RE: SPLINTERLANDS: A Bright Future
I'm not sure we should let our fear of bot superiority be a cause for stifling innovation.
After all, in which case does a bot NOT have the potential to be superior? No matter what the game or the game dynamics...whether the game is basic or complex...it all boils down to the simple fact that any bot which is programmed with a carefully crafted algorithm and given access to all relevant, supporting data will have an advantage against human opponents.
In theory, any game more complex than a coin flip is "making it easier for bots". But I get what you're saying. I understand the overall concern. If the new features make it easy for bots to farm in an exploitive fashion, the balance between bot and human may skew dramatically further to the bot's advantage.
I think a reasonable first step would be to address any bot imbalances that we experience right now within our current system. Then, we can take those solutions and see how well they apply to upcoming features before implementation. Your feedback in that regard will be highly valued.
It seems the community went from "bots are bad, ban them and take their cards" to "Matt should make bots for everyone" As more and more people don't want to farm and play long games and more and more bots came about I assumed this would hurt people who did like to play the game. However it seems almost no one is interested in playing the game as a human. If this is the case there is no need to worry about how we make the game at all really. Pro Bot or not, it will be only bots.
I think it boils down to a person's motivation for playing. If their PRIMARY objective is to earn, then they will be favorable to bots. If their objective is mostly to have fun (earning is a secondary concern), then they will probably perceive bots as a big negative.
Blockchain gaming development is still in its infancy. Trying to balance freedom, profit, and fun in a way that makes sense is extremely challenging. Plenty of growing pains as we work through what works and what doesn't.
However, I'm optimistic.
I understand that you (and others) have provided lots of valuable feedback that is even now being used to plan development for things such as the league system. Hopefully, this will put us in the right direction to someday achieving the bot/human balance we all are hoping for.