Riot I DEMAND an answer

FarRockBF·Feb 1, 2015·32 votes·2,091 views

How does a BILLION dollar company not deal with IP farming bots for over a year?

And they are getting ridiculous. I just played a normal 3s match. All 5 other people were bots. Yup, 2 names stuck together and ghost + heal. Running into enemy turrets etc.

But they are getting smarter:

They now use abilities and target people. They use to just AA.
They actually chat. Random COMMON words. Like last game the Vicktor randomly chatted "lol" and "holy shit" and "...". I asked multiple times to confirm that they were not bots but of course no answer... and of course they kept running into enemy turrets.

Please tell me you are doing something about this. I keep reporting them and keep seeing the same ones over and over.

27 Comments

FarRockBFFeb 1, 201519 votes

But it doesn't feel like they aren't really doing anything about it? I mean come on..., there is no "Report as IP Bot" option...

That's insane given their numbers.

EndariusFeb 1, 20157 votes

{quoted}

But it doesn't feel like they aren't really doing anything about it? I mean come on..., there is no "Report as IP Bot" option...

That's insane given their numbers.

This.

Matthias9119Feb 1, 20154 votes

It's not something Tribunal could really evaluate, and the current reporting options were set up for Tribunal.

Open a ticket here to report these types of accounts: https://support.riotgames.com/hc/requests/new

junglerboy16Feb 2, 20151 votes

It isn't about the tribunal (sorry if you didn't know, but it hasn't been in use for over a year), it is about riot dishing out bans to these accounts.

Matthias9119Feb 2, 20151 votes

Riot does ban them. New ones get created constantly.

There isn't a post game report option for "botting" because the report options were set up for Tribunal and Tribunal could not evaluate claims of botting. And yes I know it's down, but Riot is still using that reporting framework internally to handle reports.

Hopefully when they rework Tribunal they will overhaul the report categories as well.

JubbinautFeb 2, 20151 votes

I believe I read a comment somewhere that they were considering it pretty heavily. I don't, however, think that it's likely to be in the direction people are expecting.

From what I recall, they were talking more about removing redundant report categories, rather than adding new ones.

Matthias9119Feb 2, 20151 votes

Yes, but "this player is actually an IP farming bot" is not currently covered by the reporting system at all.

JubbinautFeb 2, 20151 votes

Which is, I think, intentional. Lyte made a comment on it on Reddit (I think?) a while back.

Basically, they're not sure they want to make such a report option, because it would widen awareness of bots, making it appear to be a larger issue than it is (which is not to say that it's a small issue). There may be other reasons as well, but I think it's a matter of not wanting to validate it.

And while I'm honestly not sure if that's a good approach or a bad one, I don't think they are, either. So while - for now - they're going with it, they may yet add one in the future.

EDIT: Found the source!

We always have to be careful adding or removing options. For example, adding an option about botting or scripting actually raises visibility on those things for players who maybe had no idea it existed. There's been cases where "spotlighting" something negative has seen large increases of the behaviors... so we want to avoid that if possible.

Matthias9119Feb 3, 20151 votes

Well, there you go.

D0nCFeb 3, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Which is, I think, intentional. Lyte made a comment on it on Reddit (I think?) a while back.

Basically, they're not sure they want to make such a report option, because it would widen awareness of bots, making it appear to be a larger issue than it is (which is not to say that it's a small issue). There may be other reasons as well, but I think it's a matter of not wanting to validate it.

And while I'm honestly not sure if that's a good approach or a bad one, I don't think they are, either. So while - for now - they're going with it, they may yet add one in the future.

EDIT: Found the source! There's been cases where "spotlighting" something negative has seen large increases of the behaviors... so we want to avoid that if possible.

They do it because they want people to remain ignorant and assume this game is cheat free or that the issue is insignificant.

Covering their ass is what they are doing.

JubbinautFeb 3, 20151 votes

I suppose that's one way to look at it, yes.

Matthias9119Feb 1, 20159 votes

How does a BILLION dollar company not deal with IP farming bots for over a year?

You answered your own question:

[the bots] are getting smarter

Riot figures out what they're doing, the botters make a more advanced bot that Riot can't detect, then Riot tries to figure out what they changed and it keeps going. It is very difficult to reliably detect and get rid of client-side scripting/botting. It will likely never go away completely.

Literally every game I've played that involves "grinding" in some way eventually attracts botters, because people will pay to avoid the grind and botters will undercut what a F2P game charges to avoid it. League is the most-played game in the world right now and attracts a lot of attention from people looking to exploit its success.

ModKnightsKemplarFeb 1, 20153 votes

Downvote this gentleman if you must, but he's right. If you have a suggestion on how to get rid of them, I'm sure Riot wold love to hear it. It's not just a case of willful ignorance. They don't like it any more than you, because it costs them money if people quit their game in frustration.

LearndingFeb 1, 20153 votes

{quoted}

You answered your own question:

Riot figures out what they're doing, the botters make a more advanced bot that Riot can't detect, then Riot tries to figure out what they changed and it keeps going. It is very difficult to reliably detect and get rid of client-side scripting/botting. It will likely never go away completely.

Literally every game I've played that involves "grinding" in some way eventually attracts botters, because people will pay to avoid the grind and botters will undercut what a F2P game charges to avoid it. League is the most-played game in the world right now and attracts a lot of attention from people looking to exploit its success.

You've now again just proven Riot Games should just sell their company to Amazon and cash out while they can. Their company is useless, they are worthless individuals that have proven on many a occasion, not only are they completely incompetent, lackadaisical, two faced, and a bunch of assholes; but they've done so little because of your fucking dumbfounded response to this fucking post. Seriously stop defending Riot like they've actually given back to you in literally any caliber, ANY. They've copied almost every single major AAA gaming company multiple times, they ignore their player-base completely, their balance team couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat, Lyte is off trying to figure out how apples grow, their marketing team is still in 2001. I mean honestly, none of you on this forum can deny that Dota 2 and many other recent Moba's not only have perfected their flaws but fixed many of the ones Riot are still "Working on". All of you can attest to that, every single one of you.

Don't try to tell me that, "OH, WELL, RIOT GAMES HAS A LOT ON THEIR PLATTER". NO, NO THEY FUCKING DON'T. VALVE HAS A FUCKING WHOLE LOT ON THEIR PLATTER. VALVE MANAGES LIKE 9 HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL VIDEO GAMES AND STILL IS THE PRIME EXAMPLE OF A GREAT LEADING COMPANY. MEANWHILE RIOT OVER HERE IS STILL FIGURING OUT HOW TO FUCKING MAKE THE JUNGLE WORK, AND WHY PLAYERS ARE BEING DISCOURAGE FROM THE FUCKING GAME; STOP SAYING THIS COMPANY HAS SO MUCH FUCKING STUFF TO DO, THEY CANT EVEN FIX THEIR OWN GODDAMN FUCKING GAME CORRECTLY, LET ALONE SOLVE BLATANT ISSUES THAT THE COMMUNITY HAS BEEN POINTING OUT SINCE 2000 FUCKING 9.

JubbinautFeb 1, 20155 votes

While they are banning and removing these accounts as they find them, they're primarily focused on removing the incentive to bot.

For example, the upcoming (seriously, are they ever actually coming?) changes to the RAF system were intended specifically to remove significant incentive to botters. Permabanning accounts post-sale is intended to disincentivize buying the accounts (which should hit those who bot accounts to sell right where it hurts - the pocketbook).

And adding an "IP Bot" report option would do nothing more than make it a bigger issue as more people would become aware of it. There's exactly zero benefit to that, overall.

DrCyanideFeb 2, 20151 votes

I think the Surrender @ 20 post said the new system went live earlier this week.

http://rewards.na.leagueoflegends.com

JubbinautFeb 2, 20151 votes

Nice! Thanks!

And now I have to check my Warwick skins when I get home!

TrylobyteFeb 1, 20153 votes

Bots will always exist in free to play games.

Dealing with bots in a free-to-play game is literally impossible if you employ the simplistic 'Just ban the bots' approach. In fact, it actually makes the problem worse. If you start mass-banning bot accounts, those people who are making and selling those bot accounts still have their customers and they still have a quota they need to meet, so they will simply make a lot more bots to ensure they still meet their quota despite harsher ban actions. Remember, because the game is free to play there is no limit to the number of accounts they can conjure up at any given time. It's not an easy problem to deal with - Bots evolve along with the measures taken against them if there's an incentive for the botters to keep making them and selling accounts. Botters may not have as much money as the company, but they generally have more people, more time, and a much, much narrower focus in what they do.

The best way to manage the bot problem (because it's never going to go away entirely) is to hit their customers, which is, by all accounts, what Riot is doing. Lower the incentive to buy bot-farmed accounts, lower the number of bots farming accounts. It's the best that can be done realistically.

RaptameiFeb 1, 20152 votes

Riot should bring back IP gains in custom games. At least they'd bot in customs instead of ruining TT.

Silents429Feb 1, 20152 votes

The fact you are demanding anything makes me glad to know that no one at Riot will comment.

They are removing reasons to have bots, because trying to remove bots is really fucking hard to do. I mean unless you have a specific way outside of just reporting?

SlarkeSSCFeb 1, 20151 votes

From what I've seen, bots aren't all that easy to deal with. I figure if a company as big as blizzard still has problems with bots, Rito will too. Although I will say there should be a report a bot option.

2 much sauuuceFeb 1, 20151 votes

Bots are so fun. Especially in ARAM's. You can tell they are bots cuz they can't do their skills properly. I once saw a Varus bot charge his Q multiple times, and never ONCE fired it off the entire match. Was hilarious.

Urdnot EntarFeb 2, 20151 votes

How does a BILLION dollar company not deal with most of the game-breaking bugs that have been ruining games for years? How does a BILLION dollar company not deal with afk's/leavers/dc's for the most part? How does a BILLION dollar company not deal with having such a terrible ranked system for so long? How does a BILLION dollar company not deal with matchmaking issues for so long? How does a BILLION dollar company not deal with ...

...

FarRockBFFeb 2, 20151 votes

Honestly I don't give a crap about botters in custom or Coop games. But in normal on TT. It ruins the main gamemode I play :(.

And loads of people stopped playing TT specifically because of bots.

Yash GautamFeb 2, 20151 votes

This happened to me a while ago. I thought they got rid of this with the refer a friend thing.

D0nCFeb 3, 20151 votes

In all fairness I have rarely seen a bot outside of domination, scripts have come by the boatloads, though.

If they know bots have gotten smarter, why can't they simply add a fucking report system for Bots instead of 10 different forms of "he hurt my feelings" options?

Once an account has been labeled a bot user, freaken hire people to stalk those players and apply the law of the land accordingly.

OP is correct in asking where the hell is all the money going.