EVE General Discussion

So, my mother plays the F2P web browser game Runescape which has famously been totally inundated with bots and macros for the past few years, crushing its economy and driving prices so high it's "RMT or grind for weeks." With seemingly little action from the developers despite big words and long blogs.

As she's a game moderator for them she gets things on the vine a little early, a few weeks ago over one of my visits she started to excitedly tell me all about some new software they were introducing which prevented the macros from operating entirely and that they had started a mass banning campaign, planning to ban some 40% of their active subscriber base.

When I saw her yesterday she tells me how much of an amazing success it was etc etc. "Yeah sure, heard it all before, some sporadic week bannings followed up with nothing as the owners just create new accounts and everything goes back to normal next week." Thinks I.

But she was insistent to the point I couldn't help but go and log in to my old Runescape account to have a look, after about an hour trying to remember my old password I finally get in and find my way to the old macro hotspots and she was right; they were completely empty.

So I take to the Internet to gather some more information where I found their official announcements but not much with any real substance as I don't have access to the Moderator forums like she does, but I then found this http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/ClusterFlutterer. Which puts their efforts into perspective.

Furthermore they have started sending out emails to known botters offering them amnesty if they stop, but kindly reminding them that breaching the EULA is a prosecutable offence, they have their details, if they carry on they will be taken to court. http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/10/26/jagex-levies-a-lawsuit-against-runescape-botters

In addition to this (Some insider info) they are currently in legal proceedings against several companies which create and sell macro programs to use on their game.

If a smalltime F2P game company are able to introduce effective anti-botting software, happy to ban half of their subscribers and take the legal route to better their game why cant CCP?

**Links will be fixed shortly.

Why wont CCP do something that drastic? Two words - paid subscribers.

F2P management is a totally different beast than a subscription based game.

Having said that, who's to say CCP is not doing something to combat bots? They're not going to spill their secrets on the forum or a blog now are they?

Yes it is a total mystery why a company would be willing to ban 50% of their non paying userbase that do nothing but damage the game.

I'm also impressed when this time next year they have no botting problem in the game. Bots are notoriously good at adapting and every company has periodic successful operations against them where thousands of accounts are banned. I wish them luck with the lawsuits though. I just feel they are going to cost them more money and time then they will ever get back, while the companies making such programs can disappear in a second and pop up with a new crew and name. If it was just a matter of suing them, botting would have been dead a long time ago.

http://www.interactiveblog.net/?p=1162

Above link tl;dr


They have a large P2P population also. Plus, as above, they make a lot of ad revenue.

Finally they are still on the up curve proving it is possible for a long term mmo to do well. I suspect CCP would love a 19% increase in turnover.

actually most courts make the defendant pay court fees and possibly ALL lawyer fees if they are found to be guilty. its very doable. ccp won't do it however simply because banning all the bots, all the PAID accounts, is incredibly bad for business. also why do people keep thinking "mining bots?" most bots are mission/ratting bots.

Well, I guess it is just chest beating then, but the fact they are proactively sending out emails is more than what a lot of companies are doing and it is enough to scare off at least some of the botters from carrying on what they're doing. Doubly so as the average age of your RSer is probably 14 or under.

So basically you are saying that you want someone who lives in another country to pay his tickets to come to your country so that you can sue him. Not going to happen. You can prosecute someone in absentia all you like, if that someone is native to another country and resides on that other country, you will need to convince that other country to extradite that person. Which is enough red tape (and i'm not kidding here) to make this go on for years on end. And all the while you will have to spend money.

And mind you, thats for one single person.

People in the UK have gone to prison for trolling people's Facebook memorials before :P

But as I said, empty threats of lawlsuit will be enough to put off most clueless script kiddies and I think that's the angle they were going for.

In actuality, If you read CCP's EULA, this is what cuts their throat to sue or prosecute in any way:

GOVERNING LAW AND EXCLUSIVE FORUM
The EULA, and the rights and obligations of the parties hereto, shall be governed and construed by and in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Iceland. The EULA shall not be governed by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

So, all they can do is ban based on evidence provided by the player base.

CISG

Look at article 9

Even more interesting, Section III starting with Article 61 is pretty interesting.

hmm... didn't Jagex post a blog some weeks ago that they are losing the fight against bots and can only appeal to players to stop buying gold?

( edit: there you go, not even a month ago

http://services.runescape.com/m=news/update-on-our-ongoing-battle-against-bots )

If anything Jagex seems to be an example how (a) making massive changes to a released game is a bad idea and (b) reverting those changes after they have been in place for three years is an equally bad idea.