I'd like to know whether or not afk'ing is against TOS. One way to solve this is diminishing returns. The more time spent at a dolmen, less XP and less loot.
Gw2 introduced diminishing returns because of champ trains and players spending all their time farming certain events.

phairdon wrote: »

I'd like to know whether or not afk'ing is against TOS. One way to solve this is diminishing returns. The more time spent at a dolmen, less XP and less loot.
Gw2 introduced diminishing returns because of champ trains and players spending all their time farming certain events.

Found the answer to my question.

Hi everyone,

We know there have been a lot of questions recently about botting, automated play, what’s a Terms of Service Violation and what isn’t, and what we’re doing to combat TOS-violating behavior. We’d like to answer some of those questions and provide insight.

Per our Terms of Service, this is the definition of botting and automated play:

Utilizing automation for your character is a violation of our Terms of Service. This is defined as taking action on your character, without human input, to further advance your progress in the game. Which is considered botting.


Recently, some of you have asked if it’s okay to put tape or a rubber band on your controller. The short answer is “No.” Automating your character in any way, including placing tape or a rubber-band on a console controller, is considered a violation of our Terms of Service, and action may be taken on your account. You must be actively controlling your character.

In regards to our efforts to combat botting and automated play, we’re tackling it on two fronts: Game Development and Customer Support.

On the Game Development front, we are auditing the monsters that are most commonly targeted by those who bot and automate play to ensure the spawn timers are what they should be. As we find them, we’re fixing any monsters that are instantly re-spawning or on a spawn timer that is shorter than intended.

On the Customer Support side of things, our Terms of Service team suspends and bans accounts daily. We review all TOS reports that we receive, and prioritize the investigations of accounts that have received multiple complaints. We regularly send our Support Agents in-game to watch high-traffic areas such as Dolmens, and take action on any violators we identify. We turn over identified “black marketeers” and repeat offenders to Sony and Microsoft, which sometimes results in a ban of the individual’s PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. We also do other secret things.

So how can you help us with our efforts to get rid of those who are botting and/or automating their characters? Reporting them to us is a huge help, and we do review every ticket we receive.

Here are some steps for using the in-game reporting tools:

On PC/Mac
Radial Menu
Reporting players via the radial menu is the preferred method. Walk up to the player you wish to report and Press [F] to open the radial menu. Select “Report Player” then let go of [F] to open the Report Player window. Press [E] to report the player for botting, or [R] to open the Ticket Creation page.

Chat Window
You can also Right-click on a player character name in their chat window and choose the “Report Player” option.

Press [E] to report a player for chat spam, including spamming gold sales advertisements. This will automatically send a report and does not require you to open and fill out a ticket.

Press [R] to report another player for something unrelated to spam. Choosing this option opens the Ticket Creation page.


On PS4/Xbox One
Radial Menu
As with PC/Mac, reporting players via the radial menu is preferred. Simply walk up to the player you wish to report and press the [Menu] button on Xbox One or [Options] button on PlayStation 4 to open the radial menu. Select “Report Player” then let go of [Menu] or [Options] to open the Report Player window.

Customer Service Menu
Navigate to the Player Menu ([Menu] on Xbox One or [Options]) on PlayStation 4 and find the Help Menu.
From there, select the Customer Service Menu and proceed to fill out a ticket under the appropriate category type.

Please provide the following information when reporting another player:

The name of the player you are reported
The reason why you are reporting them (Spam, Botting, or Harassment)
The time of the incident
The megaserver that the reported player is playing on

If you wish to include visual proof of the violation, such as screenshots or video footage, simply reply to your Support Ticket to update it and add the files.

We hope this info helps – thank you for being a part of our community and continuing to report any potential TOS violations you see!

When I am working at home, I often have a character parked at a dolmen. I do missile attacks now and then to keep from timing out and to get some xp. If my character gets attacked, I take control. I usually grab the chest too.

I could try to program my keyboard to send left mouse hits. I already have macros for games that require spamming left mouse. But I'd rather know that I did not violate TOS.

DaveMoeDee wrote: »

When I am working at home, I often have a character parked at a dolmen. I do missile attacks now and then to keep from timing out and to get some xp. If my character gets attacked, I take control. I usually grab the chest too.

I could try to program my keyboard to send left mouse hits. I already have macros for games that require spamming left mouse. But I'd rather know that I did not violate TOS.

See my response above... Jessica commented on what is a violation of TOS. Basically ANY type of automation is a violation of TOS.

Not nearly as much as farming bots.

Farming bots ruin the in-game economy.

These guys just get to level without playing the game. But then what's the point? I play the game to entertain myself.

People that get upset about this have either too much time on their hands, or need to reevaluate their life choices. ZOS has bigger problems than afk people at dolmen.

DaveMoeDee wrote: »

When I am working at home, I often have a character parked at a dolmen. I do missile attacks now and then to keep from timing out and to get some xp. If my character gets attacked, I take control. I usually grab the chest too.

So you want OTHER people to do all the serious work and mess up their armor by taking hits, while you sit back and use them to get you free experience and loot. That's pretty lousy.

Jemcrystal wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlgX9_Bd7KI&feature=youtu.be
vid recording PC-NA 3-1-2017

.

I just don't care anymore reporting it hasn't yielded any results and since I can't fix it there's no reason for me to get pissed off over it

"You people"

And you call me smug lol.

Does not bother me at all, I just laugh and move on, why would they make me angry?

I am not saying it is ok btw, it is not good at all but not worth my attention.

Muramasa89 wrote: »

If people want to stand around and do nothing, that's their own problem (and I'd wager they don't consider it one). Quite often when I'm running to a dolmen, the monsters just won't be visible to me. They can kill me, or others, and others can kill them, but I get no such luxury. Fortunately I just spam AOEs so I'm not standing around like a lemon, but I could believe some have the same situation with them not being visible.

Just to be clear: we are talking about the two, roughly centre, AFKing (doing nothing) and not the group of idiots to the left just heavy attacking (botting, rubber banding), yes? I'm getting mixed views from other comments.

No I meant the people that are accused of "rubberbanding" and "botting." Now we have a terminology discrepancy. I will not call them "bots" because I relate that term to RMT which is far more serious than what they are doing. I will not call them "rubber banding" because omg no you cannot use a rubber band on your keyboard or mouse. Just does not work. Show me a video where you use a rubber band to make any skill repeat itself. I say they are afk'ing. Watching tv or going to work or going to school AFK NOT AT THEIR PLAYER CHARACTER but using a MACRO keyboard / mouse / or win7 program.

I guess you could call them Macroterds or somesuch.

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I am not angry with bots. But I have a general frustration with life that "rule breakers" get a lot of advantages over everyone else, both in-game and everywhere else. The guy who cuts the line.. the person that parks in handicpa spots... the girl who buys a dress for a party then returns it, etc.

Sometimes I want to get a new character to 50 and the thought of grinding it up (even as fast as that can be) is depressing. If I could park the character at the dolman, tape down the fire button and come back in 10 hours and it was not against the rules I might consider doing that.

I think they should say botting is allowed or enforce their rules.

It's pretty pathetic.

Afkers do not bother me....although they do increase mobs and time taken to complete delve which I can see would annoy players.

Afk botters / macro users should be classed as exploiting and be perma banned though...

But ZOS will just do nothing and pretend there is no problem as usual...