I am (to my shame) am actually occasionally still active on Runescape (free2play only)
Atmos Duality said:
Actually, botting does not go against the point of the game.
Think about it: The point of most MMOs is to "level up" so that you can overcome greater obstacles. Botting accelerates that process; it doesn't replace it.
If the sole metric of challenge is a player's ability to withstand hours upon hours of boredom, IT ISN'T A LEGITIMATE GAME.
Yes, the point of MMO's is to level up, to see that little bar go higher and higher as you perform actions within the game. If you are botting then you are not leveling up. You are not accomplishing anything, you are not playing the game, but your little avatar is running around the mining guild taking up valuable resources,
which stops legitimate players from being able to play and what do the botters get out of it? An end-game character they have no idea how to use.
I've had loads of level 100+ characters approach me in game and ask me noob questions. With a few questions I can discern that they have no knowledge whatsoever of how to actually play the game, because they botted or bought their high level account, which most will readily admit to doing.
Botting adds nothing to the botters gaming experience, and reduces the playing experience of legitimate players because there are finite resources in Runescape, and they swarm the best places. If you don't have the time to waste leveling up your character, then don't play Runescape, because the grind is sort of the point of the game.
i) "Botters ruin the player-driven-economy"
So they do. But you know what gives real-life value to those items the botters and gold-farmers sell?
Grind. The value of an item is based largely on two things: Its availability and its usefulness.
"Usefulness" is a function of the metagame, and doesn't tie into grind at all on its own (beyond the trend that developers place the most useful/powerful items at the highest rarities, but this is an arbitrary decision on their part).
"Availability" however, is a function of economics...Ahh.
So...
If everything were readily available, but not necessarily useful, then it becomes a game based purely on execution (after some trial-and-error to eliminate the weakest metagame choices of course).
But...
If everything were not readily available, then the value of any given item would increase by simple Supply and Demand; AMPLIFIED by usefulness.
So when an item is only valuable because you have to waste your time doing lots of mechanically-easy, but boring busywork to find it, it's hard to justify an entire economy comprised of those items.
Literally your only argument here is that it doesn't matter that botting ruins the in-game economy because it is based on grinding. If that is an issue for you then again I will say the solution is to not play the game. There are people who enjoy the grind, there are people who don't, if you are in the latter group then play a different game.
Yes, the Runescape economy is based off supply and demand, amplified by the items usefulness, but bots made supply of all materials several magnitudes higher than the demand, so inflation made most items valueless/ This especially affected the lower level items, so it was incredibly hard for new players to make money as they had to compete with bots to gather resources, and had to sell them at far lower prices, making less money (iron ore went from 99gp to 250+ when the bots were all banned!) Making playing the game less rewarding and more frustrating.
Believe me, the game is a million times better now that the bots are gone, and for anyone that relied on bots to play the game, well, Runescape is better off without them. Simply put, the game was not meant for them.
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