Thread: Botting - why?
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Old 04-14-2012, 12:18 PM   #9
Will
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Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Botting - why?

Short of limiting game access to an unscriptable custom client, I'm not sure you can make unattended "botting" impossible. You can make it difficult, but as long as text and predictable action is involved, enterprising min/maxers will always find a way to automate everything.

This is the best solution, in my opinion: design fun processes. I think advancement mechanics are seen as means to ends most times instead of opportunities to give players more cool and interesting stuff to do. When it comes to advancement, game play gets overlooked way too often. I'd like to see MUD designers put as much thought into MOB-bashing mechanics as they do PvP.

Unfortunately, it's the nature of the beast.

There's no way around the time commitment issue if you want your game to have any length of playability. But guys play Madden over and over and over until the next version comes out, despite the fact that the process is always the same. Why? Because the process is challenging. Because it lets players pit their ability against each other as well as the machine. And in my opinion, that's the key: designing mechanics with game play first in mind, mechanics that put players in constant competition--with the game, with each other--and make player ability at least as big a part of success as is the skill of characters. Is that easy to do? Hell no. Text is a tough platform. But it can be done. I've seen it.

Anything you do repetitively is going to get less fun as time goes on. Even the greatest games in the world lose their luster after a while. The cool thing about persistent realities is that when you get tired of bashing stuff, you don't have to leave the game. You can go and do something else until you're ready to reenter the fray. There will always be players uninterested in anything but advancing, and there is no way to design around that, but as long as a game offers goals independent of more levels, more loot and more skill, who cares?

That's my $0.02, anyway.
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