Sooo Bots Anyone?

[BloodGem]

if it is against game policy thus being illegal then it shouldn't be THAT hard, NCSoft is a big company so i guess they have good lawyers.

[Valkadesh]

Originally Posted by BloodGem

if it is against game policy thus being illegal then it shouldn't be THAT hard, NCSoft is a big company so i guess they have good lawyers.

But being against policy doesn't make it illegal. It's against their rules, but there's technically nothing illegal about it. All they can really do is go after the companies with some sort of violation of copyright claim because they're profiting off their game.

[Fasimedes]

Originally Posted by Mark

Well their names aren't literally random strings of English characters, so I can't exactly trust what you say unless I knew Korean and could tell for myself.

Its bad that you dont have Lineage II experience. Any player who played L2 for a long time (at least a year) can easily detect botters in game regardless of their names.
Names of bots could be very different. Usually, if you're farmer with several 9-chars trains running on, you don't have spare time to think about their names, so farming bots are usually named "sdfgwdt", "dfiiiffidb", etc. Also such names make it harder to report by petition system (then you need to retype bot names (9 names) info petition window).
Farm/powerlevel bots (you farm until bot gets Lv 70+ and sell him as high-level character) usually have more readable names. "happle" and "ikillyou" are perfect match. Names like that ("happle", "ikillyou", "iloveyou", and many more) are preffered by chinese farmers who almost can't speak english.

Also, about zeto-time availability of bot for Aion. In case of Aion bot devs has a minimal problems: they got their state-of-the-art bot software for L2 and modified network interface + maybe some parts of hunting AI. All authorization, encryption and protection parts (including GameGuard) in Aion are the same as in L2. They are learned/bypassed by bot devs long time ago.

[Venue]

Sooner or later you will realise that bors/farmers have their roll in keeping an mmo alive and the way mmo's have gone atm, every single one dieing in the first couple of months, is all about this.
There are many players that would stick to the game depending on how easy farmer will make their life with the adena /mats farming and most important economy stabling. And as long as they keep it like that without interfering to server's politics or messing up with real players i cant see he problem.

[Endrance]

Originally Posted by Venue

Sooner or later you will realise that bors/farmers have their roll in keeping an mmo alive and the way mmo's have gone atm, every single one dieing in the first couple of months, is all about this.
There are many players that would stick to the game depending on how easy farmer will make their life with the adena /mats farming and most important economy stabling. And as long as they keep it like that without interfering to server's politics or messing up with real players i cant see he problem.

There! Another botter!

Seriously, what could be more saddening in the gaming genre than a game that doesn't work without it's cheaters?

[BloodGem]

Originally Posted by Valkadesh

But being against policy doesn't make it illegal. It's against their rules, but there's technically nothing illegal about it. All they can really do is go after the companies with some sort of violation of copyright claim because they're profiting off their game.

while that may be true, i don't know a lot about legal stuff, i think that NCSoft's lawyers can speculate/use some of the laws to their favor.

[Cebas]

venue

[Noiry]

My thoughts about the bot problem:


1. Reduce the demand for botting

Is there a lot of tedious grinding in the game that is needed in normal gameplay? (Leveling grind, money grind, item grind, "points" grind etc.) If there is minimal grind in a game, the average player will be less likely to use bots. Make grind as little as possible.

2. Reduce the demand for bot services

This has two parts: reduce the demand for powerleveling services and ebay sellers. The first is easy, make leveling fast and fun. The second is not hard either, create a game economy where players can earn as much money as they need while doing their regular activities (questing, raiding, PVPing, etc.), so there will be little demand for gold selling. Make all good endgame items bind on pickup, so they cannot be traded.

3. Reduce the effectiveness of bot software

Create world environments where typical bots would fail and will act with reduced effectiveness. For example, place "elite mobs" in every grinding spot, which can wipe any single player or non-coordinated farming party. Human players will identify these mobs and avoid them. Bots will wipe on them.

4. Take action against bot users

You need a dedicated group of employees dealing with this stuff. They should constantly monitor the game world, look for botters, and ban them.

5. Use feedback from gaming community for intelligence

You should provide easy-to-use reporting tools for the average gamers, and encourage them to use it. This will only work if you do it together with the previous item, and you have a dedicated team to investigate each and every report.

6. Educate the users about the negative consequences of botting

Use your Community Managers do educate your players about the negativity of botting. It is very difficult, but you can get really creative here. (Like in Warhammer, where (on one server) they announced the banning of bots in public chats in a game-appropriate language, like the Chaos lord ordering the execution of heretics.) Create a negative image of botting. Communicate that bots are not tolerated. Communicate that action is being taken. Be cool and make them believe you.

7. Reduce the availability of bot software - techical

Create a game client that actively prevents the use of bots. Update it regularly so new versions are caught.

8. Reduce the availability of bot software - legal

Take legal action against creators, publishers and commercial users of bot software.

I think there is no single solution, a complex approach like this is necessary.

[finalfight]

Originally Posted by Noiry

My thoughts about the bot problem:


1. Reduce the demand for botting

Is there a lot of tedious grinding in the game that is needed in normal gameplay? (Leveling grind, money grind, item grind, "points" grind etc.) If there is minimal grind in a game, the average player will be less likely to use bots. Make grind as little as possible.

2. Reduce the demand for bot services

This has two parts: reduce the demand for powerleveling services and ebay sellers. The first is easy, make leveling fast and fun. The second is not hard either, create a game economy where players can earn as much money as they need while doing their regular activities (questing, raiding, PVPing, etc.), so there will be little demand for gold selling. Make all good endgame items bind on pickup, so they cannot be traded.

3. Reduce the effectiveness of bot software

Create world environments where typical bots would fail and will act with reduced effectiveness. For example, place "elite mobs" in every grinding spot, which can wipe any single player or non-coordinated farming party. Human players will identify these mobs and avoid them. Bots will wipe on them.

4. Take action against bot users

You need a dedicated group of employees dealing with this stuff. They should constantly monitor the game world, look for botters, and ban them.

5. Use feedback from gaming community for intelligence

You should provide easy-to-use reporting tools for the average gamers, and encourage them to use it. This will only work if you do it together with the previous item, and you have a dedicated team to investigate each and every report.

6. Educate the users about the negative consequences of botting

Use your Community Managers do educate your players about the negativity of botting. It is very difficult, but you can get really creative here. (Like in Warhammer, where (on one server) they announced the banning of bots in public chats in a game-appropriate language, like the Chaos lord ordering the execution of heretics.) Create a negative image of botting. Communicate that bots are not tolerated. Communicate that action is being taken. Be cool and make them believe you.

7. Reduce the availability of bot software - techical

Create a game client that actively prevents the use of bots. Update it regularly so new versions are caught.

8. Reduce the availability of bot software - legal

Take legal action against creators, publishers and commercial users of bot software.

I think there is no single solution, a complex approach like this is necessary.

i couldnt say better dude's, after this post i just had to repeat myself soo +1

[Venue]

Originally Posted by Endrance

There! Another botter!

Seriously, what could be more saddening in the gaming genre than a game that doesn't work without it's cheaters?

I was playing l2 in the highest lvl for years without ever botting, but your zero experience from hardcore mmo's cannot lead you to correct conclusion about the advantages or disadvantages of farmers existence. As i said everyone will realize it sooner or later, you just categorized yourself to the second option.

[Zedek]

Right you are not a botter. But you are obviously someone who has bought adena. You are not better than a botter. You are even worse. You are a ****ing cheater and you have no idea of what a game needs and how it works. In fact ebayers destroy the economy because they cooperate with the farmers pushing up the prices sky high and in the same time they make the peoples work earning money on an allowed way worthless and they basicly spit in their face.

Perma Ban for any Gold/Kina/Adena buyer is the only thing that could probably reduce the amount of farmer bots and to create an economy as wanted by the developer.

[Venue]

You ignorant **** i played a ncsoft game in the highest lvl possible without cheating and i know what it takes and what nc developers want. And that is not a bot-free game.
You can benefit from botters and farmers in a way a gold buyer or a botter himself cannot even reach, but how could you know.

[Endrance]

Originally Posted by Venue

I was playing l2 in the highest lvl for years without ever botting, but your zero experience from hardcore mmo's cannot lead you to correct conclusion about the advantages or disadvantages of farmers existence. As i said everyone will realize it sooner or later, you just categorized yourself to the second option.

Advantages or disadvantages of farmers existence? I will realize how much farmers of any category are "needed" in a MMORPG on a later date? Are you sure you haven't quoted the wrong post?

Originally Posted by Venue

You ignorant **** i played a ncsoft game in the highest lvl possible without cheating and i know what it takes and what nc developers want. And that is not a bot-free game.
You can benefit from botters and farmers in a way a gold buyer or a botter himself cannot even reach you, but how could you know.

You know what it takes to play a NCSoft game (while you're obviously only talking about L2) successfully? Congratulations on having learned about the most useless fact on earth through investing a ridiculous amount of time on easy, repetitive, monotonous tasks for years. The future generation will thank you for this.

[SupKids]

Well at least he'll contribute in creating future generations. You won't coz as your avatar says, you're gay :/

[Venue]

Zerged by L2failures :\