Customer Support in the Spirit of Classic

Can we actually get some Customer Support in “the spirit of classic”. Bots are everywhere and yet they only receive temp bans. In the original release it would have been permanent. The in-game reports are not working the bots and leeches are still in game. We need GMs that actually play and enter the game like in the original to fix these issues. It shouldn’t be to hard to have a screen up with a few BGs open and see that people are AFKing at the starting gate or staying stealthed while a base is turned. Once you actually get enough reports to get them branded AFK if its a real person leeching it just suicide runs into the horde. If its a Bot and gets kicked you will just see it again in 15min. Activision Blizzard banned 50,000 from a free to play COD for cheating the least they can do is do the same for the paying customers.

Its great on paper but in reality what your suggesting take more time and money then its worth right click and report does 100x more then what 24/7 monitoring can do.

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Would you have any idea just how many BG instances are actually running at any one time?

It would take a massive increase in work force to monitor everything 24/7. This is why Blizzard is reactive, relying on player reports.

Since this forum is essentially for the retail game, and a player assist player forum at that, you’ll probably be best to post in the classic general forum.

However, banning a bot here and there is not effective. All it does is alerts the bot makers that they’ve been detected. Blizzard has been fighting bots since day dot and learned a lot of lessons. Bots are studied, a solution is developed to break the bot, then a mass ban is issued.

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It doesnt, when AV was the meta you could have 30+ report one jump bot at the cave or hut and it will be botting away months later.

Trust us R&R does work every few months well see cheaters coming here whining about unfair bans or suspensions cheaters never win.

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The last wave was several months ago, the reports do not work. You cannot even make a ticket with video as proof. Even hacks@blizzard.com is useless its only seen by developers not customer support. So the bot doesnt get banned or removed.

Theres more then likely more then one bot program its like the illegal sites you take one down another dozen pop up it takes time not overnite R&R and yes hacks@blizzard.com is another good way to report but R&R far better.

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"Howdy Mike!

This is your friendly neighborhood Game Master snippy. The hacks@blizzard.com is not an email that is controlled by customer support, that is used by the developers for reporting cheaters.

If all you need to do is report bots and cheaters in WoW, the best avenue for that is the right click report system in-game. Those reports do go to us here in customer support and we can take action on them.

I hope this addresses all the concerns you had today. Please let us know if there is anything else that we can assist with!"

Its not seen by customer support so they are free to bot away. So even if you have literal video proof its useless as we have no place to send it. And with win!0 its easy to get that proof Win+G brings up a built in screen capture.

Customer Support has zero to do with dealing with cheats and exploits. Those are handled by an entirely different team.

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They are supposed to investigate and ban based on customer reports. IE support the real playing and paying customers not the automatic programs queing.

Screenshots and videos are never used as proof against a player accused of cheating. They are only used by the Hacks team to further understand exactly what is happening. Blizzard ONLY relies on their own internal logs to determine if cheating / exploiting / botting has happened.

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In-game doesnt work you can have 40 report it and it will be in game. The only thing that kicks them is reporting for language and that gets you banned not them. A video of a person standing still or auto running in the same pattern for the entire game not deviating not dismounted is proof enough its a bot or a leech.

Again, not Customer Support. The Hacks team handles that. Also, investigations take time. Blizzard works on their own schedule for that, not ours.

Our only job is to report any suspicious activity to them via the right-click method and then go on about our day.

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No it is not. You have no absolute proof of what is actually happening. You have suspicions, that is all. Again, Blizzard only relies on their own internal logs, which reveal a LOT more than you will ever see or know about in regards to what other players are doing.

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In-game doesn’t work hasn’t worked. Hacks@blizzard is ignored by the section that needs to see it to improve the improve the game play experience of players. Could be sent to both sections this is a bot great ban it now perm not a temp come bot again in 3 days ban.

Reporting does indeed work - just not to your timing expectations. I’ve already explained how Blizzard deals with bots. It’s never a ban here, a ban there.

Keep reporting, and encourage others to also report too.

In-game reporting is also the better way to report - it creates a snapshot of data that allows Blizzard to investigate better. Sending in video, Blizzard then has to spend more time investigating to ensure the logs support the claim - a lot of time is spent just locating the required data that way.

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Since alot of bots AFK at the starting gates or stay in stealth above GM or behind LM no they dont. They literally will not move and still be in game after game.

I really wish people would stop parroting the botter’s mantra “Blizzard does nothing”.

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We’re going to end this here as all this back and forth is entirely unproductive.

I’m afraid overall you may be operating on a bit of bad information, Leafie. Assuming any part of your “response from a GM” isn’t entirely made up for your own narrative, if a GM did at some point state that the email is used by Dev, I do apologize for the confusion.

As most folks might be aware, the hacks email goes to our Hacks team, hence the aptly named address. They are the ones that do the lion’s share of investigating. Developing, not only tools that allow us to detect discovered botting programs, but also methods to prevent a great many other nuisances you aren’t even aware of and that never impact players.

Customer Support often will assist our hacks team, but they are not the ones that do most of the investigations. They also do not have as lasting an impact on the behavior as our Hacks team does.

Additionally, the last action was not several months ago. We have various actions happening all the time, often throughout the month in both games. A lot of what is done may make no noise whatsoever since there is large portion of “players” who aren’t really legitimate players, but those participating in selling or supplying illicit services. In regard to botting programs and whatnot that might be used by regular players trying to cheat, if you pay attention, you’ll see a lot of grumbling but they don’t post as much on our forums when they get penalized, but their community does post in the corners of the internet that they dwell.

While I appreciate that you think you know what our mandate is, Leafie, that is not entirely accurate. As illustrated by what I have already stated in this post.

It does work, has worked and continues to work. What it doesn’t do is send a bolt of lightning from the heavens to smite the potential offender. That is not, and has never been our methods. Our methods have always taken time. Of course we’d like nothing more than to instantly remove all potential botters, cheaters, exploiters, but that isn’t the reality of the situation. Our goal is always to do what we can to do more than play wack-a-mole, but to better deal with the overall issue. While you are likely not to believe it, our hacks team does have a fairly good success. You have the advantage of a myopic point of view, with a limited view of the whole, where our team has to look at and address a wide array of bots, exploitation and cheating. They may not always be able to get it all, but they do what they can as they are able.

What helps more than most folks know are those right click reports for cheating. They are the means in which our teams are accepting reports and we’d appreciate if folks use it. If you wish to suggest another means of detection/elimination, please, feel free in submitting your suggestion to our Development teams. They’ll be able to discuss it with our hacks team and maybe come up with something based on the data and experience around the situation.

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