Since ChatGPT debuted in November of 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) has captured the world’s attention. Not a day goes by when there isn’t a news story touting its benefits for everything from technology news to smartphones. While AI existed long before AI chatbots became available to the masses, it wasn’t something that was often talked about outside of academic and tech circles. As we know, all of that has changed. For many, AI has become an important part of their day-to-day lives, helping them be more productive at work and in their personal lives. Long before the creation of Chat GPT, AI has been used in the gaming industry to enhance player’s experiences. Many will have been using the technology for years without even realizing it.
At the end of a busy day, most people want to relax and disconnect. In recent years, gaming has become a go-to form of entertainment. What many players don’t realize, is that AI plays a big role in those on-screen adventures, where it is used to analyze player’s behaviors and preferences to create personalized experiences that adapt to their playstyle. AI also makes non-playable characters feel more human, while AI-powered procedural content generation is used for the creation of some of the vast virtual environments that we explore.
In this article, we look at AI’s role in gaming.
Personalized Gaming Experiences
One of the most important ways that AI is used in gaming is to analyze data, which is then used to create experiences that are designed just for the person playing a title.
The iGaming industry has been at the forefront of adopting this technology to increase the satisfaction of people visiting online casinos. Poker is one of the world’s most popular card game, so it comes as no surprise that it’s a crowd favorite in online casinos. Not everyone who visits an online casinos is a poker pro, so platforms often provide players with guides and tutorials on how to play poker, teaching them everything from hand rankings to understanding position and knowing when to fold weaker hands.
As you read web pages and play poker at online platforms, AI is often in the background, registering everything. So, you may find yourself seeing recommendations for articles related to poker variations that match your skill level, or tips to help improve your strategy based on your gameplay history. Likewise, you may be gifted promotions and offers that are tailored to your buy-in levels and preferences. These personalized gaming experiences aren’t limited to the virtual poker table. You’ll find this happening in everything from RPGs to strategy games. As the game learns from you by tracking your playstyle and the choices you make, some games will adjust the narrative and character interactions to make the experience unique to you.
If you’ve played a game where the storyline changed based on the decisions you made, it could well be AI that is being used by the developers to make this happen.
Adaptive Gameplay Mechanics
Most gamers are familiar with the exasperating experience of getting bogged down on a specific level of a game because it’s just too hard to get past. Sometimes, it gets so bad you may give up on playing the game altogether.
The good news is that adaptive AI systems are helping change all that. With adaptive gameplay mechanics, the difficulty level of a title changes in real time based on your skill level and preferences. Gone are the days of going to the settings menu to select a difficulty setting for a game; adaptive AI makes this automatic.
Adaptive AI systems can analyze your performance and change enemy behavior, level design, and puzzle complexity so the game is satisfyingly challenging without being too difficult.
If a game’s AI notices you’re picking off enemies right and left without much trouble, it can adjust enemy tactics and spawn rates to increase the intensity. That way, you rarely become overwhelmed or bored while playing a game.
Realistic NPCs and Interactions
Most gamers are familiar with the scripted NPCs that were a mainstay of gaming for years. These highly predictable characters served a narrative purpose, but weren’t lifelike. AI-powered NPCs are making it possible for NPCs to act more like humans and engage in realistic conversations. AI-based NPCs can even respond emotionally to what a player does in a game and make context-aware decisions. If you’ve played a game with an AI-powered NPC, you know how much it can level up the experience, making it feel more authentic and immersive.
