I'd love to see this. Two bots fighting that were made by the same person wouldn't be all that interesting to witness but having competing developers pitting their AI skills against each other is pretty awesome. It would be cool if they made the winner's bot available for people to download and play against in skirmish mode. #starcraft
I wonder how many people will get just how awesome this is.
For years people have been using Chess to test and advance computer AI. Now we have AI that can beat any human player, which needless to say is no small feat. They BEAT people, in a game that's primarily about out thinking your opponent.
Think about that.
Starcraft is way more complex then Chess (whether it's "better" is subjective. That's a different topic though) especially when you factor in racial differences and multiple players. I look forward to the day that an AI can beat the best Korean Starcraft pros.
And we're one step closer to the Robot Apocalypse.
Zombie Apocalypse, you guys better step it up! #starcraft
@Tevor_the_Third: Starcraft AI beating good players without cheating would be really awesome, yeah, but current chess AI still leaves something to be desired. Nobody can complain about the results - it still beats humans - but it's using a brute-force method to do so (at least during midgame, when it's not blindly following opening playbooks or pre-solved endgames). Human chess players have a specialized "sense" for positions, where just a glance at a board will let them know whether it's a board that arose from play at all (even if it's a position they've never seen).. and chess AI can't do that quite yet. But I'm just a rambling roboticist.. #starcraft
@Tevor_the_Third: Yeah, but I guess the biggest bit of trouble is that those chess AI's beat humans in a game primarily about out-thinking the other player, without really reasoning or thinking at all.
It's just all complicated algorithms and other technical nonsense like that. Survey the board, available moves, available opponent moves, make choice. Observe opponent move, repeat previous steps.
Chess AI designed to make the best possible decision in as many situations as possible, isn't really any closer to true AI than my one-cup coffee maker that is able to tell when my cup is on the tray (and therefore, ready for coffee dispensing), since both still rely on some programmer coding in some set of variables to go with some set decision, for each possible action.
@Yamen: Maybe not a perfect game, but a game with 2 AI that's exactly the same. In other words, what would happen if you put the AI that wins this tournament against itself?
It's crazy how relevant this game still is 10 years later. I guess that's why they're taking sooo much time with the sequel...they've got a lot to live up to. #starcraft
@ThisCharmingMan: Starcraft is one of the greatest games of all time for many people.
Gameplay wasn't the only thing driving the game, but just the basic concepts of the three races, the Zerg, controlled by the demonic sounding Overmind, the humans, constantly being raped by everything, including themselves, and the Protoss, an advanced race comprised of arrogance that have lost their way.
Not to mention the sounds! Who has played Starcraft that can't remember the sounds?
Goliath online!
You want a piece of me boy?
Vector, locked in!
I am wretched... but I am STRONG!
Sacrifice me...
*Hydralisk spitting acid*
You could no more evade my wrath... than you could your own shadow.
It is a good day to die.
The merging is complete.
No doubt within the next hour at least a hundred people will be able to name each and every unit I've quoted. #starcraft
@WhiteSkyRising: You're right man, totally a timeless game. I used to have my PC play the sound of a zergling burrowing when i minimized my windows :) #starcraft
@Leanid: LMAO fo sho! My dad's been playing for about 10 years (IDK, whenever I was in the third grade, I'm a junior in college now), and I still live at home. He plays every other night or so for a good 2-3 hours, and sometimes I'll stop and watch him and mock him:
Improving AI is really the only way to improve gaming as it is now. There are games with realistic graphics, story-teller games with plots like a good novel or movie, and massively multiplayer games that act like social networks with the aspects of a game. But there really isn't any new, revolutionary game coming out with gameplay and enemies we've never seen before. Improving AI and adding emergent behavior would be the new way to change the way people see gaming, as well as being that factor that expands the gaming world even further that Sony has been looking for.
Of course, combining all of the elements we have currently would be a good start too. :D
@bronchiosaurus: Is there any game with a narrative that rivals Ulysses, or Paradise Lost, or Cat's Cradle?
The video game industry, with few exceptions, is moving further and further into a black hole of mediocrity. The trends toward 'realistic' graphics and AI, and hollow 'epic' or 'emotional' stories is a move towards a superficial misunderstanding of legitimate art. Developers think that by imitating the conventions of film (Kojima) and by abandoning the colourful world of imagination (every major Xbox game) they can create something that is somehow more appealing. This is of course wrong; how can you make something more appealing by removing anything that is appealing from it, like colours, accessibility, and joy? Games have gone the route of interactive movies before. Remember Dragon's Lair? Games should not try to be anything beyond what they are, and they are toys. This call for more complex AI will do anything BUT improve gaming. It can only further push the industry down this ridiculous path of pretending that a toy is not a toy.
You want to know why Nintendo has been so successful this generation? You want to know why it has always been successful, and 'hardcore gamers' have always been seen as nerds? Because Nintendo embraces the fact that games are meant to be fun, they are honest about it. Think of how ridiculous and uncultured you all looked when you cried for Aeris. That is how the mainstream will always see technofetishist nerds that take disposable media as high culture.
Hardcore gamers should all take a lesson from Nintendo and select other developers. Fun is the purpose of a game, not 'art' or realism or story. If you just focus on making a game that is fun visually, musically, narratively, and of course in gameplay, then it will naturally be art. Mario Galaxy and Bioshock are greater artistic achievements than any game that tries to be 'art' before it tries to create a fun experience. Shadow of the Colossus, I am looking at YOU.
@Ickbread: You tried the whole "art isn't fun", insulted Shadow of the Colossus, insulted people for crying over a character they felt connected to, called us uncultured...
Wow! Way to win prick of the night! I thought Woozie was bad.
Think about this while you're playing your pathetic "It has to be fun" game... Ever think, just a bit, that many of us gamers may actually find things like Shadow of the Colossus fun? I find MGS4 fun. It's fun being with these characters and experiencing things. And you know what? I DO think it's superior to some of the old epics... The epics were just, for the most part, a bunch of action packed stories with some very minor things to say about human nature played out by gods...
I find Final Fantasy fun... (well, about 2/3 of them) I find Metal Gear fun. I also connect with the characters, and don't mind that I'm not moving my thumbs nonstop because I don't have as narrow a view of what's fun as you do.
Trying to call people out for not being cultured is a crock. Games can be loaded to the brim with culture. Proverbs, classical references, pop culture references, quotations from Masters... The list goes on, and many people enjoy them more for it.
The irony is that you include Bioshock, when... GUESS WHAT? Bioshock was VERY FSKING OBVIOUSLY trying to be art... Taking on Objectivism, how it picks apart Ayn Rand's work... It wasn't just about "fun" otherwise it put so much effort into trying to show you things like you'd lost control and pelted you with the downfalls of that world view... So you just proved what you're talking about as the difference between faux art and real fun is actually the difference between what is your tastes and what isn't.
If you can't separate something you play on a monitor or TV from the real world, regardless of how lifelike the images look and act, then you shouldn't be playing.
@mysonsnameisnova: I agree but i'm going to offer up something for you to consider.
With MMO games and multiplayer FPS games increasing exponentially in the amount of hours been sunk into them, can you agree that in todays world of high technology and networked socialising that people can now experience some of their most treasured moments via multiplayer gaming?
I'm not saying that every treasured moment would be realted to gaming, that would be very sad, but personally, many of my most treasured moments and moments I know I will continue to treasure have happened via networked socialising while gaming.
If they make AI super advanced almost like a friend don't have the character bitching to us where the hell where you for a week i was so bored! Otherwise I would love it.
@mitch_93: You mean you don't want a clingy team mate/buddy in a game. Like Roman...freakin Roman..I drove into so many walls just to shut that guy up. Then he had the cheek to call ME and ask me to pick him up from the hospital?!!
Video Games have already surpassed film artistically. Killzone 2 and MGS IV were an actual life experience. I was closer to the AI in those pieces than I was many of my co-workers. Thanks to the AI in many PS3 exclusives, I've now experienced war, espionage, and betrayal.
Citizen Kane? I was only watching.
As for the "Godfather" of gaming, I have three words: Massive ACtion Game
@Hardcore_Gamer: While I get the point you're trying to make, I'd personally stop short of saying that because I'd played a video game, I've experienced war, espionage, and betrayal.
They're fun, they're escapes, they're realistic and can make you feel like you're in places you might never be able to go... but video games are NOT real life.
@Hardcore_Gamer: I agree. Games display a form of uniqueness that cannot be described. It really is amazing how games have evolved. Heck, it only felt like yesterday when I first played Super Mario 64, oh the memories.
The only problem with games are that the AI is only as advanced as the development is. Whatever the ideas, time, skill, technology, software, hardware, programs, or sweat developers input into the development is what is output in the game. Nothing more, nothing less.
In order for AI to develop and learn on their own as a productive unit, they need heavy amounts of programming, lots of backup storage (example: a cybertronic brain or storage module capable of storing to the capacity of a human brain, more or less), access to an infinitely vast data source (example: Internet), and the ability to reason.
Otherwise, the AI would only be as advanced as it's programming, thus being unable to learn and develop on it's own. I am not saying that current AI cannot learn and develop, but rather, "AI is in it's infancy."
What I worry about is with the ever increasing realistic graphics and emotions that games are starting to portray, how long will it be until the new GTA type game will just be a murder simulation?
Before GTA4 was realised I was a bit worried about the more realistic approach to the graphic regarding the deaths in the game (mostly the running people over). It turns out GTA4 wasnt all that bad, but I can only imaging, that if computer games continue for their reach of 'realism', what it will be like in the future. Not sure I would want to know, actually..
@Dayvie: I don't think it will be that different from today. They're still games, and if you wanna shoot something, you'll go and play a game and get it out of your system, but be sure that there will still be idiots who can't tell fantasy from reality, and will go out and do very stupid things...
@Fede17: Im not talking about people being influenced by the game or whatever. That'll happen just as much then as it does now.
Im talking more realism. Its like how some people don't like watching the Saw type movies. They find the gore too realistic and, to them, they cant see the 'fun' in it. That's what I worry will eventually become of the more realistic games.
I play games for fun, not ultra-realism. I don't want to be disturbed while playing a game like GTA or COD, but I can see that becoming the way some games might go.
@Dayvie: In the case of a game like COD, at least as far as the acutal campaing would go, ultra-realism could have the postive effect of horrifying those that have high hopes and dreams of killing the enemy of the day into rethinking their view on voilence. It's along shot but the possibility is there. A good recent example was the latest Rambo movie, the movie, as trite as it was, depicted fairly accurately the horrors of war and the collatoral and bodily harm that weapons and warfare can cause.
11/13/09
11/13/09
I can't remember much from my Uni days, but I have always been interested in AI... I wonder if there will be a way to watch these battles?
It can't be any worse than watching people online play Smash Bros...
"We'll bet on Kirby! Kirby is supposed to be a good character.
....
....
...Why are they just standing in the corner taunting?" #starcraft
11/12/09
For years people have been using Chess to test and advance computer AI. Now we have AI that can beat any human player, which needless to say is no small feat. They BEAT people, in a game that's primarily about out thinking your opponent.
Think about that.
Starcraft is way more complex then Chess (whether it's "better" is subjective. That's a different topic though) especially when you factor in racial differences and multiple players. I look forward to the day that an AI can beat the best Korean Starcraft pros.
And we're one step closer to the Robot Apocalypse.
Zombie Apocalypse, you guys better step it up! #starcraft
11/12/09
11/12/09
It's just all complicated algorithms and other technical nonsense like that. Survey the board, available moves, available opponent moves, make choice. Observe opponent move, repeat previous steps.
Chess AI designed to make the best possible decision in as many situations as possible, isn't really any closer to true AI than my one-cup coffee maker that is able to tell when my cup is on the tray (and therefore, ready for coffee dispensing), since both still rely on some programmer coding in some set of variables to go with some set decision, for each possible action.
yadda yadda, blah blah #starcraft
11/13/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/13/09
(It'll divide by zero.) #starcraft
11/12/09
11/12/09
Gameplay wasn't the only thing driving the game, but just the basic concepts of the three races, the Zerg, controlled by the demonic sounding Overmind, the humans, constantly being raped by everything, including themselves, and the Protoss, an advanced race comprised of arrogance that have lost their way.
Not to mention the sounds! Who has played Starcraft that can't remember the sounds?
Goliath online!
You want a piece of me boy?
Vector, locked in!
I am wretched... but I am STRONG!
Sacrifice me...
*Hydralisk spitting acid*
You could no more evade my wrath... than you could your own shadow.
It is a good day to die.
The merging is complete.
No doubt within the next hour at least a hundred people will be able to name each and every unit I've quoted. #starcraft
11/12/09
11/13/09
"Spawn more Overlords."
"We require more vespene gas."
"You must construct additional pylons." #starcraft
11/14/09
"Dad. Dad. Dad. SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS." #starcraft
11/12/09
11/12/09
And then kills us all. #starcraft
11/12/09
20 GOTO 10 #starcraft
11/12/09
printf("kekeke\n"); #starcraft
05/29/09
05/29/09
Of course, combining all of the elements we have currently would be a good start too. :D
05/29/09
The video game industry, with few exceptions, is moving further and further into a black hole of mediocrity. The trends toward 'realistic' graphics and AI, and hollow 'epic' or 'emotional' stories is a move towards a superficial misunderstanding of legitimate art. Developers think that by imitating the conventions of film (Kojima) and by abandoning the colourful world of imagination (every major Xbox game) they can create something that is somehow more appealing. This is of course wrong; how can you make something more appealing by removing anything that is appealing from it, like colours, accessibility, and joy? Games have gone the route of interactive movies before. Remember Dragon's Lair? Games should not try to be anything beyond what they are, and they are toys. This call for more complex AI will do anything BUT improve gaming. It can only further push the industry down this ridiculous path of pretending that a toy is not a toy.
You want to know why Nintendo has been so successful this generation? You want to know why it has always been successful, and 'hardcore gamers' have always been seen as nerds? Because Nintendo embraces the fact that games are meant to be fun, they are honest about it. Think of how ridiculous and uncultured you all looked when you cried for Aeris. That is how the mainstream will always see technofetishist nerds that take disposable media as high culture.
Hardcore gamers should all take a lesson from Nintendo and select other developers. Fun is the purpose of a game, not 'art' or realism or story. If you just focus on making a game that is fun visually, musically, narratively, and of course in gameplay, then it will naturally be art. Mario Galaxy and Bioshock are greater artistic achievements than any game that tries to be 'art' before it tries to create a fun experience. Shadow of the Colossus, I am looking at YOU.
05/30/09
Wow! Way to win prick of the night! I thought Woozie was bad.
Think about this while you're playing your pathetic "It has to be fun" game... Ever think, just a bit, that many of us gamers may actually find things like Shadow of the Colossus fun? I find MGS4 fun. It's fun being with these characters and experiencing things. And you know what? I DO think it's superior to some of the old epics... The epics were just, for the most part, a bunch of action packed stories with some very minor things to say about human nature played out by gods...
I find Final Fantasy fun... (well, about 2/3 of them) I find Metal Gear fun. I also connect with the characters, and don't mind that I'm not moving my thumbs nonstop because I don't have as narrow a view of what's fun as you do.
Trying to call people out for not being cultured is a crock. Games can be loaded to the brim with culture. Proverbs, classical references, pop culture references, quotations from Masters... The list goes on, and many people enjoy them more for it.
The irony is that you include Bioshock, when... GUESS WHAT? Bioshock was VERY FSKING OBVIOUSLY trying to be art... Taking on Objectivism, how it picks apart Ayn Rand's work... It wasn't just about "fun" otherwise it put so much effort into trying to show you things like you'd lost control and pelted you with the downfalls of that world view... So you just proved what you're talking about as the difference between faux art and real fun is actually the difference between what is your tastes and what isn't.
So congratulations. Prick of the week.
05/29/09
05/29/09
With MMO games and multiplayer FPS games increasing exponentially in the amount of hours been sunk into them, can you agree that in todays world of high technology and networked socialising that people can now experience some of their most treasured moments via multiplayer gaming?
I'm not saying that every treasured moment would be realted to gaming, that would be very sad, but personally, many of my most treasured moments and moments I know I will continue to treasure have happened via networked socialising while gaming.
05/29/09
05/29/09
05/29/09
05/29/09
*shudders*
05/29/09
05/29/09
Citizen Kane? I was only watching.
As for the "Godfather" of gaming, I have three words: Massive ACtion Game
05/29/09
They're fun, they're escapes, they're realistic and can make you feel like you're in places you might never be able to go... but video games are NOT real life.
05/29/09
The only problem with games are that the AI is only as advanced as the development is. Whatever the ideas, time, skill, technology, software, hardware, programs, or sweat developers input into the development is what is output in the game. Nothing more, nothing less.
In order for AI to develop and learn on their own as a productive unit, they need heavy amounts of programming, lots of backup storage (example: a cybertronic brain or storage module capable of storing to the capacity of a human brain, more or less), access to an infinitely vast data source (example: Internet), and the ability to reason.
Otherwise, the AI would only be as advanced as it's programming, thus being unable to learn and develop on it's own. I am not saying that current AI cannot learn and develop, but rather, "AI is in it's infancy."
It has only just begun.
05/29/09
Hahhahaha, look at how 'hardcore' you are.
Go read any half-decent book, and if you're not a hideous man-child, it will most likely blow any video game out of the water.
05/29/09
And MAG doesn't even have AI
05/29/09
05/29/09
Um... The word "pretentious" comes to mind, particularly with the "man-child" comment. Pretentious and immature.
05/29/09
Before GTA4 was realised I was a bit worried about the more realistic approach to the graphic regarding the deaths in the game (mostly the running people over). It turns out GTA4 wasnt all that bad, but I can only imaging, that if computer games continue for their reach of 'realism', what it will be like in the future. Not sure I would want to know, actually..
05/29/09
*imagine
05/29/09
Like I said, not that different.
05/29/09
Im talking more realism. Its like how some people don't like watching the Saw type movies. They find the gore too realistic and, to them, they cant see the 'fun' in it. That's what I worry will eventually become of the more realistic games.
I play games for fun, not ultra-realism. I don't want to be disturbed while playing a game like GTA or COD, but I can see that becoming the way some games might go.
05/29/09
05/29/09
On topic, this is why I can only assume we'll never see stringent adherence to realism in America's Army, even if the technology existed.
Even for a commercial title, ultra-realism could preclude fun, killing the point of the game. And yes, that was intentional.