AI in Gaming: Enhancing Player Experience or Changing the Game?
Technology has always driven innovation in gaming, so it’s no surprise that the gaming industry is taking advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver the best experiences possible to gamers. In just a few years, AI has influenced everything from player immersion to how developers design games. Gamers have benefited from AI-powered systems that make in-game adjustments to the difficulty level based on a player’s skill, all while creating more dynamic and personalized gaming experiences.
As far as developers go, AI has played a big role in procedural content generation and automating the testing of video games for bugs and glitches before they’re released. All of these changes have come quickly and raised questions for gamers and developers alike, one of the most important being: is AI just making our gaming experiences better, or is it completely changing how games are played and developed? Keep reading to learn about AI’s impact on gaming.
AI Enhancing Player Experience
In almost every game we play today, AI is hard at work in the background to make the gaming experience better. As casinos have increasingly moved from the physical to the virtual world, AI has played an important role in personalizing the gaming experience for players. When players explore an online casino, AI algorithms keep track of their preferences and skill levels and make adjustments to games as needed. If the algorithm picks up on a player’s preference for a certain game, it’ll recommend others it thinks they might like. For example, someone who spins the reels on themed slots in an online casino may notice that the platform recommends similar games for them to play.
AI works the same way for other gaming genres, with one of the biggest breakthroughs being its ability to improve the player experience through Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment or DDA. As a gamer plays, AI analyzes their behavior and adjusts the game’s difficulty level in real time; that way, the game never becomes too easy or difficult for them. Non-player characters (NPCs) have also improved significantly thanks to AI. Instead of standing around and acting more as decoration in a game with pre-defined paths, NPCs powered by AI can adapt to a player’s actions and interact with them in a realistic way. Some of the best examples of this can be seen in games like The Last of Us, which use AI to make NPCs respond intelligently to their environment and players’ decisions.
How AI is Changing Game Design
AI has had an impact on more than just gameplay; it has also extended its influence into the very core of game design, especially through the use of generative AI. AI has made it possible for developers to do things like create characters, narratives, and environments that change over time and adapt to the choices a player makes. This is a significant change compared to the pre-set stories of games before AI.
With games responding to players’ actions in real-time, they become more personal for players. Games even use what’s called emotional AI to tailor narratives based on what a player might be feeling as they play the title. AI has also made the process of testing and debugging games a lot less complicated. Automated AI bots can simulate thousands of playthroughs and find bugs and performance issues much more quickly than human testers. This efficiency has sped up the development process and improved game quality upon release.
AI and Multiplayer Gaming
Multiplayer games have quickly become the preferred method of gaming for millions around the world, and AI is being used to make this online experience even better. Developers have designed AI-driven matchmaking systems to analyze player skill levels to match players of similar abilities, making teams more balanced and the gaming experience more satisfying.
Adaptive enemy AI is another way that multiplayer games have benefited from AI’s ability to learn and adjust to players and actions in a game. AI makes enemies smarter and more challenging in a way that keeps players engaged.
