The amount of filler and garbage that AI is about to bring to gaming must make the Microsoft execs swell with excitement. Anime games are especially about to explode in saturation because of this but I expect Microsoft/EA/Ubisoft to take AI generated crap games to the stratosphere.
And I’m willing to bet there will be some that you get "Sempai. [This content violates the terms and service]
On one hand, AI for game dev can bring a lot of really cool things to the table if used correctly along with handmade content.
For example, fully voiced NPCs with much more reactive dialogue. Procedurally generated side quests with more unique stories. Much faster level generation and iteration,etc.
On the other hand though, AI so far has shown that it’s more often than not been used maliciously or with the intention of fully replacing the human element for the sake of cheap products at the cost of quality. I won’t really trust it all until I know people can use it in it’s best way.
The automation of the industrial revolution destroyed the jobs of tailors, shoemakers, and other skilled craftsmen and artisans and replaced them with less skilled low wage factory workers.
The real tragedy though here is automation does not replace the soul that is put into handcrafted work. Before the industrial revolution, everywhere in the world people dressed dramatically differently. Regional clothing was replaced by cheap shirts made in a factory on a different side of the planet.
AI may not repeat history, but it may rhyme.
It may also enable smaller studios to increase the scope of their projects. If mid range studios can make AAA scale projects and indie studios make mid range it may enable an explosion of large auteur games.
Maybe I was not clear with my tone, since I only talked about the bad. There can be upsides.
It is a lot like procedural generation. Some games started replacing handcrafted maps with procedural ones…
Some of the magic is lost in a handcrafted map versus a procedural one. Sometimes it work though, like an initially indie exploration game like Minecraft. And at least so far, level designers are not out of a job for it.
AI cannot yet do emotional story telling, so in a game like Skyrim you may see AI voices for background NPCs, and manually recorded dialogue for characters in main questlines.
It may also enable smaller studios to increase the scope of their projects.
That’s the story of Minecraft, Rimworld, Terraria and several others. They succeeded in creating vast, replayable AI-generated games that can compete with AAA scale projects.
A lot of people forget that procedural generation is an early form of generative AI. Newer generative AI will also produce some hits and vast quantities of junk games, just like the games we currently see with procedurally generated content.
I think the sad reality is we know that handcrafted products are unnecessary given that they can be industrialized.
It’s not that nobody wants the hand-crafted products…it’s that mass-produced ones are sufficient in “getting the job done.” And since enough people will play/buy the “good enough” games, the artistic masterpieces will become a lot fewer and further between than they already are.
I personally don’t see them mostly using it for “okay here’s an average game, add a bunch of AI garbage to it and ship it”
I more see it being things like “based on the model of this character create another character that has x,y,z differences” and then humans can build from there saving them that initial upfront work.
Which would really be no different from the current best use cases of gpt4, which is, in my opinion, boiler plate / getting started / template code.
It’s just a matter of quality and where to use it.
Take Skyrim. Imagine you run through the city, and the random people there comment on things you did a few hours ago in the game, talking about your exploits. All generated, all voiced. The immersion from that would be impossible to get otherwise.
Obviously we’re also gonna see a lot of filler and garbage. But good games will make good use of LLMs.
I know AI voices are controversial but man, imagine all the quests in WoW completely voiced
imagine all the quests in WoW completely voiced
you don’t need AI for this, you need the higher ups to stop cashing millions in bonuses and to invest that money into the game.
it’s not an issue of “it can’t be done”, it’s, like always, a money issue.
There was a nice thing we had once
don’t
Atleast the voiced npc dialogue in the next Bethesda title will be campy for a reason
My favorite example:
Me: Looting the enemies I just killed
Sam: “Take anything useful, leave anything that’s not”
Me: Yeah no fucking shit, dick thong. Literally what’d you think I was gonna do?