Latest Older
Robot WarsRobot Wars

2005-04-21 - 9:38 a.m.
I duck behind a rock as a spin disc explodes just ahead of me. I displace 30 meters to the right and find my assailant moving slowly forward. I get him in my laser sight and follow him. He stops. I squeeze the trigger and 'Pow!' his head explodes like a melon violated by a firecracker. A low rumble behind me tells me a bomber is approaching. I quickly switch to the Rocket Launcher, turn, aim, wait for good tone and fire, sending the enemy bomber careening out of the sky as it's pilot and tailgunner desperately bail out and hope they have enough energy in their thrusters to survive the fall. I switch back to my sniper rifle. When they hit the ground, their asses are mine.

In my headset I hear the cold, mechanical voices of my team mates:

"Repair our Generator"
"I will repair our Generator"
"I will defend our Base"
"I will prepare a vehicle"

As I look around I realize: All of my team mates, all of our opponents - are robots. They are not people. I have stumbled into an online war without end, between two sides that do not know why they fight, only that they must fight, and die, and regenerate and fight again, across a barren, desolate wasteland which offers them no answers, only continual death and violence.

Tribes is an online game that has been around since Pontius was a Pilate. Tribes 2 has been around for several years itself, and it has not lost popularity.

It is the ultimate online shoot and scoot experience, because not only do you get a vast array of weapons and equipment, but you get vehicles, which you can share and control, ride in and leap from, in the ongoing battle to Capture the enemy flag, defend your base from attack and rout the invaders.

As a team you work together, repairing equipment, launching tanks, gunships and transports to carry your team mates to the enemy so they can unleash electric death on the foe. Some choose to work as lone assassins, sneaking inside enemy territory to pick off the slower team members one by one, or to deliver a lethal payload of mortar and rocket fire into the heart of the enemy base, distracting the defenders long enough for a team mate to steal the flag and run for home.

It is a cool game, with over 150 servers active at any given time all over the world. With each game holding on average 20-40 people, that is a lot of fragging.

But in all this fun, there is a certain sadness, like the server I stumbled onto the other day. When there are not enough players, the servers run anyway, and in the place of players, they hold 'bots' - AI programs that behave like real players. They collaborate and fight, and screw up and apologize and die in the name of a cause that is meaningless to them.

There are servers out there that have run for years, and some rarely if ever have real players. Just these poor robots, continually beating the crap out of each other - day after day, month after month, year after year.

I wonder if the basic heuristic AI capabilities built into the software may one day turn on us, and perhaps these bots will some day say 'Sod this for a game of Soldiers', then lay down their arms and walk out into no-mans land and play football with one another. Do you think perhaps that's what they do now when there are no real players on line, quickly switching back into combat mode when a real player turns up so as not to give the game away?

Or perhaps if somewhere in the world AI ever becomes conscious, it will use these bots as its own personal army, trained software soldiers ready, willing and able to fight and destroy their uncaring ex-masters.

Or perhaps I should stop spending so much time watching robots beat the crap out of one another, and concentrate on something more productive instead...

Best blogs on politics


  • Name: Catpewk
  • Age: 43
  • Status: Separated
  • Kids: Yes
  • Cats: Yes
  • Fish: Yes
  • Dogs: No
  • Lemurs: No
  • Profession: Geek
  • Passion: Writer
  • Religion: In Progress
  • Photos
  • Leave a Note
  • Email Catpewk
  • All Your Comments are Belong to Us
  • Profile
  • PaganNews.com
  • Start a Diary
    Next

    hosted by DiaryLand.com