Bot

A program, script, or other tool to play the game for you by fighting or forging without direct user input. Bots usually also try to answer Bot Checks, though none are known to have a good success rate doing so.**

Yasz remarks that, should anyone ever manage to build a bot that can handle bot checks they should publish an article or paper on the subject.

Note that programs or scripts that help you keep track of what you're doing, or ones that change the look/feel/layout of the game are not bots. The key distinction being that a helper tool still requires you to click (or press enter) for each fight or forge iteration.

** The exact format of bot checks has evolved over several generations, as various bot authors have highlighted weaknesses. The most recent change occurred after December 11, 2003, when users paul4, tomstdenis, and mattm were banned for using bots, often getting the first letter correct or guessing random words. User BadAsh, also a Quarter Blender at the time, confessed to using a bot. Over about five weeks of using his bot, BadAsh was able to answer 1297 successful Bot Checks and failed 313 Bot Checks, bringing his accuracy to answering 80.5% of the bot checks correctly in two tries.

Bots are related to but not the same as "cyborgs," where a program plays for you but does not attempt to answer bot checks. Cyborging is also banned. The most high-profile cyborg case was on January 5, 2007, when DAWG was banned. [1]

Pages that link to this page:

• Bot Checks
• Wall of Remembrance