Botting and Weighted Keys

How botting is defined:

Botting is a general term used to refer to actions, or a series of actions being executed by a third party program, or without human interaction. 
This allows players to have their avatar attack monsters or otherwise gain experience while not playing the game themselves.

Botting can be done by (and not limited to):
- Use of third party software to control the character
- Use of special macros from third party software
- Jamming the keys or putting a weight on a key


Moderating:

Botting, including afking with a weighted key, is a ban-able offense considered under Rule 1 and violation will result in a permanent ban.

Players suspected of botting will be expected to pass an inspection period. Upon receiving a request from a Game Master or Moderator, the player MUST respond promptly. Failure to respond to requests during the inspection period will be considered to be botting, and a voluntary admission of violating the game rules.

What players can expect:
At time of inspection, players will see a GM appear with a request in To All chat. The player is expected to respond back as immediately as reasonable (case by case time limit) in To All chat. Responses that do not answer the Staff's question will not be accepted.
Players failing the first test will be given a final test through a second request in To All chat. Prompts will appear in the public chat as white coloured text in the chat window:



Note:
While the chances of someone falsely impersonating Staff are slim, protect your personal information. These inspection requests will not request players to confirm personal contact information, account ID, or password.

In addition to these tests, players may encounter something unusual in the game. Due to the sophisticated nature of some bot programs, staff may use other tests not described here to their discretion. We understand that the grind on Maplestory can be boring and players often watch movies or other forms of media while training. To make this clear, our goal is not to ban people for merely being inattentive. If a player is suspected of botting, we will gather all possible forms of evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they are using a 3rd party program to gain an unfair advantage. If you believe that you have been wrongfully banned, please reach out to us!

Excuses will not be entertained:

- "My keyboard wasn't working right."
If your keyboard is affecting your game play beyond your control, please log off until the issue is resolved. If you need to be in game to test, please notify Staff of the issue.

- "My chat is minimized/I did not see the GM's request."
We have taken minimized chat and MapleTip spam into account. The GM doing the test will be fully visible and the request for response will appear in very distinct text.

- "I am fighting monsters and if I respond I will die."
We advise players to cease from fighting and reach a safe spot immediately to respond. This travel time will be considered into the time limit you are given to pass inspection. In the case of a boss fight, we will request short responses that do not incur death.

- "I wasn't given enough time."
While the time limit is subjective, it will be reasonable. IE: If you are not at risk of death, we expect a response to "Who am I?" would take under 10 seconds to respond with "Kat."



We hope this addresses all the concerns that have been brought up. It is always a joy to work with a community with high values.

Keep shining brightly, LightSoulers!