Déjà Vu: Splinterlands and the loop of bots

In case you've been playing Splinterlands for a while chances are by now you're pretty much aware of the multiple bot accounts that can be found in the game. At the time of writing this post, from my last 20 battles only 2 were against non-bot accounts. Even though some changes were made concerning DEC rewards distribution among the game's leagues in order to somehow discourage or at least make the use of this resource less profitable, my recent player experience leaves me the feeling bots may "have found their way".

After spending some time almost exclusively as a Bronze League player, I recently managed to be back to the Silver League and what I found there, alongside with a bigger challenge, was a feeling of Déjà vu:

Am I wrong or I have faced this guy before?!

Many of you may agree that there's kind of a moral obligation when it comes to accepting a rematch in any sort of competition or competitive game, but once it is settled, there's really no point in keep facing the same opponent over and over again.

The way I see it, facing multiple bot accounts doesn't really harm the experience of the game, given its nature and dynamics - you get to choose cards and strategies according to your preferences and judgement in face of the rules and battle conditions. Nonetheless, after facing bot accounts over and over again, one might miss the true feeling of overcoming a real opponent, the one who, just like you, had to make decisions according to the information available in a restricted time.

Besides, according to most of my previous experience bot opponents were many times easy targets since there seem to be a lack of fine tuning achieved. Many times also I have seen users report that the use of bots was definitely no good in terms of winning rate.

However, although this kind of poor adjustment may still be witnessed (like in the example of this battle), I have recently been feeling (painfully, in many occasions) that most of it is not like that at all anymore.

DAMN! F---ing machines!

Not only the examples above display gold foil, leveled up cards (which was supposed to be expected in order to reach Silver III and get better game rewards), but also - and that's what's been surprising me the most -, a genuine fine tuning of strategies, specially in the case of some specific battle rules, leading the game many times to be decided by tiny details, to a point one may feel a real flesh and blood player wouldn't have been able to.

So, if this impression of mine is correct and the set up of bots has been seeing a significant improvement overall, this means players are likely to have true difficulties when facing bot accounts, and, aside from the anger after a defeat, they may very well feel that the game was unfair.

While some may argue that the use of bots should be banned, there's no doubt they do bring some contributions. I, for instance, have often found myself learning game strategies' nuances from losses to bots. Plus, they definitely contribute to heating the game's economy through a huge demand for rentals - the example below illustrates it:

Still, I hate losing those battles! Since I strongly feel I'm the one who dropped the ball in those cases. And maybe here lies a key to better understand the eventual reaction of players to bots (and more specifically to being defeated by them) like it is in my case.

With good programming AI may many times better calculate probabilities and make right choices according to a much wider view of cards and their uses than a common player. But there's one thing that should not be overlooked:

bot accounts are run and set up by individuals!

And in order to do so there are naturally limitations that should be configured. If you pay attention to the examples above, it is clear that these accounts need to follow patterns, and we can even say it is easy to guess the cards they won't be using at all.

So, if on the one hand bots may sometimes have advantage related to strategy details when it comes to some or the combination of certain battle rules, on the other hand by being aware of most of their typical card choices players may find ways to counter and beat bots for good. And I guess this fact explains why it is for me so annoying to be defeated by bots:

the loss usually has more to do with you than with your opponent!

So, how to deal with what seems to be a significant improvement of these bot accounts?

From a competitive point of view, the answer seems to be simple:

improve your game! Use the eventual defeats to learn more!

Somehow facing these still so everywhere present bots forces players to improve their strategies and comprehension of the meta. It invites players to think outside the box and that's a good thing!

So, even though bot accounts not being an insurmountable problem in terms of competitive gameplay, as we may come to realize, from a player experience perspective and what may be the loss of a feeling of overcoming a true opponent, I confess there's something that insistently comes to my mind.

And that is: I feel that players and card holders, in possession of the information concerning this massive presence of in-game bots, should take a stand and refuse themselves to rent cards excessively cheap, specially at the beginning of seasons, as a way to make the bot accounts' progress somehow harder and hopefully contribute to players having more "real" opponents in the game. But still, it is a complicated issue. It is hard to say if this could lead to a lowering of the nowadays always so present bot accounts. Furthermore, this could negatively impact the rental market affordability, especially for new players. And by doing so chances are we, the real players, would be hanging around with our bot pals more and more frequently anyway.

In case you've come this far it is my time to ask. What about you? Have you had this same feeling and experience concerning bots recently?! What do you think about it?

My special thanks to the comrades @dontflex, @cashflow23, @witchfort, @airshipidea, @draco19, @behrman, @vanzelle, @schyr, @shark21, @bidonjour, @bodekgaming, @ethan0727, @antonym, @filuris, @ydnar14, @linta, @baluga and @ptrekk from the Digital Dash Guild who have recently accepted me in - I'm happy to be part of it and look forward to the next brawl.

Also thanks to @gregory-f, @casimirio and @drunksamurai who kindly supported my last post around here.

In case you're new to Splinterlands, you can join and start earning through my invitation. With the use of this referral link, after the purchase of the Spellbook, I'll send some DEC and also delegate some good cards to you, so it can ease your first experience and help you bring down those bots for real. Cya!