bot
bot: n [common on IRC, MUD and among gamers; from `robot'] 1.
An IRC or MUD user who is actually a program. On IRC, typically
the robot provides some useful service. Examples are NickServ,
which tries to prevent random users from adopting nicks already
claimed by others, and MsgServ, which allows one to send
asynchronous messages to be delivered when the recipient signs on.
Also common are `annoybots', such as KissServ, which perform no
useful function except to send cute messages to other people.
Service bots are less common on MUDs; but some others, such as the
`Julia' bot active in 1990-91, have been remarkably impressive
Turing-test experiments, able to pass as human for as long as ten or
fifteen minutes of conversation. 2. An AI-controlled player in a
computer game (especially a first-person shooter such as Quake)
which, unlike ordinary monsters, operates like a human-controlled
player, with access to a player's weapons and abilities. An example
can be found at `http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/'.
Note that bots in both senses were `robots' when the term first
appeared in the early 1990s, but the shortened form is now habitual.
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