4Game

Before I get into anything, I'd like to preface this post with the fact that I'm more or less looking for input from other players of all caliber to help me understand or identify bots. This is by no means intended to "name & shame". I also want to apologize for the word-vomit. I'm not entire sure how to say what's on my mind, but I know what to say, so please be patient with the possibility of terrible articulation.

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There has been a lot of discussion on here about overall stats: player rating, win rate and average damage. There has been some discussion regarding individual tank performance including average damage and win rates. To my understanding from reading posts/comments on here only player ratings (wn8) is indicative of skill or at least more-so than win rate. I don't know how true this is or not as I sort of figure they go hand-in-hand, though other would argue against that especially regarding win rates.

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According to wotlabs the North American server has an average win rate of 48.64% (of the active player-base). I would venture a guess that most people would accept 47%+ win rates as acceptable players. What I mean by this is these are players that aren't necessarily going to be a hindrance to the team. However, below the 47% line, how do you tell a player is just straight up bad or a legitimate bot? The reason I ask is because back in the old days a lot of bots would quite literally drive into the middle of the map and their turrets would do a full rotation and then they'd drive further… rinse and repeat. This type of bot poorly mimicked a player, but it was still obvious it was a bot. However, I've been seeing what I would consider a bot to just go to a predetermined position and sit there all game and quite literally do nothing. Their turrets will sweep left and right, scanning for targets and once one is found they just shoot. There is no aiming involved, no positioning the tank better to attempt to bounce shots, nothing. Pretty much right click and left click. (there are also base camping bots that only activate once spotted, which are pretty obvious to identify as a bot).

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Here is my dilemma: I've seen new/bad players do exactly the same things as bots do. They drive to a certain position and then don't move for whatever reason. How does one then determine if they are a bot or not? Others may find it futile, but I will take a couple of minutes to send in a support ticket regarding bots. The reason why this is important is because I don't want to report a genuinely bad player for playing badly and risk getting them in trouble because they were mistaken for a bot. Are there other obvious indicators or tank mannerisms (is this a thing?) that can better indicate a bot vs a bad player?

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I recently had a player on my team that did exactly as I described. However, due to recent discussions about win rates on here on reddit, is this player just bad or a legitimate bot? I can't imagine playing the Skorpion/Skorpion G as often as said player and only average 485 dpg. Even as a bot, shouldn't this person have a win rate closer to the server average? With the last question in mind, because his win rate is so low, is this indicative of a person intentionally throwing games/trolling?

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Now, whether or not WGNA (or WG as a whole) care about botters is an entire different yet related can of worms. I would genuinely hope that they care as it's a form of cheating and it can ruin the game of 14 other players on the team.

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Any and all thoughts/inputs are welcomed. I again apologize for my inability to articulate this as well as would have liked.