Request: Anti-cheat system for rampant botting.

[Sotaris]

Another way is to go after the script writers directly, though that'd take time and resources SE probably isn't willing to invest. That said the botters are so blatant these days they probably wouldn't be hard to track down with CAD's or formal paperwork. It probably wouldn't stop all of them but tackling the people providing the scripting and shutting down the easiest ways to access it would go a long way. We're at the point where something has to give.

To play devil's advocate, do someone making a script breaking any rules/laws? Wouldn't the user be the one who breaking any Tos?

[Enla]

To play devil's advocate, do someone making a script breaking any rules/laws? Wouldn't the user be the one who breaking any Tos?

Depends on the game in question and how their ToS is worded. WoW for example was able to take some of their most notorious bot script writers to court a couple years back and won an $8.5mil judgment against them. SE could pretty easily sue them for breach of ToS (linked below) and then use the WoW case as precedent to pursue damages. Especially since many of the script makers charge money for their programs. The most prevalent gathering one, for example, requires an upfront fee for the services and then a monthly renewal to keep it running.

2.1 Cheating and Botting. You may not create or use any unauthorized cheats, bots, automation software, hacks, mods or any other unauthorized software or hardware designed to modify the Game and gameplay. In addition, you may not take advantage of game system bugs and exploits during gameplay.

Course they'd probably be able to get away with just sending out CAD's instead as suing people is often a long drawn out process.

[Sotaris]

Snip

Thank you for the long reply. I guess they would fall under 2.1 and maybe can be hold responsible. It sure would be a great deturent if they found one of the most used script and put them in court.

[KageTokage]

The fact that they have such an explicit statement against cheating in their ToS then do so little to actually combat it bugs me.

Their seeming attitude of "innocent until proven 100% guilty" really isn't working and should consider that if people are constantly piling them with reports that maybe there are a lot more cheaters in the game then their automated detection methods are suggesting.