Thoughts on the bots, RMTs, GDKP ban and other issues

WoW Classic Season of Discovery
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Hey everyone!

I want to share my couple cents on the mentioned topics. My apologies for the wall of text, but I really wanted to write this.

I hear a lot of complains about: 1) GDKP ban didn’t solve the bots and the RMT problems and 2) People ninja-loot 24/7 instead of buying it like they used to.

First of all, I’m afraid you guys are looking for that one magical solution in the wrong place. GDKPs encouraged RMT and therefore - botting, but it was in no way the sole source of it, not even by a mile. It is now beyond clear that the game needs hands-on management in both cases, should it be called GMs or anything else.

About problem n1: Yes, the RMTs went down, it is clear that AH cooled down a little. Per example, the consumables prices are now slightly above the crafting cost which is a good thing, they used to be like 15-20% below the reagents permanently, read - anything that bots farm is profit, no matter how low it sells. However, RMTs didn’t go away and they most likely never will because Blizzard now officially actively supports it in the other versions of the game. It is integrated and it will stay so. The bots problem needs a dedicated GM-like management to catch them before they reach even level 15 or so. We now have armies of max level bots mass-producing epics for sale. If you rely purely on algorithms to manage bots, bots will improve constantly to counter those algorithms. Everybody keeps calling it the endless battle and it is true. It is very much like a virus: until you treat it right, it will keep mutating and escaping. What bots can’t counter is the human logic and the human analysis capabilities. I’m not saying that 100% of bots will be eliminated in a week, but the endless river of copy-pasted ferals, hunters and mages running towards dungeons or good open-world farming spots will disappear for sure. Once the returns drop, the market becomes less desirable and the results will be clear. This is pure economy and nothing else. It is on Blizzard to make the financial call about the future of their game that is long due, to hire much needed personal rather than squeezing every penny of the mismanaged product. Those employees then would be able to spread their working hours between multiple tasks rather than being the ticketing machines people complain about. If you lay down the numbers, what is needed in human hours and the profits Blizzard makes per year, it is a silly difference to give away which perhaps will be partially regained in new subs from the thankful and invigorated player base. GDKP ban was a good test, but people will keep swiping their cards no matter if it is supported or not.

About problem n2: Players used to ninja since the first days/weeks of WoW, regular GDKPer just didn’t see it because they existed in another raiding dimension for a while. This happens a lot with or without GDKPs. Since the pugging pool is bigger now, the problem seems bigger, just using pure math here. Not everyone is an example of honesty, we are all human beings, and this is yet again on Blizzard to enforce the code of conduct. I clearly remember to this day my 2 personal cases when I ticketed about a ninja or misclicked Need on an item I completely didn’t want and felt super guilty, GM solved it for me and that was the greatest feeling of being a respected customer. Can’t beat it.

By the way: there are more than enough pugs at the moment the way I see it. People ask for some more experience or parses etc instead of asking about your wallet, is all. I saw some guilds get a little more activity as well, people want their loot distributed fairly so they want a safer raiding environment. With a weekly lockout in phase 3 this trend should grow further, it’s not a bad thing imho. It is also totally fine if you want certainty about your chances to get that one piece of loot you want, let me be very clear - I do not see a core problem in the workings of the GDKP loot system. You worked for your gold and you can put down more to get what you want - it’s your right to do so. If you wanna parse like crazy or just look at the bis gear in your inventory - hell, that is what WoW is also about! And if you want something HRed as a RL or a guild run, you also still can do it too.

Thoughts?

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People still buy gold for mounts, spells, professions, and crafting items or BOE. You cannot stop them.

Bots are everywhere and in my opinion there is far too much motivation for gold buyers to continue. the price of gold and the game itself creates an urge to buy gold to be effective.

not everyone enjoys grinding easy quests or spending hours on ah or farming herbs. since the gdkp ban most of my friends and i stopped playing alts. it so too expensiv to raid with more then one character. we used to have gold from gdkp but they opportunity is no banned.

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No change will happen, because that would require people and blizzard minimized the customer support/gm service a long time ago. I hate it? Yes, I didn’t even play for almost a year because I find it so disgusting, but i came back to try sod.
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about it, either you accept it or you don’t play. Right now I’m playing around trying to ignore all the factors, but if a new good MMO comes along, I’ll immediately leave this whole stinking pile of **** here.
By the way, my point of view is that if they ask for a monthly fee for something, I want a standard in return that was there before, but no longer.
And of course they want to sell as many macro transactions as other buy2play or free2play games, wich is ok when this is their source of income but blizzard want EVERYTHING, big boxprice+sub+expensive cash shop, but this game is no longer as good and exceptional as once was to make it all worth it.

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It’s a really quite sad all this still goes on this game.

I propose a “self found server” , sure we would lose the AH… but it would be a purer game :confused:

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This might be a hot take. But I don’t really care about the bots or the RMT’ers that much.

Most of the best gold farms are inside dungeons. So the bots dont hinder my ability to farm. I personally survive each phase just from doing quests and selling some stuff on AH. I chug faps and swiftness pots every day in BG’s. I got my cons for raids. And I craft my iron grenades. I got enough gold.

Sure l can’t buy the really expensive BOE’s but I don’t really care that much.

I see the bots from time to time but I don’t feel their impact at all tbh.

As for other ppl RMT’ing. I heard a lot of them are getting banned in sod and I don’t really feel like anyone can get any extreme advantages over me from buying gold anyway.

Just my opinion. I don’t really care

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I wonder about the amount of players buying gold vs not, like the player below mentions, people don’t want to play the game as intended so they just buy things they don’t want to play for.

I mean why put in all that time and effort to play the game when you can just swipe your bank card /boop done…look mom I won!

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Could sign under every word tbh. I hope there will come a good alternative with likewise looks and systems, sick lore etc. I also believe that monthly fee should be paired with a very high-end delivery which is below average at Blizzard nowadays and we are talking one payment-purchase models as comparison.

And I totally understand if people want to buy gold and save themselves the farming time because it slowly became meta thanks to this kind of service. “You can so you do” is what brought us here really. Nothing wrong with not caring about it too much either. I’m just a very fanatic AH user, I like to farm some rare recipes or mats and then sell em and I keep hitting the bot wall on almost every item, with instant undercuts between 9.00-22.00 and below mats craft prices and that makes me question the reason I still play. SOD is great in many aspects otherwise, but this is probably my last run here.

Thanks for replies everyone!