What exactly does Blizzard do to players and guilds and such who cheat? Just saw an entire guild of gold farmers and took the time to report them, but someone said, “It’s a waste of time. Blizzard won’t do anything. They’re making money off them too.” Does Blizzard actually pay attention when we see and report these jerks?
They investigate and ban in waves just because its not immediate doesnt mean nothing is done they do it carefully because mistakes happen and they dont want to tip off the bot maker program creators so they can fix it.
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Do not believe the apathetic crowd. Ever.
Blizzard won’t do anything in line with that player’s own timetable, but they do take time to break the bot and nail anyone else using the same bot instead of zapping them one at at time and catching innocent players in the same net. Playing whack-a-mole is ineffective and actually makes it harder for them to break the bot.
As well, they don’t actually make money off them by the time players come back around to claim the account and reverse the charges.
I’d be more inclined to report that player for trying to convince you nothing is done, personally. Chances are often good that they’re in bed with the bot.
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Out of millions of players, even if there are 1000, it’s not statistically significant. The amount of money brought in by these limited number of accounts is negligible. A lot of the botting is done by criminals who steal accounts and use stolen credit cards to “pay” for them. When the card holder disputes the charge Blizzard not only has to pay back the money, but also a fee because of the stolen credit card. So it actually costs Blizzard money to have these cheaters.
Just watch the Customer Support forum after a ban wave. Quite a few posts by players claiming innocence.
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That tends to be one of the more ridiculous claims that I’ve come cross throughout the years, but unfortunately, there are those that believe that. Yes, technically, we may be receiving subscription funds from accounts that may be violating our policies. That doesn’t necessarily equate to making money.
First, if they really are exploitative accounts, there is a high likelihood that the funds used to pay for game time aren’t legitimate. Either the methods of payment are stolen or the game accounts themselves are, or both. Even when they aren’t, the negative impact those kinds of activities have on the game is not small.
Games that allow rampant cheating, exploitation and illicit services, lose players. So even if that one exploitative account was paying legitimately, the fact that it exists can cause other legitimate players to stop playing. There isn’t any profit in that, beyond the fact that is goes against everything we stand for as a company and as gamers.
So no, reporting your suspicions is not a waste of time nor is the statement “Blizzard won’t do anything” remotely factual. There are thousands of threads over the years from accounts that were caught, which directly contradict that phrase.
It needs to be stated though, that cheating, botting, exploitation, is not a simple subject. It is massively complex and messy. Investigations often take much longer than we’d like because we do what we can do also not negatively impact legitimate players. It is a constant struggle with folks trying to create programs that try to remain invisible within our systems and it takes a while to figure out what kind of footprint they are leaving so that we can break, block or simply auto-detect it and deal with all of a particular bot/exploit, not just the ones that are reported.
Please continue to report any activity that you believe may be suspect, Nykolaz. It is very much appreciated and helps us a great deal.
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Thank you all for responding. I just found it was incredibly irritating to witness and the farmers have a huge impact on the AH and the ability to actually play areas smoothly. I looked up the guild and nothing but loot achieves and half their guild was doing it. So absolutely, I stopped what I was doing and took the time to report EVERY single one of them. Thanks again!
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I understand where it comes from. From a simplistic understanding of the situation, it makes sense. If you think of the whole thing in a vacuum and fail to factor in everything else, it does have a sensible sound to it. Starts to get into customer psychology, but I won’t bring it that far.
To be clear; I know it’s an incorrect viewpoint. Just saying I can understand the thinking behind it.
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If players find buying the game and paying the subscription a little bit costly, they see a group of players as a lot of money. Where Blizzard is a billion-dollar company, even a couple hundred in the guild mentioned by the OP would still not be a statistically significant number. The 100 players out of 5+ million (last estimated number I remember seeing) is also not significant.
Bots cost money. The investigation of them would cost more than the income they profide. That’s not including the collateral cost of players leaving or not joining because of the perceived issue with bots. Anyone saying that Blizzard allows it for the money is sadly mistaken.
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