Should bots be able to send messages in local chat?

[Vanyel]

no no no no no no no

bot shouldn't talk at all unless PMed

 

Ditto.

I still remember Nera (?) standing next to the fruit stall in Portland and talking to every single passing person. I'd not exagerate if I said it was extremely irritating.

Ignoring bots isn't an answer, honestly. It'd be a hassle to keep switching between ignoring/not ignoring them in case I want to buy something (hardly happens).

Edited November 19, 2008 by Iori

[LabRat]

I have to defend Learner here:

 

On one occasion I was informed by Learner that one of the bots I host was getting complaints of spam. I disabled the bot's local announcement feature for passing players and the bot continued without disruption.

 

Locking is a last option event unless it is for bots that are stuck posting constant ads on @@3 or similar, in which case a lock is pretty much guaranteed until the problem is found.

 

It is extremely rare for a bot to be locked.

[Learner]

Before the thread was started I had been seriously thinking about Locking the spam bots that are out there.

 

I'm not a bot owner.. but that seems a bit of a radical thing to do? You could have considered giving the botowners of those 'spambots' some time to get it undone? From what I gather, people pay good money to get these bots ingame, and for the blessings, maybe I'm wrong, but that should at least give them the chance to make changes before getting locked out of nowhere, right?

The bots would have gotten unlocked once they were fixed. Standard procedure with a broken bot is to lock it until it's fixed & tested on the Test Server.

[MagpieLee]

Before the thread was started I had been seriously thinking about Locking the spam bots that are out there.

 

I'm not a bot owner.. but that seems a bit of a radical thing to do? You could have considered giving the botowners of those 'spambots' some time to get it undone? From what I gather, people pay good money to get these bots ingame, and for the blessings, maybe I'm wrong, but that should at least give them the chance to make changes before getting locked out of nowhere, right?

Yeah I agree...bot owners put these in to increase the number of their "features".

Some people like them, thats a harsh move, why so serious?

Where's the option for "I don't mind either way" ?.

Since that's not there I'll go for a yes vote.

 

Its a nice personal touch. There IS an option for ignoring bots. Does that not work in local or something?

[Ermabwed]

No.

 

Greetings can be done in PM to players that actually want that, no need to potentially annoy other players by that.

 

Comments on events get old and annoying very fast, regardless how limited they are. If it's on regular events it's way too much, if it's on rare events you'll be most likely happy without a program congratulating you; especially since there'll be most likely other players around that will congratulate you as well, giving the game a really personal touch (bot made personal touch: your alarm clock going off in the morning must be a personal touch to your day then as well ).

 

New hour announcements: unnecessary, repetitive, boring and annoying.

 

And: yes, I've actually (re-)added bots to my ignore list because of bots speaking spamming in local.

 

PS: I think Learner just pointed out the consequences of the fact that the feature is breaking bot rules at the moment as Entropy stated in the originating thread.

Edited November 19, 2008 by Ermabwed

[umbrena]

Voted 'Yes'

 

I remember being a newb in Yugo guild, and walking by Vooten and having him greet me.

Made me feel special that *something* acknowledged my presence.

 

If you dont like it, #Ignore the bot. Big deal, boo hoo. God forbid people who don't want something have to type a few more character's then the rest of us.

[Ermabwed]

Voted 'Yes'

 

I remember being a newb in Yugo guild, and walking by Vooten and having him greet me.

Made me feel special that *something* acknowledged my presence.

 

If you dont like it, #Ignore the bot. Big deal, boo hoo. God forbid people who don't want something have to type a few more character's than the rest of us.

But the bot could also greet you in PM for the same effect

[skodarap]

voted "no", 'cause it's annoying most of the time, specially comments on harvesting events

[Dilly]

nvm.. I'll post would just get deleted anyway.

Edited November 19, 2008 by dilloesional

[umbrena]

Voted 'Yes'

 

I remember being a newb in Yugo guild, and walking by Vooten and having him greet me.

Made me feel special that *something* acknowledged my presence.

 

If you dont like it, #Ignore the bot. Big deal, boo hoo. God forbid people who don't want something have to type a few more character's than the rest of us.

But the bot could also greet you in PM for the same effect

 

Some of us actually like our bots greeting us/our friends in public.

My bot isn't located near any harvestables so there's usually no one around it when friends/guildies walk by... whats the big idea?

Gossip greeted me as well if I walk past her, but only once an hour... limits rule

Edited November 19, 2008 by umbrena

[2coolfool]

Some of us actually like our bots greeting us/our friends in public.

What about the ones who don't like it and happen to be there when the bot greets someone?

[umbrena]

what about all the people saying hi to each other as you're walking by...

do you complain about them? maybe we should all stfu in game and keep to ourselves. way to build a community.

[skodarap]

i don't think the way to build community is to have bots spamming local chat...but maybe that's just me...after all, community was fine when there were like 4 or 5 bots (ants not included) and i guess none of those were spamming local chat

Edited November 19, 2008 by skodarap

[Peach]

i voted no because i don't like them talking to me because i can't reply due to me lacking my right hand at the moment.

[Wynand]

I are has no friends so it makes me feel very good and warms my heart when bots talk to me. I vote yes they should have a voice! The louder the better!

[Torg]

I like the idea of bots greeting you, but with most people in this thread, I agree there needs to be limits. I think Gossip's limit of once per hour is good, but might be too much for some people, especially in a high traffic area.

 

I don't like the options for the poll because I think there should be no restrictions on the types of messages that are said (within reason), but a limit should be placed on the different types. Certain types of messages should be limited more than others, for example harvest events vs greetings.

 

I would say one greeting to a guildie/ally per hour would be acceptable, but for harvest events it should be limited to one event per 400 (for example) for _everyone_ around (not per person).

 

I also think that harvest event comments should only be for really large events, which are probably infrequent enough to not cause trouble, but this would need to be limited in code, just in case.

 

As for commenting on harvest hours, there are many guild bots that announce the hour either in #gm or the guild channel, as well as Trin's service to provide the local time (for logging) and the clients built in "new hour" reminders. As a result I see absolutely no reason for bots to announce the hour in local chat. It cannot be useful to anyone as there are many other options available, and it can be very annoying to those who already get 1 or more reminders every hour.

 

There is another special case I would like to suggest. My bots are on my guild's map, and in that case I don't believe there should be any limits on what they say/do because if you don't like it, stay off my guild's map! (I do however agree that having too many exceptions to the rule is just going to cause trouble).

[umbrena]

Sure it adds to the community. Bots are owned by real people

payed for with real money... The game is free to play for everyone. We who choose to own bots, should have the right for them to greet/talk to us/our friends. They know who the person behind the bot is ofcourse, especially if that bot chooses to greet them.

 

Or with labbies bots, they find out. I harvested silver in MM... the bots messages didn't bother me at all.

Everyones such a whiny grouch about everything lately. Don't like it- there's an #ignore option, no?

Why have to ruin stuff for those of us who do?

Last I checked, the yes's were leading the no's.

[LilBear]

I like the bots talking in local, but I don't agree with the options. The limit should be how many local messages are to be made in a short span of time...

 

Like someone brought up how Calliope greeted someone every time they entered her line of vision.. that's a big over the top.

 

What he said ^^

And yes, I had to put Calliope on #ignore for that reason, and I was just about ready to put Euphrates there too, but I think the guild fixed it. I understand that it's "cool" to have the guild's bot great guildies, but if the guildies happen to harvest sunflowers for hours and the bot is next to the sunflowers it gets pretty annoying. And omg Sava in NC.... She talks to everyone. Didn't her owner teach her not to talk to strangers?

 

lilcnoot

[Torg]

If people want bots to greet guildies and "friends"(however that bot owner defines a friend), why can't it be in #gm or pm, or non-official* channel # of choice? Why subject everyone else around to it?

Along the lines of making the game a little more friendly, if I see a friend on the other side of the street, I'm going to call out and say hi. Sure, everyone around me is going to be subjected to it, but people don't usually complain unless you end up shouting excessively to each other (at which point you should just cross the road and chat).

 

I view a guildie or ally, player or bot, as exactly the same thing. As long as it doesn't get excessive, I think it adds a friendly aspect to the game. Which is where a limit on how frequently greetings can be sent comes in.

[korrode]

I voted no.

 

I have enough spam to deal with as it is without bot's adding more to local in EL

Edited November 19, 2008 by Korrode

[Gilrain]

i voted yes, because i think forbidding it is a too hard restriction, since it actually *can* add charm to the game.

And i voted 'no limits' , but because i think the given options dont express my view:

 

i think bots should not comment harvesting events at all and they should not annnounce the hour or anything else which is handled by the game already.

and i think bots shouldnt greet *everyone* and *each time* he is passing...

 

i like the idea of restricting messages per time unit (or having a % chance for the local chat events)

 

regards,

[ago]

i think bots should not comment harvesting events at all and they should not annnounce the hour or anything else which is handled by the game already.

 

I like the word 'should'. This indicates that it's not strictly forbidden and the bot owners can use their common sense.

 

If a bot greets a guildie once a (EL) day it will be much less spam than the foreign language talks at Molgor or Storil. If the guild is large enough to have a new guildie enter the storage every 5 minutes it would be good to restrain from greeting the guildies.

[Aislinn]

If people want bots to greet guildies and "friends"(however that bot owner defines a friend), why can't it be in #gm or pm, or non-official* channel # of choice? Why subject everyone else around to it?

Along the lines of making the game a little more friendly, if I see a friend on the other side of the street, I'm going to call out and say hi. Sure, everyone around me is going to be subjected to it, but people don't usually complain unless you end

But it's an automated bot. It really doesn't care if you are there or not. If the bot owner is that concerned with being friendly, he should wave hi across the street himself.

[Torg]

If the bot owner is that concerned with being friendly, he should wave hi across the street himself.

o.O

 

How many bot owners stand next to their bots so as to be able to greet passers-by in a friendly manner? Besides... surely if they code such things into their bots, they would do it personally anyway.

 

But it's an automated bot. It really doesn't care if you are there or not.

But that isn't the point. There is nothing stopping someone developing a complex AI that can attempt to have a conversation with someone (as has been done in the past). An automated bot can be programmed to attempt to be friendly.

 

I am interested in it because I wanted to develop a conversational AI into Trin. I wrote some basic functionality, but didn't get time to really investigate it in any detail.

[Vanyel]

I've spent some time reading this thread and I have to say I'm surprised with some comments.

I am unable to understand a way an artificial, non-autonomic, repetitive program might enrich or augment players community. Unless it's meant the way the MS Windows does it, i.e. increasing significantly number of members of forums devoted to bitching at Windows or helping each other to struggle with it.

If somebody feels better being greeted by a piece of software, additionally not very sophisticated one, there's always a possibility of setting some greeting messages on your computer, mobile or tamagotchi.

It's also silly to suggest others to use #ignore_bots or #ignore command and refusing to sign up to bots' greetings list or joining a special channel bots would be using for the sole purpose of pretending to be nice to others (question, can a pile of bits be nice to anybody? and if not, where the desire to be greeted comes from?).

 

<edit>

I am interested in it because I wanted to develop a conversational AI into Trin. I wrote some basic functionality, but didn't get time to really investigate it in any detail.

Wouldn't it be a better idea to ask people to sign up for testing it and run your tests in either PMs or special channel? Bothering everybody around, including people not interested in it at all, doesn't sound like a good idea.

Edited November 19, 2008 by Iori