It's Friday of the "Staying Motivated" week for Blaugust 2024 and what better way to wrap the work week than thinking about the future of MMORPGs! Fortunately TheLazyPeon has taken the time to do must of the thinking for us (it is Friday after all!).
As can be guessed much of the "future" that is discussed includes AI and TheLazyPeon goes through a number of use cases for AI in games. Everything from simulating players and creating dynamic NPCs that respond to players in interesting ways is mentioned. Even the prospect of AI generating an MMO from scratch with just a few phrases!
It is the "simulating players" that I think was most interesting and realistic of the bunch; especially when it comes to less populated MMOs. Nothing kills the fun in an MMO faster than not having other "players" around. I say players in quotes because obviously the proposal is to create fake players which is basically "adding bots to the game".
The difference with what we think of bots today is that these bots would be run on behalf of the game developer for the betterment of the game and it's community. This is markedly different than "gold farming bots" that more often hurt than help games and their communities.
You might say "but this is just AI NPCs!?" and I'd not disagree but the difference is intent. The intent is to make them seem like players. Yes they are not real and it is all schadenfreude, but that is sort of the point. Think about MMOs you play and how many players you just walk by without a second thought of whether they are a human or not. Would it be so different if they were not?
Challenges arise when you start to look at group content and motivations. Are the bots in it for themselves? Or are they in it for the good of the other players? Can an AI controlled player ever actually stand in for a human player in group content without dragging the group down?
I'd somewhat argue, in many games, much of the group content is scripted and driven by UI prompts and addons so it is not a stretch to say an AI controlled player could execute that nearly pefect. The question comes in how it handles a change in direction or the pacing of the group. Maybe the group goes off script and does something out of order. Can the AI player keep up?
I won't proclaim AI can do these things but I find it fascinating to consider they may. As mentioned in the video there is already an extremely complex botting ecosystem in MMORPGs today so chances are we have all come across that "bot that we thought was a player". There is no doubt those running these bot networks are looking at, if not already using, AI chatbots / large language models to try and avoid detection.
Whether we like it or not; AI is going to influence our future. MMORPGs are a logical place for it to fit. I for one want to remain optimistic on the topic. That optimism for exciting new technology and what it will do for MMORPGs keeps me motivated to see what happens!
