In the last couple of weeks we have seen the launch of CrownRend and it’s the first time I have been in so early in a Web3 game that I have had time to devote to, unfortunately I couldn’t devote time early on in Immortal Creed or Golem Overlord – although I do need to revisit both of them, I joined Splinterlands in mid 2022 so bots were already rampant and the work to control them was just about to begin.
Bots have been in online games for years, be it web2 or web3, people want to make their lives easier. Some, however, feel that it’s cheating the system, akin to an athlete taking drugs to be at the forefront of their sports, looking for the extra edge.
Conversation in the CrownRend discord has gone back and forth on bots but what do they really add to/take from the game?
So what are the main impacts of bots?
Positive Impact:
- Enhanced Gameplay: provide assistance with complex tasks, ensuring there are opponents to play against (Splinterlands liquidity bots for example)
- Economic Stability: providing liquidity in the marketplace and stabilizing decentralised economies.
Negative Impact:
- Market Manipulation: Artificial inflation or deflation of in-game assets. Undermining the trust that a game builds with its audience.
- Unfair Advantages: Giving certain players an unfair advantage and disrupting the balance of the game whilst others experience is diminished.
- Inflated user numbers: When a significant numbers of “players” are bots it misleads regarding the popularity of a game and its success.
So what can/should be done about bots?
There are a few ways games can combat bots and Splinterlands have gone some way towards that with the human only Modern Format by pushing bots out into Wild to fight for their Survival.. (sorry couldn’t resist it) but have also embraced their own bots to provide liquidity in the modern format too.
Combatting bots can be time consuming and distract developers from enhancing their games, but its finding that balance between the positives and the negatives. Making a game people want to enjoy has got to be the paramount decision on it all and it will always be a divisive topic. When bots take over the full gameplay and stop people actually involving themselves at all that will be a step too far in my opinion. In the case of CrownRend I can see peoples problem with the possibility of bots being able to claim every 4 hours without fail, transfer assets to a main account etc but hopefully the developers can keep a handle on any bots and future features make it harder for them to over run the game.
What are your thoughts on the role of bots in Web3 gaming? Do you see them as a necessary evil or a potential boon for the industry?
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Bots are a given considering there is a monetary aspect on Web3 assets and to create a system that constantly checks for bots is somewhat annoying for the actual players as they are subject to running into it as well. There are already systems put in place natively such as the account keys, constant transactions, actual supply limits over assets, the exchanges from cryptocurrency to game token, and the input of actions required to participant in the Web3 dApp that you almost want to applaud all the people botting. If there is a benefit to them though than that should be the focus of the dApp development team. If they're going to be here anyway then put them to work to help the dApp be created.
If bots are truly flooding the marketplace why not hold dummy asset sales that actual people reading the posts understand is a non-functioning aspect to waste botters resources? Or even make it a badge indicating that the account holder is a bot for purchasing the dummy asset. Not fool-proof but might catch the laziest of botters.
Perhaps an ever changing menu so that clickers require constant updating. It has to be annoying enough to warrant a change to autonomy but consistent enough that it doesn't drive away the potential interested participants of the dApp
I can't think of anything else but the time input must weigh more than the value output to truly make it not worth a botters time, which will definitely effect the actual community supporting the project. I don't envy the developers of dApps and the bot problem. It's tough for everyone but it detracts from the developers precious time that could've been spent on improving their dApp instead of thinking up of bot counter-measures.
We'll see though! These are still the early days of Web3 projects and as they become more like actual games instead of 'click-and-wait' perhaps the problem will sort itself out.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic! It is something to ponder while exploring Web3 dApps.
Thanks for that considered response, I agree the more we move away from “click and wait” games the more chance we have of restricting botting of games.
!BBH
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Bots are fueled by pay to win structures. Being able to buy power in games is the problem. Everything should be earned by playing and the only sellable assets should be cosmetic in my opinion. If a game is fun, people will play it. When bots are allowed in games they are purely to farm profits. If someone wants to use bots to farm cosmetics, and sell those, fine. But the value of those will be limited. I dont know of a single web 3 game that isn't pay to win and thats sad because I believe blockchain gaming is the future of games if a company would ever make a game without trying to milk every penny from their player base.
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