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NICHOLAUS NOLES

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On Evan Bause's Player Hate: Sometimes It's the Game, Not the Player

"I think that developers have to code for the player. Treating players and their computer-controlled teammates equally could be game breaking in several ways. Teammates might become the star of the game. How many Call of Duty games have we spent chasing our AI-controlled squad? If they were as effective as the player and received equal attention, then cautious players would either end up with a dead squad or they would miss content. For example, what if your squad DID run in to all of those hidden units? None would be left to jump out at you. Setting difficulty levels would also be difficult if the player wasn't the star of the show. The player who pushes forward would receive too much attention while the methodical player would complete levels without encountering sufficient resistance.

I don't think that players really want to be treated equally, but I do think that managing enemy AI so that players feel challenged, but not overwhelmed or cheated, is an important goal. However, AI may be something difficult for developers to sink money into. Good AI is seemless and surprising, but it doesn't get attention like visual polish or good voice acting. It's only when AI is bad that it receives any attention. I think the real key to this problem is figuring out a way to identify and reward good AI."

Monday, November 08, 2010

On Evan Killham's The Audacity of Choice: Making "Wrong" Decisions in Open-World Games

"Although I think that many interesting points about "choice" in video games have been raised by both this article and the commenters, I think that the problem with Eva in Peril may be attributed to a much more basic design flaw. RDR provides players with behavioral scripts that guide them to perform certain actions in certain situations. For example, if a random gentleman is about to cut up a prostitute, then the player should shoot him. Players can legitimately complete many core and side missions within the game by simply shooting someone. The problem with Eva is that RDR teaches you a basic rule about resolving encounters and then presents players with a mission that is an exception to the rule."

Wednesday, August 25, 2010