Okay, so it doesn’t have anything to do with my statement “removing AFK fixes all of them.”
If it moves a mouse, that does something in the game client, then it is interfacing with the game client. If it never interacts with the game client, then it isn’t really a problem.
And this is just about the easiest thing to solve, and that’s because no human ever would move the mouse every X-1 minutes. Humans don’t work like that, programmed things do.
Anyway, if you have to go out and buy a physical robot, then I’ll still call it a win because I’ve made your botting harder and cost more.
Because you said otherwise:
And that it was about killing them:
I thought the goal was keeping them from farming, but when I said that you said I was missing the point. Now your point is clear: stop them from farming, kill them if you can.
I don’t think anyone is entitled to anything. As for EvE players I think that they pay a subscription that allows them to play the game as little or as often as they want in 30 days and in any way that they want with whatever risk they want. And personally I’m almost certain I want to remove the nullbear farmers as much or more than you do, I just don’t think changing local or AFK camping is the right way. (But more on this would be off-topic for this thread.)
Well they are using power and server resources without providing entertainment value to the player, so I think that’s kind of parasite-ish.
Let’s look at it this way (remember I’m not a fan of nullbear farmers):
The nullbear pays his $15, doesn’t like risk, only farms in safety, makes ISK, looks at his stack of ISK, and has some enjoyment it the results of his $15.
I think his enjoyment is like admiring his medal for second place in the Special Olympics, so he is a special snowflake, but there isn’t anything really wrong with him.
For a point, we will look at a different type of player not in this discussion:
The ganker, the terrible villain of highsec, the scourge of all carebears. Some people hate the ganker, but his play style makes a lot of sense. His play style is directed toward causing other people pain, he gets joy out of watching the carebears cry.
This is considered by some to be negative, but he pays to play the game, and gets to get enjoyment out of his playing time.
Now we have the AFK cloaker:
He pays $15 to not play a game, he runs his computer in a high energy state all day long wasting energy and damaging the environment, he stays connected to the game server the whole time, increasing CCP’s load demand, and hurting the environment again by wasting energy. And for what purpose? To scare another player who is trying to play in a different way.
This is why I first mentioned the ganker, the ganker can at least see his results, and get some enjoyment out of them. But, being AFK, unless he is botting in some manner, this person can’t even know if his scare tactic is working or not. He can’t get joy from his results, because he can’t know the results.
If this is a real person, doing this for some return of enjoyment on his $15, then I really wonder about this person’s mental health.
All of that being said, I don’t think there are many/any AFK cloakers who are doing it as a “play style.” I think all/most are paid by alliances to waste an account/computer/etc. for the sole purpose if tactically limiting the farming production of an opponent. This makes sense, just don’t give me the crap that it is some noble cause or that anyone does this for fun.
I know market dumps used to have to be made manually by logged in accounts. Has this been changed so that it’s in an API now? If it’s in an API now, then I’m wrong and withdraw this example. If you have to be logged in to get the data, then yes it can be done/done better with a bot.
Are you suggesting that the intel networks that warn the nullbear 5 jumps away are only fed by active players?
The fact that AFK can be used for “bad things” (like botting) has never been my position. It’s that AFK is a bad thing no matter how it is used. This is because as most mums would say “no good can come from it.” What “good” or use can a player have from his AFK account, while he is AFK? (Not when he comes back, but while AFK.) AFK as a “play style” cannot give anything to that player, because he is AFK. There is no good in it, it’s all bad. Local on the other hand has both good (chatting, taunting) and bad (intel).
I don’t even think anyone here is really arguing that AFK is good, maybe that it’s allowed, but mostly that it’s needed to combat intel. Almost always when someone can only offer “needed” as a reason for something it’s because everyone can agree that it’s bad, they just feel it’s needed to fight something more bad. Without saying it’s needed to counter local, why should AFK be a play style option? (It’s allowed isn’t an answer either, as that would be an is-ought problem.)
