1. A) Behavioural modelling is an important part of NPC development for games. Should emotive modelling be part of that development?

It all depends. Considering the level of emotive modelling technology and how this is still a field being worked on, lets presume it’s at its fullest potential. With NPC characters in game walking about freely, once the game is opened, doing as they wish. Learning new processes, understanding the other NPC’s and judging the player for who they really are.

One look at the Sims franchise and it is obvious to concur that advanced AI is something attractive to a large population, with over 200 million copies sold up to 2016. (The Strong, 2016) So why would emotive modelling not integrate into this game system? Well a NPC, after watching the player’s family go under days and days of torture in the swimming pool or trapped within a box, then seeing death show up, could have a serious effect on this NPC’s ‘human like’ emotive modelling.

When talking about advanced AI and how intelligent it could be, it is always compared to human intelligence and emotion. Place emotive modelling within Call of Duty 4 campaign. Modern Warfare, the first level is played for the first time and these AI can be their learning process. Of course, there will be a number which meet their demise sooner than others in a linear campaign yet if the player is killed and must load from a saved location, what happens to the now intelligent AI? It then raises the morality question in how advanced AI can be used and where it stands.

Although these are extreme instances, I still feel that with emotive modelling would come the process of learning, and if it is okay to shut down and restart this AI and its own ‘life’, then maybe it can be used.

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1. B) Consider your favourite video game. If it contains AI controlled agents how individualistic are they and their behaviours, and, how might you set about improving them?

My favourite video game that comes to mind is Skyrim, hugely because of the open world and the freedom what feels like has been given to many AI in that game. But now I have been posed with the question I cannot help to instantly find faults with how individualistic they are. It’s not just the individualistic qualities that stand out as poor AI, but the level of ‘intelligence’ seemingly in these NPCs.

Despite the previous question, this image expresses one of the key problems within Skyrim AI. No matter what you might do for a village, you might accidently pick up something from a cluttered table in front of a vender and become under siege. So, I’m thinking that including emotive modelling could be useful in this type of game. Where there is an equal amount of good and bad in the world.

There are groups and NPCs which will remember the player character and their actions, but this is to do with the pre-programming and is obvious as to how genuine it feels. When performing sneaking attacks and moves, although the game has so much lore, the responses from the AI verbally are generically the same and so can become boring and similar. This also applies to friendly AI.

I would say that the best way to improve on the AI in Skyrim would be to increase the memory, or simply give them memory in the first place. And in the case of the image above, something that does happen in the game; make sure that enemy AI are experienced in their chosen profession, to at least know an arrow in the face means you haven’t imagined anything.

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References

http://iieng.org/images/proceedings_pdf/3408E0314005.pdf

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5286500/?reload=true

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/12/video-game-characters-emotional-ai-developers

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-sims-turns-10-tops-125-million-units/1100-6249485/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sims#cite_note-2016_World_Video_Game_Hall_of_Fame_Inductees_Announced-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty_4:_Modern_Warfare

https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/615805-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/61787666

https://www.destructoid.com/blogs/greaterthangaming/most-overrated-skyrim-and-what-it-does-right–257741.phtml

Bibliography

Anon., 2017. 24+ Best Skyrim Memes That Will Make You ROFL. [Online] Available at: https://www.techlegends.in/best-skyrim-memes/ [Accessed 18 11 2017].

GreaterThanGaming, 2013. Most Overrated: Skyrim (and what it does right).. [Online] Available at: https://www.destructoid.com/blogs/greaterthangaming/most-overrated-skyrim-and-what-it-does-right–257741.phtml [Accessed 18 11 2017].

The Strong, 2016. 2016 World Video Game Hall of Fame Inductees Announced:. [Online] Available at: http://www.museumofplay.org/press/releases/2016/05/2688-2016-world-video-game-hall-fame-inductees-announced [Accessed 18 11 2017].

wikiHow, n.d. wikiHow to Kill Your Sims in Sims 3. [Online] Available at: https://www.wikihow.com/Kill-Your-Sims-in-Sims-3 [Accessed 18 11 2017].