Frontier Reiterates Stance On Botting Amidst Players Banding Together To Combate Elite's Problem
Joseph Bradford Updated: Feb 12, 2021 1:06 PM Posted: Feb 12, 2021 1:06 PM
In a post to the Elite Dangerous forums, Frontier has reiterated its stance on how it deals with botting. This seemingly comes in direct response to a new player movement that is forming to combat the problem in the space sim.
As reported by PC Gamer, over 20,000 Elite Dangerous pilots have signed onto an agreement to combat botting in the sci-fi themed simulator, specifically against those using thrid party systems to affect the in-game Power Play gameplay. The community-led "Anti-Botting Agreement" has reportedly been signed by 162 groups and squadrons of players, with those signatories affirming their mission to not intentionally benefit from the actions of a bot, as well as the mission to report them when they are found.
"The use of "Shadow WIngs" and "Ghost Fleets" in Power Play and the Background Simulation is something we wish was not a part of Elite: Dangerous. Rather than hope it goes away, or that it affects someone else, the following groups and individuals are proud to sign up to the following A-BA Code of Practice.," posted Commander Asamith in the Elite Dangerous forums when announcing the coalition of player groups signing on to combat this issue.
Seemingly in response to this report, Frontier doubled down on their stance against botting on the game's forums, stating that they "take any form of cheating or hacking in Elite Dangerous seriously."
"Our investigation teams constantly monitor and will ban any players found to be cheating in game - the use of bots is no exception. We take care to ensure that the tools and methods used to detect the use of bots remain discreet in order to prevent malicious users finding ways to avoid them.We are extremely grateful to players who have voiced their concerns over the use of bots in game, and encourage them to keep reporting any and all infractions they are aware of to our Customer Service team. Frontier wants to reassure everyone that we are committed to addressing these types of issue now and in the future."
Whether or not these bot actions can be wiped away from Elite Dangerous completely will remain unclear, but it's telling how fed up the community is with the problem and response to it that they felt the need to band together this way. It'll be interesting to see what effect the player group, as well as the increased scrutiny on Frontier's efforts to erase botting from its game has on the amount of cheating going on in Power Play.
Joseph Bradford
Joseph has been writing or podcasting about games in some form since about 2012. Having written for multiple major outlets such as IGN, Playboy, and more, Joseph started writing for MMORPG in 2015. When he's not writing or talking about games, you can typically find him hanging out with his 10-year old or playing Magic: The Gathering with his family. Also, don't get him started on why Balrogs *don't* have wings. You can find him on Twitter @LotrLore