Guild Wars 2

I’d start by looking at all human rangers with random letter names and a bear pet who run with their best buddies with random letter names and bear pets.

It’s disheartening how the only responses we ever get on gamebreaking issues like this and DR is, “don’t worry we’re working on it”. Weeks pass and nothing happens, prices for high end items double and still no change. Even some BS publicity stunt like actually doing their job and send a GM around for one day with a flashy ban animation would be better than silence.

‘What We’re Doing About It’

I think the answer to that is: Nothing.

I’ve reported and reported and nothing changes, even many days later.

Can’t you all understand that anet is happy with bots ? botters buy game accounts in thousands . Anet do not care for one time buyers like legit players !

Liliana Moore.4237:

Can’t you all understand that anet is happy with bots ? botters buy game accounts in thousands . Anet do not care for one time buyers like legit players !

Sadly I think you might be right.

Also theres no official comments on here for a long long time.

If they want to drive away legit players who don’t bot then congrats.. its happening.

Steve.7926:

Liliana Moore.4237:

Can’t you all understand that anet is happy with bots ? botters buy game accounts in thousands . Anet do not care for one time buyers like legit players !

Sadly I think you might be right.

Also theres no official comments on here for a long long time.

If they want to drive away legit players who don’t bot then congrats.. its happening.

no thats not even happening.
They are using STOLEN accounts to bot and transfer earnings to.

The sad thing is it doesnt take a lot to pick up a BOT.
They have a characteristic Warp movement.
Most of the Bot’s are also rangers.

What we need is a request GM help so a GM can be summoned to a location with a big BOT nest and start issuing out massive amounts of ban’s.

I’m starting to get the feeling that this is one of those defining issues between subscription fees and the whole “we already have your money” deal. Like the only real threat any of the players can make is, “I’m going to stop playing your game… that I’ve already paid for.”

I’m tired of the bots. It makes me feel like there’s less people playing the game (because it almost makes you suspicious of everyone). The economy feels like it’s been grounded to kitten (sure, materials are cheap now, but it also because 5x harder to make money if you don’t have a botting workforce farming for you)

I liked the game at one point. I guess I still do. But the bot issue and how it feel like there’s little being done has given me second thoughts NCsoft/Anet. I’d really have to give some thought about purchasing a new game or an expansion in the future.

Liliana Moore.4237:

Can’t you all understand that anet is happy with bots ? botters buy game accounts in thousands . Anet do not care for one time buyers like legit players !

If this were true, then banning accounts very, very quickly would make more sense, wouldn’t it? Just sayin’.

No. They let the botters earn enough gold = money first so the botter can invest in more accounts.
If I am not right let the Anet prove it. 2 months passed – nothing is done …

Time is running out. When this game launched I and my clan mates were convinced that while Guild Wars 1 gave the MMO industry a long needed insight on the field of monthly pay, Guild Wars 2 would end the debate in favor of the new free model once and for all. Unfortunately seeing the bot problem growing from a minor nuisance into this world infested plague and the lack of any progress to date by Arenanet we now aren’t so sure anymore. Perhaps the monthly pay serves a purpose after all in having a good GM system in place.

The game is an absolute graphic marvel, the dynamic events and the way quests are handled fresh and organic. The music fantastic. However any involvement in a fantasy world and the events therein erodes quickly in encountering dozens of bots (rangers) running or teleporting/lagging around in a zombie-train like state at every turn.

I have been reporting bots from the moment I encountered them. They are so ridiculously easy to spot and the names so clearly obvious that my 5 year old can do it without effort. It is discouraging to say the least when you run into the very same names/bots over and over at the very same spot for days even weeks. The bot problem hits low level servers even harder. When its not prime time people have a hard way finding people to do the events with as it is. However looking at a dragon in the distance with a bot train running behind you in circles and realizing you are actually the only human player around makes you feel really, really alone.

So I feel the urge to log in eroding by the day and instead of finding a home for years to come I realize that my optimism and enthusiasm was perhaps premature and when this situation continues much longer I rather, at this point, play Guild Wars One.

I’ve been noticing that any other threads on botting are either locked very fast or in the case of one I was following today ..totally deleted from the forum.

This confirms my suspicion that anet simply dont give two hoots about the botting problem which has grown very very big over the last week or so.

Watching trains of naked rangers running about in a set pattern tends to ruin my gameplay as well as make it hard to do certain things.

Sadly for now, I’m going back to Lotro, I don’t prefer it, GW2 is my game of choice but I cannot play until something is done about this. I suspect it wont happen.

Very sad

Still seeing bots everywhere. Still seeing 10-15 bots outside of settlements in cursed shore. Still seeing piles of bots in many zones. Still seeing ranger bots plowing everywhere.

I see the same bots I reported 2-3 weeks ago going around and around.

NOT seeing any evidence of ANet doing anything except continuing to fail and not address the issue in any way.

Mabe its not that they dont care about the botters, mabe the deal is that they cant stand up to the botters, they are letting the bullies rule instead of a war with them…“we leave you alone if you guys dont do so n so” It takes a big pair of kahunaas to admit that the botters are more clever, but if that is the case atleast say so to us so we know the deal..

Im very amazed by the absolute silence the GM`s persent us concerning botters, they removed threads about botters and told us to stick to the official thread, sounds a little like ur just showing us the backdoor..

just PLZ anser us..

Yes, they do need to answer and answer soon..

For those reporting bots, how do you know they are bots and not multiboxers?

I’m a multiboxer – which means…

I play many accounts at the same time. I’m currently playing eight characters at about level 40 each on the Eredon Terrace world and once they reach level 48, I will join with the other four characters to play a total of 12 accounts at the same time.

A multiboxer that plays many accounts and doesn’t have automation is allowed and is within the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement. I am aware there are other multiboxers on other worlds.

The reason I’m mentioning this is because if you are aware that a player is behind the keyboard playing several accounts and you report that player for botting, you are knowingly false reporting. Falsely reporting a player for botting is against the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement.

One thing it seems they are very quick to deal with is to close ANY threads that talk about the botting problem. Its almost like someone tells you to avoid a issue unless u go to the other room and close the door behind you. I just dont get it.

Regarding multiboxing, I’ve been playing mmo’s for almost a decade, its usually easy to tell them apart.

eg: Few multiboxers that I know of, run around with their entire party naked.

Wirldwide.8046:

For those reporting bots, how do you know they are bots and not multiboxers?

I’m a multiboxer – which means…

I play many accounts at the same time. I’m currently playing eight characters at about level 40 each on the Eredon Terrace world and once they reach level 48, I will join with the other four characters to play a total of 12 accounts at the same time.

A multiboxer that plays many accounts and doesn’t have automation is allowed and is within the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement. I am aware there are other multiboxers on other worlds.

The reason I’m mentioning this is because if you are aware that a player is behind the keyboard playing several accounts and you report that player for botting, you are knowingly false reporting. Falsely reporting a player for botting is against the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement.

You cannot play that many chars without automation at the same time….it is utterly impossible. You are a botter and I have reported you, have a good day.

So many bots in game that I can hardly get a single hit on mobs in a lot of the DEs

The bots i reported 3-4 weeks ago is still there, still doing the same things they have done for atleast 3-4 weeks.. Same movement pattern, same everything. NOT multiboxing, it IS botting.. I have reported them again now, but im afraid I will get kicked from the game before the bots for reporting them more then one time.

Edit: you might just as well close this thread also if your not gonna answer us, close this one and silence everyone who mention the unspeakable word beginning with B. You win i give up..

Wirldwide.8046:

For those reporting bots, how do you know they are bots and not multiboxers?

I’m a multiboxer – which means…

I play many accounts at the same time. I’m currently playing eight characters at about level 40 each on the Eredon Terrace world and once they reach level 48, I will join with the other four characters to play a total of 12 accounts at the same time.

A multiboxer that plays many accounts and doesn’t have automation is allowed and is within the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement. I am aware there are other multiboxers on other worlds.

The reason I’m mentioning this is because if you are aware that a player is behind the keyboard playing several accounts and you report that player for botting, you are knowingly false reporting. Falsely reporting a player for botting is against the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement.

If you multibox 8 characters then maybe your main character isn’t a bot, but the 7 others are. Unless you stop and do every single of their actions manually they are exactly that, bots.

I’ve reported A LOT of bots and nothing ever seems to happen to any of them. What’s worse is that it is getting worse. They were rare in the first month but now they are literally in EVERY zone, usually in packs too. By next month I bet everyone I see will literally be a bot. Right before I came here to post this I saw a group of at least 10 running laps around an island. Same track, over and over, auto-killing mobs and farming the event that spawns there. Enough is enough. I’m tired of seeing this trash in my game… a game I paid money for. There’s also the guys that just spam a key for an autoattack at an event. I could do that myself with a simple key spammer program, it takes 0 effort. Nothing is being done to these guys either.(They are botting for free event rewards as much as they like and you do nothing about it.) It’s pretty sad to see a game ruined by this nonsense that is so easy to crack down on. Just ban them. Why is that so difficult? If a player gets reported 100 times in 24 hours for botting… how much more kitten obvious can we really make it for you? Do we need to draw you a picture or record actual botting footage for you? You tell us. Because nothing is happening to them at this time. I know a group right now that has been bot farming in Herathi for a week. A WEEK. You still haven’t figured out that maybe, just maybe, there’s no one at that keyboard most of the time?

How hard is it to pay a guy minimum wage to spy on players and ban these people? I could do this job myself and I guarantee you I’d never make a mistake on a legitimate player either… and without even using any kind of software to detect the programs or sniff on IPs. It’s EXTREMELY OBVIOUS TO EVERYONE who is botting and who is not, especially if you look at report counters. They run the same same path endlessly 24 7 and never talk, often in groups too. Hello? It’s a bot! I’d do this job myself if you paid me 7$ an hour and I bet I could probably clean out half a server of bots in 1 day too.(Or at least have them all flagged for review/banning)

There is just NOTHING being done here… else they wouldn’t be so obvious and be getting away with it too. Your economy is rapidly going into the gutter because you’re letting bot players and programmers farm to their heart’s content. Do I got to explain how this takes money out of your cash shop, and by relation, you? They are funneling money away from YOU and you are basically just letting it slide. Just ban the accounts! You look at a group of players for 5mins running in a never changing kitten circle through a camp… how much more evidence or proof do you need? I can only imagine how many report counters these botters have to their name. How are they still around if you “are” doing something about it?

While I’m one to tough it out for a while because I enjoy the game in my own right; MANY others will soon be leaving this game if you don’t do something about it. Players don’t like to work for what others don’t have to work at all for. They also don’t like having to pay more than others for things like gold(which encourages them to buy that increasingly cheaper blackmarket gold instead of using your shop).

That’s the end of my rant. Seriously Arena Net, do something about this problem before it ruins your business beyond repair. Your window of time to fix this problem and come out on top won’t stay open forever. Once people start leaving in droves, most won’t come back.

Wirldwide.8046:

For those reporting bots, how do you know they are bots and not multiboxers?

I’m a multiboxer – which means…

I play many accounts at the same time. I’m currently playing eight characters at about level 40 each on the Eredon Terrace world and once they reach level 48, I will join with the other four characters to play a total of 12 accounts at the same time.

A multiboxer that plays many accounts and doesn’t have automation is allowed and is within the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement. I am aware there are other multiboxers on other worlds.

The reason I’m mentioning this is because if you are aware that a player is behind the keyboard playing several accounts and you report that player for botting, you are knowingly false reporting. Falsely reporting a player for botting is against the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement.

8 characters,soon to be 12 ?

Holy kitten,I’m real jelly mate =)

Most accounts I could handle comfortably and manually with seperate keyboards,mice and monitors for GW2,would be two,maybe three.That you even have 12 fully equipped rigs in one room is amazing in itself. =O

Or are we talking one computer with multi accounts sharing periphial input via a,not so in game feature ? If so.then,I’m not so jelly…. ;p

More bots than ever on Iron rock, I personally reported maybe 45 yesterday. In fact some zones more bots than players. Yes that is a fact.

This is insane, Aion lost thousands of people because of bots, I guess Anet is not caring like that.

Its not rocket science to, the bots are not being sneaky about it, its just a matter of banning account right away. But if Anet claims they are working on tools to ban these better, they must be light years ahead of other MMO, because they use humans to do it because no one has software that will do it automatically in fear they will ban the wrong people.

Ban first. They can prove they are human easily enough.

Well lets just hope that the silence is a sign that they actually are doing something, mabe they actually ARE monitoring the bots to come up with a better way to keep em away. Yes a quick fix like banning em on sight is more satisfying for us,but since GW2 is such a game of awesomeness ill give Mike and the others in head of security the benefit of doubt. Just cant wait til the day when the botters get a bloody nose

Its been much focus on whats NOT been done, but in fairness alot of good stuff has happened aswell.

One more week! It is becoming evident that there is more profit from all the bot accounts than from the legitimate players, and that we are a secondary consideration. What is the point in planning to give us new content and events when they will be made un-enjoyable by all the bots running them.

These conspiracy theories are ridiculous. ArenaNet not caring about bots would be suicide, and I am confident that they’re aware of that. If a game loses its players, it will also lose its bots as there will be no money in it for them either. I believe ArenaNet is likely in the process of building automation and tools to help make this more efficient. I imagine they’d rather automate as much as possible and make that aspect of the GMs jobs as easy/efficient as possible as well. Building tools can take some time, especially when the consequences are great; you want as few false positives as possible. Give them some time and I think you’ll see a wave of bans the likes of which you haven’t seen.

This is getting seriously out of hand. There are more bots than players in most zones on Fort Aspenwood at the moment, and the fact that the sites that are selling various bots which can be found with a quick google search for gw2 bots are still in business and even growing in number is to me an indication that nothing is being done about it, or if it is it’s taking way too long.
Do something before your legitimate players quit out of frustration.

On Yak’s Bend I have seen so many in Kessex Hills yesterday and this morning its sickening. You want to know a good way to figure out a botter? If the toon is a ranger, human, have starter brown bear and no other pet, if they have a name that makes no sense, and they teleport around.

I dont see how hard it is to just auto ban accounts that meet those criteria. If its a legitimate player, there are ways to unlock the account.

[Names removed]

Something drastic needs done, and heck I would rather have a few legit accounts banned for suspected botting/farming for a day or two if it got rid of 10,000 bots in one big swoop, and I cant think I am the only one who would understand and deal with it for the good of the game.

[Edited by CC: Bot names removed]

Well, the game is pretty much unplayable now. Between story line bugs, broken wvw, and 75+ zones filled with bots and nothing left to kill… what’s the point of playing?

I know you want us to use the ingame tools to report bots, but they are botting in large groups. how do you want us to do that plz. I have seen 2 large groups of bots just today.

Probably will get shot down for this but thought we could list all the players botters are bottng that we see, get some random data going and maybe some quicker bans.

There are currently 10+ botters running around sparkfly fen around the united arcanist lab location.

All rangers, all spamming 1, all wearing same armor skins, following exact repeatable route across enemy spawn locations, they all have names like [Edit] etc etc. They are all using the teleport hack.

[Edited by CC: Please don’t post names]

Well..make a screen,send it to a mod.

As far as multi- boxing being allowed, according to this thread it is not.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Q-Is-multi-boxing-allowed/first

I suppose anyone admitting to multi-boxing in the forums should be reported?

TRON.1085:

Probably will get shot down for this but thought we could list all the players botters are bottng that we see, get some random data going and maybe some quicker bans.

There are currently 10+ botters running around sparkfly fen around the united arcanist lab location.

All rangers, all spamming 1, all wearing same armor skins, following exact repeatable route across enemy spawn locations, they all have names like zzzttcxxoo etc etc. They are all using the teleport hack.

I would praise your efforts, but mods would just close the thread, and Anet have all the reported bots through the reports we already send in-game, gold sellers and bots are not being dealt with and I asked a question regarding why these vermins are still active in another thread. I know Anet are busy, but would be nice if they took some quality time out to start giving reassurances that they are doing something about it. Hitting players with DR’s and putting 24hr respawn timers on nodes isnt helping players, its driving the prices up, doubled since they announced the 24hr timer.

Anet needs to institute live response teams on every server to respond to the bot reports, almost every zone i goto now has groups of 5-20 rangers with bears running the same exact route 24/7. All in the same exact armour with 1-2 letter differences in there names. They pack together at every mob so even trying to report them takes forever to get them all. Its so obvious that the “we have to follow protocols to identify they are actually botting” excuse is bad JuJu. It takes a real player or person maybe 3 seconds to see they are a bot.
Get a live team and Banhammer these vermin, they will very quickly ruin the economy and are making the game suck for real players.
Please Anet get on this sooner rather than later.

For the love of pete ANet, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE come look at the area with the troll champion at Bar Curtis Ranch. There are at least 50 naked ranger bots farming the troll and the bandits. They are ruining game play for everyone in that area.

Give players one silver for each successfully reported and banned bot they have reported. It will encourage more players to actively report bots and will curb idiots trying to report their friends or real players by giving you the silver only after they are banned, as well as give back money to players to survive the incoming inflation of prices. if you think one silver is too low, keep in mind there are so many bots in Queensdale on my server I always get sent to an overflow channel when going there, and there are still at least 100 bots found on that map!

Too many to list.

ANet will close this thread.

If ANet was as active at dealing with bots as they were with closing threads about bots, there’d be less bots!

But I guess ANY action would be noticeable over the zero action that’s occuring now, eh?

Wouldn’t it be amazing if they had people actually logging in and/or monitoring the game where there’s bots piled up 10+ high and shutting down accounts?

We reporting same bots 2-3 weeks every day – and they still here…

I do not understand why they are not dying – they never seem to take damage.

Yes please send a bot nuke. 12 naked ranger bots are baaad…mmmkaaay. At least if they had clothes on…oh nvm.

First – some quotes.

Fact things have gotten much worse.

I’ve reported and reported and nothing changes, even many days later.

It is discouraging to say the least when you run into the very same names/bots over and over at the very same spot for days even weeks.

Im very amazed by the absolute silence the GM`s persent us concerning botters, they removed threads about botters and told us to stick to the official thread, sounds a little like ur just showing us the backdoor..

(And finally!)
Falsely reporting a player for botting is against the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement.

So…
I do not want be banned for “false reporting”.
I ever more do not want send futile reports.
I’m give up.
Report about bots themselves yourself , dear Arenanet…

Hi Meinke,

I’m afraid for a lot of people it’s getting to the point now where we just give up reporting them altogether, as the same bots continue to camp at the ‘hot’ farm/event spots for days, even weeks on end. Not only this but new ones crop up too, in the same places. Every day I log in to see these botters with zero action taken against them and it gives the impression that a) nothing is being done about it and b) nothing will be done about it. I feel so sorry for people who were originally banned for bad language, even the early karma weapon exploiters, compared to what these guys are getting away with. Is this game turning into Lord of the Flies already?

Guys, I know it’s disgusting to see bots. But here’s the thing, you’re over reacting and getting vicious. How do you think the devs feel? Especially when all you people get on forums and post hate mail and accuse them of some pretty serious stuff. Its even more disgusting than the bots. Take a moment and calm down, please, then get on forums and post. I know how annoying bots are, hell, I played Vindictus for more time than I’m willing to admit and even Nexon, possibly the worst game managing company ever, was able to eventually kick most of them off. Not too reassuring a statement I know but ANet is thousands of times better and I’m deciding to do something with them that I haven’t with any development team in a long time; Trust them. Everyone is like “omg its been weeeeeks” and it’s getting annoying, its a brand new game still so, please, calm down with the hate. Being out for a little over a month and everyone is freaking out expecting all the problems to be solved. Its easy to forget that as players you see bots differently than developers and they see them differently than you do. The problem isn’t as simple as it seems from a player point of view.

That being said, I really do think it would be a good time to send a GM into key areas and just throw insta perma bans at the blatant bots in many an area. I know it’s important to do it right from a devs point of view but its important that people actually SEE something happening. Just to appease them.

Thank you and I hope everyone has a great day.

CC Meinke.2749:

Hello everyone,

please refrain from posting names of players which you accuse of being bots and report those players instead.

Greetings

10 Pages of peoples comments and concerns and THIS is all you comment on?

Words FAIL ME…

I love the game but Anet, your ’don’t give a kitten #8217; attitude to a HUUUUGE botting problem and total lack of respect towards your customer base sickens me.

Its so so annoying as the game is great, it stinks that you CBA to fix what is a MAJOR problem or even give us a news update on it. We’re treated like mushrooms.

I wish we had the same bot problem in Borlis Pass as most of the people seem to have in this forum. I wish we only had 5 or 10 bots at our DE’s. Currently at Penitent (both ends) at Cursed Shore we have in excess of 30 bots increasing at a rate of 3-5 per day – they are pretty kitten smart too. We have, it seems, Bot Guilds on Borlis Pass (or certainly lots of bots are in the same handful of guilds) and our bots like to send party requests too.

Orr is completely unplayable now, the DE’s at Penitent are so infested you don’t even see the mobs anymore there are soooo many bot the games cannot draw them and the mobs fast enough so you are lucky if you catch a couple of waves.

We have been reporting the same bots for over 3 weeks and still they remain. Nothing is being done. Maybe we should organise a mass “We won’t play with bots” protest where all real players simply refuse to login for a period of 24 hours in protest at ANet’s lack of action.

This is getting ridiculous… fix your **** game already. I know you guys are waiting for botter to make money so they can buy new account once there done.

I’m shocked iv seen the same bots for 2 weeks now autoattacking 24/7 at most events, iv sent alteast 500 reports on each one, yet they remain. rolled an alt and levelling through, bots and more bots at every event, they are starting to outnumber the real players. i will be joining them tonight as clearly nothing is being done about it, good way to make gold while afk.

Its very clear nothing is being done about bots. may aswell join them.