Former MMO dev reveals the random mundane object that stopped World of Warcraft's first bots in their tracks

An ex-Blizzard developer has shared the oh-so-simple yet equally effective method for stamping out bots in the early days of World of Warcraft.

It's a fact of life that in online games, people will attempt to cheat their way to the top using bots, and World of Warcraft is no exception. It's an issue that Blizzard has been battling since the MMOs beginning, and while the process for detecting these computer-controlled entities is likely much more advanced these days, the first method used was genius in its simplicity.

In a video posted on YouTube, former Blizzard employee Jason Thor Hall explains that in the very early days, bots in WoW would just move in a straight line from point A to point B. "The first attempts to stop this... you put a rock in the way."

As the bots lacked the ability to simply run around this everyday obstacle, they would instead continually run into it, which was a dead giveaway for the developer. "All the bots would get stuck on the rock, and then a GM (game manager) would literally teleport there, see all the players running in place and ban them all manually."

Of course, it didn't take long for the players using these bots to find a way around the problem, both literally and figuratively. "A number of months later, the bot creators found out how to do dynamic pathing, and now the bots move around the rock," Hall says. "And that was the first cat-and-mouse movement for any of this."

While Hall has parted ways with Blizzard, he's still very much involved in making games. His latest project is Heartbound, a stunning indie RPG about a boy battling his inner demons whilst searching for his dog and best friend, Baron. Having been successfully funded on Kickstarter, it's currently in Steam Early Access, and if you like to try before you buy, there's also a demo available.

Meanwhile, the next 3 World of Warcraft expansions have been revealed as part of the Worldsoul Saga.