Games

Are Next-Gen Games, Really Next-Gen?

Is AI real and does better graphics actually lower the quality of a game?

By Filip Truta, Games Editor

20th of April 2007, 13:50 GMT

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Here's one reason why people buy the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii: because they're said to provide next-gen fun - a new generation of games where artificial intelligence has an important role. Then, of course, there're graphics and then there's control but these things evolve no matter what - people learn from mistakes and game developers are people too. A, but AI is a different matter all together, thus The Guardian newspaper posted yesterday an interview with Steve Grand OBE, AI researcher and creator of renowned AI simulation game Creatures.

His game is based on an evolutionary concept where players must look after pets and teach them basic life lessons, where the man says AI has a crucial role: "As graphics have improved, the behavior of characters has got more and more embarrassing. When characters looked cartoon-like, any vaguely lifelike behavior was impressive, but now that characters have fluid movements, realistic textures and complex facial expressions, they tend to engage different circuits in the players' brains. The better the graphics become, the worse the behavior looks," says Steve Grand as I found on Next Generation today.

"AI isn't so much unappreciated as nonexistent. Most of what counts as AI in the games industry is actually a bunch of 'if/then' statements. If a computer character doesn't learn something for itself then the programmer must have told it what to do, and anything that does exactly what it's told and nothing else, is not intelligent." Didn't I say that once? "This is changing, and neural networks and other learning systems are beginning to creep in. But games programmers tend to devalue the phrase 'artificial intelligence'."

So then, we ask ourselves: when a new game is announced and we hear the terms "stunning visuals" and impressive AI, what are we supposed to understand? If graphics have been improved, we may observe worse movement of the characters, while the fact that 5 or so continue after death will reveal that an AI is merely following a big set of instructions.

Not to worry, next-gen consoles and games today really are of the new generation, but our understanding of these elements is a different one, influenced by epithets and metaphors.

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