"If they roughly identify bots through their behaviour - e.g. the number of hours played, confinement to one location, repetitive actions or whatever gives the game away, could they not quickly confirm it by sending a message saying "Hey, enjoying the game? Could you just confirm your not a bot by answering this question, please..." "
This is exactly what Blizzard already does. Smart botters are usually somewhere near their computer and hear an audio alert when they get a/whisper from a GM or anyone else. Stupid botters will ignore these messages, and then get banned along with hundreds of others in Blizzard's periodic ban waves.
Slashdot Mirror
"If they roughly identify bots through their behaviour - e.g. the number of hours played, confinement to one location, repetitive actions or whatever gives the game away, could they not quickly confirm it by sending a message saying "Hey, enjoying the game? Could you just confirm your not a bot by answering this question, please..." " This is exactly what Blizzard already does. Smart botters are usually somewhere near their computer and hear an audio alert when they get a /whisper from a GM or anyone else. Stupid botters will ignore these messages, and then get banned along with hundreds of others in Blizzard's periodic ban waves.