Real AI for Games

Dave Mark’s post on Why Not More Simulation in Game AI? and the comments it elicited are right on the money about the correlation between lifespan and intelligence of supposedly intelligent adversaries in first person shooter (FPS) games.  It is extremely refreshing to hear advanced gamers agreeing that more intelligent, longer-lived characters would keep a game more interesting and engaging than current FPS.  This is exactly consistent with my experience with one of my employers who delivers intelligent agents for the military.  The military calls them “computer generated forces” (CGFs).  The idea is that these things need to be smart and human enough to constitute a meaningful adversary for training purposes (i.e., “serious games”).  Our agents fly fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft or animate special operations forces (SOFs) on the ground.  (They even talk – with humans – over the radio.  I love that part.  It makes them seem so human.) Continue reading “Real AI for Games”