Tag: bots

Jagex Bans High Profile Gamblers and Botting Clans


 

Hi,

Today we have banned several high-profile accounts from the dicing scene.

We can happily confirm that the ring leaders found to be involved in selling RuneScape gold have been banned. Their actions have directly funded a sizable portion of all real world trading activity within the game, led to increased macro use, and resulted in huge surges in spam advertising.

Such actions are strictly against our rules, and all accounts have been wiped and permanently nuked.

This should serve a clear warning to anyone else engaged in similar activities; expect more bans of any continuing offenders.

We have been finely tuning our new anti-cheat and anti-hijack tools over the past few months and are now steadily bringing these systems online in select areas. This is part of an on-going rollout that will be completed over the course of next two months. More good news will follow in due course.

Some of you may already have noticed that we have started cleaning up the high scores over the last week and this will assist us in being able to re-introduce relevant gold farmer free F2P high scores again. :)

Mark Gerhard
CEO

Hi,

Today we have banned a large number of accounts involved with self-titled “botting clans”. All of these accounts have been identified by our new data analysis tool and are 100% guilty of breaking our rules. These accounts have been permanently banned with no chance of appeal.

As mentioned on the forums yesterday, expect more bans and punishments in the very near future.

The use of bots will not be tolerated and will result in permanent action against any accounts found to have cheated in this way.

Daniel Clough
COO & VP of RuneScape

Incoming Bot Nuke: March 2012


Jacmob is the creator of RSBuddy, one of the major bots back in the day. Why is he important? Following the bot nuke, and the shuttering of RSBuddy, Jacmob was hired by Jagex to work on anti-bot solutions. In a post on the RSBuddy forums, Jacmob talks about an upcoming March 2012 bot nuke:

It’s been a while since that preliminary bot nuke last October. Now that there’s been time for competent people to move on and various arrangements to be made, I will soon be making my final announcement on RSBuddy. In particular I will speak about the end of RSBuddy and what the approach will be to any further related projects. I will also speak in general terms about the larger bot nuke that’s due in shortly, which should encompass every type of bot and conclude the development time needed to deal with bots for a long while.

Hopefully there will be more details soon.

Jagex Unveils ‘Optimus’ Anti-Bot Technology


I don’t think I’ve used that screenshot in almost two years. Last October, Jagex accomplished what many of us had thought to be impossible: busted a grand majority of the bots in RuneScape in one single move known today as Bot Nuke Day, or Project Clusterfutterer. The update demolished reflection and injection bots, or 98% of the bot community according to Jagex’s estimations, and has proven to be successful enough that 40% of the player base was banned within the following month.

On the main RuneScape website, Jagex is enjoying their recent major victory over a major bot writer in a recently settled case, and they announced plans for even more bot eradication, this time focusing on the more basic bots that auto-click or search the screen for specific colors.

We remain committed to our ongoing work to ensure that the successes of Bot Nuke Day are never undone by staying a few steps ahead in the arms race with the remaining bot developers and gold farmers. We’re already well underway with our next generation of anti-botting software called Optimus, which is going to be released shortly, and we’re also currently developing ways to remove the remaining screen-scraper bots from the game. We’ll also be continuing to fight gold-farmers on every front.

Jagex has done quite a bit over the past months to completely rid their game of cheaters and scam artists, from the bot nuke back in October to the removal of popular gambling tools. With the upcoming Stellar Dawn and Transformers Online, Jagex losing their reputation as saturated with cheaters can only boost the game’s receptions.

Jagex Unveils 'Optimus' Anti-Bot Technology


I don’t think I’ve used that screenshot in almost two years. Last October, Jagex accomplished what many of us had thought to be impossible: busted a grand majority of the bots in RuneScape in one single move known today as Bot Nuke Day, or Project Clusterfutterer. The update demolished reflection and injection bots, or 98% of the bot community according to Jagex’s estimations, and has proven to be successful enough that 40% of the player base was banned within the following month.

On the main RuneScape website, Jagex is enjoying their recent major victory over a major bot writer in a recently settled case, and they announced plans for even more bot eradication, this time focusing on the more basic bots that auto-click or search the screen for specific colors.

We remain committed to our ongoing work to ensure that the successes of Bot Nuke Day are never undone by staying a few steps ahead in the arms race with the remaining bot developers and gold farmers. We’re already well underway with our next generation of anti-botting software called Optimus, which is going to be released shortly, and we’re also currently developing ways to remove the remaining screen-scraper bots from the game. We’ll also be continuing to fight gold-farmers on every front.

Jagex has done quite a bit over the past months to completely rid their game of cheaters and scam artists, from the bot nuke back in October to the removal of popular gambling tools. With the upcoming Stellar Dawn and Transformers Online, Jagex losing their reputation as saturated with cheaters can only boost the game’s receptions.

Jagex Wins Lawsuit Against Bot Makers


In a measure that will certainly cause more rage-filled comments here at MMO Fallout, Jagex has won their case against bot makers, with some tasty bit of extra information to top it off. In the case of Jagex Vs Impulse Software, the judge ruled in favor of Jagex on counts of copyright infringement under federal law, circumvention of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, trademark infringement under federal law, Computer fraud and abuse under federal law, and Tortious interference with contract (Tortious interference is when your actions damage a company’s relations with customers/business partners).

In addition, the members of Impulse Software are now forbidden by court order to write bots for any Jagex game, help write bots for any Jagex game, and even play any Jagex game, as well as releasing the source code for their bot software. The URL’s will be transferred into Jagex’s possession, as well as a large amount of documents they had relating to the program. In addition, Impulse has been ordered to put out a public apology.

The amount that Impulse is paying to Jagex has been sealed, so how can this news get juicier, I hear you ask. Pay attention to this little snippet:

Within 10 days of the entry of this Order, Defendants shall identify and provide all contact information in their possession to Jagex for all current or past resellers,script developers, code developers, and customers for any product marketed, licensed, or sold by Defendants dealing with any Jagex Game.

The developers and customer list handed over to Jagex? I smell Jagex Vs Jon Doe 2: Electric Boogaloo coming soon to a theater near you.

(Court document)

Everquest Channels Jagex: Sends Cheaters Final Warning


Players who partake in cheating are hereby put on notice: stop now. This isn’t an idle warning. We have quietly invested significant behind the scenes effort into detecting cheaters quickly and accurately. The vast majority of players enjoy the game on a fair and even playing field. Those who gain unfair advantage over others will not be tolerated.

Everquest is among the elders in our list of MMOs and while the game has seen updates over the years to allow for more a more casual friendly experience, the game still stands as one of the hardest on the market. Unfortunately, the engine and the systems in place have aged far in their years, and the Everquest team has a lot on their plates to deal with hackers (real hackers exploiting the engine, not your run of the mill bug abusers). Well, on the official forums, SOE Piestro has unsheathed his sword (pictured above) and issued a final warning to cheaters: Stop now, or face the +5 banhammer of troll smite.

Ten Ton Hammer published an incredibly in-depth article earlier this year discussing the epidemic that is hacking in Everquest, which you can read here. Scripts and bots that allow players to warp themselves and NPCs, despawn bosses, and more. At the end of the interview, we’re left with a tease that investigations into cheating would ramp up once Veil of Alaris was completed.

Best of luck to the Everquest team in fighting this never ending threat.

It’s Bot Stomping Day In Runescape


It’s bot stomping day on Runescape, and that can only mean one thing: Celebration. Now, I’ll be celebrating in the usual fashion (cooking goulash and decorating my bathroom with crepe wrappers), but over at Runescape Jagex is celebrating with in-game events all week. Check out the announcement here, and prepare for a full week of extra experience, points, and more.

Yes, the servers are still down as of this writing, but what is a nuke without an accompanying electromagnetic pulse? I have a bit more coverage of Bot Nuke Day in Runescape coming up.

It's Bot Stomping Day In Runescape


It’s bot stomping day on Runescape, and that can only mean one thing: Celebration. Now, I’ll be celebrating in the usual fashion (cooking goulash and decorating my bathroom with crepe wrappers), but over at Runescape Jagex is celebrating with in-game events all week. Check out the announcement here, and prepare for a full week of extra experience, points, and more.

Yes, the servers are still down as of this writing, but what is a nuke without an accompanying electromagnetic pulse? I have a bit more coverage of Bot Nuke Day in Runescape coming up.

Jagex Announced Project Clusterfutterer: Bot Nuking On Tuesday


Coming on the heels of yet another announcement to ban bots, Jagex has formally announced Project Clusterfutterer. Mark Gerhard posted an announcement on the Runescape home page stating:

Today, I am really happy to say we are in the long-awaited position of being able to announce that we’ll be launching our most formidable bot-busting weapon in our history, targeting what we believe to be 98% of the bots seen in game.

The initiative aims at “reflection bots,” so called programs that operate by reading the information being processed in active memory and act upon it, similar to how AI in a single player game always knows where you are because the active memory tracks your location. At least that’s my understanding of reflection bots.

Check out the full announcement here. Jagex is so excited, they have a plan of events next week to celebrate Bot Nuking Day.

Video of the ___: Runescape, Cheater’s Paradise


I care little for the inner-drama in MMOs, so the fact that the person who posted this was a player moderator, and had his status revoked afterward, plays no part in this video being posted here. With the overwhelming quantity of gold farmers that have infested Runescape since its reinstatement of free trade, Jagex has taken to issuing the usual “don’t look over there, look over here,” developer blog, promising that they’re doing something to stop the bots.

And more importantly: What is Jagex doing to keep the game from being swamped with bots and gold farmers like it was pre-trade? They seem to be very sure of themselves that their secret weapon can combat this.

I’m still waiting to see this secret weapon.