World of Warcraft offers great incentives to go after bot operators. A kind of “competition” honors the most diligent reporters every month.
Bots are a plague in every major MMORPG. While here people roll their eyes in annoyance when a group of ten druids comes flying in World of Warcraft to mine some ore, the situation on Chinese realms is much worse. Again and again, there are videos and screenshots of seemingly endless hordes of farming bots that control entire areas.
What is the situation in China? In the Chinese version of World of Warcraft, bots are a much bigger problem than in Europe (via wowhead). While in our country we jokingly say that “half of the players must be bots,” that seems to be more of an understatement in China. Since you can earn good money with gold and services in WoW, many operate several hundreds of bots to secure a livelihood by selling gold or offering boosting services.
What is NetEase doing? NetEase, Blizzard’s Chinese partner that operates World of Warcraft there, has set up a kind of “bounty” and encourages reporting bots and cheaters with financial rewards.
Every month, the top 100 most active “reporters” receive a prize in the form of Battle.net credit, which can then be used for various services or the purchase of cosmetic items. This allows buying old, otherwise unavailable mounts or offers such as the WoW Token or a faction change with the money.
The 100 most diligent reporters are also recorded in a leaderboard – as a special honor for particularly diligent reporting.
Additionally, NetEase has announced a special event for July. A “bounty” of around 13,000 euros for anyone who provides information that ultimately leads to legal action against the production, distribution, or sale of hacks.
Is there a hidden agenda? Probably. Because unlike in Europe, you can also buy official “boosting” offers in the Chinese World of Warcraft. Back then, it was already possible to buy an “enhanced” level boost in World of Warcraft, where you not only are at the current maximum level but also have pretty good gear, thus saving you the hassle of equipping the character.
Even though NetEase has not yet presented the “new” shop after the resumption of World of Warcraft, many suspect that the advertised rewards are primarily aimed at curbing illegal competition so that the official offers become more attractive later.
In China, some aspects of World of Warcraft operate a little differently anyway. To celebrate the resumption of cooperation, NetEase recently re-erected a huge statue – after initially tearing it down in anger.
