Hello Everybody:
Thought folks might want to weigh in with an opinion for the October
Game AI Poll. This month's poll asks what the
purpose of game AI is? Is it to provide a good opponent who can beat the
player, or just to amuse the player between online sessions? Does it even have
a real purpose?
Head for the link above or below to register your opinion, and have a Happy
Hallow's Eve!
Ferretman
ferretman@gameai.com
www.gameai.com
From the High Mountains of Colorado
Edited by - Ferretman on October 3, 2001 12:48:34 AM
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October Game AI Poll
The purpose of Game AI *should be* to provide entertainment to the player.
The emergence of online gaming is probably a good thing because it will hopefully make AI coders focus on different aspects they had neglected before. For instance, the ability of AI agents to *cooperate* with the players.
And with the possibly unreachable level of human players, the coders will hopefully focus on something else than "beating" the player. A more friendly AI, as some posted on your poll.
Ah well, as usual, I preach for my own church
Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !
The emergence of online gaming is probably a good thing because it will hopefully make AI coders focus on different aspects they had neglected before. For instance, the ability of AI agents to *cooperate* with the players.
And with the possibly unreachable level of human players, the coders will hopefully focus on something else than "beating" the player. A more friendly AI, as some posted on your poll.
Ah well, as usual, I preach for my own church
Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !
quote: Original post by ahw
The purpose of Game AI *should be* to provide entertainment to the player.
The emergence of online gaming is probably a good thing because it will hopefully make AI coders focus on different aspects they had neglected before. For instance, the ability of AI agents to *cooperate* with the players.
And with the possibly unreachable level of human players, the coders will hopefully focus on something else than "beating" the player. A more friendly AI, as some posted on your poll.
Ah well, as usual, I preach for my own church
Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !
The purpose of game AI, at least in my opinion, is to create an imersive environment. Some game AI does not mimic a normal human reaction to a specific situation; some bots will attack you irrespective of risks to themselves, often without reward. I know that this is often attributed to ''poor AI'', bot a bot can still be instructed to behave that way none-the-less. Bots are also designed, in some cases, to act specifically in a way that you would not expect, adding the element of uncertainty.
If you knew exactly how a bot were to act it would not exactly be intelligent, would it?
Regards,
Mathematix.
I would say, it depends of the type of game the AI will work.
Lets say i make a chess game, the AI should try to beat me at all time instead of amuse the player.
So in this case i think the poll is a little diffecoult to answer, because it would depend of the style of the game
Lets say i make a chess game, the AI should try to beat me at all time instead of amuse the player.
So in this case i think the poll is a little diffecoult to answer, because it would depend of the style of the game
I see AI more as a real-time storywriter... It has to keep the player busy. In an RPG, this isn''t just attacking with monsters, but also "thinking up" quests, etc. etc.
Author
quote: Original post by Ronin_54
I see AI more as a real-time storywriter... It has to keep the player busy. In an RPG, this isn''t just attacking with monsters, but also "thinking up" quests, etc. etc.
Good point...I should add that next time I run this poll. I''m already a little bit surprised by the discussion it has sparked, honestly....
Ferretman
ferretman@gameai.com
www.gameai.com
From the High Mountains of Colorado
Author
quote: Original post by ahw
The purpose of Game AI *should be* to provide entertainment to the player.
The emergence of online gaming is probably a good thing because it will hopefully make AI coders focus on different aspects they had neglected before. For instance, the ability of AI agents to *cooperate* with the players.
And with the possibly unreachable level of human players, the coders will hopefully focus on something else than "beating" the player. A more friendly AI, as some posted on your poll.
Ah well, as usual, I preach for my own church
Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !
A very good point, one that I didn''t include in the poll as an option specifically. Companion AI is an important aspect of game AI and one often overlooked; you as the player should be able to know that your companions are acting reliably , whether they''re wingmen helping you or the town idiot giving you bad advice.
Ferretman
ferretman@gameai.com
www.gameai.com
From the High Mountains of Colorado
I personally think that the 'purpose' of game AI is to provide the 'entertainment' that the player cannot otherwise generate for themselves (eg by exploration of a game world, solving a puzzle, following a storyline, etc). Playing games is about being entertained, whether this means (for you) being challenged, amused, kept busy, saddened, etc., etc. Everybodies belief about what is 'entertaining' and what is not is different, but the point of playing games (or going to the movies, or watching television, or reading a book) is to be entertained (and perhaps also to learn something, although some of us nuts would call that entertainment too!).
IMHO entertainment comes from immersion in a game. Part of what draws me in is the look and feel of the game (the user interface, the representation of the world, the things I can do in it and (sometimes) the story that takes place in that world). The rest generally comes from the game AI (how the story is put into practice and how the game tries to interact with me). I have found many games that I really enjoyed for the first few hours and then became quickly bored and irritated by them because the game AI could not contribute to the immersion. It kept 'pushing me back to reality' so to speak. The most obvious example that comes to mind is the scripted AI in many RTS games.
So, to summarise, I think that the purpose of game AI is to maintain the immersion in (and hence entertainment of) the game. How this is achieved is of course, totally dependant on the game genre.
Cheers,
Timkin
Edited by - Timkin on October 7, 2001 12:45:46 AM
IMHO entertainment comes from immersion in a game. Part of what draws me in is the look and feel of the game (the user interface, the representation of the world, the things I can do in it and (sometimes) the story that takes place in that world). The rest generally comes from the game AI (how the story is put into practice and how the game tries to interact with me). I have found many games that I really enjoyed for the first few hours and then became quickly bored and irritated by them because the game AI could not contribute to the immersion. It kept 'pushing me back to reality' so to speak. The most obvious example that comes to mind is the scripted AI in many RTS games.
So, to summarise, I think that the purpose of game AI is to maintain the immersion in (and hence entertainment of) the game. How this is achieved is of course, totally dependant on the game genre.
Cheers,
Timkin
Edited by - Timkin on October 7, 2001 12:45:46 AM
You really have to differentiate between "additional" AI (like NPC AI or "storywriter" AI) and "peer" AI - like opponents in strategy games.
Generally, I think that NPC AI needs to be mainly entertaining, while peer AI needs to mimic a human player as closely as possible, for that will make it both entertaining and challengine at the same time.
I really dislike it when an AI opponent is obviously a dumb, programmed player - the best (or worst) example of this type of AI I can think of is the one in Red Alert.
AI in other realtime strategy games is often a lot better, but it never takes long until you recognize patterns in the opponent''s behaviour that are clearly non-human, and this reduces the immersion.
cu,
Prefect
One line of sourcecode says more than a thousand words.
Generally, I think that NPC AI needs to be mainly entertaining, while peer AI needs to mimic a human player as closely as possible, for that will make it both entertaining and challengine at the same time.
I really dislike it when an AI opponent is obviously a dumb, programmed player - the best (or worst) example of this type of AI I can think of is the one in Red Alert.
AI in other realtime strategy games is often a lot better, but it never takes long until you recognize patterns in the opponent''s behaviour that are clearly non-human, and this reduces the immersion.
cu,
Prefect
One line of sourcecode says more than a thousand words.
This topic is closed to new replies.
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