Should we keep selling drugs, even though we know they are killing people?
Yes! Yes! Yeees!
_ The Drug Cartel community
I found it amusing that there was a vote on whether the Battle Helper community wanted to keep using the battle helper and automation that helps them win - and surprise surprise - they said they wanted to keep using it.
Amazing!
It is to be expected though, isn't it? People will be people, and if there is a way to take a shortcut, people are going to take it. We see it in every area of our lives. Automation. And we are willing to use it, even if it negatively affects our experience down the track, because the present moment is all that matters, right? The justification for continuing the provision of battle helpers is that the Terms of Service are not updated, so it isn't technically breaking any rules.
Some argue that even if the ToS are updated, it doesn't matter because it will be hard to enforce, and again this is normal human behavior. When people feel they can get away with something, many will. And in the world of digital communities, no one really cares about anyone else, except when their personal experience is negatively affected. The people who love automation, don't actually have to experience the affects themselves, they can remove their engagement. They can also lower their barrier to compete with people who are possibly better than them.
I hope the ToS are updated soon.
It was nice when humans were playing, as while I was winning more, people who had previously been using the various bots were more engaged, talking about their battles together. It has fallen silent again.
Splinterlands struggles for public conversation on Hive, where even in the trending category of the community, there is little engagement. It is a massive opportunity being missed however, as Splinterlands has the chance to build a community around a crypto game, with user-based content and engagement all happening on a Web3 platform, earning from a different token, outside of the Splinterlands economy. There is a chance to make a complete community hub of gaming, content creation, interaction, investment, governance and third-party development in the one place, yet still distributed using decentralized mechanisms. The importance of this in the future is high in my opinion.
But, people are people and just like the rest of the world that the same people think needs some adjustment, they are going to behave exactly the same. This is crypto in general, where crypto "enthusiasts" tend to not be anywhere near that and instead, are just looking to buy themselves a better place in the fiat world. They don't actually care about the future of the tech or the community, except when they think they can help them secure a better position on the traditional economy ladder.
As expected
Updating the ToS is important, because even if it is hard to enforce right now, it means people will have to willingly choose to break them. What that means is that since there is a lot of data available, enforcement could happen somewhere down the track when it is feasible, where for example, reward cards become more expensive to unlock, or they are not unlockable at all and can never be sold individually. After all, they are reward cards for playing the game and once the rules of the game are explicit and people break those rules, it is no longer playing, it is cheating.
Do people want to be cheats?
Much like the opening lines of this article, it all comes down to incentive. When the incentive to cheat is higher than the perceived punishment from cheating, there will be some percentage of people who will take the risk. When it is in an ecosystem of pseudonyms and human anonymity, there aren't the social risks involved either, lowering the bar further.
Personally, I think that this has been one of the problem catalysts on the internet, because there aren't the same consequences as there are in real life. Be a dick in the real world and you will be known as a dick and will face the ramifications. In the digital world, it is possible to hide.
I have always wondered how the people who cheat at games actually feel about themselves as they do it, but I assume they justify it through some kind of need they have. Or some kind of entitlement. They say that "I deserve to because" in the same way that any personal will justify their worst behaviors, even when they know they are in the wrong.
It is a moral question, an ethics question.
Yet, we live in a world where ethics have been eroded, whilst individual satisfaction has been elevated. When people are isolated, there is no reason to be ethical, no reason to think of others, because others are meaningless.
I keep saying the Splinterlands community, but I don't think the community is anywhere near as robust as some people believe it to be. When people are only interested in maximizing their ROI, the community will ultimately collapse. It is inevitable. Well at least, that is what has happened one hundred percent of the time until now.
But, I can't convince anyone to act in a certain way.
I can try to explain why perhaps, but ultimately, we own our own actions, and when things collapse, we are all part of the problem. Some don't even try for better though, they just resign themselves to the outcome, shrugging their shoulders and saying, this is the way it is. Turning a blind eye, justifying it through the laws, is just distancing oneself and taking away agency, as we have seen many times before in the past in much larger, and far more impactful ways than just through a game.
It is all on a spectrum though, isn't it?
It is more convenient not to do the right thing.
Especially when there is money to be gained.
The few days of feeling good playing, were good while they lasted.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I have always wondered that as well. I asked too. But usually I get the same answer; it’s web3 crypto (whatever that means!), we want freedom, we get to do whatever we want!
Since I pushback on this statement, I am the towns bully :)
I was listening to a talk once by a German philosopher who grew up after the war. In Germany still, they teach what happened without exception at school. He said in the talk that when he was at school, there came a time in every German child's life around the age of 12, they they would go home and ask their parents,
"Did you know?"
It is more convenient. It is more profitable. It is far easier.
When good men do nothing.
Yes, lack of action has consequences too, we often fail to realize that. We say it is someone else's problem.
I like Doug Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He explains many deep things in an amusing way, that you realize the deeper meaning much later. He said:
Today it is known as a sociopsychological phenomenon called "Diffusion of responsibility" or bystanders syndrome of "Genovese syndrome"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese
We had to take a class about it after Macondo Incident in US Gulf of Mexico, if you remember. It is strange, how it was all related.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill
I don't really use any of the bots or helpers so I wouldn't mind them updating the TOS. It's hard to really say but I think there will always be people who want to cheat the system for an advantage. It will take time but if you crack down, eventually those people will stop.
There will always be cheats and this is a good thing. It helps build a more robust system. For instance, Bitcoin is probably the most attacked protocol out there and as a result, it has to be strong.
the love of money corrupts the heart and the focus is changed from where it should be.. Drugs continue to kill and we obediently ablidge in their agenda.
I read the other day that 100K people in the US died from unintentional drug overdoses in 2021. And that is going to happen (likely increasing) every year into the future. How much did they spend on saving the elderly from the flu?
It is a common sentence that has become a fact in all aspects of our lives.
This orientation toward individual satisfaction has made people become wolves for other people, "homo homini lupus."
But in the end, everyone is responsible, and the biggest punishment for anyone who cheats or ignores ethics and morals is guilt. Guilt is the most severe punishment of all.
A simple article that has a deep message, if we want to reflect on it.
I am glad that you did :)
I wonder if there is an increase in psychopathy, and people are feeling less guilt, as they are encouraged to be more selfish and disconnected from a community.
Good read 👍
Thanks mate :)
The closing speehc reminds me of something we say in italian: "We were young and with no problems. And we did not know it".
Quite nostalgic but still true as it always reminds me how much I complicate my life with troubles and losing time for people that are stealing energy.
I usually recall the latin poet that said "Hic et nunc", meaning "here and now" to help me stay focused in such situations
Just think about what we may have stressed about at school - and what we stress about now.
I've never really messed around with the battle helper at all. There are just too many cards and I don't know where half of them are. I have a feeling I would spend all my time going back and forth between the two windows before I could even get a team submitted.
I wonder if they do the same with other parts of their lives - like hire a prostitute to do a better job of having sex with their partner :D
I don't know, some people are really into that cuck stuff!
I don't kink shame.... :D
I think that using bots/helpers would take away all the fun for me. splinterlands is not a game I would enjoy just watching.
few years ago I cheated in heroes of might and magic 2(?) I was stuck on a mission an computer kept beating me no matter what strategy I used. I was not happy about cheating but at that point I just wanted to see the next mission.
I guess this why they automate the play.
Cheating is a funny thing. Does anyone feel good doing it?
to us to make us forget our dreams.
Or, it is a tool to help us realize them. Money isn't the end goal.
Something I see here is greediness. A lot of us are being stingy. The world itself is a place full of stingy people
Most people only care about themselves and it is just like what you said about the Splinterlands community that so many people carr about their profits.
You're right!
Thanks for sharing! - @azircon
It all boils down to greed. Pure, unadulterated greed.
To those involved, both battle helper users as battle helper developers,, it doesn’t matter if their stance kills the game in the long run, as long as they got their share of the carcass.
Totally agree with you there mate. It has been a bit more difficult to climb in human modern this season, but I wouldn't say it is a huge departure from last season. I am still enjoying myself and still having some good back-and-forth after battles with familiar faces. The enforcement is out of our control, so I try not to spend too much time worrying about things I can't control. All we have is our community forums to try and apply pressure on people to do the right thing. I agree that it is a shame Syler turned to a community vote to turn BH back on, but that is not something I've ever been interested in.
I also think the short-form nature of LeoThreads would be a great place to share quick-hitting posts with a battle link and tag for the fallen foe. But so far, I've had very little interaction on the LeoThreads posts I make tagging people from memorable battles. Hopefully that picks up because the human interaction is the best part of the game!