Found the following links over at deeje's blog
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2002/04/11.10.shtml
http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2002/01/11/jabber_bots.html

this is actually /very/ interesting, esp w/ the rise of "mobile command lines" via ever more powerful pdas/cellphones/convergence devices

bots have developed in asheon's call, the massively multiplayer online game i occasionally frequent

in ac, the bots facilitate specific game play actions (transportation and "buffing") through the same query-response cmdline interface

in the case of buffing, in game money is used to pay for the serivce (tipping in optional for trans bots) and accounts can be established w/ balances persisted across in game sessions

the bots are all built off a common base class (written by a more experienced developer than the ones that script the bots) called the zycrabot

zycra has also created zycranet, a listing of all currently active bots, the service(s) they offer, etc

even more interesting... because there's almost always a bot active & because they filter all text they receive, they also interact with the environment

some are witty and respond with "STOP THEIF!" any time they see the word "thief" typed (why thievery is such a big problem in a virtual world will be the topic of another blog...)

more powerful yet, and not mentioned in either article... the bots also keep track of globally broadcast messages, persist them, and will report the last time X was heard

other command lines have also been merged into the ac chat/emote/cmd line, including irc & winamp

interesting possibilities