[shasarak]

The problem with that principle is that there are so many other factors which contribute to "unequal" competition that banning 'botting in isolation is unlikely to make any detectable difference.

It is perfectly possible to design a genuinely competitive MUD, but to do so requires that you eliminate the entire concept of character progression. There are some MUDs that operate like this: there is no concept of character levels or skills, and, while equipment does make a difference, there are several reboots a day and, after each reboot, every character loses everything he possessed and the entire game world is reset (leading a mad scramble for the best eq).

I neither advocate such a solution, nor advise against it; but if you actually want players to compete on an "equal footing", that's the sort of game you have to have - the text-only equivalent of a Quake deathmatch. Nothing else even comes close to achieving that goal, 'botting or no 'botting.

Especially in the US.