'Stage AI' and meaningful experiences in games, part one.

April 11, 2015

'Stage AI' and meaningful experiences in games, part one.

April 11, 2015

'Stage AI' and meaningful experiences in games, part one.

April 11, 2015

Wherever the winds take us…

While playing online games with others can be fun, I rarely find myself cooperating with others to complete a quest - it feels like a grind because every quest is nearly the same. It seems that everything can be planned for, everything is coded and your victory or defeat can be predetermined by the stats on your Worn Leather Tunic. And the worst part? Everybody does the same quests. Many players feel the same way, which is why Player vs Player experiences are much more popular. This is where I think the development of AI can massively change how we experience media - and not through talking robots either.

I like to call this idea 'Stage AI' - it works in the background to create specialized quests to people in an effort to deliver truly meaningful experiences, the kind that you can build memories out of. Stage AI will create a dynamic environment that drives events forwards. It will analyze a variety of traits among player groups - group size, classes, level disparity, average play time, etc - to generate a random quest that weaves it's own little legend. To make this happen, I want Stage AI to accomplish a variety of things: making custom NPCs with lore connections, generating (ideally) NON-INSTANCED areas and routes to them, and generating stories - possibly from a massive, massive database of already-written stories (it's hard to think of a solution for this one).

This is a nice time to mention the concept of risk in games - or rather, the lack thereof. Dying in an MMORPG has no repercussions - therefore, there's no fear whenever somebody runs into a dangerous situation which in turn means that there is no instance of courage. Courage is epic. Games can be really great with courage, but it's troublesome to integrate risk into an MMO environment where network connectivity issues might kill your character through your inability to move. Imagine how upsetting it'd be to lose items over that! Therefore, there needs to be clear areas where risk is present - so it's expected and players can sort out these issues beforehand. Diablo's hardcore mode is a great example of that. Let's call them, 'Risk Zones' for now.

Risk zones will be a core piece of Stage AI - where to place them, when to place them. Criteria can include how stable the internet connection of the users are. One of my personal favorite things to incorporate is an attack where bosses can 'trap' a user in a sort of Character Deletion Cage - the player's allies will have to kill the boss and free the poor sap in time, or alternatively, the player will find a way out through solving puzzles or other experimentation.

Whether you're saving your hometown or venturing into the deep unknown, I hope that this idea of Stage AI can one day give those experiences meaning - and they don't have to be solely Player vs. Environment. When Stage AI creates friction between players - that's when the real interesting stuff starts.


Wherever the winds take us…

While playing online games with others can be fun, I rarely find myself cooperating with others to complete a quest - it feels like a grind because every quest is nearly the same. It seems that everything can be planned for, everything is coded and your victory or defeat can be predetermined by the stats on your Worn Leather Tunic. And the worst part? Everybody does the same quests. Many players feel the same way, which is why Player vs Player experiences are much more popular. This is where I think the development of AI can massively change how we experience media - and not through talking robots either.

I like to call this idea 'Stage AI' - it works in the background to create specialized quests to people in an effort to deliver truly meaningful experiences, the kind that you can build memories out of. Stage AI will create a dynamic environment that drives events forwards. It will analyze a variety of traits among player groups - group size, classes, level disparity, average play time, etc - to generate a random quest that weaves it's own little legend. To make this happen, I want Stage AI to accomplish a variety of things: making custom NPCs with lore connections, generating (ideally) NON-INSTANCED areas and routes to them, and generating stories - possibly from a massive, massive database of already-written stories (it's hard to think of a solution for this one).

This is a nice time to mention the concept of risk in games - or rather, the lack thereof. Dying in an MMORPG has no repercussions - therefore, there's no fear whenever somebody runs into a dangerous situation which in turn means that there is no instance of courage. Courage is epic. Games can be really great with courage, but it's troublesome to integrate risk into an MMO environment where network connectivity issues might kill your character through your inability to move. Imagine how upsetting it'd be to lose items over that! Therefore, there needs to be clear areas where risk is present - so it's expected and players can sort out these issues beforehand. Diablo's hardcore mode is a great example of that. Let's call them, 'Risk Zones' for now.

Risk zones will be a core piece of Stage AI - where to place them, when to place them. Criteria can include how stable the internet connection of the users are. One of my personal favorite things to incorporate is an attack where bosses can 'trap' a user in a sort of Character Deletion Cage - the player's allies will have to kill the boss and free the poor sap in time, or alternatively, the player will find a way out through solving puzzles or other experimentation.

Whether you're saving your hometown or venturing into the deep unknown, I hope that this idea of Stage AI can one day give those experiences meaning - and they don't have to be solely Player vs. Environment. When Stage AI creates friction between players - that's when the real interesting stuff starts.


Wherever the winds take us…

While playing online games with others can be fun, I rarely find myself cooperating with others to complete a quest - it feels like a grind because every quest is nearly the same. It seems that everything can be planned for, everything is coded and your victory or defeat can be predetermined by the stats on your Worn Leather Tunic. And the worst part? Everybody does the same quests. Many players feel the same way, which is why Player vs Player experiences are much more popular. This is where I think the development of AI can massively change how we experience media - and not through talking robots either.

I like to call this idea 'Stage AI' - it works in the background to create specialized quests to people in an effort to deliver truly meaningful experiences, the kind that you can build memories out of. Stage AI will create a dynamic environment that drives events forwards. It will analyze a variety of traits among player groups - group size, classes, level disparity, average play time, etc - to generate a random quest that weaves it's own little legend. To make this happen, I want Stage AI to accomplish a variety of things: making custom NPCs with lore connections, generating (ideally) NON-INSTANCED areas and routes to them, and generating stories - possibly from a massive, massive database of already-written stories (it's hard to think of a solution for this one).

This is a nice time to mention the concept of risk in games - or rather, the lack thereof. Dying in an MMORPG has no repercussions - therefore, there's no fear whenever somebody runs into a dangerous situation which in turn means that there is no instance of courage. Courage is epic. Games can be really great with courage, but it's troublesome to integrate risk into an MMO environment where network connectivity issues might kill your character through your inability to move. Imagine how upsetting it'd be to lose items over that! Therefore, there needs to be clear areas where risk is present - so it's expected and players can sort out these issues beforehand. Diablo's hardcore mode is a great example of that. Let's call them, 'Risk Zones' for now.

Risk zones will be a core piece of Stage AI - where to place them, when to place them. Criteria can include how stable the internet connection of the users are. One of my personal favorite things to incorporate is an attack where bosses can 'trap' a user in a sort of Character Deletion Cage - the player's allies will have to kill the boss and free the poor sap in time, or alternatively, the player will find a way out through solving puzzles or other experimentation.

Whether you're saving your hometown or venturing into the deep unknown, I hope that this idea of Stage AI can one day give those experiences meaning - and they don't have to be solely Player vs. Environment. When Stage AI creates friction between players - that's when the real interesting stuff starts.