Auto-Typing: Is it Hacking?

If you have not yet read this post, please do so.  If you have, and if you agree that something must be done about this, please say what you think in a comment.  Because it’s obvious to me that we need to fix this somehow, some way.  We need to work together on this, to put all forms of hacking behind us, before we can begin our work in restoring Club Penguin armies to their Golden Age.

There has been a lot of talk going around about whether or not Auto Typing is legal based on the Anti-Bot Bill.  It is pretty much accepted that it is an unfair advantage in battle, but what about in other cases?

The problem with only making it not allowed in battles is that it makes it available for recruiting.  Based on something Person said in response to Shab, the bill was designed to prevent unfair advantages of hacking or cheating armies.

Here is an example of a similar question with a definite answer: a baseball player uses steriods to make themselves stronger during the offseason but stops just in time for the real games to start.  Did he still use steriods?  Yes.  Did he give himself an unfair advantage?  Yes.  Basically, using auto-typer to recruit is the same as using steriods to make yourself stronger.  You may not be using the auto typer in battle, but the recruits you gained using the auto typer will be in the battle.  Without auto typer, would you have gained those recruits?  Maybe some of them.  But by using auto typer, you have given yourself an advantage over armies who try to recruit the right way.  To me, it’s still unfair.

As an example, any small army with an auto-typer now has an extreme advantage recruiting-wise over other small armies.

“Using an autotyper and leaving a penguin hooked up to it saying “search *insert army here*” is an amazing way to recruit for a small army.”

~Person1233

 

“Auto typing is a great way to recruit :s”

~Lots Of Pie

So is it hacking?  I did some research, and my first point came from Crime-Research.org.  Hacking is defined as “unauthorized use of computer and network resources”.  Think of it this way.  Without the use of an outside program, does Club Penguin allow you to send messages automatically and repeatedly?  No.  It is therefore not a natural “use of computer and network resources [i.e. Club Penguin]“.  If you cannot do it naturally, it is unauthorized.  You are using a program that breaks code in Club Penguin to allow you to do something you could not normally.  By any definition that is hacking, and it is illegal.  Likewise, using Penguin Storm or any other program that allows you to do something that is not normally possible is hacking.  Plain and simple.

If you need more evidence, maybe the fact that auto typer was featured in a February post on the blog called Google Hacking 2008 will sway you.  And yes, auto typer is also a hack for Runescape.

Put simply, if you asked Club Penguin what they thought of these programs that let someone take advantage of their game, I guarantee they will say that it is unfair, and if they knew who you were, you might even get banned.  It happens all the time to anyone who makes a Youtube video involving these types of things.  Most of you know this is an unfair advantage, but won’t admit it for your own selfish reasons.  It’s quite obvious to me anyone would like to use this for recruiting, but what is right and what is easy are two completely different things.

We’ve recently been talking about bringing back the “Golden Ages” of Club Penguin armies.  These auto typing programs had never been an issue back then (and I don’t think they even existed) and they hadn’t even been used until just recently.  For the integrity of armies, we need to keep all forms of hacking, and anything that gives you an unfair advantage, out of armies.  If we allow this type of program in armies at all, it will become a race for who can recruit the most soldiers with auto typer.  Say goodbye to true recruiting sessions, hard work, and loyal soldiers.  Think of the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.  “I’m not going to worry about making my country a better place, I’m just going to see how many nuclear weapons I can make.”  If all it takes is a few penguins with auto typer to build an army, then I refuse to be a part of it.  I can’t be the spokesperson for the older army generation any more.  I need other people to stand up with me and say “this is not how armies are supposed to be.”  We should not be about trying to find loopholes in all the old rules, we should not be about trying to find the easy way out.

There’s a reason almost all the major armies that were around when I joined have fallen.  We have all gotten lazy.  You think about recruiting sessions, practices battles.  Those barely ever happened back then.  But somehow it wasn’t a problem.  Why?  Leaders and their soldiers were on Club Penguin every single day, battle or not, time of peace, time of war.  At some point after I joined, and all the original generation leaders had retired, leaders stopped enforcing this behavior.  Now, few soldiers had the motivation to be on Club Penguin that much, and the mentality of constantly working to improve your army was gone.  By the time I became leader, I was well aware of this fundamental difference in the soldier’s mentality.  At that point, it was basically irreversable.  I did what I could, creating Brigades like the ones Oagal used to have, hoping it would encourage patrolling and activeness on Club Penguin.  Armies before and after me did similar things with Branches (Air Force, Navy, Marines) but it never caught on.  The only thing left that could replace the activeness soldiers used to maintain by themselves were practice battles.  If you have seen ACP or the Nachos as another example, we are the only major armies left that have gained ground rather than lost it.  We are basically the only two armies that have regular practice battles.

If I could give some advice to this current generation of leaders, it would be this.  Work hard, both you and your army.  Armies have already lost a lot of the mystique they used to have.  Maybe it’s because everything now is about hacking.  “The Golds hack, declare war.”  Between the Nachos and Golds, that war was almost entirely pictures back and forth of the other side “hacking”.  The Nachos claimed the Golds were hacking in nearly every post.  The Golds came up with a picture of the Nachos “hacking”, which was denied, sparking this whole debate of what constitutates “hacking”.  You know what?  Who’s to say what is and isn’t hacking?  If we defined hacking as a way to gain an unfair advantage, we wouldn’t even have this issue.  We’re the Golds hacking?  Yes.  We’re the Nachos hacking?  Yes.  There would be no questions asked over what constitutes hacking, there would be no argument over auto typers, I would not have had to write this post, and you would not have had to read it.

If you agree that something must be done about this, please go to The Club Penguin Army Council website and say what you think in a comment.  Because it’s obvious to me that we need to fix this somehow, some way.  We need to work together on this, to put all forms of hacking behind us, before we can begin our work in restoring Club Penguin armies to their Golden Age.

~Boomer