Bots & Punishment

[Azarael]

I didn't address the point of botting being an undesirable activity (it most certainly is). I merely addressed the statements made in Luth's post regarding twinks in T1, and maybe indirectly shed some light on why there's no real policy response to this topic.

[Kragg]

I didn't address the point of botting being an undesirable activity (it most certainly is). I merely addressed the statements made in Luth's post regarding twinks in T1, and maybe indirectly shed some light on why there's no real policy response to this topic.

Ah right, I missed that part! I spoke to Max before and it will be discussed among the devs.

[Luth]

I think the moment combat calculations work, there will be a significant power gap between a fresh level 10 char and a fully pimped twink.
If it all works like on the original server, the armour stat alone will make a huge difference.
But it wasn't my point to criticise gear differences, as more/better gear is logically a rightful advantage (i made this not clear enough ).

I just wanted to point out, that the feel to get the best items asap (or any advantage generally) doesn't justify botting/cheating.

[samster]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't bot users use separate insignificant accounts for their dirty business?
If so, what sense would it make to ban the account caught botting? They will simply create a new one and the bot will be back in a day or two (or less, if the trespasser is handy). And if the punishment is to ban the IP they are using - clearly there are ways to bypass IP tracking as well.

So called Free-shards and bots have a long history of coexistence. There's hardly anything to be done about that.
The only effective thing I can imagine is if the players report the bots immediately, the game masters check if the alleged bots are actually bots, kick them off the server and keep an eye on that spot in future along with other sweet spots where bots have been caught. But that's a 24/7 work, which is also out of question on most free-shards.

[Halobravo]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't bot users use separate insignificant accounts for their dirty business?
If so, what sense would it make to ban the account caught botting? They will simply create a new one and the bot will be back in a day or two (or less, if the trespasser is handy). And if the punishment is to ban the IP they are using - clearly there are ways to bypass IP tracking as well.

So called Free-shards and bots have a long history of coexistence. There's hardly anything to be done about that.
The only effective thing I can imagine is if the players report the bots immediately, the game masters check if the alleged bots are actually bots, kick them off the server and keep an eye on that spot in future along with other sweet spots where bots have been caught. But that's a 24/7 work, which is also out of question on most free-shards.

I agree with this. It's not as easy as "just ban em" When things are free, and open, you cant really stop these things. The devs have more important things to worry about (like fixing the game to actually work properly) than to stop some bots farming gear that does nothing for anyone.

[Kragg]

Got to take care of things while there not widespread yet. Your suggestion is close to opening up the door for them for the sake of 'tradition'. Might not be able to close the door again.

[Halobravo]

Got to take care of things while there not widespread yet. Your suggestion is close to opening up the door for them for the sake of 'tradition'. Might not be able to close the door again.

How exactly would you stop someone from making infinite number of free accounts and botting? Sure they could close off the forums and make it exclusive but I don't think anyone wants that, I know I sure don't. I don't think anyone here is suggesting nothing should be done, but at this point it really isn't that big of a deal. Cracking down on them hard now doesn't stop people from doing it in the future.

People still use bots in WoW... I mean really, Blizzard with all their money and years of experience still cant stop people. Saying the doors cant be closed is a bit silly, the doors will never be closed by anyone ever. You can only do what you can to slow them down, but you cant keep them out. The fact that the servers are free make it even harder to stop people from doing it here because they don't have to pay money to get a new account. I think this is a good topic to bring up and discus, but I don't think anything major can be done right now.

[RyanMakara]

Got to take care of things while there not widespread yet. Your suggestion is close to opening up the door for them for the sake of 'tradition'. Might not be able to close the door again.

How exactly would you stop someone from making infinite number of free accounts and botting? Sure they could close off the forums and make it exclusive but I don't think anyone wants that, I know I sure don't. I don't think anyone here is suggesting nothing should be done, but at this point it really isn't that big of a deal. Cracking down on them hard now doesn't stop people from doing it in the future.

People still use bots in WoW... I mean really, Blizzard with all their money and years of experience still cant stop people. Saying the doors cant be closed is a bit silly, the doors will never be closed by anyone ever. You can only do what you can to slow them down, but you cant keep them out. The fact that the servers are free make it even harder to stop people from doing it here because they don't have to pay money to get a new account. I think this is a good topic to bring up and discus, but I don't think anything major can be done right now.

Every account requires email registration. People ought to run out of email accounts eventually.

[Kragg]

Give me some dark robes, a staff and the power to teleport players away and just see how fast they will wake up to find themselves into some far away ocean

[Azarael]

Disposable email services...