Originally posted by jircris i love the people who (...) claim ESO is the only mmo with bots. (...)
Maybe it's more a complaint that we have had bots for years and years and still no one has figured out a way to handle them.
Can't ZOS just hire ten interns for a bottle of water and a cold 2-day old sandwich to react to reports of bots? Port to where bot is. If it's still there, contact bot to verify it's not just a dude who loves to grind and grind the same damn mob all day long, then zap, 3-day ban, done, next ticket.
Originally posted by jircris i love the people who are ether so new to mmos or just stupid that claim ESO is the only mmo with bots. Play a free to play one...hell here is a GREAT example..mabinogi, you will see the SAME system on there as ESO, Not before you come to the defense of "well its a pay to play game" so is WoW and i have seen the same thing. what it boils down to is there will ALWAYS be these bots, why because people buy the gold and power levels from them. If no one bought anything from then they would not exist but there are thousands of lazy people who enjoy the "here i just bought this game takes some extra and play it for me!"
I actually haven't seen anyone in this thread that has said that ESO is the only MMO with bots. I've seen many posts saying it's a hindrance and the company should do something about it. I've even seen people try to come up with solutions to the problem.
Well, come June it will be WildStars turn to be over run by botters and goldspammers because it will be the next new thing on the market.
After submitting this I realized that after WS is 'SUPPOSEDLY' AA being released, and that made me wonder if even the 'botters and spammers will bother with it as long as it has been delayed...
I ran into the Inner Sea Armature (lowbie Ebonheart public dungeon) yesterday and there were at least 8 bots crowded around the 'boss' spawn. Took me 6 attempts to get enough damage in to loot the thing. There was another bot off by itself in the same room in a macro loop. Swing, swing, swing, loot.
Zenimax better get a handle on the bots and the gold spammers quick. I am surprised they haven't put measures in place yet. The longer it takes, the worse it gets. And it doesn't matter if other games have this problem. This is ESO's problem and it needs to be fixed.
Ok new bots were here, I saw one here and there yet in the SOLO places around lvl 7+ Ondil I think wow.. there everywhere and an early one had 20+ around some npc that spawned and then they ALL killed it same time. I could not get it. Some achievement. All had names like aaaddakk lol
yes yes yes MMO have this but not this long. Its 2014 and you expect this going in yet they should have had a handle on it now. Wildstar is looking better. Yet could be bot heaven also.. never know.
So if you wonder about getting this game WAIT! Wait a few months.. really
But are they all bots? I have seen players waiting to kill a boss a few times and then moving on, is that boting? First dungeon I was in I killed the boss twice as I did not see him for long enough to realise I was attacking a boss for the weight of players around him.
Originally posted by Scot But are they all bots? I have seen players waiting to kill a boss a few times and then moving on, is that boting? First dungeon I was in I killed the boss twice as I did not see him for long enough to realise I was attacking a boss for the weight of players around him.
They have quite random names or like ...adenxx, adenbb, adencc.. at same spot.
Originally posted by Scot But are they all bots? I have seen players waiting to kill a boss a few times and then moving on, is that boting? First dungeon I was in I killed the boss twice as I did not see him for long enough to realise I was attacking a boss for the weight of players around him.
No they are not all bots. Many players stick around and kill the end of mini-dungeon boss a few times for the occasional blue drop and filled soul gems.
But when you have 4 to 6 standing on top of each other, with nonsensical names and usually all the same class (DK and Templar seem to be the favorites) who react incredibly fast in unison to the boss' spawn...yeah, bots.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
Ok, whats the news? Most of the readers in here already now that. Eso is not the only game that have this problem. Could you please put up some links on the swarming bots in WOW, Black Temple and Naxx?
And for us who actually play Eso, we have also already seen them.
So because there's bots in other games, it's okay that there's bots in ESO? I don't understand your logic.
You don't excuse poor behavior by pointing to the same or worse behavior elsewhere.
If bots are a "known problem", then one could ask why Zeni didn't do more to get ahead of that before launch. Why aren't they more pro-active in dealing with it now? I mean, after all.. like you said, there are bots in other MMOs.. so it's not like they didn't expect it. Yet, they dove head-long into it without making better preparations to combat it.
All that considered, I'd say the criticism is valid. It's equally valid for any MMO launching these days without better anti-botting systems and procedures in place. But, since this is the ESO forum, and we are discussing ESO, none of those other MMOs are relevant.
Well, come June it will be WildStars turn to be over run by botters and goldspammers because it will be the next new thing on the market.
After submitting this I realized that after WS is 'SUPPOSEDLY' AA being released, and that made me wonder if even the 'botters and spammers will bother with it as long as it has been delayed...
They will be there, and in droves.... but they might not stay long with how WildStar is made gameplay wise. Come June we will find out if it's design really will deter Bots like the Devs hope it will *OR* we will find out how many "loopholes" there are in it's design.
If there's one thing in this game that pisses me off it's the bots, and I hope they come up with something soon. I think it's mindboggling that these blobs of 10 bots are at the EVERY dungeon rare. EACH dungeon you run through you find this "sahgdfsa" named blob at the end.
How in the world is it impossible to have an army of GM's at the launch of a game like this to handle it, there's not even need for any investigation, it's the blob where everyone is named "djfhsa" and they stand there like the nurses in Silent Hill and when the poor mini boss mob appears they rip it to shreds in 0.5 seconds and then turn into statues again. Just nuke the blob until it stays down?
Impossible to nuke? They just roll new keys with keygen and make a new account instantly? Then do something about the game mechanics, put cooldown on rare mobs how often you get loot from them, say 10-15 minutes, and there wont be that blob. Ofcourse it means there's a new problem to solve based on the next move of the bot armies.
If they'll announce they have 3 million players I'm willing to bet on 1,5 million of them being gold farmers.
Okay got that out of the system, back to enjoying the breathtaking world, hunting treasure and playing /flute
Ok, whats the news? Most of the readers in here already now that. Eso is not the only game that have this problem. Could you please put up some links on the swarming bots in WOW, Black Temple and Naxx?
And for us who actually play Eso, we have also already seen them.
So because there's bots in other games, it's okay that there's bots in ESO? I don't understand your logic.
You don't excuse poor behavior by pointing to the same or worse behavior elsewhere.
If bots are a "known problem", then one could ask why Zeni didn't do more to get ahead of that before launch. Why aren't they more pro-active in dealing with it now? I mean, after all.. like you said, there are bots in other MMOs.. so it's not like they didn't expect it. Yet, they dove head-long into it without making better preparations to combat it.
All that considered, I'd say the criticism is valid. It's equally valid for any MMO launching these days without better anti-botting systems and procedures in place. But, since this is the ESO forum, and we are discussing ESO, none of those other MMOs are relevant.
Well that right there is exactly why people are bringing up other games. Because you and others are placing blame on the company for not preventing something that is a part of every single subscription game. If Zenimax prevented this "before launch" as you so naively put it, they would have been the first company ever to do so.
F2P games usually do not suffer from this problem because there it's the companies themselves who sell you the gold: it's hardly worth the time and effort for the professional gold farmers to hack their way in to farm and sell gold and compete with a developer who has an unlimited supply of it. Even so, they were all over the place in GW2.
It's an industry with very sophisticated credit card scammers and hackers who make a living doing this using methods that are constantly being tweaked to enable them to do their job. And to this day, WOW is still their number one market.
Putting blinders on and trying to discuss bots in ESO in isolation is just silly.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
Ok, whats the news? Most of the readers in here already now that. Eso is not the only game that have this problem. Could you please put up some links on the swarming bots in WOW, Black Temple and Naxx?
And for us who actually play Eso, we have also already seen them.
So because there's bots in other games, it's okay that there's bots in ESO? I don't understand your logic.
You don't excuse poor behavior by pointing to the same or worse behavior elsewhere.
If bots are a "known problem", then one could ask why Zeni didn't do more to get ahead of that before launch. Why aren't they more pro-active in dealing with it now? I mean, after all.. like you said, there are bots in other MMOs.. so it's not like they didn't expect it. Yet, they dove head-long into it without making better preparations to combat it.
All that considered, I'd say the criticism is valid. It's equally valid for any MMO launching these days without better anti-botting systems and procedures in place. But, since this is the ESO forum, and we are discussing ESO, none of those other MMOs are relevant.
Do you even understand how botting generally works? It's not very complex, it's mainly just a script that runs a series of key presses automatically. The game itself can't really determine if it is a program or a person actually pressing the keys. Hell you can easily create your own bot using a program like AHK. People used to do it in WAR all the time. Either manually, or by simply having it record one of your sessions running a dungeon, save that, then when you feel like AFK botting press a key and it will run the dungeon over and over for you. Only way to detect it is by physically watching it in action and seeing the repetition.
The only way to really counter them in most cases is to keep on banning them, which they have been doing. There isn't anything you can do to "get ahead" of it. Any attempt to do so is pretty pointless as they tend to figure out a work around within days. That is why nearly every game, especially when new, has a pretty high population of bots and why the fact that they exist in other games as well is relevant. Even years into a game there don't exist counters to bots. They simply die out due to lack of demand for gold selling that they don't waste their time with the game anymore, or they manage to ban enough accounts for long enough that they give up.
Why don't botters use the name generator so they will not be so easily identified as botters. Really they should take up a class on botting first rule name your bot properly so that one glance will not get you banned for having name with too many consonants.
Comments
Maybe it's more a complaint that we have had bots for years and years and still no one has figured out a way to handle them.
Can't ZOS just hire ten interns for a bottle of water and a cold 2-day old sandwich to react to reports of bots? Port to where bot is. If it's still there, contact bot to verify it's not just a dude who loves to grind and grind the same damn mob all day long, then zap, 3-day ban, done, next ticket.
I actually haven't seen anyone in this thread that has said that ESO is the only MMO with bots. I've seen many posts saying it's a hindrance and the company should do something about it. I've even seen people try to come up with solutions to the problem.
Well, come June it will be WildStars turn to be over run by botters and goldspammers because it will be the next new thing on the market.
After submitting this I realized that after WS is 'SUPPOSEDLY' AA being released, and that made me wonder if even the 'botters and spammers will bother with it as long as it has been delayed...
I ran into the Inner Sea Armature (lowbie Ebonheart public dungeon) yesterday and there were at least 8 bots crowded around the 'boss' spawn. Took me 6 attempts to get enough damage in to loot the thing. There was another bot off by itself in the same room in a macro loop. Swing, swing, swing, loot.
Zenimax better get a handle on the bots and the gold spammers quick. I am surprised they haven't put measures in place yet. The longer it takes, the worse it gets. And it doesn't matter if other games have this problem. This is ESO's problem and it needs to be fixed.
Ok new bots were here, I saw one here and there yet in the SOLO places around lvl 7+ Ondil I think wow.. there everywhere and an early one had 20+ around some npc that spawned and then they ALL killed it same time. I could not get it. Some achievement. All had names like aaaddakk lol
yes yes yes MMO have this but not this long. Its 2014 and you expect this going in yet they should have had a handle on it now. Wildstar is looking better. Yet could be bot heaven also.. never know.
So if you wonder about getting this game WAIT! Wait a few months.. really
If you get too many bots, just relog for fewer... works about every time
edit: after reporting them of course
They have quite random names or like ...adenxx, adenbb, adencc.. at same spot.
No they are not all bots. Many players stick around and kill the end of mini-dungeon boss a few times for the occasional blue drop and filled soul gems.
But when you have 4 to 6 standing on top of each other, with nonsensical names and usually all the same class (DK and Templar seem to be the favorites) who react incredibly fast in unison to the boss' spawn...yeah, bots.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
So because there's bots in other games, it's okay that there's bots in ESO? I don't understand your logic.
You don't excuse poor behavior by pointing to the same or worse behavior elsewhere.
If bots are a "known problem", then one could ask why Zeni didn't do more to get ahead of that before launch. Why aren't they more pro-active in dealing with it now? I mean, after all.. like you said, there are bots in other MMOs.. so it's not like they didn't expect it. Yet, they dove head-long into it without making better preparations to combat it.
All that considered, I'd say the criticism is valid. It's equally valid for any MMO launching these days without better anti-botting systems and procedures in place. But, since this is the ESO forum, and we are discussing ESO, none of those other MMOs are relevant.
They will be there, and in droves.... but they might not stay long with how WildStar is made gameplay wise. Come June we will find out if it's design really will deter Bots like the Devs hope it will *OR* we will find out how many "loopholes" there are in it's design.
If there's one thing in this game that pisses me off it's the bots, and I hope they come up with something soon. I think it's mindboggling that these blobs of 10 bots are at the EVERY dungeon rare. EACH dungeon you run through you find this "sahgdfsa" named blob at the end.
How in the world is it impossible to have an army of GM's at the launch of a game like this to handle it, there's not even need for any investigation, it's the blob where everyone is named "djfhsa" and they stand there like the nurses in Silent Hill and when the poor mini boss mob appears they rip it to shreds in 0.5 seconds and then turn into statues again. Just nuke the blob until it stays down?
Impossible to nuke? They just roll new keys with keygen and make a new account instantly? Then do something about the game mechanics, put cooldown on rare mobs how often you get loot from them, say 10-15 minutes, and there wont be that blob. Ofcourse it means there's a new problem to solve based on the next move of the bot armies.
If they'll announce they have 3 million players I'm willing to bet on 1,5 million of them being gold farmers.
Okay got that out of the system, back to enjoying the breathtaking world, hunting treasure and playing /flute
Well that right there is exactly why people are bringing up other games. Because you and others are placing blame on the company for not preventing something that is a part of every single subscription game. If Zenimax prevented this "before launch" as you so naively put it, they would have been the first company ever to do so.
F2P games usually do not suffer from this problem because there it's the companies themselves who sell you the gold: it's hardly worth the time and effort for the professional gold farmers to hack their way in to farm and sell gold and compete with a developer who has an unlimited supply of it. Even so, they were all over the place in GW2.
It's an industry with very sophisticated credit card scammers and hackers who make a living doing this using methods that are constantly being tweaked to enable them to do their job. And to this day, WOW is still their number one market.
Putting blinders on and trying to discuss bots in ESO in isolation is just silly.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Do you even understand how botting generally works? It's not very complex, it's mainly just a script that runs a series of key presses automatically. The game itself can't really determine if it is a program or a person actually pressing the keys. Hell you can easily create your own bot using a program like AHK. People used to do it in WAR all the time. Either manually, or by simply having it record one of your sessions running a dungeon, save that, then when you feel like AFK botting press a key and it will run the dungeon over and over for you. Only way to detect it is by physically watching it in action and seeing the repetition.
The only way to really counter them in most cases is to keep on banning them, which they have been doing. There isn't anything you can do to "get ahead" of it. Any attempt to do so is pretty pointless as they tend to figure out a work around within days. That is why nearly every game, especially when new, has a pretty high population of bots and why the fact that they exist in other games as well is relevant. Even years into a game there don't exist counters to bots. They simply die out due to lack of demand for gold selling that they don't waste their time with the game anymore, or they manage to ban enough accounts for long enough that they give up.