Posted by Michael on June 7th, 2006, in Games
There is an interesting multiplayer environment. It’s very focussed on chat and since all characters are humans, that can be a bit strange. Especially given that they all look so cute. Same style, same age, etc. It’s as if the designers are trying to create some “Love Boat dynamics” (and indeed, the first thing that happened to me was that a girl took me to a secret pool and immediately wanted to kiss me -I mean I did look incredibly cute, but still… 😉 ).
Anyway. What is interesting in this game is that you don’t have complete control over your avatar. Especially in social situations. All avatars respond to each other autonomously. When you walk past someone, their avatar will look at yours. The player doesn’t need to give it a command to do so. It’s autonomous behaviour. When you try to participate in a group, the avatars move out of the way, to make some room for yours.
And then there is the special conversation mode which connects the avatars together in a group activity. The camera changes to show the whole group and the avatars look at each other. Once in a while, they will nod simultaneously to each other, again without user intervention. It’s as if the avatars form their own community.
This automated body language works really well to create a feeling of social harmony. Willy-nilly you believe the avatar on the other side, and its automatic behaviour subconsciously puts you in a friendly mood towards the player represented by it. Very powerful stuff.
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Posted by Michael on May 5th, 2006, in Games
I love Black & White. I can’t help it. It’s so sad to see what Lionhead did with the sequel (Black & White 2: Warrior Within ;)). But you can read my rant about that here.
In Black & White you play a god and you need to convince people in small villages to believe in you. When they do, their prayers serve as fuel for your divine powers. Some of these powers are destructive and some benevolent. You can choose to play an evil god or a good god. Hence the game’s title.
But the main feature of Black & White, as far as I’m concerned, is a sort of pet that you have as a companion, referred to as a Creature. In the beginning of the game, you choose an antropomorphic ape, cow or tiger, whom you then have to train. You can teach the creature to do just about anything you can do.
The design really shines in the credibility of this creature. Just watching it go about its business is a joy in and of itself. With a little bit of training, you can give it a certain personality and make sure it takes care of itself. And then it can play the game on its own. Either as your helper or just as a fun companion.
Sometimes he gets a bit lazy or forgetful, and then you have to remind him of what he should or should not do. It’s a kind of parenting that feels very natural. The creature gets thin when he eats too little and fat when too much. He gets stronger when he carries heavy objects and he grows bigger and bigger over the course of the game. And of course when he gets evil, he looks evil too. And good ditto. He can also develop simple relationships with other creatures in the game. They can become fighting enemies but also best friends (my favourite). Then they dance together and even kiss. And when they are seperated, sometimes a text appears, saying “Your creature misses his friend.” Aaah. :), it brings a tear to my eye.
He tries to imitate you. And when he fails, he is sad. He tells stories to the villagers and dances with them. Or tries to impress them with tricks. He can throw things and catch them as a form of play. He points at things that interest him. He expresses hunger and then tries to find some food. He develops preferences for certain types of food. When he gets tired, he finds a good spot and goes to sleep. He sits down and rests when he doesn’t know what to do. When he’s walking towards a target, he regularly looks in its direction. He shows interest in something (you do) and then walks towards it to look at it more closely. When there’s something he doesn’t know, he looks at you for advice (pathfinding e.g.). He is continuously paying attention to what you do, which strengthens your bond with him and increases the sympathy.
The AI in Black & White is a unique creation and I wish I knew what its designer, Richard Evans, is doing at this moment. He has left the sinking ship Lionhead and hasn’t been heard of since. I hope his brilliant mind can resurface at some point. If anyone knows where he is, please let me know!
The rest of the game supports this brilliance too. The villagers also have remarkable AI, the game’s interface is a joy to use in its complex sophistication, the graphics are a pleasure to watch and the soundscape is as soothing as anything. A rare product of excellence that never fails to entertain. I keep replaying this thing. It never grows old. I don’t care if there’s a sequel. I’m sticking to this one.
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Posted by Michael on May 1st, 2006, in Games
In Animal Crossing you play a little human who lives in a small village with a bunch of animals. The game does not have a linear narrative structure, except that it is tied to the Gamecube’s system clock. So when it is night in the real world, it is also night in Animal Crossing. The same is true for the seasons and certain holidays.
The whole game revolves around talking to the animals through simple multiple choice menus, doing jobs for them, sending letters, collecting things and decorating your house. You are awarded points and money for certain things, but it’s the ambient sandbox experience that really drives the game.
On the surface there doesn’t seem to be much Artificial Intelligence in Animal Crossing. A lot of things indeed seem to happen at random. But the game is very succesful at displaying credible characters for which you can feel real empathy.
The animals in the village are capable of remembering you and developing a simple relationship with you. Some characters are easy to become friends with and others have a more difficult personality. It seems like there are only 5 or 6 different personalities. So there’s always multiple characters with the same personality.
The animals also have relationships with each other. They talk to each other (though you don’t know what they say) and as a result they can get happy or sad or angry. If they really like each other, they will change their outfit to be the same as the other critter and they will hang out in the same area often. Until they break up.
Animal Crossing is of course a good example of how one can make simple A.I. seem convincing if the characters are animals, and very cartoony ones at that. The designers really exploited that element, but I still think there’s things to learn from the game for more realistic applications.
The animals have very simple ways of expressing themselves. But these are very efficient. When they are annoyed, grey clouds appear over their heads, when they’re sad, rain falls out of those clouds. When they are happy, they radiate flowers and when they are in a good mood they walk around whistling.
I have only discovered some 15 emotions that they can express and still the characters are credible and endearing. You can’t hep but feel sorry if one of them passes by with a raining cloud over his head.
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Posted by Michael on April 22nd, 2006, in Games
I have a problem with The Sims. The game is very depressing to me. If you’re not a dedicated gamer, your Sims quickly become sad or suicidal. So instead of the attractive doll house that the game seems to be, it turns into a hamster cage full of pathetic creatures that probably eat each other too.
Another reason why it is depressing is related to the AI model in The Sims. It is the typical model of the scientist or the engineer: break everything apart into its constituent parts and then put it back together with artificial replacements for these parts. For a game, this is perfect: you end up with a whole series of gauges that you all have to keep full. Obviously these gauges continuously drop and filling one of them often empties another. Hours of entertainment! If you’re into that sort of thing.
But the effects of this form of interaction on our feelings for the characters in the story is detrimental. We want to feel empathy for these very versatile creatures but they never give you a break. They end up whining and nagging so much that your own sympathy gauge drops very rapidly. And you start looking for ways to kill them instead…
Chris Crawford once paraphrased Hitchock with regards to The Sims: while the Master of Suspense considers drama to be “just like life, but only with the boring bits cut out”, The Sims is also “just like life, but only with the dramatic bits cut out”. He has a point. Even in the sequel Sims 2, despite of its heavy focus on having friends, falling in love, having children, breaking up, and even dying, etcetera, The Sims doesn’t move you. It doesn’t even move you as little as a banal soap opera. It plainly does not move you. With all their variations in appearance, all their animations, all their clever AI, The Sims do not succeed in doing that one thing. This makes me think that the solution of Drama Princess will not be found in quantity. Perhaps quite the opposite.
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Posted by Michael on April 22nd, 2006, in Games
Yorda is one of the autonomous characters in games that we find most inspiring for Drama Princess. The reason for this is that, although she does not possess very elaborate artificial intelligence, she has a major dramatic impact on the experience of the player. She feels very much alive and you feel affection for her.
In terms of technology, the character of “frail princess” that she plays, maybe be a way of cheating oneself out of developing a complex A.I. system. So the question remains as to whether this approach can be applied to characters with different personalities.
Still, being able to hold hands with a virtual character is simply one of the most moving things I have ever done in a game.
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