[chemosh]

Farming is the problem then?

Then 12 year old kids home for the summer playing 24x7 are also a problem?

"I think a better solution than outlawing bots would be tracking "exhaustion". The longer you play the worse your character acts. Exhaustion is a negative ability modifier that slows you down, lowers your abilities (all abilities!) and lowers your damage. A totally exhausted level 60 can be killed by a level 1 Kobold.

That's fun, realistic behavior that kills bots. (Could give a purpose to all those beds and chairs in the game...

Another take on exhaustion is just from a game-play perspective: your drop rate goes down. A totally exhausted character doesn't get anything from killing a mob. The *loot* is exhausted!

Oh, by the way, I'd track exhaustion by the player's account and not by the character. It wouldn't stop farming if somebody has 10 characters on one account and just switches whenever one gets exhausted."

While I can see "why" some may want this...Blizzard won't ever do this. Nor will any other online anything. For one simple fact. We are paying customers. They can't legally deny me access to the subscription I am paying for, because I "play" too much. In fact...due to the fact I play much, should be an incentive for them to encourage me to continue...I am, after all, paying for their salaries.

I pay the same as everyone else, yes I do power game, but mostly due to the fact, that where I live I am isolated, for the most part, and have little else to do...unless i like to drink, which got boring years ago...playing wow, is also like a IM system with graphics for me. I keep up with my friends in the states, while playing a game i enjoy. if something else comes up thats interesting I do that instead. *shrugs* to each his own.


And on the botting issue...Bots always destroy MMORPGs. They destroy the in game economies, close off most of the best places to game, i.e. best spawn sites, best drop areas, etc. A great example of Bots running amuk (sp? er, ya, *shrugs* its late >.<), would be the Dancer, Musician, and Doctor professions in Starwars Galaxies An Empire Divided. When launched many of the more social gamers LOVED the Dancer/Musician/Doctor professions. They just danced, chatted and basically loved it. Its exactly what they wanted, and they got to help other players in the process too. it was great, you come in after a tough bounty mission to find that hawt Twi'lek dancer smiling at you as you come in, and she dances the problems away (healed mind bar/stat wounds, i forget which >.<). And chats with you the whole time about anything. always engaging always a good time, then the holo grind was launched to "help" people get jedi...and what do you think came next? Bots. Afk grinders. The cantinas turned into an automated ghost factory....and the only reason anyone even went to one, is when one of your dancer/musician friends were there, or if none of them were on and you need a heal....not to mention the bots spamming chat asking for tips...begging more like. It got to the point that most of the socializers either quit the game out of frustration, or moved on to something else.

The doctor profession was great too. You could buff your friends, work on crafting the ultimate buff pack ( and many spent months just screwing with components to do it), help other players take on dangerous areas by keeping them alive, etc....after the holo grind started you could master doc in around 9 hours or so....due to damage bots (guys that would macro a combat ability that ate their action bar, there by allowing you to heal them and get xp), due to the fact you could even macro your character to heal while you were afk. you just came back once an hour or so, and trained...it became a joke.

You could grind any profession in that game in no longer than 3 days at most. the image designer profession could be grinded in under 3 hours, if macroed right.

see the point i am making? if you don't, then you don't agree or don't want too.

Bots are bad for business, which is why most mmorpg's are taking a more active role in gutting the ability to do so. Yes, this can hurt the casual, even honest power gamer, but its a small price to pay to keep the price of a "Light Feather" at 10 cp per,...not 10 GOLD per.

Anyways, just my thoughts on it, hopefully none were offended, and if so, I do apologize, and hope that you see this as debate, and not personal attack.

Chemosh
Earthen Ring Server