Botting allowed as long as you're there?

Reizla

The Innova L2C forums have been buzzing this morning about a twitch streamer that's clearly botting, or at least having his gameplay automated. I immediately reported this 'player' to Amarantha and DeepBlue (who both have certain GM powers in game as well), and here's the reply I had from Amarantha:

As you can imagine, I was furious about this answer and I dropped this screenshot in the buzzing topic with the comment "So botting is allowed as long as you're at the keyboard", followed by a comment that I'll request a refund because Innova clearly can't keep their end of the bargain of the EULA (and thus according to EU law the contract can be canceled).

It might not come as a surprise, but dropping this screenshot got me banned on the forums till the end of March (long live my own domains and infinite forum accounts ) ad the message was deleted. Oddly enough, Amarantha did come up with some weird reply...

I'm not sure, but I don't think they were AFK at the momen. I suspect that the revolting player on the forum did kinda push her to take this action, and indeed, on the steam I saw them disconnect one by one.

Now the odd parts of this all...
1. This dude is as dumb as dumb can be - he kept streaming an other hour after he got his D/C with all of his toons...
2. This dude is from Russia, made a ticket and did get support, while according to Innova's own policy, those not living within the supported area (2.9 from the EULA that I posted earlier) will not get support. GMDoctor told him his character (not account :!:) was suspended for 7 days. Okay, his stream showed he has 6 days of sub left, but IMO he should be banned permanently. Later in that ticket he also admitted to have been banned from Grand Kain (L2C RU) and there he promised not to bot anymore - PERM BAN FOR SURE!
3. During the time he kept streaming I've seen lots of info (and recorded it - 94 minutes of a cheater at work ). Amongst the info I saw was also his WebPay account, where it became clear he's one of the adenasellers on the server. Of course, this part of the recordings I've uploaded and shared with Amarantha & DeepBlue...

But I ask you... Why on earth is botting (or in this dude's case automated gameplay - he didn't use a 3rd party program) allowed when you're still around at the keyboard. Eventhough I doubt he's been at the keyboard the whole 10 hours of his stream, IMO automated gameplay IN ANY FORM should be an INSTANT and PERMANENT BAN, regardless if you're using 3rd party software, your programmable keyboard or even have some keys pressed by weights. You are automating gameplay FFS!

Well, at least this guy got banned. Hopefully all of the characters played from his IP address and in his party will be banned as well now that the adenaselling has become clear. But none the less, I have filed the refund request anyway, becuse this whole debacle just shows how bad Innova actually is at enforcing their EULA...

Kyleran

Perhaps the rules permit botting as long as you are at the controls?

EVE used to permit controlling multiple characters with a single keyboard until only recently.

BigRambo

 Seriously, botting was the BIG deal in the mid 2000's, but today? Who cares? Every time a GM bans 1 RMT 10 more pops up. And we all know, if you piss players off, they'll quit.  So they leave people botting and do whatever the hell they want, as long as they don't hack in to the games sockets, everything's fine.   If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.  That's how low the business has fallen to, and it won't be changing any time soon.  Imagine FF14 without botting, the game would die tomorrow morning, you expect people to craft / gather 24/7 at their keyboards?  We all got other things to do in life.  You need to look at the bigger picture. 

Phry

Kyleran said:

Perhaps the rules permit botting as long as you are at the controls?

EVE used to permit controlling multiple characters with a single keyboard until only recently.

There was a program that many multiboxers used, rumour has it that when CCP banned multiboxing that was the reason why they lost so many accounts, i can't say i am a fan of multiboxing so i am not disappointed, you can have multiple instances of Eve running, its just that you can't use 3rd party software anymore to control them all, i think it was getting a bit too close 'botting' for comfort, so that may have been the reason for the ban, but, if your willing to tab between clients, you can do that, of course, its not a very effective way to 'multibox' and in PVP would get you killed pretty fast.

Reizla

Kyleran said:

Perhaps the rules permit botting as long as you are at the controls?

EVE used to permit controlling multiple characters with a single keyboard until only recently.

Would make sense, if only Innova didn't CLEARLY state that:
"https://eu.4game.com/l2ceu-user-agreement/
4.18. It is forbidden to use software emulating Player’s presence in the Game.

You can use drivers for your mouse/keyboard (unless Frost is blocking it). You can program your F1-F12 or other keyboard buttons to additional buttons on your mouse (that's what gaming mouses are made for). But in case you use mouse drivers to automate gaming process, you break the rules."

and

"Please note though that we take botting problem very seriously hence we make investigation for every case. It means that banning a particular character and/or account may take some time, but please be sure and let all your friends know that if someone is botting they will end permanently banned.

Due to game mechanics, you can make 7 bot reports a day. In case you find a group of botting characters, You can report just one of them, a tank, for example." (quote from CM_Amarantha)

In this case Innova fails to do both of these things...

GeezerGamer

The second you get a popular game you get botters, cheaters and spammers. But the "Can't beat em, join em" mentality has not really helped make the situation any better.

Dakeru

I remember before I became a bothunting GM I was watching my mentor and we caught some high profile guy botting.
After some time of watching him I burst out laughing ingame and immediately the guy stopped his bot and was talking to us.
There are standard plugins for bots that will alert you when something happens such as people nearby talking.

It can also go further and they will use automated replies but obviously that's only something for lazy guys who don't care if they get banned. It's simply not convincing when you ask them if they are selling Bottles and they immediately answer: "Not a bot!"

But yeah @Reizla get a refund and get out of there - it's obvious this company is incompetent and/or doesn't care.

Reizla

GeezerGamer said:

The second you get a popular game you get botters, cheaters and spammers. But the "Can't beat em, join em" mentality has not really helped make the situation any better.

Couldn't agree more. Yet I hoped Innova would at least try and fight the bots like they do on Core, but that seemed a bit too much to ask from their side In this case, they've only banned (for 7 days FFS because they were automating with macros instead of using 3rd party programs - I don't see a difference between the 2) a few of these 'players' in the party while others are still off the hook. Even while one if them CLEARLY is owned by an adenaseller (and now probably saving the money to an other toon)

Albatroes

Its not the only game that allowed bot like mechanics. Some even came with them built in like Forsaken World or Ragnarok Online's Alchemist class lol damn I miss that game.

Reizla

Albatroes said:

Its not the only game that allowed bot like mechanics. Some even came with them built in like Forsaken World or Ragnarok Online's Alchemist class lol damn I miss that game.

Uhm... L2, it's EULA and (supposedly) the GMs do not allow botting. There are in-game macros and you can not loop them (yet - in the current KR patch you can - WHY?), but automated gameplay is not allowed in L2 in any way (yet...)

goboygo

"Fat Botting and cashshops makes the F2P world go round"  One of my favorite songs.

Reizla

goboygo said:

"Fat Botting and cashshops makes the F2P world go round"  One of my favorite songs.

L2Classic is SUBSCRIPTION, that's makes it even worse... I've paid the GMs to do their work and they just won't

goboygo

Reizla said:

goboygo said:

"Fat Botting and cashshops makes the F2P world go round"  One of my favorite songs.

L2Classic is SUBSCRIPTION, that's makes it even worse... I've paid the GMs to do their work and they just won't

Hehe well your right then that makes it far worse for a sub game to be infested with bots with no one really caring.  But I still like that song...:)

ILastW1shI

Reizla  The GMs are lazy, they only care for your money.

legacy1234

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