AutoHotkey Community

How does the powers that be (the folks who run this forum) feel about using AutoHotKey to do such things.

Example: World of Warcraft has a TOS that is specific in not allowing bots:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html

Arguments for running bots:
1. It speeds up the repetitive task of things in the game, making the game experience for the user in question more enjoyable.
2. It allows for the player to have an advantage over other players.

Arguments against bots:
1. It is not fair to players who do not bot.
2. It causes loss of revenue of the company who puts out the game
3. Anti-virus companies frequently see all AutoHotKey apps as bad and flag them. This causes many problems with folks who use AutoHotKey for business purposes.


Is running a bot OK to do or not?

Discuss

_________________
Stop asking for fish.

Ask to learn how to fish instead. You will never go hungry again...

It is agenst rules if you are AFK while the bot is running, if you are at your computer and interacting with the game itself, it is no different from an add-on.

'OK' is a moral term anymore, not a legal term. If you are that worried about it, then don't cheat, but you are far from the fist person intersted in WoW+AHK.



Essentially, any 'script' can be a 'virus'. The intentions are what define it as a 'virus' or a 'helpfull script', as some of the code and content is the same, the method of delivery is the same.

read the bold.
Shouldn't it be obvious? if it's against the rules, it's not OK. If they allow exceptions, be sure to fallow the guidelines.


ps: fixed your typo.

_________________
rawr. be very afraid
*poke*
Note: My name is all lowercase for a reason.
"I think Bigfoot is blurry, that's the problem. It's not the photographer's fault, Bigfoot is blurry. So there's a large, out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside."

What I think is odd after reading a bunch of threads is most folks here have no issue with it. You would think there would be folks who would be irked at the thought of bots.

_________________
Stop asking for fish.

Ask to learn how to fish instead. You will never go hungry again...

generally, players who don't use bots are irked.

Most of us here are not players. What you do with AHK on your time is not our concern. We are not lawyers, and we have not read the TOS of the thing you want to use AHK with. If you get your account banned from some game or another, that is your risk.

If you have an AHK question, we help answer it. We won't help you do something criminal, but violating a TOS is not usually criminal. You can't be arrested for it, since it is not a law.

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(Common Answers) - New Tutorials Forum - Humongous FAQ

I'm not a gamer, so pardon my ignorance, but how does this reduce the revenue of the company? I would have thought that if anything it would have increased interest in the game. No?

I am a gamer, but do not use any outside apps at all.
I just started with AHK and look forward to learning its use.

but i must agree it would actually raise rather than lower revenue.

_________________
if you can't be kind, at least have the decency
to be vague...

they cold lose revenue because:
* they gotta spend time (time is money) on developing new spam/hack/cheat detection.
* if people pass on the word "the game is full of hackers/cheaters, it's not fun", there is a bunch of potential buyers are gone.
* the company has to pay developers to think of ways to detect new catching systems.
* someone could crash a server.
* extra customer support for all the noobs who complain about being scammed or hacked or w/e.
* to lazy to think of other reasons.

_________________
rawr. be very afraid
*poke*
Note: My name is all lowercase for a reason.
"I think Bigfoot is blurry, that's the problem. It's not the photographer's fault, Bigfoot is blurry. So there's a large, out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside."

They don't have to feel anything about this.
They don't have to read the TOS of every existing game to check if threads about automating these games should be allowed or not...
So tolerance is probably a pragmatic stance.

Running a bot is not OK, since it is forbidden. But it is a problem between the game editor and the cheater. AHK authorities have nothing to do with that. A bit like a hammer: you can do wonderful things with that, or commit a crime...


I believe it is unrelated to the current topic.
Anti-virus do false positives all the time, particularly with compressed applications (eg. using UPX). Nothing to do (I believe) with usage of AHK itself.

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