[MUD-Dev] Containing automation?

[Charles Hughes]

At 02:29 PM 7/20/99 -0400, Laurel Fan wrote:
>However, this doesn't fix the problem... the bot can continue to
>buy/create/sell until it figures out that it impossible/undesirable to
>do so. Since there is essentially no cost to produce these items
>(because time is presumably the only cost, and a bot takes up no "human"
>time (well, actually, not quite, if there are other bott-able activities
>that are potentially higher value, but presumably these would be higher
>value for non-bots as well.)), the best strategy for a bot is to do
>this.  This also punishes non-botting players, nt only because their
>"costs" are higher, but further because the bot will essentially have
>ruined a sector of the economy, encouraging these players to write
>competing bots or to give up on trade goods.

The problem is that such a system exists, not that a bot can take advantage
of it. Any sufficiently bored human is indistinguishable from a bot.

Perhaps the computer controlled personalities should be taking advantage
of such economic incentives? Monopolies, cartels, syndicates, and other
such organizations immediately come to mind.




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