Who knows, they may already be doing this, but here’s a thought:
Every created game has a ‘9th’ player slot open only for Blizzard, and it is only accessible server side. As far as what connects to this 9th player slot, Blizzard runs a number of observation bots to detect non-randomness, sensing what key presses/mouse clicks are coming through to see how precisely timed they are, or any ‘inhuman’ type click/move actions. They can observe any of the players that are in the game. They would be completely invisible to the players.
Blizzard wouldn’t need to run a ton of them to peak in on everyone every now and then at random times. They wouldn’t be able to see anything on your computer, as they are only observing the control inputs that the server is receiving.
Accounts that have been on for a longer stretch of time, or have been creating several successive numbered games over a long period of time will more than likely get a drop in by an observation bot. Even those who don’t play for long stretches of time would occasionally be paid a visit, but not nearly as often.
Any players that are detected as potentially using a bot/pickit are slated for further and longer periods of observation, followed by a review from staff, and if the evidence is overwhelming… The banhammer falls.
Something has to be done to keep the botting problem from spilling over from D2. Lets do it Blizzard. Keep Diablo 2: Resurrected bot and pickit free!
It needs to be a bot that is in every game and it detects bots in the game.
It should look like a Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator wearing a shako, and when it knows a bot is in the game, it hostiles it and goes and kills it. But as an added effect, when it kills a bot, the bot dies permanently like in HC, and it also throws its gear down on the ground for other people to loot.
Amazing implementation to stop botting. Best idea ever.
Two ways you can post it:
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It just won’t result in a clickable link.
Blizzard’s games and Battle.net have a number of detection tools that already exist which are there to detect abnormal or repeating inputs to catch bots.
Bots have countered this by simply introducing a slight randomness factor to their input by using seeds and infinitely small (but still meaningful) deviations in their clicks that don’t affect performance but make them look human.
You’re not a security pioneer. Rest assured that anything you can think of to combat bots, a security expert at Blizzard, who is paid to think and implement these solutions all day long, has already thought of it.
Strongly agree Bots will Inflate thee Economy to the Point they will be selling things on 3rd party sites or D2jsp I’d Like for my items and gear too hold there value. this will be a game breaker/maker on how well they combat this issue.
But the thing is… D2 is not really a game where it would be easy for them to figure out whether someone is a bot or not based on keypresses…
You say “non-randomness” and you’re basically suggesting, that a regular player would press buttons randomly… and that’s simply not true…
Also, I don’t get the idea as to why a bot must be present in each game? Wouldn’t there be logs of what transpires in each game over battle net for Blizzard to analyze based on reports, or based on some stats, that fall outside of what would be considered normal?
Also, here’s what I don’t understand.
Something like D3 is inherently competitive, because the very endgame, that being the Greater Rifts is tied directly to a ladder, where people compete as to who can clear the highest and the fastest. Everyone knows, that they only take action vs people, who are high profile, in top 100 on the seasonal ladder and barely do anything else, if at all…
On the other hand, D2… while it does have a ladder… is not inherently competitive game. The ladder there is nonsense… who hit 99 the fastest… nobody cares…
So why would you expect them to take appropriate actions and regulate something, that is not really competitive… when they don’t take that much action when it comes to a game, where the very endgame is made to be competitive…?
I’m not saying they shouldn’t pursue botters in D2… but I’m saying, that based on how D3 was treated, I really don’t expect much…
I would think pickit scripts would be the easier one to sense… There are highly sought after items that pickit users have set as a high priority pick. Those that use pickit scripts will tweak that delay as loooow as it can go not only to do more to guarantee them a successful grab vs humans, but also other pickit users.
I think you are a few years behind in bot detection there.
Detecting bots by patterns like “click frequency” and “accuracy” has been around for a few years already. The problem is that all the bot needs to do is adding a bit of fuzzy-ness to their output to prevent the detection.
Also blizzard does not need a 9th player slot. They own the server, they can listen to the commands if they chose to implement it.
Whether they do it as a 9th player slot or whether they just log the players input is just a question of design.
In any case, activating/deactivating it for servers/players/at random can be done regardless of having a “slot” or a different design.
I would argue that it is save to assume that they already have technology that does exactly that:
look over the shoulder of certain players (all, flaged, random)
run different detection strategies to identify bots
comply with privacy laws where needed (hopefully)
The question here is less how to detect it, but more if they are willing to put in the effort. And there are quite a few examples, where they have dropped the ball by now.
I wouldnt know. Followed the press. Saw the signs. Did not buy it. Did not regret it. Too many features dropped. Too many promises broken.
Unfortuntately WC3 was the peak of my esport history. So no more towerrushes/towerdefenses for me in the next 30 years.
Well if anyone else has any ideas, please share them.
I’ve also had a thought about a registered and highly secured “control box” that your keyboard/mouse is plugged into, and games would only accept input commands from it… However that idea quickly fizzled due to everyone having to purchase the hardware…
Bleh, I just want the bots gone. Sorry of my ideas are antiquated, just trying to think of a way to solve this problem.
A constant cat and mouse game, I know. There will always be a way around.
All one can do is hope that Blizzard has something big up their sleeve planned that actually works.
Unless something regarding cybersecurity has fundamentally changed in the recent months. If you grant physical access to the hardware, then you can consider it compromised. Especially given enough time.
Of course, on a national-security-level that might be a harder hurdle to jump over, but i dont see that kind of hardware being a good business case for you.
Maybe some millionaire wants to improve the world by creating a fund for it. But then again, as much as i hate bots, i’d think his money would be better off making an actual difference somewhere in the world.
