bullethead123 wrote:For me, automation is playing the game. While running my bots, I've spent more time engaging with the game—whether it's chatting with other players or simply observing—than I ever did playing manually.
"Watching bots play is more engaging than actually playing" might be the most dystopian gaming take I've ever heard. That's like saying you're a football player because you watch matches on TV while your FIFA game runs in the background. Even Salazzar, who defends AFKing, at least acknowledges there's no real content worth doing manually anymore - he's not trying to pretend watching bots is "engaging gameplay."
I stand by what I said: if AFKing isn't wanted and Zer wants me gone, I'll step aside gracefully. I won't even try to do it discreetly, though I know many others will.
There's that "gracefully step aside" threat again. You've gone from "I'll remove features if asked" to "well everyone's doing it" to "I'll leave if you make me stop" - all while claiming this is about enhancing the game experience. Which is it?
The bot I've created, which many players are using, was originally designed with a primary focus on enhancing the PVE experience. While it includes an option for PVP, this is just one feature among many.
Remember when it was just about "enhancing PVE experience"? Now suddenly it's "automation IS playing the game." We went from basic AFKing to having bots running entire characters 24/7, and somehow that's being spun as "enhancement." That's quite the evolution from "helping with PvE" to "replacing gameplay entirely is fine."
The real issue isn't botting itself—it's that a select few players want to maintain dominance, regardless of how others experience the game.
Says the person who turned PvP into a bot war until James literally had to step in. As Supla mentioned, there was a reason nobody used PvP bots for years - it wasn't a technical limitation, it was common sense and respect for the game.
In hindsight, it feels like a clever maneuver—letting PVP bots get out of hand to force this debate. It's no secret that some GMs enjoy jailing players, and without bots to jail, their role becomes less relevant.
And now we're onto conspiracy theories about GMs orchestrating a bot crisis? Come on. Maybe, just maybe, like James said, they're concerned because PvP bots "make the game worse for other people." The mental gymnastics required to turn "GMs trying to stop harmful behavior" into some kind of power play is impressive.
Faldon has evolved. The rules of the past were designed for a different era, but now the game has moved into a new phase where AFK leveling and botting have become integral to the player experience.
The game hasn't "evolved" - it's been automated into something entirely different. The damage is already extensive, but that doesn't mean we should keep making it worse. When 31 out of 35 online "players" are bots, that's not evolution - that's extinction of actual gameplay. Even Mouse acknowledged that while closing the level gap might be impossible now, we still need to address the botting issue to give new players any chance at all.
You're not enhancing the experience, you're replacing it. Don't try to dress this up as some philosophical difference in playstyles or natural evolution of the game. When the best defense you can offer for automation is "well, watching bots is more engaging than playing," maybe it's time to admit this has gone too far.
Evil Devil - Prometherion
