In current wow classic you get a mail whenever Blizz successfully bans a botter based on your report. It would be an excellent idea if you got in an addition to the mail, you received a small gold reward based on your level, if you’re level 10-30 you’d receive 10-50 silver, if you’re 60, 10-30g.
This would encourage the community to go out into the world and actively search and report botters. I know some people would definitely search all commonly botted zones like Azshara and stake it out reporting any botter they see. This would fix the fact that the old world is full of botters that get zero reports because nobody is out there to report them, and turn reporting botters (and by extension limiting the damage they cause) by turning reporting into a semi-decent gold making method.
EDIT:
I’ve seen a lot of replies saying this would lead to a bunch of false suspensions due to mass false reporting - this isn’t true, you cannot get auto suspended no matter how many reports on you. Reports are investigated by GMs, anyone doing false reporting would likely be actioned in turned for abusing the report system
Don’t take my word for it though, check out this thread (blue posts included!) Questions about mass reporting - #3 by Ravenhawk-blackwater-raiders
8 Likes
Not a bad idea, but I don’t like the level factoring into the gold reward part.
Seems like people would be likely to refuse to report until they could log into a higher level character, to maximize their return. I know if I could get 50 silver, or log into my main and get 10 gold, I sure wouldn’t report at 50 silver.
3 Likes
It’s to prevent low level players to get too much gold for their level. People who just started playing receiving 10-30g at level 10 is broken, the trainable skills and quest rewards at their level are a few silvers
2 Likes
I understand your intent. Just pointing out a negative side-effect of the proposal.
It’s also a bit weird. If a stack of copper is worth 2 gold, I get 2 gold whether my 60 farmed it or my level 5.
I guess you could scale it off the level of the bot, instead? It makes sense that higher level bots would be worth more gold to report. This would still have a negative side effect of players potentially waiting to report for a bigger payout, but it also harms the gold selling company more by making them spend resources to level them (either via the boost or time to level) only to have it taken away.
If a level 5 is able to discover/report a level 60 bot, why not give them the full value? They probably earned it, at least to the same degree a level 60 would have. It’s not like the 60 is turning in a higher-quality report or something.
Umm, what? When did Blizz start doing this?
As far as I know if somebody you report gets banned, they don’t say anything. Why would they need to?
1 Like
I’m not sure when they started doing this, but I have received multiple mails saying “Thank you for you report” and stating your report got someone investigated and banned since I often report botters. It’s a very common tactic used in video games like league of legends.
Link to a blue post saying a similar deal → Thank You For Your Reports
3 Likes
Huh. I didn’t read anything in the post about them acknowledging whomever did the reporting, but I’m not going to claim they don’t do it at all if you’ve gotten mail about it.
It does seem like an encouraging ploy, but a gold reward seems like a bit much. Especially about “weaponizing the community”. I don’t think players need to be on a constant witch hunt with the intention of being paid for it.
Kinda sounds like the inquisition
It’s so that blizz investigates botters more often if they are reported, it will get people out into the world and “gameifying” the act of reporting botters and getting them banned faster, limiting the damage they cause to the game, which is a benefit to everyone who plays. It’s not too dissimilar from what blizzard already does with bug bounties, aka they pay you if you find a gamebreaking bug in their game
I do agree that it would get more reports, and hopefully more bots banned.
I mean, if you’re one of those Rogues or Hunters doing their solo farm in the respected dungeon, than it’s possible they could get caught in the crossfire by being mass reported by folks whom are looking to snag some gold out of that report.
Also, what happens if multiple people report the bot? Does the first reporter get the gold? Would it split between every player who reported that bot? Would they all get the proposed 30 or so gold?
It’s something that could be abused. Especially if an entire raid formed and started reporting every suspicious character they saw. It might lead to even further economic gold inflation
Reports lead to investigation of the account, if it’s a bot it gets actioned. They have signatures of processes running on people’s computers + plus a bunch of other methods to verify if it’s a legit player or a botter/cheater. So false positives should be minimal with their anticheat software.
I don’t know how it works if multiple people report, I don’t think it’s all people who recieve the gold on a botter,AFAIK 1 report = 1 botter banned, not multiple reports for infinite rewards
Obivously a lot of info is hush hush with anti-cheat and bot detection and report to prevent cheaters from gaining info, but i think the suggestion can go a long way to keeping bots off wow classic
Neko. You normally troll, and your trolls are good, but now you’re making a legit suggestion with best intention.
I haven’t even read the replies yet, but I know that this community will be explaining why you’re wrong and why this can’t be a thing.
The same community who complains about all of the problems in this game, but they will sabotage any attempt at improving the game and then complain that nothing ever gets better.
Okay time to read the comments and see if I’m right about the expected-ton-of push back you’re going to get on this great idea.
If “effective” this would justify mass false reporting and mob mentality.
You’re very ignorant if you think the bots are around as much as they are because of “lack of reporting”.
Blizzard just doesn’t care enough to bother taking preventative action against botters. They only take action when they can give the illusion they’re solving the problem.
Bots hate people, why do you think they sit in BRD instances pickpocketing? Why do you think fish botters pick the most remote areas possible? To stop people from finding them so they don’t get reported often and banned.
Reports mean investigation by anticheat software and/or staff, they don’t mean an instant ban, don’t be silly.
The classic doom and gloom pessimistic attitude that will ultimately accomplish nothing.
Bingo!
They’re literally advocating for witch hunts.
The report system to broken and you can actively get people auto suspended or silenced by just mass reporting them. Happens all the time with streamers and well known people. Couple of guild even used it to get their competition suspended for a time.
It’s a really bad idea.
Say what??? Is this actually a thing? If that is the case, blizzard has never banned a single botter I’ve reported and I even sent them videos.
Not going to waste me time anymore if this is for real.
Speak for yourself, I’ve gotten 8+ mails from Blizz reporting botters in game and sending a short email to hacks@blizzard.com
They don’t like people because people mess with their scripts and reduce efficiency. Reporting bots leads to little to no action.
Blizzard can easily set a gm to monitor these isolated bots and confirm their legitimacy. They do not need reports. They’re just unwillingly to spend the money to take botters seriously.
The automated system is in place for a reason and take actions before review or the reviewer is overworked, under payed, and doesn’t care so they just let the suspension go through.
Also ban =/= suspension. Use the correct terminology. Bans require a more thorough review. Suspensions are easy and automated.
There is plenty of proof, literal love footage, of people being mass reported and suspended or silenced.
Reporting for gold/profit is going to be absolutely toxic.
Just report bots you see, simple as that.
Yep. Every idea for getting rid of bots is a bad idea. The only good idea is to do nothing and let them run rampant.
No seriously. Suggest every idea you can think of, this forum will tell you why it’s wrong and why we have to keep things exactly as they are.
Not even just about bots either. Make suggestions about anything wrong with this game, and this forum will explain all the reasons why it has to stay exactly as broken as it is.
You realize those letters are automated and do not mean anything beyond “we looked into it”. The “action” that is taken can be anywhere from chat mute to 24 hour suspension to full account ban.
Imagine just believing anything you’re sent in the mail. You must make a lot of secret shopper trips to Western Union.
Reporting for the bot reason does not result in automated bans or suspensions, the “bad language” reason does result in automated SILENCES based on # of reports, which is what some toxic guilds to mass false report people. They do not do the same thing for the “cheating” reason, cheating reason is not based on # of reports nor does it give those affected an instant suspension, they get investigated, and if innocent, no action