Bot detection methods

#1 - Nov. 10, 2013, 7:35 p.m.
Blizzard Post

A few days ago I had the unexpected “pleasure” of an instantaneous ban, right in the middle of a live play session. At first I couldn’t quite figure out what had happened until I tried to log-in again and read I had been banned for botting.

Now this has been remedied and that’s fine. But I must question the methods by which botters are detected.

For starters, I have two characters, a Thief and a Mesmer. None of the two are particularly good for botting to the point that it would barely make sense at all.

Then there’s the fact that I hadn’t participated in any notable PvE over the prior week. I might have followed a Champion train for 15 minutes at some point, or grinded some T6 mats, maybe done the odd temple event…but nothing that would ever lend itself to botting.

Hell, the day I was banned I had spent all my time either in sPvP and WvW, constantly killing people left and right. Don’t tell me bots have become so advanced.

My point being is that having a person simply look at my activity log for 10 seconds would have shown that I am not botting. It would have been immediately obvious, without a shadow of a doubt.

And I think if you’re going to be throwing out permanent account bans to individuals for no apparent reason you owe them as much as a quick look at their activity log. It would save you a hassle on both ends.

#4 - Nov. 11, 2013, 3:20 p.m.
Blizzard Post

These two forum members have shared some very wise answers. We simply cannot reveal what our bot detection methods are — even in cases of errors — because that is all that botters need to build ‘work-arounds’ to cheat. If we say “We use A, B, and C,” then those coding cheat programs will avoid A, B, and C, and come up with a whole new way to cheat, which in the end harms all players with game inflation and the devaluing of what you legitimately acquire.

We are sorry for false positives, and use them to try to amend our detection systems to avoid unintended and undeserved suspensions or account terminations.

#6 - Nov. 11, 2013, 3:40 p.m.
Blizzard Post

Gaile, about 3 days I got banned for being a GOLD seller, and was unbanned about 35 hours later, however, upon logging in, I received Heroic Chest via PM from Arena Net.
Is this intended or was it a system bug?

[ Thread https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/support/account/Personal-Experience-With-False-Accusations/first#post3180951 ]

I will respond in that thread.