The Definition of Botting

Yesterday the ban-hammer was brought down on a number of accounts. I've heard numbers as high as 600,000. Also heard that some are temporary six-month bans while others are permanent. Blizzard themselves didn't release actual numbers or violators so I'm not sure how accurate they are.

Apparently is was largely prompted by abuse from a botting program called HonorBuddy:

I admit I have used a botting program before. It must have been five or six years ago now, but it was fun. A program called Glider. You could write fairly detailed programs to kill mobs, harvest reagents, etc. As a coder I found it amusing—yet I did get caught and lost two accounts. Glider was pretty underground though. Something as brazen as this Honor Buddy was bound to get busted.

Yesterday afternoon Bashiok tweeted something that caught my eye:

Botting is defined as automation of any action, not just character movement. If a program is pressing keys for you, you've violated the ToU.

— Bashiok (@Bashiok) May 13, 2015

Now that's interesting. That is not the publicly accepted definition of botting. Even recently I have loaded up two instances of WoW and uses AutoHotKey to do things. This is not botting. I am not leaving the computer unattended to automate activity in Azeroth. Yet from Bashiok's terse summary apparently I am—according to Blizzard.

Interesting. And they are apparently enforcing it this narrowly as the crazy boxer PreparedWOW has been banned...

I'm guessing Blizzard wants to make it look like they're serious about maintaining the integrity of their online world. Personally I think pushing content faster would be more effective.

Vanity Pet Ladder, Skin of Teeth

Spent a lot of time summoning vanity pet, clicking level stone, summon vanity pet, click level stone, ad infinitum. I'm sure others are, too. Managed to cover a lot of ground and I'm currently, barely, at #5 on the server. The dirty Ravenlight is gaining ground. *sigh*

Must say I have enjoyed the Twitter integration that 6.1 brought. There were a number of times that I would intend to tweet something. Procrastination coupled with distractions and those tweets went forgotten. Now I just crop an image the best I can then move on.

Apparently Nat Pagle is seriously available for the druid. #WoD #Warcraft pic.twitter.com/Eq672bhDe2
— Aenara (@aegamer) March 19, 2015

This was todays bit of fluff. None of these spontaneous tweets are that creative or amusing… but at least I'm actively contributing Internet flotsam.

Sid Meier, Lite

After my so-so interest in Civ: BE I didn't let myself get too interested in Spaceships. I did watch some of the initial stuff on Twitch but haven't made it back. Yet.

DId you miss yesterday's Sid Meier's Starships global launch livestream event? We have a YouTube playlist for you! https://t.co/kZEeg5JXT1
— Civilization (@CivGame) March 14, 2015

The biggest criticism I've heard is that there isn't much depth and the voice-overs are lack luster. That might not bother me. Might be fun to have a space experience that you can tackle in one sitting.

Warcraft Fan Art

I've seen a number of exceptional fan renditions of game art. But never something like this...

hey twitterverse, thought I'd come share my latest @Warcraft fanart - a redesign of the badass Alexstrasza! pic.twitter.com/sS6izF665J
— Sam Hogg (@Zephyri) March 13, 2015

Vanity Pet Ladder, Continued

After a week I've somehow managed to maintain my lead on the dreaded Ravenlight. *snicker* Was chatting with her over the weekend. She hasn't had a chance to level new things so I've widened the gap further. In fact, thanks to almost 1000 Pet Charms I'm now up to 6th on the server.

That set of charms I used to level. Buying Mystery Bags ended up getting me nearly twice the number of levels Flawless Battle-Training Stones would have. Still have over 2000 charms left which I intend to use on Rare Stones. Warcraft Pets says I have 17 Poor, 23 Common, and 54 Uncommon Pets. Ninety-four stones will cost 1410 Charms. That will be a lot of clicking. *sigh* 

Once done all that's left is the leveling from daily rewards. Wonder where I will peak.

Vanity Pet Ladder, Redux

Had to capture this immediately since it won't last. It's been a week since I gleefully reported passing Shian on the PvE Pet Ladder. Now, thanks to Raiding with Leashes III: Drinkin' From the Sunwell, I have passed Ravenlight!

It's only a five point lead so it won't last. Raven hasn't had time to hit the old instances and her daughter always helps. But at least I'll have a couple of days in the sun. *snicker* Sadly I was only able to get six on my own. Had to blow over 30k on the Auction House to round it out:

Gave up after exceptionally bad luck in Black Temple... thanks Auction House! #Warcraft pic.twitter.com/lmSwUT5J1I
— Aenara (@aegamer) February 26, 2015

Will be getting a few more points. I had just over 3700 Pet Charms so I'm going through all the highest level unique pets and getting them upgraded to Rare. If there enough charms left I'll buy level stones to get them all to 20. Should be a good baseline.

Not sure the push was worth it… but K'ute is damn cute…

Vanity Pet Ladder

Since Warlords hit I've put many, many hours into leveling Battle Pets yet only yesterday did I finally pass my first rival, Shian. Sadly my second rival, Ravenlight, remains a killer.

My lead over Shian is tenuous at best. She has a lot more pets than I do and could easily pass me with some leveling. Catching Raven is more realistic yet I have many sub-Rare quality pets to upgrade.

Yet the bulk of the work is complete. My average unique pet level is now 20.7—thanks to the fantastic menagerie XP. Only one month ago that number was down around 13. Thankfully I managed this big push since 6.1 comes out next week and the massive XP will be nerfed.

From here on out the free level stones from the daily Big Bag of Pet Supplies will raise that average. I will use the Pet Charms to buy Rare conversion stones since they no longer de-level your pet in 6.1. Slow process but a natural one.