
This was highly effective at stamping out Gold Framing (which was contributing to 90% of all credit card fraud at the time and potentially resulting in multimillion dollar fines from Visa and MasterCard) and moderately effective in reducing Botting in general. In 2007, when Gold Farming and Botting levels approached similar levels to those experienced today the founders in a desperate response to the issue significantly altered core aspects of the game that facilitated the problem by removing Free Trade and The Wilderness. The practice violates all known MMO’s terms of service. Social cohesion, UGC game play and has shown to change the game play from multiplayer social experiences to a very self-focused antisocial single player experience. Botting destroys the mechanics of social interaction. Bots also tend to negate the need for free accounts to convert to membership as they provide easier XP generation, increased resource variety and overall improved skill ingredients and granularity. Bots are commonly used for commercial exploitation either by Gold Farming or Power Leveling characters skills.

Some players use automated programs known as Bots to grind on their behalf by performing repetitive tasks for them in game in order to progress with minimal effort and to save significant time and money whilst the Bot accumulates XP and resources on their behalf. Update on RuneScape Botting & Gold Farming Risk
