Exposing the Epidemic: AFK Bots in Retro Hotels

[m00tjee]

Hey DevBest Community,

It's time to shed some light on a concerning trend that's been sweeping through the retro hotel community: the use of AFK bots. You may have noticed an influx of hotels boasting about their impressive player counts, but how many of those players are actually engaged and active?

Many retro hotels are resorting to underhanded tactics, such as deploying AFK bots or bots randomly walking around, to artificially inflate their player counts. While this may seem harmless at first glance, it undermines the integrity of the community and creates a false sense of popularity.

AFK bots not only deceive players but also skew competition and rankings within the community (for ex. Findretros rankings). They manipulate the perception of a hotel's popularity and success, leading to unfair advantages for those who resort to such tactics.

As members of the retro hotel community, it's essential to remain vigilant and discerning. Don't be fooled by inflated player counts. Instead, seek out hotels that prioritize genuine engagement, foster a vibrant community, and uphold ethical standards.

Let's work together to uphold the integrity of our beloved retro hotel community and ensure that it remains a fair and enjoyable environment for all.

Stay informed, stay vigilant, and let's keep the spirit of retro gaming alive!

- m00tjee

 

[Liam]

This has been happening for a long time, and it only speaks volumes about those hotels.

 

[GooGoo]

They aren’t fooling anyone honestly. If you know you know.

 

[Puffin]

They arent even using bots lol
you can do :staffonline 1 on a lot of hotels, this will list all users online rank 1 and above (these geniuses always forget to disable this command )

Quite a few hotels ive noticed are off by quite a few compare to what their api is saying
but liam is right, its nothing new.

 

[LeChris]

They arent even using bots lol
you can do :staffonline 1 on a lot of hotels, this will list all users online rank 1 and above (these geniuses always forget to disable this command )

Quite a few hotels ive noticed are off by quite a few compare to what their api is saying
but liam is right, its nothing new.

a lot of hotels are tracking online users wrong. the values on the emulator settings are cached and not correct - it's pretty much counting the users online since emulator booted up

but yeah, agreed it's probably not bots. retros have always been notorious for being afk hubs for small friend groups while they do other things

 

[m00tjee]

I noticed seeing hotels using AI to make even fake conversations and movement in game between players.

They arent even using bots lol
you can do :staffonline 1 on a lot of hotels, this will list all users online rank 1 and above (these geniuses always forget to disable this command )

Quite a few hotels ive noticed are off by quite a few compare to what their api is saying
but liam is right, its nothing new.

 

[LeChris]

I noticed seeing hotels using AI to make even fake conversations and movement in game between players.

Big doubt - that would cost a fair bit of money

Name and shame these hotels if they're real

 

[m00tjee]

Big doubt - that would cost a fair bit of money

Name and shame these hotels if they're real

I don't like getting doxxed and IP hunted.. so I will only make effort of exposing these hotels, whenever the rest of the community decides this isn't normal and just unfair to the competition to inflate numbers.

 

[Puffin]

I mean its not like you will change anything calling it out with this thread either an honestly don't really see it as an actual issue at all, there are a lot worse things people in the retro community do than fake an online count.

From a users perspective, logging into a hotel and seeing over a short span of time that a majority of these people aren't actively engaged, im moving onto the next one.

As for AI, I am very doubtful of that one myself but most people with a brain can tell the difference from a conversation between two bots and two actual human beings so if they wanna go to that much effort then that's on them, and speaks to their character. You can only fake success for so long.

 

[Laynester]

Big doubt - that would cost a fair bit of money

Name and shame these hotels if they're real

not like ""ai"" but reusing old chats from chatlog to create fake conversations

 

[GooGoo]

As for AI, I am very doubtful of that one myself but most people with a brain can tell the difference from a conversation between two bots and two actual human beings so if they wanna go to that much effort then that's on them, and speaks to their character. You can only fake success for so long.

Right, either way, you look at this using bots will not retain users. They will notice and leave at any given time.
Essentially it will only become a bot hotel and that will lead nowhere.

 

[Weasel]

I'm gonna be honest, this is nothing new, and coinciding with your own advertisement thread for your hotel, this feels like marketing.

 

[m00tjee]

I'm gonna be honest, this is nothing new, and coinciding with your own advertisement thread for your hotel, this feels like marketing.

While it's true that the issue of bots in the retro community isn't new, we believe it's important to continue raising awareness and advocating for fair play. Our advertisement for Vibehotel coincides with this discussion because we're committed to providing a genuine gaming experience free from artificial inflation of player counts. Our goal is to foster a community built on trust and transparency.

 

[Weasel]

While it's true that the issue of bots in the retro community isn't new, we believe it's important to continue raising awareness and advocating for fair play. Our advertisement for Vibehotel coincides with this discussion because we're committed to providing a genuine gaming experience free from artificial inflation of player counts. Our goal is to foster a community built on trust and transparency.

"We" believe. So you're saying this as an entity. Like I said, cheap marketing stunt. Sad to see. This is not the way to garner support or users for your site.

Raising awareness doesn't help whatsoever. People know it, it also isn't even hurtful. It's dumb. When people use bots to boost their stats, people join and see there's no interaction whatsoever, the first impression is going to be that the hotel is bad, and they won't come back. It's an issue that resolves itself and doesn't need any fake awareness.

If you want your endeavors to be successful, be honest. This doesn't help.

 

[Kaz]

"We" believe. So you're saying this as an entity. Like I said, cheap marketing stunt. Sad to see. This is not the way to garner support or users for your site.

Raising awareness doesn't help whatsoever. People know it, it also isn't even hurtful. It's dumb. When people use bots to boost their stats, people join and see there's no interaction whatsoever, the first impression is going to be that the hotel is bad, and they won't come back. It's an issue that resolves itself and doesn't need any fake awareness.

If you want your endeavors to be successful, be honest. This doesn't help.

^^ This in a nutshell.

The probelm with hotels nowadays, y’all bitch and moan about Hotel A is doing this and Hotel B does this. Leave them do it.

If they want to fake online count or use bots as ‘people’, real users will not stay and seek out a community that is real. Their loss at the end of the day.

And as a hotel owner, rather than trying to be the vigilante to expose boosted servers.
Why not focus on your own community? Pretty sure your time is more valuable towards your own users

 

[m00tjee]

"We" believe. So you're saying this as an entity. Like I said, cheap marketing stunt. Sad to see. This is not the way to garner support or users for your site.

Raising awareness doesn't help whatsoever. People know it, it also isn't even hurtful. It's dumb. When people use bots to boost their stats, people join and see there's no interaction whatsoever, the first impression is going to be that the hotel is bad, and they won't come back. It's an issue that resolves itself and doesn't need any fake awareness.

If you want your endeavors to be successful, be honest. This doesn't help.

I'm therefore not naming any hotel, so I'm not doing any reputation harm to ''other hotels''.
All I care about is maybe creating a more fair space for these hotels, and making their achievements being shown by actual statistics and paving a path for an actual dedicated hotel owner who is out there struggling at these so called giants inflating their statistics. While I'm advertising in a way you may not like, I still do believe that others do agree on the fact that this is just not the way of building a community.

This issue isn't just known to the public eyes perspective.
A normal potential user will look at statistics, create his/her's character and based upon total players to focus on engaging in a community.

But then again, the problem solves it self as said.

Case closed.