As the title implies I’m curious what information makes a cheating report useful to Blizzard staff. I’m asking because I saw several characters who appeared to be bots and wanted to report them for cheating. The in game function says to provide as much info as possible but, by the time I included the violation, location, server, and time I witnessed the cheating there wasn’t much room left to note the actual behavior which led me to determine the person should be reported. I did a google search but couldn’t find any information so I thought I’d post here to see if any blues might provide some guidance.
I know some players are frustrated about this topic and cynical about what they perceive Blizzards attitude towards botting is. However, that hasn’t seemed to produce the results anyone is happy with so this is my attempt to proactively engage and see if I, as a player, can do more to support this game I really enjoy.
I disagree and think they do care. I found a post from March announcing they had banned an unspecified number of accounts for cheating:
I think the process for handling bans looks different from the strategic level vs. from our view in the trenches and I’d guess it’s a lot more complicated than watching a specific area for bots. I don’t know Blizzards process for identifying accounts which need to be banned but I can think of a few things which may contribute to its difficulty.
For example, the cheaters are getting more sophisticated. I wouldn’t put it past them to use accounts to post responses like yours hoping to encourage people to leave the cheaters alone.
From a logistics standpoint, Blizzard has many games, including Overwatch, which need to be monitored for cheaters. To me this sounds like there’s potential for millions of instances to be investigated.
I’m also aware of claims groups of players will band together and report another simply to troll them regardless of whether that player has actually done anything wrong. I don’t know whether this actually works or even happens but I have no doubt many players abuse the system to try and punish others and all of those have to be sorted through. The result of this could mean a specific player may have to be reported dozens or even hundreds of times before they get looked at. There may even be a time component involved.
Their goals may also be more complex than simply banning someone. They may be trying to identify networks of cheaters as well as the players who use their services. They may also be trying to keep up on the latest techniques used by cheaters which may include having to tolerate their existence while figuring out what they’re doing to cheat.
So, like I said. Obviously, we’d like the system to work better and move faster but I have no idea what it’s limitations are. If we, as players, can do something to speed it along wouldn’t it make sense to try and do that?
That brings up a great point about player perception and knowledge. I recently found out some players don’t know about /follow and assumed anyone using it must be a bot.
The best way to report is the Right-Click > Report > For Cheating option while they’re engaging in that behavior. The reason is that flags the internal data for Blizzard to review - the realm, the time and date, the location, as well as the data going between that client and the game server.
If that isn’t possible and you’re reporting via a ticket, focus on the very specific facts and minimize speculation. Don’t worry so much about deep explanations, because Blizzard is going to rely on the data they view rather than the personal testimony of those who report. (In other words, a simple “bot-like movement” rather than a detailed explanation of what you watched them do, is more than sufficient.)
Depends on the cheat, but I’ll give an example. There are certain actions in WOW that should not be possible to perform, such as traveling straight up in any manner other than a jump or an in-game elevator mechanism, or straight down if there is ground beneath them. If a character has shifted when it should not be possible, Blizzard would look at what data from the client preceded that event - how did the server get tricked into accepting that.
Well, this is a good example of what I’m wondering about. This morning I watched a character run into the same tree twice, following the same route, but there was about 10 minutes between the 1st and 2nd time. To get around the tree he ran straight into it for about 5 or 6 second while trying to jump over it. However, this would be impossible since it was one of the huge trees where the Worgen are just NW of Darkshire. When that didn’t work, he backed straight up about 20 yards and then left going a completely different direction. All the while one of the mobs he was hunting was directly on the other side of the tree. Obviously, this isn’t how a normal player goes around a tree but there’s no way I could put all that information into the report to support my belief they’re botting. Is it worthwhile to compact that into the report box character limit or just say “Player is behaving in a non-human way to get around a tree”?