I mean, I wasn’t saying that they “are” bots. I was just simply stating that if you try to whisper one and they don’t reply to you and continue to “look” like a bot they might be…well a bot?
Was hoping the context of that statement wouldn’t be lost just for that one call out. I personally multibox(in classic) and I miss whispers all the time and it bothers me when I get a whisper on anyone other than the “main” because I have chat disabled on my followers. This way I have more room for other UI features. It’s definitely not a catch all for sure, which is where other context clues come in.
The thing is, Blizzard doesn’t need players to investigate if someone is a bot. Responding or not responding to chat does not prove a bot. No response doesn’t mean someone is botting. Getting a response doesn’t mean they aren’t. If you suspect someone is botting, right-click and report it. You don’t need to whisper them. You don’t need to follow them. You don’t need to gather “proof”.
You are mostly correct and no one is disputing that. But it is player reports that helps get those individuals into the eyes of Blizzard. I’m not telling anyone to go and gather proof, but to report with some kind of basis, rather than assumptions because they have a group of the same named players.
Not sure what you’re trying to defend here honestly or make a point of. I’ve been playing a long time and I understand how to report someone when it makes sense. Just chimed in and made a simple comment. That wasn’t an invitation for you to explain that we don’t need to investigate anything. It is absolutely our responsibility as a community to report an individual with some sort of fact before assuming(which is why a chat box pops up asking you for a description of why you think they are cheating).
It wasn’t meant to start an argument about what exactly a bot is and how you can verify each and every single bot as a random player.
The only fact that you need is “I think something isn’t right here”. You don’t really have to justify that feeling.
I do understand your meaning, and I generally agree. I would HOPE that the reason for a report isn’t “this person beat me to a node” or “this player killed me in PvP”, but it really doesn’t matter. What Ruffle said is 100% accurate:
All a player has is assumptions. Players are not in any position to properly investigate. They don’t need “some kind of basis” to justify reporting. If it looks suspicious, they can report it. If it’s a group of same-named players and they feel those players are botting, they are free to report it. They don’t have to know how multi-boxers name their characters. It doesn’t matter. If the player doing the reporting feels that someone is botting, they can report it. Being a multi-boxer doesn’t mean they aren’t also botting.
All you need to do it type “possible bot”. It doesn’t need any “facts”. It doesn’t require a player to try and talk to the player they are reporting. They don’t have any “facts” other than what it looks like to them. Having anything else as a “fact” meant that they investigated the player.
Players can’t. That’s what the report is for. Just right-click and report “possible bot”. There’s no need for players to be sure. Players don’t need “facts” to report it.
I stand by what I said. I’m not here to continue arguing a point that I understand already.
It is however your responsibility as a person to have some kind of fact before you accuse someone of anything. If you truly care about reporting a bot, you’ll do more than go “eh that looks like a possible bot”.
There is an explanation box for a reason. Just because YOU do not want to elaborate any more as to why you think the person you are reporting is a bot, that’s your prerogative.
I’m not going to go into details, but I can assure you that more information is a billion times better than saying “possible bot” as possible bot doesn’t actually do anything but show you are assuming they are a bot. The in-game report box specifically says this:
“Below, please provide a clear and specific description of the cheating behavior you observed from this player. Include as much detail as possible about the time frame, the location and the actions the character was performing.”
If this isn’t clear, then idk what to tell you from here.
Reporting that someone didn’t reply to your chat is not a reason to report someone.
“Whisper” has never been a viable method for determining if a player is botting. It doesn’t prove anything. All you need from your post is that they “looked” like they were botting. Report that. Don’t waste your time whispering players to see if they will respond.
Players who are not botting may not reply to a whisper. They may not have seen the whisper. If they are multi-boxing the one you whispered may not be their main character. They could have chat turned off. They may only reply to whispers from players they know.
Getting a reply doesn’t mean they aren’t botting. They could still be at their computer while botting and are trying to disguise what they are doing by responding to random whispers from players who think that if they get a reply it’s not a bot.
You are still stuck on the whisper thing. I already said that was not a determining factor to report someone.
It was simply a friendly comment stating that you COULD whisper an individual to see if they even reply to you and even remotely act like a human. If you want to read more into that, go for it, I can’t stop that.
But just to clarify what I was mentioning previously that got you all hooked on this whole whisper thing.
If they don’t reply to you and again continue to “Look” like a bot based on what you saw to make you think “oh this is a bot” then they might be. Nothing was ever defined as “This person is a bot if they don’t reply to your whisper”.
The specific box I quoted from the in-game messaging says otherwise. It is our responsibility as reporters to explain why we think someone is cheating and provide some kind of reasoning.
“Below, please provide a clear and specific description of the cheating behavior you observed from this player. Include as much detail as possible about the time frame , the location and the actions the character was performing .”
As no player can say for certain that someone is botting or not, general information about the suspicion is fine. The point being, we don’t have access to all the behind the scenes logs and info.
No, they won’t, but it creates mountains of work for those who investigate it.
One of the more common complaints I see is that a reported bot remains in the game for way longer than they should. I would agree with that, and one of the main reasons is because those investigations tend to take a while. Primarily because we’re trying to figure out how a specific program may work and what kind of footprint it leaves in the game so we can better find others but also because we try not to inconvenience legitimate players as best as we can and try to avoid mistakes or false positives.
Imagine how much faster we could deal with actual bots if we didn’t have as many false reports to look into? Not to mention, we don’t want players spending all their time reporting suspected bots, we’d rather that you are playing the game. Reporting characters that are likely not bots is a waste of time for you and for us.
The bottom line, Pu, is that you can use your experience and intelligence to more accurately report a likely bot, instead of the philosophy of “kill them all and let the gods sort it out”.
Ladeilyia, bots vary in sophistication but tend to be pretty mindless in their actions. They go directly from node to node, or mob to mob, they tend to get hung up on trees and other items and often ignore other stimulus. Not responding to a whisper is not definitive proof that they are botting, as many folks who are out just gathering might not want to interact or be paying much attention to anything but what they are doing.
Use your best judgement. If you feel the actions look a little automated, report it. We’ll be happy to take a look.
I think it’s pretty easy to tell the difference between a bot and a multi-boxer. I used to multi-box 3 characters for the purpose of leveling up alts faster. Multi-boxing passes keystrokes thru to the different characters or the different iterations of the wow.exe.
If you observe someone multi-boxing you will see that one character is being actively controlled by an actual human and the other characters are simply following the main character around and doing the exact same thing as the lead “controlled” character because of the keystrokes being passed thru to the other characters. There is no automation because the /following characters only move or act because someone physically pressed a key to make them do so.
Bots, however, move and act without user input at all. Typically you can identify someone botting when the actions look scripted. A botting character will cast the same sequence of spells or abilities to a point you can predict the exact timing of it. Same with movements, if you observe long enough you’ll see them following the exact same path and using the same sequence of spells that no human could duplicate with that level of consistency.
Obviously this is not fool proof but having setup a multi-box and understanding how it works along with all the little hiccups you can encounter with multi-boxing and how to avoid those hiccups, I feel pretty confident I can tell the difference.
Edit: I feel like it should be noted that it is possible to both Bot and Multi-box at the same time. Just because you have characters following each other around and doing the same thing doesn’t mean it’s not a bot. The same identifying principle applies, just look for repetitive and predictable behavior which doesn’t look like a human at the driver’s seat.
The whole point being is - you can have a very good suspicion that someone is botting, but the only people that know 100% is Blizzard (and the botter of course).
Correct. The best course of action is to right-click report any character that you may suspect is botting (not every single character you see). If it’s a multiboxer who is not botting, he will not be affected and, in fact, will not even know he was reported. If he is botting, Blizz will investigate and take the appropriate actions against the cheater.
Earlier, when I said, “report 'em all,” I didn’t really mean report every single charcter you see; I meant report all the characters you suspect are botting. My sincere apologies if my colloquialism led you to misinterpret my intent. I can see now how I might have been misunderstood. Sorry about that.
If you wish to submit screenshots or video to help illustrate your suspicions, you may submit them to hacks@blizzard.com but keep in mind that these submissions will only be for purposes of assisting in the investigation, not as evidence.
Dude, do you actually read anything that people reply to you with? Vrak has already told you why you don’t just report anything and everything. In case you missed it:
I’m going to go ahead and close this one down. It really didn’t need to be bumped - I think Vrak’s final reply covered our position on this pretty well.
