Guild Wars 2

I’m not too sure I’m the only one that thinks this, but every time I see an oddly named naked character suddenly appear on an ore node, start mining it, and then mysteriously disappear the very moment they’re done (though of course they’re still online and still in the zone… somewhere…)

…well, I have to wonder if the crew at Guild Wars 2 is doing something about it.

Of course, usually this results in the usual thread locking with propaganda pointing at the thread that states things are clearly being done, and that should be the end of that problem.

Except that the commitment was expressed four months ago, and since then, we as a community have received, oh, about zilch information about how that’s going.

Personally, I think this is a grievous error on the part of ArenaNet, and something should be done about it.

The Solution
Give us constant updates about what ArenaNet is doing about the third party problem.

I as a humble forum browser can see clearly on the DevTracker that there are constant updates about how various tickets are being handled. I want to see the same done by a representative of those in charge of dealing with our reports of botting (since “Send Report: Hacking” still isn’t a thing.).

It doesn’t have to be names (Even though it probably should be, if they’re clearly guilty.). Just a monthly update from you, to your customers, about the number of people you’ve banned so far.

It would be nice to get more information that that, but still, even that small little morsel of information would help in reassuring us that yes, ANet is doing something with those reports that we seem to fruitlessly send out. As it is, it’s laughable at how little we know what’s actually going on right now.

CC Charles

As soon as we will have more information to provide, we will keep you updated here.

That was the guarantee you gave to us four months ago. That’s something you have failed to provide for four months.

Yes I agree it is too easy to make money in the game. Clearly the best solution is to prevent people that actually play the content from making money too quickly. A buff and more one shot kill skills for the monsters in CoF1 is in order.

I reported a character not too long ago because it was obvious he/she was botting. I hope I don’t get banned if they come back to Anet saying they weren’t -__-

But i mean, there’s no way someone would log in and end up next to a chopped down tree chop an invisible tree (on my end) and disappear. Plus I was in front of HotW, such a random spot for a low level to even appear.

Anet doesn’t really do anything about the botting issue, except for claiming they do.

So far their only tool against bots is observation when a bot has been reported, but they seem to only recognize the most obvious bots and even that is only, if the bot makes fundamental mistakes you can notice within less than 10 seconds. (Looks like the GMs don’t put more time in observing a potential bot!)

They ATTEMPT to detect bots by analyzing the logs to detect suspicious, remarkable behaviors, but this only helps against the most primitive bots (same problem as with observing only over a short interval).

Since November, there are at least 3 different bot FRAMEWORKS (that means set of programs which allow for the development of different types of bots) out there where the developers claim, that none of their users has been banned so far, because their bots show neither any “simple”, repeated behaviors like using the same path twice, spamming a certain skill solely or using hacks, nor is it possible to distinguish them from real players at first glance. The botters are charged a monthly fee for using them and there are MANY of them out there. The biggest bot framework has about 1.500 distinct, active users and each single one of them runs 1-20 bots, day and night. (Real numbers. There are about 2-5.000 active bots running with this framework RIGHT NOW!)

But how can one detect them?
Well, those bots act kind of smart in reaction to monsters and other bots (they know how to play as a group! Not just zerging but actual group play!), but they still have several limitations:
— They can’t jump. Sounds hilarious, but all these bots don’t know how to jump. They move just like monsters, avoiding any edges. Thats because they use a special map to find a safe path and “jumps” are not part of this map.
— They don’t interact with real players. Usually, if you encounter other players in open world and you are interested in killing, you will get closer to them and start attacking the same targets. Modern bots don’t do this yet, they will just move on and choose the next target, disregarding other players (which don’t belong to their assigned squad).
— They move in one direction, and then turn around to attack a target in a different location although there was one right in front of them. They do that because their “map” only allows them to roam within a certain area. They won’t walk past this area, even if there were possible targets which a real player would possibly choose.

If Anet was really to do something about bots, they would have secured the game client in the first place. That thing has no protection whatsoever, allowing cheaters, hackers and botters to tamper with the controls (and even more) as much as they like and they don’t take a risk of ever getting caught, simply because suspicious activities are not even noticed. Most of the bots work by injecting a DLL into GW2 (a DLL contains executable code) and they can modify like EVERYTHING from in there, this includes issuing movement and attack commands, but even more advanced things like teleporting and alike.
They would also need to increase the amount of logging, so they had more data to perform their analysis on. Right now, they are not even capable of detecting cheaters/hackers/botters like those, who hacked the Winterwonderland jumping puzzle (guess why there were so many gifts? Most of them haven’t been looted but where produced by bots who “run” the JP) or the bots/hackers who teleport from resource node to resource node in a ridiculous speed, harvesting omnomberries, orichalcium and acient wood as fast as the harvest animation allows.

It isn’t like the GW2 is a unique and special snowflake where it is harder than normal to detect/ban abusive bots. Somehow though, this game is on par with only Aion among all the MMOs I have played in the sheer number and audacity of bots. Oddly… another NCSoft title.

6 months ago “be patient” worked. Things are no better now then then. You don’t need an update from Arenanet to see how things are going… you can see it pretty clearaly in game now that very little is being done to discourage cheating/botting. The funny thing is that new botting client was released months ago for which the users likely far out number all the node mining and Ranger trains that you come across.

For the most part, in PvE, I just assume anyone I run across is a bot.

It is what it is. Either accept it or play an MMO where hacking/botting is at least something people are trying to hide.

I know they aren’t doing anything. I add teleporting harvest bots to my friends list and report them to see how long it takes for them to go away. So far none of them have been removed and it has been months. This week in WvW, I’ve been seeing enemy players speed hacking that lets them run super fast and jump over tower walls. You can’t add WvW enemies to your friends list nor can you see their names.

MrQuillen.3014:

For the most part, in PvE, I just assume anyone I run across is a bot.

I wouldn’t go that far to say that every player is a bot, it depends on the map you run.

Doing dragon events or temples in Orr? I’m confident that at least 99% of the players are real (doesn’t say there are no cheaters among them, kitten sure there are!).

Farming in Orr? Still about 70-90% real players.

Farming in less frequent visited areas? 50/50 that you see real players who are doing heart quests, but if they are just farming, you can be sure it’s a bot.

Southsun Cave? Seriously? The last time i was there, I met only TWO real players (maybe 3, I’m not sure about one of them) in the course of 1 hour (was exploring the map), but about two dozen bots farming joung Karkas.

Jumping around in JP? It’s a real player, for sure. But appearing next to the chest in a JP? Thats a kitten kitten kitten kitten, kitten kitten kitten, kitten cheating and teleporting hacker / bot.

I’ve seen these types of bots (so far) in PvE:

1. Node gatherer bots – these bots pop up on a node then immediately pop out. (In the early days they used to mistakenly pop up in a Temple and get aggroed for a short time, which I’ve seen during Lyssa and Dwayna events)
2. Roaming bots – these bots run or swim around killing everything in their programmed path
3. Teleporting roaming bots – these bots are an improvement of #2, as they teleport a few paces from their last location (in land and/or water) killing everything in their programmed path. (Pets ‘running/swimming’ to catch up with them are a giveaway.)

I’ve reported bots in the past but nothing much has changed. I suppose I’ll still be seeing them while gathering resources or exploring the game world.

I haven’t seen any bots so far in GW2, though if I have but didn’t know or realize it, at least it’s not as blatantly obvious and bad as it always has been in Runescape (RS players you know what I’m talking about). I have seen a couple suspicious players which basically log in and mine a resource node then log out, but other than that they don’t really affect me or my game play, which is all that matters in the end.

I must say I have a lot more faith in ArenaNet than Jagex (Jagex’s lack of care about the community and cheaters ultimately lead me to quit after 10 years of loyalty to them – whereas ArenaNet actually care about their players and community, and that’s what I admire about them).

I have seen a phenominal effort at getting rid of any bots (I remember watching a YouTube video where some giant Grenth figure came out of the ground and quite literally burnt the bots on sight in a public display of justice – it was epic). I think Guild Wars players would be quite shocked to see how good we actually have it compared to the amount of bots in Runescape – trust me, Runescape takes the cake takes the bakery for most bots in MMORPG history.

The amount of bots around a few monthes back was ridiculous, Anet sorted it out, most of the bot zergs dissapeared and Anet claimed victory, BUT there are still bots around in small numbers, but because people think the bots are gone, not many people notice them anymore so they don’t get reported as much.