Behind the Moralgorithm

LA Weekly has up an editorial about quantifying the intangible in video games. He discusses NBA Live's attmempt to incorporate the ineffable something that makes winning teams win. From the article: "...I'd occasionally seen the moralgorithm needle hit the red; that every so often the game goes supernatural. Like one matchup, where I was playing the Sonics against the Heat on Xbox Live, and I could tell something really clicked for me when Jerome James, my oafish center, hit two three-pointers. Then Vladimir Radmanovic, whose little polygonal computer face seemed to look as surprised as I was, stole the ball from 10 feet away and passed to Antonio Daniels on a fast break that drew so much moralgorithmic momentum, I swear Ray Allen levitated up court for the most improbable alley-oop of all time."

Comments

W (Hat)?

[happypizzaguy]

I can't be the only one who has absolutley no clue what the quote from the article means.

Better than catch-up AI

[alvinrod]

It's at least nice to know that programmers are trying to capture some of the phenomena of how the real game seems to work instead of adding some moronic catch-up AI that I've seen in more than a few games.

Blow past a car in a racing game, watch as it magically manages to stay on your tail and pass you back, despite the fact that it's a Ford Focus and you're practically driving an F1 car.

Score some points in a sports game, watch the computer complete every pass, sink every bucket, or score every goal, while your players seem to be inable to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Start pounding on the computer in an RTS, watch as it manages to produce enough units to flood the map, or research tech advantages in the blink of an eye to give it an edge.

While catch-up AI can make the game seem a lot more challenging because it keeps the computer opponent right there with you, it would be a lot nicer to see more programming to simulate things more realistically.