The Philosophy Of Botting

Blizzard recently banned “several thousand” Diablo III players for botting. For those of you who don’t know what that is, botting is when you use an external program to control your character, allowing you to gain experience, money, and loot when you aren’t at the computer. These programs use very rudimentary A.I. schemes in order to keep the character wandering around in areas with a high enemy spawn rate but low enemy difficulty. Using a few very simple rules, these computer-controlled characters merely hack away at enemies mindlessly while the player is away from the computer, earning experience and in-game money.

Now, I don’t support botting. It’s been a problem that has plagued MMOs and other online games with an experience system for ages. It skews the power curve of the game and gives an incredibly unfair advantage to a very small group of people. So we can all see why botting is bad.

But where exactly do we draw the line? Botting is frowned upon because you can increase in power without actually putting in work. Why, though, is this bad? Is it because botting players have to spend less work to level up than other players? If so, does this mean that every possible method of avoiding work is against the rules?

Let’s take an example. Say your little brother likes Diablo III, but was too cheap to buy it. So you strike a deal with him. While you are at work, you let him play your character. You give him very strict rules, never to go out of certain zones, and never to screw with your equipment. You’ve essentially told him how to not die while still being able to grind for you while you are gone. That way, you get to go to work and come home to a stronger character, while your little brother gets to play Diablo III without actually having to pay for it, everyone wins right?

But isn’t this doing the exact same thing as botting? You are simply replacing the artificial intelligence with an actual intelligence. You still get to reap the benefits of power you did not earn during time you did not spend. Yet I know few people who would say that letting your little brother play on your account is a bannable offense. Why is that?