Went to bed with a 86 ranger, woke up with a 91 ranger.

Ok story time.
The day started like any other. With me farming kills in the feerrott, while casually looking for group.
I wasn't a long time later maybe one hour I get an invite from an unknown person. Asking me if I knew where a specific location in the game was and if I wanted to join him there for some experience. Looking up the location in this case the brother Island. It's a level 95 + Zone.
I had no idea how to get there. But with a quick Google search I found my way. When I Zone in I get teleported to his fire pit thing.

The group consisted of three players who are Anonymous so I don't know their levels though one of them was quickly approaching a little 110. I believe that was the Shadow Knight, there's also a shaman and a wizard and a rogue, who, at the time was level 96 though he complaining about the experience gain left the group.

The leader of the group seemed to be three boxing the shaman Wizard and Shadow Knight I believe this to be true because when I asked a question he would respond to me from one of those three characters with the answer. Knowing information about the other characters that only the player would know.
Experience gained as you can imagine for an 86 killing level 105 was very good. Even without XP potions.
It was getting late so I informed the leader that I may have to leave soon. He told me that he did not mind if I just hung out AFK as to be honest there wasn't much I was doing to contribute to the group anyway. And he was likely going to be there all night polishing off the remaining percentages before he hit 110.
Awesome I thought.

The pulls were slow but methodic, actually they were very rhythmic. With the same things being done at the same interval in time, for every single pull.
But even with the slow pulls I was not going to complain about the experience as I was getting 5 to 10% of my level every kill.
Time came for me to go to bed so I turned off my monitor I went to bed.
6 hours later I woke up, turned on my monitor expecting to find myself at my bind point or AFK in the middle of the brother Island.
But no, what I found was the same group, the same wizard, Shaman and Shadow Night, the same pulls, the same buffs at their exact time, everything going on in it's rhythmic pattern, exactly as it was the night before. And again virtually no response to group chat. I watched for another 20 or so minutes before the shadow Knight pulled a named mob, a giant flower looking Critter, that wiped the group. I'm now level 91 Ranger wondering how I got there. Again not complaining as the 80s are pretty crappy place for a ranger to be who wants to head shot for xp.

I'm pretty sure I know what was going on, as I'm no stranger to botting games. I just did not expect to be a thing where a stranger invites a complete stranger to experience...

So the obvious questions are can I get in trouble for this? Can he get in trouble for this? Is it something that's regularly punished?

And of course how did he do it? And what program was being use? Not that I want to bot I, on the contrary don't. There are however, things in the game that I would like to automate. Trade Skilling for example. Not my favorite thing though a necessary thing if I want to get my 2.0...
Anyway I appreciate hearing your thoughts.

I apologize for typos and grammar mistakes and spelling etcetera as I'm on my phone in my Suburban in the parking lot at work talking to my phone, because my work does not allow anything related to EverQuest on this stupid internet... you dell/emc...

Yes, you can get in trouble/banned, as afk play is expressly prohibited (by yourself, in a group, using a pet, using a merc, whatever).

Will you? Probably not, as there are people that blatantly violate rules all of the time (afk play, using third party programs that aid gameplay, etc.) and there is no action taken against them. So, other than you reporting yourself via this post, odds are no one would have ever found out/cared.

Lol, well fk me. Doesn't make sense that I would get punished... cuz I was ignorant of both these rules and what was going on. Anyway for a complete stranger to invite a complete stranger to take part in a botting AFK session is very yes... Interesting to me.... kind of illuminates the state of the game today...

Ignorance of the law is no excuse. The same applies to the rules of the game; if you choose not to read them, that's on you.

It's almost certainly m@cr0que$t and it is most certainly highly, highly illegal. I recently joined a group with a friend and much to my astonishment I saw the identical movements and realized what was going on and left. I'm not risking my 12 year-old character getting banned.

You? Likely no, as you were not 'playing' AFK. And before you went AFK you apparently did talk to the guy.
Him? Again, maybe he was botting, maybe no. I got some socials set up on my box toons, for initial engage, for blasting, for rebuffs, so you might see repeating patterns, but does not mean I am botting. But if he was at it 8+ hiurs straight, likely some automation was going on.

This is essentially getting PL'd, which is not and has never been illegal. You have an active player, in the group with you, killing NPC's normally and not doing so AFK. You were not AFK soloing. If PLing someone is illegal, then nearly every single person in EQ should be banned because at some point you PL'd someone or someone PL'd you even if it was for 1/3rd of a level or 20 levels its the same..

The illegal part is when no one is at eh wheel at all, and your either using a third part program to automate game play, or your sitting on a spawn having Mercs kill for you while you sleep. Those are clear violations.

As for the methodical pulling and pace. There is only so many ways to skin a cat. When you are clearing the same set of mobs over and over again for EXP you are going to do the exact same things every time. So it is mind numbing, but not automated, since he was actively responding to you on all the accounts when you interacted.

I think this is fairly common. Like Nelson Muntz says it doesn't hurt to have multiple fingerprints on your gun, so a semi-afk botter like he is doesn't mind bringing people into the group.

You probably won't get into much trouble.

True but if they want people to know the rules the eua (end user agreement) shouldn't be 50 pages of legal sounding . Lol

It's not illegal to bot a game...its just against the games rules. Legality indicates civil punishment is an option. All dbg can do is ban you. But in this case, i wont be doing it again, but im not going to "look a gift horse in the mouth "

Only 12? Pff. Ats nuthin!

Out here getting gifts, and then dropping dimes as a thank you. WOOF.

Prohibited would have been a better choice of words, for sure.

Wrong. There is no such thing as "getting PL'd" in the EULA or TOS. What the guy did was afk, and gained 5 levels without being at keyboard. That's unattended play and is a bannable offense. It doesn't matter what your intent was.

No, any account that is unattended is unattended and is breaking the rules. Can they prove the guy wasn't just an alt of the main group? No (not unless he makes this forum post calling himself out). Do I even care about the rules? Absolutely not. I employ street justice. *wink* The Grounds* is clean and safe for lowbies on my server, <Hank Hill voice> I tell you hwhat.

*The Grounds used to be overrun with botters 24/7

Damn son...I'll bet you're fun at parties...

I have never in nearly 21 years, some of it as a guide, seen, participated in, nor heard of a person banned or even suspended/warned for PLing anyone. I read nearly every post from CSR, Lead GM's, Senior Guides or other Guides on the Guide forum and not once did I see any discussion about banning, suspending or even warning an account for standing in a corner while his friend or acquaintance killed mobs. No where in the printed manual, PnP and binder they mailed me stated PLing was illegal either.

What I did read is if the camp is active,and people are actively playing, and actively responding to tells, regardless of who was there and what they are doing, as a Guide I was never to intervene, warn or escalate the player to a Senior guide or Lead GM.

Your assumptions of the rules are not correct in regards to active game play and sitting in a group.

Oh my. I left my bazaar trader unattended overnight and when I got back I was 150kp richer. I am so getting banned.

The whole bazaar is getting banned...

I like this guy.

The correct response when someone invites you into their group to help you xp is "thank you"

From what I can tell you did nothing wrong. If he was indeed cheating at some point or the whole time, you weren't the one cheating or behind that wheel, and no one can prove you did or didn't know what he was doing. As far as you know, he was just efficiently playing 3 toons, possibly with legal programs like innerspace etc.

And it's not like we get in trouble for benefiting from cheaters' productions. If you buy something from bazaar that was acquired by someone cheating, are you going to get banned? No.

I think you're good, but I wouldn't post stuff like this on the forums lol.