I'm attempting to be as level minded about this as possible and I encourage everyone else who replies to do so with the same intent. I hope people can remain mature and on topic when offering their opinions to this post.
Varka Silenos Village... This has and probably always will be a big bot spot because of the quest and the prospect of earning a ton of cash via the recipe's and what not... However, there has been several groups botting right around the village that I took the time to press the bot button on quite a few times.
I had exp'd there for a few weeks and I returned tonight, approximately 3 weeks from my last visit, to find the SAME groups botting there even after I had reported them multiple times.
Ok, fine. GM's are busy, right? I don't expect anyone to fire off any rockets to fly over and take care of someone just because I pressed a little button... but 3 weeks? Ok, lets bring this to the attention of the GM's directly.
/petition
My first petition was replied to with perhaps THE most frustrating response a customer service agent in any game, industry or company can possible give a customer... "Sorry you didn't supply us with a list of names, please re-petition" and then the petition was closed. Like a door slammed in my face. Ok, fine... lets repetition again since I'm paying $15 to do the GM's job since it would have been too hard for them to just port over to me and see with their own eyes...
UHM! So I clearly told them that it was too much to type into a single petition since it's like... 4 full parties. And they slam the door in my face AGAIN and tell me to supply them with names AGAIN after I clearly said in that response that I had already petitioned about this matter. So here I am trying to help and being closed out by "professional" customer service staffers... Let me quote from the interview with HGM =Spam= :
7. Are there possibilities for legit players to help a GM? For example to travel to the places where you find the most bots and make a weekly report?!
Players should not have to do that. You should be able to play the game and have fun. Here is my advice for helping a GM. GMs are people too. Treat them with the same respect you want them to treat you with. If you feel that GM did not understand your issue just restate the issue a different way. They really do want to help you. The GMs already know that some people cheat. If you need to report someone that is hurting your enjoyment of the game, simply give their name and what they are doing wrong. Usually the long stories about clan politics or telling the GM why they suck does not help.
I spent a total of almost 30 minutes waiting for the GM's to even open the petition only to have the door slammed in my face twice. Spam says "If you feel that GM did not understand your issue just restate the issue a different way;" however, how can you restate something if they never even answer the petition? We're supposed to petition 5 or 6 times and wait maybe 2 hours in order to get our point across instead of them just ANSWERING the petition and taking the extra 2 minutes to actually speak to us?
"GMs are people too. Treat them with the same respect you want them to treat you with." - I'd love to if I ever have the chance to actually SPEAK to one!
You want to know WHY people get frustrated with the L2 Community team? *points to this thread* Here's a good place to start.
I have long thought the "limited text, petition" approach was not well thought out for bot reporting. So when a 'button' was suggested I had a bit of hope........
I think most of us get frustrated when we try to petition--because the process takes a long time.
Probably not a lot of argument there.
Does the button actually work? I have no idea. It would be better than the petition system if it did work.
Now onto another topic. Player expectation of GM response. In my opinion player expectation of what will happen is often (not always) completely unrealistic.
Many players run into a spot they want, RIGHT THEN, and see the soulless. They think, if I can get them IMMEDIATELY removed, that would be good!
Yeah-it would be good. But it's not likely to happen in the system NCSoft has in place right now.
Think about it for a second if you're one who wants the bots to disappear in like 10 seconds after you petition. Your petition is not usually the first one a GM has. Then even if it is, I'm sure they have a # of steps to go through to prove those toons are bots. The GM's don't port in and take a look and hit a button. I know many players want them to but that is not generally how it works.
Yeah, yeah--we've all petitioned bots and come back the next day and the same ones are still there. Yup. And that does stink.
Still, thinking that hordes of GM's are sitting around waiting to eliminate the bots YOU want removed "right this second" is a good way to give yourself a stroke. Cause it ain't gonna happen like that.
You run into your desired spot and it's filled with soulless, you can try to kill them or you can move on. Sure you should report them. But expecting that they'll go *poof* and disappear in the next 5 minutes just so you can do what you want is kinda silly.
That same GM is ALSO trying to figure out other players complaints of lost gear--player questions sent to them--trying to prove the LAST bots reported were bots. They aren't running around in game goofing off most of the time.
Anyway--I agree with your post. And heaven knows I am no fan of NCsoft's supposed "customer service". I personally think their customer service is the poorest in the industry.
All that being said, sometimes we just unrealistically want what WE want RIGHT NOW--and in those cases it is our EXPECTATION that is part of the problem too.
I do understand what you mean -- the American way. "I want it 5 minutes ago!" but that really wasn't my issue. If you noticed I put that I initially reported them 3 weeks ago. And I am actually employed by another company in the gaming industry and if I *ever* just closed a request for help without saying any thing of substance I'd be fired on the spot.
I do realize that the bot button isn't a quick fix, but 3 weeks is more then ample time to handle the issue. And my biggest complaint in the back-and-forth with that GM is that I WAS willing to do as they asked, I just wanted them to answer the petition so I could type in the lists instead of petition 5 times. They just refused to open the petition and have an actual human-to-human conversation.
I accidentally hit the bot button on my box once while trying to select another icon and I got worried that something would actually happen, as I had just returned to the game after a several month break, and had just discovered the bot report button on accident. Guess what happened to my buffer? Nothing. This was over a month ago, however. Maybe they are still gathering evidence for a solid ban case? :p
I haven't spoken to a live GM since C1 and I know we all pay to play the game, but during all my experiences with ncsoft support all I have come to expect for my $15 a month is that the servers be online whenever I log in to play. And in that regard, I have never been disappointed. In everything else, its a freaking disaster. If the product they "sold" weren't addictive, they would have gone out of business years ago.
Its like expecting good service from your drug dealer. He could care less about you, and he knows you'll be back because you need your fix! :p That is how L2 is, and they know it. They rely on the community to spread the word and get new players in the game, because if they can find a few more junkies, they can keep the ship from sinking another day.
I do not even waste my time reporting them any more, for over 2 weeks i reported 2 multi char bot trains running 24/7 in woa on the bandersnitches, multiple reports mind you not only bot button but also petition, think anything happened, NO. I still see those chars ingame but now they are severial lvls higher. While i regretably am still the same lvl, this game has turned into a bot feast, want to get end game lvl BOT, end of story, we all see it, everyday.
There is only ONE thing you can do to get your point across, YOU are a paying customer, if you go to a resturant and order your food a certain way, it comes back another, do u say nothing eat it pay and leave, OR do u send it back for another prepared the way YOU as a customer ordered and then demand a discount.
See thats the problem you would never be able to get enough customers, (players) to just stop paying for a mth and say do something or loose my $15 a mth. NCsoft is a company they operate on your mthly payments, withdrawl those payments and no income, no ncsoft.
So if you want to get your point across, it would have to be a boycott of mthly dues, and sad to say it, the players, will never band together to do that.
I expect this thread to be closed soon as ncsoft does not like the truth to be expressed in the forums.
Heh I actually laugh at myself sometimes thinking that they did something.
I know they ban bots I can tell you that, but sadly they get ónly the stupid once.
Anyone know how it whent i Korea when they added the new report button that came in Final?
the new bot button does stuff like lower stats and flag players
spam assures us that if we are a legit player we don't have to fear the bot button but it makes you wonder if the button is only gonna screw over bots why don't they just insta-ban them?
The button works. But more of the background without we notice. As we report one player as a bot, we send a mark to a database were all reports from every server get stored. After that, maybe if x reports were going in, it will be checked by a GM a action will be done. I am sure that =Spam= is taking care with that. As far as i know, they already took care about some ebayers as well which is pretty nice. Sure, we cant expect that they ban all and everybody reported, since it cant be always been proven nor I think we ever have a bot free game BUT its already a big help since many bots already got banned.
the new bot button does stuff like lower stats and flag players
spam assures us that if we are a legit player we don't have to fear the bot button but it makes you wonder if the button is only gonna screw over bots why don't they just insta-ban them?
someone's gotta pay their salaries?
TBH I don't buy the explanation for the bot button. It just makes no sense at all. If it can identify a bot, then what's the point of it? If it can't, whats the point of it?
in short: What's the point of it?
Well, there always will be bots..maybe less than before but some will always remain. Its better than nothing. I notice already much less bot activity. Also not only bots get banned, adena buyers also which is very good indeed!
I dont really understand how can people still believe that ncsoft still does something about them or bot population is decreasing or something, I am playing on offical for few months now and I am sicked of the situation with bots in catacombs.
I just cant find a place to exp there, from the lowest catas till martyrs now, I spent more time searching a bot free room then actually exping and when it comes to exp I am sick of the bot party constantly entering the only place I thought is free. Today my duo group with a friend lasted about 30 mins then we both were fed up and just quit. And this is on phoenix which is considered the server with less bots around
Bot report button? I dont know what for it exists, I have been reporting the same bots in sacrifice over a month, on diff alts I was lvling but they were still there. This is not that we want it to be done 5 mins ago, but WE and personally I would like to see some actions against them, bot report button gives some fake hope to people and nothign else
I spent years playing on privates, we were often arguing with a friend and his argument was that on official ncsoft actually provides services to people who pay to play, what I see is that the service is same privates provide, they are totally inexistent.
Either its 'community coordinator' or in game gms. Official boards tend to be more like blah boards with insults, mocking and mindless spam. I still dont understand why do people bother to suggest something in the game suggestions, the only reason I see is to increase the post count since from what I see only players read them.
They dont have time or they are not paid enough to fight bots is the worse excuse I could hear around
last week a guy in town made this comment to another player "you should go buy adena if thats the best armor you can afford, it's only cheap and everyone does it and when you get a chance you should invest in a (bot program name) time card"
i petitioned it under chat violation and got the usual "if we can prove the person is using a third party program blah blah blah"
all kinds of fail right there
also when the bot button was introduced i swear it worked. i was in lowbie catacombs and every single train i reported was gone a week later and the names i still have on record are still not in game O.o
They asked for a list of names, and shut the petition.
Try doing screens or frapsing with all the names in the each catas and I bet nothing still will be done, there are many pvp vids from diff servers on which you see on the background bot trains running in varkas/hs and other places, still nothing
And last it is a game we pay for and we want to have fun, so if i spent a week lvling in loa and want to change the place and go to catas I have to spend 1 hour searching for a free room, hours reporting all the bots there in huge bot trains which consist over 9 toons and 30 mins to wait and have a gm to reject my petition.
All that just because I want to help a gm who is too busy, with hell knows what and all the work I will do for him still will be a waste
Actually the most disappointing is some people are so used to this issue that they dont see it as a problem anymore
The bot report button leads directly to an automated trash can, same as in game petition always did. If you're desperate to remove a bot group, take a SS and submit a ticket at plaync.com. They won't like it but at least they will take action. Make them work for their pay.
I'm glad most of you have given relevant input to this matter and not just randomly flamed.
I do want to point out that my complaint I feel was less about the bots, and more about the reaction of the employee's. I felt above all the other issue's highlighted in my original post, the worse was the unprofessional method of handling complaints/petitions. Also the fact that they introduce a "Bot Report" button and complaints filed via the button are ignored for weeks.
Like I said, pressing the bot button shouldn't fire off a rocket some where for a person to zip right over and investigate immediately. But 3 weeks in my case, and as someone else posted a month in theirs, is MORE than ample time to investigate the issue.
Imagine if you opened a support ticket on PlayNC and it took them a month to reply... who would use/trust it? Imagine if you opened a support ticket, and they shut it right away because you didn't supply enough information and you had to keep re-opening them, who would think the Customer Service Agents (GM's) even give a hoot and just give up?
I don't expect any official response on these boards; in fact, even though this conversation has been civil and is a true problem I'm sure the thread will be closed eventually. I'm glad though, because I'm not the only one who's experienced these problems.
last week a guy in town made this comment to another player "you should go buy adena if thats the best armor you can afford, it's only cheap and everyone does it and when you get a chance you should invest in a (bot program name) time card"
i petitioned it under chat violation and got the usual "if we can prove the person is using a third party program blah blah blah"
all kinds of fail right there
also when the bot button was introduced i swear it worked. i was in lowbie catacombs and every single train i reported was gone a week later and the names i still have on record are still not in game O.o
Yep... I reported a few high level bots (leevl 79+ toons) on Devianne after the bot button was added and theyg ot banned fast. I dunno what happened since then. Some XP Spots are just OFF LIMITS to Legit players, cause one bot comes there after another one leaves.
I have seen bots work an area, only to be replaced with another group of bots, like they were working in shifts. I noticed this really started with the introduction of vitality. The areas I have seen this most prevalent, is in Varkas and sometimes in the Catacombs.
As to the bot button, it probably should be called the ignore button. I have reported the same bots day after day for weeks. What is most annoying, is that they are in areas close to the teleport or in front rooms of catas. It is as if they know they can't/won't be banned. Hot Springs and Varkas are the worse for this.
I wish that NC would be a little honest with us and tell us that they either approve or show a blind eye to certain botting. Or be honest that they don't have the people or the resources to deal with it. What were all the benefits of NC West suppose to be?
It is their failure in dealing with cheaters that makes trying out games like Aion or any other NC product unlikely for me. The plus side of Aion may be that most of the botters/ebayers will transfer their resources to Aion, making things a little better here :P
I have seen bots work an area, only to be replaced with another group of bots, like they were working in shifts. I noticed this really started with the introduction of vitality. The areas I have seen this most prevalent, is in Varkas and sometimes in the Catacombs.
As to the bot button, it probably should be called the ignore button. I have reported the same bots day after day for weeks. What is most annoying, is that they are in areas close to the teleport or in front rooms of catas. It is as if they know they can't/won't be banned. Hot Springs and Varkas are the worse for this.
I wish that NC would be a little honest with us and tell us that they either approve or show a blind eye to certain botting. Or be honest that they don't have the people or the resources to deal with it. What were all the benefits of NC West suppose to be?
It is their failure in dealing with cheaters that makes trying out games like Aion or any other NC product unlikely for me. The plus side of Aion may be that most of the botters/ebayers will transfer their resources to Aion, making things a little better here :P
So much for the quick reply :P
I heard they had to do a ban spree in Aion because there was so much rampant botting in that game. I heard they had to ban tens of thousands of accounts in that spree.
People will only transfer a majority of their resources to Aion if there is a huge drop off of L2 players who go to Aion and bring their Adena/Item buying habits with them. The minute players quit L2, they will cash their item out leading to a rush of ebayers ordering adena to get cheap epics/gears... That will make the farmers work overtime, making the risk of botting more and more toons in the same area worth it; becasue of the increased income.
It will cause more grief for players. Back when WAR (and for a couple of months afterwards) was released there was similar grief. A lot of players complaining, and that's when NCSoft started logging in and announcing bans in system messages.
NCSoft does needs to crack down a little. Don't really care for full fledged wipes of botters (since they prolly have not the resources to do that), but cleaning out the obvious places (Ketra, WoA, Varka, Hot Springs, VoS, MoS, Pagans) would be much appreciated. That includes people leveling with buffers on automation programs.
I can't think of many people that actually like bots, and who can blame them. Bots occupy the physical space in game, inhibiting an actual player's ability to gain experience or gather materials or adena, or in some cases, complete important quests.
But, there is always a silver lining to a dark cloud. I do NOT envy the GMs or the Dev teams their hard-thought decisons.
For every bot that occupies a place you want to hunt, there is another bot that soaks up his/her mats and sells them in Giran or Aden. Becouse Bots are online 24 hours a day, for weeks, sometimes months at a time, they acquire many more full item drops than we players do. Thus granting players access to said items (for a price).
Now imagine a Lineage II where there were no bots. Imagine a Giran where at any given time you had 30-40 people in AFK shop at a time... not the 300-400 we have now. Prices would be outrageous, and becouse of those prices, it would generate a desparity between the players by level... the wealthy would grow more wealthy and buy new things, and the normal (poor) players would be unable ot progress as they are able to now.
Now I personally wouldn't be bothered by having to craft all my items, or hunt for all my mats, or even make my own shots by leveling a dwarf. But the horrid truth is that 90% of the players don't want to do that much "work" to look and feel uber... they just want to swipe a credit card, or click a button and be uber "5 minutes ago".
Becouse of that, bot companies know there is a demand for what they do... and no matter how much the few legit players rail against the system in place... our numbers are simply too few to generate the needed change.
My heart goes out to the Dev teams... and to the legit players... becouse if I had been the one that conceived this game... or been part of the team that brought it to life... and I had to look at this game and see what the players have done to it... I would be heartbroken that people could be so cruel and lazy that they would spit in the face of the people that worked so hard to make it.
You want change... make it... stop complaining about people trying to pressure you into buying adena or some program... and start trying to pressure them into stopping... let them know that its not cool to cheat and its not okay to buy adena. Stop partying with people who that have ill gotten gains and they'll stop playing te game becouse they can't feel uber like they want if no one plays with them.
The ONLY way change is going to happen on Lineage II, and I honestly beleive it can, is if people stopp complaining about the other side not doing its part and focuses more on doing their part...
Prices would be outrageous, and becouse of those prices, it would generate a desparity between the players by level... the wealthy would grow more wealthy and buy new things, and the normal (poor) players would be unable ot progress as they are able to now.
If prices raised, everybody would level their BH and use manor. So in the end if things were too expensive, they just wouldn't sell and prices would stabilize.
The transition between bots and no bot would make the price jump because of players habits to buy a lot of mats and craft to sell. But soon you'll understand you can't sell many crafted items, so you would focus mostly on what you and your clan need. So you wouldn't need as many mats and demand would fall.
Of course it's only an assumption. Also it would make the problems more obvious for all: drop rates are very low for legit players. Bots are hiding the problem, thus hurting the players.
I was informed that the report bot button records the report in a database which is examine for frequecy of reports on individual chars. In other words gm's can look at the db sorted by the most reports perform and examination of the char in question and choose to ban.
Then I personally believe that some farmer bots are allowed to regulate the economy:rolleyes: or who knows maybe someone is getting paid off somewhere from all the money thats being made from all those chars that went from 0 to S80 in 6 months. Dont report them just kill them!
I had some farmer bots in FP about 6 mo. ago that I would kill get the pk and seriously watch them respawn like a mob. Hmmm sound like bs it really happen I still have 14 pks just from that one cause i could believe it was happening.
I can't think of many people that actually like bots, and who can blame them. Bots occupy the physical space in game, inhibiting an actual player's ability to gain experience or gather materials or adena, or in some cases, complete important quests.
But, there is always a silver lining to a dark cloud. I do NOT envy the GMs or the Dev teams their hard-thought decisons.
For every bot that occupies a place you want to hunt, there is another bot that soaks up his/her mats and sells them in Giran or Aden. Becouse Bots are online 24 hours a day, for weeks, sometimes months at a time, they acquire many more full item drops than we players do. Thus granting players access to said items (for a price).
Now imagine a Lineage II where there were no bots. Imagine a Giran where at any given time you had 30-40 people in AFK shop at a time... not the 300-400 we have now. Prices would be outrageous, and becouse of those prices, it would generate a desparity between the players by level... the wealthy would grow more wealthy and buy new things, and the normal (poor) players would be unable ot progress as they are able to now.
Now I personally wouldn't be bothered by having to craft all my items, or hunt for all my mats, or even make my own shots by leveling a dwarf. But the horrid truth is that 90% of the players don't want to do that much "work" to look and feel uber... they just want to swipe a credit card, or click a button and be uber "5 minutes ago".
Becouse of that, bot companies know there is a demand for what they do... and no matter how much the few legit players rail against the system in place... our numbers are simply too few to generate the needed change.
My heart goes out to the Dev teams... and to the legit players... becouse if I had been the one that conceived this game... or been part of the team that brought it to life... and I had to look at this game and see what the players have done to it... I would be heartbroken that people could be so cruel and lazy that they would spit in the face of the people that worked so hard to make it.
You want change... make it... stop complaining about people trying to pressure you into buying adena or some program... and start trying to pressure them into stopping... let them know that its not cool to cheat and its not okay to buy adena. Stop partying with people who that have ill gotten gains and they'll stop playing te game becouse they can't feel uber like they want if no one plays with them.
The ONLY way change is going to happen on Lineage II, and I honestly beleive it can, is if people stopp complaining about the other side not doing its part and focuses more on doing their part...
Hi Grim,
Thanks for your well thought out response. I appreciate your feedback as well. It's obvious you've experienced the games frustrations as have many of us by the message you wrote.
I do just want to remind everyone that my initial purpose for this thread was less about the bot's, and more about the inadequacies, and for lack of a better word - incompetent responses of the Lineage 2 Community and Customer Service Representatives.
As I said the sad part is that people are so used to a situation it looks normal to them and actually bots and adena selling sites are doing good for l2 coz there are many shops with mats and what else Grimaldus mentioned
But Id like to remind him we are the customers of ncsoft and since when and why we should start encouraging others to stop using 3rd part software or the selling sites and not they? What they do after all with the biggest problem in l2 - nothing
If all what Grimaldus described was not done by bots it would be done by real players and not programs, then some people would still play ws, bh, buffers as mains and not have them on walkers or on 'nostromo'.
One thing to consider for Grimaldus, bots are nto really 'improving' the economy or the progress with cheap mats, parts or whatever else he wrote. The more bots on server the cheaper adena is, the higher the price of items in game on server. Just think about it a bit and compare the prices on teon/franz with prices on phoenix or some other server with less bots
I would not care about them at all, but the thing that really annoys me is that they are limiting the exp places for me and for others who are trying to play this game legit, no matter where I go they are there next to me taking over the place I came to grind that makes me leave.
The only solution I see so far is the legit players, to leave l2 and make an ultimatum to ncsoft you either get rid of them or I am gone forever, which wont ever happen coz legit are so few they wont even notice the difference and we like this **** scrwed game
I think there are bots on HB in most servers by now. Certainly Sayha has quite a few, Aria has always had them, I've seen a couple groups trying on Phoenix. I'd imagine every server has a couple groups farming marks of betrayal in the desert with dance of shadow.
Back to the topic: I can't believe you're surprised with that kind of support at this point. Sure, it's terrible, but it's what we've had for years, not since c1 or so have GM's actually been around and helping players on a regular basis. GM's are expensive, the playerbase just isn't large enough to support more than a couple on at a time spread over all the servers and they get a ton of petitions.
Actually it's a misconception that level 1 support is expensive. GM's usually make around 12.50/hr or less and often times a company will use contractors to lower the cost. (Contractors = no benefits)
I'm not sure how NC-NA does their support but I guarantee they aren't struggling for money in their support department. And if they are it seems like there are misappropriated funds...
Also, I realize it's hard, but I too started at the bottom and worked my way up... I don't know how their in game support system works in L2 but where I am from when I was answering "petitions" (not what we called them) I was able to open multiple help calls at once and talk to multiple people at the same time... There really is no reason for lack of support in a world this size.
I figured they were making about $15, so not too far off. Still though, the actual cost to NC is probably 50% higher than that, more if they give benefits. So maybe it takes 1k monthly subscriptions to cover 24/7 service with 1 GM on at all times.
I'm not sure exactly what the NA playerbase looks like anymore, certainly it's under 100k right? Getting even 1 GM per server would take a significant chunk of their relatively small revenue at the moment. Do you have numbers for % of revenue spent on level 1 support for other mmo's? Or online players/GM numbers? It seems like you work in the field, so if you have access to those numbers it would be interesting to see how L2 compares here.
The way the whole game was designed, makes bots very useful and very successful.
In a game where money and levels take forever to make, bots will prosper.
Without the bots and the adena sellers, the game will most likely go bankrupt. Too many players will quit if they will be deprived of their source of adena and NCS doesnt want that.
It is a very badly designed game, it seems like it was made with bots in mind.
It is likely they realised this sad fact so they gave up on bot-banning shortly after implementing the system.
We can fuss and whine in the forums, nothing will change. IMHO its too few "honest" players to actually make a difference. Even if we all united and cancelled our subs, it wont make a difference to NCS, we are too few.
As I said the sad part is that people are so used to a situation it looks normal to them and actually bots and adena selling sites are doing good for l2 coz there are many shops with mats and what else Grimaldus mentioned
But Id like to remind him we are the customers of ncsoft and since when and why we should start encouraging others to stop using 3rd part software or the selling sites and not they? What they do after all with the biggest problem in l2 - nothing
If all what Grimaldus described was not done by bots it would be done by real players and not programs, then some people would still play ws, bh, buffers as mains and not have them on walkers or on 'nostromo'.
One thing to consider for Grimaldus, bots are nto really 'improving' the economy or the progress with cheap mats, parts or whatever else he wrote. The more bots on server the cheaper adena is, the higher the price of items in game on server. Just think about it a bit and compare the prices on teon/franz with prices on phoenix or some other server with less bots
I would not care about them at all, but the thing that really annoys me is that they are limiting the exp places for me and for others who are trying to play this game legit, no matter where I go they are there next to me taking over the place I came to grind that makes me leave.
The only solution I see so far is the legit players, to leave l2 and make an ultimatum to ncsoft you either get rid of them or I am gone forever, which wont ever happen coz legit are so few they wont even notice the difference and we like this **** scrwed game
Sorry for the confusion in my post... I did not mean to imply that Bots, or players using 3rd party software are in any way helping the economy. Its obvious to me that they have offer a short term gain to people willing to spend RL cureceny on IP (Intellectual Property), at the added expense of long term economic collateral damage.
They are like a band-aid... they cover up the wound but don't actually heal it, and when you pull it off... it stings. But then the healing begins.
What I DID mean to say was that, becouse most people actually want the short term gain, regardless of the cost to them IRL... they swipe a credit card, or run a 3rd party program, and the consequences be ****ed. And when I say "most people" that means the majority, and that means the largest numberof "Players". So the real culprit is us.. the players... if the people that can't get to "end-game" without spending RL curency, or running illegal software could have a revelation, the game would be much better for it, but its unlikely, and we (the morally abject to "cheating") have two simple options. But that was covered in my last post.
As an answer to an earlier statement by Grimaldus...
I'll tell you one thing...."ppl who love bots">>>"ppl who don't love bots (us)"
Where do I get that from?Check how many ppl are legit and then check how many use the bot program on regular basis,in big alliances or in money making alts...
We lose big time....it's easier for NC Sucks to not give a dam about our minority than ban the majority of their income.
As an answer to an earlier statement by Grimaldus...
I'll tell you one thing...."ppl who love bots">>>"ppl who don't love bots (us)"
Where do I get that from?Check how many ppl are legit and then check how many use the bot program on regular basis,in big alliances or in money making alts...
We lose big time....it's easier for NC Sucks to not give a dam about our minority than ban the majority of their income.
What's to be constructive Grim on a subject like that?
What I stated is plain truth...if u don't see it not my fault...
NOTHING will be done but the rare ban sprees just to prove they are there and give us a taste of honey to keep us in game...
The way the whole game was designed, makes bots very useful and very successful.
In a game where money and levels take forever to make, bots will prosper.
Without the bots and the adena sellers, the game will most likely go bankrupt. Too many players will quit if they will be deprived of their source of adena and NCS doesnt want that.
It is a very badly designed game, it seems like it was made with bots in mind.
It is likely they realised this sad fact so they gave up on bot-banning shortly after implementing the system.
We can fuss and whine in the forums, nothing will change. IMHO its too few "honest" players to actually make a difference. Even if we all united and cancelled our subs, it wont make a difference to NCS, we are too few.
Then I guess this game isn't for you it seems.
I started to play L2 just because the grind is hard (takes long to lvl), hard to get adena, hard to get items and the details they have put in the graphics on some mobs/places.
If you don't like the grind then don't play L2 or play, but stay legit. No one forces you to play.
If you don't have adena then stop the grind for few days and play the marked, but don't take the easy way out and use your CC.
L2 is perfectly designed...it's the lazy players that only wants top lvl and top gear instantly that ruins it.
But if you blame the long grind and hard to get adena the reason players bot then think again. There are many MMO's out there that are easy to get up in lvl, easy to get equipment, easy to get money and etc etc that has even more bots than L2.
Look at Last Chaos or 12Sky for example, the 1st thing you get when entering the game are gold sellers that spam the shout with 10 messeges per second making it imposible to comunicate in towns with other players, exp spots are also overrun by bots.
Or PerfectWorld. **** good graphics, but that doesn't help when almost everywhere you look there is a bot and the grind in that game is easy as hell.
To all unbelievers.. I know a place where they cry a lot about bans.. and they've been crying a bit. =spam= knows it as well and he probably already saw the posts I'm talking about.
Just on Thursday/Friday I saw people post there about bans.. something between 35-40 high lvl bot accounts. Some of them even had epics. ^^
To all unbelievers.. I know a place where they cry a lot about bans.. and they've been crying a bit. =spam= knows it as well and he probably already saw the posts I'm talking about.
Just on Thursday/Friday I saw people post there about bans.. something between 35-40 high lvl bot accounts. Some of them even had epics. ^^
Yap true. Already heard about it too and it makes be happy! ^^,
To all unbelievers.. I know a place where they cry a lot about bans.. and they've been crying a bit. =spam= knows it as well and he probably already saw the posts I'm talking about.
Just on Thursday/Friday I saw people post there about bans.. something between 35-40 high lvl bot accounts. Some of them even had epics. ^^
I went there to read it and LOL at the children crying there.
QQ I botted and got banned...GM's don't do theyr job...QQ...I want my account back QQ
I find it funny when people mention playing the market as a means to stay legit. Playing the market is only possible because so many players bots and ebays and dont bother checking prices. They're willing to pay high prices and flood the market with adena and easy business opportunities.
The more people that stay legit and the more that play the market the lower the profit margins become. If the majority stayed legal the market profits would be so low that it wouldn't be worth it for all but a few people.
So lets be honest, if you're mainly making money by playing the market you're living of the bots/ebayers same as everyone else. I play the market too but I don't pretend that it would work as a solution for everyone to stay legit in this game.
If bots would not exist the prices would be low and real people would play and do the work they do. Playing market cant be an argument since the whole economy could change without those programs and you would still play the market but with real players. You need to pay around 1.5 bils for zaken, 'cause bots raid it, without it you would raid it and sell it in normal prices, without thinking about your real life currency - making profit from a game.
Now people are forced to interact with bots at least those who trying to stay yes legit
But hell, since so many are satisfied with the current situation why bother. Why to get this game to decent game play when 9 bot accounts + oop buffers pay way more than 1 fair account who cant find a place to grind
Personally I would pay more for a game, if that would be enough to pay that gm who would actually deal with this issue and I believe many would do the same
Then I guess this game isn't for you it seems.
It was my first MMO, that is why i get into nostalgia mode and sub for a month here and there just to wander around a bit. Yes you are correct, games like this are not for me, there is just grinding, misery, and too little reward. I love the environments though, and the atmosphere, very nice. I dont like the botting, the prices, the PKing griefers, the excessive grind, the lack of items in game, how most players trying to rip each other off...typical korean mmo stuff.
If you don't like the grind then don't play L2 or play, but stay legit. No one forces you to play.
If you don't have adena then stop the grind for few days and play the marked, but don't take the easy way out and use your CC.
Did you really read my post?
Nobody forces me to play and thats why i DONT play except for a month here and there when i re-sub.
Play the market? you mean like selling and buying stuff to make money? You call this playing? LOL!!! Sit there for hours/days unable to play but logged in, just to sell some stuff?
The trading in this game is dated and downright pathetic.
L2 is perfectly designed...it's the lazy players that only wants top lvl and top gear instantly that ruins it.
Yeah tell me the trading in this game is perfectly designed, no game is perfectly designed.
I agree about the lazy players but there's nothing to be done about lazy players in any game. As long as there will be lazy players there will be bots. The problem with L2 is the sheer magnitude of the bot problem, and of the underground economy.
One more problem is that if the "lazy players" would leave the game, there wont be enough players left to keep the servers and the game alive. Sad truth.
Look at Last Chaos or 12Sky for example, the 1st thing you get when entering the game are gold sellers that spam the shout with 10 messeges per second making it imposible to comunicate in towns with other players, exp spots are also overrun by bots.
Or PerfectWorld. **** good graphics, but that doesn't help when almost everywhere you look there is a bot and the grind in that game is easy as hell.
The games you mentioned are all Korean MMOs, free2play cash shop MMOs on top of that. The botting problem is present but kept very well under control in all pay2play games i seen.....except L2. Think for yourself why. The answers are not as simple as just "lazy players", wouldnt you agree?
I don't want this to end up the same as every other thread, where the conversation leads to nothing but discussion about bots and why they're good/bad and how much NC "sucks."
Take this opportunity to share your experiences with NC support. No use arguing about bots, that argument has been around as long as the game. The purpose of this thread was to discuss the shortfalls of the support system in this world.
I don't want this to end up the same as every other thread, where the conversation leads to nothing but discussion about bots and why they're good/bad and how much NC "sucks."
Take this opportunity to share your experiences with NC support. No use arguing about bots, that argument has been around as long as the game. The purpose of this thread was to discuss the shortfalls of the support system in this world.
The support system sucks... and thats because NCSoft is a horrible company.
Errr.... did I do that right? ;)
PLEASE stay on topic.
No use arguing about bots, that argument has been around as long as the game. The purpose of this thread was to discuss the shortfalls of the support system in this world.
With all due respect but what is there to discuss about the support system in Lineage 2?
For a subscription game, the support system and especially the bot handling is lacking, thats a fact.
Can we (or NCS for that matter) do something about it? Very unlikely, for reasons that have been discussed in the many posts above.
Discussions about the support system and bot handling have been around forever too. I think if something could have been done, it would have been done by now. NCS tried to address the issue, but the bots are still there.
What are our resources? hmm, i remember when some players united in an effort to deal with the bots a few years ago, they ended up banned.
Bots have been around as long as the game, and they are here to stay so i think our resources are to learn to live with it, just like we learn to live with the L2 shortfalls in general.
Those posts are exactly what I wanted to see! haha The other posts before it started to go off on tangents about NC accepting or rejecting bots, etc. While that was the basis for my communication with NC Support the other night, it was not really the basis for starting this thread.
Thanks again everyone for your level-headed and well thought out responses. :)
We can't do anything to stop the bots we are just collateral victims of a multi billion scam...you can try pk all the bots but they are programmed to return so you will end up as me having to clean more than 30 Pk counts with that drunk sin eater....
They will never ever, ever, ever, ever stop bots it's like committing suicide...look at Aion for example they lunched the test server and it was infested with bots (their forum is full of complains) and they still didn't do anything to get rid of them... I'm sure the game will have the same fate as lineage and only hardcore players who can adapt will survive (through different ways)...
On the bot button I would have to say it's just a sadistic joke, one that is meant to bring you short pleasure and just after a while slap you back into reality. If the button would work half of the Heroes would get ban in an instant (with their 1000kkkk of hours of play)....YEP Heroes I'm talking about you...ALTHOUGH is ironic my congratz goes to you...for cheating on all of us and on life as well you proved that through laziness and cheating you can succeed :(...
And as a funny story, a personal experience that I had with a party of bots: a while ago I needed some recipes from BF cause one of may clannies was reaching 61 and since I had a 70 spoiler I though I should help him get the much desired DC light set. So as a good sport pal that I am during one rainy Sunday I decided I was going to get him the helm and the boots recipes from the buffaloes...when I came to my favorite spot I've noticed that there was a party of four (BH, BD, SE and PP) spoiling and farming like there was no tomorrow, I pressed the button and went on with my spoiling..After a few hours I got the recipe and failed while crafting it..the next weekend same spot same bots same pressing of the button..same fail at crafting (I know it can be frustrating)..third weekend I went to the bots and said "Hi bots, how's it goin'?" they replied "Hi, not that good the farming is a little slow" ... I said "I've just reported you using the button" he said: "HAHAHA good luck with that"...he concluded "hey man I saw you spoiling here, keeping us company, I tought you were ok and started acting like a nice person" anyways i got my recipes a few hours later and crafted the parts and during the past week i returned there several times in order to spoil other recipes and make some adena (dc gloves I had to buy them for him)...every time he saw me, he came and we had a little discussion like we were on a ***ing picnic party or something "Hi" , "Hi" "how's your day?" "good you" etc....I have to specify that every time i was pressing that fricking button...After more than two months same spot same mobs...BUT no bots????? I was like "freakin yeah" shouting !"in your face stupid bots"...and I said ok one last check and sent him a pm "you still alive" and to my deception the answer came after a few hours "yep, but I've changed spot, we're to big now for BF, pm me if you need recipes I have tons of them" /faceslap
So here is the BOT REPORT BUTTON for you, enjoy pressing it, it just shatters your expectations
Also had an interesting one this Saturday.. went to VoS, near Barakiel.. I had found a good place for me to lvl my SH to 70.. but when I go back.. I found another SH and a slave SE.
I ask him:
"Are you going to be here long?"
To which he replied:
"Yes I will. About 1-2 days, until both lvl."
My association with support ended with C2. Coincidentally thats also when live support also ended. I haven't spoke to a live support person since then. Back in C2 it was nice when someone actually came on and asked if they could help. Since then it's always automated responses in some criptic translation from a forun language to english. At least thats what it seems like. I dont even bother anymore. I usually just move on or logg off.
Wonder if Diablo III will finaly keep my interest enough to leave L2 for ever.
My association with support ended with C2. Coincidentally thats also when live support also ended. I haven't spoke to a live support person since then. Back in C2 it was nice when someone actually came on and asked if they could help. Since then it's always automated responses in some criptic translation from a forun language to english. At least thats what it seems like. I dont even bother anymore. I usually just move on or logg off.
Wonder if Diablo III will finaly keep my interest enough to leave L2 for ever.
Are we reading the same petition responses? While I agree that some of the bot/adena sale petition responses are cut/paste, I wouldn't characterize them as poorly written. I understand everything they say and I haven't spotted any blaring grammatical errors. In reality I don't expect them to write out some long winded response for bots/spammers, it would be inefficient and given their privacy rules there is not much they could tell me anyway.
I've also sent in support tickets related to quests and the responses have been timely and understandable. Even if it's just to tell me I was wrong or misinformed about the issue I submitted, their response was still done in a respectful manner.
I'm not going to say that there aren't things they could improve upon, but I have yet to experience some of the problems people make out to be regular occurrences or issues. My one customer service request at the moment would be to ask for an easier way to report the adena sale messages. Afaik I have to petition each time I want to report it, which reduces my available ones and is time consuming. I'd like to see something like a click on message feature that would allow me to report it without petition.
We can't do anything to stop the bots we are just collateral victims of a multi billion scam...you can try pk all the bots but they are programmed to return so you will end up as me having to clean more than 30 Pk counts with that drunk sin eater....
They will never ever, ever, ever, ever stop bots it's like committing suicide...look at Aion for example they lunched the test server and it was infested with bots (their forum is full of complains) and they still didn't do anything to get rid of them... I'm sure the game will have the same fate as lineage and only hardcore players who can adapt will survive (through different ways)...
On the bot button I would have to say it's just a sadistic joke, one that is meant to bring you short pleasure and just after a while slap you back into reality. If the button would work half of the Heroes would get ban in an instant (with their 1000kkkk of hours of play)....YEP Heroes I'm talking about you...ALTHOUGH is ironic my congratz goes to you...for cheating on all of us and on life as well you proved that through laziness and cheating you can succeed :(...
And as a funny story, a personal experience that I had with a party of bots: a while ago I needed some recipes from BF cause one of may clannies was reaching 61 and since I had a 70 spoiler I though I should help him get the much desired DC light set. So as a good sport pal that I am during one rainy Sunday I decided I was going to get him the helm and the boots recipes from the buffaloes...when I came to my favorite spot I've noticed that there was a party of four (BH, BD, SE and PP) spoiling and farming like there was no tomorrow, I pressed the button and went on with my spoiling..After a few hours I got the recipe and failed while crafting it..the next weekend same spot same bots same pressing of the button..same fail at crafting (I know it can be frustrating)..third weekend I went to the bots and said "Hi bots, how's it goin'?" they replied "Hi, not that good the farming is a little slow" ... I said "I've just reported you using the button" he said: "HAHAHA good luck with that"...he concluded "hey man I saw you spoiling here, keeping us company, I tought you were ok and started acting like a nice person" anyways i got my recipes a few hours later and crafted the parts and during the past week i returned there several times in order to spoil other recipes and make some adena (dc gloves I had to buy them for him)...every time he saw me, he came and we had a little discussion like we were on a ***ing picnic party or something "Hi" , "Hi" "how's your day?" "good you" etc....I have to specify that every time i was pressing that fricking button...After more than two months same spot same mobs...BUT no bots????? I was like "freakin yeah" shouting !"in your face stupid bots"...and I said ok one last check and sent him a pm "you still alive" and to my deception the answer came after a few hours "yep, but I've changed spot, we're to big now for BF, pm me if you need recipes I have tons of them" /faceslap
So here is the BOT REPORT BUTTON for you, enjoy pressing it, it just shatters your expectations
PS: sorry for the long post, take care all :)
I have no expectations to be crushed, hooray for me... ugh.
In any case, much of the botting nowadays is done under supervision, so they're pretty much unbannable. There are people supervising the botting process and the software used is undetectable on a programmatic level. (since I hear that te best automation softwares are subscription-based you can imagine they update them like crazy)
When such supervision doesn't take place you end up with people QQ-ing about beeing banned on the other forum...
If the player is there or has alarms to alert him if necessary so he can come to his/her computer... he'll never get banned (almost?)).
As someone said: leveling now mean supervising your bot software.
Sad, very sad, but I've got no expectations, and as such, I will, eventualyl, give up and close my accounts.
Actually, I've never had much problem with the in-game petition system. I don't have many problems with the game, like being stuck, ora quest not working, or some killer glitch that ruins it for me. I don't experience that sort of thing so I don't petition those. I often see bots, and loose my exp areas to them, but I don't petition that anymore becouse I don't want to hear NC tell me that they will "look into it and see if ther eis anything conclusive" and see those bots there day after day for months at time... I just stopped expecting results. My expectations are low enough that its hard to dissapoint me in that manner.
Contrastingly... I often submit tickets to the support team out of game... I once wrote a nice letter about how I had spoken with the managers of 3 chains (BestBuy, Gamestop, and Target) about their Play NC Time Cards being all gone for months at a time... and all 3 managers told me that the cards had been discontinued. I felt powerless so I wrote a ticket and submitted it. about a day later I got a confirmation mail saying that they got my ticket and it was "being elevated to a higher support something or other". than nothing for nearly a week. Than a system messege with a link to the main page section on time cards...
I sometimes wonder if the support team that answers my tickets even speaks my language...becouse i have yet to get a straight answer from them on anything I submit... and what few, cryptic, or simply unrelated answers I do get, take a week or more to reach me.
Someone mentioned that they probably paid level 1 support people $12.20-$15/hr. I completely LOLed. Level 1 Support (and maybe even higher) are call centers in India or some other cheap labor area. Some of the in game support is undoubtedly handled by bots that scan you message and cut-n-paste an "appropriate" response. GM =spam= is the costly part of support and I am sure he is very very busy.
On the bot button...
I still have high hopes for this (feel free to point and laugh), though so far I haven't seen anything. I only play a few hours a day. Every day I buff up and head out to Varka (or "Botka") and every day for the last 3 weeks I encounter a bot train in a certain spot. Same toons, even with a clan tag, and I bot button them all each day. Then I head for my second favorite spot in Botka and report the same train that has been there for as long as I can remember. I usually end up "stealing" a few mobs as I run all through the area to "steal" mobs from the various bot trains (All bot buttoned as well).
Most of these long time bots are at least programmed to switch target away from a target I select, so I can get a few as long as I keep moving.
I hope that the full implementation of the bot button brings some change.
If the "improved" bot button brings me any grief whatsoever due to being reported by accident or malice.. and if it's not fixed instantly (a few days?), I will quit then and there and not look back, getting shafted by a feature to combat bots would the most insulting thing I can imagine in this game and be the final straw....
If the "improved" bot button brings me any grief whatsoever due to being reported by accident or malice.. and if it's not fixed instantly (a few days?), I will quit then and there and not look back, getting shafted by a feature to combat bots would the most insulting thing I can imagine in this game and be the final straw....
Thanks again for your posts, including the ones that have nothing but positive interactions with NC! It's good to have stories from both sides.
To Tabbi, I should have been more specific perhaps LOL That is the going rate for American based level 1 support. It's rare but people still do hire American's! :P
I'm going to have to agree with GabrielK, that is a definite down side to the button, all we can hope though is that when reported the GM handling the issue surely looks at logs for time consistencies as far as kill/pick-up or buffing/skills to determine if it's automated or not.
Honestly I realy look forward to the release of Aion... not becouse I intend to play it (though I might). But becouse I forsee a lot of the bots attention being diverted to that market alleviating the pressure here in L2... and its only a few months away.
If the bot button does end up being a greif tool for l33t players to spam on rival clans/heros, than I will also quit this game... after nearly 5 years of loyal play and trying to be rational in these forums and not linger on the downsides... I will quit, and never play another NC soft title.
Maybe I am old fashioned, but to me, a product is still a reflection of the company that makes it... and if Lineage II (NCsoft's flagship franchise) fails to uphold even the smallest of moral decency to its customers... I will want nothing to do with them as a company.
Any thread with any relation to bots always gets people going ;)
Bot Button and Petition
About the topic posters petition stuff - I guess the point of the Bot Report button is exactly that. To save people having to manually do a petition, only to run into hassles with giving names as you did (and typing the **** funky names isnt fun anyway).
This makes it a quick easy target and click thing. A good benefit of this other than to the customers, is alot more bots will be reported and the end result data should be more useful.
Since they added the bot report button Ive noticed bots have being getting banned more. Before it, we would get a sweep of bans only around each new chronicle time. Now, we see to be getting them with some regularity every month or two. Dont think they do all servers at the same time.
Bots
Correct alot of us are used to them by now :) Yes, they are a pain especially when want them to **** my spot at varka or a cata. Do I agree gm should focus on popular areas..? Ya thats a good idea.
Anyway its not the be-and-end-all, hardly gunna start jumping up and down with arms waving. I can see things are being done more lately, and if you can make em flag in gracia final - tasty :)
Game
To whoever was saying about lineage being korean/crap - this game has hard grind, hard economy, and just like real life you can always use more adena (and more xp for that matter). Its friggin ace. Why..? Cause its more meaningful and satisfying - feels more point to it and more rewarding, and its all about people and freedom. And more long term - and thats what I want from an mmo. But I'm sure most people here know this already and love it.
So what we were all moaning about again..? :p
(o ya ncsoft and bots.. give em a chance they getting better)
(btw 3-4 weeks is not a long time and it will be effected by number of reports too)
Thanks for the reply. I know you mentioned people like to comment on threads about bots but I'm very happy to say that this thread has remained on topic concerning more the support practices than the bots themselves.
The only thing I wanted to comment on was when you say:
(btw 3-4 weeks is not a long time and it will be effected by number of reports too)
3 to 4 weeks is an extraordinary amount of time to process a support request. Seeing as the people reported are proven guilty via server logs, the amount of complaints regarding a particular character shouldn't matter. No more than 1 report is needed to be investigated - if server says they don't bot... they don't bot. I hate to say it again, I know there's a ton of company's out there that all do it differently, but if I ever took 3 weeks to reply to something at work... kiss my job goodbye.
Imagine if their account processing was a bit more primitive (like their support handling process) and your purchased time needed to be applied manually and it took them 3 weeks to add it to your account so you could play again...
A support request is a support request, there is no difference. If they don't have the resources to handle a world this size they need to make that known. There are ways of doing that without giving details of inner workings.
Yesterday many Dcs accured and after that the server satyed in the "normal" status. Giran got more empty and some spots which were suspicous from bots, werent anymore there.
I still have high hopes for this (feel free to point and laugh)
/point
/laugh
Game
To whoever was saying about lineage being korean/crap - this game has hard grind, hard economy, and just like real life you can always use more adena (and more xp for that matter). Its friggin ace. Why..? Cause its more meaningful and satisfying - feels more point to it and more rewarding, and its all about people and freedom. And more long term - and thats what I want from an mmo. But I'm sure most people here know this already and love it.
So what we were all moaning about again..? :p
(o ya ncsoft and bots.. give em a chance they getting better)
(btw 3-4 weeks is not a long time and it will be effected by number of reports too)
the game is made for a korean playstyle (which means you play every moment you can) that's why the grind is like it is. It has nothing to do with satisfaction of reaching it.
And it's pretty bad design when there's people who's been leveling 24/7 since the level cap was increased and are only just not hitting max level. A normal player really doesn't have a chance to ever catch up to that without eula-breaking methods.
and 3-4 weeks is 10 times too long for a bot report to be processed. Especially since it's very easy to detect even without the tools of a GM. But that's the thing, the ones that are easy to catch are not the ones they want to ban, when they ban a dozen bot trains they ruin a lot of their own revenue, if they ban a single high-profile botter the effect on the playerbase in general is much much higher and they don't lose their subscription revenue. But those high-profile botters are harder to catch/report/investigate cause they actually care about their account.
Obviously I don't have any evidence to support this, but it's obvious to me that's whats going on, how bot trains never get banned when you report them, and how huge a deal it was when spam went and banned a handful high profile bots.
These posts are comedy to NCsoft, they don't care just like when the chinese farmer clans PvP'd and killed you on sight when you got near their raid bosses and hunting zones.
I've done a lot of reporting but I almost never see any farmer bots get banned, some of which have been reported a dozen times over a 4 month period (Varka famers) and they are still there now as I type this. However, a few player botters (ones who don't sell adena) have been banned which is nice to see, but ****... some places are near impossible to find a spot in.
We want everyone to know that we follow this, and other threads like it, whenever the occur. Most times we read and observe, but occasionally we feel the need to post and clear the air, so to speak.
The Bot Button actually does work! Due to players using it, the GM team has been able to greatly increase the speed and frequency that they ban bots. This is due to your help, and by using it the GM team is more efficient. We can’t go into specifics for obvious reasons, but please rest assured that it does work and that our CS team actively uses information collected by it for banning. Just because it doesn’t happen right away, or in what is perceived as a reasonable amount of time, does not mean we are sitting idly by. We in absolutely no way condone botting in L2, and have no affiliation with botters whatsoever. In our mind they corrupt the game by ruining the in game economy and switch the focus of the game from working and playing hard to whoever can buy adena.
I also want to point out that our CS team is relentless in its pursuit of not only botters, but adena sellers, illegal servers, and any other way that people find to take away from Lineage 2 players like yourselves. Once again, we can’t share the numbers of people that are banned, or the amount of man-hours we put into this research, but believe me when I say it is extensive. As long as there are cheaters in Lineage 2, as a company NCsoft will continue to grow in the way and manner we protect our players and games against these.
Lastly, please also be aware that change takes time. When Omega became the Lineage 2 Producer, he promised big things. Things such as unique events for NA and EU, more events for players, as well as internal changes to policies. He has fulfilled his promise for the first two as we have seen monthly events since he began, and have had 2 unique events for NA and EU, with more planned. There is an abundance of planning that goes into even small changes, and trust me when I say that Omega has some large changes in store for Lineage 2, both externally from the players perspective as well as internal changes that you will never see. Please be patient as we plan and prepare these changes; things done in haste without proper planning result in having to clean up messes, and we would much rather have things go right the first time.