Neighbourhood Watch scheme- Weed out the bots!

[Jasquith]

Hi all, just some food for thought. Oh and apologies in advance if this idea has already been suggested, I've been out of the fourm loop for a while!

 

Anyway, the thought is along the lines of having an ability to send abuse reports that specifically concern bots. I know that in theory, we can already do this, but abuse reports really just tend to concern what people say, not what they do. The idea is basically that we, the playing community (e.g. not the disgusting bots!) could highlight certain players for jagex to monitor and ban if appropriate. Rather than being a general detection filter, it would be a specified approach and I'm sure that nearly every single member of the community would be more than happy to help by reporting suspected bots! Now I know that this could lead to innocent people being accused out of childish spite or whatever, so persistent abusers of the system would have to have the 'privelige of reporting bots' taken away from them.

 

I have no idea how technically feasible this system would be, anyone who knows more about it could possibly fill in the gaps, but it would ideally work alongside the existing abuse reports. The thought just occured to me that, while training away and you see the same old patterns from people who never say a word etc etc (we've all been there I'm sure), you could basically just send jagex a message saying, "Hey Jagex! Look over here! Blatant abuse by "totalnoob44"- sort it out!" Or whatever their name is. Incidentally, there probably is someone with that name, so my fullest apologies- I just plucked it out of thin air!

 

So- any thoughts?

 

PS- I'm keen for this thread NOT to digress on to whether or not Jagex would WANT to use this system to ban bots, nor whether they are or are not only interested in money etc. etc. There are plenty of those threads already in existence!

 

Jasquith

[Myu]

I see one huge problem. Manpower.

 

The huge amount of reports and the amount of monitoring it would take to differentiate between a true bot and a human means a lot of manpower is needed. Something that costs money, money that Jagex isn't willing to part with.

[sohkmj1]

I'm pretty sure you can report someone for botting...?

Also it's more fun to kill them.

[Staking_Ftw]

There will always be bots, Jagex has stated this. I really cant see the point of botting, sure you make money and gain skills, but whats the point of playing the game if your not actually playing it (botting). You can report bots and try to be a hero, but its not going to get you anywhere, whats to stop them from making another level 3 account and botting again.

[Hegelstad]

I smell one huge problem... Bots are a great part of Jagex's revenue, and as all companies, Jagex wants to earn money as well. It's just the way it works.

[VoidRealm]

There will always be bots, Jagex has stated this. I really cant see the point of botting, sure you make money and gain skills, but whats the point of playing the game if your not actually playing it (botting). You can report bots and try to be a hero, but its not going to get you anywhere, whats to stop them from making another level 3 account and botting again.

 

I agree, it would be great if you could wipe out bots, but it's practically not possible, they can easily make another account and start botting away again <_<

[shasta_sms]

I really don't see a difference from what you suggested to what Jagex already has in place.

 

When you report someone for macroing you send a flag to jagex to watch that account more closely for macroing and you are incorrect with regards to what a macro report captures, it captures no text. It as I've said sends Jagex a flag saying to watch them more closely.

[Staking_Ftw]

I really don't see a difference from what you suggested to what Jagex already has in place.

 

When you report someone for macroing you send a flag to jagex to watch that account more closely for macroing and you are incorrect with regards to what a macro report captures, it captures no text. It as I've said sends Jagex a flag saying to watch them more closely.

 

And it takes alot of resources to watch these accounts more closely, meaning its costing Jagex more money. Bots are a revenue for Jagex, as you may of seen most bots are members. Jagex knows that the return of wilderness and free trade would introduce more Bots into the game, but hey they focus on the players that play the game honestly. There is no stopping it, only reducing the problem. Bots are getting more advanced and undectable and there is no way Jagex can really combat it, without forking out a fist full of cash.

[shasta_sms]

 

And it takes alot of resources to watch these accounts more closely, meaning its costing Jagex more money. Bots are a revenue for Jagex, as you may of seen most bots are members. Jagex knows that the return of wilderness and free trade would introduce more Bots into the game, but hey they focus on the players that play the game honestly. There is no stopping it, only reducing the problem. Bots are getting more advanced and undectable and there is no way Jagex can really combat it, without forking out a fist full of cash.

 

If what you say is true then Jagex would never have removed the wild and free trade.

 

The "benefits" to Jagex via bots do not outweigh their damage to the company. Jagex stated that they had a large legal issue with people botting, to be precise people who botted buying membership on STOLEN credit cards.

 

Regardless, I highly doubt the vast majority of members Bot, so to say Jagex depends upon their existence is absurd.

[Staking_Ftw]

 

And it takes alot of resources to watch these accounts more closely, meaning its costing Jagex more money. Bots are a revenue for Jagex, as you may of seen most bots are members. Jagex knows that the return of wilderness and free trade would introduce more Bots into the game, but hey they focus on the players that play the game honestly. There is no stopping it, only reducing the problem. Bots are getting more advanced and undectable and there is no way Jagex can really combat it, without forking out a fist full of cash.

 

If what you say is true then Jagex would never have removed the wild and free trade.

 

The "benefits" to Jagex via bots do not outweigh their damage to the company. Jagex stated that they had a large legal issue with people botting, to be precise people who botted buying membership on STOLEN credit cards.

 

Regardless, I highly doubt the vast majority of members Bot, so to say Jagex depends upon their existence is absurd.

 

This thread is about preventing bots not why they should not be banned, please stay on topic.

 

I never said that Jagex depends upon their existence. Nor did I say that they should not be banned, get your facts straight befor quoting me. Jagex needed to re-introduce Free Trade and the Wilderness. If you search the internet you will find thousands apon thousands of private servers. Look how many people voted for the return and look how many people are currently online and one time. Jagex was losing money because of the removal- This is totally off topic. But its replying to your off topic post.

[ilovecuttingyews]

From what I understand, your idea is pretty close to what Jagex already does. As of now, reporting for macroing flags the account to the bot detection system. If the system detects botting, then the account goes to a J-Mod for a human input. The J-Mod makes the final decision.

 

Jagex's bot detection system works fine* as it is ONLY when players go out and report suspected bots. I don't know exactly how Jagex detects them, but I highly doubt they take a proactive approach and scan accounts that are online. That seems like it would take far too many resources. What Jagex really needs to do is remove the 1 report per minute restriction for the botting rule. That way the people who want to report bots have the means to do it in a reasonable amount of time. Seriously, just try going to the ess mines and try to report each bot, one per minute....good luck with that.

 

*I mean fine as in, getting the majority of offenders with low numbers of false positives. There is ALWAYS room for improvement even before being 'good' let alone 'great'.

[Staking_Ftw]

Dose Jagex have a system that can tell if an account has been logged in for X amount of hours, for instance if an account has been on for 60 hours flat, is it not surely a Bot? Or just an ice addict.

[langer]

No account can be logged for more than 6 straight hours.

[Naraku893]

silly botters, l2play

[Staking_Ftw]

No account can be logged for more than 6 straight hours.

Are you sure? pretty sure I'v done 6 straight hours tonight lol, or when I do pest control.

[ilovecuttingyews]

No account can be logged for more than 6 straight hours.

Are you sure? pretty sure I'v done 6 straight hours tonight lol, or when I do pest control.

The game kicks you after 6 hours of not logging out at all. All you have to do is log out then in and it resets.

[Dormado]

Jagex benefits from the bots, so they will stay. If they wanted to take the bots out it would take a ridiculously low amount of funds to hire minimum manpower to hop worlds in botting places and ban them, it's also ridiculously easy to spot bots, moving in set patters, reacting instantly for hours straight.

[n64jive]

I'm pretty sure I remembered seeing an interview with Andrew and some other mods stating that it's unfortunate that they have to put so much effort into combat botting. Obviously, Jagex doesn't like bots as overall it's bad business for them. Even generated revenue from botters doesn't really cover the potential loss from people fed up with dealing with them.

 

That said, I think Jagex has slowed down on the banning of bots, as they seem more prevalent. For instance, I was playing with a kid who was obviously botting the other day, however he must have been watching it. Anyway, that kid is still on my friends list. Also you can usually tell ppl are botting when their xp gain is pretty constant on rune tracker, which this kids was (this doesn't always work, as some bots don't level any skills).

 

I'm under the impression that Jagex is letting bots get away with more for now, only to lead up to a mass ban. If the botters get attached to their accounts and then all of a sudden everything is removed from them, I think they are less likely to come back to the game. I also believe this may be why Jagex implemented the ability to buy back banned accounts, because if the person is attached to the account, they will likely be more willing to buy it back (however I'm sure they will reset the stats and bank, which is likely what the person is more attached to.

[gspbeetle]

If what you say is true then Jagex would never have removed the wild and free trade.

 

The "benefits" to Jagex via bots do not outweigh their damage to the company. Jagex stated that they had a large legal issue with people botting, to be precise people who botted buying membership on STOLEN credit cards.

 

Regardless, I highly doubt the vast majority of members Bot, so to say Jagex depends upon their existence is absurd.

 

If I am a thug, I would use the stolen card on physical items and resell those goods later. Stolen card has a very short lifespan and goes invalid as soon as its original owner discover he lost it/ somebody else is using it.

 

Anyways, is reporting bots more effective on f2p than on p2p, since those bots doesnt pay jagex $5?

[dargonhuman]

I think the motivation for most botters is real world trading, and that's likely (just my opinion, of course!) where most botters come from.

That said, my play style could be misconstrued as botting; I keep my chat filters to Off at all times, and I often move in the same pattern when training certain skills like Mining, Smithing or Crafting. I'm certain that my profile has been reported and flagged many, many times because of this, but seeing as my ADD keeps me from training any one skill for longer than an hour or two straight, I don't ever hear anything from Jagex about it.

That said, it's not always as clear who's botting and who's not from a player's standpoint, as it takes more than someone not talking and doing the same thing over and over to be a bot.

[swagcake]

simple bot solution: captchas at random events

[glasscube]

simple bot solution: captchas at random events

That will only piss off legits.

[FallonDawn]

First off, I have a thread going in the RS forum under Constructive Criticism. An open letter to Jagex concerning botting, and a discussion for a petition for steps against botters; The QFC is 74-75-504-62456199. I would greatly appreciate if there could be outside support from some of you.

 

Even if there is a 6 hour limit for playing, the bots simply log back in and continue on. I found this out only this morning into Taverely to find the same "players" there as the night before when I gave up trying to kill Chaos Mages.

 

I understand that fighting against botters is a battle that is uphill, but I seriously think that if certain steps were taken, it would be possible to make it difficult to PROFIT from Botting. That is the distinction. If botting was unprofitable, then the only incentive is gaining levels in skills. If you junction that change with an increased level of punishment, then a player who is considering botting will do so at grave risk.