Is there a way to report a suspected bot?

[cferejohn]

I was playing a turn-based arena game. I played at all kind of random times of the day (for example I took a turn around 1:30AM last night and another around 8AM this morning). Every time I took a turn, my opponent responded *immediately* like they were literally sitting on the game page waiting for me to move. I don't want to go flinging around accusations, but it seemed extremely odd/suspicious. Fwiw I don't really care about my arena rating (I don't think I'm above bronze in anything).

[titi-togepi]

Hi! I don't think this players are bots as i'm one of this players
Often i'm connected at BGA, on the main page and exploring some things on the website, and when i see that i have one turn-based game where i need to play, i click on the button almost instantenly, i think some seconds and play. I think that a lot of active BGA members are doing like me

[cferejohn]

You were not the player I was referring to (near as I can see we haven't played each other in anything, at least not recently).

The player I'm referring to played immediately (not 'within 5 minutes - immediately) when I moved at 1:30AM, 8AM, or 3PM. I suppose they *could* be sitting in front of their computer 20 hours a day ready to respond absolutely immediately anytime someone makes a move, but it strains credulity. Fwiw they only are playing like 4 games, so it's not like they are constantly bouncing between games.

[titi-togepi]

I didn't want to say i was the player you've referred too, i wanted to say i was doing what you described
Sometimes i'm online at 1 pm and sometimes in the same day at 1 am
At which game did that happened?

[nik592]

I log on to BGA a lot during the day. Some days, I have terrible insomnia, and I'll be on several times through the night as well. I mean, I'd also point out that you were online at a number of different times during the day.

If you really think they're a bot, give them a private red thumb and move on. I don't know what there is to be gained by creating a bot player though. I mean if you want to use it as a dummy player to level against, you'd want to program it to lose against you, and I don't know if you'd send it out into other games. I suppose they could be just trying to get high ELO/rank with one, but I personally wouldn't feel like I was winning in that case. Though I also wouldn't feel like I was a winner if I was using power leveling or any other kind of cheating, so maybe that just speaks to me (or doesn't as it were) as a player.

[RobertBr]

I suppose they *could* be sitting in front of their computer 20 hours a day ready to respond absolutely immediately anytime someone makes a move, but it strains credulity.

As opposed to they created an effective bot with a fully functioning interface with the BGA system - something that requires a huge amount of work - and then deciding to keep it secret - despite it being perfectly allowable for them to test their creation publicly - so that they can ...

... uhhhm ...

... no, I can't even guess at what the motive might be because I'm not a conspiracy theorist.

You're not the first person to come on to the forums to suggest this (along with the random claims of compacts, hacking, the dice algorithm being broken, player matching being rigged, or the tie breakers being based on whether or not people pay). Every one of them is a conspiracy theory, expect zero sympathy from everyone else, who have seen it all before.

[Strode]

If you want to report this and have someone check into it, I'd assume you do it the same way you do anything else. Bottom of the main page, click "Contact" and go from there.

[Tof63]

Have you tried chating with him?
It seems very complicated to me to make a bot. In fact, for some games, I don't even see how it would be possible to make an external bot.
On the other hand, some games, like Barrage for example, allow you to play against bots...

[Harvey6]

What are some possible explanations for the behavior described monopoly go, where individuals suspect the presence of bots or unfair practices in an online gaming system, despite there being no concrete evidence to support these claims?

[h_illes]

There are players like that alright, online almost constantly for their waking hours, so they can move instantly. Depending on what time zone they are in, you might not have caught their sleeping hours yet, so they might seem like a bot, but they are not.