They should pivot to a bot detection company with the game as a sort of R&D asset. They have like a decade or two of advantage, but then again, they never were too good at it.
That would likely not pan out well. I’m just talking about RS3 here, but their bot detection strictly works off behavioral characteristics - something that’s quite vulnerable to the current/upcoming bots which incorporate LLMs into the mix.
From what I could tell they have zero client-side detection like other, more competitive games. Maybe they wanted to pull out of that cat-and-mouse game? Their solution’s likely very domain-specific.
And bot detection isn’t a field where you can cleanly get a bot/human result. Especially with how bot-like some hardcore players get at the game. If it’s too strict you’ll get false bans, which is a support nightmare. It can’t be easy threading this line
Yeah, they are not good at it, they don't really have an incentive to filter out bots, they increase revenue by paying for the game and adding players. The players also like using modded clients like runelite, so they don't do their part either.
They have the ecosystem to test bot detecting/banning tech, but definitely not the tech. A pivot would require prioritizing bot detection over gaming, which is something that requires both management and players to mature beyond a game.
TZubiri · · focus · HN ↗
speff · · focus · HN ↗
From what I could tell they have zero client-side detection like other, more competitive games. Maybe they wanted to pull out of that cat-and-mouse game? Their solution’s likely very domain-specific.
And bot detection isn’t a field where you can cleanly get a bot/human result. Especially with how bot-like some hardcore players get at the game. If it’s too strict you’ll get false bans, which is a support nightmare. It can’t be easy threading this line
g-b-r · · focus · HN ↗
It was pretty effective with people letting the bots run unattended (and annoying).
Of course that can't work as well now with LLMs.
TZubiri · · focus · HN ↗
They have the ecosystem to test bot detecting/banning tech, but definitely not the tech. A pivot would require prioritizing bot detection over gaming, which is something that requires both management and players to mature beyond a game.