LogFAQs > #914866182

Botwatch is the name of the software Jagex uses to detect accounts using bots ingame. This system received a major update in September 2012 along with the release of Botany Bay. According to Mark Gerhard, Botwatch is able to profile accounts and determine whether or not they are using botting software. Most other anti-botting measures have focused on protecting and obfuscating RuneScape's source code, but Botwatch doesn't focus on breaking the code of the botting software. Rather, it monitors an account's actions and determines whether or not it is human behaviour. Certain checks are also in place to determine whether or not the game is being played using an official Jagex client.

...How the profiling is done is not public information, mostly in order to prevent bot developers from easily circumventing the system. But we know that location and performed actions are definitely part of it. It also seems that the botwatch system is set to "watch" certain areas with many bots, analysing player patterns in those areas and banning them if those patterns are deemed irreproducible by a human player, or if very similar patterns are observed in many accounts, which would not be normal in a group of human players, as humans are inherently different.

There is also a component of client detection, which attempts to detect whether or not the user is currently using an official game client. If it is able to determine it is using a bot client, it applies a ban.

it's like the new captcha's that somehow know you're a real person just by clicking the box
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