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People say that "e-history is bunk". Probably because e-history is not always what it seems to be. But also because the pace of progress into the e-future is often rather disconnected from the e-past. The presence of "bots" is an example of the great differences that have arisen.

It is our topic for today.



First, for those uninitiated in the dangerous, weird, occult world of "hacking", here is some background on the "bot" epidemic...




First off. Let's all agree that "bots" is a super-funny word. Since the letter 'z' is quite amusing, it would be even more funner if people would spell it botz, dontcha' think? So work on that, will-yizz? Puh-leeze. See what I did there? Wasn't that funner?


The science and engineering heroes in the audience know that "bots" actually refers to a few different but inter-related things.

What most e-humans mean when they refer to eRepublikan "bots" are software programs written in JavaScript to run under a userscript manager like Tampermonkey or Greasemonkey. These monkeys (or monk-eeeze!! Amirite?! Funner!) are also computer programs written in JavaScript. They detect metadata in the userscripts, then grant permission for the scripts to run alongside certain specific websites, like say www.erepublik.com.

Our sources (see picture of an actual "hacker" below) tell us that clever programmer-primates -- which we now understand is a polite way of saying "unemployed East European teenagers" -- learned a little coding, did a little reverse-engineering, sacrificed a few small rodents under a full moon, figured out how to send instructions to the eRepublik servers that would extend and/or augment the "natural" features of the game, then wrote userscripts to make it so.



We're told that such userscripts have ackshually been deployed to gain an advantage against other players. That's what folks "in the know" call a "transactional" script, or a "naughty" bot. It changes the behavior of the game. Like automatically finding battles, refreshing energy and weapons, fighting and so on, over and over, automatically, every day all day, day and night, faster, faster, faster than any non-coke-addled player ever could, relentlessly, persistently, never stopping. Like a robot that never sleeps, or like a tiny but ferocious four-year-old e-human at 5:30 in the morning demanding breakfast after you've been out drinking most of the night and have only slept for like 2 hours.


Or. A userscript can be simply -- even beautifully -- a non-transactional, aesthetic labor of love. It's aim might not be to "game the game", as with the naughty bots, rather to increase the pleasures of the game play for anyone. Like, making a nicer interface, or presenting information in a more useful or engaging way.

In any case, whether transactional or not, userscripts are forbidden by the Terms of Service that we all agreed to when we signed up for eRepublik. As are buying and selling accounts, and running multiple accounts.



So naturally no one reading this article would ever even consider using such a thing.



Your intrepid science reporters here at RFD only know about such things because we have certain... umm... friends (who are not George Soros!!!!) in the underground Hungarian resistance networks. They told us about this stuff hoping it might help Israel to take over the world with space lasers!! Bwa-haha-haaaa!! to encourage formation of a more Open Society of Gamerzz.




Regarding other kinds of "bots" (or botz!!! LOL!!!), informants "in the life" have told us they're typically schemes for running multiple accounts and/or automating the running of accounts. Or both. Usually this is done in conjunction with the transactional kind of userscript. These "drones" get bought and sold on obscure off-game exchange platforms that few normal humans have ever heard of, with bizarre and scary names like "reddit" and "discord".


Indeed, it all sounded very Dark Webby to us!! If you're having trouble even imagining this level of corruption, let us paint a picture for you...

Let's say -- solely for the sake of argument -- that somebody set up a militia in-game called something ridiculously obvious, like "For Sale". Then started generating new "citizens" every few days, running them as soldiers in this militia, but never having them join a party, or even having a real name, just names like "citzen31412". And they used one of those naughty botty schemes to make sure the eRep algo's didn't detect them as multies. And then they sold them like little toy soldiers to whoever wanted to maybe enhance their "bot army", or maybe to just "trade up" to a stronger account.

Along with violating the TOS, which ofc no one would ever do since the punishments are so severe, that would just be silly, right? I mean... people do have real lives, LOL, no? Yeah, but this is -- according to our "made" contacts in the rough-and-tumble world of eRepublik "API's" (don't ask what that means, it's super-secret, if we told you then we'd have to "ping" you) -- this is exactly the kind of thing that goes on every e-day right under our e-noses!





OK. Hold onto your e-pants, cuz. Next we'll pose an even more absurd scenario. This may seem like science fiction to you, something like that crazy-but-all-too-real 1969 film classic, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, when Kurt Russell's brain ackshually got fused into a computer due to an electrical short!

Yes. But. Believe It Or Not! We're told that there are rare cases of players actually attempting this kind of thing.


So here it is... Can you imagine the crazy mad skilz that would be needed to set up multiple session hosts on a widely-available cloud platform like, say, AWS or Digital Ocean, each with a different IP, then running a eRepublik "character" on each one of them? Kerr--raazy, right?

And doing that just to avoid the eRepublik algorithms that catch people running multiple accounts from the same IP? I mean, Jeez Lou-eeze! Heck, doing something like that would set a fella back, I dunno, literally a few dollars every single month!

Furthermore, that kind of super-hack could only be accomplished by someone who knows enough about wildly complicated software systems like deploying a Docker container or configuring an Nginx web server. And it would take them like, literally, literally, like several minutes to set up!! Yikes! In this busy, busy world? When we're all rushing about to-and-fro, hither-and-yon constantly, who has that kind of time??? Gosh.

And who would have BOTH that kind of money and such mad-crazy hacker skillz? I mean... really... wu-u-u-u-ut? Wow! Someone'd have to either be bored out of their mind. Or hopelessly ego-damaged. Or maybe bizarrely-motivated in some obscure ethno-nationalistically-revenge-y kinda way, maybe, if "winning" a game as dumb as eRepublik meant putting that much effort into it. Ya filming? Cuh-raaaazy stuff!




And yet. We're told. It happens.


Exclusive!! An ackshual photo of an ackshual evil hacker in real life, hacking eRepublik. Be-cuz they're evil!!




The admin wigs have recently declared jihad against "bots", especially the naughty ones. Their hope, it seems, is to return to the "good ol' days" of eRepublik, when nobody ever cheated, all the game play was honorable, and there was an even playing field between rich and poor, and between geeks and muggles.

As implied at the start, tho', the past was once the future and the future will become the past. History does not repeat itself; it eats itself. The future is difficult to predict, as is the past. And, as we have all learned in the past 17 years or so, unforeseen technological inventions can completely upset the most careful predictions.

The challenge before us is not to return to an idyllic past, which may or may not have ever existed, even if we retroactively re-imagine it. It is to ask ourselves three pertinent questions about the future of eRepublik...




One. What is possible?
Two. What is likely to happen?
Three. What is desirable to have happen?


Which leads us to...


The first question is a scientific one. Like with any scientific undertaking, if you think you have the complete answer to that question, then you're doing it wrong. The second is an engineering question. What are the causal factors that will choose the future that does happen from the ensemble of possible futures? And the third is about ethics, morals, value judgements -- however you like to say it.

All three questions matter. And they are inter-related. Coming up with a good answer requires having a vision of the future and not simply a linear extrapolation from, or worse, a rose-colored looking-glass into, the past.

Radio Free Dixie would like to propose a vision that is both revolutionary and unexpected... Instead of banning, fighting, forbidding, restricting, and putting boundaries around "bots", do just the opposite.


Make bots mandatory. Do away with e-humans. Let bots run the game.



Let's consider this carefully. There are MANY advantages to letting the bots take over everything...

- Deploying virtual session hosts, automated software routines, lambda functions and so on is far cheaper than it was just a few years ago. And getting more so.

- Software Entities (a nicer, cozier name for "bots") are far, far, far faster at playing eRepublik than e-humans.

- Software Entities are much more accurate and precise than messy blood-and-bone wet-ware primates.

- The multitude of control points and inane minutia needed to "succeed" in eRepublik would be handled much better by computers.

- Software does not get bored. This gives "bots" a huge advantage over e-human players.

- Software Entities can handle a lot of bandwidth, like checking all markets before buying crap and whatnot. To them, scanning through whatever it is -- seventy-some-odd -- "country's" markets and battlefields is trivial. Another huge advantage.

- When Admin changes the rules for the umpteenth zillion time, just tweak the "bot" programs. No more learning and unlearning. No more whining and complaining about "upcoming features" than never come and aren't really features.

- Software Entities don't (yet, anyway) have feelings, opinions, hangovers, and so on. In the hostile environment of eRepublik, especially in the big "Drama Republiks" like the e-USA, the unhealthy conflicts will be avoided and they can focus on the "real" conflicts between "nations".

- No need to offer incentives, rewards, and all that junk. Just fight, fight, fight. Work, work, work. Rotate elite players in and out of fake "leadership" roles without any silly "opposition".

- The software can be plugged right into Mom and Dad's VISA card too!


On the other hand, what are the advantages of keeping the e-humans in charge of button-pushing?

What?

Writing articles?

Heh! Right! So you've never heard of Artificial Intelligence? Trust me. Software Entities can already write better articles than the majority of e-human players -- and that's only going to get better and better.










Resistance is Futile.