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This is my first blog post so (if anyone reads it), please go easy on me:
With all the activity around the Playstation Move at the moment, I've been thinking about Project Natal. I was very excited when I first watched the Natal demonstrations as it seemed that the future (according to Steven Spielberg) was just around the corner. I think, in a lot of ways, it will be awesome - however, it will also be very very bad. As technology improves and movies and video games are able to more closely approximate realism, humanoid characters get dangerously close to the Uncanny Valley. But apart from characters, this can apply to every aspect of games too. In Grand Theft Auto 4 I was amazed by the amount I could do, so when I tried to walk into a coffee shop and realised it was just a painted wall, my emersion was yanked. I can only think that this will get much worse, the closer to realism we get. Project Milo is a good example; the program is designed to engage you in the characters world. He can read your emotions, understand language and react. So, imagine getting into a conversation with Milo and really getting involved in that world. If you play for more than a few minutes you are destined for disappointment. Due to constraints of designers covering all necessary voice recordings, you're guaranteed to quickly run into dead ends where your actions or ideas simply weren't anticipated and so cannot be responded to. When playing Super Mario Brothers finding out the princess doesn't really love you is fine, in GTA4 finding out a coffee shop is just a painted wall is annoying; in the Natal future, being so close to reality but constantly reminded of the simulations limits will be deal breaking. If the PS3 and 360 already can't avoid this situation with low fidelity, less interactive games that only need to respond to controller inputs, imagine how they will cope with this future.
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Living the dream since March 16, 2006
Hit us up with an intro post so we can really get inside your mind.....er, I mean get to know you.
I'm pretty excited to see how Natal and Move evolve over time. I don't really care too much about Milo, mostly because I find it creepy, but if Sega made a new Seaman for Natal I'll be all over it.
But such issues/limits are what spur innovation, right? (Bear with me, I know that might not always happen...but lets say it does.) We have had innovations in graphics, sound, game design, controller input, but the final frontier is AI. It seems to me that Milo is a test bed for the ultimate 'chatter' bot NPC. It can push developers to play with the limits of what NPCs can do And say in games that reacts to you the player.
We all know voice work is expensive And includes paying SAG prices. We all know that when you pre-record dialogue the stories can only one direction And can lack that ability to nuance how conversations go for each player. But, if developers work on AI And chatter-bot technology in games you could make NPC interaction is all games far more flexible. You can make in game cinemas go the direction the player wishes. And, you can create interesting interactions where the start of simplistic 'emergent' interaction between the player And the game are possible.
Will Milo spur developers to accelerate AI with emergent behaviors? Unlikely. That is sad to say, but it is unlikely. But as they say, "So your saying there is a chance!!!?" To that I say "Yes, it is possible...maybe." I can easily imagine RPGs where you walk up to NPCs And ask them anything that would be in an in-game vocabulary And get an answer back.
Remember in TES: Oblivion where all NPCs talk about Mud Crabs? Well, now you can say to the NPC, "Stop talking about Mud Crabs!" And they could respond defensively, because they heard anger in your voice, "But sir the claws! Tell me you don't fear the pinching claws of a mud crab!?" Then you could respond, "I fear nothing!" And the NPC based on you level could respond with, "Well Sir Knight I am just a simple farmer, perhaps you could help me with another problem I have with goblins?"