I’ve made my posts complaining about the job that is being done to fight against them, and this isn’t that.
My question is (sorry I can’t test this myself without spending money), are these gold farmers able to boost DKs on servers if they don’t have a 55+ character their on the account, but do on the same bnet?
As in, they make 6 accounts on one bnet. They bot one toon to 55. Are they able to make DKs on the other 5?
^If that’s the case, that seems like a super simple fix.
If that’s not the case, I’m back to the idea of allowing in-game GMs (if there are any left), to investigate player reports themselves.
GM’s investigate player reports already though. That never changed at all.
However, bots are never banned here or there. It’s always as a mass ban wave for very good reason - it gives the botters and bot makers no warning they’ve been detected. Ban waves also happen after careful investigation and studying the bots - find a way to break them by implementing changes in code without breaking the game. This will take time though.
They tend to use compromised accounts they have aquired control over - they’re not going to take the time to level up characters. If the aquired account doesn’t have character levels that allow creation of hero class toons for example, they’ll just strip the account of all gold, vendoring equipment etc and move onto their next compromised account.
My possibly-incorrect answer to this question is no. But the larger issue is that while it may be technically possible, that’s not really how gold farmers operate.
They have a large number of compromised accounts that they use, so long as the registered owner doesn’t reclaim it. If they find an account that doesn’t have a level 55 to create a DK (beyond the single restriction-free), then they don’t tend to bot their way to another. They will simply grab a different account that does have a 55.
Please stop flexing this tired trope. The human beings that make up the GM staff are still there, just like they always have been.
Yes, there is a specific group of people that investigate botting/hacking. Whether or not they are officially titled GM’s or not is irrelevant. There is a human GM staff, working around the clock, and when a botting report is received, it is investigated.
Edit to add: For the record, this is what was said…
In the beginning, the GM staff was the group that handled all interactions and investigations. Since then, they have refined certain categories into different teams. Some GM’s handle account appeals, some work on Billing issues, some work on the forums, some investigate botting, etc.
It might not be technically accurate, but saying “the GM staff” in here is a catch-all for the people who would be getting your report/ticket/etc and looking into it.
Doesn’t matter if they don’t operate in-game. They’re not going to ban a bot immediately upon a player report. The team investigating bots is still going to see the same logs regardless.
Yes, I was only responding to your statement regarding GM’s.
Even a stolen account, if that’s the case then that is pretty easy access to 5 more bots they don’t really have to commit a lot of time to.
Regardless though I appreciate the answer. Gives me a little hope.
Just double checked to see if I could test it. The only servers I have a 55+ on, my second active account on my bnet, also has a 55+ on it.
Edit: Also I don’t think unless you play wrath, you really understand how bad bots are. I’m seeing the banwaves every couple of weeks, and credit to the teams for that.
I’m also seeing those same botting guilds repopulate a day after with fresh DKs, taking maybe 3 days max to get back to 80. Less than that for the Gather Bots. Then they go another 10 days (assuming they’re hit in the wave), ruining the economy.
I’m clearly out numbered here by the performance of the team on classic, but every single person I’ve talked to about this actually in Wrath, aren’t happy with it or just accept that seeing bots everywhere you go is just a common thing.
No you’re absolutely right I’ve gone off topic. Just really curious if the DK mechanics work like I’ve asked or are one per bnet (per server).
Once someone confirms how it works (I’ve looked it up and none of the blizzard posts are specific enough to my question), I’ll post feed back or just shut up.
Feel free to wait for the confirmation, but it’s not necessary for your feedback.
For example, you could post something like, “…regarding the creation of DKs, if (supposition) then I suggest it be handled this way (give suggestion.) If this DK creation thing doesn’t work like that, then I thank you for your time!”
I’m not entirely sure that a player response would be relevant. They might make an error in their test, they might not truly understand what you’re asking, or they might give an answer off the cuff, thinking it’s correct, when it isnt. Beyond that, you’re fishing for a “blue” response, which isn’t really something one can do here.
I don’t want to see your suggestion(s) stifled by pieces of information that aren’t preventing you from putting in a completely acceptable suggestion.
You’re welcome to wait for anything you want, though, obviously. Just trying to save you some time.
If you were to tell me “It works like this”. I would believe you. I’m just curious about how the mechanics work and I trust the people in this forum more than the general discussion.
Edit: For the record I’ve asked my guildies, guild discord, and friend’s discord. No one knows exactly how it works.
No, I don’t think poorly of people. I think the confirmation is a waste of time relative to what you want to suggest. You can make the suggestion without confirmation.
"Dear Blizzard. I am concerned about the number of bots in WotLK Classic, and I would like to make a suggestion. I am working off the assumption that if a person has several WoW licenses under a single battle.net account, after leveling a DK to 55 on one license, they can simply create and boost DKs on all of the other licenses. I find this worrying.
I suggest this to counteract the problem: (Give your suggestion)
In closing, if I am incorrect about DK creation, and having one on a single license under a battle.net account doesn’t unlock creation on the other licenses, then I sincerely apologize for wasting your time, and I bid you a good day!"
You misunderstand me. I was trying to save you time, waiting for a blue response that might never come. I am sorry you think I was trying to patronize or belittle. I thought I blatantly said in that first post that you’re welcome to do whatever it is you want to do. That’s why I opened with:
My very humble opinion remains as I said. With all due respect, you can choose to disregard what I offer up as a way to move forward.
“Evidence” from another poster truly isn’t preventing you from submitting feedback or making a suggestion. Sure, it would be nice to say, “I know it works this way for a fact and here’s how I would change it,” but I truly believe the pseudo-suggestion I created above would have the same effect as a suggestion backed by absolute certainty on DK creation limitations.
And what if the person providing the “evidence” is incorrect in some manner because of (reasons). If that stopped you from making your suggestion, then that wouldn’t be good at all.
I say again. I’m only trying to save time and help. You do what you feel is best for you and the community. If, for you, that warrants waiting on a blue response, then you can do so. I’m just offering suggestions I feel are logical, and my ideas on the way forward can be done right now, with no waiting.
I’ve edited my original post to have less attitude. Since your quote remains, anyone who wants to see what I originally said can see it right there.
Bots are as old as wowthey may seem worse but they people said the same about sl bfa its a never ending batlle. Until players stop looking for the easy way out it will never end.
There is only one way to stop the bots! Keep your fellow players from using the services of the gold sellers. If their income goes away so will they!
Bots used by real players, well this is because they can not be bothered on farming or fishing on their own, instead they depend on a bot to do it for them.
Bliz tends to study these bots, They then figure out how they work, How to detect them, Once they figure out how to detect them they find even more that are not being reported. Then all at once they get banned.
You will know there is a ban wave you will see a lot people coming to this forum posting that they got banned.
Yeah, all of them don’t get banned at once. I’d say maybe 50%.
I have bots on my friends list that have been there since BC. I’ve reported them/sent their names into the hacks team. These GMs the forums love to praise, although seemingly hypothetical, aren’t doing a good job.
Obviously that will never happen. The choices Blizzard has are 1) adding game tokens to wrath; 2) hire in-game GMs to investigate reports/ban in real time; 3) continue this failing (check the wrath forums) attempt at useless banwaves every 2 weeks; or 4) continue to the job their doing and ignore the outcries of the classic community.
You started off acknowledging that they do get banned and then try to end with “they ignore the issue”.
Just because they don’t announce every bot that’s being shut down does not mean it’s not happening.
It happens faster when more people report them instead of trying to convince others that reports don’t matter, which is sadly what we tend to see most here.
Bots are winning because players allow them to IMHO.
Blizzard absolutely does waves that knocks out a lot of bots. I won’t argue that, I’m even keeping track of it.
My point is, even if Blizzard bans 100% of bots (pipe dream), the current system isn’t up to par. Banwaves, from my vigilance, are every 10-14 days. Sometimes more and sometimes less. They are easy to track because there are maybe 8 major guilds on my server solely dedicated to botting.
What I don’t think Blizzard or you guys understand is it only takes these degenerates 1-3 days, depending on what their going to be botting, to be caught back up. That leaves a lot of time for players to have to deal with computers competing against them.
I mean, if you were to queue a BG right now in Classic (not relevant to gold at all), there would be at least 2 botters. The last BG I was in had 5 out of 10.
So this easy go-to answer you guys like to have of, “blame the players buying gold”, while obviously a true statement, isn’t the only area of the game being ruined.
tl;dr The job being done in my opinion (and the wrath community) isn’t good enough. It’s a bad joke at this point.
PS. I’m moving my complaints to the wrath forums to talk to people who actually understand the issue. With all do respect, we’re just wasting each others time.
I don’t even think it takes that long to be honest. Gold selling, which is typically the end result of these bots, is a multi-BILLION dollar industry. It will literally never go away unless people stop giving these criminals money.
That’s an easy comment to make when you have no clear idea of what Blizzard is doing (since it’s not public) to remove bots. The last major post implied that they get rid of literally 10’s of thousands of bots per month. But yes, let’s pretend that they are doing nothing or not enough.
Maybe they should stop for a month to show the difference. That might be a fun experiment!