A zero-player game is a game that has no sentient players.
In computer games, the term refers to programs that use artificial intelligence rather than human players.[1]
Conway's Game of Life, a cellular automaton devised in 1970 by the British mathematician John Horton Conway, is considered a zero-player game because its evolution is determined by its initial state, requiring no further input from humans.[2][3] In addition, Some fighting and real-time strategy games can be put into zero-player mode by pitting one AI against another.
A World of Warcraft bot named Glider is able to "play" the game in the stead of a real player, rendering parts of the game where only a single player is involved as zero-player. In 2006, Blizzard Entertainment filed a federal lawsuit against the developers, claiming the bot violated their Terms of Service.[4]