The Future of Blade & Soul in NA/EU

I don't know how many of you have actually played other Blade & Soul region versions, but there is one extremely obvious aspect that, for strange reason, is rarely talked about.

There are bots ... everywhere! Let me explain the observed behaviors of this species in the wild:

From the very first time you leave the introductory isolated Hongmoon school section of the story, you will encounter very many "players", but they will,

have strange random character names

will almost invariably all be Destroyers

will move in fixed, straight lines

pause together at exactly the same spots

move without ever sprinting yet move far faster than you, seem to teleport then run a little then teleport again

barely aggro NPCs before moving again faster than the NPCs can catch them

collect in big groups at precise spots at the outside of certain instances

collect in big groups at quest NPCs

collect even in front of Wheels of Fate

pop in and out of existence in single or groups right in front of you, as if Channel hopping - this happens on Wheels of Fate too

they will be surprisingly high level for the zone (maybe all those instance runs), quite likely higher than you

will Windwalk (legitimate player teleport) into certain hubs, e.g. Bamboo village, then pause, walk forward, turn 90 degrees, run up to the nearest Vault keeper, pause longer, then move away - all in a long stream of character, after character, after character doing the same exact motions to the Vault

if you are lucky, you may see them incoming to an NPC, each get their bright leveling angelic wings flash, then move off at angle to the next location, all in perfect geometric symmetry one after another: flash ... zip ... flash ... zip ... flash ... zip!

if you are unlucky (surprisingly often), you will have over a dozen doing the same quest as you and killing the same required NPCs faster than you can. In some caes, this can lead there to be very few free available NPCs and they may no longer be there before you run up to them, because a bot killed them. Players report taking up to 8 times longer to complete some quests due to bots, i.e. 5min quest becomes 40mins

at low enough rating, it is reported there are even bots (with full teleporting) who play in PvP Arenas.

Sometimes you will notice that you are the only player in a sub-zone and everyone else is a bot.

All of the above may begin to plant unpleasant seeds in your mind. For example, occasionally, a player who appears to have a non-random name will park themself in front of a Vault (yes, the very same Vault that bots run up to), and shout out in Zone and Faction chat for 30mins an offer to give free Blade And Soul Gold to any players who are above the trade-restricted Level. When legit new players invariably run up to him, they confirm receiving the stated amount of bns gold without any issues or additional requirements, and thank him profusely in chat and whisper.

In any other MMO, this would be universally viewed as angelic generosity, perhaps making a name for their guild, and reported far and wide, certainly without any kind of suspicion (what is there to suspect?).

These are by far the most sophisticated bot programmes I personally have ever seen, particularly astonishing given how it is impossible to run multiple instances of Blade & Soul on the same machine and that it uses GameGuard (a supposed, very controversial anti-hacking monitoring program)!

This, combined with player Block list limits of 50 for Blade & Soul gold spammers, makes me a little nervous, to say the least, about the future of Blade & Soul in the West. If history is anything to go by, Western players are far less tolerant to these types of behaviors!

I can't wait till release, but I'm worried for after.

As for the Blade and Soul staff, there is likely nothing I can say or do that will provide them with more feedback than they already have, other than making them aware that brand new players to Blade & Soul are watching with obvious concern.