Devs! Want to stop bots and other knuckleheads?

WraithAzraiel · May 2014

I've said it time and time again but I don't think it's reaching the pair of eyes it needs to.

If you would like to strike problem at the source and give yourselves a nice chunk of time to put other roadblocks in place to stop the program-run bot creation and utilization

I recommend instituting Naming Restrictions

IE = if there's a name that is all lowercase, makes no sense or is something along the lines of xxslowjamz987 or Spurmslinger the Uterusromper - they get kicked to a rename window and temporarily locked out of the game until proof of humanity via one of those CAPTCHA thingers and a response to an email is given.

Instead of having to physically go into dungeons and player zones as Gamemaster Botsmasher the Banhammer or what have you, utilizing this method would wipe them all out in one maneuver.

Think of all the man hours wasted on banning bots by the handful when you can immediately throw a wrench into their works

Sure, the programmers and the chuckleheads that operate said bots will find some way around it but you'll at the very least buy yourselves time attack the problems at the source - their accounts.

It's slapping a band-aid on a leaking dam but it couldn't hurt.

Auric_ESO · May 2014

I think that you think that a human is never at the machine. And they can't make a decent name. They can adjust and make a name. Login the character then hit go. Doesn't help much I fear

WraithAzraiel · May 2014

Didn't say it was a be all end all fix but it's a start

Nox_Aeterna · May 2014

Yeah , this idea is right on the side of that , "remove trade" idea.

Threads like these make me really wish the devs have good sense and understand how far they can mess with the normal players while fighting bots/gold sellers.

Sakiri · May 2014

You must not have seen wows bots and gold sellers.

The gold sellers dont often advertise sites openly anymore. Instead they make level toons with normal names and spam "wts [item]"

WraithAzraiel · May 2014

Nope, I never did. I refused to play WoW but that's not the point. This is a suggestion to attempt to alleviate the amount of work Devs and GM's and the Powers that Be have to commit.

If there are better suggestions, if anyone has had experience in the gaming industry and dealt with problems such as these - please post them.

I remember playing MUDs that would never allow half the names I see running around in game and for the life of me can't understand why there wasn't something in place from the beginning that prevented wildly inappropriate names along with the creation of cookie cutter bot toons.

I mean if Baron Vonshitzinbath can be a character name and a player who is not associated with ZOS can create a character named "Gamemaster "So&So" this points out the blatant lack of any kind of security against such behavior.

Now names like I've mentioned I completely expect to see in games like Call of Duty and Battlefield and other games where people love to Pwnzors t3h N00bz but in an Elder Scrolls game it's just inappropriate.

There's a place and a time for stuff like that and her and now isn't it.

ZIKE · May 2014

I'm still not sure how having a GM log into a dungeon to clear out bots is a lot of work. I've works some very seriously difficult jobs before, but never would have thought bot banning would be one of them.

Banning bots on a sub based game with no free trial options is the best course of action.

felixgamingx1 · May 2014

WraithAzraiel wrote: »

I've said it time and time again but I don't think it's reaching the pair of eyes it needs to.

If you would like to strike problem at the source and give yourselves a nice chunk of time to put other roadblocks in place to stop the program-run bot creation and utilization

I recommend instituting Naming Restrictions

IE = if there's a name that is all lowercase, makes no sense or is something along the lines of xxslowjamz987 or Spurmslinger the Uterusromper - they get kicked to a rename window and temporarily locked out of the game until proof of humanity via one of those CAPTCHA thingers and a response to an email is given.

Instead of having to physically go into dungeons and player zones as Gamemaster Botsmasher the Banhammer or what have you, utilizing this method would wipe them all out in one maneuver.

Think of all the man hours wasted on banning bots by the handful when you can immediately throw a wrench into their works

Sure, the programmers and the chuckleheads that operate said bots will find some way around it but you'll at the very least buy yourselves time attack the problems at the source - their accounts.

It's slapping a band-aid on a leaking dam but it couldn't hurt.

You don't understand how these bots work captcha is useless because real people are behind it every couple hours

Sakiri · May 2014

What Im saying is that name wipes wont fix it. At all.

As long as item trades are in game there will be bots and gold sellers.

WraithAzraiel · May 2014

So you suggest to take person to person trading out of a massively multiplayer game.....how does that fix things? I'm not trying to be demeaning or insulting, I'm honestly curious

Dodece · May 2014

This would hardly constitute a barrier. The gold sellers will simply up their game by using random name generators. They don't even have to go shopping. Many old games employed random name generators. In other words it would take far less work then creating the code that allows them to operate bots.

The developer is doing about the only thing that works. For every account they ban, and do so before it can turn a profit for its handler. They cost the farmer money. They do that enough, and the whole enterprise becomes more costly then what can be earned.

In other words if the farmer buys accounts for fifty dollars a piece, and they only make twenty dollars back. They will stop trying to make money on the game. It is simply a matter of economics. The only way to do that is to crack down on the whole lot of them hard and fast. If they ban them fast enough they can basically banish it too the seedier corners of their game. Where the farmer actually does make an effort to hide what they are doing.

You really can't automate this out. It has to be done by hand. Just like all the security alarms in the world wont do a lick of good if the police don't respond, and do so promptly.

KaizerXul · May 2014

I was stunned when I saw the name that was like 20 characters long and was all lowercase mostly consonants like, "zxxkejahgbafgadjjsjahxxde" or something. But damn me for trying to use more than a few spaces.

WraithAzraiel · May 2014

I mean sure it would cease their main source of operation but at the cost of screwing over the rest of the playerbase? I don't think that drastic of a step is necessary without exhausting all other options.

By my reckoning, they're combating these things in stages
Attacking the spamming in chat
Sending in the GMs
reducing the character limit in chat
Next step = ?

Who knows, they'll figure it out

WraithAzraiel · May 2014

Dodece wrote: »

This would hardly constitute a barrier. The gold sellers will simply up their game by using random name generators. They don't even have to go shopping. Many old games employed random name generators. In other words it would take far less work then creating the code that allows them to operate bots.

The developer is doing about the only thing that works. For every account they ban, and do so before it can turn a profit for its handler. They cost the farmer money. They do that enough, and the whole enterprise becomes more costly then what can be earned.

In other words if the farmer buys accounts for fifty dollars a piece, and they only make twenty dollars back. They will stop trying to make money on the game. It is simply a matter of economics. The only way to do that is to crack down on the whole lot of them hard and fast. If they ban them fast enough they can basically banish it too the seedier corners of their game. Where the farmer actually does make an effort to hide what they are doing.

You really can't automate this out. It has to be done by hand. Just like all the security alarms in the world wont do a lick of good if the police don't respond, and do so promptly.

Valid point, but it's not only a suggestion to attempt to waylay the bots

it's also a means of getting rid of eyesore names like Harry *** or Ladybleedsalot and my favorite, Spurmslinger the Uterusromper