Procedural universes seemed to see a real resurgence from around 2014, with e.g. Elite Dangerous, No Man’s Sky, and a quite a few others that have popped up since.
I love a beautiful procedural world, but I think things will get more interesting when games appear with procedural plot structures that are cohesive and reactive.
Then multiplayer versions will appear that weave all player actions into the plot, and those games will suck people in and never let go.
Artificial storytelling has some promising directions for games and there may be some reasons to think that this can have benefit value aligned AI research.
we argue that the traditional goal of AI in games—to win the game—is not the only, nor the most interesting goal. An alternative goal for game AI is to make the human player’s play experience “better.”
This calls to mind someone’s mod to a Total War game to improve the AI, where a user complained that Portugal had invaded Ireland to seize some territory for itself, instead of leaving it there for England to eventually take. “But if the AI doesn’t do that,” the modder asked, “how is it going to win?”
Dwarf Fortress is a great example, of the “The AI only has to win once” variety.
It largely determines which games I play, and for those I want to play which don’t adhere to my preferred rules, I modify until they do. (It’s much less satisfying than when the game is designed for it, granted.)
I don’t know if I’d characterise Dwarf Fortress as a game where “the AI tries as hard as it can to beat me”. As far as I understand, the AI for mobs (and dwarves) in the game is pretty rudimentary, not much more than pathfinding—it’s just that the rules of the game (= physics of the simulation) are very unforgiving.
It looks to me to be similar to taking a small open boat across the Atlantic—can be done, but any mistake or just bad luck can have dire consequences. And yet this is not the case when something tries to beat you, there is no malicious agent involved.
What other games you play that you think offer further examples?
Procedural universes seemed to see a real resurgence from around 2014, with e.g. Elite Dangerous, No Man’s Sky, and a quite a few others that have popped up since.
I love a beautiful procedural world, but I think things will get more interesting when games appear with procedural plot structures that are cohesive and reactive.
Then multiplayer versions will appear that weave all player actions into the plot, and those games will suck people in and never let go.
Artificial storytelling has some promising directions for games and there may be some reasons to think that this can have benefit value aligned AI research.
-- Beyond Adversarial: The Case for Game AI as Storytelling
Also Storytelling may be the secret to creating ethical artificial intelligence but alas storytelling is hard.
That’s just not true. The traditional goal of AI in games is to lose in an interesting way after forcing the player to spend some effort.
This calls to mind someone’s mod to a Total War game to improve the AI, where a user complained that Portugal had invaded Ireland to seize some territory for itself, instead of leaving it there for England to eventually take. “But if the AI doesn’t do that,” the modder asked, “how is it going to win?”
I prefer different rules. The AI tries as hard as it can to beat me while I have an unfair advantage.
Sort of the reverse of the typical situation.
In which situation does this preference come into play?
Dwarf Fortress is a great example, of the “The AI only has to win once” variety.
It largely determines which games I play, and for those I want to play which don’t adhere to my preferred rules, I modify until they do. (It’s much less satisfying than when the game is designed for it, granted.)
I don’t know if I’d characterise Dwarf Fortress as a game where “the AI tries as hard as it can to beat me”. As far as I understand, the AI for mobs (and dwarves) in the game is pretty rudimentary, not much more than pathfinding—it’s just that the rules of the game (= physics of the simulation) are very unforgiving.
It looks to me to be similar to taking a small open boat across the Atlantic—can be done, but any mistake or just bad luck can have dire consequences. And yet this is not the case when something tries to beat you, there is no malicious agent involved.
What other games you play that you think offer further examples?