Guild Wars 2

And fifth how are you going exchange stuff with friends who want to stay guild free? Lets make players pay for the spammers 1 more time.

Hire some real in-game gm’s that can respond to botting reports immediately. That’s my 2 cents.

thanks for your work. We continue to report booting player hoping they been kicked from the game

Just back from work and logging in to Kessex Hills – Triskellion Vale. Same botters as yesterday, plus a group of new ranger botters running in lines. Funny, one of the botters got stuck in a loop hole, running in a triangel pattern at place. All this becomes very demotivating to me and I start thinking about playing another game.
Few years ago I worked myself in Gaming Support, we HAD an RMT Strike Force in this Game Support Crew, and it showed good results…not like it is now here…

I honestly doubt Arenanet are doing anything about the TERRIBLE botting.

I really like the game a lot, its great fun and I adore its crafting tremendously but in 7-8 years of MMO playing, I have never, Never seen botting as bad as it currently is in GW2.

I’m trying to level an alt and its almost impossible as the low level areas are infested with many bots, not 1-2, sometimes 8-10 at a time and it makes doing anything very very hard.

To be honest its driving me away from the game, I’ve reported many bots and the problem seems to be getting worse, not better.

PLEASE anet, do something about this before you drive people away

Around 10 bots at Penitent Path on Tarnished Coast this morning (right now).

This really feels like all talk and no action.

All the botters I have seen are Asura Hunters. Just ban all asura hunters and we’ll be good then … :-P

Going off the reports that arenanet must be receiving they must have a good idea which zones need attention as the botz are drawing attention to areas that are being exploited and can use that info to apply patch’s/fixes.

Another possibility,seeing as most botz are programs running with no one sitting behind a keyboard, why dont the developers, GM’s whatever just reset the zone ie: everyone has to log back in again, just a quick fix coz the exploiters prolly have programs to log em back into the game aswell.
One thing I noticed today after my group had a couple of timeout issues this morning(happened to all of us approx every three hrs or so)however there where no botz in a zone which is normally teaming with em….just a thought.
Keep up the good work btw.

Well for once i’m not so mad about you guys having remove my post since I didn’t know where to post. There’s still a lot of them out there and I hope this will get fix soon. Kessex Hill in Gate of Madness server is full of them

PLEASE do something! Not just talk no action been a week already!

1. Disable the ability to mail money.

2. Hire in-game GM, or someone is pro at identifying bots. Like many of us are.

Are there even any GMs? I feel like we’re all alone in here. Anet are you super averse to hiring a couple of people? Add more staff, bugs might have been fixed before launch, botters would be stopped before they do damage. Just bite the bullet!

1 hour of GM time could ban all of them on each server. It’s ridiculous how little is being done. 2 million copies sold can pay for 1 employee.

Bots near every event that exists from low to high level, please do something. This is becoming a way off limits.

awesome those bots made the game feel like a huanted game without life. gonna keep on reporting. to eliminate them all.

So I sent the following to the exploits department of support, I got a reply from a GM telling me to post it in the “suggestions” forum. Holy Kitteh Kittehs are you Kittehing me ?
———————-
I’m just making sure that you guys and gals are aware of the rampant botting and hacking going on in this game. There are public hacks for things like teleporting
+ exploration / gathering lists of coords to teleport to instantly + fly hacks, gravity hacks, speed hacks, no clip hacks, camera FoV and zoom hacks (which should be part of the game imho) plus regular bots that grind, some of them using a mix of bots + teleport hacks. I see this daily in every zone, multiple times over. This is not just some auto-attacking afk script thig, these are reading/writing to Gw2.exe memory and owning it. It’s extremely frustrating to have to compete with people using these sorts of things.

( link to popular public forum where these hacks and bots are freely available for download was here. )

This sort of stuff we still see in WoW; please show those kitten at Blizzard how it’s done properly. Warden-esque memory scanning does not deter this sort of thing anymore, the hackers just wrap around the scan function to effectively null it.

Server side speed detection should be possible based on x/y/z + speed. At the very least you should be able to limit it to moving no faster than swiftness boon when going side to side, falling speed of gravity when going down and jumping speed when going up, and teleporting should be impossible if the user did not just use a portal and moved more than NNN distance within a second.

Please do whatever you can to stop these guys, it’s a huge issue and only gaining in popularity. It’s game killing to see someone get crippled in WvWvW and then hobble away (still crippled) at 5x normal run speed, or see people just high jumping over castle walls because they altered gravity. Or to be fighting mobs to get to gethering nodes only to see some kitteh-clown teleporting straight to the node and moving on to the next quickly and freely.
—————————-

The replies I’ve seen so far are not nearly as “aware and on top of” the situation as I’d like them to be for me to feel good that they are seriously working on some fixes for this. The sad part is the number of replies that are like “oh, really, well posts some video over here and someone will take a look at it.” Sorry ANet, you need to get your rearends in the game and just look around a bit. It is happening in every zone I go in every day at any time. Without coming down on this hard and swiftly, you will be sending the word out (well, this is already out) that GW2 has no botting protection and is wide open for exploiting and profiting on. The more you can do server side the better, as the game client itself has already been completely owned.

Same bots in the same places.. day after day.. Week after week. At this point if I show any pictures or post any video captures of cheating in progress I can get infraction for it. This is not something you guys can sweep under the rug. You can come here and preach about working on it all you want, but the same bots have been in the same place for weeks on end now. I am totally disgusted with Anet.

It has been one week since MikeLewis made this post. Nothing has changed in that time. In fact things are probably worse now. I think it is time we saw some action or we got an update (at the very least).

Other than actually catching them there is very little you can do to stop bots, even games with weekly subscriptions have been plagued. And not having a subscription system I do not see how they could fund the extra GMs.
The best thing they could do is get the community involved and create some part time GMs on each world, give them a direct line to an employee somewhere who takes the decisions as most of the bots are not exactly high tech and very easy to spot.
My world is low pop so its not a huge issue, but I am now seeing bot trains in level 40-60 areas where they use groups of 15+ bots running a path in a line between 2 event areas. I have also seen smaller groups of 3-4 farming as well. The idea of having people checking logs ect is far more labor intensive than having someone login, port to a spot, watch for a few minutes then ban.

^ Bans would result in both a drop in bots and additional income for Anet. For every new account they force a gold seller to make that is 60 dollars in their pocket. Much more than your average joe plans on spending in the gem store. Paying for a few GMs is a non-issue.

Well in the past week things have got worse on Piken Square with regard to bots, not better. So whatever ANet is doing, it’s not enough. The thing is while it’s a fine idea to collect data and develop a means of identifying and removing bots automatically, that sort of thing takes a while; in the meantime what we could really use is some warm bodies touring the zones, using the human ability to recognise bots and deal with the things. Just employ some folks on a temporary contract to fill the gaps while you work on your long-term solution. Ideally of course we would have active GMs in each world keeping an eye on things but as that doesn’t seem to be the path you’ve chosen to take, at least give us a temporary human presence to deal with these things.

Why don’t they just spawn anti bot mobs that are invunerable lol. let the botz fight the GM botz forever lmao! Any “normal” at the keyboard player would know something aint right and move on however is bot software that clever to know or would it help radomizing the anti bot npc’s in vunerable zones …just another thought

Doesen’t look like much has changed on Sanctum of Rall. Bots much older than this post are still enjoying their circle train run infront of the gate events out at the shores.

Jnaathra.6549:

^ Bans would result in both a drop in bots and additional income for Anet. For every new account they force a gold seller to make that is 60 dollars in their pocket. Much more than your average joe plans on spending in the gem store. Paying for a few GMs is a non-issue.

Not completely true. Most hackers use stolen bank account/credit card info to buy digital game license keys. In the end this causes more of a headache and cost dealing with refunding the money back.

krojack.4920:

Jnaathra.6549:

^ Bans would result in both a drop in bots and additional income for Anet. For every new account they force a gold seller to make that is 60 dollars in their pocket. Much more than your average joe plans on spending in the gem store. Paying for a few GMs is a non-issue.

Not completely true. Most hackers use stolen bank account/credit card info to buy digital game license keys. In the end this causes more of a headache and cost dealing with refunding the money back.

Anyone that notices such charges would have to deal with this anyways. There are plenty of English speaking and North American living cheaters. The primary bot site you can find in about 2 secs on Google and it is a rehash of a WOW product. With a nice pretty storefront catering to people in the United States.

There are plenty of gold sellers from overseas. There are just as many basement dwelling losers cheating up a storm.

I love this game to bits but this apparent lack of action is close to driving me away from the game.

Perhaps they don’t care as they already got me £40 but I do want to continue playing but this is worse than I’ve seen in any other mmo and I’ve been playing them almost a decade.

Are there ANY GMs at all?

one person above said they feel alone, we I agree.. I report and report and nothing seems to come of it. I’m fast losing confidence in anet and unless I see this lessen, I’ll be forced to play something else.

I know you get bots in all online games but when theres 20+ going around in a line killing everything, its beyond a joke.

I was thinkin.. What if you guys implemented the same thing that is used all over the interwebs to stop bots. When your farming and you hit the DR time limit, why not throw a little Captcha on your screen to reset it? I wouldn’t mind that at all.

saw a bunch of bots on GoM at the same place bioshockwave linked to, saw some level 80’s helping them to(one even had the nerve to tell me to go farm at the bottom!)

there needs to be a more even mob spawn parity and add some more vet mobs near bot areas

I guess it’s not considered “botting” if a character just auto-attacks in the same spot. I see the sample people in the same spot day after day. I report them but they’re still there weeks later.

This acceptable then?

Nope berith, they just ban a few token bots so they can tell us they’ve banned x bots. Botters buy more accounts, they’re Anet’s best customers. Teleport bots, auto-attack bots, swarms of bots farming the same routes day after day and still going strong.

I was out in Sparkfly Fen by the dragon event area. There are about…. oh15 bots just running back and forth between the Arcanist Lab and the Silvari camp. There’s also the bots that just camp the Arcanist Lab itself, auto-attacking like a bawz.

So I was doing the event chains to level, since it’s a good spot because something’s always going on. I die, and the bots res me. Then I go to fight the Krait, and there’s some players over by the area they spawn in to attack the lab. Like there’s this guardian who AoE pulls them in and we just wipe them out every time along with some other players.

The moment the event is over they go back the lab steps and stand there. When it starts again, they move back to the spawn and use the same skills again. AoE pull, then massive AoE spam. Once it’s over they go back to the same spots and stand.

It’s at this point I realize something.

Of the 20+ people I’d been playing with for the past hour… not one of them… not a single one, was a human player.

Bots are heavy in WvWvW now as well. There are at least a dozen together in the lake killing krait in the SoR, DH, SR match. Granted, there is not currently a queue for our server due to the match being very one sided so it probably is not prohibiting our players from coming but it is still very annoying. If any DH or SR folks read this, go destroy the lake bots for us.

Homeless.8095:

Bots are heavy in WvWvW now as well. There are at least a dozen together in the lake killing krait in the SoR, DH, SR match. Granted, there is not currently a queue for our server due to the match being very one sided so it probably is not prohibiting our players from coming but it is still very annoying. If any DH or SR folks read this, go destroy the lake bots for us.

So it has come to this eh?

I think I’ll just take a break until anet do something about this ridiculous bot issue.

Ya, this is terrible.
I never seen such open and blatant botting in such great numbers like this before.
This game is infested with them and they are not at least doing manual banning.

I broke down last night and bought pandaland, they got bots but no where near this magnitude.
Anet non action speaks louder than some PR words

Doxshund.9235:

Ya, this is terrible.
I never seen such open and blatant botting in such great numbers like this before.
This game is infested with them and they are not at least doing manual banning.

I broke down last night and bought pandaland, they got bots but no where near this magnitude.
Anet non action speaks louder than some PR words

Great word – the game is literally INFESTED with them. Very. very badly. Every day that goes by without action probably is seeing more legit players giving up.

It’s like ANet doesn’t realize this is not a problem, it is a crisis. I too, through 5 MMOs over more than ten years have never see such blatant and unchecked botting. And yet here we are in 2012 when MMO companies should be prepared from DAY ONE to deal with this issue.

Sad, the game is just about getting unplayable because of the sheer volume of botters now.

Its not a billion dollar business because only a few people aren’t buying. So just say, ’Don’t buy from them." and expect that to be enough is a ridiculous reaction.
Just got 2 mails, and one area spam cheaper than the in game currency exchange. Not by a little but by a lot.

I’ve used the exchange twice. But I feel like I’m the dope, when I see those price differences.

Two things have to happen to stop them.

One is you have to beat them in pricing. If you aren’t competitive against them you are always going to have some people buying from them.

The other is not only punish the seller, but the buyer also. Start with just suspending them as a warning. They don’t heed the warning, start banning them also.

Until then some players are never going to care, and they will always buy from them, when they can buy cheaper with no worry of being punished.

Some of these bots are so unsophisticated it beggars belief. It takes seconds to identify them. Even sophisticated bots can be quickly identified by placing an obstacle or moving them.

It must be really sad for you guys to see you game being so comprehensively abused. What I completely fail to understand is why you are not coming down on bots hard and fast. It really does not take much in the way of resources (people) if you truly have a will to end it. Currently they are proliferating.

Thank you for doing something.. apparently not enough.

Have seen 2 bots at the same place running around exactly the same for 4 days straight not even logging out it seems.

Alot of people have reported them to.

Sadly its getting so bad in most areas now that if u by any chance bump into a non bot player you get surprised. The maps are filled with different Bot trains and that kinda cheaters,and its very sad for us honest players to see these ppl getting rich ingame and irl, there is no real moral that rewards us for playing fair at all,and the silence of the GM`s is getting deafening.. I think we all await some kind of reply to this Bot Plague, and with reply we dont want the usual phrase : Botting is on the top of our priority list and we are looking into the issues, please keep reporting in the proper ingame way. Then the list of “how to report”.

I love this games Graphics and everything about it, and its very sad to see how its beeing destroyed. Id even pay to play if u could make this game more honest by dealing with these botters and cheaters.

Just my 5 cents atleast..

L/R Kvite

Yup, 5 days now same 3 bots on Vabbi in the same place. Reporting it every day but kinda feel hopeless at this point.

On my server i farm an event from time to time for rare items and gold. 3 bots are farming the same thing for the last 2 weeks 24/7 even though they have been reported by numerous ppl including me. Either you accept them or you get frustrated and quit the game, because anet isn’t going to do anything about them soon.

6 weeks and counting same bots just there is now more than befor Anet your slipping and messing up ur own game ….. some ppl say reason u do nothing is cause u are botting and selling gold on the side to make up money since there is no monthly fee ……….. and why does GM’s not comment anymore cause the truth hurts and players are right??

Sorry but im not buying it. theres been 3 bots for the last week and a half camping the exact same spot 24/7 at Archen Foreland by the everspawning drakes, and yes they are still there as we speak. ill refrain from posting there names here unless asked. [eu Gandara] might wanna check it out mr anet anti bot man

Dogbolta.9846:

I’ll know something is being done when the teleporting bots that have been in game for the last 2+ weeks are finally removed.

I can only assume that atm detection and confirmation is all done by one staff member actually checking them out individually because 1600 seems to be a drop in the ocean.

How about listing their names and servers so we can see if our local bots have been removed or just changed locations.

Thanks for addressing it.

Same bots still active on Sea of Sorrows.

I’m standing outside United Arcanist Lab (sea of sorrows) RIGHT NOW and there is a group of about 6-7 bots clustered in the same place. I just got here last night so I have no idea how long they have been there. I’ve seen the teleporting bots too.. 3 in the middle of thundertroll swamp. I’ve also noticed that many of the bots seem to have chinese user or account names, gold farmers possibly? (not to be racist, but it’s true.)

update: ok the bots outside the lab (near splintered coast wp) just seem to be getting more. 6-7 was a very conservative estimate, now i realized that some of the players running to and fro farming the 2 events are prolly botting. its so bad i dont even know whos a bot and who isnt anymore..

Two weeks after Anet started this “what we’re doing about botting” thread, there’s still no apparent progress—in fact things have gotten much worse.

Did anyone besides myself get a laugh (if a bitter one) out of the big announcement yesterday about all the wonderful things Anet is planning to add to improve game content? Not a peep from them in the announcement about addressing the botting problem, which is quickly making all those additions moot as the game gets more and more unplayable. Anet: put out the fire in the building before you spend resources on adding new rooms!

Just adding my 2 copper here. I played a fair amount of GW1 last year, and the number of bots in the Jade Quarry battleground made playing that bg unfun. Sometimes out of the 16 player spots, only 4 were people. (Just being in a BG in GW1 usually netted a fair amount of gold via honor-zkeys.) I kindly assumed that Anet was too busy on GW2 to bother with the bots on GW1, but the number of uncontrolled bots in the new game leads me to believe otherwise. I intend to stick with this game, but it is very disturbing. Definitely not going to buy any more gems until it gets cleaner.

oh jesus, i remember those JQ bots, they were like kittening roaches. I reported so many of them, but they just kept coming faster than i could report them…never expected it to be just as bad in GW2.. i sincerely hope anet intends to bring the banhammer down hard before this spirals out of control. BS like speedhack and teleportation hack was impossible in GW1, I was shocked to see them in GW2..

Hi all,

I live in the Netherlands and play on a US server. When I am able to log in (When most of the east/west coast are in deep sleep, It is evening in Asia and therefor the numbers of active bots are out of this world.

Yesterday I went back to Queensdale and I reported over 37 bots.
I actually took my time to stand still and watch them kill everything in areas most people need to quest. The ones that teleport around are the easiest to spot and second must be the ones without clothes.

Not only does it really suck for people who actually need to kill things for there renown heart but even more since from the moment you report till they got banned (Which you have no idea off) nothing really happens to them, which leads to you leaving the area or keep trying to get what you need for a long time.

Would it not be a good idea Anet if you hire people that are outside of your timezone to help out with reporting them?

The same bots that infested the Orchard in Queensdale more than 1 week ago, later went to the farm near the Troll Champ, last days sitting in Kessex Hills Tamini DE, today moved on to Harathi.

So they – a group of at least 8 – 10, all with silly names, half of them with the same account name except the following 4-digit number – was able to level up from the scratch to the 30s and 40s – untouched by any action from Anet? And will proably make their way up to 80 in exact the same manner – untouched, unbanned, continuing botting, annoying players, ruining the fragile economy.

The only word I’m able to find for this without becoming insulting is lack of professionality. Playing MMOs since many years, worked in 2 of them in a senior position (handling also RMT issues there), but never seen such a level of failure in getting botters under control. This is simply a slap in the face of all honest players!

Give them the benefit of the doubt. It would be pretty cool to have Antibots bots (names are not my strong point) but to get something like that they would need to gather a lot of info/patterns/etc to be able to let a bot recognize another bot and (puts sunglasses on) terminate it. Now 3 weeks its a lot of time but I bet the team started working just a couple of days ago when anet announced that they were bringing extra people to deal with bots.

Cant you give someone GM powers (a member of staff) who can then login and suspend someone who seems to be botting? Hell, if I had GM powers I could burn through suspensions, it doesnt take long to determine who is botting.