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Behind the Moralgorithm

Posted by Zonk on from the go-little-man-go dept.

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."

7 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. The word for today is 'moralgorithm'... by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From TFA:
    There must be some kind of algorithm that generates morale, I suggested, a moralgorithm -- and my team's was off.
    Setting aside for a moment the sheer loser-ness of this statement....right up there with 'my controller isn't working' and 'I wasn't ready', it seems that Josh is attempting to coin a new term for the gaming lexicon. It's a pretty heavy-handed attempt...the word 'moralgorithm' shows up seven times in the article (including the title).

    Please, do your part for the gaming community and never use this 'word'...let's try to give this thing a clean, quick death.
    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

    1. Re:The word for today is 'moralgorithm'... by FidelCatsro · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's what you get from horrible Genetic experiments trying to cross marketing and Engineers , You get enginteers.

      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    2. Re:The word for today is 'moralgorithm'... by mausmalone · · Score: 3, Insightful

      When I saw this title show up in my RSS reader, I thought it would be an aritlce about morals in AI programming. What it is is something much dumber.

      --
      -=-=-=-=-=
      I'd rather be flamed than ignored.
  2. W (Hat)? by happypizzaguy · · Score: 2, Informative

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

    --
    "When all else fails, there's always delusion." -Conan O'Brien
  3. Little? by kryogen1x · · Score: 3, Funny
    From TFA:

    How the little black box knew the Spurs would (probably) win the NBA Finals

    Yeah, sure, the XBox is little. So are blue whales, Hummer H2's and Boeing 747's.

  4. Better than catch-up AI by alvinrod · · Score: 2, Informative
    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.

    1. Re:Better than catch-up AI by kryogen1x · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I recall playing NBA Jam on the Genesis. My brother and I were pretty good, but the computer would always seem to be able to keep up no matter what. Near the end of the 4th quarter, it was a tie game so we held the ball until there was like one second left, shot, then hit a two pointer to give us a 94-92 lead. Then, with the remaining time, the computer inbounds, heaves a full court three pointer and swishes to win the game. Now, it wouldn't have been so bad if the computer hadn't done the same thing at the end of first half AND the last three games we played.

      /me hates AI handicap.