Generalized best-first search strategies and the optimality of A*
Journal of the ACM (JACM)
A characterization of the variability of packet arrival processes in workstation networks
A characterization of the variability of packet arrival processes in workstation networks
Is runtime verification applicable to cheat detection?
Proceedings of 3rd ACM SIGCOMM workshop on Network and system support for games
Preventing bots from playing online games
Computers in Entertainment (CIE) - Theoretical and Practical Computer Applications in Entertainment
A systematic classification of cheating in online games
NetGames '05 Proceedings of 4th ACM SIGCOMM workshop on Network and system support for games
How sensitive are online gamers to network quality?
Communications of the ACM - Entertainment networking
Towards integrated imitation of strategic planning and motion modeling in interactive computer games
Computers in Entertainment (CIE) - 3rd anniversary issue
Game traffic analysis: an MMORPG perspective
Computer Networks: The International Journal of Computer and Telecommunications Networking
Game bot identification based on manifold learning
Proceedings of the 7th ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Network and System Support for Games
Effect of Network Quality on Player Departure Behavior in Online Games
IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems
CAPTCHA: using hard AI problems for security
EUROCRYPT'03 Proceedings of the 22nd international conference on Theory and applications of cryptographic techniques
Detection of auto programs for MMORPGs
AI'05 Proceedings of the 18th Australian Joint conference on Advances in Artificial Intelligence
Exploiting MMORPG log data toward efficient RMT player detection
Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology
Bot detection in rhythm games: a physiological approach
Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology
Forecasting online game addictiveness
Proceedings of the 11th Annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games
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Massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) have become extremely popular among network gamers. Despite their success, one of MMORPG's greatest challenges is the increasing use of game bots, that is, autoplaying game clients. The use of game bots is considered unsportsmanlike and is therefore forbidden. To keep games in order, game police, played by actual human players, often patrol game zones and question suspicious players. This practice, however, is labor-intensive and ineffective. To address this problem, we analyze the traffic generated by human players versus game bots and propose general solutions to identify game bots. Taking Ragnarok Online as our subject, we study the traffic generated by human players and game bots. We find that their traffic is distinguishable by 1) the regularity in the release time of client commands, 2) the trend and magnitude of traffic burstiness in multiple time scales, and 3) the sensitivity to different network conditions. Based on these findings, we propose four strategies and two ensemble schemes to identify bots. Finally, we discuss the robustness of the proposed methods against countermeasures of bot developers, and consider a number of possible ways to manage the increasingly serious bot problem.