Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy manual

Trigger Happy

desirable. But you must choose your simplifications carefully.

Though true artificial intelligence, as discussed in Chapter 5, is still very much in its computational infancy, it remains one of the key buzzwords of the videogame industry. Every bog-standard driving game or first-person shooter that comes along claims to have revolutionary AI in its computer-controlled opponents. What this still means, though, is quite the opposite: the computerized opponents are dressed up in a kind of artificial stupidity. Given that a silicon chip can perform precise calculations far faster than a human can, it ought always to beat a human player in games requiring quick, accurate responses. So its skills have to be ramped down in order to simulate typically human failings, rather than ramped up in order to simulate human cleverness.

The best videogame AI so far appeared in 2001’s extraordinary Black and White, a God game that allows you to nurture and teach a creature who evolves uniquely according to your style of play: his behavior and physical appearance come to mirror the balance of your moral decisions through the game. One of very few products that sought to push the envelope of

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