How to deal with cheating players?

SpireofSouls · December 2018

I kept seeing players in this zone, wondering if they are doing anything about it??? What they do is stand there for hours, mining, gathering, etc.

This gotta stop, not really enjoying the game while they take up those nodes and too bad I cant do nothing about it.

NordSwordnBoard · December 2018

Search the forums for bot posts, you can see what you're up against.

VaranisArano · December 2018

The only thing you can do is report them, often repeatedly, and hope a Dev is in the mood to go bot-hunting.
Don't count on it, and you'll be pleasantly surprised if it happens.

Reverb · December 2018

You can report them. Or you can fall into acceptance like the rest of us have. Zeni embraces bots and exploiters so they can pad the "number of active players" statistics. Any of us who've seen and reported bot trains in the same place day after day after day can attest to this. Easier to ignore more them and move on.

SpireofSouls · December 2018

Yeah I figured they were bots or whatever you call it. I also have this on PC too, bad over there as well. The hard parts, gotta go through a lot of troubles to report them on PS4. On PC is much easier lol. So I had to write down their accounts/characters then explain about it with that key pad that have letters and numbers on it.

This is an interesting game, really enjoy it until I seeing those damn botters. Don't they have a life, go out and earn it and have pride???

ApostateHobo · December 2018

Well the bots harvesting resources are usually gold sellers, and the ones you see farming wolves and crap often sell the accounts once they're max level. So no probably no pride lol. I've reported tons of em on ps4 dunno if they've ever been taken care of though. Also you don't have to write down the names if that's too much of a pain, there's a report option on the little interaction wheel thing.

SpireofSouls · December 2018

I don't mind playing this, but what I been into and if they don't get their ass to work, there no way I spending money on this game lol.

Just not worth it, if they don't put efforts into it. What if some of us get hacked as well?

redlink1979 · December 2018

We can only report the bots, I know it's so frustrating that we can't do anything about this. It sure hurts our gaming experience.

Elsonso · December 2018

Reverb wrote: »

You can report them. Or you can fall into acceptance like the rest of us have. Zeni embraces bots and exploiters so they can pad the "number of active players" statistics. Any of us who've seen and reported bot trains in the same place day after day after day can attest to this. Easier to ignore more them and move on.

Actually, ZOS benefits from banning bots because they don't report "active players". At least, not to us. What they report is number of accounts, and botters generating new accounts definitely helps that.

If the accounts are not stolen, they also account for actual game sales.

Banning bots and cheaters is good business if handled properly.

I think the issue is one of expense. My feeling is that they have a dedicated, but small, team of people who they are willing to pay for, and that team prioritizes certain behaviors over others. Bots can run for a long time because they are prioritized low, and probably take a longer than average time to investigate. While we can point and report, they should actually be sure of themselves before they take action. Meanwhile, they have every other ToS issue to deal with, like ERP, and those probably get handled more urgently.

I would be fascinated to find out what a "day in the life" is like for a ZOS ToS team member on some upcoming ESO Live. Sadly, anything interesting in what they do and how they do it would be redacted. It would probably be easier to find one, get them drunk, and wait for them to start talking. Razum Dar style.

Bottom line: Report the bots. The ZOS ToS team does exist, and if no one reports anything, they get bored.

Turelus · December 2018

lordrichter wrote: »

I would be fascinated to find out what a "day in the life" is like for a ZOS ToS team member on some upcoming ESO Live. Sadly, anything interesting in what they do and how they do it would be redacted. It would probably be easier to find one, get them drunk, and wait for them to start talking. Razum Dar style.

This has always been one of the things which is super frustrating about how ZOS operates.
They seem to have this perception that talking about their game security instantly makes it weaker, or acknowledging issues make the game weaker.

There is clear evidence via companies like CCP Games that being open and honest about what's happening and how you're handling game security doesn't undermine your ability to handle it.
It does however go a huge way to improving customer confidence and trust.

An example is when EVE Online comes under DDoS attack CCP will announce it and let everyone know the servers are running slow because of it.
However when ESO comes under DDoS attack it takes days for ZOS to say anything, leaving us wondering what's going on the forums turning into hoard of enraged players. Then when they do say something, no one wants to believe them because it's too late.

Even having something as simple as getting their security team on ESO Live to talk about issues, remind players why botting and RMT is bad for the game and for your (credit card and account theft).
A quarterly update from the security team about how the war on botting/cheating/exploiting is going etc.

Veinblood1965 · January 2019

I was wondering same question, does it help to report? I was in the Rwalkia bank this weekend and IN the bank at the banker where like 10 identically dressed characters with names like fwfr4455 etc. It's getting balsy when they are right in the main banks.