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NY Attorney General takes aim at high-tech ticket scalpers
The state of New York has been known to take the lead on matters of consumer protection, and it looks like Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will do so once more. Schneiderman's office released a report titled "Obstructed View: What's Blocking New Yorkers from Getting Tickets" that details the "fixed game" of trying to secure admission to high-profile events. Following a three-year investigation, the report discusses an online ticketing business where brokers are use bots and other tech to nab loads of tickets in seconds. Of course, those tickets are then resold at higher prices based on demand.
Facebook Messenger might soon have an army of bots
Facebook has given select developers access to a secret SDK for Messenger, according to TechCrunch, one that they can use to build bots for the app. We're not talking about spambots or those AI chatbots you talk to when you're lonely -- we're talking about bot accounts you can send messages to in order to make purchases or to ask for info and directions.
DARPA wants to launch and land Gremlins on moving planes
DARPA wants to transform airplanes into drone carriers. Last year, the agency invited technical ideas and business expertise to help create a reusable airborne system. Today, it announced the launch of the Gremlins program that's designed to make that air-recoverable unmanned system a reality. According to Dan Patt, program manager at DARPA, the "goal is to conduct a compelling proof-of-concept flight demonstration that could employ intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and other modular, non-kinetic payloads in a robust, responsive and affordable manner."
Younger generations don't fear the robot revolution
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-999036{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-999036, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-999036{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-999036").style.display="none";}catch(e){} With every new bot on the block, we're inching closer to sharing our homes with machines. DARPA's recent Robotics Challenge wasn't about finding the best personal robot companion, but hinted at a future where they will run free (albeit very slowly) and rush to save lives when disaster strikes. But beyond the much-talked about hunt for first responder bots, DARPA had a lesser known contest that seemed just as pertinent as the main event. The agency set up Robots4Us, a contest for high school students, to reach out to the demographic that's most likely going to share space with robots. Teens from across the country sent in short videos about their hopes and fears for the future of robots. In the end, five young winners made their way to Pomona, California, for the robotics challenge to present their version of the future. Instead of the dystopian narrative that usually accompanies robotics, each student envisioned a collaborative space for robots and humans to coexist. Turns out, the generation that will most likely hang out with a bot at home isn't robophobic at all.
Google now lets you prove your humanity with a single click
There's something just a little insulting about having to prove your humanity to some website by pecking out some distorted words, but Google's rolling out a new, less tedious way for web developers to tell if you've got blood or oil pumping through your veins. All you'll have to do is tick a box on a desktop site or match related images on your phone et voila -- you're in. Most of the time, anyway.
The Repopulation expands alpha and focuses on bots
Above and Beyond has published The Repopulation's end-of-November report, and it's a doozy. The studio discusses the embiggening of its alpha thus far and the addition of new servers to handle the load. The devs have also been working on housing and city locations, a new character versioning system, a new cloning system, nation deeds, facial animations, and tooltips. Perhaps of most interest to sandbox fans disillusioned with this year's sandbox drama is A&B's focus on its bot detection code. "Our philosophy with bots is that once the game launches it is not really beneficial to ban characters unless they already invested a significant amount of time into the characters, otherwise they can just create a new free account and you need to detect them all over again," the devs wrote. "So we've focused our attention on reducing the benefits of botting. In addition skill gain penalties and stoppage, botters will see their harvesting results capped in quality, and a complete shut off of loot." Capping off the dev letter are 17,356 words' worth of patch notes. We counted. Check every last one out at the official site.
Blizzard issues thousands (more) Hearthstone bot bans
Good news, Hearthstone players. If you've been using a bot to automate your gameplay, you'll log in today to find a shiny new prize! Specifically, that shiny new prize is not being able to log in because you've been banned. Your prize was being banned. Blizzard has awarded this prize to "several thousand" Hearthstone accounts using third-party tools to automate gameplay; the bans are permanent, so no need to worry about losing them at the end of the season. Players who have not been botting and violating the game's TOS will also log in to find a shiny new prize, which is a play environment with far fewer bots. Isn't that nice? The official post reminds players to report suspicious behavior by emailing the development team so that in the future another group of cheaters can wake up to find a brand-new lifetime ban locking them out of the game. Those of you who can still log in may also want to take the opportunity to vote on the next teaser for the Goblins vs. Gnomes expansion. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Hearthstone bot-generator site closes down after bans
Blizzard's recent round of bans in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft have forced the closure of Crawlerbots, a site that provided automated gameplay options to Hearthstone and WoW players. Last week, Blizzard announced that it had banned "several thousand" accounts associated with third-party programs that automate actions in Hearthstone. The accounts were banned until 2015. The Crawlerbots website now carries the following message: "This is our last official announcement. The recent ban wave in Hearthstone hit a lot of users. After discussing this with Blizzard, it's clear we have to take off our services/products now. Please note that we're not going to be commenting further on this. Thank you all for being part of our community. We are very sad about this but you also know botting is against the rules and we all knew that the day when our products doesn't work anymore would come. With tears in our eyes we have to say bye." When Blizzard announced the bans, it said, "As we've stated, fair play is at the core of the Hearthstone experience, and cheating and botting will not be tolerated." In September, Blizzard revealed that Hearthstone had 20 million players worldwide.
Blizzard gives thousands of Hearthstone bots the boot
"Several thousand" bots have been banned from Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft recently, Blizzard revealed in a Battle.net blog. The developer found that the accounts were associated with third-party programs that automate actions within the game, and they will now be banned from the game until 2015. "As we've stated, fair play is at the core of the Hearthstone experience, and cheating and botting will not be tolerated," the developer said. "From this point on, accounts found to be cheating will be permanently closed without warning." Hearthstone players that believe they've encountered an exploitative account in the game are encouraged to report it to the developer at hacks@blizzard.com. The popular digital card game will reach Android tablets by the end of the year with Android smartphones and iPhone following in early 2015. [Image: Blizzard]
Trion removing illicit gold from ArcheAge
Trion is serving notice to gold buyers that some of their ill-gotten gains are being removed from ArcheAge. "If you bought or were gifted gold from [a gold seller], you may see it disappear," the company wrote on its official forums. "We do have the ability to trace coin, and that's the gold that's being cleaned up right now." [Thanks Direpath!]
ArcheAge boasts two million registered players
ArcheAge's local launch has gone pretty well, according to producer Scott Hartsman. A recent letter to the players confirms last week's whispers that over two million players have registered for the game, which certainly goes a long way to explaining those launch queues. Between North America and Europe, the game currently has 21 active servers in total, and Hartsman stated that character creation restrictions are being rolled back as the populations begin to stabilize. The letter goes on to address the issue of bots, many of which have already been unceremoniously ejected from the game. The game's most recent patch restricts chatting in several channels (Faction, Trade, Nation, Shout, and Need Party) to characters who are level 15 or higher, and a learning anti-spam feature is on track to be integrated into the base game. There's also discussion about catching up with holiday content and the like, so those two million registered players should have plenty of stuff to do.
Up to 23 million active Twitter accounts are bots (updated)
Twitter's said its active user base is growing, but not every account that's active is necessarily a flesh-and-blood human. Alongside those verified accounts of the stars, there are all kinds of bots that use the service to deliver completely stupid nonsense, sudden (urgent!) sale news and even earthquake reports -- well, some have their uses. Twitter's now disclosed some specific numbers, noting that bot accounts total up to 8.5 percent of its active user count at the end of June. That's roughly 23 million tweeters that aren't human - and probably aren't going to be clicking on that ad for Innovative Cloud Storage Solutions any time soon. Update: Twitter reached out to Engadget and Quartz to clarify: this 8.5 percent are accounts that have "automatically contacted our servers for regular updates", which could also include our own Twitter feed. Twitter's SEC filing does go into particularly deep specifics on this, however.
WildStar bans thousands of botters
Carbine Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney informed the WildStar community last night that the team is waging a serious fight against botters, having suspended 7,300 accounts in the last few days. "Obviously 7,300 is a tiny fraction of the overall player base, but it's a noticeable chunk of the current bots," Gaffney wrote. He pointed out that over half of those accounts were regular players who had their accounts hijacked and urged players to use two-factor authentication as a preventative measure. To aid in the war against bots, the team will be improving the reporting process and tuning its automated bot detection. Gaffney said that the studio will be unrelenting in its prosecution of such accounts: "We're attacking this with a full-spectrum approach as a placeholder until we get to the better tools that should help in the short-medium term. We acknowledge it sucks when you see obvious cheaters, and we're working to eliminate it."
Elder Scrolls Online disables forum PMs, encourages outing gold sellers
The Elder Scrolls Online has disabled PMs... on it's official forums, at least. ZeniMax is attempting to combat gold-spammers, and it's going a step further by setting aside a portion of its Code of Conduct and encouraging players to publicly identify suspected spammers. We request that anyone who has received a private message they believe to be from a gold spammer to post the sender's username as a comment in this thread. As we have disabled PMs, you will not be able to access your inbox on the forums, but if you received an e-mail notification to alert you to the PM you received, the sender's username should be in that e-mail. Please note that our Community Code of Conduct does prohibit naming and shaming. However, in an effort to expedite the process of identifying and banning the spammers' accounts, we are making an exception for this situation. We will investigate each alleged spammer account individually to avoid false reports. [Thanks alleomurand!]
The Daily Grind: How can bots be so prevalent in a sub game?
Have you ever wondered why MMO devs do (or don't do) certain things? I have, and my latest bit of wondering concerns The Elder Scrolls Online and its bot problem. "Problem" is used somewhat subjectively here, because the infestation of AFK players in Tamriel hasn't harmed my personal play to any measurable degree, though I'm sure it's doing no favors for the long-term health of the in-game economy. But when I see a cluster of five or six AFK melee bots around every single public dungeon boss, "problem" is the only word that comes to mind. I'm not exaggerating, either, I have literally seen 24/7 bot camps in all of the public dungeons from Glenumbra to the Alik'r desert. Yeah, ZeniMax says it's aware of the problem and is doing something about it. But, let's get back to my wondering in the opening paragraph up there. What, exactly, is the company doing about it? ESO is a subscription game, which means that all of those bots entered credit card numbers that can be immediately and permanently banned. Is ZeniMax doing this? If so, why not say that instead of the nebulous devspeak in yesterday's update letter. If not, why not? I understand the futility of trying to ban bots in a F2P game where new accounts are as easy as a new Gmail address and an IP spoof, but I don't understand how so many of them can continue to exist in a game that requires a CC for access. And hey, I would ask ZeniMax myself if I thought I would get anything other than a PR non-answer. So instead, I'm asking you, Massively readers! What do you think? How can bots be so prevalent in a sub game? Bonus points if you have any relevant development insights to share in the comments. Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Elder Scrolls Online's Matt Firor posts on the state of the game
Elder Scrolls Online lead developer Matt Firor has posted a state-of-the-game address on the fantasy MMO's forum. Firor says that, yes, ZeniMax sees the groups of bots clustered around the game's dungeon bosses and that yes, it is taking steps to address the problem. "We regularly ban accounts involved in spam and bot activity," Firor says, but the scope of said activity is so large that it accounts for nearly 85 percent of ESO's customer service tickets. There's also a blurb about de-synched quests as well as a brief preview of the game's first major update that ZeniMax is currently prepping for ESO's test server.
Reddit's tech community just got scolded, is no longer front page news
Thousands of self-managed forums make up Reddit's sizable corner of the internet, but only a few dozen bear the coveted "default" status that places them on every new user's list of subscribed communities. Now, there's one fewer. A dramatic saga of censorship, poor moderation and keyword-based deletion scripts have ousted the technology subreddit (/r/technology) from the default list. The change came shortly after users sleuthed out a number of keywords that, if present in a post's headline, would cause it to be automatically deleted. The community's moderators eventually confirmed that a bot called AutoModerator was used to cull content -- specifically targeting politicized or controversial terms. Unfortunately, the banned words included terms like anti-piracy, SOPA, NSA, Snowden, Bitcoin and even CEO, ensuring that dozens of hot-topic stories would never make it to Reddit's front page.
Elder Scrolls Online lowers the banhammer
Elder Scrolls Online cheaters beware! ZeniMax is taking aim at your head with its mighty banhammer. Community Manager Jessica Fulsom posted an announcement today of the studio's opening shots against evil-doers: "Today, we made our first major strike against those who choose to cheat in ESO, permanently banning thousands. This is only the beginning of our ongoing efforts to keep the game free from botters, speed hackers, and gold spammers. We want to thank everyone who has sent in-game reports about these individuals in ESO -- your reports helped us identify many of the accounts we banned today."
Massively's hands-on with WildStar's Engineer
It must have been serendipity that got me into the WildStar beta the week after the Engineer was announced (well, that or a PR push, but what are the odds?). As my friends, my family, and those who come within shouting distance of my voice know, I am always drawn to Engineers in video games. Whether the game be Team Fortress 2, Guild Wars 2, or Warhammer Online, if I have a big wrench, turrets, guns, pets, and/or lots of gadgets, I'm a pretty satisfied human being. WildStar's Engineer almost sounded too good to be true to me: a heavy armor-wearing ranged class that could DPS or tank while fielding combat robots. There might have been mention of a mech suit as well, but by that point I was twitching on the floor after suffering a happiness seizure. But would this perfect match on paper meet up to the cold, colorful reality when I got into the game? There was only one way to find out. Honey, take the kids out for the next two days, for I have space clobbering to do!
Jagex upgrades RuneScape infrastructure after DDoS attacks
If you've been experiencing disconnections or prolonged lag while trying to play RuneScape lately, it's probably not just you. Service disruptions have been ongoing for "over a year now," according to a post on the game's official website. Jagex and its browser-based fantasy title have been "the target of numerous DDoS attacks," CEO Mark Gerhard writes. The motives "tie closely with removal of bots and gold farming," Gerhard says, before explaining that Jagex has just "made a multi-million pound investment" in IT infrastructure upgrades and is also working with global law enforcement "to bring the people responsible for these attacks to justice."
