Gamers like AI in games, but there’s a catch

The University of Bristol and the studio Meaning Machine studied how gamers react to NPCs controlled by artificial intelligence. To do this, 68 respondents were asked to play the detective quest Dead Meat, where investigating crimes requires questioning suspects. Unlike most games of this kind, you do not choose from pre-written dialogue options, but instead ask NPCs questions by typing them on a keyboard or using a microphone. The responses are generated by artificial intelligence.

In the end, 97% of the experiment’s participants were satisfied with the game, and 75% said that Dead Meat allowed them to “express themselves or make meaningful choices.” Players considered the main problem with this approach to be the lack of clear goals and understandable boundaries, which sometimes left them unsure of what to do next.

Meaning Machine co-founder Tomas Kin believes: “Players criticize AI when it gets in the way of creativity. But when AI is used to create entirely new types of interactive experiences, that is a completely different story.”

We published a review of the strategy game Pax Historia, which runs on AI.

No matter how we feel about AI, it is increasingly making its way into art. Recently, we wrote that Netflix will buy Ben Affleck’s startup for $600 million, a company connected to artificial intelligence in film. But things are not going so well for Google’s game-world generator Genie 3.

How do you feel about the use of AI in game development?