I hope they do it in a fun way instead of using it to generate assets.
Maybe it will allow us to have a variety of voices for characters and use llm to generate dialog that is in scope with the character and world.
That’s really all I want from ai in regards to games.
I’d love for ai to be present in dialogue for generic NPCs personally.
Yeah, I guess that’s what I want to. I’m ok with main characters have scripted dialog and professional voice acting.
But I don’t need Skyrim guards repeating the same lines. And not reacting to my characters appropriately. Like sure if I’m level 1 be a dick. When I’m level 10000 they should make way.
Exactly. And the idea of being able to ask literally whatever I want to any npc I come across really appeals to me. I think it brings video games closer to the freedom that something like DnD offers.
Yeah! Especially if maybe one npc really do eat like talking about a topic and you need to appeal to him somehow to get him to tell the story of the monster that killed his family or something. That way you can figure out where it is or how to summon it or something.
yeah, that shit won’t be able to run locally (not with a demanding piece of software like a video game running at the same time). And llms are notoriously expensive to run. And also, not really controllable, so it opens them up to lawsuits.
So it will either be just asset generation, or a live service game that they will kill off really quickly because it’s not profitable (like pretty much every single other llm)
They will.
Keep in mind they are nearing the end of life for one of the most popular MMORPGs to date.
They likely are already working on the next one for next/current gen machines only.
As they are doing that, I’d be amazed if the MMO team isn’t looking at what’s happening with AI and thinking about where it will be in two to three years and how much richer they can make their online world by leveraging it.
The problem with MMOs is that there’s a cycle to them due to labor constraints. There’s not enough of a team to develop content at the same rate your players go through it.
You want players staying subscribed all year long for a decade. But instead they sign up when you release expansions, play until they finish and cap out, and then unsub. And you hope they return for the next expansion.
But if you can hook generative AI into the mix, a subscription fee for each player can cover quite a lot of content generation that extends and personalizes the world your writers create with each major update.
And as long as it’s done well, that means you cut the seasonal churn in between major content updates and keep subscription numbers up.
They aren’t going to be cutting writers so much as they are going to be using the same number of writers to create much more net writing leveraging AI.
Which is smart, as so is everyone else in the industry, and the games that don’t update with the times will be the next generation of Starfield putting bandaids on old tech to middling reception while their competition is delivering truly next gen experiences.
In general, AI is what’s going to define the next generation of games (PS6 era). And it’s going to be nuts. You won’t be able to look at modern games the same way. They’ll feel static and empty by comparison.
