Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
50 000 EQ2 characters banned over the past few months.
lomiller
Member Posts: 1,810
Senior EQ2 producer Scott Hartsman posted this over at the EQ2 forums
The question comes up every now and again: "Why doesn't SOE do something about botters/spammers/etc?" Whenever you see someone new doing things like this while playing, I know as well as you do that it's just plain annoying, and it can sometimes seem like we don't do anything about the problem.Yesterday we did another cleanup round, removing all the characters that belonged to those who've been banned for a variety of EULA violations over the past few months. Usually these are the people who've been found botting, exploiting, spamming, or selling.
The total came out to just under 50,000 characters and scores of guilds that will be rolling off of the EQ2players site over the next day or two as updates to the web site occur.
I'd like to extend my congratulations to the CS investigation team and their management, who do more, faster in keeping this game as clean as they can than I've ever seen in any online game.
There's still more work to do in minimizing the negative impact of botters and spammers, and there always will be. For now, though, I hope you can join me in saying thank you.
- Scott
____
Scott Hartsman
Senior Producer, EverQuest II
Comments
"There's no star system Slave I can't reach, and there's no planet I can't find. There's nowhere in the Galaxy for you to run. Might as well give up now."
Boba Fett
That's probably different from the type of farmer / "pharmer" that they're talking about.
These types of pharmers do it to collect money and items that they sell as a 3rd party "business". They're extremely disrespectful, claim areas or zones as "their's", and may attempt to scare off other players by training them or doing something else to make a situation difficult for legit gamers.
Collecting loot and plats for yourself or your guild is one thing, but unless you're a complete jerk about it (which I am certainly not accusing you of) then it's a good bit different from pharmers.
~Mysk
Just shows you the misconception of EQ2 brought about by SoE haters.
No buisness will ban even 10% of its clients.Only the ignorant will think EQ2 is even close to an empty game.You just have to play to see its filled with players.Even sirbruce has admitted indirectly on this site that his numbers of EQ2 at about 170k was purely his guesswork with no real data.Many people have move to EQ2 from WoW and many first timers are now looking at EQ2 as the real alternative to WoW as a first time mmorpg choice.
Of the 50k characters banned i would say some are multiple chars on same account.So actual numbers of account banned is maybe 20k which is a very small proportion to what EQ2 has.
Like many companies SoE has kept a secret on actual numbers.Usually you only hear from companies when they have broken some record like EQ1 announcing it had 500k accounts at one point or WoW with 7m.At this stage even 2m will not be something worth announcing.Rest assured EQ2 has one of the most healthiest population in all mmorpg just not WoW numbers but then again no one else has that numbers as of now.
"There's no star system Slave I can't reach, and there's no planet I can't find. There's nowhere in the Galaxy for you to run. Might as well give up now."
Boba Fett
i am sorry if this makes people mad or anything but
50000 EQ2 CHARACTERS BANNED IS HILARIOUS I MEAN WOW THAT JUST GONNA MAKE PEOPLE HATE Everquest but who ever lost their characters im am sooo sorry
Which FF Character Are You?
Live In Your World, Play In Ours... and Play B3yond
Whats wrong with banning people for cheating.I am sure on NA servers alone blizzard announced at least if not more then 50k
Popular mmorpg tend to have more cheats and more gold farmers because the demand is higher then say on empty games like horizons.
I see totally nothing wrong with banning farmers,cheats and spammers.The community is better off without them.
Now thats what Ive been talking about all this time.
Something more than a token effort from the owners of the products for a change. I lost count how many bots I reported in the 6 months I played EQ2, in the end the suspension of disbelief I encounterd from them was one of the primary reasons I quit. Combines with the fact that NOT ONCE did an admin ever respond to a report or appear when I was standing right next to a whole bot team, time after time after time.
Good to see they are catching on, even if it is VERY late.
+-+-+-+-+-+
"MMOs, for people that like think chatting is like a skill or something, rotflol"
http://purepwnage.com
-+-+-+-+-+-+
"Far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell, calls the faithful to their knees. To hear the softly spoken magic spell" Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon
Sorry to ask...but is there 50k active accounts in EQ2?
I just love to tease, don't mind me. But banning IMO is a last resort, definitely not something you do on 50k characters.
But...knowing SoE...
Let's figure WHICH accounts where affected...SoE might very well have self create and self banned 49850 characters...so we would then talk about 150 real characters, which make more sense to me.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
All that statement says is that they DELETED 50,000 avatars from accounts that were ALREADY banned. Not 50,000 accounts. No new bans either.
And the servers are far from empty, trust me, I struggle to find times in the day when i can play without a crowded zone (and always avoid the new zones from the expansion for at least a week when they come out)
Excuse me, but wouldn't it make far more sence if the ACCOUNTS were banned?
Not the characters?
Yeesch!
If only the characters are banned, obviously the person with the account simply makes a new character
and rinse, repeate for infinity.
IMHO spammers should be banned, including the entire account.
As for bots? First, how does the game DEV determine 100% that it is a bot? Technically one live player can
buy as many copies of the game as they want and make as many accounts as they want. And use different
computers/IPs if they want.
Just shows you the misconception of EQ2 brought about by SoE haters.
No buisness will ban even 10% of its clients.Only the ignorant will think EQ2 is even close to an empty game.You just have to play to see its filled with players.Even sirbruce has admitted indirectly on this site that his numbers of EQ2 at about 170k was purely his guesswork with no real data.
Many people have move to EQ2 from WoW and many first timers are now looking at EQ2 as the real alternative to WoW as a first time mmorpg choice.
Of the 50k characters banned i would say some are multiple chars on same account.So actual numbers of account banned is maybe 20k which is a very small proportion to what EQ2 has.
Like many companies SoE has kept a secret on actual numbers.Usually you only hear from companies when they have broken some record like EQ1 announcing it had 500k accounts at one point or WoW with 7m.At this stage even 2m will not be something worth announcing.Rest assured EQ2 has one of the most healthiest population in all mmorpg just not WoW numbers but then again no one else has that numbers as of now.
1. Please post PROOF that Sir Bruce has directly or indirectly admitted anything to this site?
1b. If you would take the TIME to read through ALL of Sir Bruce's site, you would see that he lists his sources for every single game he lists. Read all of his web pages, from top to the very bottom.
2. Next, EQ2 in no way what so ever is hurting WoW. WoW is still g-r-o-w-i-n-g. WoW currently has 7.5 million accounts and still has not peaked yet. EQ2 has long ago peaked at roughly 200k accounts. The main game hurting EQ2, is EQ1! (And EQ2 is also hurting EQ1 strange and sad situation indeed.)
3. Ya darn right there is no way EQ2 would ban 50k ACCOUNTS. (A solid 25% of its income.) 50k characters banned? It means absolutly n-o-t-h-i-n-g. It is actually an insult to the intelligence of anyone who has fallen for this.
Well thats exactly my point on Farming. No company is going to do anything that hurts the bottom line and who can blame them.
What they should be blamed for is allowing a game to release with an unsecure economy and then not policing it properly.
+-+-+-+-+-+
"MMOs, for people that like think chatting is like a skill or something, rotflol"
http://purepwnage.com
-+-+-+-+-+-+
"Far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell, calls the faithful to their knees. To hear the softly spoken magic spell" Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon
No sh*t...I'm shocked to even see that EQII even had a bot problem....don't get me wrong, I know bots/farmers are a major issue in every MMO but I never really gave EQII a second thought. The way people piss and moan on this site I thought it was just L2 that had the problem.
Well the easy solution that no one wants to hear is this... don't buy gold. They will all go away if you don't buy the currency. But that to fricking easy and asking to much, isn't it? Blame the players not the game.
Your thoughts are welcome as always Torak. I KNOW how much you care about this topic and how active you have been in this debate over a long period, I salute you.
However I still blame the Devs as you know.
Anyone capable of creating a world like L2 or WoW or EQ2 is capable of creating an economy that doesnt permit RMT's, the only thing missing is the desire to do so. That desire is always tempered by the greater desire to gain as many subscriptions as possible, even if some of those subscriptions are those of farmers, it is the world the devs have CHOSEN to hand us.
+-+-+-+-+-+
"MMOs, for people that like think chatting is like a skill or something, rotflol"
http://purepwnage.com
-+-+-+-+-+-+
"Far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell, calls the faithful to their knees. To hear the softly spoken magic spell" Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon
ahhrg...my first reply got eaten
Anyway, thanks razor and I DO agree with you to a point. I just stress the players over the devs, I never said the devs are inocent
The problem with throwing it totally at the devs to fix is what can they really do? They would only have a few real options. Remove economies altogether, trivialize them to irrelevance, sell currency themselves or create a monitoring system/log that frankly would raise subscription prices due to the personal and developement cost. And would any of that even work? Altering games and building barriers because some players can't play a damn video game responsibly isn't an answer. What is the answer? Who knows? Not me.
Seriously, I didn't realize EQII had such a problem with bots/farmers. It surprises me because all you read here on this site is people smacsh L2 exclusively over it. I played EQII for a few months a couple of times and never really noticed. Yes, I know they are there, they always are....the worse experience I ever had with farmers was in WoW. I tend to not seek out the negitives like that in a game. I play for fun not as a crusader anymore.
I'm glad to see many of the MMO companies finally reacting to this but honestly all banning bots does is disrupt them. They are back in the game within hours. I've seen it so many times in L2. They do a mass ban, everything is peachy for about a week then the bots catch up again. It hits critical mass and then there is another mass ban. Its an ugly circle. If those 50,000 EQII banned accounts actually where bots, they are all back in game already farming their little hearts out. Do you know why? Because people are STILL buying the currency. So SOE put alot of time/effort/resources into banning a bunch of bots that probably are already back and continuing the farming.
Recently in L2 there has been a GM "patrolling" some of the more popular bot spots on occassion. Sure it helps in the short run but what sort of solution is that and how many GM's is it going to take to "patrol" 10 servers 24/7? More then they have. Its not like they don't have other tickets to worry about.
Its a shame all of this is simpley because a group of players in all MMO's just don't care and are willing to buy currency. Its a cheat, simple as that. MMO's are not the only games with problems like that.
So now my gameplay needs to be restricted and monitored because some nit-wit feels he needs to "buy" currency.
IMHO most MMO companies dont want to ban botters or farmers. Its good for business to let them stay. I know it sounds crazy. It certainly does to me as well. But imagine it. Player X is getting bored and frustrated. He cant get what he needs without massive amounts of grinding. Finally he gives up and quits playing. No longer paying that monthly fee. Now on the other hand lets say that Player X goes to a gold selling site and buys enough gold to get whatever it is he wants. He doesnt quit the game. He keeps paying that monthly fee.
So its better for business to let the botters and farmers do what they do. Ban a few here and there just to give the impression that your actually policing things. But your not really.
Look at the situation a little more. Take L2 for example. There are asian servers. And there are american servers. If they IP banned all of asia from the american servers alot of farming would stop. But they dont. Why?
Take WoW. Its the samething there. They have asian servers and american servers. Why allow asians into the american servers when they have their own servers? Why not IP ban them?
Just my opinion though. I could be wrong.
Kai
Just shows you the misconception of EQ2 brought about by SoE haters.
No buisness will ban even 10% of its clients.Only the ignorant will think EQ2 is even close to an empty game.You just have to play to see its filled with players.Even sirbruce has admitted indirectly on this site that his numbers of EQ2 at about 170k was purely his guesswork with no real data.
Many people have move to EQ2 from WoW and many first timers are now looking at EQ2 as the real alternative to WoW as a first time mmorpg choice.
Of the 50k characters banned i would say some are multiple chars on same account.So actual numbers of account banned is maybe 20k which is a very small proportion to what EQ2 has.
Like many companies SoE has kept a secret on actual numbers.Usually you only hear from companies when they have broken some record like EQ1 announcing it had 500k accounts at one point or WoW with 7m.At this stage even 2m will not be something worth announcing.Rest assured EQ2 has one of the most healthiest population in all mmorpg just not WoW numbers but then again no one else has that numbers as of now.
1. Please post PROOF that Sir Bruce has directly or indirectly admitted anything to this site?
1b. If you would take the TIME to read through ALL of Sir Bruce's site, you would see that he lists his sources for every single game he lists. Read all of his web pages, from top to the very bottom.
2. Next, EQ2 in no way what so ever is hurting WoW. WoW is still g-r-o-w-i-n-g. WoW currently has 7.5 million accounts and still has not peaked yet. EQ2 has long ago peaked at roughly 200k accounts. The main game hurting EQ2, is EQ1! (And EQ2 is also hurting EQ1 strange and sad situation indeed.)
3. Ya darn right there is no way EQ2 would ban 50k ACCOUNTS. (A solid 25% of its income.) 50k characters banned? It means absolutly n-o-t-h-i-n-g. It is actually an insult to the intelligence of anyone who has fallen for this.
Do a search for sir bruce posts here on this site.Not going to start digging just because you missed it .And yes it probably did not ban 50k accounts as we both agreed.But if you believe EQ2 has oly 200k accounts then shows you have not been on this game in the last year pure and simple.
One tiny little correction. Asian IP's are blocked from the L2 U.S./Euro servers. They are also blocked from WoW servers as well. The farmers use proxy servers which gives them a local IP's.
NCSoft also blocks credit card payments made with credit card outside of their country of origin. How do I know? They blocked mine. I am a U.S. civilian working for the U.S. government living outside of the U.S. My credit card was blocked for that reason along with many other service people. NCSoft did address the issue and corrected it for us.
It seems that every time I log in to EQ2, I have to report at least one or two in-game spam e-mails telling me where to go to buy plat. I really have no problem with them banning people who do that. It's annoying enough getting junk mail in my real box and my out-of-game e-mail box without getting it in games too.
/cheer for banning them to start with, and good riddance on clearing them out of the database.
...
This is where I draw the line: __________________.
Woo really?......
Not that I care about the bannings Im just shocked, I didnt think EQ2 even had 50,000 subscribers.....
Ahh.. They must be counting their station pass players too. That explains it.
/sarcasm off
Critical thinking is a desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture.
======================
It's just me, so open the door.