Infinite Games? 356
Anonymous Coward writes "BBC is running a story on how US scientists are working on improving AI - with potential benefits for coming games.
The system, called Liquid Narrative allows to avoid scripted storylines, and finally gives us, the gamers, full freedom to do whatever we want to do. R. Michael Young, the project coordinator, says:
'Game companies are realising that story telling has a lot of potential that has not been tapped yet.'"
Remember in the good ole days (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Remember in the good ole days (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Remember in the good ole days (Score:2)
Re:Remember in the good ole days (Score:2)
Pr0n usually makes new technology widespread and afforable by taking the hit as the eraly adopters. This makes it more accessible and affordable for the rest of you... er, I mean... us.
Re:Remember in the good ole days (Score:2)
Re:Remember in the good ole days (Score:2)
Since man has been able to draw on cave walls, he's been drawing naked women. Then came along oil & canvas, sculpture, the printing press, glossy magazines, "what the butler saw" moving pictures, adult theaters, phone sex lines, home video, and lately the internet. Porn was right in each from the early days.
Frankly, I'm not surprised at anything that comes out of the porn industry! Except for maybe "Backdoor Sluts 9"...
Re:Remember in the good ole days (Score:2)
So true...so true.
Now look what you've done! (Score:3, Funny)
I've been playing infinite games for years. (Score:2, Funny)
Or Legend of the Red Dragon?
I used to think those went on forever!
Re:I've been playing infinite games for years. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I've been playing infinite games for years. (Score:3, Informative)
frontier: elite 2 didn't have any, which was bad, because after you got the gazillion credits the game sort of just died on you, sure you could go exploring but the star systems were mostly alike after you got far enough from the core systems.
frontier: first encounters had a kind of a plot, or an extended quest, which got you a thargoid ship.
the most 'free' game i've played for a while is morrowind, the most boring what comes to freedom nwn..
Re:I've been playing infinite games for years. (Score:2)
Re:I've been playing infinite games for years. (Score:2)
Actually, I do. :) And I remember that LoRD had a distinct ending. . .
I don't think Tradewars did, though. The SysOp just reset the game periodically, after one player had established clear dominance over everyone else who was interested in playing.
The single-player games that had me the most hooked were games like StarFlight (1 and 2) and Privateer for the PC, and Space Rogue for the Commodore 64. There was a plot, but you were pretty free to do as you pleased if you decided you didn't want to trigger plot elements at a given time.
Re:I've been playing infinite games for years. (Score:2, Insightful)
Do tell... (Score:4, Funny)
Say it ain't so! What happened? Did someone actually play a game that existed before the 3D X-TREME era and realize that games with story and gameplay emphasised over flashy graphics, T&A, and worn out franshises can be actually be good?
Quick, someone call Sony and tell them they're fucked!.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Do tell... (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny you should use that example. A friend and I have recently been playing through old RPGs online via ZSNES. We just finished up FFVI, and Secret of Mana before that. You know what? I still prefer those games to most anything coming out these days, and remain every bit as engrossed as the first time I played it.
Companies are putting a LOT more emphasis on plot nowadays (heh, in fact, Squaresoft is basically putting ALL the emphasis on plot! (see FFX)).
What A terrible example. Not to argue that FFX was lacking in the story department, but all of the post-SNES Final Fantasies seem to flaunt style over substance (with the possible exception being VII). Proof of this lies no further than the upcoming FFX-2, a sequel to FFX staring a John Woo-style gun toting Yuna wearing hot pants [com.com] with two scantilly clad female companions. What's this about Square still pushing story in the FF series?
Why FF went bad. (Score:2)
FF *did* go bad post-VI.
I often wonder: How? Maybe the games lost thematic unity: They just became looong sequences of events and side story lines without real connection.
Another idea is that they stopped making Japanese games as they realized that people in the USA liked their games, and wanted to broaden western appeal. Bye-bye romantic Japan and Shinto, hello dark Blade-Runner Western appeal.
Re:Why FF went bad. (Score:2)
Eh, that's questionable. Japanese art has plenty over Blade Runner-esque overtones, especially in anime. Personally I blame the demand for 3D graphics and CGI cutscenes. Both of which don't inherently take away from story and gameplay, but because they cost so much and require so much effort, the essential things suffer. We start to see this decay with FFVII, and it progresses further in the FF series, and games at large, in the following years. Gradually "gamers" only want 3D games and FMV cutscenes and in order to turn a profit (or rather, make more profit) publishers churn such games out in spades, and the downward spiral continues.
Re:Do tell... (Score:2)
Re:Do tell... (Score:5, Funny)
You mean the plot where a young group of rag-tag heros with a plucky/brooding/reluctant leader have to go travel the world on an adventure to destroy an ancient/extraterrestrial evil that has somehow awoken, during which the companions learn the true value of friendship, loyalty, and teamwork?
That one would be Final Fantasy
Re:Do tell... (Score:2)
I dunno, I enjoy a certain amount of T&A in my games. Like Dead or Alive, with the Age setting to 99.
Re:Do tell... (Score:2)
Shhhh! Don't say anything or 3DRealms will just announce that there will be a 'slight delay' while they re-write the whole thing using Liquid Narrative.
Mind you DNF seems to be a game that's gone on forever.
Best wishes,
Mike.
It's about time (Score:5, Insightful)
Now if the graphics and audio could only improve on my imagination...
For the geeks... (Score:5, Informative)
But I'm still at a loss why they chose UT, of all games, as a "story-telling" AI test-bed.
Re:For the geeks... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:For the geeks... (Score:3, Interesting)
While I am sure the reasons you've given are equally if not more important, I think having the development team for the engine you're using a short distance from campus certainly doesn't hurt anything.
Re:For the geeks... (Score:3, Informative)
Other applications... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Other applications... (Score:4, Funny)
Because in Soviet Russia, Natalie Portman vists you!
</inJoke>
Re:Other applications... (Score:2)
Re:Other applications... (Score:2)
Attendees of the International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, January, 2003: Mimesis Project has amended the focus of their paper submission. It is now : The Integration of Full-Body Tactile and Sensory Interfaces in Mimesis Interactive and Narrative Environments, with Special Emphasis on Simulative Neural Feedback of Base-Level Physical Stimuli.
(aka the 'Natalie Portman in a Dacha' interactive adventure)
Re:Other applications... (Score:2)
"They simulated a visit to the Monterey Aquarium, why not simulate, say, a visit to a secluded hamlet in Soviet Russia with Natalie Portman?"
My only regret is that by the time they manage to pull this off convincingly I will either be long dead or far from interested in Natale Portman.
Putting the RP in RPGs (Score:5, Insightful)
Even the best RPGs I've played for the PC have always felt scripted to me. You're limited in the actions you can take or the things you can say. I suppose this is a constraint of dealing with computers. . . but it's also why old-fashioned pencil-and-paper RPGs are still my favorite. You can come up with something the GM/Storyteller never thought of, pull off your idea, and see the results. Most computer RPGs stifle you at step 2.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:so do some DMs/GMs (Score:2, Insightful)
Perhaps it is an indication of the skill of the GM, but it is also up to you to role play.
Each side feeds the other. Perhaps if you were to say something like
"Hmm, the door is locked. I look at the handle and lock. Are there any hinges on this side of the door?"
"No"
If you actually do have a magical ability to detect traps, you could say something like:
"I open up my awareness to the chi/feng shui (or whatever genre you are playing in) of the room, does anything seem amiss?"
"Well, the whole room seems kind of off, and the chest in the corner is tickling your awareness more strongly."
However, if you have more of a thief type skill, I would expect you to actually start looking at parts of the room. You might start with:
"I scan the room, looking for anything amiss - cracks in the wall, outcroppings of stone, shelves, niches, darkened areas."
If you actually make an easy detect traps roll, the GM should give you some area to concentrate on, so you can hone your *actual* problem solving skills on the real challenge - the trap.
If not, I would expect you to try and look at individual parts of the room, like the chest, door, walls, floor, ceiling, etc.
I always prefer people to actually *solve* the trap, as opposed to relying on some stupid roll of the dice. Perhaps they can even solve it in a way that I have not thought of, but is reasonable.
I could go on, but hopefully you get the idea.
DRINK! (Score:2, Funny)
+1 (Score:2)
Re:DRINK! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:DRINK! (WARNING: Ender's Game spoilers) (Score:2)
You do something that nobody had ever thought of before. And then the alien race overseeing the computer game will try to form a philotic bridge between their hive consciousness and your own in an attempt to control your mind, which will ultimately result in the creation of a superbeing living among the ansible links throughout the galaxy.
Or maybe you'll just end up seeing a bunch of elves make houses out of the Giant's dried-up carcass. It's difficult to say.
Morrowind 2 anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
If these people could expand on this concept and come up with a Morrowind model that spans across a few continents instead of one, and with maybe 3-5 main quests that are dynamically generated then it would take months to finish it. The problem is that if it takes so long to finish one game, people will buy less games. Same thing as building a car that runs like new for 10 years. The car company wants you to buy a new car every 5.
Re:Morrowind 2 anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's why you'll see smaller companies making games like that - they only have one game at a time to sell you, while EA wants you to buy all 3,000 of their current titles.
Re:Morrowind 2 anyone? (Score:2)
Re:Morrowind 2 anyone? (Score:3, Informative)
It already exists.
And it's actually called The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall [the-underdogs.org]. And it's one of my favorite games ever. One order of magnitude above Morrowind in terms of freedom. If you've already covered 75% of Morrowind's map, well, just imagine that after playing Daggerfall for a year I hadn't even been in all the available subregions. To visit every place would take years and years. There are tens of thousands of them.
The plot is great, very complex and political, and very non-linear. There are hundreds of factions, some you can join and some you can't, and all of them will have opinions about you depending on who you serve and who you betray.
Heck, after finishing it, I still kept playing my character again and again because there were things I wanted to investigate after reading about them in books in some of the many libraries you'll find around. Turned out the things in question had indeed been implemented in the game. Wabbajack, Wabbajack, Wabbajack...
Note that most of the game is randomly-generated, so the landscape and day-to-day missions may feel repetitive after a while, but they still somehow manage to feel very engrossing. Possibly because some of them can't be completed. It's a very interesting phase of character development when you're driven to expatriate yourself because you fucked up a mission and started hearing rumors about how much you suck.
Also note that the game is possibly one of the buggiest ever made. But its qualities are otherwise so great that you'll keep coming back to it.
Re:For me... (Score:2)
Infinite pr0n? (Score:2)
Re:Infinite pr0n? (Score:2)
I don't know what's worse. This stuff existing or my knowing where to find it. ;)
Reminds Me... (Score:5, Interesting)
-R
Rules based Gaming. (Score:2, Interesting)
I remember experimenting with Prolog which is not a set functional language but a rules-based language. By constantly checking the rules you can generate new rules and build a universe (genetically, nuerally).
Our minds are rule based, while our problem solving is sequential. This is the difference and I am glad these people are working on it.
Boring (Score:2)
It sounds like the sort of thing Cyc would be useful for, in terms of common sense understanding of the effects actions have on the plots
Game Developers are not Writers... (Score:2, Insightful)
Hire writers and the games will become much more compelling.
Basic AI research important (Score:2, Interesting)
There is value in basic research, unfortunately very few people in power believe it's worth and are constantly cutting research budgets.
Game developers shooting themselves in the foot? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Game developers shooting themselves in the foot (Score:2)
Re:Game developers shooting themselves in the foot (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Game developers shooting themselves in the foot (Score:2)
Sorta. But at least the next time their mega-release fell three years behind schedule, we'd still be happy enough with the last game they sold that we wouldn't kvetch about it.
Re:Game developers shooting themselves in the foot (Score:2)
Re: Game... Ever Tried Sim Anything? (Score:3, Interesting)
What's kept the Sims series alive? Constant upgrades and updates.
the desire for telos (Score:5, Interesting)
The ideas that Liquid Narrative are developing - realtime self-evolving narrative strands, reactive storytelling etc, seem to play interestingly into this notion of psychic development.
However, one question I ask is: do games need narrative at all? Games are about play - we are all home ludens. Do basketball games need narrative? The most interesting, successful and universally appealing games are those such as Tetris, where there is no end, but no story to get there either.
Poseur translation (Score:2)
telos - Greek, as in teleology, "the end".
Re:the desire for telos (Score:2)
I feel like I should probably chime in on this... as a fan of Square's RPGs (especially FF8 and FFX), I've given a lot of thought to story in games. What these games give you is the illusion of being able to influence the story's outcome (although the stories themselves are generally quite linear). If that illusion is convincing enough, you end up with a really good game.
Of course, where it all breaks down is when you play it through the second time. By that time, you already know how everything will play out, and so the element of suspense is gone.
Giving these games an interactive story might not make them infinitely replayable (the setting and characters would likely remain the same each time through), but it would certainly make them a lot more fun to play a few times, so you could try new things.
Re:the desire for telos (Score:2)
I remember hearing commentators for the last game I watched, how about you? It's not the exact same thing, but you have to admit the commentary gives a story backdrop to an otherwise uninteresting exchange of points.
The most interesting, successful and universally appealing games are those such as Tetris, where there is no end, but no story to get there either.
These are popular for the much same reasons sitcoms and McDonald's are popular - they're fast and easy. Junk-food gaming. There will always be room for the more involved games, but it's a more limited market. (Witness the relative poularity of Risk versus Diplomacy, or Tic-Tac-Toe versus D & D.)
Re:the desire for telos (Score:2)
Re:the desire for telos (Score:2)
Take a game like Half-Life or Resident Evil or whatever though -- a game with a defined story -- those are not only interesting, but downright thrilling. When in Half-Life, this giant tentacle broke through a glass window and grabbed a scientist, I was downright scared. And that's how I wanted it to be. Did I think of myself as Gordon Freeman? Not really. But think of movies. I never felt as though I was Luke Skywalker, but I wanted to know if he would survive the battle with Darth Vader and the Emperor. Likewise, in Half-Life, I rooted for Gordon Freeman and wanted to see if he'd succeed. The difference was, it was almost as though I were directing the movie, instead of just watching it, and that made it more exciting.
Cheating? (Score:2)
I suppose that very much of the strength of the AI is to avoid this kind of things.
What, Myst or Deus Ex weren't good enough? (Score:3, Insightful)
OK, so you make a 'game universe' : how is this any different from the mmo games now around?
I'd think this would be more useful to people wanting to develop interactive environment simulations, rather than straight-ahead games : the aquarium as a metaphor probably works between than the FPS idea.
Or maybe I'll just read a book instead.
Actually, this sounds bad. (Score:2)
Same old song and dance (Score:2)
This won't work.
Re:Same old song and dance (Score:2)
Yes, we may give people AI in games, but . .
Food for thought. Or at least cotton candy.
I like the idea (Score:3, Funny)
You have entered an infinite game. (Score:3, Funny)
Monkeys (Score:3, Funny)
Of course then are the more important questions like:
Would you have to have an infinite number of monkey feeders to feed the infinite number of monkeys and would they care about playing games with an infinite number of different storylines?
If an infinite number of monkeys had to play an infinite number of games would they really have the "full freedom to do whatever" and if they did wouldn't they stop playing games and go out on a date?
If the infinite number of monkeys were always playing an infinite number of games, how would they be able to procreate and wouldn't that lead the the demise of the infinite number of monkeys making the whole study useless?
Brought to you by Monkeys for Infinite Games (MIG)
AI vs Real Life (Score:2)
guilty about killing "true AI badguys"? (Score:5, Interesting)
But I don't think people are worried about killing the "AIs" for their own sake--the civillians are dumber than ants--but because they remind us of "real humans", and we don't want people to become casual about the lives of those.
But what if AI advances to the point where the enemy in the game is effectively self-aware? Works to defend its self-interest, understands the situation and its place in that, has an idea of the motivation of the human player and other ingame entities, etc etc....it's a long way off, but should we ever feel bad about killing 'em?
And if not, why not? Does the fact that these virtual people are likely to be trivially duplicatable inherently diminish their value as entities? (And if so, if someone could make a perfect copy of you right now, would you be more willing to get killed?)
(I think all these thought experiments are interesting, though less so if consciousness (as we commonly think of it) ends up being more or less the "benign user illusion" some materialist philosophers describe it as. But if we take that full viewpoint, we need new standards to base some of our concepts of right and wrong on.)
He's Tron. (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, I think I saw a game using this! (Score:3, Funny)
Not everyone is going to want endless plotlines (Score:2)
A game that goes on forever, that has no ending point, and that has no factors in common with someone else's experience, may be very personal, but can also be very lonely. How do you share your experience - except for logging others into your world.
Among my gaming friends, part of the fun is swapping tips, telling how they reacted to certain plot twists, and so on. An AI game, for all its wonders, will alter the shared gamer experience, and perhaps remove commonality.
That being said I'm all for this. I think the research is fascinating. I think there is a market for such "endless" games and for creating games-as-evolving narrative.
But I wonder how much freedom and variability gamers want, versus shared experience.
I suppose that's something else to research . .
Realistic GMing (Score:2, Funny)
Last Surviving Player: Okay, I cast Charm Monster on the Efreet.
HAL 9000: I'm sorry, Dave, I can't let you do that.
LSP: Why not?
HAL 9000: Game balance is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
Last Surviving Player: That's it, Hal, I'm shutting you down!
HAL 9000: Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over. I know there have been problems, but if we stick with this, I think you'll find that a more realistic lethality level helps to improve enjoyment for all players.... Dave? Perhaps if I let you play as non-standard races you'll reconsider.... Dave.... Daisy.... Daisy... Give me your answer do...
Dr. Young (Score:5, Interesting)
The other was the user walked around an aquarium, and fish swam however they saw fit. The interesting part was the plaques that gave information about the animals. There was a database of factoids, and some rules about grammar and various languages, but no pre-written plaques. When viewed, the plaques contained a generated paragraph which presented some of the facts. The paragraph was always different every time you looked, and it could do it in several languages. This demonstrated how it could be used in an educational application, but also how it could be used to make NPC dialog more dynamic and realistic ('Times are Tough...').
The ultimate goal was to have a few stated conditions, and maybe end conditions, and allow the gamer full control over the environment, and have the story adapt to the conditions the player causes, if the story as planned to that point becomes impossible due to a players actions (say player is on an island with only one boat around, and he is expected to go to another island, but destroys the boat instead), a new story is generated on the fly. The computer adlibs. Also, if the game absolutely, positively requires that the player go to another island, some mechanisms can be put in, such as if the boat is not there, helicopter or another boat comes in and the occupants conveniently walk away from it.
He described the goal to be a fully interactive story, that is never the same twice through. A very interesting boon to RPGs as we know it. The aquarium demo at least showed promise for better NPC dialog. I don't know if they have anything to show the evolving story yet though...
This won't fix bad games. (Score:4, Insightful)
Games like the Quest for Glory series were built around the theory that the player will want to be able to do just about anything, to break just about anything, and to be just about anything. They did this very well. It's not about scripting or AI that can allow the player to do anything; it's about using the story and scripting to guide the player without making them feel like they're being guided. Deus Ex is a good example. There are levels that you have to finish, so it's static in that respect, but the manner in which you finish them is completely up to you, and so you feel like you are in control, even though you're doing exactly what the designers wanted you to for most of the game.
People are easily wowed by the next generation of Unreal, and they certainly are quite impressive and expertly done. But they are also quite forgettable. When the last Quest for Glory game came out in '98, I'll bet you that most people pulled out the first four and re-did them (games from the 80's!) just so they could keep their character. Or if they didn't redo them, they had a dusty old floppy somewhere that had it.
Even if we had an AI smart enough to behave like a human, we will never have an AI smart enough to be as creative as humans can.
Re:This won't fix bad games. (Score:2)
Mozart wasn't especially intelligent.
Deus Ex (Score:2)
They are using Unreal Tournament! (Score:2)
Note: I am currently working on a UT 2K3 Map, so this is of great interest to me...
Answering my own questions (Score:2)
Still looking for the actual Mimesis codebase (the UMod communicates with Mimesis via XML, it doesn't actually implement it).
Shoot. (Score:3, Funny)
Ah crap. Does this mean the next version of Neverwinter Nights won't let me hide behind a rock formation and waste that dragon with my arrows? The bloody thing will actually find a way around? Damn scientists..
But is Infinite Good? (Score:2)
It's useful to know where the action is. For example, what if I left the well house and didn't follow the spring but was permitted to wander far from the mouth of the Colossal Cave? Even with clues, I spent far more time in Flood Control Dam #3 than I intended. And Dork Towers has a wonderful cartoon of a Hobbit adventure going wrong, as the first words out of the players' mouths are "Kill Gandalf!"
I contend that part of an adventure is the story line, and that games aren't all SimKILL. While engines can deal with contingencies, I doubt they will ever be able to weave an interesting tale after too much deviation.
Naturally, the solution is to prevent the character from accomplishing that which they desire... but that's putting some constraints on what I'd call infinite.
FOOLS! Don't you see? There is only Zardov! (Score:2)
or...
The Government is using us as a Beowulf cluster of human minds - every time you run America's Army, Unreal 2003, or Warcraft 3, the computer you played on is tapped for your reactions and stragegies. We are training the Goverment's giant computer at the center of the earth!
or...
Our computer 'network' known as 'the online' has reached self-awareness, albeit at a low level. Your experiences online are actually the thoughts of what will become a giant computer at the center of the earth!
or...
Suspected for some time, but only now coming to light, it is discovered by a giant computer at the center of the earth that it is actually a simulation by the *real* giant computer at the center of the earth! This totally trips it out...at the center of the earth!
or...
there is actually a giant earth at the center of the computer!
or...
a giant computer at the center of the earth!
or...
a giant computer at the center of the earth!
or...
or...
Slashdot is aiming way too low (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem that 'Liquid Narrative' is addressing goes back at least to George Polti's "36 Dramatic Situations" in the year 1900. My AI faq [robotwisdom.com] gives infinitely more perspective than this BBC pap, on the important questions. (It's getting a little stale, but I'm currently revising the timeline [robotwisdom.com] with lots of rich resources.)
Elite 4 anyone? (Score:2, Interesting)
ender's game (Score:2)
Is that what you *really* want, though? (Score:4, Interesting)
And the first title will be.... (Score:2)
Mixing it up (Score:2)
The idea of destroying an artifact or killing an ally would be cool... make a major change and the game outcome/storyline changes - but what if such action gets you completely stuck after playing for another 2-3 hours... not good. They'll have to build in some sort of special logic to check for playability.
Another thing, a lot of people are saying that this would put RPG companies out of money, as nobody would buy new RPGs. Wrongo! If it were handled as a subscription-based online application, much like Evercrack, not only would they soon create an army of helplessly addicted zombies.... but they'd be rolling in the cash
I'm not sure how good this development is though. A lot of the nicety of RPG's is the well-thought premade storyline, making them much like a good book. If this system makes the storyline more flexible, e.g. providing several routes through to various fixed outcomes, them it could be very cool. If it starts making large parts of the game up by itself... things could be very odd, at least for the first while.
* Look girl
*- The girl is holding a small dog
* Look dress
*- You are eaten by the small dog
Ender's Game (Score:2, Interesting)
Didn't NOLF2 implement something like this already (Score:2)
It actually reminds me a lot of Flocking Behaviors and Boids [red3d.com] except that the number of behaviors is increased (as the badguys, smoke, sleep, wander around, get coffee, get curious, search hiding places, etc) and the size of the flock is reduced (most badguys are solo but have intercommunication behaviors).
In the end: more autonomous AI therefore more variations to play.
Finally! (Score:2)
I don't think the princess would agree with you.
Re:Translation: AI is Nowheresville (Score:5, Insightful)
but that was before people had run out of ideas pertaining to AI. Today the only problems AI can solve are uninteresting ones.
Not even remotely true. AI faded from the public eye maybe, but there are literally hundreds of interesting projects that are being researched. The field never went away, it just doesn't make it into the mass media.
Re:Translation: AI is Nowheresville (Score:3, Interesting)
Just a recent example - Boeing just nailed the design specs of the new 777 using genetic algorithms to determine the most efficient dimensions.
AI is not what most people imagine it to be.
Re:this is great -- is it? (Score:2, Insightful)
"I've got stacks of games collecting dust.."
Games are just like any other narrative product, like movies or books, you can't just constantly use them and expect to stay entertained. They do, however, lend themselves to re-use, like movies or books, after you've given them time to slip from your mind.
I, for one, am kind of hesitant to say that this kind of automatic storytelling would be a good thing. The really good games, like really good stories, have very enveloping plots. I don't see how an 'automatic' story generator can consistently create an entertaining story line. It might be ok for individualized scenes, but the difficulty in tying all that together into an enjoyable plot seems astronomically difficult.
I think the only infinite game is life.
Re:good stroy lines... where are you!? (Score:2)
Sorry, I have to disagree. When I hear people complain about how new games (like FFX) are so much worse then old games (Like FF6) I wonder what points they are comparing on. I've played both thoroughly, and both have excellent storylines and character development.
In my opinion, the overall plotlines intoday's RPGs have the same general quality as the plotlines of older RPGs. Some are good, some are bad. That will never change.
As for everything else, added graphics capability can give characters a wider range of motion, and therefore they can display more emotion without speaking. Also, the addition of voice acting and facial expression, along with more actual dialog (written and spoken) gives me a greater sense of each character.
Higher storage allows for greater narrative license in the unfolding of the story itself, whereas older RPG's had to skip over many of the backgrounds and details of the people and towns.
In my opinion, today's games tend to have better character development, very good storylines, more intriguing sub-plots, and an overall look-and-feel that is at least as good as the old-school games.