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Infinite Games?
Anonymous Coward writes "BBC is running a story on how US scientists are working on improving AI - with potential benefits for coming games.
The system, called Liquid Narrative allows to avoid scripted storylines, and finally gives us, the gamers, full freedom to do whatever we want to do. R. Michael Young, the project coordinator, says:
'Game companies are realising that story telling has a lot of potential that has not been tapped yet.'"
Finally computer game story lines are catching up with pen-and-paper RPGs.
Now if the graphics and audio could only improve on my imagination...
Unfortunately, I am not Wil Wheaton
Even the best RPGs I've played for the PC have always felt scripted to me. You're limited in the actions you can take or the things you can say. I suppose this is a constraint of dealing with computers. . . but it's also why old-fashioned pencil-and-paper RPGs are still my favorite. You can come up with something the GM/Storyteller never thought of, pull off your idea, and see the results. Most computer RPGs stifle you at step 2.
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
but that was before people had run out of ideas pertaining to AI. Today the only problems AI can solve are uninteresting ones.
Not even remotely true. AI faded from the public eye maybe, but there are literally hundreds of interesting projects that are being researched. The field never went away, it just doesn't make it into the mass media.
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
I have been playing Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind since December 31, 2002 and I still can't put it down. It is really neat to have this gigantc scenario to explore and there's always many things around to do that have nothing to do with the main quest. I am positive that after a whole month playing that game I have yet to uncover 25% of the map.
If these people could expand on this concept and come up with a Morrowind model that spans across a few continents instead of one, and with maybe 3-5 main quests that are dynamically generated then it would take months to finish it. The problem is that if it takes so long to finish one game, people will buy less games. Same thing as building a car that runs like new for 10 years. The car company wants you to buy a new car every 5.
Pedro
----
The Insomniac Coder
Yep, soon the researchers will have made up enough ground to come up with *ELITE*. Greatest game ever, and totally open ended.
We ARE the peat bog soldiers.
The Japanese style of RPG (e.g. the Final Fantasy series) treats role-playing in an entirely different way. Rather than creating your own character and playing out that role, you play the role of a predetermined character. For such games, scripted stories are very important. The whole point of the game is really to enjoy the story. Japanese RPGs boil down to basically being interactive stories.
As you say, improved AI and non-scripted stories will advance the Western style of role-playing game. However, I don't think it'll they'll have much of an impact on the traditional Japanese story-driven RPGs.
-Stephen
No AI is ever going to be a substitute for good game design and a good story. The article talks about rebuilding the game world if you kill some important ally or destroy an important object, but that's really only applicable for games like Unreal (that they showcase in the article). Unreal isn't a story; sure, it may have some story cobbled together, but Unreal and most games like it are only good for playing against other people and showcasing graphics cards. Something like Deus Ex is infinitely harder to design, because not only do you have to write a compelling story, but you also have to implement it.
Games like the Quest for Glory series were built around the theory that the player will want to be able to do just about anything, to break just about anything, and to be just about anything. They did this very well. It's not about scripting or AI that can allow the player to do anything; it's about using the story and scripting to guide the player without making them feel like they're being guided. Deus Ex is a good example. There are levels that you have to finish, so it's static in that respect, but the manner in which you finish them is completely up to you, and so you feel like you are in control, even though you're doing exactly what the designers wanted you to for most of the game.
People are easily wowed by the next generation of Unreal, and they certainly are quite impressive and expertly done. But they are also quite forgettable. When the last Quest for Glory game came out in '98, I'll bet you that most people pulled out the first four and re-did them (games from the 80's!) just so they could keep their character. Or if they didn't redo them, they had a dusty old floppy somewhere that had it.
Even if we had an AI smart enough to behave like a human, we will never have an AI smart enough to be as creative as humans can.
Funny you should use that example. A friend and I have recently been playing through old RPGs online via ZSNES. We just finished up FFVI, and Secret of Mana before that. You know what? I still prefer those games to most anything coming out these days, and remain every bit as engrossed as the first time I played it.
Companies are putting a LOT more emphasis on plot nowadays (heh, in fact, Squaresoft is basically putting ALL the emphasis on plot! (see FFX)).
What A terrible example. Not to argue that FFX was lacking in the story department, but all of the post-SNES Final Fantasies seem to flaunt style over substance (with the possible exception being VII). Proof of this lies no further than the upcoming FFX-2, a sequel to FFX staring a John Woo-style gun toting Yuna wearing hot pants with two scantilly clad female companions. What's this about Square still pushing story in the FF series?
The problem that 'Liquid Narrative' is addressing goes back at least to George Polti's "36 Dramatic Situations" in the year 1900. My AI faq gives infinitely more perspective than this BBC pap, on the important questions. (It's getting a little stale, but I'm currently revising the timeline with lots of rich resources.)