COLOGNE: Artificial intelligence (AI) has made its way into gaming – both in game development, where it is accelerating workflows, and in the playing experience itself.
From AI companions in shooters to user-generated game worlds, artificial intelligence is transforming the gaming experience – and raising questions about jobs in the industry.
The development is causing “an uneasy feeling” among employees and freelancers, says Petra Fröhlich, a journalist and founder of a gaming industry magazine in Germany.
“Graphic designers, translators and marketing professionals are asking themselves whether they will still be needed in a year’s time or whether AI will have taken over their jobs.”
AI is also changing how games are played. Some titles now feature fellow players and opponents controlled by AI models. In some action games, a protagonist is given an AI companion that can be given commandsple
The AI assistant does not follow pre-set building blocks but adapts to the human player’s behaviour. If the protagonist has shown a preference for an assault rifle during the game, the AI companion will search for an assault rifle or ammunition for it, without being explicitly told to do so.
“You don’t get the same answers every time, but individual and therefore more fitting responses – the gaming experience is more authentic and appealing, no longer as uniform as it used to be,” says gaming expert Fröhlich.
AI also controls characters in role-playing games and sports games, which is particularly interesting for multiplayer online games, she says. “If a fantasy action game needs 100 characters, the previous approach was to wait until 100 people had logged on.”
Now games can start with fewer human players, as the remaining characters are taken over by AI without human players noticing – reducing the waiting time before a game begins.
Players appear to be responding positively to AI improvements, according to a recent survey of players by German IT association Bitkom. In the poll, 65% said they found game worlds and characters more realistic thanks to AI.
Just over half said their gaming experience had become more personalised with AI, and that they preferred playing against AI-controlled opponents rather than humans.
An AI that analyses a player’s own behaviour makes a game less predictable and more exciting, Fröhlich says. “The incentive to keep playing increases, and gamers stay engaged for longer.”
For single-player games, she also sees it as a positive that AI can recognise the human player’s skill level and adjust the difficulty of opponents accordingly – avoiding situations where the human player is far too strong or far too weak and drops out quickly from boredom or frustration.
Developing games at home with AI
AI also has a hand in another gaming trend: user-generated content (UGC), in which gamers create their own game worlds – such as extra chapters on the Roblox platform or within the Fortnite universe – or develop entirely new games.
“You can easily use prompts and let your imagination run free,” says Fröhlich.
For now, games created by private individuals are still relatively simple, but they are becoming more complex. In time, commercial providers of simple mobile games – puzzle, Tetris or memory games, for example – will feel the impact of this development.
“The market will be flooded with free games – that is likely to make things harder for certain studios.” – dpa
