Since the dawn of the text adventure, possibly the first chatbots, gamers have had the edge when it comes to computer-based conversations. Now AI is ramping up the smartness of games, how long until virtual reality feels a little more real and game conversations have more than three options?

Go West. (You cannot go west)

Go North. (An orc blocks the way)

Eat Food. (You have only a moldy cheese sandwich)

Such were many people’s introductions to the parsing systems of early text adventures on green-screen computers long before the dawn of graphics. Brands like Infocom and Artic Computing sold their sci-fi and fantasy adventures in huge numbers at a time when people still needed to use their imagination to bring life to digital worlds (read a good recap of the early days here).

Over the years, a few have tried to mix AI, bots and games, like the award-winning Facade that used natural language processing, but most fade as unnoticed curios. AI bots were fine in games like Quake providing digital cannon fodder in the early days of LAN gaming, but complex RPG AI bots, have taken longer to tame.

Today, despite visceral HD graphics, hyper-realistic characters and open worlds, we are still limited to basic types of commands, or conversations that have three or four options with non-player characters. Even worse, in many games, player communication is only by emoji to protect younger players from abuse or harsh language.

All of which sees the rise of the AI-powered chatbot as hope for a brighter, deeper, more interactive gaming future. Imagine a game where you could actually chat to Albert Einstein, or the commander of a starship could talk in a conversational way about their past, current needs and desires without the dreaded cutscene or multi-choice chat.

AI and Bots Will Lead the Way

From the text-only world to today, AIs are already a dominant force in gaming when it comes to playing them and beating us scrawny meatbags. The likes of DeepMind can already crush all resistance in Starcraft, using advanced levels of “intuition” to surprise humans. While this is a diversion for the likes of Google, the technology will soon mean games can create new challenges or endless possibilities for level design and battle outcomes that add to the challenge through AI.

Bots are making their way into games rather slowly, even as every game brags about the smartness of its AI characters (that still get stuck behind walls or fail to shoot the open target in front of them). Ubisoft is making waves with SAM, a gaming assistant chatbot as part of their game club mobile app to support players of Rainbow Six and Assassin’s Creed titles. You can find out how SAM is doing in a Games Developer Conference event in March.

If you want to build your own AI, gaming engine builder Unity has its own game for AIs to play called Obstacle Tower. There are cash prizes on offer for the AIs that perform the best creating an exciting challenge that tests the vision, control, planning, and generalization abilities of AI agents.

There are also lots of indie and academic based efforts trying to change how games play or are designed. Check out GamesbyAngelina, a research project by Michael Cook from the UK’s University of Falmouth to develop an AI system that can intelligently design video games. Check out the GAME-ON 2019 : The 20th annual Simulation and AI in Games Conference in September for the latest in this and similar fields.

The use of AI has already made a decent impact in gaming, check out some leading examples that do it best. But they are nothing compared to what’s to come as the next generation of PCs, PlayStation 5 and other consoles over ludicrous power, plus the infinite resources of the cloud add bots and AI with new degrees of finesse.

Those games may be smart, but they still do the typical game-thing that most genre titles do. If you want to try something more cutting edge, check out AI War 2, a grand strategy game with its own devious AI that will try to crush your own forces.

https://youtu.be/8iyi-ZEiPow

Now that bots can be built quickly and deployed widely, using services like SnatchBot, which you can use to build your own text adventures, bots will play a wider role in the gaming world as marketing, engagement tools and within the games themselves. However, it requires a lot of work and the risk of bots going rogue might put players off. But check back by around 2020 to see how bots in all their forms are taking over gaming.