Guild Wars 2

Here’s an idea for how to catch bots: Auto-lock the account after some number of reports has been made. Essentially, trust the user community.

Three other changes would have to be made first, though, or it would catch real players.

First, there needs to be an auto-unlock. If a real human gets locked, then show them a screen with those obfuscated “words” that only humans can read. Uncritically accept successes (probably human), but keep track anyhow. Some bots are monitored by their owners, who could bypass this security easily.

Second, keep track of accounts that report a lot of bots. Note the track record. If the person seems to report real bots most of the time, then add weight to that person’s bot reports. And, vice-versa.

Finally, keep track of accounts that have been called bots, locked, but then later unlocked. These accounts should be monitored for a time to test whether they were incorrectly or correctly reported.