Why do bots bother you?

myskyrim26

There are a lot of posts about bots here. I wonder, why do they bother people at all? I sometimes see bots at dolmens. I report them. Just because... well, no reason, actually. They don't disturb my game. I report because it is a common practice when one sees a bot. Because a bot is something bad and unfair. But lot of people here seem to really suffer from bots - in what way, I wonder? No sarcasm or something like that, just curious.

WaltherCarraway

Gunfights in ghettos won't hurt me at all, they don't disturb my life but lot of people in society seem to really suffer from those gunfights, in what way, I wonder?


first world problem.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake

Turelus

They're most annoying when they're directly in a location you're trying to play. If they're farming areas or monsters you need for quests it can be really frustrating.

They can have a big impact on a game economy and fair play for those interested in competitive elements.

Also it's worth noting that large gold selling groups (who run bots) are not in business to be nice. They're there to make money off someone else's product, as well as exploiting their customers by stealing accounts or credit card information.
CCP Games (creators of EVE Online) have done a number of really interesting security presentations about Botting, RMT and games security, I would encourage people to go watch them some time.

myskyrim26

@WaltherCarraway I'm not saying bots are ok, leave them be. I just want to know what are they actually doing.

@Turelus, TY! Insightful!

twev

I don't like competing for resources with armies of bots who just feed a 'mats for $$' economy for people who can't be bothered to play the game fairly.

I have to compete against some of those people who buy their mats in PvP, and I don't like the fact that in some cases - they're buying an edge with money.

If that was so fair and good - would everyone feel it was right to buy stacks of mats in the Crown Store?

Aurielle

The bots who camp resource nodes are by far the worst. Go to a starter area like Stros M’kai and try to farm ore. You’ll find that most ore spawn sites are occupied by bots who harvest said ore the millisecond it spawns. Starter areas were at one point in time the best place to farm resources, but no longer, thanks to bots.

Att1Tude

Its because bots tend to level at same time, and the person behind bot sells the CP160 account somewhere and gets irl money out of it. Meanwhile you are too afraid to do the same because you are in fear of losing your 500euro account permanently. At same time you are frustrated af because no-one seems to get caught by doing this. I know without checking the same mudcrab circle in grahtwood spins there and i had to listen this song while imagining it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9mQQpBGCz4

Do the same and it doesnt bother you anymore. At all.Gtg work now.

O_LYKOS

Literally never had an impact on me or my gameplay.

Latios

Hmmm... well, farming is a very effective way to make money.

At least, it used to be much more. Bots reduced that considerably.

Think, for example, farming a certain area. Craglorn is one of them. We get not just mats, but the eventual nirncrux.

Well, you’ll almost always find some kind of script bot farming there. Rigid movements, no buffs or sprint, always a delay before gathering a certain node. So yeah, what does that cause? Not only my farming time loses value, but the game economy in general is affected. Because, well, more mats are being generated at every single moment, which reduces the price for those. Demand x offer, you know.

Just go into those starting areas, like the tiny islands, and you’ll see many other bots continuously farming nodes.

So why does it bother me?
Making money with solo play in this game has limited possibilities, and one of them is the good ol’ mats farming. With those bots about, the effort with mapping the area, running about, using buffs and getting everything loses a lot of value.

kypranb14_ESO

As a long time Runescape player who remembers the bot-plagues at their finest, ESO bots don't even catch my attention. lol

Mr_Walker

Distortion of the economy. Creation of simultaneous demand and supply.

Elwendryll

They don't. I don't see them, they don't see me, no impact on my gameplay.

TheShadowScout

myskyrim26 wrote: »

I wonder, why do they bother people at all?

For pretty much the same reason seeing burglars break into a house would bother me even if it was not my own house.
For pretty much the same reason e-mails from "nigerian princes" bother me even though I know better then to believe it myself.
For pretty much the same reason lying politicians bother me even though I didn't vote for them myself, or if they are in office in another country.
For pretty much the same reason my dads habit of parking in handicapped spaces bothered me despite not being the one that space was set aside for.
For pretty much the same reason white supremacist racist bother me despite being a pale-skinned, blue-grey-eyed, light-brown haired bohemian who definitely is not on their "untermensch" list.
...Et Cetera...

Tandor

I hardly ever see bots on PC EU, and the dolmen afkers seem to have largely gone. As for any effect on the economy, there isn't really a truly open economy in ESO anyway as the trading system involves only a restricted part of the playerbase. That said, I'm as opposed to bots and other cheaters/exploiters as anyone, but although they're a constant presence in most MMOs they have never actually impacted on my play. It also concerns me that the only effect of focusing all the criticism on bots and gold sellers etc is to take attention away from their customers - and they're the real source of the problem.

moses1763

I came from WoW where multi-boxing was common that I am ok with as long as the toons belong to the same acct and used for a single individual's entertainment. (i.e. a person who has a desire for doing content alone as they deal with their lack of social contact stuck in the middle of nowhere or locked behind their doors in appts across the world in cities where crime is very real and fear keeps em locked away alone.)


I do not agree with or condone bots used for markets and gold making those are people up to very nasty things i.e. gold-sellers, acct thieves, and the like.


If you violate the ToS You agree too then your acct should suffer period.

As I understand multi boxing isn't ok here I may be wrong I am very new here but having a blast.


Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays All.

Kadoin

They don't tell me "hi" back!

DragonRacer

It can annoyingly impact gameplay. Go to Camlorn and try to quest around during the werewolf massacre. During the upcoming New Life Festival - if it's the same daily events it's been the past few years - have fun trying to get the kills/gather the items you need in Betnikh to complete the quest. Not impossible, no, but highly irritating to be competing against mindless bots to fulfill a quest.

Karmanorway

myskyrim26 wrote: »

There are a lot of posts about bots here. I wonder, why do they bother people at all? I sometimes see bots at dolmens. I report them. Just because... well, no reason, actually. They don't disturb my game. I report because it is a common practice when one sees a bot. Because a bot is something bad and unfair. But lot of people here seem to really suffer from bots - in what way, I wonder? No sarcasm or something like that, just curious.

They are annoying when they are in area im currently questing in, really immerson breaking.

But worst part, they devalue the Mats that i used to farm back in the Day, when they were worth spending my time on

Sheezabeast

You used to be able to port to anywhere in Shadowfen and within minutes, see a bot train running laps. Same in Deshaan where the zombies are, Rivenspire, Auridon, Grahtwood....just to name a few. It disrupts the flow of the game, the environment and atmosphere, attribute to server issues, directly effect the in game economy...oh yeah and offsite, people are selling bot leveled accounts for big bucks. Bot farmed CP accounts go for even more.

Defilted

Bots are cheating. This is why it "bothers" me.

HalloweenWeed

At Dolmens? I didn't realize they would do that. Now it makes sense!:
Now I understand the real reason why ZOS wants to take away untargeted (omnidirectional) attacks - because bots would use them!
I think they are really trying to combat bots, behind the scenes.
ZOS plz don't take away our whirlwind! (Find a better way to eliminate bots.)

More to the OP point: I love to harvest! There is only some things more frustrating than running to a visible harvest node and watching it quickly fade away in front of you, sometimes with clues of bots (trains of low-level players wearing soul-shriven clothing, ends of moving weapons sticking out of the ground, etc.) I HATE BOTS! Every account that uses one should be perma-banned! They reduce my harvesting loot, they take time away from me: I have to harvest for longer periods of time to get the same result.

redspecter23

Bots encourage shady practices such as 3rd party gold selling and services which can ruin economies in games and even lead to account hacking and personal data loss. I'm not interested in supporting any of that sort of thing.

Also, if someone wants something in game, they can do the same thing almost every other player does to get it.

Tan9oSuccka

I highly recommend trolling bots with mystery meat.

I had one steered so far away in Alikr, he was “half-way to Hammerfell”.

ArchangelIsraphel

It's not that I agree with botting...I don't. It's incredibly irritating and I've experienced the bad effects of it first hand in games like Blade x Soul and Aion, which are riddled with bots. But here? My gameplay hasn't been impacted at all. I haven't even SEEN a bot in the 3 months I've been playing... I'm not even sure how to recognize one here because I've never run into any. In fact, actual players ninjaing crafting nodes while I'm fending off a monster to get at said node has been more of a problem for me than bots...

DaveMoeDee

I suspect OP wasn't around at launch. At launch, resource nodes would magically disappear as you approached them. It was also hard to get drops from delve bosses because bots camped them and killed them immediately. It is much easier to just fight all bots rather than try to differentiate between destructive and non-destructive bots.

Zweible

Bots are changing. Resource node Bots are very commonplace now. Harder to spot, but just as damaging to people trying to get their own mats instead of buying them. I have reported the same 3 Bots that are in Rivenspire 4 different times now. The have been plaguing the same area, running the same path, etc for over 4 months and ZOS has done nothing except to send me an email saying they got my reports. Its a shame ZOS does not take this seriously as it does impact gameplay of normal players.

HalloweenWeed

Zweible wrote: »

Bots are changing. Resource node Bots are very commonplace now. Harder to spot, but just as damaging to people trying to get their own mats instead of buying them. I have reported the same 3 Bots that are in Rivenspire 4 different times now. The have been plaguing the same area, running the same path, etc for over 4 months and ZOS has done nothing except to send me an email saying they got my reports. Its a shame ZOS does not take this seriously as it does impact gameplay of normal players.

I suspect they are ZOS employees, making $$ on the side, or ex-employees and thus possibly friends of current employees! I suspect that's why ZOS can't or won't get rid of them! It's even possible they have something to threaten ZOS employees with to prevent ZOS from removing them. However, this is not an accusation, I have no proof at all. I have come to this suspicion simply from pondering the possible reasons for ZOS to not permaban their IP blocks.

Joosef_Kivikilpi

Super takes away from immersion for questers.

Sneaking around ancient ruins avoiding wolves, turns corner.... 20 sorcerers without Oblivion-summoned daedra causing wolf genocide.

It gets old seeing that in great questing areas.

Minyassa

More than once I struggled at low level to get required kills for a quest with a botter slaughtering the mobs I needed ahead of me, or have had to wait for them to respawn at the back end of a bot's circuit. Waiting is unpleasant but tolerable if it's another actual player. Waiting because someone is cheating is completely intolerable. So they have directly impacted my gameplay and inconvenienced me because of their dishonesty and greed. That is enough to make me hate someone.

Starlock

Why do bots bother me?

1. Cheating is dishonorable behavior that should neither be encouraged nor allowed to run rampant. Reporting such behavior is something I consider a duty and a responsibility. Whether or not others share this sentiment is their own business.
2. Failure to address in-game cheating adequately reflects poorly upon the company managing the game. Companies that allow cheaters to go unchecked cultivate the sort of game environment I do not want to participate in at all.
3. Cheaters can and do ruin the game experiences of others. I can filter out a lot of things, but hordes of bots in an area where I'm questing is not among them.

BWS2K

I wouldn't say they bother me as much as I like the challenge of finding them and reporting them and since what they're doing is against the Terms of Service and I'm not bothering anyone else, I feel justified in my use of time. However - I'm not naive. There will always be some bots as long as people are willing to pay for them (and risk getting scammed). I only hope to help reduce their impact on the game.