Summary
DespiteMarvel Rivals' success, the hero shooter has had a bot issue since launch. That issue now runs a little deeper as players have begun to discover that the game appears to be assigning their usernames to bots while they’re not using them.
The issue has been highlighted byReddit user u/Maleficent_Roll3450who shared their bots-using-usernames theory onthe r/marvelrivals subreddit. They revealed that, while playing in a Practice vs. AI match, someone from their Rivals friend list happened to be on their team. When they used voice chat to try and interact with them, the player didn’t respond.
Thinking that was odd, they checked the player’s status on their friend list and discovered they were offline. While this one instance might have been a case of the player having voice chat turned off and their settings tweaked so they appear offline, others have been sharing more evidence in the replies that Rivals assigns random real usernames to its bots rather than randomly generating them.
Marvel Rivals Bots Seem To Be Named After Real Players
There Could Be One Using Your Handle Right Now
The biggest giveaway is the inappropriate usernames some of the bots have been given. While I’m unable to repeat any of them here since I like my job, you’re able to check out some of the names given to bots that Rivals players have stumbled across in the replies to the Reddit post above.
I’d say I need to report a Rivals username about once in every two matches, so if handles are being randomly assigned to bots, it’s unsurprising some of them have wound up with usernames that shouldn’t be in the game at all.
One player claims after becoming suspicious that someone in a Rivals match was bot, they followed up on their username only to discover they were currently playingCall of Duty: Warzone. Another claims they thought they were playing Rivals with a famous streamer only to discover it was their username applied to a bot. That might be the straw that breaks this particular camel’s back for Rivals. Having seen some of Timthetatman’s passionate rants about how much he hates Rocket, I can’t imagine he’d be too happy to find out a bot is using his name and giving off the impression he’s a lot worse at Rivals than people think.
Bots have been an issue in Rivals for months. It’s not that they’re there, pretty much all notable online games use them in some way, but the way they’re implemented. Bots are used in games like Rivals to try and keep players engaged, giving them easier wins when they need them.Fortniteuses them in a far more subtle way, whereas it’s painfully obvious when you’re up against, and paired with bots in Rivals, hence the issue. Giving them real usernames in an attempt to fool players into thinking they’re real has backfired.
