give them time and patience, as hard as that is to do.

Spiral

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2006

VNGD

W/Mo

07 Jul 2006 at 19:18 - 389

My account was unbanned this morning.

THanks ANet, hope all other wrong bannings will be resolved shortly.

Loviatar

Underworld Spelunker

Join Date: Feb 2005

07 Jul 2006 at 19:19 - 390

also note several people are posting the same message on every board they can find so the total is not nearly as one post one time for the total count.

also the innocent ARE being cleared and Anet said it was adjusting the tripwires for the future.

sinican

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2006

SAW

D/

07 Jul 2006 at 21:21 - 391

OK I farm... not because i enjoy doing it but simply because WE ARE FORCED TOO...

I want this green staff i have had to kill the same boss over 100 times now attempting to get it... i cant buy it from someone unless i have the money to pay them for it which requires me to farm more...

the game forces farming... it cant get away from that either because then the game would be bland...

I farm because it is necassary to obtain the items you need... i dont buy things i dont farm gold to often though farming gold is a heck of a lot easier than trying to farm a particular item...

this anti farming thing hurts me more than it hurts bots to be truthfull... i wish the code had more peramiters to determine farming... like an anti farming code based on item drops instead of how many times to have visited this or that area to kill this or that boss...

green items dont drop randomly anywhere... they drop from a speciifc boss(s) in a specific area(s)... no way around it...

I spend well over a week trying to get this channeling staff for my rit and i still havent gotten it... my wife is pissed because im not spending time with her... so i had to stop for a while... i even got the stupid farming message thing... i really dont think its fair considering i still havent gotten one and im still penalized making it even hard for me to get one now... yes i solo farm nothing like 50 green items dropping for the henchies...

so this whole bot code being based off of farming activities(if this is the case) is so BS since everyone needs to farm at some point whether it be an item/xp/gold/whatever...

lama_lord36

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Sep 2005

belgium

Order of the Exiles [bann]

P/W

07 Jul 2006 at 22:02 - 392

i almost don't dare to realy farm with all those bans now.

rurollin

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: May 2006

07 Jul 2006 at 23:41 - 393

Banned since wed. Sick to my stomach for having to grind for luxon necro then kurzick warrior just to have my account banned after having this game for 2 months.

wascal

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jul 2006

CiaH

W/Mo

07 Jul 2006 at 23:54 - 394

Got banned on Tuesday, account restored on Friday.
I`m not happy that hundreds of honest players have had blocks placed on their accounts based on the word of a moderator, Ill tell you what happened in my case so you might better understand

I`m bored standing in house zu heltzer while I am trying to recruit new members for the guild and new guilds for the alliance, so I start to run a few laps up the stairs across the bridge down the stairs and repeat, here is what the GM said after I submitted my support ticket.

"Hello,

Thank you for contacting the Guild Wars customer support team. A game moderator did witness automated behaviour in game while observing your character, this indicated the use of an automated third-party program, which is why we closed the account. In this case, as you are a one-time offender, we will remove the ban. However, please be aware that if we notice similar behaviour in the future, we will have to close your account permanently. Please allow 24 hours for this to take effect.

Please feel free to contact the support team again if you encounter any other problems.

Kind regards, "

Let me make it perfectly clear that I DO NOT!! and have NEVER!! used a third party program with GW, some moron moderator saw me running laps and decided I was a bot, he didnt even whisper me and couldnt even be bothered to notice the spam I was shouting out looking for new members, I dont like this whole guilty untill proven innocent attitude these GM`s have and I am writing a letter to NC Soft head office demanding an explanation and apology.

WLlama

Caged Mongrel

Join Date: Jul 2006

Cage in a Dungeon

Flaming Turtles

N/

08 Jul 2006 at 00:52 - 395

You may notice that one of the previous ANet responses had the exact same wording. It is possible that it had nothing to do with your actions in HzH and is instead due to either 1) previous bot-like activities or 2) a canned response ANet is now sending to everyone in hope of discouraging any future bot-like activities from erroneously banned members.

wascal

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jul 2006

CiaH

W/Mo

08 Jul 2006 at 01:28 - 396

Quote:

You may notice that one of the previous ANet responses had the exact same wording. It is possible that it had nothing to do with your actions in HzH and is instead due to either 1) previous bot-like activities or 2) a canned response ANet is now sending to everyone in hope of discouraging any future bot-like activities from erroneously banned members.

Im interested to know what you mean by bot-like activity, care to explain?

WLlama

Caged Mongrel

Join Date: Jul 2006

Cage in a Dungeon

Flaming Turtles

N/

08 Jul 2006 at 01:39 - 397

Well, given that ANet doesn't publish their bot finding criteria (with good reason, I might add) I can only make conjectures like everyone else on this thread. The most incriminating of course would be repetitive actions. I dunno how many times you ran laps in HzH but I have my doubts about whether this is what they were talking about. I'm sure most bots they target actually do something useful.

My other thoughts:
- Farming same area with same character in the same manner for hours on end
- Spamming trade (especially if unresponsive to PMs)
- Buidling up large sums of money/high-end items rapidly (especially if followed by a sharp decrease and rapid rebuild)
- Repetitive/rapid key strokes

Those are the ones that come to mind at the moment but I'm sure there are plenty more. I think people are losing focus of the fact that the last bot ban was announced around May 26 so plenty of time has passed to collect evidence. The banning may not necessarily be due to what occurred just before termination.

Eet GnomeSmasher

Banned

Join Date: Apr 2005

In my head

08 Jul 2006 at 01:46 - 398

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crotalus

Except for buying skills, you simply do not money in this game. Kudos to Anet for busting these types of people who obsessively farm and act like a bot.

And since when has farming been a banneable offense?

Besides, not everyone (including me) that was unfairly banned is a habitual farmer. And yes not everyone tells the freaking truth. Thanks for stating that. But the thing is, that not everyone lies all the time either. There ARE innocent people that got banned. How else are so many getting unbanned so quickly?

Loviatar

Underworld Spelunker

Join Date: Feb 2005

08 Jul 2006 at 01:55 - 399

Quote:

Originally Posted by wascal

I`m bored standing in house zu heltzer while I am trying to recruit new members for the guild and new guilds for the alliance, so I start to run a few laps up the stairs across the bridge down the stairs and repeat, here is what the GM said after I submitted my support ticket.

.

no your laps were not it

here is some of your answer in an interview while they were gathering data to use later. (late last year)

please note this is ongoing

Quote:

Selling in-game items for cash is clearly against the terms of service, and engaging in any farming or storage activity that assists other people in selling in-game items for cash is also against the terms of service. If you're farming gold or items for someone who sells them for cash, you need to stop now. We are currently gathering data, and when we take action it will be to close entire networks of accounts at once: those used for farming, those used for storage, and those used for distribution.

as for botlike activity here is it straight grom ANET

Quote:

The third issue, which is quickly becoming the biggest threat to the game’s economy, is companies that farm gold and items professionally and sell them for real-life cash. These companies hire large teams of people, often working in sweatshop-like conditions for very little pay, to play Guild Wars for many hours a day in order to rake in gold and items. The workers aren’t bots but they farm gold in similar ways, using very specific character builds to kill very specific monsters, running the same path and killing the same monsters hundreds of times each day, doing whatever exact sequence of actions their employer has determined is currently the most effective way to earn a lot of gold per hour. They then turn over what they’ve farmed to their employer, who sells the gold and items to other players for cash.

WLlama

Caged Mongrel

Join Date: Jul 2006

Cage in a Dungeon

Flaming Turtles

N/

08 Jul 2006 at 02:05 - 400

Just as a note, Loviatar's post reminded me of something:

Quote:

Selling in-game items for cash is clearly against the terms of service

If you trade a large amount of stuff (especially with high values) for no or little return, that may send up a flag. Example: Hmm...Zodiac sword traded for nothing to a non-guildie...real world cash?