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Silkroad Online: Correspondent - Bots in Silkroad
New Silkroad Correspondent Lewis Buckley pens this article about his experiences with and opinions of the bot problem that exists in Silkroad Online.
What is a bot? Well, I describe it as the illegal use of a standard player account in an MMORPG. Throw in a little automation, and you have a description of what many feel is the scourge of the MMO industry.
So, with Silkroad, where and why did it start? Could the purpose of such scripts be put to a real use within the game itself as a user function, or are most of the auto-bots merely for amusing anarchists, the people who like to annoy other people?
What do we know? Well, for starters most bots are used for help in levelling up player characters without having to sit in front of the PC playing the game for long periods of time, which of course none of us enjoys too much every time we get to that magical 99% then level, and as we celebrate getting to that 0%, realise that we have to go through all that time consumption all over again...and again..and again. Can this be a user feature? What else are these scripts used for?
Okay, enough with the ultra formal speech, I’m going to talk to my good friends reading this like friends. We all read those articles on other websites where they are all too well verbal and you’re wondering what they are talking about. So, let’s cut to the chase and talk about this.
The main problems, the problems that make the whole point of hatred towards these things, are not the fact they are illegal (or at least against the game‘s EULA), nor the fact that someone is just being lazy. But the point is that they are interfering with real Silkroad users trying to experience something they enjoy. How many times have you been training, just trying to bump up that percent a bit, maybe a lot and some right .. let’s just say “annoying person” comes along and booms away your kill in one shot and takes all the EXP away from you? Then they do it again. And yes, again. Not only that, but the other problem is that they are daylight robbing our server space. Do you remember about half a year ago when you tried to log on and could never get on for hours? And even now during the day, it can be difficult to get on. That’s thanks to the bots.
I know some or more of you out there are thinking, “This guy is wrong, that’s not all what bots are for”, I know. Bots are mainly used for money. All those bots in Jangan, Donwhang, Hotan etc etc all flooding the text box with advertisements for websites with Silkroad gold for sale. Also ,there are the bots that are programmed to kill, pick up the money. Kill, pick up the money. Kill, pick up the money. And the people that own those bots have other bots, previously discussed, to advertise that picked up money for sale, for real cash. And there are those bots that just train and train to get to a high level, so that bot can take out real people’s characters to power level to a high level in an auto-share party. People sell this opportunity to people for real cash. From reading this you can tell that I’m out of breath, as it just sounded like one big rant. To be perfectly honest, it could well be. There are selfish people using our experience on this online game for their own greed.
Since Silkroad first started in November 2005 for beta testing, bots really haven’t been “too much” of a problem. But of course it has gotten progressively worse. Joymax has been trying to solve this problem for some time, they even brought in verification codes on the log in screen to throw the bots off. But no, they even got around that. They seem like those flies you can’t get out your room when it’s been a hot night and you left the window open and the light on.
Recently, it has been a lot better for two reasons: First, Joymax basically gave in and increased server space instead of getting rid of these things. It’s not entirely their fault, maybe it is a lot more difficult to get these “things” away. And the other is Joymax having a huge emergency check, not on Aege, not on Greece, but they shut down every single server and checked them. After checking, realising what the bots are, and banned the bot accounts permanently. In one day, getting rid of a massive 11,000 bots. One point to the real users, zero to the bots. Now we all know for a fact that if Joymax keeps dealing with this matter like that more often, the whole situation will resolve itself over time as the people who use the bots will eventually give up if every time they get the bot on it gets kicked off. Basically, it’s like trying to resist a good chocolate cake when you’re trying to keep strict to a diet.
If you’re wondering how to look out for bots, how to avoid them and what to do, you have come to the right place. Bots always have stupid, mashed up, random, auto-created names, such as, “ahgofihgf“. Another is; if you see these random names, go to a different area to train, avoid any areas with these bots, as they will just steal your EXP, your kills and your dignity... okay maybe not your dignity, but they might as well just take that too. If you are serious about helping Joymax, report the bots to them. I’m sure that even if they can’t instantly ban the bot, it will help them to know what to look out for.
Thanks for reading and hopefully there will be a lot more where that came from!
Whats all the Fuzz about bots? Bots are Friend!
Until players and developers understand that the current use of bots is important and needed in some or almost all MMORPGs, all players that want to have a normal and prosper life will have to avoid playing them or will play them illegally(using bots, buying gold, etc).
Today's mmorpgs are not made for persons that want to have success in their family (girls!) life, their jobs, and their academic career. Its impossible for someone with such responsabilities to have success in such a game. The worst fenomena is that those who try to acomplish, it will get addicted and will feel difficulties to stop playing a game they payed for some months and not achieving their goals.They will also have to leave some friends they made while playing.
Why they keep telling you: "you will own the land", "you will be a king", "you will leave your mark in history", "you will get a distinct and uber weapon or armor", "you will have powerful skills", "you will have a flying mount" and they for get to tell you that you must play 6 hours per day, can't have commitments or time schedules, etc?
Its a social fenoma I know, but until some "gold finger" solves this issue, MMORPGs will be full of addicted, no life players, frustrated both in real life and in game context where their world will turn around a game.
Some might say its impossible to achieve a solution for this issue, some will say that there is no issue and some that some games overcame this issue. I think there is a solution, a complex one... but this is the wrong topic to talk about it... and who am I to talk about it?
Wow the ignorance is never ending when comes to bots and lamers that make excuses for them.All i have to say is BS to ANY excuse.Yada yada my girlfriend needs time i need time my dog needs time i have a real life,ya ya whatever.They talk about success,well you can have every bit of success ANY other player can have by playing at your own pace.If ANYTHING you do is outside of the game design then you are NOT playing the game period,no matter what excuses you make up.
I hope that made straight forward sense because really it takes an IQ of about 15 to grasp the concept that NOT playing the design is just that...NOT playing,I have yet to see in all my life ONE single game that puts any time limits on what you can do in there game,there is no race for anything.These games are ALL setup as CASUAL, as you can do anything you want in a game using your own standards and time frame.There is nobody making or forcing you to do anything any other way.Making excuses based on time frames is utter nonsense,they do not exist in any game.
Now onto the bots not being much of a problem,that is a blatant lie.Items in SIlkroad are of ridiculous cost.I am really surprised that bots were not mentioned as game breaking economy wreckers.They do just that by botting huge amounts of gold these RMT re sell the gold at super cheap prices,witch in turn allows the lamers to buy top of the line gear for the game.This is a PVP game so having the best gear in game is a huge advantage.Then once the RMT realizes the lamers who buy gold will pay unreal high prices they start jacking them up even higher for the next one.The whole economy starts jacking way out of proportion ruining the game for all the legit players.You can show support for Silkroad buy purchasing there items ,but you will never beat the cost of buying from the RMT.
What is even worse is that being a F2P game ,they can never get rid of the botters.They can get banned and come right back in 1 minute with a brand new player.Besides that,they have hundreds of already leveled up bots that they can easily move in place of a banned one.
There is another part to botting that makes PVP especially bad.They can be setup to auto do things during battle witch is instantly done ,a lot faster than any human can do it manually.This once again gives an unfair advantage over the legit players.
I feel so sad that your "IQ of about 15" wasn't enough for you to understand the real issue and the main idea I was trying to transmit.
No need to insult the few posters that post here. I thought this site had traffic? Stop lurking and post people.. LOL
Anyway.. My view is that if someone has tons of free time and gain success in an MMO it is good for them. They need to taste success somewhere in their existence. Maybe this success will help them want to try questing in the real world... It isn't much different, just your success isn't as 'guarenteed' so you need more patience in the real world...
If someone has little time to play an MMO because they have a busy and successful real life, then they really don't need any more stroking in their life now do they? Maybe they should be happy being in Tier 3 gear while the others are in Tier 5. Because if they weren't there in Tier 3, then the people in Tier 5 wouldn't feel so successful and superior, giving them that ego boost everyone needs.
See how their is balance in this crazy thing we call a universe :) Only a few rockstars out there are successful in life and have enough time to be top Dog in the MMO world. Just like the real world, few rockstars, many fans.
Cheaters are cheaters. End of story.
If you level the playing field and allow everyone to use bots and buy gold, the cheaters will just try and find another way to tilt the playing field in their favor.
That said, the only thing that kept me subscribed to EQ1 for the last 3 months that I did play it was Macroquest. I never got much of an advantage out of it, but I did have fun programming scripts for my shaman to buff my guildmates when they sent me a certain tell.
Well I can tell you are trying to address some issure here, but the text is obtuse enough that most won't get it. Perhaps you need to look at your writing style a bit.
As to bots, and other cheats that are used excessively these days, soon as people find out they can actually make real money from these games they are on the bot wagon.
Silkroad is not a bad game, but the bots drove most of us away that played it. I think you will find that most of the f2p games have similar problems.
Personally I do dislike bots. It's Natural if you are a ordinary person playing and MMO. As stated above I do hate is when I can't even login because the server is filled with bots, or if I go out into a field and all there is are bots.
But, the point of playing an MMO is to have fun. That's what they were designed for right? For me, having fun is working hard to level up my character and meeting friends along the way, or partying with my family members. My dad plays Silkroad, and he's never botted. Almost every evening he spends a little bit time trying to level up. Right now I believe he is at level 55. Even though it's taken awhile, he's made it there on his own, and I know that he's had more fun leveling up without using a bot than if he had. I'm a busy person myself, I get home at 8:30 eat dinner, start working on my homework until midnight, and then wake up early to finish the rest of it. But sometimes even a busy person such as myself can find a little time to put into leveling my character. Maybe for some people Silkroad is only fun when you get to the level where you can PVP, and that's part of why people make bots, but I believe they are missing out, because by botting they skip the adventure along the way. It's just sad to go out into fields and not see a single other living player, or to watch as all your friends leave because they can't take all the bots anymore.
the funny thing is... you go to ishades and you see always the same bots that accept exp auto share party and plvl everyone there... i didnt see the bots there getting baned yet! and that place is horrible because everyone gets to lvl 50 fast..
You're on to something here..But the thing is last I checked and that was about 2 weeks ago on Joymax's announcement that to that date, the amount of banned botters was 42000 (yeah you read that right...not 1 but 3 ZEROS there).
I'm having quite a hard time trying to match any other f2p to this, having gone through some of other f2p betas and launched ones, whether if any of those able to scale up let alone exceed on iSRO's sheer botters' numbers.
Not even the older days of Ragnarok Online can lay the same 42k claim.
It's probably 1 of the very, very few f2p titles in the world that has a surprisingly (not so..) well equipped, informed and most concerted 3rd party "initiatives" focused groups that they even have the audacity to "release" pay to use macros on a weekly/monthly basis?
Not a bad game maybe but definitely piss poor game client leaks + anti hack + server side implementations ever in the annals of f2p I reckon.