I don’t think any reasonable person thinks they can completely stop bots. We’re asking that they do a better job. In they 8+ years I played retail, I don’t think I saw as many bots in that time as I’ve seen in the past year of Classic
With that being said, I wonder if I’m seeing them more cause there are just more bots per player then there were back in the day. I’m not sure about any other game, but I know both retail WoW and Chinese Classic have the token, so those games are probably not as profitable as NA Classic is. That, combined with the fact that the average player is 30+ and has more money than time, probably means those gold sellers have plenty of customers for their botting as well. That’s why Blizz needs to target the buyers as much, or more, than the bots.
Ah it’s you again. The blizzard is perfect dude. Yes it’s incredibly naive to think a few people watching servers for 8 hours a day swapping servers could remove more bots than the random removes you get despite massive reports on very obvious RMT people. /s
This is exactly it. All of Blizzard’s (in)actions and responses (or lack thereof) feed this growing feeling that they just don’t care about maintaining Classic. It was a fire and forget project to secure their IP copyright and reap free money from the private server market with minimal investment. And Blizzard takes advantage of the good faith of its player base to suck it up and accept a mediocre service - as players such as Delimicus reinforce, and unfortunately players like you and I tolerate.
It really makes Classic feel like less of a service and more of a “product”, and by extent Blizzard less of a service provider and more of an enabler, like a drug or arms dealer. “Here’s your product - don’t call on me when excrement hits the fan.”
Sounds like somebody is “propagating misinformation” again. Kaivax’s handwave response was that Blizzard’ anti-cheat team “actions” thousands of bots every day. This is completely different from banning tens of thousands of bots in Classic every month, as you have boldly claimed. If Kaivax had meant to say that, he would have said it. I’ve sat in enough board meetings to know when managers are trying to present vague answers that sound superficially positive.
I would certainly believe across all of Blizzard’s global platforms that they “action” thousands of requests in relation to botting per day. (Noting that closing mass report tickets counts as “actioning” “bots”, as would botting actions in Starcraft, botting actions on free trials in Retail, etc.)
It’s likely their “ban waves” include actions that are not permanent bans depending on the account status and severity of the offense. When a “ban” is temporary, Blizzard refers to it as a suspension.
Here’s the relevant part of that post:
I wish I could show folks the emails that I see weekly, of ban waves that happen
I didn’t dispute that ban waves happen. I merely dispute your - presently unsupported - allegation that Blizzard bans tens of thousands of Classic bots monthly.
Note also that nothing in the comment you quoted refers specifically to actions taken against botting in Classic - only that Blizzard conducts ban-waves. Again, superficial hand-wave responses with no real substance which intend to resolve complaints without conceding anything meaningful. If Kaivax saw this comment and chose to correct me with hard data, I would gladly recant my entire argument and make a public apology post.
By the way, very rich that you say in that thread that you report other people’s posts as “trolls” because they are spreading “misinformation”, whilst you ride upon your trusty steed Self-Righteousness wielding your sword “Speculation”.
Need I remind someone that false reporting is against TOS? This is also very disconcerting considering you yesterday accused myself and others of “trolling” and spreading “misinformation” merely because we disagreed with you.
Lol. I merely held you accountable to your own self-rightous standards. You accused one person of trolling because they were speculating on the total number of Classic players, whilst you did the exact same thing. At which point you made some excuse and left the thread.
You still haven’t provided a source to your allegation that Blizzard bans tens of thousands of Classic bots monthly. I’m starting to think you are “propagating misinformation” like a “Russian bot”.
I provided plenty of easily verifiable data to support my claims in that thread. You and other posters made absurd claims that were incredibly easy to refute. I’m sorry that a few facts apparently set you ablaze.
Blizzard’s “actions” refer to suspensions or account closures. I elaborated further on my post here:
I should have said “Keep in mind, they ban or suspend tens of thousands of bots every month.” here:
The nomenclature on these forums commonly used by the playerbase is different from what Blizzard usually uses. Most of the time, players using the word “ban” may be referring to temporary or permanent bans. Temporary bans are referred to as suspensions by Blizzard.
Do you want me to go back and edit my post, or do you want to savor it to use in future threads as some sort of a “gotcha” moment?
This was never about a “gotcha” moment. This was about challenging the fact that you call out and report other people for speculating in lieu of official facts, whilst you yourself do the same thing.
Again, I don’t doubt that Blizzard banned as many accounts as they say they did, noting as you have that “ban” could mean several actions including temporary suspensions. But I do have serious reservations as to how many bans were related to actions in Classic versus actions in Retail, which supports a free trial which would encourage use and testing of bots which would easily inflate the number. Likewise, Kaivax’s response is vague, at best, referencing the work of Blizzard’s global anti-cheat team.
I don’t seriously think that Blizzard isn’t trying at all. But like many others, I don’t feel Blizzard is doing as much as they could or should - noting that botting is a complicated issue.
On that point, Blizzard certainly hasn’t inspired faith in making hyperbolic statements that combatting the botting problem would require a team the size of a small developing nation.
I never reported anyone in that thread for their baseless speculation about active players. I report posts that propagate damaging misinformation about Blizzard systems or policies. This will be the last time I ever respond to you, I’ve added the above custom script to my uBlock filters.