Botting in Video Games

[Traiden]

I'm sure you have seen it, a mob of people standing around not talking or doing much of anything. Then movement, they all turn in unison and attack a single monster at once. Overwhelmed by the sudden attack of many players the monster dies in quick time under the swarm. Then silence again as the bots await their next target to spawn...

These bots have long plagued online MMOs for as long as there have been monsters to grind, but they do much more than hunt monsters to the point of virtual extinction. They advertise their creators websites and bog down every player in their single minded pursuit of profit from nothing.

Moderators have done nothing to stop these things from thriving when they are against the policy of the company. So I have decided to strike back, raid the bots and stop them from using up bandwidth and causing lag for honest players.

The game I play, Mabinogi brought to the U.S. by Nexon... and I plan on recording my activities here. If I win, the bots go away and players can enjoy a lag free game. I may get reported or hacked or many other punishments; but what I am doing is for the good other the other players, not my own gain. And if nothing else, it will be an interesting story to tell.

 

[Silver]

When will people learn that you shouldn't play MMOs? That's what they are, basically. Everyone is supposed to be able to play, and since the majority of people in the world is idiots, it's a game for idiots to play. All sane people should just realise that and leave them alone. Cleaning an MMO of annoying players is like trying to clean football of jocks and athletes.

 

[Traiden]

Stage 1: Gathering Information.

The first part of my plan is to gather information on the bots activities when they are not bots. In short finding out where and when the bots trade their gold. I have gathered a few friends that are willing to help and they promise to take screen shots of where trades normally take place.

My part is to explore the sites that the advertisement bots are spamming and find out who is profiting from the bots and record their names. So when I find them I can figure out how they arrange the trades of gold to the people willing to pay for in game gold.

However, we are still a small group and only able to cover one sever and channel so I am also trying to get others to join me and cover the other severs and find out when the gold changes hands there. Hopefully we will get a large group on all severs and channels to be able to make a large strike against them.

Join me or just wish me luck if you see me. I am called Traiden and I am on the Mari sever, Ch5.

 

[Traiden]

It may be a futile battle, but I want to fight back for the people that just grin and bear it. I will raise arms against them and drive them back to the real world for real jobs!

I am just a kid that never grew up and want to do something. Besides, this is fun for me.

 

[Stammer]

Botting is cheating. Cheating is wrong. Cheating in an online game is just that much more wrong. Go ahead and bot in an offline game, but everyone else is there to have fun. Final Fantasy XI gets rid of 10,000 people every month or so because they bot or use other third-party programs that just make the game less fair.

Why use bots anyway? If the game is that boring to you, just don't play it.

 

[Traiden]

It is not that the game itself is boring, I just also enjoy the through of taking down the bots.

As far as I know the GMs have done nothing to get rid of the bots at all, so I have decided to organize a large group of people to take care of them ourselves.

 

[Churchman]

Why use bots anyway? If the game is that boring to you, just don't play it.

a lot of bots are gold farming so they can sell money, or items, or even the avatar itself on ebay or sites like that spammer was pushing yesterday.

 

[Silver]

Botting is cheating. Cheating is wrong. Cheating in an online game is just that much more wrong. Go ahead and bot in an offline game, but everyone else is there to have fun. Final Fantasy XI gets rid of 10,000 people every month or so because they bot or use other third-party programs that just make the game less fair.

Why use bots anyway? If the game is that boring to you, just don't play it.

You do know most people don't use bots because a game is boring, but rather to get an unfair advantage or, as Traiden says, to make money? Would you reason the same way about someone having a job? If it's boring, go do something else.

 

[Rack]

I do think a major part to the solution of this is not to make games that encourage this kind of behaviour. The progression of most MMOS is set up so there is a significant portion of the game where there is nothing to do. How far do you have to get in World of Warcraft before you get any interesting content? How annoying is City of X pre Stamina? Some people will always want an unfair advantage but this market is smaller than the market who want to play an online game without the boredom. Take away the boredom and the number of people prepared to buy an advantage may shrink to the point where it isn't worth running botting operations. The other half of the equation should be making games that require more sophisticated play than can be handled by a simple algorithm.

 

[Traiden]

The problem with your second solution would also make it to difficult for normal players to enjoy the game as well. And these bots in Mabinogi seem to run in a simple manner.

Habits of the Bots:
Run to designated area.
Attack all monsters with certain name.
Collect the gold/scrolls/potions.
Use potion if heath drops bellow 1/3 point.
If killed instantly re-spawn in town.
If inventory is full run into town and wait.
Repeat.

 

[Stammer]

Accounts Banned (06/24/2008)

Around 5,590 accounts in violation of the FINAL FANTASY XI user agreement were suspended or banned today.

BANHAMMER

 

[Churchman]

thats alot of bans

 

[GothmogII]

I suppose, though, I would give a warning to the person you're reporting that you suspect they're a bot. They may not like talking to other people after all?

Humm, I recall once in WoW, waiting for the boat in Feralas I think. Anyway, I'm standing on the dock, when a group of 5 walk up next to me, all in a line, all dressed in gear from Scarlet Monastery, so y'know they've got this Red SM theme going. Anyway, being on an RP server, I initially assume they're also RP'ers, so I try to start up a conversation, no response.
So I follow them onto the boat when it arrives and then into a building once we're on the island, they log off. I was just a little weirded out so I didn't think to report em', but they were probably bots.

 

[Aliencrash]

just reported a bot thing just the other day in the wow scene meself watching some dude run around with another 3 dudes on follow (first instincts fair enough the 3 dudes on follow are just lazy). Then the 3 dudes would cast the same spell at the same time and i was like hmmmmm if thats not suspicious then the escapist is only in my mind and i am in a constant state of dream. Neway made a petition and ill tell you what, make a petition about accidently selling your weapon or somin takes a GM 8 billion years to respond, reporting a possible bot he was there in 30 seconds flat.

its nice to see the GMs wanna get rid of these gimps as much as we want to rid the world of bad comedians and now its nice to see some players actually doing something about it rather than the classic bitching about it untill its bags fill up.

although was better before they patched the whole banish thing for the warlocks oh im sorry is that your mob mr bot *banish*

 

[Stammer]

thats alot of bans

I think this is why Final Fantasy XI has one of the smallest population of gamers. Not because it's not a good game, but because if you violate any of our rules (and we have a lot), you're gone for good.

You're caught botting? BANNED
You're caught selling gil? BANNED
You're caught buying gil? PROBATION
You steal an account? BANNED
You use any third-party program that enhances your character? BANNED
You're caught being retarded? DELUXE PACKAGE*

*Deluxe Package: http://bannable-offenses.blogspot.com/2006/05/gmdave-takes-care-of-his-own.html

 

[Sylocat]

When will people learn that you shouldn't play MMOs? That's what they are, basically. Everyone is supposed to be able to play, and since the majority of people in the world is idiots, it's a game for idiots to play. All sane people should just realise that and leave them alone. Cleaning an MMO of annoying players is like trying to clean football of jocks and athletes.

That pretty much sums up everything I was about to say on the topic. Thanks Silvertongue.

 

[Johnn Johnston]

Bots are a waste of bandwidth in my opinion. I'm glad that most MMOs are phasing them out, but more needs to be done to fully root out the problem.

 

[Silver]

When will people learn that you shouldn't play MMOs? That's what they are, basically. Everyone is supposed to be able to play, and since the majority of people in the world is idiots, it's a game for idiots to play. All sane people should just realise that and leave them alone. Cleaning an MMO of annoying players is like trying to clean football of jocks and athletes.

That pretty much sums up everything I was about to say on the topic. Thanks Silvertongue.

I live to serve.

 

[Traiden]

I have been doing my part to gather as much information about the bots, and yes I have been making sure they are indeed bots.

With names like "jasjkladsjhkladsf" or "ajkladfjh" and the fact they are completely naked really gives it away. I am also trying to find out the names of the characters used to deliver the gold so that their IP address may be banned for Mabinogi.

If no GM responds, I will gather groups of people to help raid the bots when they give money to each other to store or what not.

 

[GothmogII]

Had a thought, multiboxing is not the same thing as botting, i.e. having multiple accounts and controlling each char at the same time, difficult but not really hard. Anyway, some people were making a fuss about it because people were using it to make arena teams that they had full control of. As far as I know, Blizzard didn't like this, though I never really got it, as the players doing this had purchased their accounts fairly, and were technically controlling the chars manually and not on automatic.