by Aristotle

Created on: November 24, 2010

Certain skills such as Runecrafting, Fletching, and Firemaking, are so tedious that some players resort to using computer programs that automatically do the task for the player. These programs are commonly referred to as "bots", bots are heavily used by Runescape players for either virtual monetary gain, or to raise skills without actually manually training the skill. All Runescape bots are written in Java as Runescape itself is written in Java, thus to run these bots the JDK 6 needs to be downloaded. The JDK (Java Development Kit) is a developers' tool through which code can be written, and then given to users for use when botting. Using a Macro is considered cheating by Jagex, the company that owns, runs, and made Runescape. Because of this there is always a certain danger of being caught by Jagex and then having the botted account banned.

There are many websites that promise virus clean, free bots. Most of these really shouldn't be trusted as they contain malicious software intended to harm your computer and to steal your personal data. Two major trusted sites that provide Macro programs are Rsbots.net, and Powerbot.org. Rsbots.net is based on purchasable bots, these are high quality bots with a low chance of being caught and therefore banned. However, the prices for some of the bots may be a bit expensive, ranging from around five dollars to around 25 dollars. On the other hand, Powerbot.org has a vast number of free botting software, the only downside is that some of the programs don't have as good of an anti-ban written into them. What is an anti-ban though? Basically, Jagex's method for removing bots relies on using a program that scans a player for repeated clicks and behavior that is not human-like. Behavior that may not be human-like includes staying logged into an account for many hours at a time or doing the same activity for long stretches of time. Anti-ban software in a botting program usually just causes random clicks, random camera movements, random switching between tabs in the inventory screen, etc. This usually works but to add to this break intervals are used. Break intervals set up times for the bot to automatically logg out, then after a set time logg back in and continue the activity. All of this makes catching a bot more and more difficult for Jagex.

Because so many players use bots, it is damaging to Runescape's economy. With the very large flood of runes from Runecrafting, monster killing, and Sudoku bots, the price of most runes has

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