There's something very strange about this game's relationship with bots. In the last Townhall Aggroed dived into a discussion about bots when Bulldog, the guy who handles liaison between the user community and the dev team, said exploitation and manipulation by bots was the number one issue bothering the playing community. Aggroed said some things that strike me as very strange. He said words to the effect that Splinterlands is a decentralized game, and if he lays down who is allowed to play and who isn't, it will no longer be decentralized. Hmm.
Is Splinterlands decentralized? How can it be decentralized if there is a corporation behind it and a CEO calling the shots. And why can't a decentralized organization have rules? Contrast Splinterlands with Bitcoin, which is truly decentralized (maybe not 100%, but 95% for sure). There are rules for Bitcoin. The block can only be a certain size...mechanisms for handling the occasions when two miners solve the hash problem at the same time, etc. Bitcoin Core software is open source. Anyone can propose changes or improvements. These are the so-called BIPs. (Bitcoin Improvement Proposals). Quite a controversial one is being debated right now. But, at the end of the day, whether or not to implement the proposed changes is determined by user consensus. If thousands of user nodes all over the world (decentralization) say no, the proposed change will not be adopted.
So, even if Splinterlands were decentralized, there would still be room for determining whether bots are allowed or not. Or what they are allowed to do. I don't see how the one has anything to do with the other.
Aggroed was apparently unaware of the bot exploits, such as win-trading. He said words to the effect that bots playing battles is one thing, but if they're being used to manipulate and exploit the economy, that's something that ought to be looked into. Hmm.
Follow this up with a disquieting video on the Youtube 'Tales from the Crypt Mancer' channel. The video is titled 'Splinterlands, We Have A Problem...' I highly recommend watching that video, and reading the comments. All the comments. One comment in particular is extremely telling. Information about the dev team's involvement with bot farms. And how this has been known since the beginning. This information is enough to put off anybody considering entering the space.
Well, I'm invested. I see the rental market as viable for the near future. That's my main focus in the game now. Maxing out cards and renting them out.
I guess this post won't win me too many friends. But what the heck. I don't claim to be right about anything I've said, but it's what I believe just now. Please leave comments, whether you agree, disagree, have more information, or if I'm mistaken about anything. This topic is potentially explosive, so please let's keep things civil.
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