WHAT THE FUCK, ITZEL

[Eoghain]

Forgetting all previous run ins with Policy 18, what was wrong with this one specific instance? Would I have been locked out for it as well? It's clearly allowed in the Policy.

[g++]

All my scripts trigger off my main I have to be watching for anything to happen....except fletching...i fucking hate fletching

[Some Rogue]

Yeah, I'm Thalish. Are you Porchmaster? lol

If it was bothering you, I can set up my script so it will leave if it sees you.

Or, if it's the movement that's bothering you, I can slow that down. He does run crazy fast across that place when he really doesn't need to.

Haha, no, I'm not Porchmaster. I'm the other Ren in town hehe. I don't even hunt there now so it's not a big deal. But you're right, he does move really fast.

[Renian]

Lothwyn,

Were you not informed? It was not I, but Aethor, who was actually AFK. Please read below.

Greetings,

Today I received two IMs reporting to me that my characters had received not one, but two warnings for AFK scripting violations, neither of which I am directly liable for. I wish to know exactly what transpired.
I had given the player of Aethor the access to my accounts to use for his convenience, namely Renian and Tiad, so that he might be able to pick boxes and heal his characters. I am currently enrolled in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and have provided him and many others with the services of my characters. With the rigors of my courses, I simply have not had time to play, and trusted him to be able to take good care of my characters, maybe earning them a little bit of XP to boot. I also have attempted to play during whatever leisure time I may have, and use those characters during those times.
However, I was not expecting this. The use of my characters to violate policy? Unacceptable! In my 10+ years of playing, I had not once violated Simutronics policy and was proud of it. I was glad that my characters had a spotless record. I have been checked for AFK scripting before, but on every occasion I have been there. I have consistently been kind and courteous to Simutronics staff as well in all of my dealings with them. I see no reason why these warnings should stick.
Therefore, I ask that I could either meet with a Gamemaster in game to discuss these matters, or have the warnings outright overturned, on the grounds of my previous record, with the agreement that I will continue to abide by the AFK scripting policy (as I have myself), and that I will not give out my account name and password henceforth.

Thank you for your time.

[my name]
[accountnames] account holder
Player of Renian and Tiad


This is currently under review by the senior staff, but the basic circumstances are, the characters were logged in, set up with a script that would activate their specific abilities, and then left there with no supervision. People would walk by, tap them and that would then trigger what they did with no attention paid to the characters beyond that.

Until the staff review is complete, I cannot say with certainty what will happen, but given the extent of the testing process, I expect the request for suspension will go through. Yours were not the only characters involved in this, but all were being used by the same individual who was not paying attention. In one sense this is fortunate. A suspension of this nature is considered to be on the low end of the spectrum and should not have long term consequences.

Having been at this desk for a good number of years now, I can say that this is the least damaging of all the bad things that happen when people share their accounts. It is something we recommend strongly against doing. All too often cases are handed to me where characters have been rerolled, looted, or had other things happen to them from which there is no way to recover.

What happens next will be based on the review, but from first indications, this appears to be exactly why we tell people not to share their accounts.

Respectfully,

GameMaster Sanguious
Simutronics Corporation


Indeed it does make a good case on why people should not share accounts. However, considering that we do know the Simutronics customer that was involved (Aethor), the clean record and respect for policy of my own accounts, and the fact that I was not in on the fact that he was scripting while AFK, I don't see why I should have to take the hit for this.

If I must, for reasons that do not agree with, then I do wish that it be put on my character records that it was not the actual player of Renian and Tiad that caused the violation, but another who had access.

Regards,
[my name]

Player of Renian and Tiad

[my name], the accounts are going to be suspended. To give you a timeline, a couple of the characters were logged in being used as bots for over five days, with multiple incidents during that time. As I was able to identify that another person was playing the accounts, I will add the notes as you request. I also want you to know, the suspension does not apply to the THALISH account. Because of the severity of the incident, all the involved accounts are suspended, and I STRONGLY recommend changing the passwords for all your accounts. I am sorry to have to be the one to inform you what was happening. The full notice is given below.


Because of your repeated violations of Simutronics Policy your ID and all characters attached have been locked out of Simutronics' gaming environment for a period of at least 30 days. This lockout applies to all accounts that are owned or played by you as well. Logging in an account before your lockout is up will result in that account being locked out as well and the lockout time being restarted from the day that account is locked out.

Reason for Lockout: Scripting Policy Violation

I strongly urge you to read our Terms and Conditions file available via our POLICY link. I also urge you to read the Simutronics Terms of Service available in the same area. By violating these policies, you risk not only lockout from this game, but from the entire Simutronics service. You will not be billed while you are locked out.

Your account(s) will be released automatically in one month. Please be aware that if there are further offenses, the account(s) may be reviewed for termination.

Following is a copy of our current policies regarding unattended experience gain:

GemStone IV Player Policy: Scripting Policy

ANY experience-gaining activity while being unresponsive to the gaming environment will be considered against policy. AFK scripting of ANY kind is entirely against policy and is an immediately warnable offense. In addition, ANY activity that allows you to gain NEW experience while using Rest Mode may result in a warning. If your attention is not in the game window, you should log out of the game or stop any experience, skill, or potential and/or actual money-making activities (e.g. fletching arrows for sale), to avoid being warned. The excuse that you looked away from the keyboard or left your desk only for a few minutes will not prevent you from gaining a warning since the Staff will have no way of verifying that fact.

Warnings for scripting or any unresponsive activities are based on the Staff's observation of the character, and the Staff's judgment may vary from instance to instance. Therefore, each instance of long term scripting will be judged independently. Furthermore, GMs have the right to verify any and all characters are following this policy at any time.

Exceptions: In general, if you are running a script or are in Rest Mode and are not gaining any NEW experience, skills, money, or an in-game advantage, it does not fall under this policy. Being AFK or in Rest Mode while absorbing experience you have already gained is not a violation of this policy. However, ANY activity that's deemed by staff to be disruptive or not in the best interest of the game or its players can be warned when discovered. (e.g., if you script moving in and out of a room, a warning may be issued because it causes undue screen scroll. If you are gaining skills passively, a warning may be issued based on your being unresponsive to the gaming environment. If your "Rest Mode" message is determined to be inappropriate, a warning may be issued based on the message being Out Of Character (OOC) or disruptive.)

For the purposes of this policy, all offenses by any character on an account can be treated as having occurred to the same character. As with other policy violations that lead to lockouts, accounts that are "linked" by any method including but not limited to name, address, or other billing information can be treated as the same account in regards to disciplinary action.

First offense: Player receives a formal warning, is moved to a consultation room, loses ALL field experience (unabsorbed experience) and an experience inefficency penalty is added, and must reread and agree to policy before being released. If the character was scripting an Artisan's Guild skill or Adventurer's Guild task, would lose HALF of their current bounty points or 50 ranks in an artisan's or professional guild skill.

Second offense: In addition to the second warning, substantial penalties may be assessed including experience inefficiency penalties, and the loss of all current outstanding bounty points. The character may also be removed from the Adventurer's Guild for 30 days, and lose up to HALF of ALL ranks in artisan or professional guild skills.

Third offense: The account, plus other related accounts, can be locked out for 30 days. In addition, substantial experience inefficiency penalties can be assessed, all Artisan's or professional guild skill ranks may be removed, and all characters on the account may be removed from the Adventurer's Guild for at least 30 days and forfeit all current rewards.


If you have any questions, you may write to me at the above address, and we will do our best to answer you in a timely fashion.
- Show quoted text -

It does not apply to the Thalish account? I am intrigued, and thankful. I am also thankful that you were able to add the notes to Renian and Tiad's accounts. Also, before you even made the recommendation, I changed the passwords of all of my accounts. I do not wish this incident to repeat, and do not have any hard feelings toward Simutronics due to this.

Mostly because by the time those 30 days are up, it'll be Christmas vacation--the only real time I can play again anyway with my workload. Heh!

My thanks to you for adding the notes once again, and for informing me that there is unlikely to be any long-term consequences. That is what I was more worried about.


Regards,
[my name]
Player of Renian and Tiad

No, it does not apply to THALISH, you can still play there as normal. I can see that it wasn't "you" who got the warnings, it was someone using your accounts. On that grounds, I made a point to only remove the involved accounts, and that wasn't THALISH, so that account wasn't suspended. Enjoy the holiday next week, and everyone will be back for the Christmas break.

Sincerely,

GameMaster Sanguious
Simutronics Corporation


Lothwyn, you did the right thing for locking out my characters when you did. They were AFK. But it was not I who was behind them, and it appeared that feedback held no ill will against me for them. Nor do I hold any ill will against you. But I am not Aethor. I am me. And I don't AFK script.

[Methais]

Lucky for me I'm too lazy (and probably don't know how anyway) to write any bot type scripts, and I have a tattoo on my forehead that says ALT-TAB.

Assuming the OP isn't leaving anything out though, then yeah this GM is a huge fat ginger cuntface.

[Celephais]

Whenever I hear "lets really show them by closing our accounts!", all I can think of is a little kid holding their breath.

Clearly that log shows you as in the right, being responsive, etc... But the pwnage of you and your "high maintenance" speaks strongly against your evidence.

Anyway, desperation is a stinky stinky cologne.

[Naelan]

If you're 100% attentive (and not responding for 5-10 minutes is not 100% attentive--you need to be watching it second by second)

A

I had a an instance where I was scripting running drinks with a new character and got a send while the script was running. The check came while the script was moving rooms. I absolutely couldn't see the check due to the screen scrolling so fast. So I got yanked, I responded within a second of being pulled and managed to not get a warn but how would this situation apply? I was there and being as attentive as humanly possible but human eyes are only so fast. Would simply not being able to see the check due to scroll count as AFK?

[longshot]

post a letter for us to sign, and i'll send it to them from my account.

Oh, that will work...

While you're at it, why don't you handwrite them a letter in red crayon?

Itzel says, "You can either agree to disable it, and I'll put a note in your file, or I can warn you for violating the Policy."
>

You say, "I'll disable it for now while I take it up with feedback, but I'm still not seeing the problem."
>

You say, "I have quoted the relevent piece of Policy 18 that deems this activity acceptable."

You say, "It would appear to me that you are being overzealous."

Why would you say this? If you felt she was overzealous, did you honestly believe that anything good would come by confronting her?

Why couldn't you just disable the script (like you said you would), and then take it up with someone else?

If you're going to try and show someone up, then they're going to get defensive and apply further pressure... which is exactly what happened.

It seems like an incredibly stupid move on your part.

Do I think she went overboard? I honestly can't say. I have no idea of what's happened in the past. All I can see is the snapshot that is this log. I can't infer anything about this particular GM as a person... only their reaction to this particular situation. I don't have all of the facts, and neither does anyone else here.

Does it look like she went crazy? Absolutely... but that doesn't mean that I can definitively say so.

[Renian]

It seems like an incredibly stupid move on your part.

That particular line? Maybe.

Why couldn't you just disable the script (like you said you would), and then take it up with someone else?

That's what I want to know.

Why would you say this? If you felt she was overzealous, did you honestly believe that anything good would come by confronting her?

We'll see.

[AndyDrew]

While you're here, (and clearly it'd be an unofficial answer, but as you said you helped write the policy so maybe we can get somewhat close to it's intention) does simu even consider multi-accounting OK?

I mean, the exact behavior of a bot when only used by one's own characters can be replicated by manually starting a healing script or whatever instead of an automated response to an action, such as a nod. I mean, the only difference is hitting alt-tab and then a macro as opposed to just a macro. Is that something that would get someone locked out too? I imagine there's quite a few people that do just that...and have been for years.

As stated in Policy 18, multiaccounting is fine so long as you're not running an unattentive script to control the other characters. If you have scripts controlling the secondary characters, but you have the screens open to where you are visually seeing what is happening from their perspective, and can respond to stuff only they see, then it's fine.

If you're alt-tabbing, and hitting a macro to heal, and then going back to hunting with the other character, you'll likely be tested on the healer to see if a script is running. And since there is no script, you'll be fine. You'll likely get a message around the time you hit your macro again and if you respond to it you're fine. But if you're running a bot that has a verb-attached to activate and is running constantly without being monitored from the bot perception, then you'll get yanked.

A