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.