Here’s a suggestion:
We the players, are always the first ones to encounter bots. Hundreds if not thousands of players, run into bot spam in town everyday. Botting is obvious and obnoxious. This is even more annoying when we are questing only to see that the map is filled with blonde ponytailed clerics just whacking away at everything.
Bots should be dealt with by the players and not only by the developers or the company. They don’t have the manpower or resources to. I don’t know why gaming companies are still running decades behind in terms of dealing with botters. The community is what makes up the game. Shouldn’t the community also have some power in dealing with issues like these? This gives GM’s more time to deal with the actual RMT’s instead of wasting their time with the bots while the botting is dealt with the players. It’s a win/win scenario.
If enough reports are stacked onto a player(bot), it should place them in a “blacklisted” channel. In here, they can still play but only interact with other blacklisted players. Think of this as a soft ban. They are still around, but out of our sights at least and not kill stealing everything.
When placed in a blacklisted channel, it gives enough time for GM’s to start looking at these “players” and verify if they are legit or not. Botters will be banned, douchebags may get their blacklist repealed and whatnot.
If you are somehow mistakenly placed in a blacklisted channel because of trolls, just send a ticket to support and repeal your blacklist in under 24 hours. Player history will be logged when reporting another player and whoever unfairly reported you without a good reason or evidence will be banned themselves.
This makes this system have consequences if others try to abuse it. Players who continue to false report will be warned, then banned for an example.
I think this is really the best solution in getting these bots out of our way. It doesn’t solve RMT, but it’s a start somewhere.
Here’s a short summary of how this works overall:
-
Players can only report one player, once a day. This is set in place so it cannot be spammed or abused.
-
When players report another player(bot), it should give a warning dialog indicating that they are about to report that player(bot) and there will be drastic consequences with a false report. Players should be able to hit OK or Cancel at that point.
-
Reporting players should be locked behind a Premium Token. This may change, but I feel like this is necessary so that trolls don’t take advantage of this feature and end up reporting everybody they dislike.
-
When players(bots) are stacked up with a least 10 or more reports, they will automatically be switched into a blacklisted channel. This channel is hidden and inaccessible by normal players. Blacklisted players can interact and play with other blacklisted players.
-
Blacklisted players will remain in the blacklisted channels until a GM revokes their blacklist. This allows GM’s to check if the player was a bot or a legit player.
-
Players who try to abuse this system and report innocent players will be blacklisted themselves.
ALTERNATE SOLUTION THAT ISN’T AS HARSH:
- If the above is too harsh, allow the blacklist to only place players(bots) into the last channels (such as channel 50). Blacklisted players will not be able to switch channels, but regular players can still join that channel if they wish.
