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A Borg-like Artificial Intelligence For Lionhead's New Game
cybaea writes: "The creator of Black & White is experimenting with new work on group minds - but unlike the Borg, the characters in the new game are already descending into bar brawls,
reports ZDNet UK, quoting Richard Evans (famous for the AI engine in Black & White). My favourite quote: '[AI] Characters [in the game] even have the ability to dynamically create their own language, constructing simple sentences on a word by word basis.'"
Looks like they won't be including the manual in pdf format :-P
I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
Jeez, I can't even do that! Next thing you know, your characters will be calling you dirty things in a language you don't even know! Who will be "Intelligent" then?
AI constructs may evolve from things like this, but they'll need a home on the internet, in order to have lifetimes long enough to become really sentient. humans require years to become intellectually complex, from preexisting instructions worked out over millions of years. When these constructs have a semi-stable environment, modification, and competition, it should be just a matter of time....
I mean, a group of minds is not the same thing as a group mind.
Getting into a barfight dosn't seem like something the borg would do.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
A video game modelling the nasty Machiavellian side of human social interaction? No need to wait for Dmitry, when we've already got SissyFight 2000!!
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Come in please.
We really think your technology is great. Your graphics are excellent. Your scalable-terrain engine knocked our socks off. Your physics engine is amazing. Your AI code is already quite remarkable. Your simulation of a believable, detailed fantasy world is outstanding.
But Lionhead, we have a problem.
Black and White just wasn't fun to play.
Once we were done being amazed at all the features and gasping at the technology - the game just wasn't very good. It didn't engage. We weren't motivated to continue. It just got boring. Sorry - no-one wanted it to be great more than us, but in the final analysis it just wasn't.
You guys are great. You plainly love what you do, and create high-quality product. We're grateful for your dedication. But please - make the next game fun first, then add in the AI, the nice graphics, the believable simulation. We appreciate that fun is hard to describe, hard to measure, hard to design or schedule or test. But it's important. It's only fun that separates a game from a fishtank.
Thanks for listening. Earth out.
## W.Finlay McWalter ## http://www.mcwalter.org ##
Have you ever seen an intoxicated borg? No. Does that exclude the fact that you'll ever see one?
No! There's always seasons 2-7 of Enterprise. The borg will be so drunk or stoned off their ass that they'll focus on assimilating Archer's dog.
*arf* *arf *arf*
Translation: Resistance is futile.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
That's nice and all, but I'd be happy if they made a game that didn't suck ass. I know lots of people loved B&W, but I found the game unplayable. I have a kid, a dog, and a cat. One throws random stuff, one eats various turds, and one (or more) is virtually untrainable, with or without a leash.
Why did I pay $50 for more of the same?
Here's another hint: SimCity and the Sims can get along just fine without having goals. It's simple to set your own goals in these games. In a game with so many goals as Black and White, don't pretend that they don't exist or that you have an open-ended game.
I remember the original articles about the creature in B&W. Wasn't supposed to be the whole game. They spent so damned much time futzing with them that there was nothing else left. If the same thing happens here, we'll see add-on packs like "Take your people to Middlebury to learn ANOTHER language." Internet play will consist of seeing whose player can develop Esperanto first.
Call me cynical, but this game better be more than the one trick pony that was B&W.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
It's worse than you think.
Those 13.6% are infact transported to a massive underground slave complex in Milton Keynes, where they labour on computers, remotely providing (in real time) the "intelligence" for characters in the "popular" computer game Black and White.
I've learned that my Black and White creature (Wally the Wolf) is in fact a lady named Jenny from Swansea, who was pulled over for doing 75 on the M4 last year. She says that if she messes up (and has Wally eat his own poop or something) then Richard Evans will hit her with a rolled up copy of the Milngavie & Bearsden Herald.
That's just plain wrong!
## W.Finlay McWalter ## http://www.mcwalter.org ##
I hated B&W, but I might give this a shot...and it sounds neat to have them create their own languages...however, the MOMENT i hear one of the little guys spit out something like
ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn, i'm reformatting and selling my copy of the game =)
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
Ugh. I have, and it's been a waste of time. While there are many things that are cool, they're poor substitutes of interface (gestures -- cool, but ultimately frustrating for me) and A.I. (it's easier to teach a goldfish to dance than to teach these critters anything). In the end, it feels more like work to me to find "fun" in the game.
On the other hand, I swear the critters are TEACHING ME to do all the hard work managing the villagers, while pretending to be learning from me.
"Oooh... Master wants me to water the grains, and put grain into granary. Fine, I'll do it once."
"Again?! Okay, I'll pretend to forget how to do it so Master can demonstrate it a few more times. Heheh. Then I'll do it and he'll feed me... Life is goooood!"
This says nothing, just Your Mileage May Vary, and I'm glad you liked it -- because I knew a lot of people who don't.