Customer Support checking in - we definitely can and do continue to action bots. However, there might not always be landmark sweeps where thousands of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. These actions happen on a couple levels.
Some are as simple as a Game Master investigating individual reports and we don't need more information on that particular system: we can close them down immediately. Other cases, we observe, monitor, and then detect/break the bot without needing player reports. Mass actions also occur, but those who barter and trade in illicit programs don't usually come to the WoW Forums to discuss it.
There's a combined effort of normal checks/sweeps that our Hacks team do, the reports that are sent to Game Masters via right-click reporting, and other research on how these programs interact with our games where we attempt to break those methods outright. However, much like real life, the game of "Good Guys vs. Bad Guys" is an ongoing game. We build a mousetrap, they build a better mouse, we improve the mousetrap, etc. We aren't resting on our laurels, and continue to iterate and build new systems and pull new data to help us find and remove cheaters.
If you see people exploiting bots/cheats in-game,
let us know. You can also email us tips at
[email protected]. In-game reports are best as it includes important information that players can't traditionally see (account details, play behavior information, etc), but where it's not possible the email is sufficient for us to kick off some research!
