Some Insubstantial Subtance
A quote from my Artifical Intelligence report that I thought might provoke some discussion:
It can be a lonely scenario when one man is burdened with the task of destroying a planet of brainless monsters. I recall running through the endless corridors of Phobos in Doom II just wanting someone to give me a hand with a particularly difficult puzzle. That’s probably what made multiplayer cooperative so fun: the ability to interact with something that will respond. The “One Man Army” concept is not a very immersive idea and one that most games these days are phasing out. Now that cooperative play has dwindled into near extinction, it is currently more common to see the player involved in fighting computer-controlled opponents side-by-side with computer-controlled friends. I suspect this is mainly due to the substantial evolution of artificial intelligence since 1993. This artificial ally approach is particularly prominent in all Role-Playing Games (from the early MUDs to the recently released Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion) and now even modern First-Person Shooters (Half-Life 2), and can be an important aspect of creating an immersive atmosphere that the player will want to stay in.
However, the “intelligence” of your robotically-minded allies can easily destroy all the ambience and immersion that they were created for. The most frustrating thing about “buddy agents” is their complete inability to combat properly. Take a common scenario from Bethesda Softworks’ Oblivion. In front of you stands an eight-foot tall monster clad in nasty, spiky looking armour. It looks angry. Behind you, you hear the battle cry of the men you’re fighting with, the men you swore to yourself you’d keep alive. Not because you promised anyone, but because you feel for them, just as if they were real. You line up a shot using your bow and arrow. You release and watch the arrow fly… straight into the left buttock of one of your friends. In the last moments, one of your mindless friends has charged straight in-front of your line of fire. Alternatively, try the reverse: you charge at the monster and get four arrows in your back from your supposed allies. Either way, the entire illusion of companionship or even intelligence is completely shattered.
It would be nice to see a system in games one day that fixes this issue. They have realistic facial expressions, 50 hours of dialogue, hi-poly models, 10,000 animations… yet they get in your way and shoot you in the arse. Isn’t it a horrible thought that all those features that make your AI agents more alive are completely and utterly destroyed in one moment of fighting?