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Is there a place for AI in the gaming world moving forward?- Hot Topic
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Feb 19, 2024
AI is a very controversial topic in the gaming world. Join us today to discuss this idea of is there a place for it in modern gaming development on this episode of Hot Topic! Head to Game Sandwich for articles: https://www.gamesandwich.com/ Follow us and let's talk about video games, their stories, and the people that make them! ?Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@game.sandwich.official ✖️Socials: https://twitter.com/TheGameSandwich ?Join our Discord: https://discord.com/invite/6GrQYXYdSf #ai #foamstars #aigaming
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Artificial intelligence has found its way into the gaming world, and some view this as a vital
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tool to revolutionize gaming development as we know it, and some aren't the biggest fans of it
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even existing within the space. So today we're going to argue this idea of, is there a space
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for AI within gaming? Now with all that being said, join us today as we bring together some
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of Game Sandwich's finest, and pit them against each other in some good old fashioned gaming
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debates. Now, why are we doing this? Well, this is a Hot Topic
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What's up guys, this is Kalo, and normally I'm here to give you the lowdown on all things gaming
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but we are back for yet another episode of Hot Topic, and joining me today is a brand new face to Hot Topic, why don't you say what's up
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Oh, Aiden here. So, we brought in Aiden today because we have a special topic to talk about, and that is AI
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in gaming. Now before we dive into that whole rabbit hole here, I want to describe the rules
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of Hot Topic for those of you who are new here. We're going to flip this here coin to decide
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heads or tails, who is for and against this topic. So today, for AI in gaming
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heads you will be for AI in gaming, and tails you will be against
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So, in honor of you being a brand new guest here, you're going to be up first
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to kind of put you on the spot, I like to do that, you know, kind of test the waters here
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So, I'll flip the coin, and then this will be the side you're defending
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All right, we are going to flip the coin, and you will be..
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You will be for AI in gaming. Okay, that makes things easier for me
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I mean, makes it more difficult for me, big deal. That's what we love to do here
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My wife will be angry now, she's completely against it. We got to put people on the hot seat here, no pun intended
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but I'm going to pass it off to you first. What is your first point to defend AI in gaming
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I mean, first point to defend it really is just time consumption. I mean, when it comes down to
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actually constructing everything, AI can really help like build out a world. I mean, really
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there's instances where you can take like an entire set of data, feed it to an AI
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and then it can just spit out like quests and everything for you, for instance. Or like fill out NPCs, create blank faces for you to work off of
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You know, that way you don't have to like go and sculpt every last painstaking detail of the world
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I know crunch is such like a big thing in gaming, especially as development goes
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These companies want to hit their marks as far as like, all right
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it's definitely coming out February 24th, 2024 or whatever. And if they miss that mark
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it's like a moral sin here. But yeah, I do see that. But in the same sense too
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I've always said gaming development adds that like handcrafted feeling to a game
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Like it just feels more homey. Like there was more thought put into it versus an AI
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which is kind of like binary ones and twos. So it just makes the world seem to lived in
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you know, a game like Starfield uses that procedurally generated stuff. And you can kind of tell when you land on a planet, like this was generated by the AI
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And like this hub city is definitely made like intricate, very well handcrafted
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Some of it might be AI. I'm not too smart to talk on the technology side of things there
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But I just want that handcrafted feeling in gaming. You know, it adds a level of like
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appreciation. Like I'm not trying to sit here and be like, I'm a fine gaming commonsure, but like
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it's the matter of, I just want to feel like there was some thought, some work put in by an actual
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human. No, no, yeah, I get that. I mean like, okay. So think about it like this, like GTA 5
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for instance, going on to GTA 6. I mean, if they end up putting AI in there in order to
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generate an extra like a hundred people who are roaming the streets, not going to really tell a
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difference as long as they're still people. Yeah. And let's be honest, those people are
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probably getting run over. That's just the way people drive. Exactly. You're going to end up
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hitting like a hundred pedestrians on your way to go complete whatever mission that you're doing
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So really if they just give a bunch of sample faces and then go, hey, AI, sprinkle this around
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nobody's ever going to know. I agree with that to a point. And it kind of leads me to my next
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thing here is, you know, whenever we talk about gaming and I look to more of the Bethesda games
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here, you talk about choice and AI, I feel removes again, that human aspect of crafting morality
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You know, the Paragon system in Mass Effect is a great system, a great system of choices, good
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bad in between. And I don't know, maybe this is just me watching too much Terminator, but it's
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like, I don't think AI is going to get that whole feeling aspect to it all. Like the emotional
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impact of these choices have, it's definitely, it's probably going to be removed. Maybe it learns
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and that kind of scares me at the same time here, because then that's like a whole Ultron deal
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This is where we get our tinfoil hats on. But yeah, at some point it just kind of goes off
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the rails and just be just ones and twos pretty much. Yeah, I mean, you can, like, I get where
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you're coming from with losing the feeling and everything of like, especially whenever everything
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goes like full AI, and they're the ones who go off of your choice and everything. But also
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when you when you really think about it, if you give it like a set amount of choices
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and you give it like a set amount of data that it can go off of, it could also go into
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more dynamic, like interaction, you know, like, let's say you make that one choice
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And, oh, the AI picks up on it later on, hey, it shows, oh, hey, I'm going to start treating you
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like you're evil because you made the evil choice, you know, and then therefore it changes how every
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NPC views you and how every NPC interacts with you. And so therefore, like you can start hearing
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more dynamic dialogue as you go, because everyone wants to treat you like you're evil
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or everyone wants to treat you like you're good if you go on the good side, you know, I look at games like Fable, like Fable two back in the day, I remember doing and I never replay
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games like that. I did two separate playthroughs, the good and the bad side, I was a devil
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I was an angel. And it's like, I see the possibility there. And then at the same point
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with AI making these games, and having that wide amount of things available to you
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whether it be dialogue, whether it be maps, stuff like that, it can kind of get overwhelming. I know
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whenever and I'm bringing up Bethesda games again, but whenever I played Skyrim first time
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like you get through that tutorial, like area, you know, this is the game, this is your story
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Now you go now we ball, I immediately could care less what was going on with the story
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shot off in a random direction in the woods. And that was where I went to. And then that just
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opens up more things to distract you. I guess that's what the classic RPG thing is, especially
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nowadays, you got to make a big game. And at some point, maybe the wide range of choice
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might overwhelm some people at some point, because it's like, how much time can I stick
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into this game? Because I know it's quick. Nowadays, people got to get in, get out
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And then there are people like me who buy Skyrim like six times. And that's just the way life goes
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And I've played it all the time. But yeah, choice is so overwhelming with this stuff. I just see
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layers keeping like going, especially as you develop a game. I don't view AI being a thing really in like RPGs. I don't know why when I envision AI
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I don't think RPG games, because those for so long have been handcrafted. What I really think of it
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in is like Final Fantasy 14, for instance, like anything that's a live service game, you know
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where you have to constantly keep updating, you have to keep making it fresh and everything
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I feel like AI could really shine there. You know, whenever you have to keep creating new
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dialogue, or you have to keep creating new scenarios for people to like, invest their time
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in. Yeah, like Skyrim, great game. Absolutely love it. But really, you set yourself with just a
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sandbox there. Hey, you set the parameters, you're good. And you can go forever. In Fallout
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four, for instance, you can go forever with having Preston tell you, hey, another settlement needs
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your help. But that notification still haunts me to this day. But in a game like Final Fantasy 14
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where, you know, they're going to have like another new update, you want friends to constantly
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have something new to do with you and everything. Like AI can really shine there because they can
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take Oh, everything that's already in the game, and basically just recycle it and then be like
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Oh, hey, here's a new quest for you. Or like, here's another new scenario for you, or more
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dialogue that it just came up with. You know, I never thought about it with live service titles
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like that. Like, it kind of scares me at Fortnite gets a hold of it. Because that, that game has
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evolved into something totally different. And that's gonna be like the new meta world
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They got so many clubs, like, who, who approves all this? I need to know. But I wanted to touch
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on one final point. And that's voice acting, you brought up this point about like new dialogue
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trees and stuff like that. I look at a game like Indiana Jones, like yes, they're using Harrison
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Ford's likeness Troy Baker, talented guy is voicing the character himself. But then I look at music
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and what's going on there, I scroll tick tock, and I see these AI covers of songs, whether it be
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plankton singing, like my chemical romance, or some other random cursed thing. But people getting
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their jobs taken away voice actors, even developers at this point, too. I worry about that
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Because, you know, if AI existed, well before Troy Baker ever came around, would we know about that
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talent? No, probably not. I mean, that's a whole other again, system that could spawn a whole
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different debate. But it boils down to voice acting. And I know lines get blurred here as far
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as people who have long passed, and then using their voices to recreate them and then put them
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into games. I don't know, it seems like there's going to be more legal problems there, especially
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with voice acting, with music as well. It basically it's more trouble than what it's worth
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See, I, I, I find it so hard to debate that because like, I, I agree with you so much on
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that because like, I don't the last thing that I want, the one thing that I really draw the line
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with with anything going forward with AI is I don't want people to lose their jobs over having
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some AI take over. Really where I see AI could go well with voice acting, or even with artists
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for instance, like because there's so many instances now with like, Foam Stars was the
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most recent one where in game advertisements were made using AI. See, I don't like that they
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used AI for that. But also at the same time, I feel like they could, if you get an artist
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or you get a voice actor, somebody who is interested and wants to work with that company
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so like, I'll just use Square Enix. But like, you get someone who like desperately wants to play a
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Final Fantasy character or something. Well, I don't see the harm in getting a contract signed
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where, hey, that voice, like not your voice in general, but that voice that you make is
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like belongs to Square Enix. Therefore, they can simulate it. But you yourself, if it's your
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natural voice, I do feel like there's a there's a line to be drawn there. Like, you can't take
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someone just naturally talking and be like, Oh, your voice is mine now. You know, but if it's like
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the same thing with artists, if you take a bunch of little sketches or a bunch of little, like
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doodles or whatever. And you let the AI go off of those. I don't see where the harm is in that
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But once you get to that point where it takes the job away, then I'm like
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no, I can't do that. Yeah, speaking of like a job to do, and this is my final point here
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Machine learning, it's gonna be hard to kind of balance that to be fun, because at the end of the
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day, I guess the goal of the AI is to figure out how to beat the player. Now, it's gonna be hard
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for the developer to like craft a proper route for the player to beat the AI because it's always
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evolving. At that point, too, it's kind of like I the AI in like, imagine a machine voice, I've
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beat you, like, mercifully, like, it's over, I've done it, I figured it out. And it's like, no matter
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how many times you try, I have this alternative. I'm just very, very interested to see how they
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balance AI, because it's again, it's a new technology. It's a brand new to most people. I
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mean, this is the first time I'm really digging into it. But for a game development, too, it's
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it's gonna make me question how they find balance and all this, especially not Casting Stones, but
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EA is a company I look at that's gonna probably abuse this because they have Madden with ultimate
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team and all that stuff. But it can be very easy to just press a button. And outcomes the next I
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don't know Star Wars Battlefront three, I would love for it to go back to the OG formula. But
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they're gonna press that button. And then it's like, alright, what do we do from here? You know
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balance in this technology is key, you know, too much of a good thing
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No, yeah, I agree. Like, you need to have balance and everything. And really, I see
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going forward, I see AI where I want to see it go is really to the fundamental side and the like
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be more of a tool to help aid rather than replace or to go beyond what a normal person can do. I
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see it more as like a tool for like, like, say, for instance, like bug fixes. Like, if you program
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an AI to scan for bugs in a game, it can outperform however many players you have currently
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looking for those bugs. And like, so for instance, like PowerWorld for like PowerWorld, that game
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came out, everyone loves it. There are millions of people playing it. But if you put an AI program
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in there to test everything for the bugs, you'd be able to identify 90% of them within like an hour
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And then there you go, you can run a program with it to help it aid you in fixing them. But you still
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need those people to actually implement the bugs, like will implement the fixes for the bugs. But
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the AI is just help there to help aid in the process of it. Same thing with like, like game
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testing and everything. Like, you really if you want to hit it before the beta, yeah, still do
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betas. But like an alpha stage, why not just let an AI like go crazy running around hitting walls
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and see what breaks? You know, it makes you think if it was around for like cyberpunk when that was
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coming out, like if AI was just given a chance to do a once over, could that game be in like a whole
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different state and not require the Phantom Liberty DLC to just revamp the game like what
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two, three years later, almost a year. And it's like, yeah, I agree with that point
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use it as a tool to like round out the game instead of craft it. Like from the ground up. I
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mean, there's some aspects you can do to that, like maybe the map. But I think the human aspects
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of choice of getting around the map of dialogue, potentially some of it like the main story beats
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I think that's got to come from a human. But if you got any more closing points, I'm gonna
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give it to you. I mean, really, all I can say on it is just yeah, going forward, it just needs to
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be more of a tool to help aid rather than anything to go beyond what normal people can do. Because
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I mean, like I can view games like Dark Souls, for instance. If you let an AI go in that and
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have it challenge you, you're gonna lose every time. That scares me. That scares me too much
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There's no way. But like, if it helped aid in the process of like, crafting the world by adding in
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a few extra like trees or like, you know, increasing the boundary and stuff that by all
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means, implement that especially I mean, with Elden Ring 2 inevitably be inevitably on the
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horizon. I mean, yeah, they're probably gonna need something like that. I know, as far as like
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these open world games go, there are parts of the map that always just kind of feel empty. It's like
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yeah, you need that spot to make travel seem realistic. And it's like, sure, maybe throw AI
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and those patches. I know it's not as simple as that. But you know, fill it in with like, maybe
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like in Red Dead Redemption 2 case, like, drop in a little like wagon with a character on it that
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tells you a story. I don't know. It's like these little things you can kind of pluck in. It's like
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the sprinkles on top of your ice cream. You know, it's the nice additive stuff you can get
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I like that idea. Like, I mean, if it was just like, Oh, yeah, you take all these assets
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people actually make them. But then just let the AI go wild a little bit and go
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Hey, in this live service game, you know, this person hasn't done a quest for a while, you know
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just NPC spawns and they go, Hey, why don't you go over here and go get something for me
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At least like incentivizes them a little bit to like want to play rather than just stand around
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you know? Yeah, that's a fair point. But I think at this point in time
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it's time where we pass it off to you guys, the viewers, who was right and who was wrong
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Are you Team Kalo or are you Team Aiden? Let us know in the comment section down below. And again
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feel free to join our Discord channel. Again, links to everything is in the video description
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