Immersion Through Video Games 4

LinkLhttp://illumin.usc.edu/107/immersion-through-video-games/4/

Emergent systems are more intuitive, so the player feels more 'in control," and their plans fail or succeed in reasonable ways. As a rule, emergent systems work towards the immersion of the player, rather than against it. For players, this means that future games may be more than just photo-realistic graphics and lifelike sounds. There are boundless opportunities for emergent systems to model interactions, and when these models become sophisticated enough, a person's choice to suspend disbelief may be all that is necessary.

Emergence of Unpredictable Behaviors

Before getting carried away with a dream, however, we should look at how emergence is being utilized today. For example, emergence augments gameplay especially well in the game Black and White, which bases much of its action on a deeply integrated artificial intelligence model of the human learning process. Your ten-story-tall pet implements this model in discovering its environment and you, its master. By rewarding your pet for certain actions and chastising it for others, you can sculpt your pet's actions until they are nearly an autonomous extension of your own gameplay style. Unexpected outcomes of this model abound:

“ When I was in level 1, I got the healing spell. So I thought, it would be pretty neat to teach my little ape this spell. Since [he] wants to be always kind and generous to the people, he ran to the village to try his new spell. He looked around and I guess there was no one to heal. He got pretty upset about that. So he just picked up a guy and threw him as hard as he could against a mountain. The man . . . survived. He was hurt pretty bad[ly], though, screamed like hell, and was trying to get back to his house as quick[ly] as possible. My ape of course saw that, and healed him. After that he looked at me, all happy and smiling [2]. ”

Hundreds of these examples exist, all stemming from a very simple learning model. It is easy to conclude that even the dramatic elements that were once thought to be possible only through the rigid control of narration and scripting can now be produced randomly, if the system has an appropriate way of expressing itself.

With a method of dynamically generating events, the missing piece that keeps us from creating an infinite novel or movie is a method that makes stories more meaningful by using a single emergent model that intertwines the player, the characters, and the world. The possibilities are as frightening as they are exciting; for, if a system can conjure up behaviors that mimic real life, has it finally passed Turing's Test [2]? The world will be a very different place when it does, not just in our methods of entertainment, but also in the very definition of reality.

Conclusion: PCs Can Do Improv

Even in the short term, emergent systems like these help us to better understand the way that we interact with one another and our environment; they may even help us better understand our own thought process. If they follow the computer science model, these crude systems, like binary computer language, might give rise to more readily accessible procedures. Given a sufficiently complex system, is there any interaction that is impossible to model? As on Star Trek, we once again find ourselves gazing at a possibility that seems only barely beyond reach [5].

References

• • [1] Encyclopedia Britannica 2003. "Turing, Alan M." Internet: http://www.britannic​a.com/eb/article?eu=​75769, March 13, 2003.
  • [2] S. Johnson. "Wild Things." Wired March, pp. 78-83, 2002.
  • [3] T. Dunniway,. [1]Professional Game Design[/i]. New Riders, 2001.
  • [4] H. Smith. "Systemic Level Design for Emergent Gameplay." Game Developer's Conference Web Lecture. June 6, 2002. <http://www.gamasutr​a.com/features/slide​s/smith/index.htm>.
  • [5] "Encounter at Farpoint." Star Trek: The Next Generation. Paramount Pictures: October 11, 1987.