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SvennoJ 3 days ago
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NyanNyanNekoChan said:

I said this about a year ago, but I’d be totally fine with AI being used to let us respond to NPCs however we want, and the NPC would dynamically generate a response back to us.

In a lot of RPGs, especially ones where your character is meant to be a self-insert, you’re usually given multiple dialogue options when talking to NPCs, but too many times those choices all feel basically the same. No matter what you pick, the response you get back from the NPC is usually more or less identical.

AI could actually make those interactions feel more dynamic and personal, instead of just giving the illusion of choice.

That's a problem with the curated experience. The illusion of choice is an illusion because there are only a very limited set of outcomes supported in the game. The NPC is there to steer you in the right direction or rather the direction that follows the quest as written.

Once you start with dynamic answers, how are you going to back these up? It's the same as shouting at the TV when the plot does 'stupid' things for dramatic effect. Not sure which Fallout game it was but there was one where you could simply obey the NPC telling you not to go and complete the game that way in the first 10 minutes. Congratulations, your adventure never started.

RPGs only work because of the illusion of choice rather than actual choices. Otherwise you end up with clumsily AI scripted quests to fit your responses.


But sure, NPCs could respond to a lot more. They used to when the convention was still to type your questions out, before all that was replaced with choosing a reply. Do people want to actually talk to NPCs now? Do people actually want to search through a town full of NPCs asking around to finally find the one with relevant information instead of heading to the one with the exclamation mark over their head?

A lot of side quests and tasks already feel like AI generated busy work. Do we want more of that?

In the end you're still following a pre-determined story path. Choose your own story books never became popular nor TV show experiments where you choose what direction to take. Why would it work with AI?

In the end games are also about sharing / talking about the experience. That only works when the experience is mostly the same for everyone. How did you tackle that quest becomes what are you talking about, that never happened in my game. There is already much controversy over difficulty levels changing the experience...


Anyway, time will tell. Either these new choose your own path, talk with everyone indie games become popular or remain a niche. Personally I'm already exhausted from all the talk and daily information overload by the end of the day. Games are an escape from that, hence I gravitate to simple repetitive games like puzzling, racing, rhythm games. I don't want a life simulator turning my game into a support chat marathon.

And I believe most gamers are of that mindset, repetitive tasks are the most popular in games after all. From replaying older games to hanging out online in live service games.