The Botting Problem: A Solution

[Snikelbel]

" Alright, I am so sick and tired of all these botters.... they f*ck up the economy, are plaguing the gold making spots, ruin BGs, and all around, I don't like em at all.

So I sat around thinking.... hmmm how do I get rid of these pesky vermin?
Well report them of course!
That tends to have a delayed, if not ineffective response.

So drastic times have cause for drastic measures.

We need to expose these botters for what they are!

Theres a nifty site I found just for these reports.

*snip*

Mods, if this is too advertisey just delete it."

Yes, it is.

-snowieken

[ahhdamm]

and this means what.
i don't see the point in it

[Snikelbel]

we need to report the bots!!

[rottentomato]

umm....confusion....how is this different than the normal course of action?

[Thargos]

right click>report.

tada!

[Snikelbel]

right click>report.

tada!

you see, but its not that simple. you have to file a ticket and wait for GM.

[rottentomato]

you see, but its not that simple. you have to file a ticket and wait for GM.

umm no you dont...they still check out your ticket regardless.

[Snikelbel]

umm no you dont...they still check out your ticket regardless.

i assume you have proof of this

[ahhdamm]

but what's your website going to do about botting that's better then sending a ticket to a GM?

[rottentomato]

i assume you have proof of this

yea...go write a ticket and log off then check your email... they will send you a response via email.


in other words, this takes less time than logging on to some stupid site that is only effective as the number of people going on it and griping, and HOPING someone will go on there and take affirmative action from blizzard (they wont because its not a site endorsed by them)

sounds like a whole bunch of retarded to me


/close thread

[snowieken]

but what's your website going to do about botting that's better then sending a ticket to a GM?I would lock the post if I just wasn't so extremely curious how Snikelbel is going to explain this one.

Because to me, it's just blatant advertising of another forum. So yes, Snikelbel, what is that forum going to do about botting that is better than in-game reporting?

[Snikelbel]

Well you see its not just about getting the person banned... its about putting them in a public database where everyone can see them and also comment on them. Like another person saw this person botting. If you were a guildmaster of an elite guild, wouldn't you want to know if your players were botters?

[PlayThemAll]

Well you see its not just about getting the person banned... its about putting them in a public database where everyone can see them and also comment on them. Like another person saw this person botting. If you were a guildmaster of an elite guild, wouldn't you want to know if your players were botters?

No, something like this seems to open it up to much for speculation and for griefing people that may or may not really be botting. How do you know for fact that they are botting before adding them to your database? What if you were wrong, now you've screwed them up in-game.

I prefer to just report them and let Blizz sort it out.

[snowieken]

Blizzard already stated that they won't give any value to blacklisting on their own forums, let alone a separate website. You could easily accuse someone who just outrolled you for that phat epic you wanted just to get back at him. If there is a one-click report feature implemented in the game, I really don't see the need for websites like this. Blizzard is not going to anything about names mentioned on that website, but they are going to investigate people numerously reported in-game.

Yes, if I am a guild leader, I would like to know whether one of my guild members is botting, but if he gets banned for it, I would probably find out anyway. However, if I saw one of my guild members mentioned on a site like that, I would probably just get mad at people blacklisting him and also my guild, just because of some screenshot which proves nothing.

[Snikelbel]

You wouldn't at least ask him about it?

[snowieken]

Of course I would, but aren't you being a bit nitpicky now?

[rottentomato]

honestly snik...if you asked him about it...how many out of 10,000 people that bot do you think would say...


"i'm a botter"


i have a probable answer... 1

i say

http://sts.synflood.de/dump/fun/normal_ban_him.jpg

now end this pointless thread snow

[DrScience]

Just because you dont actually see a GM banning a bot doesen't mean they aren't actually doing it. Your make a ticket, report the bot - and when the GMs get around to reading the ticket they will investigate and take action if appropriate. If you go offline after making a ticket, it stays in their queue regardless - you just wont be online to speak with them when they recieve the ticket.

[piscene]

You're assuming that other people will look at that website, then check the names on there against people on their realm...it's just not going to happen.

I have confidence that Blizz does not want botters in the game, and that they will take the appropriate action when they get a report. I do not have confidence that some external list will make one ounce of difference.

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

You definitely don't have to wait for anything when you file a report. If the GMs aren't online, when you log off, you get a handy-dandy email.

Well you see its not just about getting the person banned... its about putting them in a public database where everyone can see them and also comment on them. Like another person saw this person botting. If you were a guildmaster of an elite guild, wouldn't you want to know if your players were botters?

Congratulations, you succeed in failing. Wow, so you end up what, blacklisting a character? OMG the person just makes a new character and continues. Thus, what you did is less than useless. Submitting a ticket in-game gets the account suspended/banned. Not just getting one single character in a blacklist from an obscure website. Sure, the individual then just makes a new account, right? Well, that costs money... Which means there is more difficulty (slight, but still there) than being on some obscure website's list of bad characters. Every time an account gets banned, that's another account (full account) that needs to be reestablished for the botters. Further, the botters then have to monitor silly things like their MAC addresses and IP addresses... because you can bet Blizzard will be watching those. So.... a new IP address (possibly outside of the range if addresses available from whatever ISP was used), maybe even a new network card (to get a new MAC address)... on top of buying a new copy of the game.

I still fail to see how going to this website to "report" botters to get blacklisted on it is in any way as significant as getting a ticket in which results in direct action from Blizzard.

[Renata]

I haven't even seen any bots around in a long time.

Now, spammers at the Orgimmar mailbox is a different story...

...Ren

[Snikelbel]

honestly snik...if you asked him about it...how many out of 10,000 people that bot do you think would say...


"i'm a botter"


i have a probable answer... 1

i say

http://sts.synflood.de/dump/fun/normal_ban_him.jpg

now end this pointless thread snow

I know but they would know to atleast keep an eye on him to make sure he is not a botter.... kinda like a watchlist you know

[Shellar]

Now, spammers at the Orgimmar mailbox is a different story...
Aye, it's pretty much pointless to report those, being trial accounts and all.

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

I know but they would know to atleast keep an eye on him to make sure he is not a botter.... kinda like a watchlist you know

I don't know, I play the game to enjoy myself, not to be constantly keeping tabs to figure out who is a botter and who isn't. If someone's being obviously a bot, I'll report that person, and let Blizzard make the call. It isn't like it is difficult for Blizzard to do so.

[rottentomato]

I know but they would know to atleast keep an eye on him to make sure he is not a botter.... kinda like a watchlist you know

in all honesty...if i were to bot per se, i wouldnt use my main, id use something that wasnt in a guild that i leveled to lets say.... lvl 40, so i could at least go to STV and set it loose there without worrying too much about it dying...i could imagine the bot by the end of the day would end up around lvl 45-48 with out much problem, and be rather hood rich from the gorillas next to grom gol.

so if you were to report him on your lame site, youd be reporting that one character, who i would ultimately either delete, or spend a week playing and not showing signs of botting.

these gold selling companies that bot, they dont need to worry so much about the cost attributed to if their account gets banned for botting, they can just create a new one and keep using proxy servers so they never in turn have to worry much about getting the ban hammer. during their workers off hours or when that single character takes a break i could imagine they load up a botting program to help progress the character even faster, and once they hit lvl 70, unleash the bot in an area that not a lot of people really traverse anymore...

(horde side) WPL or EPL comes to mind.


your site is good in theory as it could down credibility on someone who you would assume is botting, but it only nails 1 of 10 possibilities for this character, and a lot of people that want to do the illegal activities already take loads of precautions to ensure that their epic elite mojo master character isnt being hurt by anything that they are doing illegally.

like i said...you dont have a lot of ground to stand on in your defense, and this thread is as pointless as a blind man trying to do neurosurgery.

[Justinledwards]

hmmm the reason this botwatch site is a waste of time is because... it's pointless. No change for good will come from this site.

I for one, am never, ever going to alt-tab to report the 9 AFKers in EotS. I'll just shift-m to open the minimap, right-click the starting rock and select 'report all of the above'.

There, done.

What you are suggesting, let's walk this through, is I write all these names down, look them up on a site, enter them if they aren't there (and I CBF doing all the weird ascii chars either). And once the AFKers are booted and 9 more come in.... hey, I have just spent so long doing all that crap that someone just reported ME AFK lmao.

Then I know something I ALREADY KNOW - they are a botter.... sigh. And, by wasting all of that time, nothing will ever be done to them about it. Ohhh some guild will look at this site and check to see if someone was botting 'naw I wasn't it was mistaken identity' ahh ok no worries then, /ginvite.

It's a waste of everyone's time kiddo, and smells of schoolyard bullying.

[teck21]

yeah, going to another website just to put down the names of botters i just too tedious, not to mention it's open to abuse a sothers have pointed out.

In my case, I register my protest by simply noy going to BGs anymore.

If everyone who detests the afk'ers simply stays away from bgs, Blizz will do something about it when they realize that bgs suddenly only involve all players in simply standing around at starting point.

Not going to happen of course, so I resign myself to the fact that I will never get any BG available epics.

Tryong to do something to help the team win when it's quite pointless because there're 5 afk'ers is just too much mental aggravation for me to bear so I just stay away.

Actually boycotting Bgs might work, or not since Blizz might actually decide that if no one's going to the bgs, it must be because they're not pouplar so they may as well end Bgs.

Sort of like the education class in Joseph Heller's Catch-22. Students asking troublesome and inconvenient questions? Simply only allow students who never ask any questions in. Since no one asks any questions, no one's gonna learn anything. Therefore why bother to educate them? Just end the classes altogether. Problem solved.