Question of the Day, December 18, 2010

DaMullet

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Nov 28, 2009
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If I wanted to play against/with bots, I wouldn't be playing an online game.

Bots ruin the whole point of playing an online game. So no bots, just no.

CCountZero said:
Catalyst6 said:
Speaking again as a very, very long time Vet, the experience of leveling yet another toon in the same places that I've seen, literally, fifteen times before or above, is not a good one.
I strongly symphatize with people who feel that skipping the first 70 levels or so is neccesary to their enjoyment of the game.
That's not to say that everyone would have the same excuse as me. (and I never used mine.)
You have to skip the first 70 levels in order to get to the fun part? Step back and listen to yourself for a second. If someone else said that, and you had no idea what game they were talking about, wouldn't your first reaction be "Why are you playing such a retarded game?"

WoW... it gets better later! Like after 60 hours of game play, and then it gets fun!

...Isn't that a bad thing? Or a sign of a really bad game?

Oh its all the friends you get to play with online, oh that's right, that's why people play. But... if those people turn into bots... then... then what happens?


This is why City of Heroes as destoryed any chance of me playing WoW. CoH actually added in an area where you can take your character back in time so you don't miss any of the content in the lower levels. That is fun and interesting...
 

Lyri

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Dec 8, 2008
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Pirate Kitty said:
Lyri said:
You know you pay for the right?
A) Some of them are free

B) So what? Should we all use a computer with identical specs so no one that can't afford a super fast computer is at a disadvantage? Silly point.

C)
Lyri said:
I've used a clicker tool for Aion when that came out as the gathering was truly dull [...] anything that mindlessly farms for you is bad for the players around it.
Hypocrite.
The free ones you don't want to use why? Because they're easier to detect by in game firewalls that get your account banned.
A botter simply wouldn't use a free one if they're intending on botting till the end. I've been in vents with people who used to bot just to compete with the other ones because they refused to allow other people to have the advantage over them.

I don't understand why you brought up the spec argument, because I said someone can't pay online?
If that's the reason then please stop posting, it's got nothing to do with that. It's because some people just don't have credit cards that are accepted by companies or are from places that can't pay as easily even if they did.
Filipinos need to use a system called Western Union, not every MMO runs it for the cash shop, so if they want items. They can't have it.
Silly girl.


The hypocrite thing made me lol, an auto clicker whilst still "an unfair advantage" of the smallest kind is still a far cry from a fully automated botting programme.
Mine simulates a left/right mouse click every few seconds on one spot of the screen (which made farming a single herb node much easier in Aion).
There where others out there that where using bots that made them fly to certain spots, farm an ariel node and use potions to sustain their flight for long periods of time.
The botter I mentioned earlier in another game, her bot would log her out whenever a GM came near her, invisible or visible just so she couldn't be tested in game and subsequently banned.

That said, doesn't make me a saint for using one but that's the first and only time I ever did. Their system was mind numbingly trash if you wanted to gather.
 

CCountZero

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DaMullet said:
CCountZero said:
You have to skip the first 70 levels in order to get to the fun part? Step back and listen to yourself for a second. If someone else said that, and you had no idea what game they were talking about, wouldn't your first reaction be "Why are you playing such a retarded game?"

WoW... it gets better later! Like after 60 hours of game play, and then it gets fun!

...Isn't that a bad thing? Or a sign of a really bad game?

Oh its all the friends you get to play with online, oh that's right, that's why people play. But... if those people turn into bots... then... then what happens?

This is why City of Heroes as destoryed any chance of me playing WoW. CoH actually added in an area where you can take your character back in time so you don't miss any of the content in the lower levels. That is fun and interesting...
Largely depends on what you want out of the game.

As I wrote in my post, I've been raiding and doing semi-teamwork-based stuff in WoW for six years, and I'm quite content with the fun I get for my monthly fee in that respect.
However, once I got to the point of having played a few different classes, I started detesting the leveling process, 'cus there was nothing new, and I was just doing it alone or with a bunch of people I didn't have any relation to.

The fun part of WoW, for me, is max-level groups, be it PuG or Raid.

So, despite hating it, I forced myself to level other classes, to try them out too. Some I even made duals of, because this was before Faction Transfers. All in all, I've leveled 15 characters to 80, one of them being a Death Knight so lets call it 14.

For me, the end justifies the means, so to speak.

Cataclysm certain revitalized some of my utter hatred of 01-70 zones, and I have made new characters who will never see the light of 85, just to check out places like Westfall after the changes.

Keep in mind that I was still leveling those characters back when this case was initiated.

Now, I do believe that you learn something from leveling the class on your own, but I also believe that the amount learned has decreased with every expansion being introduced, because of people.
For every expansion you get, you'll see less people in the old zones. Cataclysm tries to remedy part of this problem, and does a decent enough job at it, but the problem still persists. Without people to actually do stuff with, you never learn the basic skillsets that you'll need when you eventually end up wanting to go raiding (or grouping) at max level.
Needless to say, all games have this issue.

----

Oh, and as a sidenote, I never claimed that WoW was a good game. In fact, I don't believe it to be.
It's one of the most prominent users of "digital drugs", so to speak, to keep you playing.
And don't even get me started on the freaking Achievement systems...

And your friends don't turn into Bots. That's sort of the point. I clearly stated in my post that I symphatized with people using Bots for leveling purposes, seeing as I was sick and tired of the old leveling zones at the time this thread relates to.
I don't believe a new player should be able to skip that process, 'cus there's things to learn from it that said new players need.
And, if one of my friends made a new char, he/she'd still be around on their other characters, in bot-less form.
Saying that all my friends might turn into bots is just... not very well thought through, sorry to say :p

I can't comment on City of Heroes, as I've never played it.
 

Grey_Focks

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Jan 12, 2010
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No. Playing with bots on your team in certain games (tf2) is just unfair (a medic going uber on another medic...GREAT AI THERE CHIEF) and really just takes away from the experience of everyone else trying to actually play the game. I've always been of the thought that "do whatever you want to do in-game so long as it doesn't take away from the experience of others", and bots do just that.
 

Impluse_101

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Jun 25, 2009
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Hey Escapist, I want you to hear this.

There was this one MMO that I was recommended to play, and I did for a while, it was fun. One of the interesting things about it was, it gave you this statue. And what it did is that if you needed to go away, You could use that statue, input some stuff that I dont remember what, and Your character will go on out its way and kill stuff or whatever.

Basicly, it was a in game bot statue.
So that is the only context I'd be interested in using bots.
 

teisjm

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Mar 3, 2009
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If the game is so booring, that you need a bot to play it, you should've never gotten it in the first place.
I bet most people can find games they enjoy, where they enjoy the entire game if not close, but yet they stick to games where they find it stale enough to egt a bot to play it for them, and they even pay for teh bot to do teh grinding in most cases, since most games with bots in them are MMOs.

In some cases though i can understand it, in EVE online, you can buy game-time cards (PLEXs) for in-game money, so you can basicly get rid of the monthly fee by having a bor farm for you while you're not playing.

This could ofc be translated ot other games, where you have a bot play when you odn't have time to do so yourself, and still play the bots part, when you've got time to play.

So i guess it really depends on the game, and the purpose of the bot.
 

Baresark

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Dec 19, 2010
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A bot that grinds for you in WoW is way different than a bot that gets headshots for you in CoD. It depends on the game. In WoW for example, the system is so completely equipment heavy, being equal levels with people is completely irrelevant. I know I'm not the only one here who has been schooled by someone 5 levels below them because of their twink gear.

Shooters are a whole diffent animal. The bot is completely unfair, no one can shoot faster or better than a bot. The bots can even throw crazy knives up in the air through skylights and hit someone in another room (I think we have all seen those videos). Activision Blizzard has no good reasoning to not allow them. No one uses a bot for PvP, or to beat other players, a bot couldn't.

The easy answer for shooters is to have servers that allow bots, so then they aren't ruining anyone else's fun. If they wanna have an aim bot, they are more than welcome to in a place where everyone else is having them. I was once in the funniest autoknife match in the history of gaming playing Battlefield 2142. I couldn't stop laughing, it was everyone just running at each other and whoever's autoknife was faster won. It was glorious. There was no shortage of points to be earned by anyone.
 

Baresark

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Impluse_101 said:
Hey Escapist, I want you to hear this.

There was this one MMO that I was recommended to play, and I did for a while, it was fun. One of the interesting things about it was, it gave you this statue. And what it did is that if you needed to go away, You could use that statue, input some stuff that I dont remember what, and Your character will go on out its way and kill stuff or whatever.

Basicly, it was a in game bot statue.
So that is the only context I'd be interested in using bots.
Lots of MMO's used to have macros that would do stuff for you while you weren't in front of your computer. A few notable ones were Star Wars Galaxies and Ultima Online.

It seems to me that this was acceptable in a game that was mostly player controlled everything. But not with Activision Blizzard, this is a big no no.

These macros also could not save your life at all from another player. They would mine for you and do other menial tasks. Interestingly enough, a bot in WoW can barely save your life from a mob, let alone another player.
 

Fumbleumble

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Oct 17, 2010
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I say let ANYONE run a bot if they want... BUT.... charge maybe £10000 per week for the privilige of doing so, and put in the EULA...

It would have 2 effects

1) No one would do it..

2) 'IF' someone did do it, it would be far easier to prosecute.. it wouldn't be a case of proving law breaking/ copy right infringement.. it's be a simple matter of non-payment of fees due.. can you imagine the back fees?

That would stop the assholes pronto.

EDIT.. actually thinking about this, you wouldn't even have to resort to legal matters.. because it would be a simple matter of non payment, then the plug couild be pulled instantly with no warning.... use a bot for one day, say goodbye to your account, lol.
 

Twilight_guy

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Nov 24, 2008
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When people go through the trouble of making bots to play the game for them, your game has failed somehow. No, I don't think they should because its not fair to other players. If I have to slog through some repetitive work to earn a reward then everyone should. It's only fair. When someone trys to subvert that then they are getting out of something everyone else must do, which in my book is usually cheating.
 

Lyx

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Sep 19, 2010
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I did not vote.

While it may to some extend depend on the game, i think the game should be designed in a way, that does not give player-bots an advantage. The ways how this can happen are many, including (regarding "farming") to outrightly let the player pay AI-NPCs to do stuff for the player (but if this were allowed, then players could delegate the grinding to the AI, and thus developers would need to think about something else than grinding, to keep the player interested.)

Progress Quest. Google it. Modern MMOGs let players do the job of a bot, and thus a bot can do it just as well (or even better). It's why i don't play such games anymore.
 

SmileyBat

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Jun 14, 2010
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The first poll option is an empty cop-out if the agreement of terms highlights this kind of abuse, and most do. Voted 4th poll option.
 

Spectre39

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It all depends on the Terms of Service you agree to at the beginning. If botting is illegal, then you are contractually bound not to use them. Those are the rules, and if you break them you deserve to have your account terminated without a refund. If you don't agree with the rules, don't play!
 

Shimoku

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Ridiculous. If you play a game only for the 'fun parts' and leave the rest up to bots, go find yourself another hobby.
 
Mar 30, 2010
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No, because it's cheating. First off, why buy a game you don't want to play, and secondly why buy a game you don't want to play fairly? We're not talking about cheap tactics like spawn-camping or quick-scoping, bots are a fundamental breaking of the gaming mechanics and should be clamped down on. Yeah, ok, their owners paid for the game and should be free to play it as they want, but the other people in the game world also paid for their copy of the game and should be free to play in an environment without boosters and the like. I don't play WoW specifically, but I've been in enough lobbies with modders, boosters and hacks to know that they ruin the game for the rest of the lobby.
 

harvz

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Jun 20, 2010
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i am more of the 'i dont really care what other do' but i think it might be interesting to look at the thought process behind the use of the bot in mmo's.

the very use of the bot is often not even considered to be 'paying without playing' by the user because the bot is, infact many people will have the bot going and do something else with their time. what i find remarkable is that people still seem to get a sense of achievement despite not even being "at the helm".

now those without bots dislike the use of them, whether its due to feeling cheated, at a disadvantaged or otherwise and these feelings even seem consistent in the general publics view.

so, this all leaves the mmo's dev's, mod's, etc. in a sticky situation, they can force bots to be banned and enforce (siding with the fair play to all), they could restrict the usage by limits (trying to compromise) or they can let all hell loose and allow unrestricted usage of bots (siding with the "cheaters").

there really is no easy way to go about this, so the general trend is to enforce the "no bots" policy which isn't necessarily the best option (god knows i wouldn't mind some things in mmo's to be able to be run automatically [eve online for e.g. :p ]).
 

Zydrate

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I voted the "Logic Overload" option, but I'm going to add.

If it doesn't hurt other players... Maybe. But it still imbalances it for the rest of us who play normally.