Quote:
Originally Posted by Daman  The day a social solution is made - ie outlawing of landbots (and while we're at it - camping bots, spam bots, or how about ALL bots) - I will definitely party though. It might not stop bots from popping up, but at least it gives a signal. |
I have a problem with social solutions in something the size of
SL. Social solutions need enforcement by humans and we know well that it's not scalable. Any attempt at a social solution will eventually fall by the wayside the way so many LL policies did. Same thing would happen even if we have a volunteer group doing it, sooner or later they get tired.
Arbitration solutions will not work because the burden of proof is on the accuser, who in this case will have no proof whatsoever.
In systems the size of MMOs, as I told my friend who works in the biggest MMO company in my country, that the true solutions to in-game problems are:
1. Make it impossible to commit the infraction.
2. Remove the reason the infractions get committed. That is, make it not worth the "criminal's" time to do the deed.
LL's move in countering push abuse was to make the abuse impossible. Land owners can simply turn off alien pushes on their land.
Actually LL already supplied the best technical solution I can think of for preventing landbot steals: the sales interface. If you set all the stuff properly a landbot CAN'T steal the land.
Unfortunately that power is in the hands of the seller and some sellers despite all warnings do not listen, do not take heed, and go about with an unsecure transaction. Knowing about the existence of landbots is NOT a prerequisite to being careful. Being careful is a
decision you can make in the absence of that knowledge. Let's put it this way, even if I did not know that there were landbots, I wouldn't lose land to them. If I wanted to sell the land ultra cheap to a friend, I WOULD have used the "sell to" option.
I do not see how we can use approach #2.
I am very much for educating newbies to these things, however we all know that the huge majority of newbies would rather skip tutorials and such. THEY become the next victims.