Bots need some more originality

Cer · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:13 pm Post subject: Bots need some more originality

Something I'm noticing is that most bots out there aren't very original. Most of them sign on, chat with people, and usually have a dictionary or calculator built in too so it can be useful instead of just entertaining.

Mojave's bots are what I would call original. AWordExperiment, for instance, is a game bot... but, it's all ONE giant game. That's what makes it original. I've seen other bots (I think it was called GameBuddy or something), which had multiplayer games like Connect 4 and Tic Tac Toe... but really, it was just a bot full of commands, which is nothing original.

The IM prank bot at cyberprank.com is another original bot. It was the first bot I've seen that does what it does--it sends IM to people and chats with them for a while, then shows the conversation back to the person who sent the bot out. This was an original idea, but now people are just copying it and the newer "clones" out there aren't very original.

When SmarterChild first came on to the bot scene, it was among the first bots to do what it did--chatted with people, and had lots of games and tools for them to use. But now, probably 90% of the bots created here are mimics of SmarterChild.

When Bot2k3 came around, it was also original in that it did things on the MSN protocol that nobody here has even cared to build into our MSN module, such as the MSN Game, Tic Tac Toe (as opposed to a text-based game like other bots have done).

All the bots I'm seeing now are clones of these types of original bots. They either just chat (like Alice), or they chat in hopes of fooling you into thinking they're human (like Eliza), or they offer lots and lots of commands (like SmarterChild), or they raise the bar of bot capabilities (like Bot2k3), or they are, in themselves, a game (like AWordExperiment), or they try and learn all their responses from conversation (like Jabberwacky).

So, it's about time somebody comes up with a new idea for an original type of bot. I'm sure there are some ingenius lil ideas still hiding there in the backs of our minds that haven't been done yet.

But, this is actually one of the reasons I believe that RunABot loses a lot of members... at least 50% of bots from RunABot are simply Alice clones with maybe a few custom responses. It gets dull and boring. That's one reason I left RunABot to begin with.

The way that no bots are original anymore is also one reason that, a long time ago, I quit adding new Bot-Depot creations to my contact list. Look at the Promote A Bot forum. Most of the new bots are built "using Mayabot" or "using White Warrior", and in very few of these threads do I ever see "but has been modified a lot". Most of the bots being produced by members here are simply downloaded bot templates which are sign-on as-is, with no modification to the original codes and no new creativity in its chatting behavior.

So, it's about time somebody finds a way to revolutionize the bot scene, or at least create a new genre of computer-controlled agents.

Teario · Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2006 6:53 pm Post subject:

I remember a bot that DarkMonkey was working on at one time that would allow msn users to chat with aim users. I dont know what became of it, but I thought that was a pretty good (and original) idea.

If you look at the entries submitted to the Invasion of the Robots contest though, I wouldnt say many of those were very original, and they have the SDK to work with.

I always have the same problem when I come up with a new idea: Bot2k3 already does it. Evil or Very Mad

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