My two cents on the issue of botting in Runescape

[trubbish]

...

[Pluckey]

This has been a problem for a loooooooong time.

 

 

All these articles about botting are getting old really.

[K4ylan]

I agree, most of the people who bot are people who like to play the game as well, just without grinding.

 

Oh, and before someone flames you, please clarify where you got the "1/5 players are bots" thing from. Either provide a source or delete it, because you'll get a lot of [cabbage].

[Youmu]

I agree, most of the people who bot are people who like to play the game as well, just without grinding.

 

Oh, and before someone flames you, please clarify where you got the "1/5 players are bots" thing from. Either provide a source or delete it, because you'll get a lot of [cabbage].

He probably got that statistic from observing training areas. And it's true, a lot of training spots are just choked full of botters.

 

1/5 may be pushing the truth but I'm not surprised if that happened to be the case.

[Cacmypants]

No offense OP, but

 

*facepalm*

[Lose No Hope]

So... your rant was about why you dislike grinding and use it as a scapegoat for botting?

[Cacmypants]

It can be a valid argument, depends on the context. Botting is obviously wrong if you have like 10 accounts up 24/7 grinding gps to RWT.

[Lose No Hope]

Botting is obviously wrong if you have like 10 accounts up 24/7 grinding gps to RWT.

It's not wrong in other situations?

[Lose No Hope]

Botting is obviously wrong if you have like 10 accounts up 24/7 grinding gps to RWT.

It's not wrong in other situations?

cheating perhaps but I dont hold it against anyone for botting magic, If I didnt know about string jewelry spell I might have considered it myself :unsure: (ugh alching)

 

Of course I dont know if id actually get a bot, im really crazy about my acc security, but I do feel for the people that do use a bot to get an annoying skill out of the way. Especially if its an obstacle to them having fun, the "devalues my achievement" group can go to hell

I don't hold anything against botters either. But that doesn't mean it isn't wrong. It is wrong in all situations. That was the point I was trying to make.

[Sir_Squab]

Nothing new here that the base cause for most botting in RS is probably the fact that a significant amount of the game is a huge grindfest. Honestly, I've been, well, grinding more lately, and especially after getting 75 agility I've really realized that I don't [bleep]ing blame people who bot. If I ever lost my main, I'd seriously look into botting if I decided to play seriously on another account.

 

As for 1/5 botting, although the statistic has no credible source, I can easiliy believe it. Not all players who bot are always botting, and 1/5 people botting or have botted some skill wouldn't surprise me.

 

Honestly, I think it comes down to the fact that the original RS was badly planned, because it was made just for fun by some dude in his basement. It wasn't designed from the start to be a major MMO.

 

Although, one note about the running: although I'd rather run everwhere, I rather like the run/walk feature. A lot of video games just have the character constantly running everywhere, which is a tad unrealistic to be honest. I like how you kinda got to measure it out. On the other hand, it makes me wonder if some agility should be F2P. Random thoughts.

[trubbish]

No offense OP, but

 

*facepalm*

 

Yeah, thanks for the helpful and insightful post.

 

As for everyone else, thank you for your replies and I'm happy to see that some people share the same view as me. Also, just to be clear, I am not saying that botting is good or botting should be allowed, I'm saying that it might be a result of the poor design of the game.

 

I agree, most of the people who bot are people who like to play the game as well, just without grinding.

 

Oh, and before someone flames you, please clarify where you got the "1/5 players are bots" thing from. Either provide a source or delete it, because you'll get a lot of [cabbage].

 

The source is this video:

 

 

Based on what I've seen, it's a pretty believe able statistic.

[Rock Hard]

botting for levels is like nicking monopoly money from the bank when nobodies looking, your a bit of a knob but at the end of the day its just a game and nobody really cares

[Crocefisso]

Judging from threads/topics I've seen across a variety of RS forums, I have come to the conclusion that people are incredibly fickle.

 

The amount of anti-botting posts I've read recently has been staggering, ever since trade limits were abolished. Yet, before they were abolished, people complained about them being there in the first place. It's time people made their mind up as to what they want, and stick with it. I myself signed multiple petitions for the abolition of trade limits, knowing full well the dangers - nay, inevitabilties - of the increase in botting, return of gold farming and RWT, and so on. Not once have I complained of these issues. It is the price of change and the price of freedom, something free trade certainly offers.

 

I know you, having had a year out, wouldn't have voted in the referendum, but I do think that we've got quite enough people ranting about botting as it stands.

[HeeroValentine]

People just love to complain. It's probably one of our favorite passing of time.

That's why the rants section is far larger than anything else on RS forums.

 

I don't mind the botting as long they just use it on their main and not have 10 bots running at the same time just for resources.

[Deathscythe]

Yeah if you don't want the price of runes crashing I say ban them.

[Nomrombom]

First off I would just like to apologise if this is in the wrong place.

 

Hi. My name is Dom. I have been a long time Runescape player, playing on and off for years between 2006 to this very day. I don't claim to be a great player at this game, and in fact the highest I have ever got a skill is level 85 in my few years of on-off playing. I know my input may not be worth much since I don't have the greatest understanding of the game, but I would appreciate it if you could take the time to read my views on Runescape and where it seems to be at the current time and I will try to summerise it as much as possible. I would also like to add that I will only be covering botters who bot for the purpose of training skills and not Real World Traders.

 

I made a recent return to the game after a year or so of hiatus and after a while I was intriduced to a shocking fact. 1/5 runescape players are bots (statistically.) (prove it)This worries me greatly, since I feel that we may have already lost the game to the bots (they pretty much generate all the items for the g.e. They are the "China" of Runescape, if you will.) and feel that drastic measures have to be taken to beat the bots. However, I don't feel that the bots are really the problem, but are actually, for most people, a solution to an already much greater problem which has been present in Runescape for years. The fact of the matter is that the bots became popular because Jagex drastically overestimate how much effort people are willing to put into their game. Theres no fun or challange in grinding levels for the vast majority of people and it feel like a waste of time to them. (Okay... People still play the game anyway, so this is a nonissue)

 

I feel that in order to counter the bot issue, Jagex should focus on making people feel like they are actually "missing out" when they bot. Take, for instance, a player going for 99 mage. A popular method of reaching 99 mage is to perform High Level Alchemy on items until you reach the milestone. This is also an extremely soul destroying method if you choose to sit and do it yourself. A player should be thinking "Just a bit more exp then I'll go to bed!" and not "I can't wait to get this out of the way!". Runescape has always been like this though, which is possibly why it has lost its edge and is dipping in popularity. Now, how you go about solving this is beyond me, but I doubt it's impossible, since so many other great games are capable of it. Personally, I would start by making the user interface a bit more friendly and smooth. Make the icons scale up with the size of the resolution you're playing at. The "x" button to close the bank is [bleep]ing microscopic with a decent sized monitor. Little things like that would improve the qulity of the game overall, I think.

 

There is also a noticable lack of flow to pretty much any activity in the game (...Elaborate? I like the activities) and the game feels set up to make things as irritating and slow for the player as possible. (yeah, Jagex WANTS us to dislike RS) For instance, the run/walk mechanic makes traveling in general a very tedious experience since you can quickly run out of energy just running from lumby to varrock (Not if you have a half decent agility level) Why this mechanic is even included in the game is something that, to this day, absolutely [bleep]ing baffles me, but it is a pretty good example of where I feel this game has gone horribly wrong. (Sorry, how is this mechanic horrible? You can walk or run depending on how fast you want to go - or you could tele) Another example I would like to reference would be the extemely slow method in which you combine arrrow shafts with feathers to make headless arrows. 150 at a time. In large numbers, this is such a boring experience, yet I feel that it is another example of the game deliberately beings slow and making the experience as unbrearable as possible for the player. I mean, I can understand that clicking "make all headless arrows" would make things a hell of a lot easier, (Yeah, and eliminate any form of effort at all basically) but the current method is also easy, just very tedious. It is pretty much unanimously accepted that punishing a player in a game is bad, yet Runescape has been doing it for years. And that is what I feel is wrong with this game.

 

Now, what does this have to do with botting, you might ask. Well, this sort of gameplay just is not fun or enjoyable for the majority of people. Most aren't willing to put in the effort. And while this can be attributed to laziyness, the aspect of reaching 99 in a skill in this game can be daunting for most players because it an extemely long and boring experience. (then don't play) That is why I feel that "bots" have become so popular, because they provide a method of reaching these milestones with ease. And do you know what? Why should people put in the effort? People play games to relax and have fun. (No, they play them for the addictive rewards) They don't play them to grind through a tedious interface for hours on end.

 

Also, I just want to add that a lot of what I have said might be misinterpreted as me wanting to make the game "easy". This is absolutely no what I mean. Getting to level 99 in runescape for most non combat skills is not challenging, it just requires a great deal of patience. And it should. But that doesn't mean that it requires any amount of skill. The activity of training skills should be enjoyable in Runescape, not tedious. (That would require a literal recoding of the game) But that's just my thoughts on the issue.

 

Oh hell naw.