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I suspect you probably misunderstand how people tend to use our programs. For example, you appear to be under the misapprehension that everybody is autobuying at supersonic speeds grabbing every profitable item which restocks and so leaving nothing for legit restockers or that legit restockers have no way to compete with the speeds. In reality, however, people using our autobuyer have an average buy speed of 2.3 seconds from seeing the item restock which is actually not that quick and can be easily beaten playing legitimately (try it yourself, it's not difficult to beat those speeds). We also intentionally slow down the programs by making it so non-Advanced members can only have a minimum refresh rate of 8 seconds which further restricts their efficacy. Not everything is as cut-and-dried as you seem to think.
The main benefit comes from saving time and not having to sit there bashing buttons rather than anything superhuman.
Actually, I had a pretty good idea of how abers worked before this thread - as I said, I had lurked on these boards occasionally in the past, and much of that was in looking through some of the cheat programs offered and how they worked. Morbid curiousity, I suppose, was the motivation for that. I do realize that abing is not the death of legit restockers, but it is a very difficult competitor (especially when there is someone with high refresh rates in a shop, or maybe multiple abers at once. Sometimes things just go so fast that it's hard to imagine it being anything but an aber).
I really don't see the point in putting hours and hours of effort doing the same boring, repetitive task, and getting physical sores and pains (eye strains/joint and finger pains/stuff like that) into an online pet dress up site which probably won't be here in five years. Hell, it might get taken down tomorrow or next week for all we know :V Losing my time and effort for a second time wouldn't feel all that great, ya know? Then again, I don't really run the programs all that often since all I do on the site now is doing my dailies, seeing what sort of stupid posts are on the boards, what stupid shit TNT has done this time and now playing solitaire/pyramids, if I remember the site exists in the first place hahah
But OP, at the end of the day there isn't all that much of a difference between a legitimate player and one who uses programs. Both will get and miss items from a shop since both have an equal chance to start with (like Laser said, using an ABer doesn't instantly guarantee that you get every single item you want ever that's that nothing for legit players), both will get an amount of NP from games and both have the same chance of getting the highest score/trophy, or low score, and both have an equal chance of getting frozen. It's just when you're using programs, you're able to do more productive things at the same time. If you do happen to get frozen then you don't get thoughts like "wow all that time spent RSing I could have been doing my coursework/gone food shopping/getting laid"
I get that legitimate restockers can still compete with abers, to some degree anyway (though that's a necessity rather than a kindness from cheaters, if you DID restock too fast, you'd get iced). The difference being that the cheaters are not actually playing the game, but reaping the same or better results. It's not even a matter of jealousy at that point, but a matter of the work of a legit restocker not being properly rewarded. If for every legit item a restocker gets, he/she misses another one that was snatched up before him by an aber, then this legit player is rewarded by half for his/her rightful efforts, and all due to someone who barely lifted a finger for it. And yes, you can, like so many others, say "why should I care?", and it's true, why should you? That's where your morality has to come into play, and if it doesn't then be willing to admit that you're cheating and doing so at the expense of legitimate players.
I cheat because it is just a GAME in the end. It is a game and if it is no longer fun then there is no point. When I have no neopoints, it is not fun. I see no issue with cheating on an online game when it doesn't hurt anyone or steal real money from people. I don't need to justify it to me or you.
If a game is no longer fun, then stop playing, duh. Why stick around and cheat, and ruin it for those that do still enjoy it?
I also feel like you can just as easily flip your argument around and it would still be valid: I play legitimately because it is just a GAME, why cheat and ruin it for others? (especially since it's a family friendly game)
As other people have stated, it's harmless. I mean, I think it would be pretty immoral if you were to say, sell your illegitimately obtained NPs for real money, but if you keep the virtual currency within the virtual community, I see nothing wrong of it.
Why are you drawing your moral line at that particular spot? To you, one is harmless but the other is pretty immoral, to a legit player both are just as immoral. I would agree that the sort of cheating that this site condones is less harmful than scamming or hacking, for sure. But I completely disagree that it is harmless, and it is still against the rules in a pretty meaningful way.
I played completely legitimately both as a kid and as a college student until my last main was frozen just for mentioning this site in a Neomail to a friend who was asking for a price checker.
I pretty much decided "fuck this" at that point. Especially because you can get frozen or silenced merely for TONE on the boards also.
I feel for you, I can't imagine that I would not be tempted if I lost my account, which has years of work put into it. I still feel that it is a bit of an easy way out, and a moral lapse, but it is one that I can't guarantee that I wouldn't also choose.
I suppose there is no chance of you getting your account back, explaining that you were just using the price checker? It seems like a fickle thing to completely ice for, considering the potential to use this site as a legit resource.
because im immature and want everything i couldnt have when i was younger
At least you're honest about it, kudos. 
I can't remember if I've already posted on here or not, but after a while of playing legitimately I found how HARD it was to actually get anything accomplished on Neo. With popular items being 10mil plus and me earning about 1-3k from each game I played there seemed to be no end to my saving in sight. So I started using an ABer and such. Buying/selling pets....never scamming, just getting things easier.
-Honestly I don't know how TNT expects 5k+ people to fight over the same 1-2 popular/rare items that restock in a shop. - w -
Well, you took the easy way out, and compromised some morals in the process. If this is a choice you're okay with, then who am I to argue? But there are other options to making nps. Reselling is good. Food club/stock market are slightly slower, but also good and very quick/easy. NQ2 is pretty fun (in my opinion) and completing insane has a good chance of some top notch items. Restocking, even if you're not good, is viable - there ARE shops where pretty profitable items stock in bulk, so even slower restockers can snag one or two at a time. Investing or speculating can be very profitable and very quick, if you're good.
Also, there is not 5k+ people restocking at one time, especially not in a single shop. There is rarely much over 10k people online at any given time, and with the amount of activities that the site offers, I highly doubt half of them are restocking. There are times when it honestly seems like there may only be a handful of people, even in the most popular shops.
I actually haven't done anything (yet), but I see no other way to obtain dream pets - UCs, without cheating. I lack the time and talent to RSing, and I could never accumulate the millions needed to offer a custom to trade for one, and even then they don't even go for customs these days.
As stated directly above (2 paragraphs up), there are other viable ways to make nps. Cheating is the easy way out, which is unfortunately very tempting.
(Missed these on the previous page)
I cheat to keep up with the competition. I don't live in America, and my internet speed is very slow. Even with Abrosia it's very hard to get some good items, I usually only get 2-3 good ones a day. The country I live in has one of the worst internet connections and they are known for it as well.
So the bottom line is, I think that if you ask us, why we cheat, we each have our own reasons... I'm not a psychic or a mind reader, but this really seems to be upsetting you. If it bothers you so much, how on earth do you deal with real life things where not everything is candy and rainbows either?
I was on neo for 6 years before I started cheating btw, and do not feel one little bit bad about it.
An average restocker doesn't manage, on average, 2-3 good items per day. Does this mean you should ab less, since you're not just keeping up but actually cheating beyond your perceived disadvantage?
As far as me being upset by it - it isn't upsetting me in any profound way, but I'll admit it is a little. I didn't come here being naive and hopeful that I would find candy and rainbows. I'm not here mulling about it and whining because I'm hoping it will make me feel better though. I'm just curious about the motives, curious about where they stand compared to the motives I had for being curious about cheating. I'm finding that many people are more in denial than they'd probably like to admit about how they've had to compromise their morals, and how they are actually doing something harmful.
I cheat through the bits that are ridiculously time-consuming and require little more than me sitting here hammering away at the same series of keys over and over again. You'll notice the only thing I mentioned was the games not being fun and the plots not being enjoyable to solve*; hardly 'every aspect' of Neopets. I work full time and when I get home, I don't especially like finding out that the best and easiest (legitimate) way to get something I want is to devote all my free time to clicking my mouse (or pushing three keys) X number of times with very little visual or audial feedback and almost no entertainment value (the battledome in particular doesn't even feel like a win-or-lose situation, it just feels like click click click result).
I like character design and some small part of me enjoys the childishness of it all, and I'm exactly the type of dork that will play dress-up with my pets until the cows come home. Unfortunately, feeding my dorkiness requires doing things I hate doing when I'm getting paid to do it. I also like having an excuse to come back and see how Codex is doing and how many people I still remember.
I also spent almost a year not playing Neopets before this plot started, so there's the answer to your question.
*The vast majority of the time. I actually really enjoyed figuring out the bits of the Faeries' Ruin, even though the account I did all that hard work on got frozen later for a stupid score send.
I appreciate the response. I don't agree with everything, naturally, but at least you've explained it fully, so thanks for that.
