Monday, November 26, 2012

Monday Random Thoughts

- I think I burnt myself out on pet battles.

- Top 1000 in the world now if you believe wow progress.

- Basically most of that in one weekend.

- Spent the entire weekend leveling pets.

- I didn't intend to, that is just how it works.

- Start battling and before you know it the entire day is gone.

- I swear pet battles are more addictive than heroin.

- Not sure about just adding up number of pets, rarity, and level.

- Doesn't seem like a solid way to judge a team but it is something I guess.

- Hard to make a ranking system for something that was not meant to be competitive.

- Something else I noticed is that pets will be the death of me.

- I have OCD about finishing things.

- Like reputation has to be 999/1000, just being exalted is not enough.

- Even missing that 1 bugs the crap out of me.

- This means having an uncommon is not enough.

- This means having a level 14 is not enough.

- I will need to catch a rare of everything and get everything to 25 or I will not consider my team complete, or done.

- I spent three hours this weekend looking for one rare.

- I leveled 7 pets from 6-15 in that time while fighting mobs looking for it.

- I finished off getting one of each pet type of pet to 25 for that achievement also.

- The undead one was the hardest.

- I can't find an undead pet I like.

- Ended up just picking any rare and running with it, just for the achievement.

- 13 pets away from 400 now.

- I like pet battles, and I hate them just the same.

- I do not mind grinding a pet to 25, no problem.

- I do hate checking spawn spots 5 times a day for weeks and still never seeing a rare spawn.

- Another horrible side effect of cross realm zones.

- Five or more servers worth of pet hunters looking for one pet that is a super rare spawn to begin with is not my idea of fun.

- Not sure who's idea of fun that would be.

- It makes competition more than competition, it turns it to luck and you know I hate luck as a deciding factor for anything in game.

- I'll level any pet from 1 to 25 even if it takes hours and hours on end.

- I do not want to spend those hours and hours on end camping one space doing nothing hoping to get lucky and get a spawn.

- And I sure as hell do not want to do it with 5 or 6 or 7 servers worth of people camping the same spot.

- Add to that you never know what server you will be on when you enter a cross realm zone.

- They say that it is best to try after server restart, which is another story all together.

- Why am I penalized for having a job?

- To the point I can never see a spawn because I actually work during the day.

- Putting that aside, how do I know the server I will show up on has had their server reset.

- Just because my server just reset doesn't mean the server they throw me on will have just reset.

- What if I log on after server reset and go to that zone and it is one hour ahead of me, that means their reset happened an hour ago and I missed it.

- What if I log on after server reset and go to that zone and it is two hours earlier, I have to wait 2 more hours?

- What if I wait that 2 more hours and go back and now that server is only 1 hour behind me and not two, which means once again I missed it by an hour.

- Screw cross realm zones.

- If blizzard has its heart content to ruin some aspects of the game with cross realm zones at least, at the very least, only put servers in the same time zone together.

- Is that really that much to ask?

- It would fix the timer issues and it would mean that the fishing tournaments could be started again.

- Either that or create an Azeroth time and have every server in the entire world run off Azeroth time and not our time.

- That way everyone plays in the same time zone, US or UK, won't make a difference.

- If I reference 2 PM it would be 2 PM Azeroth time, not my time, not my server time, game time.

- And someone even from the other side of the world would know the exact time I am talking about because when it is 2 PM on their server it is also 2 PM on mine.

- Cross realm zones are a joke but the bigger joke is that blizzard did not even once consider that time issues would be a problem.

- How do these people hold jobs if something as simple as the concept of telling time completely passes over their heads?

- Not the brightest blubs in the bunch I tell you.

- I caught a bot this weekend and I reported it.

- I put in a ticket at first, in hopes to getting a quick response and action to it instead of just right clicking the name and reporting for cheating.

- Blizzard responded within seconds to my ticket.

- Amazing what using the words bot and hack in your ticket will do.

- You will love the response they gave me.

- They told me that they do not handle that sort of thing.

- So a level 85 flying across jade forest is okay?

- I don't know about you, but you do not need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that a character flying in a zone that they can't possible fly in is using a hack of sorts.

- This should be the easiest part of a GMs job, no need for an investigation, it is a hack plain and simple.

- An 85 flying is proof in and of itself.

- But don't worry, blizzard said they do not care.

- Seriously, they said it is not their job.

- So instead of saying they will turn that information over to some one that can do something about it.

- So instead of going over there themselves and seeing this level 85 and banning him.

- So instead of doing what we paid subscriptions in part for.

- They just say "not my job" and ignore the fact someone is breaking the ToS?

- They even had the balls to send me a questionnaire asking me what I thought of my recent ticket and how it was handled.

- You should know by now I tell the truth and if they do not want to hear the truth they should stop sending me these things.

- I said, I observed a level 85 flying in a level 90 zone mining and put in a ticket so they could ban the account.  I was told it was not their problem.  So botting and hacking are legal now?  When did the ToS change, please get back to me and let me know so I can get a bot program too being it is now allowed.

- I am expecting a ban myself.

- I reported it from a few different characters using the right click thing and each report I got increasing hostile with them.

- I did not do them one after the other, I did them over time.

- 1st report.  This level 85 was seen flying, yes flying, in jade forest gathering nodes.  It is clearly a bot using a flying hack of some sort.  Come take a look for yourself.

- 2nd report.  A few hours ago I reported this level 85 flying around picking node and it is still doing it.  Do you have any intention of banning them.  It was reported hours ago.

- 3rd report.  Bot is still at it and you still do not care it seems.  What is taking you so long to ban a level 85 flying in a zone they can not fly in.  What more proof do you need?  Do your jobs already.

- 4th report.  The bot I reported a still running around, please tell me if this is now legal and I am just wasting my time.  The last thing I need is to get banned myself for reporting someone for doing something that is not illegal.  If it is legal now I will stop reporting it but you have to let me know.  Communication is a good thing.

- 5th report.  I know it is not your job to actually do anything useful as you are proving by your inaction but could you at least attempt to give a crap and ban this 85 flying around jade forest mining and picking herbs.  At least pretend like you give a shit.

- 6th report.  I hate to tell you how to do your job but since you can not figure it out I will help.  Come take a look for yourself, see him flying, see his level as 85, see the zone does not allow a level 85 to fly, now for the hard part, use your brain and notice he is a bot and ban him.

- I bounced from character to character making reports every few hours all day long, had guild mates do the same, report on all their characters.

- All in all I would say this bot alone had over 40 tickets put in by the right click and choose cheating option.

- Those are just the ones I know about, who knows how many others noticed it and took the time to report it.

- All day long this went on and blizzard did nothing.

- A GM responded to my ticket really fast to tell me it is not his job basically but they could not take 3 seconds out of their busy day of scratching their balls to go look for themselves and to do their job.

- How much do you want to bet I get banned for abusing the report feature for reporting the bot from all my characters before the bot gets banned?

- The way blizzard works that would make perfect sense.

- Ban the person doing the right thing, let the person doing the wrong thing get away scott free.

- Welcome to wow. (see last post if you do not get that reference)

- Have a nice day.

23 comments:

  1. The whole point at trying after a server restart, is taht servers are not merge immediately.

    There is a delay between the time the server get online and servers being merged. Not sure of how long it takes though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for that note. Being I am working during server restart normally I do not have the chance to see it for myself nor do I know how it works in regard to that.

      I still believe it does give an unfair advantage to the people that play at those times. Not game breaking mind you, but it is still annoying to see people running around saying, "it is not hard to get" when in fact it is.

      Delete
    2. I agree, I was merely pointing the reason why logging in at server restart is useful despite CRZ.

      Delete
    3. That does explain why everyone in the wowhead comments says they find lots of them after restarts. Thanks.

      Delete
  2. I had a bee in my bonnet about people abusing the ToS Naming Policy. If Blizzard doesn't care then why did they make a song and dance about making it easier to report people.

    I could not name my Panda Bamboobob, because it has boob in the title, but there is a Shaman on my server called Mykhunt.

    Using hacks is something that Blizzard should be very concerned about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If me and my guild mates and possibly others were reporting it over and over during the course of 16 hours all day yesterday and they did nothing, they don't care, it is as clear as the nose on your face.

      Sad to see that they take no actions against something like that. I can understand if it were a 90 I thought was botting, they would need to investigate it. There is no need to investigate an 85 flying there, the fact is the flying is all the proof that it is a bot that you need.

      Makes me wonder what they do care about if they do not care about people hacking their system.

      Delete
    2. I think it's a little more complicated than that.

      Banning hackers/bot straight after a report isn't useful, because it treats the sypmtoms, not the cause.

      I mean, you ban the guys, good.

      Now he buy another license, and return to botting, big deal.

      They have to monitor a hack/bot in action to understand how it works, and make sure they can block it.

      Delete
    3. I understand that theory but it doesn't help the people that are playing the game in any way.

      So who cares if they buy another account, cool, more money blizzard makes and they can ban them again and let them buy it again to make even more money.

      Addressing the underlining problem is fine and I can understand that, but at least contact us, the players that are reporting it, to let us know they are doing that or I will keep reporting it every time I see it on all my characters.

      It is all about appearance.

      If I report something and nothing happens it appears they do not care. They need to learn a little about customer service and realize that talking to people, even if you are full of crap and just saying it to appease them, goes a long way in developing faith in the system. Their tight lipped way of handling things just makes me want to go get a bot and do it myself because as far as I am concerned they have already told me they just do not care.

      If one of my reports had a mail sent to me saying thank you for reporting it, we are monitoring the bot to see how it works so we can completely disable to system from ever doing it again. There is no need to report it on all your characters. I would have stopped sending in reports and felt like something was being done. Being report after report saw no results and a GM said to me directly that they do not handle that stuff all gives the appearance they do not care, so why should I?

      Delete
    4. (different Anon)

      I had the opposite result myself this weekend, I reported a botter in Jade Forest as well (bouncing about 10' off the ground, not flying as such), within an hour a GM replied via in-game chat, thanked me very much for my report and said that they had a team looking into it. As previous Anon said, they don't just immediately ban botters, they have to monitor them for a while so they can figure out how to close whatever loophole they're exploiting. While I'm not the biggest fan of Blizzard's code of silence about what happens after you report, this is one of those cases where I trust they're generally on the ball.

      Well, except for your GM in particular, I can't account for that reaction. It is their job and they do care. As long as you filled out a scorecard honestly about that interaction, I'd expect a better result next time.

      Delete
    5. Seems like you had a decent GM that did their job correctly. I did not. For each bad experience there is a good one like yours.

      That is all I asked for, someone to actually say something and acknowledge there is a problem, not to just shove a complaint off to the side with a "not my job" attitude.

      Delete
  3. yeah, I have reported that cheat and hack since I saw it happen the 3rd day of Mists (flying of lvl 85's). Saw it on several horde toons, then on several alliance toons. Bliz doesn't care but I have not received the same type of responce as you did (I'm on Rexxar and 5 other servers via crz's (death to proudmorons!). But I still notice that those same lvl 85's are flying outside of Jade Forest now. :( So, now at this late date, Blizzard could care less. "Welcome to WOW" :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Proudmorons... that is a new one. Never heard that before.

      I have one character on proudmore. Have not played it since wrath however.

      Is it sad when even the GMs have the welcome to wow attitude.

      Delete
    2. yeah, that is my term for the leading jerk offs in the CRZ's - the ones who jump lines, grab mobs, etc, etc. I am guessing that since they were one of the largest packed servers, that it is a learned response. Now, they bring that same response to the CRZ's, it is fustrating(like we discussed in last weeks or so postings). And with the raping of the lower levels they are the ones from that server that I see. And at level 90, they are the ones griefing everyone with the dropping of mobs on a single person, etc. So all you folks from Proudmore, be proud. Welcome to Wow.

      I would say "come to Rexxar for a great experience", but that is no more with CRZ's and I would bet that next is all servers doing all the zones on one.

      Delete
  4. Seems you've had your 'welcome to wow' moment for the week again :P

    Seriously though, while I understand your anger (Halls of Lightning have been a bot-hotspot on this side of the pond for weeks now, with little visible action taken, and let's not even start on the Battleground situation)do not forget that during Cata they laid off a lot of people who would be combatting this kind of stuff.

    Personally, I think that that is a big (if not the) root cause of why botting happens on such a scale at the moment.

    As for CRZ: if it helps, if we believe the counts of some EU posters (little reason to doubt them, given the fact-based posting history of at least one of them) EU Realms can be linked with up to 11 other servers...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why halls of lightning? If you know that is. Kara was big for a long time here when the started those resurrection accounts.

      Wow, 12 servers on one. I know they lost 2 million subscribers but this end of the world lets combine everything stuff is a little much if you ask me.

      Yeap, I got my welcome to wow for the week from a GM nonetheless.

      Delete
    2. Bot-anica is to my knowledge favored because it is remote, filled with mob packs dropping nice stackable Greys, and can be pulled (if of sufficient level & Class) in one go pretty much without slowing down.

      HoL is also remote, also has Vendors nearby, but that's all I can think of, it's been too long since I've been there, and (unlike with Botanica) never with a character of suffcient level/power to just plow through it. For some reason it seems to be loved by Paladin-bots, perhaps that helps :?

      Idd, though then again the 'Dead Server/Faction' issue has been going on for years over here (in some cases even since late Vanilla, I understand)

      Delete
    3. I guess if they are botting to make gold it makes some sense but there are so many better ways to make money than running any 70 or 80 dungeons 5 times in one hour. Oh well, who am I do say, I don't bot so I do not really know, maybe there is something more than gold to it that I do not know about.

      Delete
  5. Someone's been puffing on the pet battle crack pipe!! Welcome to the family! :D

    ReplyDelete
  6. http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/7922040/51_Landfall_Patch_Notes-11_27_2012

    Welcome to patch day!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Have to love that they finally addressed one of the CRZ issues, just have to wonder what took so long.

      Delete
  7. http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/246249-patch-51-realm-event-time-changes/

    They borrowed Grumpy's idea about changing the realm times... for events at least.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Coolness, I have been complaining about that for a while. They should listen to be more. ;)

      Delete