When Will We Get AI-Powered Virtual World NPCs? Seasoned MMO Game Designers Weigh the Possibilities & Perils

Screencap of generative agent simulation -- playable here

Last week I wrote about the game developer who incorporated ChatGPT into his NPC-to-player conversations in his virtual world; now comes an experiment with "generative agents" -- AI-powered NPCs, who talk with each other:

In the experiment, the researchers placed 25 generative agents within a virtual world resembling a sandbox video game, similar to The Sims. Each agent was assigned a unique background and participated in a two-day simulation. The study observed various remarkable behaviors:

One agent planned a party, informed several friends who then invited others, and collectively they coordinated the event.

Another agent decided to run for mayor, sparking organic discussions about their campaign and political stances among the community. Different agents held varying opinions on this candidate.

Some agents retained memories with human-like embellishments, occasionally imagining additional details or interpreting events with their own perspective.

Developed by AI researchers at Stanford (read their academic paper here), some enthusiasts are effusive about the implications, declaring, "Entire virtual worlds could be populated with these agents, producing emergent behaviors."

Definitely eventually, on some level -- but the practical applications are still pretty challenging:

"First," veteran game designer Damion Schubert tells me, "we're at the very infancy of this kind of technology. Both the technology and game designers' capacity to work with it and shape it are going to be very different even six months from now than it is now.

"Second, every game is a different design, and what you need NPCs to do in every game is very different. Chat GPT today could probably make NPCs that spewed out random dialogue and light worldbuilding facts, but it's a longer walk to, for example, have NPCs be at a Bioware Companion-level of intelligence. But there's a lot of room between those extremes!"

Damion, as it happens, was lead designer of Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO.

I've been excited about GPT-powered NPCs for quite awhile, but thinking about actual multi-user virtual worlds I actually play and enjoy, not to mention single-player sandbox worlds like Skyrim, it's difficult to imagine autonomous agents wandering around on their own devices without it becoming a vexing traffic jam. Like, what happens when the town blacksmith who's supposed to upgrade your broadsword decides that he'd rather become a master of interpretive dance?

Damion again:

"At the end of the day, what you want AI to do is to provide a compelling and cohesive experience to the end user.

"As an example, you want background NPCs to not have stories that stampede over or feel more epic than the ones that are core to the story, and you want to be sure the core story is parse-able. You want NPCs to move realistically through the town - or perhaps more importantly, not move in ridiculously unrealistic ways. You want fights to be balanced and challenging but also interesting and winnable if the player brings their A-game.

"That's not nothing! But at the same time, nothing I said sounds like it would be hard to train an AI to keep in consideration."

With the current technology, the best consumer-level applications for generative agents may be in single-player simulations like The Sims, Dwarf Fortress, or (to pick an upcoming title), Rod Humble's Life by You. In games like that, you actually do want highly zany NPCs bumping into each other in unpredictable ways.

For other games, generative AI chat could still be a fun value-add.

"For game dev's its a matter of harnessing the positive side of that kind of thing while making sure the NPCs don’t all decide to go on strike or something, or whatever other emergent thing they could do that’s not necessarily desirable," as Matt Mihály puts it. (Matt, by the way, is the dev who first connected NPCs to ChatGPT.)

"I mean, even as just flavor, it'd be fun, to me at least, to have AI NPCs in even things like FPS games saying original/non-scripted things to me occasionally. Using this for atmosphere is an easy win for a lot of games I think."

Damion concurs on that theme:

"I think the technology is very well-suited to create background noise (such as NPCs that recite the lore and talk like innkeepers) and not so well-suited to stuff that results in player activity (i.e. designing quests and whatnot) because if you do it will all feel super generic.  But filling out a large world is exactly the sort of stuff that game designers frequently look to automate."

Me, I can't wait to write about swordsmiths suddenly showing up in tutus.

Comments

[Adam]

Super generic, yes - but that's pretty much the very definition of MMO quests, they're 95% filler with 5% original ideas.

Figure A. asked GPT-4 to design a quest for World of Warcraft; the results are no worse than the human output actually in the game; and certainly better than the 'radiant quests' in Skyrim or Fallout 4. I bet with some better prompting you could get pretty decent results (e.g. adding the word 'unusual' or 'outlandish' to the prompt for spice)

Prompt:
You are a quest designer for World of Warcraft, write me a ten step quest including a description of the characters involved, and their dialogue.

Answer:

Title: The Lost Artifact of Ethoril

Description: Assist Sage Lirath and his companions on a perilous journey to uncover the mysterious Lost Artifact of Ethoril, a powerful relic said to possess immense arcane energy. Face various challenges, solve puzzles, and battle fearsome foes to reveal the hidden truths of this ancient treasure.

Step 1: Meet Sage Lirath

Location: Ironforge, Hall of Explorers
Character: Sage Lirath (Dwarf, Male, Mage)
Dialogue: "Ah, adventurer! I've been seeking someone with your skills. I've come across an ancient tome that speaks of the Lost Artifact of Ethoril. It is said to possess immense power, and I need your help to uncover it. Are you up for the challenge?"

Step 2: Gather the Party

Location: Ironforge, Hall of Explorers
Characters:
Seraphine (Night Elf, Female, Druid)
Thrallos (Orc, Male, Warrior)
Elara (Blood Elf, Female, Rogue)
Dialogue:
Seraphine: "It's an honor to be part of this expedition. Let us bring balance to the world."
Thrallos: "I fight for honor and glory. Let's do this!"
Elara: "I've got your back, adventurer. I never pass up a chance for excitement."

Step 3: Uncover the First Clue

Location: Searing Gorge
Objective: Find the Ethoril Tablet in a cave guarded by fire elementals
Dialogue:
Sage Lirath: "The tome mentioned that the first clue to the artifact's location is hidden in a cave nearby. Let's find it!"
Step 4: Decipher the Ethoril Tablet

Location: Searing Gorge
Objective: Solve a rune puzzle on the tablet
Dialogue:
Sage Lirath: "These runes seem to be a message. We'll need to decipher it to reveal the next location."

Step 5: Ambushed by Cultists

Location: Searing Gorge
Objective: Defeat the Shadowreaper Cultists who attempt to steal the Ethoril Tablet
Dialogue:
Shadowreaper Cultist: "Fools! The power of Ethoril will be ours! Attack!"

Step 6: Interrogate a Cultist

Location: Searing Gorge
Objective: Extract information about the Lost Artifact from a captured cultist
Dialogue:
Captured Cultist: "I'll tell you nothing... Alright, alright! The next clue is in the Hinterlands, within the ancient troll city of Jintha'Alor!"

Step 7: Explore Jintha'Alor

Location: The Hinterlands
Objective: Find the Ethoril Keystone hidden within the troll city
Dialogue:
Thrallos: "Be on guard. These trolls won't take kindly to us trespassing."

Step 8: Battle the Jintha'Alor High Priest

Location: The Hinterlands
Objective: Defeat the High Priest to retrieve the Ethoril Keystone
Dialogue:
High Priest: "You dare desecrate our sacred city? Feel the wrath of the gods!"

Step 9: Locate the Artifact's Resting Place

Location: Eastern Plaguelands
Objective: Use the Ethoril Tablet and Keystone to reveal the entrance to the hidden chamber
Dialogue:
Sage Lirath: "The moment we've been waiting for. The artifact awaits us within this hidden chamber. Let us proceed with caution."

Step 10: Claim the Lost Artifact of Ethoril

Location: Eastern Plaguelands, Hidden Chamber
Objective: Defeat the Guardian of Ethoril and claim the artifact
Dialogue:
Guardian of Ethoril: "None shall possess the power of Ethoril! Turn back, or face your doom!"
Sage Lirath: "We've come too far to turn back now. For the safety of Azeroth, we must claim this artifact!"
Seraphine, Thrallos, and Elara: "For Azeroth!"

Upon completion of the quest, the characters express their gratitude and celebrate their victory:

Sage Lirath: "We have accomplished the impossible, adventurer. We could not have done it without you. The Lost Artifact of Ethoril is now in safe hands."
Seraphine: "The balance of nature remains preserved, thanks to your efforts."
Thrallos: "You have fought with honor and courage. I am proud to call you my ally."
Elara: "We've secured a powerful relic and thwarted the plans of those cultists. Well done!"

[Damion Schubert]

Adam --

I've found for that stuff, AI is really good at generating ideas but none will be better than 80% of the way there. That being said, that's not nothing! That could be a huge head start to work from and could result in a net gain of quality quests.

As an example, I asked Chat GPT to generate a whole bunch of names for swords from me. 80% of the names chat GPT were crap, but a designer could probably get a pretty good list of names if they were willing to (a) curate the results and (b) take the time to further train the AI so that it's next version is better. Creating 10K sword names is a terrible, soul-crushing task that MMO designers hate and could take us two weeks. I could definitely see AI being used to make a list of better names in only a day (where that day is basically multiple iterations of the task).

Menial tasks like this being more automatable means that designers have more time to spend on stuff that matters more.

[kanomi]

Just a note about The Sims -- the characters don't talk any sort of actual language, since the beginning it's been called "Simglish" and it's deliberate babble, to avoid being specific about what so many NPCs are saying. They use mood icons, facial expressions and body language to convey how a Sim is feeling. It's actually quite sophisticated and appropriate for their particular game.

A version of the Sims where the unplayed Sims started talking actual English (or whatever the player's local langauge is) and becoming more "alive" -- that would be extremely uncanny. It would also be an extremely different game.