Guild Wars 2

Dear Arenanet,

I report bots all the time but I still see some of the ones I have reported on more than one occasion.

Is Arenanet actively hunting these things down? If not I will stop reporting. It seems on many maps there are more bots than people playing. They are astonishingly easy to find. I imagine Arenanet people with /ban skills play too do you not see them? Is anything being done? I’m sure if you ban enough of the accounts the cost will make it not worth the expense of buying new accounts. Can’t you block I.P.?

Again it seems pointless to keep reporting these things when the problem only seems to be getting worse. If you ARE actively banning bot accounts, it would be great encouragement to let us know that. This way us humans know our efforts spent reporting them are not in vain. I keep looking for something about that on the login screen news but there is nothing I have seen.

Regards…

Just to pile on……

I see groups of bots on the 50-60 maps. That means they made their way through all of the lower maps without getting banned. Right after I made that last post I maximized the game and ran into a group of 3 bot warriors in Timberline Falls.

If they were caught early they would not have a chance to pay for themselves.

Now I should not complain without offering a solution:

1 player with “you are perm banned” power should be on every map (or at least the maps up to level 60. or maybe cycling through 3 or 4 maps on a regular basis. Call them Bot Patrol [ANET]. This player walks around and looks for bots and takes reports in map chat from other players on the presence of bots.

in map chat: “Good evening players. This is Bot Patrol checking in. Any activity?”

I guarantee you will get responses.

Mr. or Mrs. Bot Patrol[ANET] then goes to reported area and permbans the bot on the spot (I made a rhyme).

Regards again….

I have only recently started this game and was very surprised to see the prevelance of bots. Why isn’t Arenanet doing more about this?

maybe they are. but you can’t tell because they are not letting us know.

Hey good news! We banned 50 accounts last week for botting. posted in login news.

and tell me again why there is no follow option when this continues to go on?

>>but you can’t tell because they are not letting us know.

Level 80 ranger bots in cursed shore, reported all of them.

And they’re still there.

Reported the same pair of bots in Timblerline for 3 days in a row and they are still there as well as about 6 ranger bots in Bloodtide. They are blatently botting and its as if they are challenging you at ArenaNet to do something. I know you have alot of these but its gonna really hose the economy if they dont get under control. I know you may not have the man power to do this but you should have people on the ground so to speak in the game within each zone who do nothing but travel around each area tagging and banning bots. It may be the only way to control it.

The infestation of bots has become utterly sickening, to the point that it makes me want to log off and give up on an otherwise wonderful game.

I know Anet is making enough money to provide in-game support, but if you want to be tight a**es and not provide in-game support, that is fine. At least pay some people to be in-game getting rid of all these fing bots. It is sickening.

I literally have seen bots I have reported several times each at least 2 to 3 weeks ago and there they still are, running around the game world screwing every player out of his hard earned time, gold, and the economy.

Get this crap under control yesterday! PLEASE! I beg you! I can’t emphasize how badly this needs to be nipped in the bud!

Please stop posting complaints about “bots”, instead take a closer look at the structure of the company that owns the game and you will realise why “bots” and gold selling companies will always exist within these types of MMO games.

Anet is owned by NCSoft Corporation, a company with a public stock market listing, and as such the ANet game client sales reported to NCSoft directly affect their share pricing. “Bot” accounts artificially increase the number of account sales and therefore also increase the financial viability of NCSoft as a whole to their shareholders. This type of sales increase may well be “morally” corrupt but as far as the shareholders are concerned it is more than acceptable as shareholder reports do not differentiate between the sales to “bots” and regular human players.

Bearing this in mind, it is not in the best business interests of NCSoft to impose restrictions that may cause a permanent drop in the number of new account sales that are being subsequently utilised solely for the purpose of “botting”. Periodic deletion and mass banning of these accounts serves two distinct purposes.

Firstly, these actions serve to reassure the human players that actions are constantly being undertaken to address the “issue” of “bot” accounts and thereby increase the amount of goodwill into the gaming community through users public forum discussions showing thanks and appreciation for the apparent willingness of ANet to take action against “bot” accounts.

Secondly, the companies that initially acquired the accounts used in “botting” will then find it necessary to acquire new accounts to replace those banned. This of course leads to the aforementioned artificial increase in account sales reflecting in the bottom line stock value of NCSoft as a whole. Due to the financial gains to be made by the “botting” companies ANet can feel assured that the deletion of a few thousands of “bot” account from time to time will not dissuade them from repurchasing those accounts or drive their “bot” economy into unsustainable losses.

Finally, there has always existed the distinct possibility of collusion between the game host and “bot” companies in the form of payments made to the game host to allow the “bot” company to continue to reap financial benefit from the utilization of the game hosts client to conduct their business. Once again this would also contribute to the bottom line financials and viability of NCSoft as a whole.

The above machinations I have described have been in place in nearly all MMO game releases of of the past decade to varying degrees. The “behind the scenes” policies regarding “bots” and gold sales have always been rather thinly disguised by encouraging end users to discuss these issues on the supplied game forums whilst acknowledging and agreeing with their complaints thereby giving the false impression that the game company does indeed have their best interests at heart.

I am sharing this information with the GW2 community as a wake up call to all of you. I have previously been in a position structuring these very types of scenarios in various online business models and have now taken the position of strongly disagreeing with the further use of this practise due to it’s very immoral basis.

I fully expect this posting to disappear the moment it is discovered by a moderator and I further expect to be banned from these forums for submission of this post. I have therefore saved of copy of this text for later reposting and dissemination to various user groups and game reviewers.

Regards.

I understand where Roachy is coming from. I get it. Sales are sales. It seems, however, that if it gets out of control it will serve to drive off real players.

It sounds like it already is.

You ask us to stop complaining. No. It is taking a lot of fun out of the game and I will continue until we get an answer or I quit playing myself. If what you say is true and they would just as soon a given player be a bot than a person, they should realize that the more bots they have the fewer people will want to play.

Looking for a happy medium with bots…ok, I get it. There are too many. The medium is not happy.

Regards.

Pay someone to travel around the known bot areas and bounce these people.
Last night we were doing Arah and there was 5 standing there in the middle of the area.
Do these extra numbers mean the event is scaled up therefore making it harder for the real players? If that is so it’s very annoying,