How bad does ANet REALLY want to stop botters?

Arena Net claims that they are taking every step they can to stop botters, but I dont think thats whats happening here.

Look at the evidence.

A week ago there was a guild using the tag [baby] which was using a Troll farming bot. If you went to Droknars forge you could see the bots running in a perfect line... one after another... all female monks in ascetics. They all turned the corner at the EXACT same place near the signpost in Droknars forge, and, unerringly, ran out to Talus Chute in the exact same path.

And now they are gone.

But! The bot program itself hasnt been dealt with. I just, as in not 5 minutes ago, took that picture. It plainly shows 7 of those bots at once. Around as many had just zoned, and around as many followed the ones in the screenshot into Talus Chute. These bots dont have a tag.

I code AI's as a hobby. And while I can not imagine anyone with the know-how to design a bot actually designing one this detectable, I can not imagine that any decent bot detection techniques does not see straight through this. And if ArenaNet really does not have the technology to detect this bot, they seriously need to hire me, because I can -guarantee- I can code bot detection techniques that are superior to their current ones. (no, really, Ill take the job)

I think Arena Net does not WANT to stop botters, or proffessional farmers. This bot is far, far too detectable for ANet not to simply ban ban ban them all in an hour (hell, for a bot this basic, it could be done by hand!)

But why would they do this? Why would they intentionally allow botters to run rampant on their game? Greed.

If ArenaNet bans all the botters every week, then all the bot-owners will have to buy new copies of Guild Wars. Thats 50 bucks for every ban. 50 bucks a week, times a hundred bots, is $5000 a week. Thats alot of cash. A quarter of a million a year. Only assuming 100 bots, too!

I think this is a horrible practice. If ANet wants to make money by selling, by proxy, items and gold to the general playerbase, they should impliment some sort of pay for perks system. (ie, $5 levels a character to 20, $5 turns a Gladius into a Shadowblade, etc)

PS: If you want to see what I am talking about, go to Droknar's Forge (preferably International) and stand near the signpost that says Crafter's Corner (or something) at the top of the stairs from the Armor crafters, up towards the Talus Chute entrance. You will quickly realize exactly what I am talking about, as they will all turn in the EXACT same place. I like to go AFK there. =)

Ok. Time for conspiracy theory time^^

I bet A-net is not getting rid of the bots. Because A-net makes the bots!

Yup. Crazy but true. They farm with the bots. Then corrupt GM's sell the items on ebay for cashes.

It's so crazy it must be true.

Quote: Originally Posted by Lady Lorwinia

It was the same way back in the days of augury rocks and griffin farming. Int d1 augury was filled with bots. strangely enough, I tried partying with one and was accepted. I then just went a long and collected all the drops that was for me.

"Jobs: For employment-related contact only [email protected]"

^^ Go ahead Uber

A-net are obviously farming and selling thier own gold on Ebay. Its the only plausable explanation.

Why would ANet need to "farm" like the rest of us? Surely they can just conjure up gold and items at their own request?

That would inbalance the economy slightly though, if gold came out of nowhere, things that they buy would start getting more expensive for no good reason.

But gold does come out of nowhere.

Quote: Originally Posted by LuxA

Real question is, does it matter?

What percentage of farmers are bots (global for entire GW population)? How much of total income do they generate?

And assuming the 50 new copies per week are indeed contributed to bots, that makes 2500 copies per year. 6 months ago, GW sold 1 million copies.

So no, $250k is not a lot of money.

Quote: Originally Posted by ubermancer

bots are crazy... all over the place... I got ran thru elona by chinese farmer and 2 bots tagged along with him...... ebay ftl

A chinese bot actually invited my necro in a party with him in TOA, we went to uw, he killed everything without me having to do anything, i got 2 ectos for just following him

Its a pity you cant body block in towns and outposts. A line of ppl body blocking those stupid bots.

Yeah, lots of ppl dont seem to know about these bots. They used to be at Augary, and then they all moved to Droknars. I last saw them spamming in Korean on Droknars ID1. 2 of my guild mates are not getting factions becuase they dont think Anet is doing anything. I would say that the bot problem in GW is small compared to that of other MMOs, but that is no excuse. There will always be bots, of course, but it does not seem any steps are being taken. Easy way would be to ask for a code that pops up at the loading scene, and doesnt allow you out without it. Sort of like those programs to stop ppl claiming multiple email accounts etc.

I think the best thing u can do, if u see them, is take screenshots of guild tags and names, and then list them all, and have them all banned. At the end of the day the players have a certain responsibility to help make the game better, as do the developers. That means no buying of items or gold using Ebay etc, not buying things off bot farmers, however cheap, and not using any hacks. The bot farmers accounts are almost always stolen from others stupid enough to try and use hacks. They do contan Key loggers, use them and not only will u lose ur account, u will also contribute to the bot problem.

The way i see it, complaining to ANET again and again will not actually solve the problem, so if u dont like the bots, make sure that u do something about it. I am not saying go out of ur way, but if u seem them, report them.

Quote: Originally Posted by ubermancer

I prefer staying in the districts that have real people in them. American district monk farmers are so much more fun. I tried to stop them once. Wasn't pretty.

I wonder where you get this quest from......................

thats, hilarous they're still at it

once i opened trade w/ a bot to see wat would happen and it offered a sup vigor so i accepted and it gave it to me. this has happened to other ppl as well becuz iv seen them bragging about it in droks. just not always sup vigor