Please remove ESO from the Xbox Game Pass to reduce the bot farming

Alphawolf01A

People are creating fake xbox accounts. This gives them a trial xbox Gold and trial access to Game Pass.

Elder Scrolls Online is on Game Pass. They create fake players and farm for materials with programmable controllers on auto. They sell the materials to other players or in-game merchants for in-game currency which they then sell online for real money.

If the fake accounts are reported and banned, they just create new accounts and repeat the whole process over again.

Removing Elder Scrolls Online from Game Pass would prevent them from doing this and prevent them from profiting off of what they are getting for free.

Alphawolf01A

This needs to be stopped. I saw today while shopping at guild traders in Mournhold that the same players were in 4 of the 6 guilds and half of the players were fake xbox accounts where the player had a gamer score of 5 in ESO. Not only are they farming, but getting prime guild trader spots to profit and then sell the gold online for real money.

jircris11

It's the same on PC, there just needs to be more checks put in to place honestly. If a player can id a bot in seconds why can't a program that can READ the data being sent to and from the server

Lumenn

Went by shattered grove a couple of weeks ago. (Xbox na) it was ridiculous. Whole armies of bots. Balance issues are rough sometimes, but the bots and the "known" bugs are what's keeping many of my friends from playing. Word of mouth kept me from trying eso until 2016. Zos doesn't seem to care that reputation can sink any further games even if they pull the plug on eso.

Alphawolf01A

@ZOS_GinaBruno I would really like to hear what ZOS is doing about this growing problem. Between the lag caused by these fake players spamming attacks to taking guild traders from real players and then selling the gold online for real cash. Why isn't this being addressed?

Armatesz

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

This needs to be stopped. I saw today while shopping at guild traders in Mournhold that the same players were in 4 of the 6 guilds and half of the players were fake xbox accounts where the player had a gamer score of 5 in ESO. Not only are they farming, but getting prime guild trader spots to profit and then sell the gold online for real money.

They have been in the mournhold trader spots for a while, only thing I can tell you is report them and find people in that guild so that they know that they have botters in their guild.

AnonomissX

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

This needs to be stopped. I saw today while shopping at guild traders in Mournhold that the same players were in 4 of the 6 guilds and half of the players were fake xbox accounts where the player had a gamer score of 5 in ESO. Not only are they farming, but getting prime guild trader spots to profit and then sell the gold online for real money.

Are you on Xbox or PC? What server? If on Xbox NA, can you pm me on this forum?

Armatesz

AnonomissX wrote: »

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

This needs to be stopped. I saw today while shopping at guild traders in Mournhold that the same players were in 4 of the 6 guilds and half of the players were fake xbox accounts where the player had a gamer score of 5 in ESO. Not only are they farming, but getting prime guild trader spots to profit and then sell the gold online for real money.

Are you on Xbox or PC? What server? If on Xbox NA, can you pm me on this forum?

I can verify on xbox na there are botters in some of the guild traders in mournhold.

The_Brosteen

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno I would really like to hear what ZOS is doing about this growing problem. Between the lag caused by these fake players spamming attacks to taking guild traders from real players and then selling the gold online for real cash. Why isn't this being addressed?

Theres no clear link between bots and lost revenue. If there was, bots would be sought out much more aggressively. Zos is a business and you can only prioritize so much as a business. A business is less likely to address an issue that can't be linked to lost revenue. Not a good or bad thing, just how it is.

Alphawolf01A

I never said anything about lost revenue. These bot farmers are making a profit in the real world by exploiting the xbox game pass that gives them free access to the game with no real penalty for being banned. They just create a new account and continue what they were doing.

The bots actions affect game performance by groups of them spamming attacks, they affect real players by preventing access to guild traders. Example, One of my guilds regularly loses our trader to a guild that posts nothing to sell. The trader was bought in order to force players to go to the other traders in that city which have bots farming for them.

In the end, game pass doesn't benefit ZOS at all, and the negative word of mouth discourages many new players when they find out about the bots.

"Not a good or bad thing, just how it is." Really? If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. What the botters are doing is a violation of the Terms of Service and yet nothing is being done to stop them long term.

I have offered a solution, at least for the Xbox side of it as I don't know how PC and PS4 operate as far as free access to ESO.

NoTimeToWait

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

I never said anything about lost revenue. These bot farmers are making a profit in the real world by exploiting the xbox game pass that gives them free access to the game with no real penalty for being banned. They just create a new account and continue what they were doing.

The bots actions affect game performance by groups of them spamming attacks, they affect real players by preventing access to guild traders. Example, One of my guilds regularly loses our trader to a guild that posts nothing to sell. The trader was bought in order to force players to go to the other traders in that city which have bots farming for them.

In the end, game pass doesn't benefit ZOS at all, and the negative word of mouth discourages many new players when they find out about the bots.

"Not a good or bad thing, just how it is." Really? If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. What the botters are doing is a violation of the Terms of Service and yet nothing is being done to stop them long term.

I have offered a solution, at least for the Xbox side of it as I don't know how PC and PS4 operate as far as free access to ESO.

Sorry, I like cheap tempers, and don't mind bots spamming attacks in some lost corner of the Tamriel (and the server load is minimal because ESO has ceiling for the amount of calls per second). And people who sell crowns can outbid traders just as easily as bot owners.

Seems like this kind of botting doesn't bother ZOS too much so I doubt anything will be done about it

BNOC

If you removed bots from console, you'd struggle for mats.

Also, can't you only take 3 free trials per Xbox? That used to be the rule iirc.

Girl_Number8

They will be on either way. People that pay for gamepass which costs more then eso+ I don't really see as the problem. The game is so cheap anyway. Also, after the last disaster of this dlc you maybe seeing a less populated game as many guild members said hello 76 or RDR2.

So it is not free access when they are paying more in the long run. Something is not free when you are paying for the access.

With the traders they really need to just have a lottery to decide who wins to make it more fair all the way around. It needs to be a much more even playing field. That's just and idea but the traders were always poorly implemented in eso.

O_LYKOS

Yes. Remove this so people stop creating farming accounts. This way mats prices can increase and the same people complaining about farmers can complain about the prices being too high for wax.

Gargath

The farmers become more clever everyday, yesterday I saw in Shadowfen (PC EU) just 2 characters running with absolutely normal names, if you were not focused closely on their movements you could missed the fact that they are bots.
When I followed them I saw they both were going exactly the same route, but they could attack two different mobs at the same time. That was weird as usually I watched the chain of bots attacking the same mob and then another. This was so natural, and the only proof that they are bots was their precisely same programmed path of running, impossible to repeat by two players.

Alphawolf01A

its not exactly cheap mats when there are guild traders that are supplied by bots that sell the items at inflated guild prices. Plus, many bots are farming low level crap that no one wants. they sell the low level stuff to a merchant or refine it for temps and resins to sell on guild traders.

Davor

Actually bots are a good thing. After how some slime balls did and try to "corner the market" through other means, I believe bots are a good thing. It keeps prices low. After all what costs 2000 on PC is costing like 8000 on Xbox. Not sure what it is on PC. So yeah it's a good thing.

Not sure why you are so upset. Unless you are one of those people who try and keep the prices high.

Reistr_the_Unbroken

Davor wrote: »

Actually bots are a good thing. After how some slime balls did and try to "corner the market" through other means, I believe bots are a good thing. It keeps prices low. After all what costs 2000 on PC is costing like 8000 on Xbox. Not sure what it is on PC. So yeah it's a good thing.

Not sure why you are so upset. Unless you are one of those people who try and keep the prices high.

I half wish bots could farm Molag in IC so there’s more in Guild Traders for cheap but that would be a terrible idea.

Beardimus

hmm you'd think the market for buying Gold would have fallen on its butt with the ability to Crowns for Gold now.

This stuff seems simple on the surface to stop, shame ZOS dont do something about it.

At the end of the day enough players must be buying gold to make it worth their time, thats another annoyance.

Alphawolf01A

I don't know where you are seeing low prices because of bots. I see plenty of overpriced guild traders. And, no I am not one that keeps the prices high. just the opposite. my guildmates and I try to undercut prices in our guild to try to bring the prices down. Finally, it's not about prices. It's about bots violating the TOS and not playing the game as it's intended. I wonder why some people keep defending people that are breaking the rules.

Alphawolf01A

Beardimus wrote: »

hmm you'd think the market for buying Gold would have fallen on its butt with the ability to Crowns for Gold now.

This stuff seems simple on the surface to stop, shame ZOS dont do something about it.

At the end of the day enough players must be buying gold to make it worth their time, thats another annoyance.

I agree completely. I think the people defending the bots and "low" mat costs must be buying low then selling high.

Davor

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

I don't know where you are seeing low prices because of bots. I see plenty of overpriced guild traders. And, no I am not one that keeps the prices high. just the opposite. my guildmates and I try to undercut prices in our guild to try to bring the prices down. Finally, it's not about prices. It's about bots violating the TOS and not playing the game as it's intended. I wonder why some people keep defending people that are breaking the rules.

Well if Zenimax will not do anything about it, why not report this to Microsoft? I am sure it's against their terms and services as well. Have you tried that? You can give Microsoft the names, and take screen shots or videos as proof.

As for defending it, sorry I had no sleep. Sorry if I came out like I was defending or insulting you. It wasn't my intent. I didn't think out my post to well.

Alphawolf01A

Davor wrote: »

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

I don't know where you are seeing low prices because of bots. I see plenty of overpriced guild traders. And, no I am not one that keeps the prices high. just the opposite. my guildmates and I try to undercut prices in our guild to try to bring the prices down. Finally, it's not about prices. It's about bots violating the TOS and not playing the game as it's intended. I wonder why some people keep defending people that are breaking the rules.

Well if Zenimax will not do anything about it, why not report this to Microsoft? I am sure it's against their terms and services as well. Have you tried that? You can give Microsoft the names, and take screen shots or videos as proof.

As for defending it, sorry I had no sleep. Sorry if I came out like I was defending or insulting you. It wasn't my intent. I didn't think out my post to well.

No problem. No offense taken. I do report them to Xbox as well as ZOS. They get banned, then just create new accounts and start the whole process all over again. There has to be a better way to deal with them and the only thing I can think of is to remove ESO from gamepass.

I also understand the cost effectiveness of game pass for legitimate players that pay for the pass. the problem is the free trial of gamepass that lets bots in for free.

Starlock

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

People are creating fake xbox accounts. This gives them a trial xbox Gold and trial access to Game Pass.

Since this happened, I've noticed a number of things in the game. You've listed one of the negative ones, for sure. On the whole, though, the influx of new players was refreshing. I think it's worn out it's welcome, though. Does Microsoft ever retire titles from Game Pass? If so, I imagine it will be taken out of the system on the horizon. Hopefully sooner rather than later, for precisely the issues you bring attention to.

Of course, the root of the problem is really the entire materials grind and trading system, not botting itself. If we didn't have this ridiculous gear improvement system - and in particular the flatly ridiculous platings system for jewelry crafting - there would be no incentive to bot. These days, I only see bots going after one thing - blacksmithing/jewelry nodes. The reasons for that are obvious. It's done little to nothing to help trader prices, and personally? I never buy tempers from traders. Ever. In part because I don't want to risk supporting this botting #$%^ that has ruined the game for me on multiple occasions.

BWS2K

So, this issue comes up every couple weeks but I'll re-state the facts:

a) Botting is against the Terms of Service for ESO. A player needs no other reason to justify reporting them.

b) Players reporting bots is not the same as banning them - it's flagging the behavior of a suspected bot for ZOS to review.

c) Sometimes the bots disappear within 24hrs and sometimes they don't - this is exactly as much prove that it does work as prove that it doesn't, so there's zero evidence to say reporting is a waste of time.

d) Bots impact the economy negatively by setting both demand and supply - they farm the materials themselves, denying those materials to legitimate farmers, and then flood the market at the prices they set. I want to be super clear about this: ELIMINATING BOTS WILL NOT DESTROY THE MARKET. Prices might spike briefly but they won't go so high that no one will buy them because that's literally how economics works. If nobody is going to pay 5k for a stack of jute then nobody is going to sell a stack of jute for 5k. It'll settle back down pretty quick.

e) ZOS does do something to combat bots - they give players the reporting tool. It's not reasonable to expect them to patrol all the zones. Are there programs that can do this? Sure. Do they use them? Doesn't seem so. Does that mean there's no hope? No, there's hope - players can report them.

f) This isn't about revenue... yet. I have almost 800hrs in ESO on PC, where the botting is less pronounced than what I hear about on consoles, and I would never ever recommend to someone using a console to purchase ESO. Ever. I hear these stories and I think it's just not worth the hassle. When you let bots overrun your game then you get fewer actual players, and I'm positive that ZOS cares enough to not want that to happen. A bad reputation will mean lost revenue in the end.

g) Finally, botting can have real-world connections to some very shady stuff. It's lucrative for those involved and we could never hope to completely get rid of it because there will always be lazy people willing to risk getting scammed and, as such, there will always be lazy scammers waiting to take their money. We can reduce the impact botting has by reporting them when we see them. If you reported one yesterday and then see it the next day, report it again. You're there. Do the thing. Every day. Botting is against TOS - filling ZOS's inbox with reports is not.

I feel ya. Botting stinks. It ruins the game for a lot of us but I hear horror stories about the consoles all the time. You're not alone and I sincerely hope this gets addressed further in the future. You won't get an official response here on the forums, by the way, because they simply don't discuss it. Do the best you can to enjoy the game and ignore the Discouragers and don't be afraid to report every bot you suspect every day - or not. But don't listen to this paranoid garbage about how the game benefits from having them or how it'll all come crashing down without them. That's just not true.

Happy Gaming!

Alphawolf01A

I really appreciate all the positive feedback and support. It's nice to know that others are bothered by this as well and are taking steps to deal with it. Thank you.

Starlock

Alphawolf01A wrote: »

I really appreciate all the positive feedback and support. It's nice to know that others are bothered by this as well and are taking steps to deal with it. Thank you.

I report bots when I see them - both through the system in ESO and to Microsoft. I've said it before, but I'll say it again - if I'd noticed this sort of thing when I first started playing a while back, I would have quit the game. Period. I mostly focus on story/questing/RP, and I recall the first time I ran into a bot group in Betnikh. It completely ruined by experience. I had to quit the game and play something else, because I just could not do the quests in that area with that crap going on. The same happened only worse when I hit up Camlorn. I quit and kept returning there later, praying that I could actually do the quest without it being ruined and broken by botters. I'd completed the quest before on a different character, but imagine the impression this would leave on someone who'd never done that content before? It's bad. It's also inexcusable.

pod88kk

A little while ago on EU they had the audacity to get a mournhold trader(the most expensive places) & fill it with potatoes at 1 million gold a spud. Clearly it was a cash for gold scheme. I reported each of the GT's but doubt much was done

Alphawolf01A

Very true. This just adds more negativity to the games name. As was mentioned earlier, it is becoming more and more of an issue on consoles and it can hamper progression in the game. Not to mention, i looks really stupid to see a dozen sorcs spamming lightning bolts at mudcrabs. LOL

Alphawolf01A

My guild usually gets the mournhold thieves den trader and we have lost the bid to a guild that leaves the trader empty on numerous occasions.

Jimmy

Bots = Log-ins, which is good for ZOS's image and bottom line.
Don't expect many bans. This business is built on how many log-ins your game gets.