I’ve come across this criticism while talking about my Triggerbot app with seasoned trigger DJs, and there’s a mixed opinion. It turns out that many trigger DJs spend quite a lot of time prepping for their presentation, including figuring out where in the current music trigger they should drop the next trigger. This takes millisecond ear-hand-eye coordination, to avoid gaps and overlaps in the music, while calling out other visual triggers in the process. It’s a labor of love, to be sure, but it’s still quite laborious.
By comparison, using Triggerbot is easy enough that a newbie could use it. Triggerbot has Internet access to the OGG files that are used in each trigger music product, and it saves the length of each music segment. You need to include a lag factor of about 20ms or so to call the trigger in IMVU so it starts playing before the current trigger ends. And in Triggerbot, you can adjust this lag factor to account for your own computer and Internet lag. As a result, you can have a smoother song playing experience, even with little knowledge of which trigger song you’re playing.
In addition, Triggerless Triggerbot adds some conveniences that can enhance your playing. You can add additional triggers to kick off visual effects. If you have a tune broken into 2 pieces, Triggerbot makes it easy to transition from part 1 to part 2. And you can actually talk in chat while the trigger is playing, something that’s hard to do when you’re triggering tunes by hand.
But that still doesn’t answer the question of whether Triggerbot is cheating. Triggerbots have been around a long time for video games. When you’re battling someone else online in a first-person shooter, you’re disadvantaging your opponents by having a power they lack. It’s like asking Deep Blue (the reigning chess champion, above humans) what your next chess move should be. It’s unfair because it gives you power that your opponent lacks, and that’s why it’s frowned upon by ethical gamers.
But who is your opponent in IMVU? IMVU is a mostly cooperative game. When you’re DJ’ing, you’re putting your best foot forward for the audience. I suppose if there were a DJ competition it would be unethical to use Triggerbot against manual trigger opponents. But I’ve never seen a trigger DJ competition. 99% of the time, it’s just a group of people playing music for each other. I think it’s perfectly ethical to use Triggerbot during non-competitive get-togethers, just to improve the experience for everybody attending. Everybody wins, and nobody loses.
If you’re interested in Triggerless Triggerbot, you can find more information here: https://triggerless.com/triggerbot/.
If you disagree with my opinion, feel free to state so in the comment section.
