Like many others I echo the sentiments of the OP. I began seriously botting just after the march glitch was patched, and almost immediately began to like the game less and less. Massive armies made time commitment useless, the social aspect of the game started to disappear and worst of all coiners gained an even larger advantage then what they had before. I still remember going around in the same pattern every night and killing all my reds scouts because the lack of massive heroes wouldn't allow them to rebuild their scouts fast enough to hold up against my 125k waves ... 'Work' and dedication paid off in the good old days, as you could compete on a server without spending, and better yet teamwork and organizational skills were highly valued.

I still stand by my statement from two years ago that bots are necessary for evony to continue to milk this cow, but they have killed the game not only for me, but for countless others.