Jan 18, 2008, 03:59 AM // 03:59 | #21 |
Ascalonian Squire
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: A chemistry book
Guild: Team Asshats[Hat]
Profession: Me/Mo
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Another thing to consider is that all of these online game companies don't just on site ban bots/haxx. They watch it. Study it. Learn how to circumvent it so that particular bot doesn't come back in the future. Then ban everyone using that bot and run the game with improved scripts.
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Jan 18, 2008, 06:42 AM // 06:42 | #22 | |
Wilds Pathfinder
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Australia
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I remember reading somewhere that developers usually get around 10-20% of the publisher's profit in royalties. This would translate to a developer income of well under $5 per game sold, probably more like $1 |
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Jan 18, 2008, 10:02 AM // 10:02 | #23 | |||||
So Serious...
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: London
Guild: Nerfs Are [WHAK]
Profession: E/
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Jan 18, 2008, 02:13 PM // 14:13 | #24 |
Krytan Explorer
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: somewhere, Grinding some l33t titles
Guild: Order of the Divine WoodChuck
Profession: R/
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hmmmm..... bots.
I use to play another mmo, Silkroad. I left coz of the impossiblity to lvl up because on the overwhelming number of bots, the lack of support(fixing bugs, banning bots, undating skills), the way people bot openly and without any mesure taken by the game company, the fact that buying goodies from the ingame store will give you a huge advantage over other players. I came to GW after serching the big G for entries about GW+bots. The result was: not too many result. Now if you really want to know what botting is try Silkroad. If you're able to log in(next to impossible on certain servers without paying for a premium access ticket), go in any town at the potion shop and watch the huge rows of GoldBots coming in and out. GW as got great support, they are listening to players and are always looking for ways to improve game play. The cost of banning bots, making money or not out of banning them is of no importance. ANET is doing something about them and that is to me the only important part. |
Jan 18, 2008, 03:58 PM // 15:58 | #25 | ||||
Frost Gate Guardian
Join Date: Jul 2006
Guild: The Pond [pond]
Profession: N/Me
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Jan 19, 2008, 02:04 AM // 02:04 | #26 | |||
Frost Gate Guardian
Join Date: May 2007
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1. Support guy gets the user name of a player suspected to be a bot via automated methods. 2. He checks if they're online, if not leave them on the list and go to the next guy 3. He finds a guy online and messages them. "Hey, this is Anet tech support. Please talk to me and let me know if you're a bot". Have the gw code make it obvious this is coming from an admin and difficult to miss. (wait 1 minute) 4. Observe that the player is doing stuff/farming. Message them again. "This is Anet tech support. I'm going to have to put a ban on your account if you don't respond. Please let me know you're here." (wait 1 minute) 5. Give a final warning 6. If they kept farming and didn't answer any of these or change behavior then place the ban. Log the time for reference if they challenge it. 7. Go back to 1 Done in under 5 minutes. Anet doesn't do this (I assume, cause I've never heard of anyone being questioned in game). Here's the point... why doesn't Anet do this? The implied answer is because this is more work then Anet currently spends on determining who is a bot. If they were spending more then five minutes on making the ban, they would do this and save money. You don't need the CEO, or a programmer, or even a high level support guy to do the steps above. Quote:
You should give me credit because I point out the reasoning behind what I say. You're using a logical fallacy called Appeal to Authority. Things aren't right or wrong simply based on who said them. I disagree with the second part of your statement about needing exact numbers too. Do you really need to pull out a tape measure to verify that two inch shoes won't fit on your feet? If I told you Beijing was 2 miles away from Los Angeles, would you need to measure the exact distance between Beijing and Los Angeles in order to say I was wrong? Would that just be your 'unfounded subjective opinion' until you did measure it exactly? You can estimate to see if something is way off. That's what I'm doing here. Last edited by Entreri; Jan 19, 2008 at 02:06 AM // 02:06.. |
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Jan 19, 2008, 07:49 AM // 07:49 | #27 | |
Desert Nomad
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Ascalon
Profession: E/
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Banning something is not something to be done lightly. So support has to go through log files and go through them more then once. You are right about one thing, it is very very inefficient, which means time is wasted, along with money. And while we are on that subject, have you ever seen a log file? Do you honestly believe its something as simple as a text file that reads "player a moves right y times, moves forward z times, mashes button x times, etc..." Its in code, with a crazy number of other information all jumboed in a mess that will make your eyes bleed if you stare at it long enough. 10 minutes is no where near enough time to read a log file. Bottom line, bots are bad for the game. They introduce excessive amounts of gold into the game and ruin economies. That means bad publicity, which means less games sell, which also means money lost. GW is also set up so that rather then paying a monthly subscription, those fees are paid for by people buying additional campaigns, botters don't do that, which again means money lost. Then theres the stolen accounts which support has to spend time tracking user activity, pulling up account info/keys, verifying owners, reissuing keys, and then repeating on all the accounts that have had contact with it, which means money lost. Accounts brought with stolen cards have to be refunded, authorities contacted, more info tracked down, bandwidth/server space wasted by accounts that shouldn't have been, more tracking of user activities and those they've traded with. It adds and adds and adds, thats all money being spent and wasted and of no benefit to Anet. Last edited by DarkFlame; Jan 19, 2008 at 08:27 AM // 08:27.. |
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Jan 19, 2008, 08:41 AM // 08:41 | #28 |
Desert Nomad
Join Date: Jul 2005
Guild: One of Many [ONE]
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Yes, I've always found it amusing the theories on why they make money from bots. The vast majority of arguments against it show a severe lack of knowledge on how costs are figured in a business. Take the line "Also, I don't think it could cost $80 to ban a bot." - yea sure, all the money you pay for the game goes into support, there are no fixed costs, no overhead, no publisher, no retailer, no infrastructure, no transportation cost - nope nothing all goes into support and banning bots.
Of course, that is why a great deal of people never make it into management and even then stay in low to mid level positions. It is also why they tend to think their bosses stupid and almost always find that their promoted co-worker "betrays" them - there are many people I would *love* to see put in the management position they think they know so well. |
Jan 19, 2008, 08:46 AM // 08:46 | #29 | |
So Serious...
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: London
Guild: Nerfs Are [WHAK]
Profession: E/
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Until you've tried the shoe on your feet, you can tell me your opinion about whether it fits you, but it's all very subjective. How many people claiming "this is going to work" but then it does not work? Once more, until you put your subjective opinion into number, it will remain what it is, i.e., an unfounded opinion, and nothing more. |
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Jan 19, 2008, 06:34 PM // 18:34 | #30 |
Krytan Explorer
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: British Columbia
Profession: W/
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lmaolmaolmaoWAITwaitwait.
It costs Anet more to ban someone than the purchase of a new game? uh....whos doing these bans? They're getting paid too much. |
Jan 19, 2008, 08:39 PM // 20:39 | #31 | |
Hell's Protector
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Canada
Guild: Brothers Disgruntled
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Jan 19, 2008, 08:57 PM // 20:57 | #32 | |
Grotto Attendant
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Beyond the Forest of Doom, past the Cavern of Agony... on Kitten & Puppy Island
Guild: Soul of Melandru [sOm]
Profession: W/E
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After the hilarity of whiny fools like Chunky Monkey and, recently, the 117, that guy deserves a raise for all the giggles he's given us Gurus |
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Jan 19, 2008, 09:01 PM // 21:01 | #33 | ||
Forge Runner
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Jan 20, 2008, 04:35 AM // 04:35 | #34 | |
Desert Nomad
Join Date: Jul 2005
Guild: One of Many [ONE]
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Jan 20, 2008, 09:13 AM // 09:13 | #35 | |||
Frost Gate Guardian
Join Date: May 2007
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Perhaps you never the congo lines of bots they had at altrumn, granite citadel, bergen hot (bot) springs. The bots likely did none of the stuff you suggested above and you could go and see full lines of these guys at any time of the day. Come back in a week and they would be there. If a dead obvious bot wasn't getting banned, why waste time building a smarter one? By the way, you are using a Perfect Solution Fallacy argument. Seat belts don't save 100% of the people who get in car crashes but they're still good to use. Every solution doesn't need to fix the problem 100% to be worthwhile. Quote:
The support guy wouldn't be expected to go through logs directly. He would use the log reader. The description "in code, with a crazy number of other information all jumboed in a mess that will make your eyes bleed if you stare at it long enough" doesn't apply to any log I've ever seen. Even logging just intended for the programmer. Possibly if you weren't looking at a log at all but directly at network packets. Nobody's going to do that for each and every case of a potential bot. Not at A-net, not at any MMO. Quote:
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Jan 20, 2008, 09:30 AM // 09:30 | #36 | ||||
Frost Gate Guardian
Join Date: May 2007
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Last edited by Entreri; Jan 20, 2008 at 09:35 AM // 09:35.. |
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Jan 20, 2008, 10:09 AM // 10:09 | #37 | |
So Serious...
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: London
Guild: Nerfs Are [WHAK]
Profession: E/
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This is the last time I'll reply to your dummy comments. |
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Jan 20, 2008, 10:41 AM // 10:41 | #38 | ||
Frost Gate Guardian
Join Date: May 2007
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Jan 20, 2008, 11:08 AM // 11:08 | #39 | ||
Lion's Arch Merchant
Join Date: May 2005
Profession: N/Me
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Well I doubt that. And the infestation of bots we had stands as evidence. Their removal did not appear to be the work of a large team or an important issue and it wasn't until fairly recently that we saw them being seriously addressed. So was it because ANET spent more money to increase their support team or did the issue grow so big (and public) that they were they forced to stop ignoring it and take action with existing support? Only Anet knows for certain but I doubt they would take on the considerable costs that come with additional employees at this stage in the game's life cycle. That'd be pretty foolish. To continue the trend of pointing out the obvious, remember that this is just my opinion, none of us know Anet's calculations behind the cost of banning a bot VS the profit from a new game (recalling that new bot accounts often come from existing accounts), Gaile is just PR, and forums are a place where people discuss their personal views. |
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Jan 21, 2008, 09:54 PM // 21:54 | #40 | |
Ascalonian Squire
Join Date: Dec 2006
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Also, your "estimate" can't be relied upon, because you have no experience to base it on. It's really just a guess. Yes, 2-inch shoes won't fit your feet, but you can estimate that because you can look at the shoes and compare them to your feet. But you don't know how much effort it takes to ban a bot. You've never banned bots before (that's obvious based on your method). |
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