Prolific MOP commenter Sally Bowls posted a note last week that stood out to me as something we should all be seriously considering. Most of us, even those obsessed with science, came away from this year’s BlizzCon StarCraft AI research project announcement with a faint yawn. But Sally sees it as the biggest news of the year.
“AI can now beat champion chess, Go, and Jeopardy players and drive RL, two-ton cars around other humans. We are approaching two gaming singularities: first is when all the best PvP players are NPCs not meatbags. Second is the MMO equivalent of the Turing Test. When you see another ‘player’ you can’t really tell if it is a NPC or a player who does not speak your language.”
Gamers have long believed that combat against players is the greatest challenge available; e-sports is predicated on it, as is every PvP sandbox. PvPers turn up their noses at “PvE carebears” — players are cleverer than dumb old NPCs, or they once were. But Sally’s right that AI is becoming increasingly sophisticated, and frankly, if we cranked it up, the NPCs ruling the “environment” part of PvE would kick our butts and out-think us at every turn.
What do you think about the future of AI in online games? Will players always trump NPCs as MMO PvP adversaries, or might we better anticipate a sea change in attitudes, a world where PvP is the scrub leagues and the real hardcore players will be pitting themselves against AI?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
