Originally posted by ste2000
I heard of Bots from other players, but never met one in game yet, so it is not rampant as the OP make out to be.

Originally posted by Digna

Originally posted by ste2000
I heard of Bots from other players, but never met one in game yet, so it is not rampant as the OP make out to be.

Go to any starter area and bot trains will run you over. Don't downplay it. Even the devs acknowledge it.

I have leveled 5-7 toons through starting areas. All of them and have not once seen a "bot train" run me over in any starting zone on my server. Maybe certain servers have a greater issue, but I believe it is more isolated than some screaming "foul" want you to believe. In either case Anet will not take long to reduce the problem. 

Here's an example of a bot gang.There's 5 in this pic,though there were 4 more behind me that werent in screen lol..

9 altogether.

Originally posted by tank017

 

Here's an example of a bot gang.There's 5 in this pic,though there were 4 more behind me that werent in screen lol..

 

9 altogether.

I've seen and reported 4 bots (in a train)  in the human starting area on blackgate the other day. All 4 were rangers. Is there a reason why they like to use ranger for botting? Is it because of the pets?

Originally posted by sfc1971

I am still amazed people are suprised.

Korean MMO's have never had quality, that is why they could afford to be free. Because they were very simple games with just lot of flash in the frontend.

Before and during launch, you saw countless posts how GW2 lnot needing a subscription was proof western developers were lying with their claim they needed subs to pay for servers and support.

Well guess what? Those posters were wrong.

Did you know ARENANET is an American Studio ,right ???

Not Korean....

Well guess what? You were wrong......

Reported a bunch of them but Anet seems to be too busy to ban them.

Threads like this really make me wonder where people are seeing all these bots, because I've never seen any. X_X

level 80 elementalist and a 66 warrior atm.

But if It's really that bad then yeah, arenanet should step up their game.

remember Dhumm

ANET do not tolerate botters. Their judgment will come.

Originally posted by Agoden

Threads like this really make me wonder where people are seeing all these bots, because I've never seen any. X_X

level 80 elementalist and a 66 warrior atm.

 

But if It's really that bad then yeah, arenanet should step up their game.

I apologize but I'm no calling you out, however I see this all the time where people say I didn't see any bots.  I have noticed that it seems alot of players just don't understand what is going on and what signs to look for that someone is botting.  For example on my server, if you go to Sparkfly Fen, the waypoint in the very SW corner, there is an event that spawns where waves of Risen attack a small asura camp.  There is usually 20-30 bots standing around the area in groups of 5.  They are tied to a location on the ground, and fight in a scripted manner just like the NPC enemies.  It is hard to spot though because mobs spawn in this area at a fast rate so they run around from mob to mob like a player would, you only see them run back to the Spot that they are Tied to when there are no mobs in there tab target zone to attack or whatever it is they use to determine enemies are nearby.  Personally this worries me too because it seems they are hacking alot of stuff in this game (Hello Radar) but thats for another topic.

What I have noticed when I go to this area, is that many players see these groups running around together and think they are players that are playing in sync together and doing a good job, what they don't realize is that nobody is playing these toons and thus the misconception that they haven't seen botting, when in fact it was right under there nose and they just didn't know it.  I even see people talking to them and commending them on there *Skills, which is rather comical.  When your playing the game and running from area to area, most people I would guess don't spend enough time in the same area to actually notice the *Pattern* that tips you off that they are bots, instead they just see people in big groups fighting together.

TL:DR - People aren't aware they are seeing bots because the game is designed to make you move through it so fast you don't notice the patterns that tip you off that their bots.

---

Originally posted by Bynt

---

Originally posted by Agoden Threads like this really make me wonder where people are seeing all these bots, because I've never seen any. X_X level 80 elementalist and a 66 warrior atm.   But if It's really that bad then yeah, arenanet should step up their game.

---

I apologize but I'm no calling you out, however I see this all the time where people say I didn't see any bots.  I have noticed that it seems alot of players just don't understand what is going on and what signs to look for that someone is botting.  For example on my server, if you go to Sparkfly Fen, the waypoint in the very SW corner, there is an event that spawns where waves of Risen attack a small asura camp.  There is usually 20-30 bots standing around the area in groups of 5.  They are tied to a location on the ground, and fight in a scripted manner just like the NPC enemies.  It is hard to spot though because mobs spawn in this area at a fast rate so they run around from mob to mob like a player would, you only see them run back to the Spot that they are Tied to when there are no mobs in there tab target zone to attack or whatever it is they use to determine enemies are nearby.  Personally this worries me too because it seems they are hacking alot of stuff in this game (Hello Radar) but thats for another topic.

What I have noticed when I go to this area, is that many players see these groups running around together and think they are players that are playing in sync together and doing a good job, what they don't realize is that nobody is playing these toons and thus the misconception that they haven't seen botting, when in fact it was right under there nose and they just didn't know it.  I even see people talking to them and commending them on there *Skills, which is rather comical.  When your playing the game and running from area to area, most people I would guess don't spend enough time in the same area to actually notice the *Pattern* that tips you off that they are bots, instead they just see people in big groups fighting together.

TL:DR - People aren't aware they are seeing bots because the game is designed to make you move through it so fast you don't notice the patterns that tip you off that their bots.

---

I was just about to mention "Bot"Fly Den as I have named it after running through there yesterday, it was actually my first visual confirmation of botting as about 6-8 naked rangers raced back and forth in one spot......all day long and would suddenly appear every time something would spawn.

Botting has gotten worse over the years, it's a thorn in the side of every MMO I've played and has just about distorted or ruined every game economy there is. To be honest I don't think that most players are aware of the impact it has. I used to believe that most bots where gold sellers until I played EVE online and found that it was actually players themselves that are responsible for the vast majority of it.

The only way I see this problem being solved or at least contained is if games start capping drops or item exchanges or getting rid of trade completely which will basically get rid of player economy. It's not something I like to see.

Originally posted by windwave

Originally posted by tank017

 

Here's an example of a bot gang.There's 5 in this pic,though there were 4 more behind me that werent in screen lol..

 

9 altogether.

I've seen and reported 4 bots (in a train)  in the human starting area on blackgate the other day. All 4 were rangers. Is there a reason why they like to use ranger for botting? Is it because of the pets?

Deny all you want with "I haven't seen any"

I'm uploading more videos of them, they're all over on Yak's Bend, even in the 55-70 zones.
http://www.youtube.com/nolegu

Originally posted by Leethe
Can I safely assume anyone I see fighting in-game naked is a bot?

It's probable but not 100 percent sure, because anyone can break all their armor if they suck at playing and don't make time to go repair.  So it's POSSIBLE a naked player is just a player, not necessarily a bot.  However....botting is the more LIKELY of the two.

I dont understand regular players botting. To me it makes no sense. If you don't really want to sit a play the game why use a bot. Gold sellers, that is a different story, I do understand that and they usually name their characters JJJuuggEE or some such nonsense. Names like that could be banned outright but it may catch real players also.

Originally posted by meddyck
I started a new character the other day and by the time I loaded into game I already had a gold spam mail. All of these forms of botting are symptoms of a game that doesn't provide enough gold to players through the normal process of playing and requires too much gold to purchase end game gear. Increase gold drops and/or decrease gear costs and there wouldn't be such a huge market for 3rd party gold sellers and they'd move on.

First off gold spamming is not botting. Secondly, by your reasoning almost every popular MMO must not provide the right ratio of gold income to purchase power because every MMO I have ever played has had botting, gold selling and exploiters.

In GW2 I have not found a huge overwhelming need for mor gold than I can make. I do not see where gear or item costs are so outragous that I need to buy gold. Now in a game like WoW it seemed like you never had enough gold to get what you wanted. The extra mount prices alone were costly and before recent times the cost to get higher level riding and flying skills were steep.

Thanks for the update. They really should have had data experts from the beginning. Of all the wisdom that went into this game somehow they didn't do something so simple as protect their players at launch. It's odd. oh well, can't change the past and they are making an effort.

The problem i have with this diminishing returns thing is this. First, unless you've been reported it shouldn't activate. Seriously these botters are running around in areas easily soloable so people will see them and report them. When players go out to farm mats for crafting because it simply doesn't drop enough it's retarded to limit a players drops just because some botter is breaking the rules. I think they should make that restriction only activate if they are reported so the rest of us can continue to play the game normally.

I'm not even talking about the dungeon thing because I've discovered there seems to be a DR in open world. Tried three times now to gather enough coarse leather for my leatherworker, the first few drops are great then suddenly i get nothing over and over again accept greys and some useless items. And why aren't animals dropping furs more often? I'd gladly trade some minor coin to be able to salvage leather from creatures. It's just too weird. 

Same goes for cloth. It's like they would have us believe that these humanoid mobs or animal mobs aren't wearing clothes/have no skin.

Originally posted by TeknoBug

Deny all you want with "I haven't seen any"

I'm uploading more videos of them, they're all over on Yak's Bend, even in the 55-70 zones.
http://www.youtube.com/nolegu

I watched the videos and there are a lot of characters moving around at once. They might be concidered "bots", but I fail to see how a group of characters playing and leveling together interfers with your game progress or enjoying the content? Are they stopping you from collecting resources? Can't happen in GW2. Are they preventing you from completing a quest or progression in the game? Can't happen in GW2. So what is it with a large group of characters in game that gets people all worked up? If I had multiple accounts and a way to play them at once I would level more than one character at a time also. Does that make me a bot? 

In WoW people could have multiple accounts and dual-box them, playing 2+ accounts at the same time. In pvp it was not uncommon to see someone playing 2-5 toons at once. This was not an illegel act nor did it interfer with my gaming experience. For the most part a few developers from Blizzard even said more power to a person if they wanted to do it.

So I ask..... what is the big deal with a large group of characters leveling together in a game? Unless they are doing something against the game rules they aren't hurting my gaming experience, especially in GW2 because they can't ruin or impede my progression by stealing kills, hogging resources or blocking questing items/bosses. AND the in game gold spamming in GW2 is no where close to as bad as other MMOs. Will it go away? Absolutely not. Gold sellers, exploiters, and people who play multiple accounts at once will always be in MMOs.