Curse

mega_jamie · Aug 23, 2006, 06:04 PM // 18:04

Gratz on getting the account back.

Its kind of annoying, but it looks like that in towns we have to take the silly way to get to NPCs just so they dont think we are botting.

Also, to the Devs/reps if you read this, of course we are going to move automated at times, you have built into the game a feature which allows us to move to an NPC just by tapping space bar!

Coverticus · Aug 23, 2006, 06:25 PM // 18:25

It would be interesting to know what exactly they saw you doing that warranted the ban - although going into detail would not be beneficial as bot creators would know what to be looking for (as posted in this earlier).

Being a software developer myself, it is extremely difficult to a.) spot misuse of a system and b.) prove how/what an individual has managed to misuse. And of course the game sits within Windows (just a few holes.....) which makes life even trickier!!

So (I know it sounds harsh) but give ANet some credit for trying to clean their game up. Yes, they could indeed work on how they go about doing their bans (e.g. 1st warning, final warning, ban) but again, that is a sticky subject that is not going to please everybody.

Eviance · Aug 23, 2006, 06:40 PM // 18:40

Grats on getting your account back man.... Anyone who tries that hard to get their account back is in my eyes obviously not a farming bot (otherwise you could just afford a new account right?).

Anyways after the huge banning stick came down where about 25% of the patrons on this board were banned, I take any ban that Anet puts out there with a grain of salt. Mistakes are made and still being made at random. When I farm I also do the same thing over and over, but I do it at my keyboard where I sit spamming my skills and fighting unholy monsters of dewm - but yes my way of farming could be bot like and I could likely get banned just the same.
(Also just so you know, standing afk for long periods of time is also bot like.... >_<)

Get all the info you can out of them, and I would report whatever that one program was that you stated before. It might have been as simple as that, but it sounds more like you were running in the same paterns in the same town over and over which got you the ban stick. Even with your account unbanned it still puts you in line for another mistaken bot thing in which they already said: Hey, we catch you again and its permaban for you my friend!
So if I were you, I would do everything I could right now to clear that up and prove them wrong, because when they make the same mistake again you wont be so lucky.

Good luck hun!

Hockster · Aug 23, 2006, 06:51 PM // 18:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uther Charrsbane

i have said this a few times: Anet are a nerfing bunch of geeks that have carrots up their asses and they cant do their job properly.
i have been banned once on another account and i am a saint too.
but lifes unfair and we have to live with it

Based on the content of that post, I find your claim of being a saint totaly unbelievable.

Mordakai · Aug 23, 2006, 06:56 PM // 18:56

It's funny, I see posts saying "Look at the bots in ____, Anet do something please!"

But if they ban an innocent, Anet is the enemy.

I guess this thread is evidence of two things:

No one is perfect.

Anet is trying to stop bots.

ChildeOfMalkav · Aug 23, 2006, 06:57 PM // 18:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by wilderness

(requests lock)

Please dont lock this thread. I'm sure that many others have been banned unfairly and thought they couldnt do anything about it because of that autoreply that makes it sound like you cant repeal it at all.

Seriously, I'm getting sick of ANET's ban policy. How many times have we seen this where people are wrongly banned? And this isnt even including that mass banning fiasco.

This is ridiculous. I'm all for getting rid of bots but not at the expense of banning innocent people. I'd much rather live with bots than get banned, thank you.

madman420 · Aug 23, 2006, 07:08 PM // 19:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Numa Pompilius

Sometimes the people who use that kind of scripting don't even realize what they're doing. I saw a person yesterday who, every two seconds, wrote a line of lyrics from a Mars Volta song. I'm a fast typist, but I'd bet good money that person was using some sort of software to enter the text, basically cut & pasting. I'm pretty sure he didn't think he was cheating.

All you have to do is press the UP arrow to scroll back through every message you have typed. Most likely that's all he was doing.

Alias_X · Aug 23, 2006, 07:35 PM // 19:35

Didn't you already give the results of your virus scan, and there WAS a program that was fishy there. Minimizes windows? Sounds like it might have interacted with GW.

EdiT:

As soon as you get your account back you want this thread closed? If there is as much of an issue with bans as you suggest, this definitely needs a response from Anet.

Sir Skullcrasher · Aug 23, 2006, 07:41 PM // 19:41

anyone think there is a undercover mod in-game watching peoples doing different things? I know they have logs of all the transaction and online activities but what about in-game mods to see how things work.

Eviance · Aug 23, 2006, 07:46 PM // 19:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mordakai

It's funny, I see posts saying "Look at the bots in ____, Anet do something please!"

But if they ban an innocent, Anet is the enemy.

I guess this thread is evidence of two things:

No one is perfect.

Anet is trying to stop bots.

I think its awesome that they are trying to ban bots, but as I recalled before there were a lot of people who were banned at the same time for doing nothing wrong! And as soon as all the posts went up about it the first thing Anets RP said was: Then you shouldn't be using 3rd party programs!
Later they came back to say: OOPS! Yeah we MIGHT have made a mistake so email us and we will check into it.
.... Bots are usually quite obvious and all it takes is sitting in one of the certain places they tend to frequent and watch them come and go and come and go and after about 3-5times and their bumping into walls is the same as it was each and every time and its always the same district and so forth, then you can almost guarantee that its a bot. Bots are pretty much self-evident.
Like I said, I commend them on their banning bots, but I seriously doubt that you will ever see a bot farmer come posting and complaining. Especially if they are farming for the sole purpose of ebaying the gold. They more than likely have enough money to go out and buy a new account and start the whole process over if they don't already have 4 backup accounts doing the same thing. (This is when you see several of those mo/w going in and out and running the exact same course every single time and they are all different monks, just running on the same course!)

So in the end, while I am sure that most of the bans that occur are legitimate, there are probably more than a few that aren't and Anet needs to be certain before shaking their ban stick.

Count to Potato · Aug 23, 2006, 07:53 PM // 19:53

Some people who play for 3 hours straight farming, or such, will get into what i say a "robot" mode and become automatic in their selling buying and movements

Silver_Fang · Aug 23, 2006, 07:54 PM // 19:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alias_X

I trust Anet more than I trust you. Any botter could post a compelling story such as the one you posted and hope for an unban.

On the login page, there is a WARNING about Third Party Programs, and as your virus scan picked up, you had a program that would qualify.

You should have known to turn off that program.

Lol, most ignorant post even after somebody already point out THAT is not a virus nor spyware. According to your logic, Even Windows OS is a consider a Third party Program and anyone using Windows OS while playing GW should be banned, anyone that running IE, FF, Opera, TB, Outlook should be ban because of Third Party Program. When a scanner software pick up anything, you should not trust it 100% and you should ask any technician you know or search it on the internet.

There exists of result, and such results can be false positive.

Mrscoombes · Aug 23, 2006, 08:04 PM // 20:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by skull

WTS: Chaos Axe (1)
WTS: Chaos Axe (2)
WTS: Chaos Axe (3)
...
WTS: Chaos Axe (50)

I don't know how they do it but they seem to get past the game's spam blocker by doing this. Is this perhaps a BOT or an illegal program?

They get past the spam filter by editing the message a little bit. I think the filter works as follows:

Bob is getting annoyed at the economy in general. He types 'F U. U R ALL GHEY.' and presses enter. He then presses enter, up arrow, enter again and again. The spam filter notices his rapid unchanging message and simply zips his mouth. Spam filter does not notice the message being spammed, but each message is different from the last. Must just be someone who can type fast, having a conversation. But actually it's someone mega-spamming their sales message by escalating the number on the end each time. Atleast I think that's how it works

MooseyFate · Aug 23, 2006, 08:06 PM // 20:06

The scariest part of this to me is their final reply. In so many words they are saying they ASSUMED you were using another program. And they are saying that the play style of a person can get them banned. Yeah, there are solutions to both those issues, but the fact that it exists is frightening.

And about believing Wilderness about being unjustly banned, it doesn't matter. Until it happens to you personally, you'll never know for sure. And about a roomate having access to your computer, I have friends that I could trust 100%. Not 99.9999999%, but 100%. These are friends that can email and surf the net. They could simply care less about the computer, and wouldn't know how to do anything. If it was a friend who could log into my GW account, then I could only say 99.999999% at max. Sure they could go to an bad internet site and download something without knowing it, but so could I, so that doesn't count.

I stay strongly of the opinion, that banning one account accidently isn't worth it, even at the cost of destroying the in game economy. But I'm a player who buys and sells from merchants almost exclusively. So just put a min and max for dynamic prices (I've noticed only a min sell price), and only ban if your 100% positive.

ChildeOfMalkav · Aug 23, 2006, 08:08 PM // 20:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mordakai

It's funny, I see posts saying "Look at the bots in ____, Anet do something please!"

But if they ban an innocent, Anet is the enemy.

I guess this thread is evidence of two things:

No one is perfect.

Anet is trying to stop bots.

1) People are asking ANET to ban bots NOT innocent people.

2) People who rightfully criticizing ANET are NOT necessarily the same people who call for a ban to bots.

So your "evidence" is crap.

**cosyfiep** · Aug 23, 2006, 08:09 PM // 20:09

As another recently unemployeed farming person.....I am scared that my account will get banned, even though I have done nothing wrong....I just play for many (too many) hours a day.....and reading stories like this makes me even more worried.....I will play my un-farming characters more now. and join pugs, lots of pugs.........maybe create an assasin and go and get killed a bunch of times....yeah, thats it......
Glad you got your account back!

Fist_of_God · Aug 23, 2006, 08:15 PM // 20:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChildeOfMalkav

1) People are asking ANET to ban bots NOT innocent people.

2) People who rightfully criticizing ANET are NOT necessarily the same people who call for a ban to bots.

So your "evidence" is crap.

Evidence? He made two observations that are correct:

a) Anet is trying to ban bots
b) Anet is not perfect.

Seems like he was right on the money to me.

Silver_Fang · Aug 23, 2006, 08:20 PM // 20:20

People always ask for perfection from someone else when they are not perfect themselves and perfection doesn't exist in the real world.

Anyway, we don't know what is the method being use to detect 3rd Party program. And from the replied he got, what does witnessed means? A-Net shouldnt ban anyone just from 'witnessed'. They should do more evaluation or analysis before banning anyone so hard. A simple whisper might do(but i dont agree to use whisper because i always ignore whisper and its hard to notice a whisper while you are farming)

Y.T. · Aug 23, 2006, 08:37 PM // 20:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by wilderness

I just recieved this message

I'd urge all of you to be carfeul when trading or farming as it seems anything resembling automated behavior can result in your account being banned.

Thank you all for your help.

and what kind of behaviour can be classified as *automated*? now i'm not sure... u can be banned only cos my chars movement appears too automated?... geeze

Griff Mon · Aug 23, 2006, 08:38 PM // 20:38

I farm a lot as well, but rotate almost constantly between three places I like to go rather than going in and out of the same town again and again.

You would think that if an Anet person is observing your actions that there would be something beyond just watching you and deciding you are a bot.

Trying to talk to you, identifying themselves as an in-game moderator, and attempting to have a "non-bot" conversation with you would be a good way to help make that decision.