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EverQuest II: 700 Accounts Banned
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
SOE has announced that they have banned over seven-hundred accounts as a result of cheating observed in their hit MMORPG EverQuest II. The announcement comes with promises that they will continue to fight to ensure that all players are on an even playing field.
| Over 700 Exploiters? No Thanks. Sony Online has continued efforts since launch to keep the EverQuest II game world free of players who use exploits to gain an unfair advantage, especially with bots and macros. Over 700 accounts were banned for various forms of cheating and exploiting during the past 2 weeks alone. It is our goal to continue investigations into suspicious in-game activity and ban accounts with violations. We'd like to thank our EverQuest II customers for all of their reports in rounding up these crews, and helping us show them they're not welcome in Norrath, said EverQuest II Senior Producer Scott Hartsman. A few hundred 'bot subscriptions just aren't worth the money when compared to keeping the game fun for hundreds of thousands of people. |
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
Awesome!!
'bout time they banned those damn coin farmers.
Go Sony!
I dont think farming was/is illegal...
I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
Well, nothing is "illegal" unless is breaks a law imposed by the government. However, using programs to simlulate actual gameplay (ie "bots and macros") is against their rules - and when you agreed to their terms you agree to let them ban you for such an offense.
I don't think SOE has anything against farming - just farming using bots and macros.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
Glad to see it!
Kudos to Sony. It's nice to see a set of businessmen doing the right thing. A respectable decision on their part.
-Golden
-Golden
Oh yah, I hate those botters, never sen one, but i hate them nevertheless. About macros, u mean the ingame macros? or some external program that macroes some actions? Cause i got an ingame macro that I push everytime i got hit:
/em screams like a schoolgirl
/g HELP! YOUR CLERIC IS GETING SMACKED!!! HEEEEEELP!!!
I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
External Programs is what is ment by Botters and Macro'ers
Having a Hot Key to say or do an action is not against EULA however having a program running that looks for tells and does an action based on the tell recieved is against EULA
This is the Botting and Macroing they talk about.
The Farming was this, a person running 6 accounts would create 1 cleric and 5 wizards, then using the cleric they would pull named mobs and other mobs known to be on the same spawn table to the Wizards, root Nuke repeat gain item, sell item in game for gold sell gold on IGE or other place. This was not only causing issues with the in game ecconomy but also in the actual in game quests and other aspects of game play.
Madcap
That's kind of funny since SWG (another SOE game) is FULL of bots, all of which are created entirely from in-game macros. I say its funny because they crack down so hard on one game because people use EXTERNAL programs, and yet its been so clearly tolerated in another one of their games. They've been telling us for a long time that they would remove the ability for macros to loop and yet they are still a game. Now they've payed the price - bots have become and everyday tool in most SWG player's lives, whether they realize it or not.
My point is, if they are going to take a stand bots in one game, then they should take their stand in all their games and be consistent.
- m o n t h i g o s -
My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of MMORPG.com
I don't know, if the macro is doing what it is suppose to do in swg how can you call it cheating. Where in EQ2 there was a big difference in what people were doing.
Great job SOE, keep it up.
Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.
Bruce Lee
I don't care about the methods. Its the results that matter. People in SWG setup leveling macros ALL the time. You'll see bots hunting, bots gaining doctor xp, bots buffing, and just about every other bot activity. And its sanctioned, because of the fact that you can loop macros in the game.
External program, internal loop, it doesn't make any difference to me. The results are the same. If anyone is going to take SOE seriously they need to remove the looping ability in SWG. Like they promised, months and months ago.
You may disagree with me because the bots are done with external programs in EQ2 and internal systems in SWG, but that's your opinion.
- m o n t h i g o s -
My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of MMORPG.com
Any game that is simple enough and dull enough that successfull advancement can be done with bots or macros is not worth playing. There existence shows just how dull the gameplay in a lot of MMORPG's is. When will the market mature and give us something worth playing?
There are only 10 types of programmers. Those that understand binary and those that don't.
I see your point, but SWG is more social game than levelling. Macros create life and keep the game happening, even so I think comabting macroing is bad for social life. EQ2 would be ruined by macroing.
Hoorah! Thanks SOE
Have played: Everquest, Asheron's Call, Horizons, Everquest2, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer, Age of Conan, Darkfall
Monthigos you said it in your post - they cracked down on EXTERNAL bots in EQ2 while the SWG bots were INTERNAL. No conflict in policies that I can see
Have played: Everquest, Asheron's Call, Horizons, Everquest2, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer, Age of Conan, Darkfall
Damn simple for me. Having such activites (macroing etc.) is not critically attacking the game, nor giving that big advantage to those who use it. If it was PVP game, then it makes sense, but EQ2 is played for fun and having high level gained through macros is missing the important part, which is fun entertained during level gain.
On the other hand, I can imagine other players frustration watching this and finally I fully understand SOE doing their best to keep the game clean. Therefore I fully support their decision and I think this kind of approach should be applied not only to award-winning mmorpg titles on the market, but to every single online thing that allow people to compete each other (in whatever way).
Thanks SOE for that and keep the great job going (although my poor east-europe salary is suffering from the costs related to EQ2 in general, I know, quality needs to get rewarded)
Cheers !
p.s.: please apologize my english, I'm just learning
Is it just me or does no one see the reality of what this is about? I don't use bots, never have and never will, I don't like the idea of em, why pay to play if you just use a bot to play for you. BUT....the bigger picture and problem here is the fact that SOE games NEED so much friggin time to get anywhere...this isn't fun, its "WORK".
My point is, correct if I'm wrong, but a great game like WoW, I don't see bots at all, not saying they aren't there, just that I've never seen em or heard of em. Guess what...its because WoW doesn't require a year of grinding to do anything. So the problem is in the game mechanics and setup.
I wonder how much money they lose by banning this many accounts. I also wonder when game companies will blame themselves and not the customer for things like this.
Good Cheaters like them Shouldnt Allowed to Play!
Genesinki East Coast CS player
EQ2 is my 12th MMORPG I play in past 9 years and I feel it's the almost hardest one in particular areas. There's always something else to do, always something to improve and learn and onwards from decent level it's not easy at all. It's actually first MMORPG where I had to start using my brain while questing (except UO free shards ran by fans).
This means that EQ2 = hardcore MMORPG, you need good companions, settled society and established insight, I'd even say some abilities.
In other words, being L50 in WOW can easily be reached by 12 years old teenager in couple of weeks during summer holidays, without sacrifice to the community.
In EQ(2) you need to build up your virtual avatar and keep feeling being him(her) in order to stay "living" the virtual life and not getting bored. Wanna ruin this ? Allow technics that will bring this easy without the real involvement.
Simply said, I'm not going to play WOW because I tired of cheap fun while being offensed by teenagers who just don't have fun while playing but rather make fun out of the game because of lack of sense for honor.
So I'm more then happy that SOE keep the consistence of their unique product preventing someone ruining it just because being bored by not understanding it. Don't wanna contribute, don't pay, don't play, go elsewhere. Still only 700 out of 300.000
)
Listen I understand what you are saying about EQ2, I know I played it, was all excited about it. I love the graphics, the feel, the music. I hit level 20 and this all went downhill. It got to be tedious, boring, NOT FUN!
I don't care how MUCH there is to do, if its not fun, i'm not sticking around. It took alot for me to leave and try WoW, soon as I did though I didn't regret it. I have an alt for every class and race, have yet to max any of em(I'm close with my hunter he's 54) and I am 29 years old, and I know many who are above 20 who play this.
Now, I'm not attacking you or any who play this game, I am calling down the developers who had the nerve to call this "work" fun. My wish is that any future game will have the depth and "hardcore" qualities you are expounding while still giving me the FUN and userfriendliness WoW gives.
If they were banned for using bot scripring to make them kill monsters and gain exp, this is why more mmorpgs need to have twitch based combat.
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Give me lights give me action. With a touch of a button!
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
People that have macro programs have an unfair advantage over those that dont. You've never been in the crafting instance and seen the same person take hit after hit? Never use the counter spells? God I wish I could say that, besides cheating its annoying to listen to them groan and scream every 2 seconds. I craft with the sound down just because of that.
WTG Sony, heres one person that is definately on your side
with the new crafting buffs it pays to accually sit there and craft... though I personally can't stand crafting... I wouldn't mind having the ability to select a number when crafting... like make 10X Inks or whatever instead of having to make 10 of them seperately.. *sigh* it makes me want to use a bot...
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