How long should I wait before reporting someone for botting?

arena25

I know that a lot of people are going to look at the title and come swarming in here ready to call me a troll, but this is an honest question, so please, at the very least, read the entire post before you start attacking me.

Earlier today, I was doing the Stros M'kai questline with one of my alts, as well as getting the rare fish required to get the Stro's M'kai Angler achievement.

Well, after digging Jakarn out of The Grave, I was on my way to do a side quest (involving a monkey digging up treasure for some dude who got keelhauled) when I noticed someone who was exhibiting botting-like behavior (this is nothing new, bots will usually go to Stros M'kai, Bleakrock, and Khenarthi's Roost where there is not a big chance you can be discovered, and thus some, if not most of the players there are actually bots). So, I decided to whisper him once...then I whispered him twice. It was the same whisper..."Are you a bot, mate?" After the third whisper with no reply, and him continuing to exhibit bot-like behavior, I decided enough was enough (I usually do "Three strikes (or in this case, whispers), you're out" when it comes to botting). I reported him for botting, making it my fifth report this morning.

After completing the side quest, I was following Jakarn to the Goblin Mine when the guy FINALLY (3 minutes after I reported him) whispered me back, acting all defensive like "What? That's a hell of a question to ask, dude."

I explained my reasoning (starter zones are havens for bots), apologized for me sticking my nose into his business, and continued onward. However, by the time he had whispered me back, I had already reported him accidentally.

I know that abuse of botting reports is grounds for action against my account, so I think my system of "Three Whispers, You're Out" may not be the most reliable.

So, with that said, how in the future can I make sure all my reports are legitimate? I have had a perfect track record reporting bots...that is, until today, where 2 "bots" turned out to be legitimate players.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Sincerely,
Arena25

Dr_Rektar

Reported a lot of bots, but saw them later again

arena25

Dr_Rektar wrote: »

Reported a lot of bots, but saw them later again

What exactly are you implying, @Dr_Rektar ?

Taleof2Cities

Report bots in-game as soon as they're sighted ... it's as simple as that.

Screenshots or video attached to the ticket will help ZOS.

arena25

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Report bots as soon as they're sighted ... it's as simple as that.

Screenshots or video attached to the ticket will help ZOS.

Yeah, but what if a player is exhibiting bot-like behavior and it turns out they are legitimate players (like I mentioned in the OP above)? Abuse of reports will result in action against my account, right?

Reverb

Your three-strikes rule is reasonable. You'd be unlikely to face punishment for abusing the reporting system if you took a good faith effort to see if it was a real player, and genuinely believed it was a bot every time you report.

The legitimacy of your reports also depends on how you view "botting behavior". Most of us know what legit players typically act like, and what bots typically act like, but there's a lot of grey area. Most bots have player and character names that are gibberish, random letters. But so to do some real players. Repeatable actions that don't seem to deviate from a script or macro often indicate bots, but most of us have had times we were multitasking irl things, and pressing a button over and over again to farm.

For these reasons and others, reporting a potential bot doesn't automatically cause anything to happen. It just sends notification to zeni to look into it. Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't.

Dr_Rektar

arena25 wrote: »

Dr_Rektar wrote: »

Reported a lot of bots, but saw them later again

What exactly are you implying, @Dr_Rektar ?

I reported a lot of bots already, zos thanked me etc, but in few weeks i saw same bot toons farming nodes

Sharee

Why wait at all? It is not your job to ensure someone is a bot before reporting it. If he seems suspicious to you, just report him, and let ZOS worry about whether its a legit player or a bot. Its not like they auto-ban everyone just because he got reported.

Jitterbug

Could someone do a meme with the ancient aliens guy, please?
But seriously, report away. I'm sure the report abuse thing is so you don't use it to whine about how someone stole your node or stomped you in Cyrodiil.

FortheloveofKrist

Report away. They won't do a thing. I have a character who is permanently in wailing prison. I have watched a specific player botting away in wailing prison for the last month and a half. Since then a few other bots have joined in. I reported the bots a couple times a month ago, nothing ever happened.

And no, my toon is not permanently in wailing prison because I am botting. As many people know, you can still do dungeons and Cyrodiil from wailing prison, so that's how I leveled him up.

PS4 NA, so technically they are not bots, they are just rubberbanding.

Edit: Edited for clarity

Dr_Rektar

Sharee wrote: »

Why wait at all? It is not your job to ensure someone is a bot before reporting it. If he seems suspicious to you, just report him, and let ZOS worry about whether its a legit player or a bot. Its not like they auto-ban everyone just because he got reported.

I always track toon befor i report him and /w too him either. If i m not sure is it a player or a bot i m not reporting

WhiteCoatSyndrome

I'd say report them when in doubt; Zeni will have access to their chatlogs, item transactions and so on. Zeni is not going to ban someone purely on one player's say-so, so don't worry about that.

Iselin

That he whispered you back doesn't mean anything. He could very well have been botting and replied to you when he checked his bot for whatever reason 3 minutes later.

emilyhyoyeon

I just want to mention that, even though it seems like OP realizes the whisper thing isn't that reliable, there have been a lot of times where my chat scrolling stops (doesn't keep scrolling down) so I miss a lot of zone chat and have missed people whispering me before. Also, I play on EU, and a lot of people don't speak English actually. I'm sure there are people who might get whispers and ignore them because they can't read the language and don't care to translate (if they even have the ability or care to copy and paste a message into a translator and then generate a message back).

Goldie

In my experience reporting botters and exploiters, nothing much is ever done about it. Ive seen it since release, and nothing has changed. Dont expect things to get fixed or addressed when all ZOS is doing is rushing out more content instead of fixing issues that plague the game play.

Unsent.Soul

Reporting seems to only apply a band-aid. Useless basically..

Muramasa89

arena25 wrote: »

I have had a perfect track record reporting bots

What are you basing this on? I very much doubt ZOS indulge you with the information that confirms they were botting. They certainly don't tell me squat when people harass me in zone chat and I report them. I won't pretend to know the ins and outs of potentially breaking bots in this game so I'm unsure.

Anyway, from my experience in MMOs, just because someone bots, that doesn't mean they aren't sitting at their computer. Saying a few words doesn't absolve them.

I wouldn't worry too much. If you were going around reporting everyone, then that's clear abuse, but you're reporting suspect behaviour and offering warnings. Plus, if ZOS are anything like another MMO I play, they'll accept it as a mistake and disregard it with no action to either player.

dbgager

Reporting will never ever result in anything. They are not going to take somebodies word for anything. It could be simply someone you have a grudge on for some reason. So you can report but absolutley nothing will come of it.

GaldorP

The fact that someone doesn't reply to your whispers doesn't mean they're a bot.

I'd report characters when you are reasonably certain they are bots.

A good indicator is clearly automated movement (when a group of characters all move in the same direction and along the same path to the same target locations, like a train), or a character that performs a single simple action repeatedly for hours (you see them just spamming a single skill without moving and when you return a few hours laters they're still doing the exact same thing), or in the case of a material farming bots when you steal every single material node they're going for right in front of their nose for 5 minutes and they show no reaction to that whatsoever

Edit: I wouldn't worry about "abuse of bot reports". What you did certainly wasn't abusing the report system. You were convinced that the players you reported were bots so you reported them. False reports happen (and who knows maybe the player you reported was botting, after all). I just wouldn't rely on the chat test method too much since that's not really a reliable way to see if someone's botting or not (there's so many possible reasons why someone would not reply to you in chat; and someone could reply instantly but still be using a bot program).

Elsonso

I never engage potential bots. I don't whisper to them, at all. I don't ask if they are a bot, or inform them that they have been reported. What is the point?

If they are running a circuit, I find a good node point where they expect to find something and make sure nothing is there. If they go out of their way to go to these points that have nothing for them, along with other traits specific to bots, I report them. I note their player and character name, and move on. ZOS can decide their fate.

If I see them again, I will remember them. They might be there all weekend, or all week, but after that, I rarely see them again.

Most humans fail simple bot tests. Many things done by bots will seems unusual or inefficient to humans. Any human trying really hard to look like a bot deserves to be reported as a bot. I am happy to oblige.

So, how long? If I spend more than 10 minutes on this, they probably aren't a bot.

Lake

Bots can be programmed to respond to whispers, too.

STEVIL

arena25 wrote: »

I know that a lot of people are going to look at the title and come swarming in here ready to call me a troll, but this is an honest question, so please, at the very least, read the entire post before you start attacking me.

Earlier today, I was doing the Stros M'kai questline with one of my alts, as well as getting the rare fish required to get the Stro's M'kai Angler achievement.

Well, after digging Jakarn out of The Grave, I was on my way to do a side quest (involving a monkey digging up treasure for some dude who got keelhauled) when I noticed someone who was exhibiting botting-like behavior (this is nothing new, bots will usually go to Stros M'kai, Bleakrock, and Khenarthi's Roost where there is not a big chance you can be discovered, and thus some, if not most of the players there are actually bots). So, I decided to whisper him once...then I whispered him twice. It was the same whisper..."Are you a bot, mate?" After the third whisper with no reply, and him continuing to exhibit bot-like behavior, I decided enough was enough (I usually do "Three strikes (or in this case, whispers), you're out" when it comes to botting). I reported him for botting, making it my fifth report this morning.

After completing the side quest, I was following Jakarn to the Goblin Mine when the guy FINALLY (3 minutes after I reported him) whispered me back, acting all defensive like "What? That's a hell of a question to ask, dude."

I explained my reasoning (starter zones are havens for bots), apologized for me sticking my nose into his business, and continued onward. However, by the time he had whispered me back, I had already reported him accidentally.

I know that abuse of botting reports is grounds for action against my account, so I think my system of "Three Whispers, You're Out" may not be the most reliable.

So, with that said, how in the future can I make sure all my reports are legitimate? I have had a perfect track record reporting bots...that is, until today, where 2 "bots" turned out to be legitimate players.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Sincerely,
Arena25

i am visually impaired and never have my chat window open in play except by accident and even then i don't pay attention to it except for specific intentional use outside of active play.
So you can whisper to me three times all you want and you will never get a reply.
i sincerely hope my impairment and your zeal do not ever land us into a disagreement over something like this.

i hope you have a nice day.

Rohamad_Ali

If you don't feel comfortable , don't make a report . You can be sure there are tons of people that will report . I've listened to them in zone yelling about bots and telling everyone to report them . I only report if it's obvious and blatant and disruptive .