
Originally Posted by
Stellar
Skipping a few pages, etc etc.
Logic and reasoning will typically always point towards abusing loopholes and doing whatever is possible to achieve the desired results in the most efficient manner possible - Cheating.
Logic and reasoning were, in the past, outweighed by a sense of accomplishment via achieving these goals without having to resort to a program to achieve them for you. Programs produce an advantage towards achieving the desired results faster and better than the majority. Players were smart enough to realize that by creating a stigma around this advantage, they could benefit themselves by experiencing the challenges in their entirety, while also limiting the number of cheaters.
Since the minority of cheaters has grown closer to what could soon become (or is) the majority, justification for one's cheating is found through comfort in numbers and claims of efficiency.
If you are the type of person who is more inclined to act based on impressing others through gear or jobs leveled, your primary incentive can no longer be hindered by a slandered reputation, so justification and short-lived comfort is more easily obtained. The game becomes easier and soon you feel rather numb about the lack of skill your endeavors required. Cheating will continue to become more and more acceptable with each person who's main interest is advancing their character and achieving goals in the most efficient method available, rather than having fun playing an MMO and making some new friends.
For me, FFXI is a game which already struggles to provide enough challenges to keep me interested and striving to achieve goals. More efficient methods of achieving these not only limit available challenges, but also impose a rather lackluster feeling of accomplishment with each "success". I've never used a bot or a program other than windower, but feel shame every time I realize how much of my skill relies on the distance meter. In the past I organized alliance positioning from ps2 and knew the difficulty in what I was doing provided more self assurance than that Algol our LS received from defeating an easy monster.
Yes, SE could have done a better job with their macros and interface. Does this justify anything at all? Imo, no. Cheaters are cheaters and you don't even need to read this, because you already know you are. That false sense of security found by being around other cheaters is closely shadowed by the guilt of achieving what you have on "easy mode". So click "Very tough" and quit bein pansies and play the game.