Blizzard Search Thought.

[spidawebz]

So I've waded through a lot of the "war stories" on here about bans etc. Heres what I've been able to compile so far.

Ban Timings.
My theory is this, accessing the WoW account DataWarehouse live would be unnecessary strain given the sense of urgency isn't as important. Instead when there are Downtimes (usually Tuesdays) you internally take a dump / snapshot of the backups and feed them into a reporting warehouse. Key criteria to look for in this regard would be not just bot patterns but also gold trading / farming patterns (usual A/H inflation item spikes etc). Run reports on those, then verify those reports either with rules engine of your choosing or flag these accounts for closer inspection - that is, move them into the monitoring queue. Then simply start to track the behaviours.

Honey Traps.
Not sure how the bots work, but my immediate concern when using them on profiles is to track whether or not there are invisible meshes vs actual visible meshes being used. That is for example in Minecraft servers the easiest way to detect collider abuse is to put an "invisible" block that the hacks etc can see (because its pure code at that point) whilst the end-user technically can't visually see it. If that collider is triggered, well, thats a strike and so on.

Long periods.
I think Blizzard aren't as strict as they'd first advertise. I suspect people using bots/farms are necessary evil given they often at times flood the economy with new goods that they pull from instances/raids etc. They could randomly generate items into the A/H direct and solve that issue but they also run the risk of themselves being caught artificially inflating the economy (which would be 10x worse than bot/gold farmers). Given the population levels today being much lower than ever before, i'd rate that they're probably randomly selecting abusers for execution to send the message they are still active. Proactive however i suspect its not as insane as they'd have you believe - furthermore, its really a loss for them in the end both economically and socially (see black dye tub theory for Ultima Online virtual economy collapse).

Leveling Behaviours.
The trick with leveling is to mask your perfection with imperfection. If you're going from level 1 to level 100 in 48hrs no dungeons, you're an obvious marker. If you approach the botting like you would in actual reality you'll find your behaviour patterns fluctuate. For 1-2 hrs its Quests, with dungeons sporadically within. Then there's the ye olde "Sit in a major capital vanity flying... idle..." followed by maybe PVP or two, Raid Queue & Fail etc.

Then here's the important part, there's actual "chat behaviour". If someone is 100% mute for the entire experience in game with no vocal chatting at all, thats a little suspicious as well, as who goes without saying a word?

Bots can be smarter, randomly messaging people nearby with stupid crap like "Do you know where XYZ quest boss is?" ..or "FYI: careful, saw an alliance nearby 20mins ago".. most people will just give you that blank look of "This kid is a little on the tard side" but ultimately if you keep your chat sequences random and individual you can ultimately confuse the behaviour pattern(s).

Dungeon/Raid AFK.
You are just high if you think this isn't not only obvious but low risk. This by far is the ultimate high risk behaviour as I've personally seen 2-3 sessions a day where I knowingly saw others botting. Its easy to find aswell, as you just move into random spots and stare back at them and giggle at how the "following" behaviour sticks out.

Point is, i think these are worthwhile bots to play with especially if you hate the whole grind that comes with Raid/Instance fighting but i do so only during actual fights themselves - ingame stop/start is used a lot.

Mount Proximity.
I'm keen to write a plugin to solve this one, but my initial concern is proximity to targets/quest and the constant popping of mounts between kills. If you think about human manual behaviour this isn't typical unless there is a lot of distance between mobs. We humans are lazy by nature and even though the calculated efficiency gains by using mounts make sense, again imperfection masks perfection.

BanHammer.
Just live with it. The EULA is structured in a way that basically says they get to ditch you the moment you abuse the servers. Legally in some countries you can argue that the client-code itself is yours but the server access isn't (ie you pay for the client but not the service and vice versa). Also asking for a return of $$ for breach of services citing (fit for initial purpose or not of merchantable quality etc) isn't a legal ruling, its an argument but in no way is that an enforceable outcome.

Point is, when that day comes - it will come eventually if you go full aggressive on the bot usage - just take the hit, regroup and try again and/or walk away and play a different game until the WoW addiction dies off / down or rejuvenates again.


I'm using the bot today just to drag the last breathe of "fun" out of the game as its nearly died out with me, but if i were to be banned tomorrow that would be a better way to finish up my years of addiction / investment with a nice "F**K you Blizzard, I beat you in the end" fist pump

 

[ifarkas23]

Good read, thanks!

 

[menfbeast]

So I've waded through a lot of the "war stories" on here about bans etc. Heres what I've been able to compile so far.

I'm using the bot today just to drag the last breathe of "fun" out of the game as its nearly died out with me, but if i were to be banned tomorrow that would be a better way to finish up my years of addiction / investment with a nice "F**K you Blizzard, I beat you in the end" fist pump

Amen to that!

 

[Gravix]

I resemble that remark

Leveling Behaviours.
The trick with leveling is to mask your perfection with imperfection. If you're going from level 1 to level 100 in 48hrs no dungeons, you're an obvious marker. If you approach the botting like you would in actual reality you'll find your behaviour patterns fluctuate. For 1-2 hrs its Quests, with dungeons sporadically within. Then there's the ye olde "Sit in a major capital vanity flying... idle..." followed by maybe PVP or two, Raid Queue & Fail etc.

Then here's the important part, there's actual "chat behaviour". If someone is 100% mute for the entire experience in game with no vocal chatting at all, thats a little suspicious as well, as who goes without saying a word?

I'm really surprised I haven't been banned at this point then. The above details my leveling experience always. I have 11 ally and 3 horde at max level. Unless I'm rolling a tank class, I don't do dungeons. At all. I know all the quests on the Alliance side like the back of my hand and can run through them probably as well as any bot could and I'm getting better at the Horde side, but a lot of Cata and most of MoP and almost all of WoD, the questing experience is the same for both sides. I don't pvp unless I'm extremely bored and just want to do something in WoW. Also as far as chatting, I rarely ever chat. I'm not anti-social, I just read more than chat, but it's not uncommon to be on for hours and not say anything in any channel. I run with my gf and she sits beside me so even when doing raids and all that, if no one speaks to me directly, I don't say anything in game.

There have been times where I try to do BG's and dungeons to break up the monotony, but my ADD kicks in if I don't stay on point and constant questing helps me do that. So your leveling and chat behaviors describe me to a T

 

[ryftobuddy]

I'm using the bot today just to drag the last breathe of "fun" out of the game as its nearly died out with me, but if i were to be banned tomorrow that would be a better way to finish up my years of addiction / investment with a nice "F**K you Blizzard, I beat you in the end" fist pump

You being banned in the end is not a sure way to say that you beat them...I'd dare say it would be the exact opposite of this.

 

[spidawebz]

You being banned in the end is not a sure way to say that you beat them...I'd dare say it would be the exact opposite of this.

Not really, i mean in the end the $$ are drying up so think of it as a fist pump / rebellious approach. That is "I went out on my own terms and in the end I took out a number of your economic experiences with me".

Them banning someone for this is purely motivated by anti-farming concerns than parity with existing player experiences and/or some zero sum game analogy they'd think up. If this is to stop places like IXGE etc from profiting off the backs off bot-farms etc, then fine i'd even go so far as to advocate for that in parts (having said that, if there is a supply vs demand issue there, then deal with that economic vacuum a different way). To take out a individual player because that person wants to inject a rush of XP / Gold farming solo so they can buy top-tier BoE then in the end that has a cap point.

For me i own all the top tier BoE on all my alts plus i have all the mounts of worth, all i have no is money pooling with no sink to drop them in. Ban me? to what end... is what i'd say to any Blizzard employee reading this - moreover research Negative/Positive Reinforcement in psychology it will unleash a whole new thinking pattern around this subject.

 

[liquidmind]

Blizzard could get all the botters quicker and more effectively if they really wanted to. But do they want to spend more time and money?

 

[ryftobuddy]

Not really, i mean in the end the $$ are drying up so think of it as a fist pump / rebellious approach. That is "I went out on my own terms and in the end I took out a number of your economic experiences with me"

But once again, you didn't go out on your own terms. You were forced out by being banned.

If you want to hurt blizz, quit on your own terms, not theirs. If you play and continue to give them money, then guess who's still winning.

You can try to spin it any way you want...If you are forced out of something, you lose...Plain and simple.

 

[spidawebz]

But once again, you didn't go out on your own terms. You were forced out by being banned.

If you want to hurt blizz, quit on your own terms, not theirs. If you play and continue to give them money, then guess who's still winning.

You can try to spin it any way you want...If you are forced out of something, you lose...Plain and simple.

If I decide to stop tomorrow, i still don't pay. If they ban me tomorrow they still don't pay. Both are equal in outcome.

- If I were to quite in 3x months and i got banned tomorrow, they've lost potentially 1-3 months revenue as a result.
- Everybot they find is renewed justification in overhead costs in finding more bots, where as silently leaving is a neutral or negative effect to those overheads.
- Banning invokes a hostile response ergo a persons attitude during ban period can have downstream effects. Depending on the individual they can trash the games brand equity either by admitting they were banned for botting or via an omission of that fact and simply be an jerk about it - either way it has a negative social impact.
- Banning means you can't reacquire a natural cancellation back into a positive revenue stream. If i left on my own accord i'm still open to solicitation for a re-up when new content comes out. If i get banned it creates a psychological affordance, resulting in a less likely future positive revenue stream.
- Banning vs Leaving, increases dopamine levels where there weren't any. Can achieve the feeling you get when you play a normal game to the point of fun exhaustion / fatigue levels whereby you then invoke "cheats" to see what it would be like to have god-mod etc. Its at this point you're really circling the drain and this is a better way to depart.
- Every revenue you farm is potential loss of revenue , especially if you socialize your winnings with others in-game. Ie "here's 50k gold" to a sibling,friend, partner etc means that also is less chance of the pay for in-game gold they've attempted to jumpstart too late. It also can lead to you dumping Epics BoE etc into the AH which results in triggering downstream gold buying behaviour from 3rd parties, which in turn again confirms they need to continue investing in searching for gold buying behaviours as said persons wanting your BoE gear now have to fill that urge with Gold Farms (which ironically leads back to Botting overhead costs).

So no..its not "plain and simple" as it has macro/micro effects.

 

[ryftobuddy]

If I decide to stop tomorrow, i still don't pay. If they ban me tomorrow they still don't pay. Both are equal in outcome.

- If I were to quite in 3x months and i got banned tomorrow, they've lost potentially 1-3 months revenue as a result.
- Everybot they find is renewed justification in overhead costs in finding more bots, where as silently leaving is a neutral or negative effect to those overheads.
- Banning invokes a hostile response ergo a persons attitude during ban period can have downstream effects. Depending on the individual they can trash the games brand equity either by admitting they were banned for botting or via an omission of that fact and simply be an jerk about it - either way it has a negative social impact.
- Banning means you can't reacquire a natural cancellation back into a positive revenue stream. If i left on my own accord i'm still open to solicitation for a re-up when new content comes out. If i get banned it creates a psychological affordance, resulting in a less likely future positive revenue stream.
- Banning vs Leaving, increases dopamine levels where there weren't any. Can achieve the feeling you get when you play a normal game to the point of fun exhaustion / fatigue levels whereby you then invoke "cheats" to see what it would be like to have god-mod etc. Its at this point you're really circling the drain and this is a better way to depart.
- Every revenue you farm is potential loss of revenue , especially if you socialize your winnings with others in-game. Ie "here's 50k gold" to a sibling,friend, partner etc means that also is less chance of the pay for in-game gold they've attempted to jumpstart too late. It also can lead to you dumping Epics BoE etc into the AH which results in triggering downstream gold buying behaviour from 3rd parties, which in turn again confirms they need to continue investing in searching for gold buying behaviours as said persons wanting your BoE gear now have to fill that urge with Gold Farms (which ironically leads back to Botting overhead costs).

So no..its not "plain and simple" as it has macro/micro effects.

Once again, you are wrong.

If you are banned, you CANNOT come back (at least on the account you've spent time on). You've lost all the time and effort you've put into your account.

If you leave on your own, you may get the itch in 2 weeks and start playing again and you haven't lost anything.

There's a HUGE difference between the two.

You keep blowing smoke with all these excuses you keep coming up with. You don't actually believe the garbage you're spewing, do you?

 

[spidawebz]

Once again, you are wrong.

If you are banned, you CANNOT come back (at least on the account you've spent time on). You've lost all the time and effort you've put into your account.

If you leave on your own, you may get the itch in 2 weeks and start playing again and you haven't lost anything.

There's a HUGE difference between the two.

You keep blowing smoke with all these excuses you keep coming up with. You don't actually believe the garbage you're spewing, do you?

1) Your missing the point that if after all these years you think the difference between a re-boot of passion is a freaking service pack than you've really underestimated the value proposition

2) All the time you invest into an account is factored into the risk itself, ie you're assuming its a sudden surprise to learn that the risk vs reward equation wasn't factored in.

3) If i got the "itch" to come back then leveling up *SHOULD* be part of that experience otherwise its just accelerating to the end with a minor payoff again, so re-investing your passion should be friction based instead of "lets extend the corpse for another month".

4) Excuses means you assuming i'm justifying the behaviour, i'm not, you're the one taking issue with it because you refuse to let go of your own confirmation bias. I've expanded on my reasons for why I think its a rebellious approach to what would be a quiet approach. If you can't accept that fine, move on? but why linger provoking an idea or attitude that conflicts with your own believe system.

The only way you to win an argument is if you get the other-side to concede. I feel you're not going to give in on this issue but at the same time, it really doesn't bother me either way? so i've expanded on my reasoning, you've rejected it so, lets agree to disagree and move on?

 

[ryftobuddy]

1) Your missing the point that if after all these years you think the difference between a re-boot of passion is a freaking service pack than you've really underestimated the value proposition

2) All the time you invest into an account is factored into the risk itself, ie you're assuming its a sudden surprise to learn that the risk vs reward equation wasn't factored in.

3) If i got the "itch" to come back then leveling up *SHOULD* be part of that experience otherwise its just accelerating to the end with a minor payoff again, so re-investing your passion should be friction based instead of "lets extend the corpse for another month".

4) Excuses means you assuming i'm justifying the behaviour, i'm not, you're the one taking issue with it because you refuse to let go of your own confirmation bias. I've expanded on my reasons for why I think its a rebellious approach to what would be a quiet approach. If you can't accept that fine, move on? but why linger provoking an idea or attitude that conflicts with your own believe system.

The only way you to win an argument is if you get the other-side to concede. I feel you're not going to give in on this issue but at the same time, it really doesn't bother me either way? so i've expanded on my reasoning, you've rejected it so, lets agree to disagree and move on?

If you're truly passionate about the game, why did you need to automate the process to begin with?

And yes, a "service pack" (you must really not know anything about wow at all...They're called expansions, or xpacs, noone in the history of wow has ever called an expansion a "service pack") is usually exactly what causes a "re-boot of passion" in most players.

I'm not taking issue with anything, other than you think that getting yourself banned is some magical way of telling Blizz that you won...Which noone in the history of the world would see you getting yourself banned as a way of telling Blizz that you beat them.

I'm not trying to win an argument. I'm just here to tell you that your view of things in this world is skewed.

Now go back and continue reading your college psychology textbooks. The drivel you continue to spew sounds like the same BS that put me to sleep back then, and it's doing the same thing to me now.

 

[spidawebz]

If you're truly passionate about the game, why did you need to automate the process to begin with?

And yes, a "service pack" (you must really not know anything about wow at all...They're called expansions, or xpacs, noone in the history of wow has ever called an expansion a "service pack") is usually exactly what causes a "re-boot of passion" in most players.

I call them service packs as form of sarcasm. As in its a human service pack - humour... try it out sometime, doesn't always have to land as funny but its really also about the attempts that matter as well

I'm not taking issue with anything, other than you think that getting yourself banned is some magical way of telling Blizz that you won...Which noone in the history of the world would see you getting yourself banned as a way of telling Blizz that you beat them.

You are taking issue with it, you've repeated the same point 3x times the same subjective argument. I get it, you disagree with my views. Any new data points to add other than more straw-man arguments such as "history of the world" :0

I'm not trying to win an argument. I'm just here to tell you that your view of things in this world is skewed.

Your response says one thing but your behaviour says entirely different.

Now go back and continue reading your college psychology textbooks. The drivel you continue to spew sounds like the same BS that put me to sleep back then, and it's doing the same thing to me now.

Finally you concede on the issue. I get that was an attempt at being passive aggressive and it may give you "i sure showed him/her" closure and yet i'm a little concern that you'd also want to rebuke someone for being educated on subjects like Psychology. I mean looking back on our brief encounters, I'd infer there some control issues / tendencies in your behaviour thus far, whereby you proactively seek to take someone down on a point for no gain other than self-medicated dopamine releases.

Now comes your impulse control, can you not respond to this point now. Just let it ride, take the higher road, i bet you can't.

 

[chtpm]

Not botting is losing the battle, not winning it. If I get my butt kicked, I'm not gonna celebrate me being the winner LOL. Blizzard doesn't want you to bot and if you stop doing it, how can you claim yourself to be the winner?

 

[UnderratedPost]

Stop worrying about what bliz are doing guys It's time they start to worry about what WE are doing. The buddy developers are working on a 64bit rotation bot that will be undetectable! Tripwire is also working great again forcing bliz back into the courts to try and take us buddies down, good times are upon us

 

[Sneeds44]

Stop worrying about what bliz are doing guys It's time they start to worry about what WE are doing. The buddy developers are working on a 64bit rotation bot that will be undetectable! Tripwire is also working great again forcing bliz back into the courts to try and take us buddies down, good times are upon us

please stop your nonsense

 

[ryftobuddy]

Not botting is losing the battle, not winning it. If I get my butt kicked, I'm not gonna celebrate me being the winner LOL. Blizzard doesn't want you to bot and if you stop doing it, how can you claim yourself to be the winner?

I'm glad to see there's other users that aren't falling for this troll's attempts at justifying a completely invalid argument.

 

[excisionz]

I'm glad to see there's other users that aren't falling for this troll's attempts at justifying a completely invalid argument.

think the argument went a bit far lmao think the guy was only trying to say if blizzard bans him they will be doing him a favour and finally forcing him to not pay anymore

 

[UnderratedPost]

please stop your nonsense

Nonsense? Just telling it like it is

 

[spidawebz]

I'm glad to see there's other users that aren't falling for this troll's attempts at justifying a completely invalid argument.

There's that impulse control you had to check in on this thread and contribute again.