Thread: Botting - why?
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Old 04-16-2012, 09:56 AM   #17
SnowTroll
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Join Date: Jan 2011
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Re: Botting - why?

Why to bot or oppose botting is a bit of a different question than the ages old "RP versus mechanics" debate. I've always hated that debate for one simple reason: the two aren't mutually exclusive. I can be an established, great RPer who's an important noble leader of some kind with tons of power and influence and a huge network of PC and NPC contacts, and also bot/grind the heck out of my character in my spare time and be a "Maxed out Max" (love that term. Never heard it before.) That way, when some other purely roleplaying noble sends a heavily trained assassin after me, I win. I'm both codedly powerful, and RPly powerful. And I can go kill that enemy noble myself if I want. There's no check on a system where code determines combat outcomes. If I'm a Maxed out Max, I win fights. Maybe there are RP based reprocussions if I kill some key PCs, but I can just roll up another Max if I die, right?

I don't think the only solution, or even the main one, to keep people from wanting to bot is a huge RPI based system. There can be serious code incentives to discourage botting/encourage interaction.

Example system in my mind: Let's say I'm a crafter type in a mud. I can advance by gathering crafting materials (can be automated), but get more experience faster if I buy crafting materials from another player with the amount of experience I get determined by how much of a good price I get (some sort of equation that compares the price I paid per unit with some base price, such that by executing a coded trade command effectively, I advance). Or maybe gathering materials is much more effective if I team up with a wilderness scout class, that has a special skill that helps us find more materials or better ones faster. I could also advance by crafting items from materials (can be automated), but I get more experience faster if I trade my crafted items at a good price per the trade command above. And crafting is more effective and produces much higher quality itmes if I team up with another crafter. A system like that lets me slowly bot on my own if I want, but I'm strongly incentivized to interact instead, and the people with networks of contacts will advance a lot faster than I will by botting (if the mud is populated at all.)

Similar example: Let's say that I'm a healer/doctor type. If the best or only way of improving at my doctoring skill was to heal the injuries of other PCs, there'd be little to no botting, just interactively peddling my services.

Let's say I'm a religious priest figure type. If the best or only way to advance in my religious order or get more awesome religious powers was to perform conversion/induction ceremonies on people after convincing them to join the faith, to perform marriages and other religious rites, and stuff like that, I'm not going to waste time killing rats in the sewer with a club using my bot.

The possibilities are endless, and even applicable in a non-roleplaying mud.
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