For the most part, bot programs in AO have provided useful tools and services that were otherwise lacking from the game. I am however really concerned by the rather questionable means in which some bots are being used to gather, store and provide information on players.
I was on AOSpeak awhile back when a guy informed me that some Omni run bot is basically tracking everyone's log on and log off time to compile a list of any given toon's potential alts. To prove his point, he ran an alts list on me and surprisingly enough the list was about 90% accurate (at least for toons that are indeed on the account containing Traderjill). This felt really intrusive to me, especially for a video game but ok.. not like he can tie that in to characters on another account. Well apparently that isn't the case as there's an element to the alts functionality that allows you to compare any two toons and determine the likelihood that toon A is an alt of toon B.
I understand this is the internet and there is no such thing as true security but this feels a bit over the top for me. I got into a rather lengthy conversation with a Clan friend of mine this morning that pretty much blew my mind. The alts command seems to be just one piece of the puzzle, he went as far as to say that some people have found a way to hack something in the game that gives them the ability to read private chats and are using that information as part of some sort of spy game. Of course 15 minutes after I had that conversation I saw a related post in game suggestions:
I'm not sure what McKnuckle means by "Hacking/worming out clientside contained information" but if there's any ounce of truth to this claim it seems that we have a problem.
I honestly have no idea who would even address this. I remember Genele kinda turning exploiting back on players by saying that we don't report things but report what? It doesn't seem like it is technically exploiting to simply gather information, to start. Secondly, I've not seen any of this used first hand.. not even the alts thing as that was communicated to me over AOSpeak. All I have are rumors and I'm not tech-savy enough to even begin to understand how this is being done (if it is being done).
Anyway, just posting here with the hopes that maybe some people that know or have access to these questionable bot tools are willing to contact Funcom with details so that maybe they can fix whatever is being manipulated. Far-fetched request, I know, but I at least had to try. Honestly, the whole thing just makes me feel uncomfortable with playing the game. It isn't that anything that I say or do in game is so hush-hush that I care if the entire game knows but wow.