Welcome to The Elder Scrolls Online: Home of the Scammers, Cheaters and Bot Farmers

Most online games have problems with scammers, cheaters and automated (scripted) bot farmers and The Elder Scrolls Online is no different. But, one of the main differences is that according Zenimax, some of this activity is not actually against their Terms of Service (ToS). 

One of the most valuable things a player can acquire in the game, second only to experience points, is gold. Gold equals wealth and wealth can get you just about anything in this game. As of the Summerset release, ESO wealth can even buy you items from Crown Store for about 100g per crown.

That's right, now the mostly aesthetic items (mounts, pets, costumes, etc.) that you would have had to pay real cash in the form of crown exchanges, can be purchased with gold. Gold that you can honestly acquired in the game or gold which can be purchased from nefarious sites that run bot farms to harvest and sell resources to get gold to sell for real world cash. I wouldn't recommend the second source of gold, as that can lead to a ban, described below.

And Zenimax does nothing to stop this, because selling gold for cash, nor bot farming is not in violation the ToS. But, do you know what does violate the ToS? If you go buy gold from one of these websites, or directly buy resources from a Bot Farmer, this is considered a violation of the ToS and can lead to your account being banned, known as ZOS dropping the Ban Hammer; something they are infamous for.

Let me explain bot farmers to you in case you don't get the concept.

A person creates multiple Xbox accounts, a relatively simple task.

This person then creates multiple TESO accounts using their Xbox accounts.

This person then uses an official Xbox emulator for Windows, from Microsoft (yes Microsoft actually released an unlicensed tool to the public that allows for this exploit to happen), to run multiple instances of the game on one computer, say ten or twenty instances (whatever the PC is able to handle) in small windows.

This person then trains their bots to run nodes in a given area, or sets them up to farm a known location (Bear Farm, Tiger Farm, Dolmens (for XP), etc.) The farmer sets their bots up to run individually for resource nodes in different instances, or as a group for various animal farms as running animals farms as a group gets a  higher hide drop rate.

The sell their items for gold, then sell the gold for real money through their websites.

So that is how the bot farmers work; basically speaking.

How big is the problem? Well, the problem and its impact are both huge.

Bot Farmers are the reason Hide Scraps and Dreugh Wax are up to the 50% cheaper than their black smith and woodworking counterparts. And this really, from a basic economics perspective, should not be the case. Woodworking materials have a very limited use; make bows, shields or staves. The most any one character would need of these would be two items (two bows, two staves, two shields), one for each the front and back bars while the clothing materials (cloth and leathers) can be used to make chests, head, shoulders, hands, legs, and feet.

This means that for each character, there is a 3 to 1 ratio between what the demand for clothing and woodworking materials should be. Looking at this, again from an economics point of view clothing materials, like leathers, should be 3 times higher in price than woodworking.

And guess what; Ancestor Silk is nearly 2x much more expensive over woodworking and yet hide scraps are not. See, until recently bot farmers had not figured out how to farm resource nodes so they weren't flooding the ESO marketplace with Ancestor silk, which is why it remains between 18k and 22k a stack. But they have been farming bears, tigers, wolves and other animal farms for years. Which is why Leather materials are nearly half the price of their cloth counterparts. And while bot farmers had not figured out how to farm resource nodes in the past, they have now, in just the last few months, so the market place is about to change, drastically over time; and, you may already be seeing that change.

For the past three months, bot farmers have been figuring out how and where to farm resource nodes and they have fine tuned this ability. As a result, they are beginning to devalue the entire marketplace. Ore, Wood, Runestones and even clothing materials are beginning to drop in value, some of them rapidly; Bugloss, once the creme of the crop in the market place, 300g to 400g each, is now down to 200g each and falling right along with other alchemy materials.

I wish fixing this issue was as easy as everyone stopping their buying from Bot Farmers, but Bot Farmers are everywhere. They are online, they are wandering advertising insanely low prices in the different realms, they are even in guild stores; yes, guild stores.

And I'm not talking about one off guilds that are out in the middle of Nowhere, Tamriel. No, I am talking about guild stores in Daggerfall, Wayrest, Mournhold, Craiglorn and yes, even in Elden Root. I have seen these bot farmer's account myself, first hand, in some of the biggest and best known guild traders.

The thing is, guild traders aren't motivated to boot the bots either. They have received assurances from ZOS that they won't be punished for providing bots a channel to sell in and the bots, with their sales, bring money to the guild bank via the house cuts and dues. But the guild traders who allow bots in their guilds are hurting their members and the community as a whole. That needs to sink in to the minds of the Guild Owners across Tamriel. Your acceptance of bots into your guilds is hurting the game, the community and your members. Please consider that.

And while Zenimax couldn't give two spits about this, this BOT activity is against Microsoft's ToS and while reporting it to Zenimax won't produce any results, I have seen evidence that reporting it to Microsoft will. I was watching a certain, very unique bot farmer, who ran around with Kallopi's Essence on, making the bot wearing it nearly invisible. I followed this bot for a short while across multiple days, and watched the patterns of a resource bot (mentioned below). I reported the bot to Microsoft and the very next day the bot was not there. And the bot has not been back to my farm location since. I have been successful reporting these bots to Microsoft with multiple bots in the location with the same outcome... a day later I never see that particular bot again.

Here is what to look for with BOTS before reporting every Tom, Dick and Jane in the game.

1. Most bots will have simple names; XVNIIW. And groups of bots, like the animal farm bot-clusters, will have similar names within the cluster; XVNIIW, XVNIIX, XVNIIZ.
2. Resource bots will look very similar; they will be within the 4-7 level range character wearing prisoners garb. This is 90% of the time, as I have found a few bots that were slightly higher levels, or slightly differently dressed, or in the case of one them, invisible.
3. Animal bots will all look the same, Lightning Form, flame staff and in large numbers (ten or more) all casting the same skills, having the same pets up, and in some cases all moving in the same directions at the same time.
4. Resource bots will farm in areas with low NPC enemy counts and high resource node counts; think beginner areas. 
5. Animal bots will be where there is a large quantity of animals (bears, tigers, durzogs, etc.) that re-spawn rapidly.
6. Resource bots important detail; the resource bots are running off a script, so that means they will run to a specific location a resource is known to be at, even if it isn't there, in an attempt to farm said node. Follow them for a minute and you will definitely see this pattern and so can Microsoft if you report them.
7. When you see this pattern bring up the radial dial, like you are going to trade with or report them to Zenimax, and instead look at their gamer card, like you are going to friend them. This will show you an abbreviated Xbox Profile... and look at their G Score. The G score represents their achievements and a score of zero means that they have never gotten a single achievement, in any game, ever. And G Score of 5 means they got the only achievement of getting out of the first area. Combine that information with the fact that they know where every resource node in the game is, even when it's not available, and this pattern screams BOT.
8. From this same screen, the gamer card, you can report them Microsoft, put a comment in the report, Bot Farmer, and submit.

Again, Zenimax won't do anything about this. You have to report them to Microsoft. It takes a few seconds to do this, but if we all address this, as a community, when we see them, we can begin policing the lawless land Zenimax abandoned long ago.

Scams are everywhere and yes they are here in Tamriel as well. Nobody likes to be ripped off so here is my advise to prevent and address scams and scammers.

Before you trade anything with anyone in the game; get an agreement between you and the other player via in game TEXT chat; "this item for this much gold, do you agree?" and wait for their response in text chat. Not voice chat, not a message via Xbox Live, but in game TEXT chat, via direct chat message to the person, a whisper. Think of the in game text chat as a written contract. If you do get scammed, Zenimax can use the text chat to confirm your side of the story and refund your gold or gear that you were scammed out of; they cannot do that via voice chat nor Xbox Live messages.

If you get scammed, do not give them a piece of your mind. Ask them to fix the situation and if they refuse, or as is usually the case, they just ignore you, go directly to report the incident to Zenimax. Capture a screenshot of the agreement you made in text chat with the person. If you have the agreement captured in the in game text chat, you will get your stuff back. Telling someone off, especially using swear words, racist statements an threats will likely mean Zenimax will punish you, instead of the other way around. Keep calm, cool and collected. This is the one area where Zenimax will actually resolve the issue.

This is especially true when dealing with paying gold for some to gift you a crown store item.

Here are some things you consider guidelines, thing I do, to protect yourself from being scammed in the first place.

1. Buy from/sell through guild traders whenever you can.
2. If the offer sounds to good to be true, it probably is.
3. Always use the C.O.D. mail system, send the item to the person with a request for gold in the same message.
4. Always check the attachments to all C.O.D.s you receive before you take the attachments, if they did not send you the item agreed upon, return the mail to sender.
5. Always verify the items they are posting in a trade screen; make sure it the right name, the right color, the right level.
6. Always count to five before you confirm a trade. Some scammers will use a quick switch trick, switching out the item just before you confirm.

Cheats in ESO come in many different flavors, but for the most part are simply players exploiting poor design by the developers. My only advise is:

DO NOT EXPLOIT THESE FLAWS IN THE GAME.

Doing so will result in the ban hammer falling on you. If you find a flaw in the game, stop exploiting it and report it to Zenimax immediately.

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The Elder Scrolls Online: Lack of Moderation Equals Toxic community

If you have ever played any online multiplayer gamer, you know that communities around these games can get very toxic; to the point of being inhumane at times. The Elder Scrolls Online is no different than the other gaming communities.

The phrase toxic masculinity is one that comes to mind for me when thinking of online gaming toxicity. Toxic masculinity is used to describe certain behaviors that are considered the norm of masculine and these same behaviors are generally associated with harm to society and to the men themselves.

Unrealistic expectations of what masculinity is produces "toxic" effects like; violence (including sexual assault and domestic violence, verbal abuse, overt serialization, excessively risky and/or socially irresponsible behaviors including substance abuse, and dysfunction in relationships; especially online relationships, like those developed in gaming. And traits of toxic masculinity can be seen in our gaming culture and is not restricted to men. Women can partake and contribute to a toxic gaming culture as much as they are victimized by it.

The fact is that many people seem to forget this is just a game. The Elder Scrolls Online is just a game. Say it with me.

The Elder Scrolls Online is just a game.

Let that sink in for a minute... or an hour if you need that long.

Most mature guilds, ones that have been around for a while and are successful, especially those that make money off dues from their members, regulate their text chat and handle toxic gaming culture in their guilds, sometimes harshly. They do this to protect their micro-community; to provide a non-toxic place for their members to communicate, share and have fun.

But this is where the safety net ends. If you leave the safe harbor of a guild, it is the wild west of text and voice chat. Think of this region of the game's communications area as if it is Somalia meets 80s Homophobia meets 90s Porn, meets A Clockwork Orange meets Cannibal Corpse's "Hammer Smashed Face."

Anything goes and nobody gets admonished for it.

THE PROBLEM:
Lack of Zenimax moderators in public area chats (both text and voice) is the main source of the issue. The old saying, locks only keep honest men honest holds true. When people are provided a relatively anonymous way to verbally assault one another with zero moderation (as it is with the whole of the internet), the gloves come off and they usually stay off.

Today we have people, or bots, advertising gold for sale in the game, which is a direct violation of XBox terms and conditions. We have bot farmers clogging up quest areas, we have hate speech and racism being spewed across Tamriel and Zenimax is doing nothing to change it. The fact is, by not taking action to stop it, Zenimax is in fact supporting the hate, misogyny and racism as it provides a moderation free platform for it occur in.

Early in the game there were moderators, known as Game Masters, as seen above, but the last time I have heard of credible report (credible meaning a screen shot) of a Game Master was the 2014 Bot Cleansing. Not only would these Game Masters cleanse those exploiting new features, bot farmers and such, they would moderate the game chats (both area voice and text when it came available). People were kept in check; Game Masters were the locks that kept people honest. But now they are gone and the community has regressed to West World Status.

Today the zone text chat and area voice chat is rampant with racist, sexist and rapist remarks, foul language (no I'm not a prude), threats of assault (including sexual assault), and harassment (yeah, this is where I call out a douche-bag named Ruby). I won't say his whole gamer tag because this is not about throwing shade at individual but Ruby is a real world example of toxicity in the community. People like Ruby are allowed to run around stalking people he feels did him wrong, even with an Xbox account block in place, when in fact he was the one that screwed over a lot of people, including:

• Bragging about stealing from a guild bank that wasn't his own 
• Going into someone's house and moving all his stuff under ground and outside the boundary of the house 
• Stealing guild members from former guilds that kicked him for stealing from their bank
• Misogyny towards female guild members 
• And openly racist remarks in voice chat.

And again, while a lot of the issues I have experienced involve men, women are not excluded from it. I have ran into some very toxic people on both sides of the binary gender line. One woman, who I will not name, but instead reference her as MS. M is known throughout the community for accusing men of trying to have sex with her and then saying she is going to kill herself and then ghosting the community (not just in Xbox, but in Facebook communities as well) leaving everyone to wonder, "WTF?"

While the rest of us try to have some fun, the Ruby's and Ms. M's of the game continue feeding the toxic culture and get away with it; time and again. Ms. M is still in the game, under a different name. Ruby is still in the game with no name change. Some people just want to see the world burn and Zenimax allows these people to roam free setting all the fires they wish to, unchecked by game moderators.

THE ZENIMAX SOLUTIONS:

1. Clearly publishing guidelines everyone has to accept providing what is unacceptable public area communications; anti-bullying, anti-racism, anti-misogyny, anti-hate, etc.
2. Having Gamemasters in the game would help enforce these community guideline and drive down on this behavior, not just by eliminating it, but by preventing it. A police car in the neighborhood cuts down on property crimes, traffic violations and violent crimes. We need a Gamemaster in the game to act as this police car. We need a lock to keep the honest people honest as it were.
3. Have a reporting mechanism in place. Realistically, Zenimax can't have someone online 24/7/365, even though I think it would be feasible given the money we have all paid them over the last three years. But they could put a reporting mechanism in place so that, for an example, if someone is behaving poorly in zone text chat, typing things racist things, bullying, threatening or otherwise harassing people, that text can be selected, just as it is now, with an extra option at the bottom of the Whisper, Travel To, Invite to Group, etc. options menu, to report that specific text to Zenimax moderators.

THE COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS:

1. Do not feed the trolls. We as a community need to stop engaging the toxic elements of our community as this added negativity just feeds the trolls and rewards their behavior; it given them what they want and encourages them to continue.
2. Until Zenimax puts tools in place to address these community issues, if you find the behavior of another individual violates Microsoft's terms of use; no harassment, threats, abuse, hate speech; Take a screen cap of the activity (hard to do with voice chat, and it is known that Microsoft can't act on things said in voice chat, unless you capture video evidence of their behavior that contains their voice, but they can when it is typed in text chat) report them to Microsoft.
3. And finally block them via Xbox live, which blocks them in game voice and text chat as well. Without an audience, they have nothing to feed from. If nothing else removing this negativity will greatly improve your personal experience in the game.
4. A good guild cuts down on your exposure to this. In the case of Ruby; when his behavior was reported to and validated by our guild, he was kicked out of the guild, a guild he had purchased a (500k) lifetime membership to. They did this because a good guild will not tolerate the Ruby and Ms. M personas of the world.

There are a lot of great people in this community. Hell, I hang out with some of the best, most helpful people in the game. There are some fantastic guilds that don't allow these behaviors from their members. ESO as a community is not all bad, hell it's not even in the top ten most toxic game communities, but the community is getting toxic and it has its toxic elements and those elements are just as bad at the elements in the top ten. There are some awesome people out there; I wouldn't be where I am in the game without help from an outstanding group of people. And it people like you, like the people I hang with in the game that can make a difference. It's not too late for us to clean it up now and prevent it from getting worse.

Let's get this fixed Zenimax. Make the community better and you will retain more members and recruit more... that means more ESO plus subscriptions, more crowns being purchased and more money for in your shareholders... because we know that really what you care about.

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