Title says it all. Permaban the buyers and lock their IP. The bots will all disperse back to Runescape.
The root cause of the bot problem is the gold buying. This is what drives the whole business.
Currently if you get caught it’s a 10 day ban. Might be harsh for the wow addict with only one account but the whales being whales have multiple accounts. They just log over to their other account (usually bought and paid for as well) and continue playing or you know buy another max level toon/ account.
They’re using guild banks to launder the gold sales. Good seller joins the guild. Guildies order gold. The gold is placed in the guild bank. The buyer then retrieves their bought and paid for gold. Ezpz.
Meanwhile blizz is watching bots, mailboxes, and person to person trades. That little 10 day ban is not deterring anything.
Another thing is the account selling. You can recognize these straightaway because they have no authenticator on them.
Make authenticators mandatory. This solution is so simple that i almost believe it’s intentionally “over looked”.
Tldr:
Point is. Blizz is playing whack a mole on a symptom not the cause. Make authenticators mandatory at account registration. This will stop the account selling and sharing.
Ban the buyers permanently and lock their IP. No buyers=no bots and no reason for that gd token.
I can’t hear you over all the popping open of champagne bottles we’re spraying at Blizzard HQ, celebrating this breakthrough in profits, a reflection of our ability to design games well.
Just locking away mail, AH , any communications (besides /say and /emote) and trading to be authenticator only is huge.
Everybody who gives a heck about their accounts and the game should have an authenticator attached. I feel bad for players who use pay as you go phone plans (they aren’t supported by blizz) but it’s the sacrifice you gotta take to combat bots.
Oh and ban gdkps. Which should of been done way back in Classic.
I mean if 7.5 million bots at near 15$ a month were in a game you ran I can guarantee you ain’t kicking them out… It’s business and their money is green just like yours. Does it suck? For some maybe but definitely not blizzard… Game 20 years old and still going fairly strong
I’m not greedy. I’d be happy if the damn thing was profitable. Back then 100k subs was the gold standard for online games.
Wow killed that mark and raised that bar. So yes i would have dropped those 7.5 mill subs in a heartbeat to protect the other 7.5 million and to set an industry standard that RMT would not be tolerated.
Mmmmmk I’m sure you would, bc you know a billion dollars certainly doesn’t sway people lol… Explain to the board that the integrity of my game means more than that billion dollars and they’d laugh you right on out
I’ll be happy to explain it to them. Whole problem with the industry is those greedy suits that make decisions based on their wallets.
The industry changed when the nerds were pushed out by the suits.
For that matter I’d have never taken Blizz public. The loyal 7.5 million players from wow alone would have ensured a profitable company. Also the employees would be treated really well. So they wanted to do the best job possible.
Op is naive, maybe clueless about how business and investor relations work… Lives in a dreamworld where art matters, granted I would like a clean game but I am lazy and have better things to spend my time on then griding out 40hr a week to get a mount… Bots cater to this and people use their services…
It’s literally how business works… Investors want a profit and they don’t care how you feel, they want a return. Going to have to grow up and face the facts someday… Wait until you get laid off to make a division look even more profitable, don’t wish it on you but it’s an eye opener
Blizz has been combatting bots that fuel cheaters desire for gold for 20 years. They’ve spent enough on you guys, they need a change in design philosophy.
