Expert opinion on the influences of bots on the economy and gaming enjoyment in mmorpgs Version dated 29 th March 2012 Compiled by Prof. Dr rer nat. Wolfgang Broll on behalf of Bossland GmbH

The influence of bots on the economy in MMORPGs

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Expert opinion on the influences of bots

7. The influence of bots on the economy in MMORPGs
7.1. Effects of bots on the internal gaming economy
Apart from increasing players’ avatars’ experience, bots are used to acquire virtual goods and virtual currency. This is generally achieved by defeating the same or similar computer-controlled opponents in a certain region of the gaming world. As already described, the opponent’s possessions are transferred to the player following each virtual killing. From the player’s point of view, these are also extremely monotonous and boring activities. These are, however, necessary in for example WoW to obtain goods and gold. In the case of amassing of virtual possessions the bot therefore again takes over a task which has little entertainment value in order to give the player the opportunity to spend his normally extremely limited time on more entertaining, interesting and challenging gameplaying activities.
As Blizzard Entertainment themselves say (see Castronova‘s expert opinion from 2007) the economic system is designed for “normal” or “typical” players. This is, however, a very generalised assessment as there is no such thing as a “normal player”. Average player behaviour certainly exists which can be expressed above all in the arithmetical average of the length of time for which the game is used. As with all statistical information, upward and downward deviations should not, however, be underestimated. As already described, there are players who use WoW on average for anything between a few minutes and many hours a day (see Section 5.1). It is by no means obvious which of those are supposed to be “normal” players.
Again, in this case, a bot cannot collect goods any differently and in no greater quantity than the player could themselves within the same period of time, i.e. the effective online playing time is basically the same in both cases. From the provider’s point of view, this does not inevitably mean a reduction in chargeable online time and therefore in income unless this is consciously tolerated by means of a flat-rate invoicing model as is, for example, the case with WoW in most countries.
On the other hand, it must be remembered that of course the effect which using bots has on the gaming economy (resulting in mudflation) is the same as with every non- bot user (see Section 4.1). It only remains to judge the effect that farmspots may be possibly at least temporarily extremely highly frequented due to bots. This effect is, however, countered with the argument that more goods “farmed” there are accordingly offered for sale (as, for example, with WoW in the internal Auctioneer add-on) and their price there decreases accordingly.

Prof. Dr. W. Broll
Gutachten zum Einfluss von Bots auf Spielspaß und Ökonomie in MMORPGS
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On the basis of the argument that bots or their providers represent the cause of a distortion in the gaming economy, it would be possible to do precisely the same with players who play very little, play especially often or who play especially unilaterally. This list could be added to ad infinitum. However, like every supplier of a product, it is the game provider who is responsible for reacting to new developments and trends – whatever they may be – by adapting their product.

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