Those threads claim botting doesn't hurt any one and is O.K. in some cases. Well, I can confidently say they're wrong:
Why Botting is a Social trap and why being Legit is better for not only yourself, but everyone else. by Barotix
First I will assume not everyone knows what a social trap is, so I'll take the time to summarize it here:
A Social trap is defined as an act done because it gives a short term aid or satisfaction to the individual, but in the end hurts said individual and others.
The basic example of a Social trap and what it is generally used against: The basic example is that of the commons; take for example a rural area. In this rural area there is a town commons (a commons in medieval times would have been the area shared by the community). Four grazers have access to this commons each of the grazers own two sheep, the commons can only sustain twelve sheep at one time. I'll use an Illustration (coupled with text) to explain the next point:
- *Farmer 3 adds one sheep; Farmer three gets the immediate benefit of having an extra sheep. Who receives the backlash? The other 3 farmers/grazers
*Farmer four notices farmer 3 has an advantage, farmer four then adds a sheep of his own, farmer four gets an immediate benefit. The other 3 farmers receive the backlash
*Farmer one now at an obvious disadvantage adds another sheep to be put on par with farmers 3 and 4, farmer one gets the immediate benefit of adding a third sheep, while the other farmers get the backlash
*Farmer two does the same to keep up with the other farmers.
The Farm is now at its limit of 12, but it doesn't stop there.
- *Assume every farmer adds another sheep one after the other: The end result will be overgrazing which leads to weaker sheep; the farmers to compensate for the weaker sheep will add more which leads to even weaker sheep (lack of food). No one benefits once this cycle starts, but it appears as if one does. The farmers keep adding sheep until there is no more grass to sustain them all, because collectively the damage done out weighs the individual gain and once all start adding sheep there is no stopping because now there is constant competition to make the most use of the land.
Conclusion:
Collective loss due to greed outweighs individual gains.
Each farmer gained "2 points", but collectively lost 7
7>2 Therefore everyone loses.
That basic example is usually used against socialism to show why it won't work.
Now how social traps apply to SRO:
A Legit is leveling and buys some silk the legit collectively helps everyone first by paying for the game (aids everyone) and secondly helps himself by increasing his leveling speed (buys GT and Monkey). This Legit knows the market well and has saved up a vast sum of Gold. A Non-Silk buyer sees the gains and in order to help himself buys a GT as well as monkey to increase his leveling speed. He directly helps himself and indirectly helps others by funding the game. This Legit also has a vast sum of gold saved by playing the market.
Now imagine if others started copying this pattern: Result; more money for Joymax, and more players because of advertisement via word off mouth/text. This leads to crowded servers, but the servers are crowded with legitimate users rather than gold bots and/or player bots. This then compels others to buy a premium GT because others have it and they want to log in, image verification wouldn't be needed nor would the client need to d/c and everyone benefits, even the non-silk buyer. Everyone starts doing this and soon you have a game where everyone, including the company benefits. This creates a cycle where more and more players buy silk to keep up with each other and only those deserving of (insert highest level) reach it. This increases the value of a level (insert highest level here) character and increases the amount of respect that comes with. More frequent updates.
Now, let’s see how it goes when things go slightly different.
A Non-Silk buyer sees the advantages a legit silk buyer gets but does not see the indirect collective gains. The Non-Silk buyer guided by greed finds D/L and uses a free bot, the non-silk buyer gets obvious advantages, but doing this helps no-one. In fact it robs others: It takes a server spot for nearly 24/7 preventing vets from taking that spot, preventing people from a different time zone from playing, and preventing new comers from taking a possible free spot. Because of the 24/7 grinding the botter levels to fast to keep up with his leveling speed, he/she then buys a large (abnormal amount) of gold from Chinese (human) gold farmers to compensate for the leveling speed, he/she then comes to the conclusion that he/she shouldn't pay for a free game and starts using multiclient + clientless bots to farm gold for him/herself, he/she sells gold to other players. This one individual gets immediate obvious results that benefit him/her only. Its also causes server inflation from creating an excess amount of Gold, it crowds servers with non-paying clientless botters, it prevents others from logging in, and robs possible revenue from the company.
Now imagine if every person did this, while ignoring the long term losses, because the individual short term gains are so great. This creates a destructive cycle because all players keep doing this to compensate for the losses resulting in:
- 1]No more/Minimal new blood
2]Inflation
3]24/7 crowded servers
4]Real Legit players leaving
5]Less real players
6]Gold selling companies adopting clientless bot to compete with players that sell gold and to satisfy the needs of a goldbuyer majority
7]More gold bots
8]Less silk sold
Players keep botting and buying gold and running multi client/clientless to keep up with other players who do the same, this chokes the game resulting in a dead empty game not worth playing.
From this you can conclude:
- The best short term choice, for the individual, is to cheat
- The worst long term choice, for the individual, is to cheat
- The worst choice, collectively, is to cheat.
- The best choice, collectively, is to be Legit and for a number of Legits to buy silk
And we all know collective gains or losses always mathematically and realistically outweigh individual gains.
Do the right thing: Play Legit, its far more fun and better not only for you but for the game, company and others. Botting and Gold buying hurts you and others in the long run. Don't think of the short term gains. We can make a change, but only if we think in long term collective goals, rather than short term individual goals.
Crumpets for Pres
. but not every legit will buy silk. and not being able to log in matters more to legits than botters (no-dc client).
