MacroQuest64

Just to share my story, I got banned (suspended) for about a week with my 5 toons around April 8th. (I recently started playing again)

I wasn't using any cheats, but I do have my own afk-type scripts for my 5 toons. My scripts work just about anywhere, as the tank pulls, the group kills the mob, and he pulls again along a preset path. I only use them for enjoyment - I'm not a gold farmer, item farmer, or anything like that. Programming is a hobby for me.

I do have some player checks written in to where the group will stop everything and just sit there afk if any player comes within a certain distance of them. To players, it doesn't look like I'm doing anything at all, much less acting like robots. I don't run them in commonly used zones, so I rarely encounter other players. If they do stop to wait, it's usually not for long, since people just pass by if they are near at all.

Any ways, I was going away for the weekend and figured they'd last a day or so before dying or losing the internet connection, etc.. To my surprise, according to my logs, they lasted 3 days straight, and, on the 3rd day (almost exactly 72 hours from when I logged them in) they were booted off and the accounts were suspended. Customer service told me they were guilty of acting like bots and would be suspended for a week.

For me, MQ is just a fun hobby. I used to play EQ non stop without MQ up until a couple years ago when I quit. Then I discovered MQ and it's opened up a whole new area of fun for me. The point is I know I was being a little careless leaving them alone that long, but I wasn't worried since I'd never been banned or anything similar in the last year or 2 of using MQ, and, even if I was banned, I didn't care all that much. Of course I didn't think they'd survive past a day or two at most any ways.

Any ways, sure enough, I came back a few days later and my accounts had been banned. The interesting thing is that it happened almost exactly 72 hours after logging them in and starting them up before I left for the weekend. My logs show nobody bothered be or said anything to me.

And again, nothing in my scripts are anything out of the ordinary, or could be considered cheating or hacking. The tank follows a waypoint path, looks for mobs along the way, and pulls them to camp, where the group kills the mob. Rinse and repeat. I'm usually around to monitor them.

The point to my little story is that regardless of your precautions, I think Sony has a system setup that may look closely at players who have been online for X number of days/hours straight (3 days perhaps). Previously, I don't think I'd ever been online non stop with all my toons running for more than 2 days straight, and I'd never been bothered. I'm not saying you are booted if you are online that long, but I thnk that if you are online that long, a (hidden) admin will come check you out. Just a theory, as I'd never had a problem before.

my first ban was years ago on a textbased mud. it was for exactly that - i was acting like a bot. and the god was right because i was testing a mud client at the time. it is part of the mud history and now part of the 3D mmo history that bots and botlike behaviors will get people ban.

the interesting part about this is that i have met players in the past that i thought were bots. but they were focused and didnt want to talk to people. and in the end why should anyone care?

right now on EQlive anyone can level their char from 1 to 50 in just a matter of days - while they sleep. and it doesnt require the use of any tools. it just requires hiring the right people.

the places where bots and cheats matter are in pvp. i have played pvp straight for years and have wondered about some of the tactics that others used on me. the other place is the competition that guilds have to be the first. but the fact is most guilds use some form of cheat, if you can call it that, even if it is just showeq.

another common practice now on eq is 2-boxing. i know of 6-boxes and i have heard of a 9-box system. some people may consider multi-boxing as cheating. i see it as a big headache without something like the n52 controller and tools like MQ2.

i admit that i am very leary about using MQ2 on Eqlive. i will use it on my Eqemu server but that is it. that is unfortunate since i have been posting for years about this anomosity that server admins have against bots. but then when you hear about the IRC horror stories, makes you wonder...

**added**

btw, i did play at least once for 24 hours on that mud because i fell alsleep and when i woke up i was a ghost. turns out i thought i was resting in a safe place and instead a wandering NPC attacked me, and disarmed me and began to use my own sword to whittle on me throughout the night.