Bots have been present in World of Warcraft: Season of Discovery since the game’s launch, but a new wave of behavior has escalated the problem to an entirely new level.
Reports of significant bot activity in Season of Discovery have been seemingly ever-present, though their pursuits and prevalence have altered over time. Chiefly, they have been used to farm valuable materials to sell for in-game gold.
This gold is then sold via third-party websites for real-world currency. The issue received more attention after popular streamer Sodapoppin admitted to buying gold for the Hardcore version of Classic WoW. This resulted in the gold being removed rather than the expected lengthy ban.
Now, bots have adopted a new, more frightening tactic to stop players from interrupting their nefarious activities.
Bots report players who farm them for kills
In a post on Reddit, one user shared their experience of being banned after farming a bot for honorable kills. After interrupting its activity, the bot automatically reported the player, and they were given a short-term ban.
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Responding to the post, one user underlined the difficulty of the job Blizzard faces in banning the bots. They said: “Yeah, the problem is in the time one bot got banned, they made enough money to get replacements already because that system is too slow. We either need GMs banning them by hand instantly or a system to detect them automatically.”
Others called into question the motivations of the poster, with one saying: “[The post is] absolutely a scare tactic. Whether or not this actually happens doesn’t matter. They want to spread this knowledge around that there is a risk of getting banned if you fuck with bots. They would rather people just not mess with their bots in the first place.”
Whatever the truth is, the murky issue of bots continues to plague Blizzard and its latest World of Warcraft offering. Individual developers have confirmed they are actively looking to address the problem, but the population remains significant.
