Guild Wars 2

There is anyway to make sure this dont happen again?, some tips we can use to avoid this situation to happen again, i was one of the lucky ppl that got account restored but im still wonder what i can do to avoid all this happening again.

I got mail saying was restored etc but didnt say why got banned on first place or if was theirs or my mistake or if i got hacked etc. i would like more info, do i attach my question to the existing ticket or do i make a new one for asking for my questions?

I would say no, telling you how it happened would revival their methodology, Not that they are being sneaky ( I hope not ). but to avoid giving the real botters a way of being undetected, even if that means that we players are caught in the cross fire.

i suppouse thats a good point still, would be nice to know if was their mistake or if i got hacked and didnt knew it

creny, when did you get your ban? I was wrongly banned for supposedly botting a few hours ago now, have submitted the ticket etc.

i got banned 2 day’s ago, been waiting for a while but got ir back, if i could help i would say do what they ask u on ur ticket like they say in here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/How-to-Submit-a-Ticket-Account-Issues-2, i think that speeded up the proccess a bit. still would be nice to get a reply from someone from Anet i rly dont want to live with the fear of all this to happen again after all i mostly play to be arround my friends.

Gaile

It seems like I was a part of a zone sweep. I’ve reported no less than 40 obvious bots. Sent in numerous emails to report bots with screen shots and then suddenly I come home from work early to play and what do I see? That I’ve been banned for being a bot…

Thanks for the responses from support, I think I may have been one of the unlucky ones to be “swept up”. Just as long as my ticket gets picked up then I’m alright with that. Though I’m not even sure where “bot hotspots” are. I just usually report the ones that spam the map chats and mailbox.

I feel kind of uneasy now, even if my account does get reinstated, there really is no better place to farm than Orr right now as it’s the only dedicated level 80 zone with chain events, I farm there more than 12hrs/day because I’m on vacation right now which is probably why I got flagged for botting even though I actively participate, chat in party, swap weapons depending on situation/building sigils, move to do dungeon or hang around town during my diminishing return. Leaving Orr would mean cutting my karma farming, gold farming by huge amounts.
I’ve also been waiting for about 3 days now with no response at all, and I’ve seen posts of people who have filed tickets later after me being back online already. Starting to lose hope here.

(2) there probably is a slightly greater chance that one could be caught in a sweep

So in essence, what you are saying is your support team are not doing their jobs correctly? Even though YOU and other moderators have specifically said each case is investigated individually?

“I personally avoid “bot hot spots” because (1) bots irritate me and (2) there probably is a slightly greater chance that one could be caught in a sweep.”

So, you’re suggesting we avoid the best farming spots in the game, because we might get banned for botting? That’s really, really sad.

Renegadeimp.8439:

(2) there probably is a slightly greater chance that one could be caught in a sweep

So in essence, what you are saying is your support team are not doing their jobs correctly? Even though YOU and other moderators have specifically said each case is investigated individually?

There’s no possible way my account was “investigated” before banning. If they would have investigated they would realize I am too dumb to know how to bot.

Cord.5371:

“I personally avoid “bot hot spots” because (1) bots irritate me and (2) there probably is a slightly greater chance that one could be caught in a sweep.”

So, you’re suggesting we avoid the best farming spots in the game, because we might get banned for botting? That’s really, really sad.

Exactly my point. I’m just waiting for gaile to elaborate on that a little. If she actually meant it as she said it and it wasnt miscommunicated to us, then its a very sad case and could lead to the demise of the game.

Saika.8495:

I feel kind of uneasy now, even if my account does get reinstated, there really is no better place to farm than Orr right now as it’s the only dedicated level 80 zone with chain events, I farm there more than 12hrs/day because I’m on vacation right now which is probably why I got flagged for botting even though I actively participate, chat in party, swap weapons depending on situation/building sigils, move to do dungeon or hang around town during my diminishing return. Leaving Orr would mean cutting my karma farming, gold farming by huge amounts.
I’ve also been waiting for about 3 days now with no response at all, and I’ve seen posts of people who have filed tickets later after me being back online already. Starting to lose hope here.

It has only been a day for me but I agree completely. I was in the middle of running the Plinx event chain when I suddenly lost connection and when I tried logging in got the banned message. I find it pretty disheartening, especially for a game I have dedicated as much time too. If the whole farming Karma is a bad think I would like to know so as to avoid the situation in the future. Though I am not sure how one is to go about getting karma or gold if some of the farming is a bannable offense.

So let me get this straight: If I go into a zone and the only players are bots and I want to farm or do DEs or hearts, I can’t because I might get banned?

I don’t like this message. Bots irritate me and I report them unless I’m in too much of a rush to look for them, but even following a bot train is better than trying to solo DEs on my many alts. Now I can’t use them to further my own ends? And just for clarification, is it against the TOS to deliberately use a bot train to progress?

Gaile Gray.6028:

I personally avoid “bot hot spots” because (1) bots irritate me and (2) there probably is a slightly greater chance that one could be caught in a sweep. But having said, calling it a “sweep” does not suggest that we block everyone in a zone, or everyone at a certain node, or anything of that sort.

I am a victim waiting on my account to be restored because of the false positive botting issue… I am already upset about this whole ordeal… much less if it happened to me ever again.

Is it fair for players to be limited in game content (that they paid for in buying the game) for fear of the greater chance of being classified as botters?

I am still waiting for account to be restored, 24 hours after getting kicked from the game and getting the bot message thing. I know in the future that i will be hesitant to report anyone for botting and/or spamming in fear that they may respond somehow with a bot report on me. I will probably avoid cursed shore, which is when it happened since i just had turned level 80 and wanted to check out the action in the zone. I will likely just park my butt in lions arch and watch all the other players go about their daily routines in fear that when i actually step out into the other zones some “kid or bot or whoever” will likely report innocent players, like myself, just trying to enjoy the game (exploring, leveling, resource gathering). Meanwhile, while i wait for the ban to lift, i have managed to tidy my house, take my dog for a couple of walks, went shopping, etc…silver lining to everything i guess, lol.

So, any chance of Gaile coming back to the thread in order to clarify exactly what she was saying? Because the comment she made leads us to believe that if we are in the vicinity of bots, regardless of what we are doing, we will be banned due to customer service not doing their jobs correctly.

Just got banned for botting. I’ve never spent longer than about an hour at a time farming. Is there really nothing I can do to avoid this happening again other than stay out of cursed shore?

Just got banned and i actually spend several hours farming. Thats not illegal. I have a free saterday and just want to make some gold.

From the reps comment it sounds like ArenaNet have the policy of highlighting all characters in the area, regardless of who they are and what theyre doing, and issuing a blanket ban. Then they deal with the aftermath.

It is a terrible way to deal with this problem, and they really need to change their procedures.

I got banned bout the same time as another guy in same region and my husband now sees messages from people in the area who had friends and guild mates banned same time as me, same area. Sounds like renegadeimp has a case.

The only time I was near bots in the last few weeks was when I was running to the honor of the waves dungeon in Frostgorge Sound and I ended up running past a swarm of 20 of them.

I reported all of them, and they’re gone now.

Are you suggesting I got banned because I was near the bots when I reported them???? That’s scary.

Read all the other complaints, then scroll up this thread and read An official reply from Arenanet. Thats EXACTLY what happened Cerise.

Guildwars2 guru also has a lot the last few hours. Thats only the people that tent to get loud when something goes wrong. Lots of people will not speak up on forums.

Yes, I also got banned today for “botting” and the only time i’ve ever been near bots is when I report them, if I really got banned for being near them than that is a horrible method of banning bots. What I’m really worried about is when I try to log in it says my “account closure is permanent”

They use a method that already proven to ban normal players but no regard to that in the ban text. No click here or go there when you want to complain and to make it worse that permanent mention.

I’ve had a very similar experience. I reported a handful of bots (Which I seem to do almost every day) and when I tried to log on the next day, it told me my account was banned for botting. I submitted a ticket and about 48 hours later, I had my account restored. I’m not sure if I was caught in the “sweep” because I was reporting bots, but I’m not sure I’m going to report any more if it means that I will be banned as well.

There is no way to get around bots. If i got to WvW and swim toward the fight its the bots below me in the water. When I go and make gold to pay for better things in the game its the bots that try to make gold too. When I go finishing maps and do storylines its the bots I meet at every event that spawns regularly.

Wildheart.2083:

I’ve had a very similar experience. I reported a handful of bots (Which I seem to do almost every day) and when I tried to log on the next day, it told me my account was banned for botting. I submitted a ticket and about 48 hours later, I had my account restored. I’m not sure if I was caught in the “sweep” because I was reporting bots, but I’m not sure I’m going to report any more if it means that I will be banned as well.

That’s horrible…guess I won’t be reporting any more bots either, also since it was the same problem I will have to wait 48hs too? man this sucks….

Wow. This is scary. The “sweep” system. Prolly the reason why 3 members of our guild inside one party got banned altogether at once because of ‘botting’, and 2 members have been banned today too for the same reason. They were all farming in Orr too.

This is really messy. Anyway, I’m putting this up because we’re feeling bad right now. Our guild leader was included in the accused banning. :/

For sure they don’t look at how your char behaves. I have a disability to my inner ear that makes me unable to move like a normal player or even as smoothly as a bot. I cant kite , i cant smoothly turn and run after targets. Nobody would be so stupid to program a bot moving like I do.

I was banned while in the middle of completing a story mission so honestly I doubt that they indiscriminately blanket ban players in a sweeping fashion as proposed by some here.

i was banned too. i got a reply they said i was botting. eehk.. not botting! uuuuhhg! really hoping to get unlocked soon or i am leaving gw2.

My friend and I just got banned! We were questing with others in party doing events and we were both booted saying we were botting!!!

Hope this gets resolved soon, worst way to start off a weekend =[

The irony is there is probably a bot train running around Orr right now while we, legitimate players, were banned….and since it’s a holiday they probably wont even look at our tickets until Monday….notice I said look not solve….

icewyrm.5038:

I was banned while in the middle of completing a story mission so honestly I doubt that they indiscriminately blanket ban players in a sweeping fashion as proposed by some here.

Thats one of the methods. Not the sole one.

while farming in orr today i got the ban for ‘botting’ . i’m on sanctum of rall server and interestingly enough multiple people who happen to be on the same server have mentioned in another thread that they also were picked up on one of these ‘bot sweeps’ while farming in ORR like myself today or in recent time. also another guildmate of mine was falsely accused of this like 2 days ago and is still banned. i think it behooves area net to rework their bot detection strategy as wrongly accusing players of botting and banning them severely affects the reputation of the game and enjoyment of its players – i know others feel the same way

Renegadeimp.8439:

icewyrm.5038:

I was banned while in the middle of completing a story mission so honestly I doubt that they indiscriminately blanket ban players in a sweeping fashion as proposed by some here.

Thats one of the methods. Not the sole one.

If it’s one of several methods then it’s unlikely that such ban waves are indiscriminate – in other words it’s more specific then what has been implied.

Just got banned. The sad thing is too i was leveling a new ranger, and he was only lvl 3.

Ah, the throw as many innocents under the bus as it takes to get the bad guys tactic.
Classic.

What’s next, root kits?

Look, I understand bots are bad, I’ve seen what they do to a games economy, watched the stuff I was saving for continue to get farther away as money became worthless, but you can’t start punishing the legit players to get the bad guys. It’s just not going to work out.

See, this leaves me wondering, am I going to get banned as a bot because I invest some time in farming some stuff? Am I going to get banned because I’m in the same zone as a bot? And then my thought process takes an awkward turn, did some of these people get blanket banned because I reported them because I thought they were bots? See I’m comfortable reporting people because the reporting interface says “Reporting a player for botting sends a notification to the GM team. GMs may conduct a careful review of that player’s behavior. If it is confirmed that the player has been running a bot, that player’s account will be banned. WARNING: GM actions will be based on a review of chat logs, not on unsubstantiated player reports. Abuse of the report feature may lead to your account being banned.”

But that really doesn’t seem to be the case.

Which means you lied to me.

So, I will no longer report anyone, for anything, until such time as I hear this is corrected. I feel bad breaking peoples equipment in WvW (at least, mine breaks when they kill me so I presume the reverse is true), so the thought of contributing to a wrongful ban is utterly unacceptable.

But How they consider so much ppl as a BOT user? If you stay at Orr place, killing the same mobs for more than 4 hours, its mean you are a bot? For GOD. If Arena Net don´t want us farming so long, increase the drop hate of Lodestones! And yes. I stay 4 hours killing sparks and earth elemental to take 1 Charged Lodestone and 1 Onyx Lodestone.

It’s scary to hear that most banned accounts are those players who are doing events to farm or level.

I suggest ArenaNet should know these hot spots areas/zones where a lot of players gathered as there are many events going on to farm karma and gold, or to level faster.

- area around Overlord’s Greatcamp (located at west of Kessex Hills)
- area around Modniir George (this is a chain event, located at the northeast of Harathi Hinterlands)
- southwest of Straits of Devastation
- area around Penitent Path and Fields of Gold (Cursed Shore)

I just got banned for “botting” though I wasn’t botting, I was just doing the Plinx karma train in Orr. I wasn’t there for 4 hours (XD), since I just finished doing some personal story parts on my meser and suddenly you’re out for botting. I was just shocked. Still am. Can’t believe I get absolutely nothing, no response from any ANet team member, no proof, absolutely nothing, just a kick. CHiLLiN.9265 – am on Sanctum of Rall too. This happened like 14 hours ago or so and I’ve been waiting patiently for a response since.

Same happens here imy x Leah got banned for botting while doing the plinx farm in Orr I sent a ticket and had no reply 14 hours ago

It has been 24 hours for me and still counting…

I’m scared to go out of LA now… I don’t want to be separated from my ingame friends again.

is it safe to farm ???

So far it looks like not even just playing the game is safe anymore…

Dungeons are probably safe, just avoid CM because there are a lot of bots in Queensdale, avoid HotW because it’s near the only place in the game to farm corrupted lodestones and there are always bots there.