Forum Policy on User Agreement Violation Posts

[Mistryl]

This is a reminder about a specific forum policy regarding posts about botting, ebaying, and other violations of the Lineage II User Agreement.

Due to the inevitably circular nature of these topics and the comments we have made in the past, posts of this type are not sufficiently constructive and many repetitive posts on these issues are crowding out legitimate discussion topics. These repetitive topics will be locked or removed. Please use the Official Bot Detection Thread to relay your concerns on this issue and share information to assist us in our fight against these violations.

In constantly commenting on these topics, we have made the same points repeatedly. Below are some comments made by team members that should cover questions you may have about bots and other third-party programs that violate Lineage II’s User Agreement.

We would like to assure our customers that we recognize the concerns that they have regarding this issue. We have been using and will continue to use every means in our power to combat, prevent and punish these violations of our User Agreement.

Please understand that this policy is not intended as any form of "censorship", but as a means of keeping the posts on the official message board constructive and useful.

Thank you!


[color= orange]Official Comments on User Agreement Violations[/color]

From RustNC 11/21/06:

Regarding our robotic visitors, we have been banning 3rd Party software users very aggressively over the last year and change, due to some new processes and procedures. In that time, we've banned more than 70,000 bots, and we continue to get more and more efficient each week. We have personnel that are dedicated to this duty solely.

We're aware of the negative effects of these "players" on the service, so we're committed to combating this abuse in every manner we can.

-=-

From HGMspam 11/6/06:

We use the term 3rd party software because the word "bot" is so... well ugly. There are other legal reasons we use the term but we will not get into that.

We ban for bots. It is that simple. Don’t muddle the discussion with Ventrilo/Teamspeak, AV programs, or even Keyboard Macros. The makers of Ventrilo did not have to decrypt Lineage II to make their product work. AV programs may scan game packets for particular algorithms but I don't think Norton wants to take a castle or get better at the manor system. As for fancy keyboards and mice with macro software... you will have a GM knock on your screen before you are banned for that. Honestly, if your keyboard macro runs 9 accounts at the same time you need to go out and get a programming job 'cuz you got skillz.

Rule of thumb for bad software: If you or the maker of the software need to decrypt, alter, fake, enhance, or remove any part of the games software or communication it is bad.

This mean, you can use all of the Vent, TS, AV suites, Xfire, fraps, you can handle.

-=-

From HGMspam 3/15/06:

Violations of the User Agreement happen on a daily basis on all worlds and each is investigated and acted upon as necessary. Please understand that these actions will never be communicated to the public unless the Lineage II team feels if affects all customers as a whole. In the same vein we will never communicate when an investigation has begun for many obvious reasons. All of this is to prevent finger pointing as just because we are investigating someone does not make them guilty, just as accusing them does not.

When an allegation has been made by a customer on another an investigation always happens. Some of these investigations are easy and take little time (verbal harassment) and others take a lot of time and resources (guilds that bots, exploits, sells…etc.)

Understand that Lineage II support will not act in haste just to quite a protest. Methodical steps will be taken document all allegations of cheating before any action is taken (which again will not be communicated with the player base.)

-=-

From RustNC 2/10/06:

On the topic I'm sure many of you are interested in, we've been continuing our efforts to combat the use of 3rd party software and sale of virtual property. Since I first spoke to you about this in mid-September we've kept our effort consistent and continued to update and upgrade our methods of detection and punishment. I had stated in the past that I would not give a specific number again regarding the amount of accounts we terminate in our various policing programs. I will still not give a specific number, but as an update, we have banned over 21,000 accounts since my last letter to you on September 16th. We remain committed to combating players who do not abide by the EULA and will continue to do so. The support team works long and hard to make the game fair for the players who abide by the rules, and as we continue to push forward, they become more effective almost by the day.

-=-

From RustNC 9/16/2005:

For starters, I know the popular discussion around these parts are the botters and adena farmers. Let me begin by saying that we have always been working hard to combat this, but I'll admit that our methods in the past have not yielded the results many have been looking for. Yesterday we banned 2657 accounts for botting and using 3rd party software. This is result of some new and improved procedures we have currently underway. Obviously, I cannot go into detail as to these methods, but I will say that we feel it will make a significant impact on the presence of bots in the game going forward. This is not the first time we've banned this many, and it won't be the last, but it will probably be the last time I announce the specific number. As well, this procedure is just one of several ways we are looking to combat the presence of 3rd party software within the game. The North American Lineage II team is dedicated to making the game playable and enjoyable to our legitimate and hard-working players.

-=-

From HGMspam 8/12/2005:

Hello all,

I guess it is about that time again for me to make my usual bot post. I have been reading all of the threads about bots. Each one had a different take on the bot problem. Some were about policy (posting bot names, or how to catch them) and others were about how reporting did not work. I am basically going to try to cover all of the bases here and give you a “State of the Bots,” report.

The GM team has only been running at half capacity lately because of our big move. We are all here in our new home and ready to get back up to full speed. So expect some empty voids where some notorious bots use to roam.

Ok, now for skinny on bots: I am going to list some facts about bots, bot removal, reporting methods, and GM policy.

1. Gameguard works! No tool will ever stop all bots from working. Gameguard has stopped many 3rd party programs from working. Yes, I know which one it has not stopped. Look at it this way, if there is only one enemy for me to combat, it is much better than 20 (amount of high level botting programs before GG.)

2. Posting bot names: We will never, ever, ever, ever, post the names of the characters that are banned from service. Why? The simple answer is the owner of an account is free to smear their own reputation, but our company will not wade into the briar field of helping people make fools of themselves. Everyone has the right to make a fool out of themselves but NCsoft and Lineage 2 will not help them. This self imposed privacy rule may be strict but it protects everyone. (There has been many times that I would have loved to shout that “SoAndSo2020” was banned but realized that I would open the flood gates to many more problems in the future.)

3. Posting bots banned numbers: Here is another thing that deep down I would love to do. But what does it accomplish? Some folks would go “See I told you so! They do ban accounts.” Others would say “Pfft! Those numbers are fake.” So this post is the closest you will get to a banned disclosure until someone in marketing or production feels they need to say. So here it is… The GMs have banned more accounts than some MMO’s have concurrent users.

4. Reporting bots: Reporting bots is important, but this is not our only method of catching bots. (I will talk about testing methods later.) Reporting bots helps us identify problem areas. You should not expect to be able to report somebody and have them disappear instantly. It does not work that way. Your reports move that bot or group to a top of a list of characters “to be tested.” You can report bots anyway you like but you do have to include at least one bot name. You do not have to put in every name you see in a train for us to take action. “SoAndSo is in a bot train,” is just fine. I have seen posts where customers have said that they have had their petitions closed out because they could not list all members of a bot train. I am looking into this as that should not happen.

5. Testing Methods: We have several tests for bots. Some of the tests are obvious and others are not. Some of you that have been tested may know what I am talking about. (I will talk about false reports later.) We have some tests that are GM side only. This means it is non-invasive and you will never see it. These tests are the ones that really identify bots. Most of the bot tests you do see are very simple tests that try to break a bots routine.

6. False reporting: False reporting of bots has always happened. This is something we are quite aware of. This is one of the reasons that bot banning is not instant. We take account termination very seriously and do not want a loyal customer banned. I have seen some discussions where customers are afraid that they could be mistaken for a bot just for playing normally. This will never happen. As long as you play this game as it was intended you will not be removed from service. I have also seen discussions where a customer was reported several times (falsely) and had their game play was interfered with because of a GM test. Some of our tests are invasive I will admit. I am working on changing that as long as it does not sacrifice our service. In a perfect world you should never have to speak to a GM.

7. Finally I would like to give a big thanks to all of my hard working GMs that make this process possible. Believe it or not all the GMs are here to help our customers.

[color= orange]User Agreement Reminder[/color]

The use of third-party software to automate gameplay (including chat and private store) is a bannable offense. Additionally, the purchase or sale of in-game assets for real world currency is a violation of the User Agreement and a punishable offense.