Botting is out of control!

ADarklore · March 2017

I reported two today for botting at Vulkhel Guard dolemen, but I don't know WHY WE, the players, have to report them since all a GM would have to do is visit there for themselves. It makes me wonder if ZOS is being disingenuous with their comments about taking it seriously, considering many people commenting about reporting players only to find them back doing the same botting again. I mean, really, it's EASY for a GM to see this for themselves, visit a dolemen by a major city, and they will see it for themselves and IF they are being 'serious' about getting rid of them... then BAM 'insta-ban'.

Esomorrowind89 · July 2017

They don't care to be honest I've reported the same group for the past week and nothing's been done and they wonder why people quit playing

Meld777 · July 2017

If you wanna understand why botters aren't being banned (anymore), feel free to read my wall of text:

Meld777 wrote: »

There is an important factor many of you don't understand yet. Other than in games like Neverwinter Online which are F2P, people have bought their games. And it's a completely different thing to ban a paying customer.

So, let's assume there's a video of you botting. Possible answers:

- "I just like to farm in peace."
- "I don't speak English."
- "My chat is off."
- "I had to take a ***."
- "Doesn't matter. I AM NOT A BOT. That's my final statement. Were you next to me in front of my computer and saw the bot running? And took a video of THAT? No? Well, sucks to be you, ZOS. I am not a bot. I am a consumer and I paid for this game. I want to play it. Unban me, or else!"

Now, US is one thing. But don't underestimate the consumer support in the EU. If you're taking a promised service away from your customer, you have to refund him + pay for damages. Furthermore, if you're not closing your game completely, but actually banning single individuals, you don't wanna face the anti-discrimination laws.

Oh yeah, there's also chargeback. ZOS may not care too much about individual chargebacks per se, but if many people do that in the EU, ZOS might get banned from accepting EU payments. Of course they can try to see if they have a case on every single chargeback, but "customer is right" until you prove 100% that it was his fault. Not 99%. So unless you have a video of the customer in his home launching the bot, your chances are pretty bad.

The reason hackers got unbanned was not that ZOS is too friendly. The reason was that the hackers simply answered "I don't know anything about hacks, it was all legit!" and threatened with customer protection authorities.

When ESO was relatively new and management was unexperienced, they could just log on and manually ban every bot like in that video. But by now, they have already faced multiple incidents with authorities and, unless you're actively promoting mass murder in real life, nothing will ever happen. If you go too far (botting, cheating, etc.), they might ban you. But a "I paid for it, unban me, or else!" is enough as long as you're in the EU.

Banning one person might sound simple, but this is the exact definition of discrimination: providing to many while excluding one. And trust me, you don't wanna mess with people that are able to shut you down with one signature. And chances are ZOS already got at least one warning. As many online services.

#EUlife

OC_Justice · July 2017

Meld777 wrote: »

If you wanna understand why botters aren't being banned (anymore), feel free to read my wall of text:

Meld777 wrote: »

There is an important factor many of you don't understand yet. Other than in games like Neverwinter Online which are F2P, people have bought their games. And it's a completely different thing to ban a paying customer.

So, let's assume there's a video of you botting. Possible answers:

- "I just like to farm in peace."
- "I don't speak English."
- "My chat is off."
- "I had to take a ***."
- "Doesn't matter. I AM NOT A BOT. That's my final statement. Were you next to me in front of my computer and saw the bot running? And took a video of THAT? No? Well, sucks to be you, ZOS. I am not a bot. I am a consumer and I paid for this game. I want to play it. Unban me, or else!"

Now, US is one thing. But don't underestimate the consumer support in the EU. If you're taking a promised service away from your customer, you have to refund him + pay for damages. Furthermore, if you're not closing your game completely, but actually banning single individuals, you don't wanna face the anti-discrimination laws.

Oh yeah, there's also chargeback. ZOS may not care too much about individual chargebacks per se, but if many people do that in the EU, ZOS might get banned from accepting EU payments. Of course they can try to see if they have a case on every single chargeback, but "customer is right" until you prove 100% that it was his fault. Not 99%. So unless you have a video of the customer in his home launching the bot, your chances are pretty bad.

The reason hackers got unbanned was not that ZOS is too friendly. The reason was that the hackers simply answered "I don't know anything about hacks, it was all legit!" and threatened with customer protection authorities.

When ESO was relatively new and management was unexperienced, they could just log on and manually ban every bot like in that video. But by now, they have already faced multiple incidents with authorities and, unless you're actively promoting mass murder in real life, nothing will ever happen. If you go too far (botting, cheating, etc.), they might ban you. But a "I paid for it, unban me, or else!" is enough as long as you're in the EU.

Banning one person might sound simple, but this is the exact definition of discrimination: providing to many while excluding one. And trust me, you don't wanna mess with people that are able to shut you down with one signature. And chances are ZOS already got at least one warning. As many online services.

#EUlife

He is right. Complaining and reporting will really do nothing. ZOS has done what they can and i am sure they will try to write code that prevents bots, but other than that there is not much they can do.
In the end who cares if some loser wants to "buy" his gold or earn it or "cheat." This is all fake and if you try and tell me that Eso and Wow gold are a real economy, then you support gold selling. It is a double edge sword, let it go and as others have stated, just play.

RodneyRegis · July 2017

If they cared they would just change the inactivity kick to include those who don't move, even if they attack.

ThePrinceOfBargains · July 2017

Do people even still do this? Haven't seen rubberbanders since I started playing again.

Elsonso · July 2017

TheMaster wrote: »

Do people even still do this? Haven't seen rubberbanders since I started playing again.

For what this discussion was about, the people rubberbanding on PC/NA around dolmens has pretty much stopped. I have not seen one in a while. I think they got the message. What ZOS put into place to discourage them might have just moved them to more advanced technology, though.

Merlin13KAGL · July 2017

Meld777 wrote: »

If you wanna understand why botters aren't being banned (anymore), feel free to read my wall of text:

Now, US is one thing. But don't underestimate the consumer support in the EU. If you're taking a promised service away from your customer, you have to refund him + pay for damages.

You seem to be missing the term 'wrongful' in there.

No one, not even Europeans are "promised service." ZoS could yank the rug out from under all of us any time they like.

You're also missing the other half of the contract - they one where you need to abide by the ToS to have access to your not-promised-service.

The excuses reasons don't matter. You're either actively playing the game or you're not.

If you're not, log the f**k out or expect the same treatment as a botter should.

This bs 'grey area' people are trying to come up with or use to justify is lame, at best. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's reasonable and what isn't. If you feel you have to justify the reason, guess which side of that fence you're likely on?

PsychoROFLit · July 2017

StackonClown wrote: »

Zenny - Just... just fix it please...

It is annoying to say the least... I feel sorry for new players in the starter zones who would be confused and overwhelmed by all the bot spamming at Anchors.
It's a shame.. I remember when i first came across Dolmens and there were 2 or 3 other players.. It was chaotic but really fun to run the dolmen and complete it..

they're selling bots to them! im sure, just because its ZO$

rotaugen454 · July 2017

I imagine it is difficult to see if botting software is being run on the client's end, so it would take in-game GMs visually observing people to see the obvious bot trains that many of us can see every day. Unless they make an active GM force, botting will never disappear. PC NA, just head to Silsailen on Auridon. There is almost always a bot train running there that I have seen for months. Other people report similar things in other areas. I don't know how many total instances of the game run at any one time, so not sure how long it would take to sweep each area. To further complicate it, botters would figure out the hours GMs appear and run around those times.

DaveMoeDee · July 2017

ADarklore wrote: »

I reported two today for botting at Vulkhel Guard dolemen, but I don't know WHY WE, the players, have to report them since all a GM would have to do is visit there for themselves. It makes me wonder if ZOS is being disingenuous with their comments about taking it seriously, considering many people commenting about reporting players only to find them back doing the same botting again. I mean, really, it's EASY for a GM to see this for themselves, visit a dolemen by a major city, and they will see it for themselves and IF they are being 'serious' about getting rid of them... then BAM 'insta-ban'.

Even if there was a GM online 24-7, how many different things do you think they need to monitor? Even if it was just dolmen, they would need to cycle through quite a few dolmen. It makes far more sense for them to wait for reports before looking.

Companies can't just throw money at operations. That is money they pay over and over again.

MudcrabSammich · July 2017

I'm pretty new to the game, but I think I saw bots this weekend in the Rift. Right outside Riften by the burned out buildings is one place and the other place was by Treva farm (I think that's the name), by all the mammoths and sabre cats. What i saw was about 4 or 5, some with pets. They would run all in a line, back and forth attacking everything. Their names all seemed to begin with a 3-digit number. I clicked on one to report it, but I get a message tab that pops up with a warning about I will be dealt with for repeated reporting. At that point, I said forget it,not worth it to me.