WoW Bot Ban Works, HonorBuddy Admits Defeat

Earlier this week we spoke about World of Warcraft’s recent “purge” of its servers, slamming the banhammer on the crust of Azeroth so strongly 100,000 accounts linked with using bots were taken out for six-month suspensions. It was a powerful blow to the botting community, and let’s face it: no MMORPG would lightly ban so many paying customers. World of Warcraft is big, but with slipping subscription numbers, 100,000 is huge even for them.

But the question remained: these were people who obviously had little regard for the rules and regulations for the game; would a ban really work on them? It’s hard to say for some of those banned, but at least for the people behind the HonorBuddy, the PvP focused bot that ground the battlegrounds for you, it’s the end of the line.

At least, for now.

“With Honorbuddy you thought that we are unbeateable, we never thought that, we’ve succeeded since 2010—Honorbuddy had not a single software detection. It seems there is one now.”

“We are sorry for all your lost WOW Accounts, hopefully you can use them again after the 6 months ban is lifted. I have read here in the forums a bit, a lot of the accounts where 10 years old. This is a pity. We always say, do not use your valuable accounts as the risk is always there.”

“You ask yourself what happens next? For now we closed our Honorbuddy Authentication, when we know any more details we will inform you.”

You have to admit: writing up a Bot that could remain undetected for five years is still hell of an accomplishment, even if it was used for evil purposes. Regardless, it seems they know they’ve been beat, at least, for now; meaning you can bet nobody new will be using the HonorBuddy for a while. That said, the Honorbuddy was just one of many bot systems out there, but HonorBuddy was one of the biggest.

So, it seems Blizzard’s efforts have made real results. Exciting! Glad to see my cynicism was proven wrong, and I hope Honorbuddy is just the first!