I know most players joke about how Blizzard protects and does nothing about bots, but I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t even report them.
This player on Thrall has been listing 1 Storm Dust at a super cheap price to try to bait others into accidentally listing theirs for super cheap, and he’s been doing it at fixed intervals non stop for the past few days. I go to sleep and he’s listing his 1 unit every few seconds. I wake up and he’s listing his 1 unit every few seconds. He never stops. This cannot be a human being.
When I click on his name and select the report player option, I can only pick inappropriate communication and inappropriate name as report options. Is this a joke? Why is the system protecting these people? I can’t even report them properly ingame.
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Its called harrasment because you suspect its a bot and namimg and shaming have always been against the rules.
Thing about the ah its a player run ah players can post things for whatever the price they want.
Some players have found out the hard way to double check there posting prices.
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how would you like it if someone came on and said that Terraformin was botting/cheating.
Yeah, you didn’t think this thru
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I have seen some AH streams where they watch a stream or movie, and on a foot pedal (!) have programmed their TSM to list and/or purchase below a certain fixed price set.
Because these are legitimate actions and nothing is automated (TSM actions are allowed within API frame) it appears they are botting but they’re not.
As Kiyoko said you may not name/shame.
This category includes both clear and masked language and/or links to websites containing such language or images which:
- Insultingly refer to other characters, players, Blizzard employees, or groups of people
- Result in ongoing harassment to other characters, players, Blizzard employees, or groups of people
If a player is found to have participated in such actions, they will:
- Be given a temporary ban from the forums, depending upon severity
Harassment takes many forms, and is not necessarily limited to the type of language used, but the intent. Repeatedly targeting a specific player with harassment can lead to more severe action. The idea behind this is to prevent any one player from consistently being uncomfortable in the forums.
They did not defend bots, but merely pointed out you may not start a witchhunt to cause harassment.
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It’s not about the price, I don’t know why you’re saying people can list for whatever price they want. It is about the activity of listing 1 unit every fixed seconds 24/7 for a few days. Did you… did you read the post?
Yep and the answer the same some people play the ah like they go to the casino.
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You cannot possibly know it was 24/7 unless you were observing them 24/7. You are assuming that this happened, but you do not have access to the logs Blizzard does that actually contain such information.
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Okay good. I edited the culprit’s name out of the post. The entire point remains.
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To be frank, there isn’t a point; you’re being annoyed someone else is able to make a profit from working the AH. No, them listing items one at a time at a low cost isn’t against the rules. No, you don’t know how long they’ve been online, nor when they go to sleep. As someone who had issues sleeping, getting four or five hour sleep, my guild thought I didn’t sleep at all.
You can report folks for what you think they’re doing, but that in of itself isn’t proof of wrong doing. You don’t know how someone else on the other screen is handling things, nor their life.
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The in-game report tools won’t let you report someone for something unrelated to how you are filling it out. If someone posts in trade chat, you can’t report them for gameplay sabotage or blocking team progress, you can only report their chat for their inappropriate name or chat conduct.
If you think this person is botting, you can report them using their character portrait or by emailing hacks@blizzard.com
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Because they want you to report what you’re basically physically there for - not on the other side of the planet. Namely loading up the tool to see who is in a given area, like near a zone with a dungeon/raid, and reporting all hunters/druids names you see there. If you think they’re breaking the rules or botting, you’d need to hunt them down for such in-game. Otherwise, you’d need to use the email to report.
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Were not defending bot but you have no concrete proof its a botnjust suspicion wich osnt proof there only 2 ways to report right click and report or when all else fails the hacks email just because u dont like the answer doesnt make us wrong.
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I don’t think anyone is defending botting, Terraformin, just the idea that the behavior isn’t necessarily botting. We have a lot of folks who spend the majority of their time in-game playing the Auction House. That is their game. The point being, unless confirmed you only have suspicions of their activity.
In most cases, you don’t have to report it, as it is something that our Hacks team actively watches for. However, if you feel a player’s activity is suspicious, you are welcome to email the details to hacks@blizzard.com.
Keep in mind, you will not hear back, but that will allow our hacks team to collect the information and look into it.
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This post is solely my experience and my opinion. There are no facts here to see so please don’t hold my post to that standard.
I have seen this happening on many items as well. They post at 50% of the lowest price long enough to catch legitimate posters not paying attention. They then sweep all that was posted plus their original back at 50% of what the legitimate posted intended.
Of course we need to be mindful of checking the price as we post, but the behavior exhibited is intentionally scammy. It wouldn’t be an issue if it weren’t being posted and then almost immediately removed cause most players to not even see that it was there. You literally have to continously refresh the list of prices to see it occur.
I believe this might apply to their behavior:
Engaging in any activity that grants an unfair advantage is considered cheating.
Except that the AH is a free market. I could go in, tank an item, snatch up all of those who don’t pay attention, then relist it for ten times the amount. Is it scummy? Sure. Is it against the rules? No.
Source
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Y’know, I was about to post the whole ‘free market’ angle and now I’m not sure why I didn’t. 
But yeah, while it may be a bit on the scummy side capitalism is gonna capitalize, and to my knowledge there’s no way us regular players can tell if there’s any foul play or automation. As Vrak said there is a team that already keeps a fairly good eye on this.
As for the OP the same logic applies. I don’t think anyone is defending bots least of all the WoW staff but you, nor us, know if they’re actually doing anything bad. They may very well be playing Dollar General to the AH’s Wal Mart.
…I couldn’t think of any actually expensive retailers but the point stands.
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Thats not gona happen gms have better things to do then watch the ah.
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Hate to break it to you but GMs dont come here they only monitored the game once and that went as bad as it figured they rely on players reports its not productive to do what u want so u barking up the wrong tree.
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