And just to clear up one thing in case you're new to MMOs, bots infest all of them at every level. Granted, they're more or less obvious depending on which game you go to, but they exist even in free MMOs run from a server in some guy's basement.
As Maline said, the problem can only be truly crushed by players(don't bot, that's step 1). GMs do ban bots but it's basically impossible to snuff them out completely unless humanity evolves beyond the desire to use them.
should be not so hard to block some macros. If private servers can do it,why not the "big team". But i think they never think about this big issue,just to keep players on - adding new content and items. I never heard about an update of some new updates regarding security. NEVER! :confused:
Private servers do not block bots any better than the main game does. In a private server it's easy to hide out, the population never gets anywhere close to official (not that the servers could even handle it). You don't see farmers en masse as there's no profit to be had in private servers.
Why can't professionals ban 3rd party programs? They do, however the big bot programs are all about making money as well. They have programmers who are just as talented (if not more so) who exist only to further their bot program. If NC figures out a method to ban a big bot program, the developers have a workaround finished in less than a week. The unnamed infamous program has been blocked several times, yet it bounces back almost immediately.
It is 'not' easy to block macro programs, I can not stress that enough.
As for security updates, GG gets patched pretty often. It's in the patch notes every once in a while and it's likely in the unlisted patches we get from time to time. But as I said before it does nothing to deter a team of bot developers, at best it eliminates all the one shot non profit programs that some bored hacker decided to make. In addition to blocking several legitimate programs that haven't 'paid their protection money' so to speak (or simply those GG determines falsely as a threat; for such an intrusive program it doesn't discriminate very well).
If you see a bot once, report it. If you see that bot again. Train it and train it and traaaaaaaaaaaain iiiiiiiiiit.
ex:
Bot <insert name here>
Can be found in: Lionna's Heretic's Catacomb
Drops: mats, armor, seal stones. Be on the look out for Brig drops, steel, and cbp, as well as animal bone, and weapons. :)
Private servers can do it because the bots don't actively combat their fixes: They are not developed to work there. If someone put their mind on trying to get a bot to work on a pserver, it would.
Look at it like this: By the time a bot fix gets developed in Korea, it's already half outdated. By the time it's translated to here, all the botters already have the update that put it out of effect in Korea.