It was Inevitable...now what?

Be warned, this thread is a bit of a read and though it may sound a bit aggressive at times, I assure you I'm not trying to flame or offend anyone (apologies in advance to those who dislike this). Anyway to get straight to the point, look at this picture:

http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=spammerscz5.jpg


Yes, this was talked about before here: http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=40971 but judging from the very slow response on things here I'm totally stumped as to how PWI is approaching issues like this as there has been literally no information as to what the heck you are supposed to do and what is being done.


Now I am reasonable with this as agreeably it is something that comes to a lot of MuhMORePehGuh's (have fun figuring what that meant =] ) but as bots begin to emerge, please do tell us what we should do in some way or another because waiting a while can seriously compromise a game at times (believe me, I've seen quite a few games get stomped by such botters/spammers during their OB stages).


Yes there are some mechanics ingame to help "combat" this but it seems very slow and poorly documented if not very inflexible (or 'D', all of the above). I wasn't entirely sure which would be the best way to report the spammer/bot until after a while I found GM contact tool that seemed to be constrained with "hey I found a bot" or "hey I found a hacker" which doesn't always apply to several situations where you may need GM support for something else. Notice I said "seemed"--perhaps there was a way to change it but try as I might I couldn't figure it out easily--maybe it's still in its beta stages or I missed something. Now place that kind of confusion into the thousands of other players out that who may not even want to spend the extra time doing what a GM should be doing (aka, cleaning up the server).


The worst part about this is it doesn't simply send the information to the GM from my knowledge--rather it appears to be some kind of tap on the shoulder where you then have to explain the situation to them if not provide some evidence or additional information. Now that usually is fine if you did it before hand in something like a support ticket but nope, we have to wait for an undocumented amount of time until a GM contacts you through some mystical unknown form. Sure is sketchy to me. I also imagine it'd be equally as rough for GM's to manage aside from just the players being left in the dark. This is exactly why I mentioned the use of a support ticket system. One that has various features like: description boxes, template questions, timers as to when you'd get help, and more would help exponentially with botters and general issues like a player being stuck. Would it solve botters completely or prevent them from coming in? Definitely not but it seems better than the current system.


Of course I'm not saying we have to use that--it was an example. However, I've seen a lot of good methods of managing this which has also been done in F2P MuhMORePehGuh's but I won't say any names because everyone's going to throw the book at me saying "yeah but it's another game and it doesn't exactly apply". Well I'm not saying anything about changing the entire gameplay for that matter but am merely asking for you to try something else if not tell us what your master plan is. I think game companies have to always think about innovative, effective and efficient ways of giving support to players and not just a slew of other things because this can seriously damage a community and the ingame experience. That said, PWI could very well be focusing on that too, yet the lack of information and formal communication regarding this isn't helping. Remember, the storm is coming and whether or not it can be endured is up to the staff of PWI.


And I guess that concludes my usual hints of craziness and "rantageness", but I think expanding this issue to the community would be good for feedback's sake. What are your two cents about the issue? Of course questions, comments, coffee and outrage are welcome if you feel it is needed for this thread. I'm no prophet after all. :rolleyes: Just keep the flames away as I'm trying to steer away from a pyrotechnic experience and more towards an intelligent one.