Have you ever experienced the fear of being dominated by robot players?
Robots are often seen as villains, exploiting loopholes in systems designed for humans. But is that the whole story?
In fact, robots are unsung heroes in games, working behind the scenes to make systems more vibrant and engaging. They may not be traditional heroes, more like targets or cannon fodder, but their contributions are significant and should not be overlooked. And most importantly, when combined with the permissionless deployment and data availability of blockchain, they become even more interesting.
Essentially, robots are just process automation. The tasks they handle could theoretically be done by humans themselves, but robots surpass humans in terms of scale and efficiency. Most robots are not autonomous agents, they are scripts that respond to specific inputs and adapt to changes in status or data feeds. They are tools: whether they are good or bad depends on who uses them.
Take Googlebot, for example. This ubiquitous web crawler quietly indexes the internet and maintains the relevance of our search results. Similarly, spam filters that scan emails or arbitrage algorithms that keep financial markets efficient are rarely criticized.
In games, robots have a much stronger presence than most people realize. For example, they can provide services within the game. Non-player characters (NPCs) in single-player games are essentially robots. Whether they are quest givers, enemies, or allies, they enrich the game world and provide interactive content for players. Think of games like “The Legend of Zelda” or “Dark Souls” – without robots, these immersive worlds would feel hollow.
Robots can also masquerade as humans, filling empty slots in lobbies during matchmaking to ensure quick game starts. Furthermore, they can serve as companions for less skilled players. For example, in Fortnite, a significant portion of players in any given match are robots placed there to balance the difficulty and ensure you have fun defeating opponents.
However, when robots transition from guides to direct competitors against human players, they cross a line. The problem is not the robots themselves, but their operating environment. Firstly, they cannot fully exploit the unique factors that differentiate humans, such as speed and endurance. They can react to changes in game states within milliseconds and have endless energy without the need for sleep. Secondly, they compete with humans for some form of scarce rewards. No one complains about slow-reacting training bots in Fortnite or highly efficient Googlebot, as they simply perform a rather mundane task for our benefit. It is the combination of these two characteristics that robs us of our “fun”.
Blockchain Robots
In the blockchain ecosystem, MEV robots (Maximal Extractable Value robots) have emerged. These robots operate in competitive DeFi systems, leveraging their ability to read the mempool and execute transactions faster than humans to profit.
But the problem is: MEV robots are not breaking any rules. They exist precisely because they comply with the rules: the scarcity of block space, the visibility of mempool transactions, and the prioritization of transactions through gas fees. They are simply playing the game by the rules. When robots suddenly swoop in and seize opportunities that humans desire, people may feel cheated. However, robots are just utilizing the existing system more efficiently. This situation is no different from factory workers feeling replaced by robots on assembly lines. Robots are better suited for the task – they are faster and more consistent.
If we look at the core mechanisms, the tension between humans and robots in games becomes clear. Games are built around a cycle of objectives, challenges, and rewards, known as the OCR loop in game design terminology. Players need to complete a task, overcome challenges, and receive meaningful rewards. Often, players are more focused on the rewards themselves – experience points, coins, loot – rather than the challenges. But true enjoyment comes from overcoming challenges, even if it doesn’t feel like it at the time.
Depending on how challenges and player abilities are structured, robots can easily bypass the challenges and directly obtain rewards. This creates a conflict with human players who put in effort to complete game challenges. For example, in MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games), there are gold farming bots that perform repetitive tasks to collect in-game currency that can be sold to other players. While this doesn’t directly harm other players, it disrupts the game’s economic mechanics and bypasses the expected game loop, which is a problem for game developers.
Robots as Game Content
However, the real missed opportunity here is that robots, especially in blockchain games, can become content themselves. By carefully considering how we design games, we can transform robots from exploiters to targets: players can compete with robots for resources, compete with them, or even collaborate with them in novel and creative ways. The issue is not that robots are efficient, but rather that the systems they operate in have not yet adapted to integrate them as part of the fun.
Let’s imagine a game similar to an MMO, where resources are concentrated in certain areas and can be converted into items that can be used to attack other entities (players). This is a very common system, seen in various forms (fantasy heroes, pirates, spaceships), with varying degrees of complexity. My point is, if this system has some basic rules to constrain and limit robots, they can become content in the game. Ultimately, they are subject to the same rules as human players, so the challenge lies in creating rules that leave space for interesting automation. In that sense, here are some basic principles I believe in:
Vulnerability and Ownership: When the wallet (or entity) reaches zero life points, items in the wallet are lost. This means that any robot can become a target and be robbed. Carrying rewards can make them a valuable challenge.
Geographical Restriction: The wallet (or entity) will be bound to a location and can only interact with elements in adjacent locations. This brings significant limitations, forcing robots to move around to interact with different game elements.
Inventory Limitation: The wallet (or entity) has restrictions on the assets it can carry. This also limits the impact robots can generate, and when combined with geographical restrictions, it forces robots to make choices.
Energy Consumption: The wallet (or entity) must spend energy to perform actions. This is another condition for creating choices, most importantly, it can change the priority of robots. When fuel is depleted, it becomes a higher priority than the robot’s original goal, forcing it to change behavior.
This is not a perfect game formula that solves all robot problems and transforms them into a new type of User-Generated Content (UGC). These are just some ideas around rules that constrain the overwhelming advantage of robots and turn them into another way to play the game. Instead of designing rules that aim to weaken or eliminate robots, we should focus on creating systems that encourage human players to interact with robots – be it through combat, trading, or cooperation.
For the eternal question of “why develop games on the blockchain?”, robots can become a defining feature of the game, a natural part of the game world that increases complexity, challenge, and appeal. They may not be traditional heroes, but they can still play an important role in making games more vibrant and appealing to human players.
Ultimately, robots are creations of ours. They can be invisible adversaries, exploiting loopholes and frustrating human players, but they can also be integrated into game systems, providing content and creating new interactions. Especially in blockchain games, this shift could transform robots from troublemakers into powerful tools for innovation and entertainment.
