Bad Bots - Final

As we wrap up this series on bad bot behavior, the nit-pickers have complained mightily.  After all, they state, Albert writes Library and he does not program the bot to cheat, short-change or otherwise rip off the players, or his customers, us bot owners.  One could counter that we have access to a configuration menu and otherwise have full control over bot operations and thus, we could program the bot to behave badly.

But all this misses the point.  All this represents is a symptom of something larger, greed.

What is greed?  The movie Wall Street proclaims that Greed is good.  Yet the Bible tells us that greed is one of the seven deadly sins.  So which is it?  To paraphrase a certain former President, it all depends on what the definition of the word is.

Some people have equated the term profit for greed.  They’ll argue that desiring any more than you consume is greedy and thus selfish. 

But careful study of history and economic systems tell us that the pursuit of profits is what lead the advances of the past 200 years.   Pursuit of profits is what enabled Steve Jobs to create devices that many people would want even though few people even conceived of such devices when the Apple Founder dreamed of them.

One can pursue profits ethically or unethically.  Unethical pursuits of profits have abounded throughout history.  Whether it is misrepresenting the amount of cards in your bot inventory or altering the credits your customer has, being unethical is one trait few people can legitimately justify.  Don’t do it.