And what exactly is funny about that. Also, how did you get off my ignore list, back you go.
Greetings fellow players.
how much do you want to pay per month for a sub?
they’d need to hire a whole lot of people to do this.
the amount of server clusters, plus shards, plus wm on/off
combined with the amount of popular botting locations around each continent, both open world and dungeons…
your idea is cute, but entirely unrealistic.
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Looks like you made him mad before since he slapped you on ignore again
it seems a bit weird that they’d ask a question, then tell me they’re going to ignore the response… 
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“I need your opinion”
Gives opinion
“I didn’t ask for your opinion”
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I find it mildly amusing that people think that:
- Bots are regular players who play the game at all
Gathering bots are run by scammy, scummy businesses, not players. The businesses are in the business of selling gold, boosts, pre-leveled accounts, items and carries to people who do play the game for real-world cash. It’s a massive industry, one that even Steve Bannon has been a part of in the past, and extends to every online multiplayer game. The only way to truly ever stop botting is to either not have it be possible to gather in-game resources that you can give to someone else, or to get people to stop buying these services from these companies.
- Bots are something that Blizzard is just choosing to not do something about
The war between bots and game developers is a constant, neverending arms race. If you just ban accounts here and there as they pop up without addressing how to break the underlying bot, then they just come surging back again only now they know how to make their bot less detectable. Instead of laying out their own cash and lessening their profit to bring new accounts online when they lose a few here or there to bans, they use stolen credit card information and stolen accounts from phishing campaigns, malware, and from people who have bought from them in the past.
The only thing that actually puts a dent in the botting goldsellers is to have large ban-waves that catch them by surprise. That actually disrupts their business model for a while, while they figure out what to do next.
The problem is that as long as people buy their gold and items and boosts and carries, there will always be an eventual workaround and they’ll be back. There is no way for Blizzard to make the game botproof. That will never happen. Sure, they can ban IP addresses - big deal, now they use a VPN. They can ban MAC addresses - big deal, now they spoof those too. And remember those stolen credit cards? Here’s a new fleet of old PCs that can barely run the game, but that’s fine.
Until people stop buying gold and services for RL cash from third-party companies, the bots will always be back eventually. It’s just a question of getting a short or a long break from them. Ban five, ten, twenty accounts at a time and you get no break at all. Ban ten thousand when you finally figure out how to break their software? And it will be a while at least.
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Not buying that one because if that were the case, a botter would just have “sets” of accounts. When set 1 gets banned, they switch to set 2 until set 1 is active again. In case set 2 gets banned while set 1 is banned, they have set 3.
They need to perma ban the bot account and all accounts associated. Did the banned bot account send gold to someone? BAN! Did the bot account buy game time for someone? BAN!
Blizz needs to follow the gold and the reagents and slap all accounts with a sweeping net of perma-ban. If you get caught in it, very good chance you were doing something you shouldn’t have been anyway, i.e. buying game time, accounts, items, gold, for cash from bots.
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You would think this would be a bannable offense. Now you have someone directly cutting into Blizz’s profits.
Don’t talk about my PC, lol. I’m on an HP XW 8600 workstation made in 2008…was never meant for gaming to begin with. Still running strong on WoW min req
What do you think they did before they started using extended suspensions? They permabanned. Since they are throwaway accounts, naturally they would just create new ones immediately (and yes some still do anyway). If those accounts are opened back up in 6 months though, is it really worth it to start up from scratch again or wait? I can say confidently that there seemed to be far more frustration when a long suspension was dished out than a permaban (from reading the bot forum).
Their main focus is on the bot itself. Yes theres more than one and for every one they may get rid of, a new one will take its place. Permabanning the accounts obviously didn’t solve the problem though or they never would have moved to long (and now increasing if I am not mistaken) suspensions.
They do follow the gold if they can. Bot communities have their very own set of guidelines for how to stay under Blizz’s radar though, and they probably have tips on how to share mats or gold with their main account, but I do remember from the reports (because the bot company had a section for making reports when you got banned) that sometimes even accounts they didn’t bot with would get it as well.
I watched a group of drood bots in Suramar yesterday for a few minutes so see the pattern and how it works (yes I reported them). Every single one in the group was moving in the exact same way and in the same pattern over and over.
What I am left wondering is how hard boomkin are going to get the nerfbat when this is over? Specifically - Starfall. That is the one spell more than any other that is helping them do this.
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They haven’t gotten it yet…not sure they will ever.
Glad Blizz gets some of the mains too, but I am curious about these communities you speak of. Specifically, how do I find? If they cuold be infiltrated to gain information on how mains get to fly under the radar, then that info can be useful in extending the bans to discourage bots.
I’m still going to disagree on temp vs perma bans though. Say a bot account is perma banned, now a person has to pay for a new account, buy the expansion again. That’s real life money lost bc of a permaban. What’s more, if it is just a temp ban, then it isn’t as much of a big deal if someone’s main gets caught up in the ban, since they won’t lose their account permanently.
They should force server change instead of banning lol
Then they can all bot on one server and sell their junk to themselves.
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Do you know that banks and some payment systems provide you with virtual visa card, working for just 1 transaction? Then you click a button and generate another legit visa card.
there are masses of players who bot for profit.
this can quite easily be established by looking at the well known botting forum, or by watching the people discuss the length of their secondary account suspension in CS after a banwave goes out.
Well I dont know about the bots being used now. I know of one maybe current one and if you buy it they have a discord server, but of course I dont have access. The main one I was referring to had a public forum, but it’s not used on retail anymore only classic and other Blizz games, and the forum they used to use is essentially dead because they closed up shop on retail (I’m assuming they got smart and moved things to a less accessible place, because they arent completely dead obviously). That means the info there is old, but it does outline a whole lot of insider info for the basic player if you poke around enough.
I dont know if I can even hint the name sadly without getting in trouble, but I assure you it’s still there (I pulled it up to get a refresher today). Honestly, just best to probably avoid them.
I dont know exactly why, but even having to start from scratch like you described seems to be less of a deterrent than long suspensions. Suspensions actually seem to work like silences now where the first time its 6 months, then 12, then 18. Like I said, I think the main focus is on the bot itself, and permabans do still happen I am sure, just not the main way they do it.
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Strange, you even quoted me ‘easy to get around’
I’ve got to ask, because I don’t really peruse bot forums - are we really talking bots using automated gameplay software, or are we talking multiboxers?
…never mind, curiosity prevailed and an alarmingly quick Google turned them up. I feel like I need a shower now. Those poor dumb kids.
Okay, I amend - MOST large gathering bot operations are run by scummy, scammy companies. Players who want to bot their way to PVP wins or put together some extra gold typically don’t have the cash to lay out to buy account after account once they’re caught, but it’s still more effective to break the bot and banwave than it is to whack-a-mole on individual cheaters.
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I’ve felt that way too. Funny enough, they feel the exact same way about players on these forums it seems.
“Look at those nerds with their still-working accounts who play the game, what a bunch of weirdos!”
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