Legitimate/Novel Uses for Bots?

First of all, I KNOW there are some people who think ANY use of bots is evil, evil, evil... and I doubt will ever think otherwise. I happen to be in the group that thinks some uses of bots are, well, useful... without being a problem. (80 bots sitting on camp chairs to drive up traffic is NOT a use that's problem-free, obviously, and isn't the sort of thing that I'd condone.)

That started me thinking about what WOULD be legitimate, useful, or novel uses for bots.

* Bots who can add someone to a group right away? Useful, and can't be done (directly) via script.

* Models for stores? Useful and legitimate. (You can't properly showcase clothing items on a mannequin made of prims, despite some very ingenious attempts.)

[I can hear people say: "Just hire real avatars/people!" There are problems with that; you have no control if they'll fulfill their agreement or not, you have to give them copies of potentially very costly items to model, and what if you need to change/update what's being modeled? If it's a bot, run on a 'thin' client like SLeek, this is no problem. If it's someone you've hired, there are all kinds of complications.]

So what other useful/legitimate applications of bots can you think of?

A potential one did occur to me, which is why I started this thread:

* Animals

What do I mean? Well, we've all seen scripted animals; and since the introduction of sculpties, those animals have gotten more realistic looking. The problem is, though, they still tend to react rather slowly and have other performance issues; and for decent body motion, they usually require at least one script in each body part that will be moving.

Then I started thinking about the excellent and low-priced avatars available in, for example, Avaria Tor (Grendel's Children, etc.). Those look good, come with customized AOs that work very well, and are still cheaper than I really expect. As of yet, without the so-called Puppeteering function (which still hasn't materialized) there's no way to get a bundle of prims to move as smoothly as an avatar using an animation.

So... the thought occurred that it would be possible to use a bot avatar, wearing something like the avatars available in Avaria Tor, to have much more "lifelike" animals roaming your land.

What do you think of this notion?

Do you have any other suggestions?

Constructive comments, please... no "all bots are evil, regardless!" posts, as those are nothing but obvious trolling in this case.

You could attach a house to a bot and live in the house, without having to own land or pay rent. Or you could set up a club (attaching it to the bot), and invite 20 other bots over for a party.

I've seen that suggestion before, but since all attachments are phantom, I don't think that would work too well. :/

I use mine to play instruments (piano and violin).

As for modeling clothes there is a free try-on script in the script library, though from some discussions of it, there may be some security issues. However, if hiring avi's to model much of that could be minimized if the try-ons where limited to the employee.

About the use of bots to actualize more lifelike movements sounds like a neat idea though I am not familiar with bots so can't be of any help there. Needed to post here so to be alerted to any idea's you might garner by your query .

I want to get nine of them and train them to play baseball. Then I want to win the SL Grid Series with them. Either that or I want to train them to carry me around on a litter and feed me grapes while they fan me with palm fronds.

Too bad there are no SL banks. I could train them to rob banks for me. Then I'd be RICH!! Maybe I can get them to pull off Nigerian 411 scams in newbie welcome areas.

Hello...I am Prime Ministerbot of Nigerian Sim in SL. I recently came across an accounting error of 400 Billion Lindens and I will gladly pay you 10 percent if you will send me 10,000L to fix my error. I heard you are a good religious man with accounting skills...

Of course there's legitamate reasons for utilizing bots. However, running one isn't exactly simple or straightforward for the average SL consumer. As a result, its not surprising that there's a lot of myth and fear about their usage in general.

Just like there are LSL functions that can be used for good or evil, bots can be good or evil as well.

This is the price we pay for living in a world that is infinitely™ customizable.

Could provide programmatic access to

* Search
* Profiles
* Map images
* Other map data
* Money balance
* Writing notecards
* IM (can make two-way IM<->web possible)
* Group invites
* Name2key
* Acting/modeling
* Finding those tiny prims you lost
* Cleaning up non-scripted litter because the estate tools are crap
* Prim counting

much more

Gunship Target Practice.

Target practice is something that I've considered; I've also considered arming them with simple weapons so they could shoot back, to get some practice at dodging. In order to prevent them shooting each OTHER (Bot Holocaust!!!) the person using them for practice would have to wear something identifying them as a valid target. Hmmm...

could be awesome to use a small battery of bots as npcs, we could have some pretty cool co'op games humans VS aliens.

Or could use them as quest bots in a themed sim.

Cheap Escorts!!

I know this may seem a bit slow for me but where can I find out more about bots , they're construction and such? I have a great product that could utilize the concept.

once you put on an attachment, can't you just edit it and make it 'physical'?

You know, I have no idea; I've never tried it.

Couldn't that harem you keep being accused of having accomplish this for you and provide witty repartee?

You know, that could be done, using a specialized vehicle. The person on the litter would be the driver, the other four would be the passengers...

I keep thinking bot escorts should work. Something along the lines of ELIZA, so they'll be kind of Rogerian escorts. You can try out my prototypes at any Welcome Center, just wait for the trademark solicitation: "We make sexzi now?"

Empty accusation. I have no such thing. I almost got to borrow a slave for a day once, but the slave got wind of the plan and put her foot down. I guess there are things even a slave won't do - like stooping to hanging around with me.

There's no harem. Maybe that's what I could do with my bots - have my own harem, sort of like Tod's idea, only not exactly escorts. They could sit around and do whatever harems do. Look pretty and eat figs. Rub bottles until genies cone out. Hell, I don't know.

We employed 13 bots for a recent in-world event for a Fortune 500 client.

Each bot was programmed to say predetermined dialog when an avatar came into its proximity.

This was all part of a scavenger hunt kind of event and the bots were outfitted in clothes appropriate to the particular "neighborhood".

Since a very large portion of our client's income derives indirectly from "adult" content, which they call "Blue Content" internally, about a third of our bots in the Red Light District wore blue, fuzzy dots over the naughty bits, much to the delight of the participants.

Only one or two of the participants from our client had even been in Second Life before creating their avatars right before the event.

Most probably never knew the bots were bots, but they sure had a great time.

You could, but I don't think it would do anything. After all, attachments are always phantom, even if the prims aren't actually set phantom, so they clearly ignore at least some of the prim settings.

People are so funny. I have a little robot avatar - almost a tiny, but not really cuddly. People often come right up and talk to me when I'm trying to act like a machine.

But have a human shaped avatar that acts like a robot and everyone's creeped out.

I would like to see some Eliza-like chat functionality in a robot avatar. That could be amusing for ten minutes or so:

Me: How are you doing today?
Robot: Who told you I was doing today?
Me: No one. It's just a figure of speech.
Robot: You have a very nice figure of speech.
Me. Thank you. I'll take compliments wherever I can get them.
Robot: You cannot have my compliment. I like opera and science fiction too.

On second thought, those things are annoying as hell. Maybe a chatterbot security system? Annoy your intruders into leaving.

Hobots

Perhaps an army of bots can be put to the task of sending cease and desist letters to Second Life fan sites.

OR..... SLutBots?

Man! They'd be perfect for the Basement Dweller with a fear of intimacy with a real person, even online!