[dentin]

Kavir,

To clarify my position, it's impossible to eliminate botting without impacting non-bot players. For a game like AA, pretty much the only way to reliably eliminate all bots would be to encase the server in lead and sink it into the ocean.

Since we're being pedantic, I feel that both of your examples suffer the same sort of problem. I agree that they are much more difficult to build a bot for, and they are much less likely to have bots built for them, but it is certainly possible to do so. Neither 'eliminates' (zero percent probability) bots, rather both designs are less likely to have bots.

(As a side note, IRC channels also have no advancement or sense of gameplay, yet IRC bots are very common.)

Bot detection and reduction is a probability in my mind, with some features more likely to be bottable and some less likely. I also see it as a tradeoff against normal players, whatever they may be - you may be able to come up with a scenario where botting is truly impossible - but in that case, it's likely that normal playing will also be (eg. server encased in lead above.)

Human intervention doesn't even guarantee you proper bot detection - don't forget that we have bots that can pass turing tests a double-digit percentage of the time.

-dentin

Alter Aeon MUD