Opinion - AI is the future of gaming.

We’ve seen an explosion of AI in the last year or so, from chatGPT to various ai art and chatbot programs, I think the next big step will be heavy AI integration into gaming. While the technology isn’t quite there yet, with the speed in which it is advancing, I have no doubt that soon we’ll be seeing full modern AI integration into gaming. And I’m not talking about things like just combat ai and pathfinders, but using AI to create real living, breathing, reactive and dynamic worlds.

Imagine if you will. An open world game, full of factions and creatures and people. Each individual npc having their own personality, whether that be important NPCs like faction leaders with custom made personalities and traits to random people walking about with dynamically generated personalities that come into play the moment you try talking to them.

Imagine a cyberpunk dystopia, where you start off as a bum on the streets literally begging passersby for a few credits, maybe making a shiv and killing some rich man who was especially rude to you, which gets noticed by a nearby gang who offer you a job with them at the bottom of their totem pole but a possition nonetheless, you make friends, make enemies, climb the ranks through convincing others to back you and taking out or otherwise removing those that don’t, prove yourself to the boss, challenge the boss for supremacy, win, reform the gang into a mercenary company, get a contract with a megacorporation based in the city, after proving your ruthless effectiveness negotiate a more favourable contract and a possition on the company board with a private army at your beck and call, manipulate, threaten and kill your way into running the company etc… with this being only one of infinite paths your story can take. Perhaps you’ll become a renowned underworld assassin, maybe you’ll become a cop and root out corruption in the department while bringing criminals to justice and much much more, all in a world that the AI can change and manipulate to react to your choices and powers of persuasion, with no charisma stat’s to think of, instead relying on your own ability to talk to and convince the ai to do what you want to do.

While such a game where this is truly possible isn’t a possibility yet, I think that few can really deny that with how fast AI technology is advancing and the things game devs can already do with integrating programs like chatgpt into their games, such achievements are likely not too far off. I think we’ll start seeing things like this in about 5 years.

kromem,

You are correct. Particularly set up for success here is Microsoft who has both access to the SotA model for the foreseeable future and a number of studios including one of the earliest to attempt procedurally generated narrative and game design, and whose latest title is essentially entirely built around that.

You’ll very likely be seeing cloud based AI mods for Starfield, potentially even an official one locked to a GamePass subscription (offsetting non-cached generation costs). This will work particularly well for that title over its inevitable next decade of support because of the way it streams assets into the game world.

Part of the issue is that the field is moving so fast that any commitment to supporting AI at the beginning of a 5-year development cycle is going to be obsolete by the time of launch.

As such, you may see the best uses of it over the next five years in mod support after launch over native support in the core title.

BURN,

Rather than that I’m more thinking we’ll see generative AI to increase scale and decrease Dev time more than anything else. AI will be able to generate the base levels and devs can populate and add to those environments.

magic_lobster_party,

I can imagine it being used in non gameplay affecting ways first. For example, imagine a GTA like game, where a radio station comments on a crime you just did. “Reports of a person shooting down a helicopter at Main Street is escaping to downtown”.

Or enemy AI giving directions to each other. “He’s taking cover behind the sofa! Let’s flank him! Shoot! He’s escaping through the window! After him!”

Or just NPCs rambling random nonsense about their lives.

These situations are easiest to deal with, because if the AI does something wrong, it’s not the entire world. You’re not going to fail the quest or something. But if they do it well, it will significantly increase the player immersion. NPCs are no longer empty shells. They’re really reacting to the world with their own thoughts.

rustyriffs,

Interesting thoughts. I’ve never liked computer generated levels that are in roguelikes and such. I could imagine AI generated levels and worlds would be quite different though.

BitSound,

You got pretty downvoted here, but I think we’ll see this happen within a few years. It already exists in a basic form with projects like AI Dungeon. It’s “just” a matter of marrying that to some nice graphics.

Rainmanslim,

People downvote it I think because they hate the idea of it, but know that it’s happening

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