pal2002

1st, mod Chrisso - ... is a rather a small pawn of the community team - he was the one who had to control the wildywyrms for Americans when the other jmods were asleep and deal with random "community events" jagex put up. And I see he has chosen his words very carefully - accounts GATHERED - 12,495, well I'd expected that much if you just go through the mining guild and sorc garden on every world. But how many will get a perm BAN? Possibly zero. 10-20% wil get a flimsy 14 day ban with no other consequences. And another random but probably small fraction will get a rollback. And the rest might just get away with it all even after being "caught." It's a good and a positive step toward a real zero tolerance policy on bots that they're finally going in game and finding the bots manually. Their "secret" system clearly doesn't work well anymore. This is what they should have done instead of solely relying on their "advanced bot detection systems". But here's the next major test - will they actually take harsher action and BAN some bots? If not, all this is just more talk and PR to soothe what's left of their legit player base. They have their ban reinstatement thing in now, so if they really perm ban a ton of bots, they can still profit off them by charging the reinstatement $ after rolling back the account. It's still better than letting the bots just letting bots walk free while taking their subscription money.

Civilians dying in Africa in massive campaigns of genocide and America sending soldiers to Libya is Unethical. This is a minor inconvenience, deal with it. And this is coming from a MAJOR skiller. I didn't say inhumane. There are plenty of bad things that go on around the world and there's next to nothing that we can do about it. However, profitting off bots while telling the rest that botting will be punished it very much unethical business behavior. And as consumers who accepted the TOC jagex put up I think it's only fair to expect Jagex to reciprocate and keep up their end of the bargain and enforce their rules. (The TOC is not quite a contract so we can't sue on that - but bad TOC is fair game for a consumer protection agency. Unethical behavior is a behavior that is not ethical, the word ethical by webster means "1. the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation 2. a theory or system of moral values" Killing innocent people cannot be justified morally by a sane human being, I think I speak for the planet when I say that the slaughter of innocents is Unethical. The fact that Jagex cannot detect bots well does not mean that they have unethical business practices, just that their technology is a tad bit behind. Second off, cheating on an online game isn't such a new concept, learn to deal with it and at higher levels when your not skilling to make money you will actually be ok with bots existing to drop prices. That is assuming Jagex is actually making a good faith effort in stopping bots, which I do not believe. Given how obvious some bots are, just going into the game and change up the menu option by 1 line (the common player 'bot traps') can stop literally thousands bots but Jagex refusing to do anything but rather take those traps away. Look at recent trends, even if a bot is caught - already very low chance - No more perm bans for bots - Rollbacks instead of bans and the whole ugly effort to cover it up as "bugs" - Temp bans with no skill or gold removal - The whole free trade promise and putting on the whole show for 'referendum' when the programming is already done - Buy back all past banned accounts for 3 months membership and erasing all blackarks - Just a sad fact for the lolz - rs gold now sells at $0.90 per million..... .... ... I'd say very much that Jagex is doing anything BUT putting up a good faith effort at stopping bots (as stated in their own TOC). They clearly want to make $ off bots.

Civilians dying in Africa in massive campaigns of genocide and America sending soldiers to Libya is Unethical. This is a minor inconvenience, deal with it. And this is coming from a MAJOR skiller. I didn't say inhumane. There are plenty of bad things that go on around the world and there's next to nothing that we can do about it. However, profitting off bots while telling the rest that botting will be punished it very much unethical business behavior. And as consumers who accepted the TOC jagex put up I think it's only fair to expect Jagex to reciprocate and keep up their end of the bargain and enforce their rules. (The TOC is not quite a contract so we can't sue on that - but bad TOC is fair game for a consumer protection agency.

Very interesting! FINALLY they're making a statement about it - the first one of its kind since 2008... Hopefully it will get front page placement and not hide in a forum thread and/or some random dev blog/community post that nobody reads. Any chance you can show the full thread/topic that the mod statement came from?

I'm no law student, but just looking at Jagex's very short terms and conditions, there is no legal basis for us to sue them for allowing bots. It is however highly unethical for Jagex to market a fair game then just allow cheaters to trample all over it and perhaps a consumer's protection agency would do more good than a legal firm. The strongest things we as legit players can do right now is to cancel your membership and find a better company to send your money to. Jagex clearly won't your $5, plenty of bots will replace you.

I have to say, TIF has put on the best april fools thingie I've seen this year. Google has been very disappointing, RS even worse...can't believe they actually labeled the april fools newspost as april fools and posted the real one. Just sadface. I was expecting to kick around some cabbages too. Yay for Beaver.

Look at the my pic carefully. Note that it is in a WEEK. Put on the week limiter and you will find ZERO results for your search. And lol, well this isn't an april fools thing. >.> If any conclusions I want to draw from these data is that Jagex is doing a [cabbage] job at stopping bots compared to Blizzard. That much anyone should agree. Ofc RS isn't dying. It's just being overran by bots. No biggie.

First, a public perception comparison.... Blizzard is known for its hardline attitude on bots (and a real anti bot program along with the game client)...and it shows. You can see that Jagex actually did a good job suppressing bots since 2007 until the free trade disaster recently while WOW has kept it under control ALL THE TIME. Note on 3rd graph: search for "World of Warcraft bots" don't even trend, but "wow bots" actually INFLATES it abit since it does lead to other strange things And because I got flamed last time by using google trends, here's all Alexa data for actual traffic. Note the still very unhappy RS trend toward lower traffic on ALL timescales. Very disturbing is the 23% drop in REACH. It's probably the best measurement of new players finding RS. NOTE on WOW's web traffic data: Since WOW players do not have to go throgh blizzard's site to go in game or check on news I realize this is a very bad measurement of actual WOW popularity. Included for reference only. The big peaks are from diablo 3 and starcraft 2. ~Doooom :( PS: In other news, RS GP has managed to drop to $1/million....

idk why everyone is getting caught up on the google thing....it's a predictor of trend only. BTW if anyone has Alexa premium and have access to data of all years please share.

ofc the harder 'evidence' would be traffic (although I'm not proving anythng other than foretelling DOOM) ...which is why I added the Alexa thingy. Unfortunately, I'd have to pay Alexa for them to show me more data over longer time The point is, google trends is, well, a good predictor of trends and generally how popular something is. You could try doing one for different MMO's and find which ones have been rising, and declining.

lol [Caution: Jagex Rule Violation].... Oh I'm not really drawing any conclusions. Just fun to stare at. And predict DOOM. Added Alexa graph. Most significant thing there would prob be the drop in rs traffic after wildy/FT

No...google trends graph general WEB TRAFFIC instead of a specific search term when you put in a URL. ie. how many people clicked through runescape.com via a google result.

You will notice how bot site rivals tip.it since its intro, and even exceeds runescape as a search term during the wildy reintro.. Also notice how RS itself got no boom at all from wildy/reintro, but bot sites got such a huge boost. This serves as a counter as a 'bots are always there' argument. Yes, some bots and autoers were always there, but NEVER this prevalent, sophisticated, and popular. And...if you didn't believe RS was dying before, do you believe now?... RS now commands the same search volume as it did in 2004.... Clarification: when you put a URL into google trends, you're shown web traffic instead of a search term. ie. how many click through to runescape.com via the google link. May post more such graphs from Alexa and other places. EDIT:So here's the same graph via Alexa. Note that here it is actual traffic rank as determined by alexa bots (lol...) And so I lied. Actually THREE graphs now. DOOOM~~. :-(

Personally, as phishing scams go, I thought theirs was actually very well done. I've seen paypal phishes all the time and most of them have really fake links (theirs had an official looking one with rs spelled slightly wrong) or spelling mistakes. It might have gotten my attention, if I didn't have JAGEX NEVER CONTACT YOU OUTSIDE THE IN-GAME MESSAGING CENTER engraved so deeply into my brain or they actually sent to the email I actually registered with Jagex.

Unfortunately, despite the 30,000 bots that roam around every day, I can't for the life of me find someone who has been caught a 3rd time, with the "great macro detection system" that are in place. Getting a rollback is actually rare enough for a bot, the chance getting that is already like getting a whip. Getting the temp ban is so rare that I've only managed to find 2 people who got it, ie. chance of a visage drop. Even if that actually happens...I still seriously doubt they will go to a perm ban (which as of now are pretty much no longer perm..), much less account deletion.

I found this pretty hilarious because I got this email in one of my email addresses NOT registered to Jagex, or now that I think about it, anywhere related to RS. Have no idea how they managed to get that hardly used email.

That's REAL old. But I can confirm just 2 weeks ago when I last reported someone who openly said "I bought my account" for RWT the option was there. I can't believe they've deleted even that. Just what the hell.... Are they ENCOURAGING people to RWT and bot now?

The sad thing is Jagex had completely stopped caring. Perm bans are no longer issued AT ALL, despite what their PR were saying when rollbacks came out. If a bot actually gets caught, and maybe 1 in 200 will, they will get a rollback. If they get caught again (what're the chances of that happening -.-), they get a 14 day ban. I have yet to find any bot who managed to get caught 3 times or anyone punished harder than a freaking 2 week temp ban since their "new and improved anti-bot system" went into place with wildy update.... At this point people are botting so wrecklessly that detection should not be even be an issue...Nothing fancy is even needed. Someone continuously *insert your fav bot actibity here* for 48 hours IS A DAMN BOT. Real humans DIE when they don't get sleep for 48 hours. And yet, even those bots that continuously bot for WEEKS at a time aren't even getting banned. Oh, and give us more money and you can buy all your past banned accounts back. Did I mention RWT everywhere too? A Google trends graph show that "runescape gold" now has 2x search volume than "tip.it" And that you can no longer even report RWT... Not that I think the report button is worth ANYTHING anymore. I'm just speechless. At this point I have more faith in Justin Beaver than Mark Gerhard. Botting has NEVER been this bad in the 10 year history of RS. Total online population is dropping very fast week by week despite the increase in bots. The few legit players left are finally seeing what I've been trying to get through for months. (How can you possibly miss the 300-400 people at Aubury every world) If bot growth and real player drop continues, soon we'll be hitting the 50-50 mark, with a handful of loyal players left. *points to RS1 now->8 players online. I wonder how soon that will happen to RS2...

There's a new log in screen. Would this affect bots? No, the reason is that most botting scripts have to be 'setup' in game before they work. And for most of the average Joe botters out there, they don't have ways for the bots to start automatically. In other words, you can't bot the initiation of botting yet... >.<

It has now been HOURS since the initial update and the world population is only @ 140K. Any explanation of client not loading, servers not responding is gone at this point The same time yesterday the number was hovering around 210K. There you have it, really. 70,000 players LESS players wanted to play RS because there is a brand new quest to do? Makes perfect sense. This is probably the estimate we have to "what percentage of rs population online are bots." By now, some bots would've have resetted by now and are at it again. So at least 30%-40% sounds about right. What a game we have...

Ug. How the hell did they not catch that. I have no faith in either the content or the QA team when cabbage like this managed to slip through.

From some examples found across the interweb, the cost seems to be 3 months membership (so $18-22) across the board, but you cannot pay it using a credit card. The rollbacks done are not that harsh, harshest roll they do seem to be 99-92. The bank wipe isn't as good as I'd hoped either. There's this 1 bot on rsof actually complaining after buying account back that they left him with ONLY 300m cash and a blue phat. (here's this [wagon]... 74-75-653-62385338) Also, that this only applies to newly banned accounts is also false. I've seen much older accounts get unbanned now with the option. (shows how much you can trust a Jmod post these days, Thanks, Mod Poppy..) If you send it your old name (there is a even a thread now in account help) you'll likely get a reply email asking to pony up the money. And here's 1 last insult, the account they buy back gets all offences quashed and starts right again...in the green zone. "Just like you never cheated in the first place" I'm really sick of Jagex throwing more PR fluff at us that says nothing. They didn't even wa nt to tell us the reinstatement fee, which IMO is WAY TOO LOW. The people who actually deserve to get their account back (and reading through this thread I sympathasize with at least 1 such person) are willing to pay much higher. Having the fee so low really just encourages people to cheat more and does nothing to contr contribute to the PR goal of making cheaters pay for cheating enforcement.

I should have used a different title (too late to change it now). "Investing" is the way jagex's PR spin put the whole thing. Basically in financial terms, the Gowers had sold more of their share in the company (which was about 50% before and <50% now) to other people. Hence the new people who get to sit on the board of directors. I know very well that Jagex is not the homegrown company of the past, but it's not a global corporation either and when small companies get bought out, it changes its soul. And in the histories of many gaming studios being bought up, they literally just dissolves or get absorbed by whoever bought them.

I've always thought runescape had too much gambling in it, this extrends beyond staking and dm'ing, coming down to every drop you get, it's gambling. Taking free trade away helped to alleviate a lot of that. People tried to work hard for wealth instead of counting only on luck and gambling. There is a reason why irl there are minimum gambling ages (18-21 depending on your state/country) , to prevent things that happened to you. Now these days people are back to counting on only luck and begging again...

lol this is one day where RS made news twice.... Detroit — A Massachusetts man remains jailed today on charges he allegedly came to the city three times last year to have sex with a 13-year-old Detroit girl he wed in an online video game. John W. Phillips, 54, of Fitchburg, Mass., is charged with 11 felonies including sexual assault, using a computer to communicate with another person to commit a crime, accosting a child for immoral purposes and child sexually abusive activity. The maximum sentences for the charges range from four to 20 years in prison. Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon said Phillips met the girl while playing RuneScape online and that they chatted online through the game in 2010. He said Phillips unsuccessfully attempted mailing the girl a cellular telephone. So Phillips brought her the phone in person in February 2010 and had sex with the girl at an Eastpointe motel, Napoleon said. Phillips also is accused of having sex with the girl in his van and at her home. Napoleon said Phillips and the girl wed in the role-playing game, which allows players to assume identities and interact with other players, some of whom live in other countries. "They got married in the game," sheriff's corporal Ray Johnson said. "Maybe he thought that was legitimate in real life. It's not." An investigation was launched into the man after the girl's mother discovered her exchanging texts with someone using a cellular phone, Napoleon said. The girl wasn't supposed to have a phone. Phillips eluded capture while visiting with his father in upstate New York, Napoleon said. He also dyed his hair, grew out his beard or cut it to alter his appearance and keep police off guard, Napoleon said. "He didn't want to come back to Michigan and face charges," Napoleon said. Phillips was arrested in New York and fought extradition to Michigan. It took several law enforcement agencies working together to make the case he needed to face charges here, officials said. He was arraigned Jan. 13 and faces a pretrial hearing on Thursday in 36th District Court. The Wayne County Sheriff Office's Internet Crimes Unit sought out Phillips but it took help from the Michigan State Police, Wayne County prosecutors, U.S. Secret Service agents, federal prosecutors and police in Massachusetts and New York to nab Phillips, officials said. Phillips doesn't have a criminal record, and it appears his only source of income comes from selling "Magic: The Gathering" game cards. Johnson said the girl's mother worked two or three jobs and wasn't home for extended periods of time. Michigan State Police Lt. Tom Kish said predators are starting to move from chat rooms to video games that allow players to interact over the Internet and through text messaging. "It is easy for children to be contacted in nontraditional ways," Kish said. "Internet use has to be monitored." The alleged victim is undergoing counseling, Napoleon said. "This has been traumatic for her," he said. To set up Internet safety training, call Michigan State Police Lt. Tom Kish at (734) 525-4492. From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110208/METRO01/102080398/Man-accused-of-having-sex-with-Detroit-girl-he-wed-in-video-game#ixzz1DPUe7JAx more http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/02/08/boston_area_man_faces_charges_of_sex_with_girl_13/ http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/detroit/massachusetts-man-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-girl-he-met-on-online-game better link with picture