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Did Anet stop banning bots?
Dakeru
Member EpicPosts: 3,802
Ever since the game came up, Orr has been crowded with bots. Jokingly I always called the road from Pagga's Post to the Cursed Shore the "botter road"
It has never been much of an issue - I rightclicked them and reported. I must have gotten hundreds banned over the last year. Usually it takes 14 days for Anet to ban them - but not anymore.
I see the same bots day by day now. Slaying zombies in Orr 24/7 and harvesting the nodes around.
I only just bumped into someone who I thought had been banned months ago - he simply switched areas and is botting in Gendarra instead, where detection is less likely. He isn't even the only one - the eastern woods of Blazeridge Steppes are pretty popular.
So what has happened? Why does it look like Anet stopped banning for botting?
Comments
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Well that would make sense if it already was holiday time.
As said I'm used to a 14 day phase to check - so let's say the current bots have been there for at least 3 weeks now.
That means it was end of November, which is 1 month before Christmas.
Oderint, dum metuant.
After awhile they all stop banning or trying to combat them though.
That may be true with some older games, I don't know. However it doesn't appear to be remotely true in GW2. They're always telling people on the forums to report any bots or hacks they see so they can do something about it. Remember the game is still relatively new and quite thriving; they're not giving up on it in any way, shape or form.
Oderint, dum metuant.
Reporting bots in MMOs is a waste of user time. Just don't do it unless you have fun doing it. You acheive actually nothing. The companies either do nothing about it or are not consequent enough.
When you say you saw the same bot again you reported months ago that either means he was never banned or just got a temporary ban. In both cases the bots win and the company failed.
I reported bots in FFXIV for some time but soon came to the conclusion that it's not worth my time. They never got removed or just reappered a short time (week or less) later either at the same place or somewhere else. So again, either they got temporary bans or no bans at all.
TL;DR: Players can't fight bots effectively and companies don't care. Learn to live with bots.
Well it feels like you left out important parts of my post.
I did get a few hundred accounts banned so I do feel my time wasn't wasted.
What bugs me is that the usual ban wave is more than late by now.
They have not stopped banning bots. What has happened is there is a rash of fake A.Net ban emails (I get them weekly but the spam filter catches them - you can tell by the fake link in the email) and if people are responding to those, there accounts are stolen. So that is where many of the bots are coming from now.
You will also get more bots when there is a free trial weekend. There have been several free trial weekends so that is also where many are coming from.
A.Net has done amazingly well in keeping bots down.
You will never totally eliminate bots in any game - PERIOD.
I got one gold spammer in a month - if that is a rash - I will take that.
Ok sorry but that is nonsense too.
I will say it one more time. I am used to people getting banned within 2 weeks - it's been over 3 weeks now.
3 weeks of the same people excludes any trial and I do remember what Chinese botters look like botting in groups.
These aren't hacked accounts. Some of them are this typical kind of lazy player who will respond to you about 30 mins later: "Oh, sorry. I wasn't botting, I just didn't notice you since I'm so busy killing random monsters!"
Anyone can feel free to check them out. I'm playing on Far Shiverpeaks (EU)
Typical bots in Malchor's Leap:
Pnozen, Lambertski, Nzio, Alek Shaka, Gdws, Sherapihim, Art Riftwalker, Xcissor, Thehawlkarrow, Boreithena, Zet Kaizen, Hgcmmc
Sony Praystation (that bot keeps on dying over and over again at the necro vet near the statue with all the elder wood)
Typical Bots in the Cursed Shore:
Fuyana, Fire Nation Refugee, Vangaris Shaiden, Grimvar Ice Fist, Kyau Neko, Hilionah, Nefelimill, Kasheeroo, Wiolleta, Mustmann, Diandra Best Lee, Chunkyden, Ugly Hunter, Arvenaa
Bots on random maps (somtimes semi afking therefore answering 5-30 minutes after you tried talking to them):
Miss Birdie, The Trekker, Micoors Tresh
Frida Stursund (often seen her during boss event so she isn't botting all the time)
*edit*
The bot who I thought I got rid of months ago is Subwoo who is currently botting in the Gendarran Fields. (Typical Necro bot with a complete zoo)
Ok I'm not sure what you consider prime time. I just took a 5 minute walk on the "botter road" and found:
Lanamall, Hárrin, Goatsin, Bendica, Boreithena, Hgcmmc, Millisika, Ryrbuow
Saliki (found her before but she answered now she is botting with her status set to offline so you can't whisper to her)
Also I whispered to Pnozen and didn't get an answer just like expected. He is one of those necro-zoo bots and I doubt he ever played himself at some point.
*edit*
Simply while harvesting my daily Ori and wood I found more (some with whispering blocked):
Rona Night, Ignios, Solitudine
It took me about 10 minutes to find this many bots again. So you saying you couldn't reach any of the 26 I named before and 1 even responding seems more than questionable. I would like to see a screenshot of Pnozen answering.
It's not because someone doesn't answer to whispers that they're automatically a bot. Sometimes I just look at the combat log to try differnent combinations of weapons and stats, while merrily slaying mobs.
If you can discover a pattern in their actions, then maybe they're botting, don't assume "bot!" over just not answering a whisper.
Yeah, don't think of me as a bot if i don't answer a whisper. Usually it is because I am too busy soloing something to answer!
Also most of the time the whispers I get are gold sellers so I not only ignore them but report them!
Ok so you guys want to believe that I'm just some idiot who can't differ between bots and busy players. Fine.
I have been a GM for another game for over 6 years and banned thousands of bots in my days.
Since it was mentioned that Pnozen answered I will use her as example because I call plain bullshit here.
Do you want more screenshots of me jumping in their faces with the chat bubbles up?
Do you want screenshots of me whispering to them?
Do you want a larger timeframe? Like 1 attempt to talk to them an hour?
Demand what you want these bots are running 24 hours a day doing nothing but farming zombies in Orr and it's no problem for me to find them again.
To be honest I wouldn't answer any of that if I'm soloing. The most you'd get out of me is a wave, and that's if I felt like it. If you continued to send me tells I'd /add ignore you, if you kept saying high to me and jumping in my face even after I ignored you, I'd assume you were a kid, weird, or both. Your criteria isn't exactly fool proof, and seems a tad obsessive.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
How can you tell if a character is a bot?
Edit: That guy didn't answer you in 2 minutes and you call him a bot? Your first whisper is from 14:59 and your last is from 15:00. Wow. I sometimes get whispers which I just ignore. But if someone's spamming me like you I will just ignore you
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Lovely how you guys ignore the older posts in this thread. I didn't waste any time on this because this bot has been there for over 3 weeks now, botting 24 hours a day.
What do you want as proof? A youtube vid of me stalking this guy? One screenshot an hour of him randomly killing zombies in Orr?
Go ahead demand it. I can back up all of my claims.
Pnozen is only an example of my point here, just one of many bots.
The usual ban wave for bots like him has been way overdue and I want to know why Anet stopped banning them.
Yes they probably were a bot - its very simple to see in GW2. I used to report loads of bots but it rarely made a difference as many were still in the same place weeks later.
ANet could have stopped bots from ever appearing with a few systems (ie roaming boss that can't be soloed so you have to run away or more intelligent and adaptive AI) but they simply don't care enough.
In fact I bet they make a huge amount of money from banned botters having to continually buy new keys.
@donald
Sometimes there is this necro zombie spawning near the statue of melandru with all the wood. Its life drain ability is so strong that bots with their normal routine of attacks can't bring it down and die over and over again.
@sandvich
Yes I know just saying hello isn't enough and can easily be missed. I only do that when I see the same character running around malchor's leap killing random zombies for weeks and that 24 hours a day.
Having said so, I noticed that Pnozen and Micry weren't online today. Maybe the ban wave has finally hit?
I can't look around Orr right now as I lost my gaming mouse and gw2 just isn't the same without keybindings.
No they don't ban bots, I see them all the time in certain places in pve!
They also do not ban cheats, I see this all the time in wvw and pvp!
Well just another day of the same routine as usual. Pnozen and Saliki botting nonstop with their necro zoos - but this time I noticed a new necro and whispered to him.
This one was funny - semi afk botters always rage like crazy when you catch them. Well half a year ago it was funnier since they would actually get banned.
Well this guy took some minutes to notice that I had whispered to him and I loved his answers.
Yeah now I'm curious - how will he justify a report for verbal abuse against me?
Simple:
Well if I can't get him banned for botting then reporting him for encouraging people to make false reports against me will do the trick.