Battle Bots and Meaningful Names

One new change will be the introduction of bots - automated players that make random choices, win and lose points, and occupy a place in the standings.

There are currently three bots: Marvin, Hal, and Art U. No bonus points for guessing what inspired each of their names. Marvin always plays the money line; Hal always plays the point spread; and Art U always plays over/under. They bet 1 unit on each game that is available. There will be more bots in the future; I've got an idea for a very annoying one, but I don't want to unleash it on the world yet.

Speaking of names, they all have an underscore at the start and end, like _Marvin_. This is to indicate that they are bots. And it's why Wajerleague.com doesn't allow underscores in usernames; they signify bots. 

The site also doesn't allow numbers in usernames, for three reasons:

1. Names with numbers in them are reserved for a future purpose, which I won't reveal yet.

2. L33t5p33k sucks.

3. It's bad for the narrative. Names should be, well, names - things a real person would call his or herself. In the pre-Wajerleague days, I used to enjoy writing little summaries of the action. It's fun to write "Larry  moved into first place" or "TigersNut made an unfortunate play on Baylor." They're fun to write and read. But I cringed every time I had to write something like "5k1pd00d won 178.4 units." Try processing that in your head. It's confusing. Numbers should represent values, and nothing else.

Because I'm big on narrative. A play-money sports betting web game isn't a novel concept. What is novel - and what surprised me about running this contest in the Daily Stampede days - is the little community that formed. PYU has long had little rivalries, running gags, and other very human experiences - none of which were directed by me. 

If anything, players didn't do what we wanted them to. The idea of "spite bets" never really caught on, even though it was an explicit rule. And, we even made up a convention for spite bets. It was to wager 1.01 units, which looked a bit like "LOL". This had a little success, and also helped in that it expressed its meaning. It was impossible to tell if a small bet meant you were taking a flyer on a longshot, or if you thought the favorite was so bad they might actually lose outright. Or both.