Artificial intelligence and EverQuest

One use might be to use AI to generate music that fits the environment and action at the moment. Right now there are fixed melodies that play in zones and during combat, but AI could generate unique music that corresponds exactly to what is happening at that moment. It would be like having a conductor that's making a musical score according to your personal adventure.

Agreed. AI is a tool to be used, but it is not a human replacement. People need to learn how to use AI to help them do their jobs.

Those people that do not learn how to utilize AI will be just like all the people that refused to learn how to use a computer back in the 80s. If you don't learn how to use it properly, you will find yourself unemployed in the near future. It's really that simple.

Will there be companies that will use JUST AI for everything? Yes. Those companies' games will suck on a whole new level. Don't believe me? Look back at the craptastic games we got when the CDROM came out and people realized they could put video files on them for games. The companies that did JUST that made laughably horrible games. The companies that utilized the CDROM's capabilities to their advantage made amazing games that were not possible on a floppy disk.

I haven't developed a MMORPG before, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, so I know what I am talking about.

All advanced technology looks like magic to the uninitiated. If it looks like magic and acts like magic ...

AI should be looked at for more Game Design

- creating more new zones
- filling them with npc and mobs
- merc could use more AI function for the current merc

Maybe AI could help with pathing.

AI can't create any of that. You need real intelligence to create and populate a new zone. Now given you could code it to just put generate mobs in a zone and have it copy the look of another zone but then you just have a copy of an existing zone nothing really new.

I think that is one of the big confusions and problems with the talk about AI. AI can't create anything new that doesn't already exist. The problem is people think AI creates new things like when they make a video where they copy some dead person's face into it. The problem is that is just copying existing things but nothing new is being created and the copies that are created normally are obviously fake.

This also leads to theoretical questions such as are humans really intelligent or not. How do you test if a human is really smart? For all we know we are just sitting in a zoo for some other creature out there to watch and we can't prove that we aren't.

We live in a 3d world (time can't be proven as something that really exist and although alot of our physicals is based around using time there are also alot of physics problems that have been solved with removing time as part of the parameter but is really difficult to do so time probably doesn't really exist. If there is a 4th dimension we can't observe it so anyone who does exist in a 4th dimension could see us and know we are inferior beings.

my thoughts of AI are that
Some one creates a Frame work of a Zone setting paths and rules for the AI to follow.

my example
pictures in a museum
would be someone takes a layout of a Museum give the settings for the AI to determine the placement of the paintings on the walls. Given the space and popularly of each picture and the AI would create a path and placement. (and just do this with mobs in a Zone) yea a real peep would have to review and fix all the issues of fish on land ect.

also an AI could place a single toon in each spot on in the zone and see if they fall threw. Fixing the need for future errors found by the players.

Doesn't need AI for this.
Civilization 2, 1996 game.

-creating new zones
new world map generator
-filling them with npcs and mobs,
NPCs, the computer you play against, barbarians.
-merc could use more AI function for the current merc?
basically you ally with an NPC and ask them to goto war with someone, you trade

You are pretty vague with 'merc could use more AI function'

are you wanting them to chat with you?

this is pretty much what AI is doing, chats people, you want mercs to chat with you is that what you mean by 'merc could use more AI function'?

funny top comment is,

@cruzixs7384
7 months ago
Finally gamers can practice their communication skill while gaming alone
7.9K Likes

AI is pretty much, a program + big data
5 to 10 years ago, what was the buzz about? Big DATA!!!!
BIG DATA!!!!

AI right now, chatgpt, if they want to call it AI, I call it a program just a better program, program with big data.

You have to provide it inputs.

Its not you code and it autofills (more than what an ide does) or autodoes, autothinks. That is probably the next step in this tech evolution.

Watch me do something and help, is the next step.
Rather than, how do I get this table working, this is the error I get.
<big line of error>
here is my code
<20 lines of code>
feedback

it still doesn't work, when the AI suggests for database, you use a table that references itself, has 2 references to another table, and references another table cyclic reference. endless loop. having to figure out what to ignore. figuring out how it even works.
thats where having someone with knowledge using AI to get stuff done is still valuable, they aint replacing people with knowledge.

basically user input, how is AI gonna take over the world, its waiting for user input.
chatgpt is not self thinking, we don't have self thinking yet.
chatgpt is basically what a calculator is, but it can take in words to solve things. It uses big data collection to solve things.

Speaking of which, a good use of AI in EQ, if you want mercs to do more.
Mercs use big data from allakhazam and other sites, and when you run around they let you know if your by a quest npc.

this is for a shaman quest, don't waste your time.
this item is for rogues druids quests, don't waste your time
this item sells for a lot in the bazaar, grab it!
your inventory if full, these items are junk, go ahead and delete those items, grab this item its worth more.
noticed your killing a lot of mobs here, did you know there is a kill quest here? goto this npc, let me mark it on your map.
notice your working on tailoring, consider going to this zone it has mats for the trivals that will raise the skill
notice you spend a lot of downtime on mana regen, did you know about clarity potions it can save you 10 mins per hour of less downtime, its only x amount of plat, i see you have tons of plat, it would be a good investment of your time
noticed your farming mats, if you had someone else join you, your time to clear out all possible targets is faster, consider going lfg/lfm

I will take a merc that I can ask questions to and it looks up the answer from allak or eqresources etc. That way I can ask where does a named spawn or what drops an item I need and it can tell me the fastest or easiest way to do it.

Sometimes in the early morning hours, I sit with the first cup of coffee and read thru posts and just think how some have no idea about the mechanics behind what makes anything truly work.

Each time I "show ignored content", I am reminded why I ignored them. But there are times when curiosity is just too much.

I have a theory about this.

Maybe if developers spent a bit more time engaging players on the forums answering questions and explaining how things work, then players would not have to speculate so much.

Another thing to consider is that this topic is artificial intelligence which is still in its infancy. Nobody really knows yet what is possible and impossible because the tech is advancing exponentially. Lots of people will have a lot of blue sky optimism about AI which reminds me of how excited players used to be 25 years ago when EverQuest came out and people were dreaming about all the possibilities.

Every now and then, it's okay to dream and express child-like awe and wonder about technology and what it can do. You think that people who play halflings, dwarves, and elves in their spare time in a fantasy world might be a little more open-minded and a little less jaded.

Or, hear me out...the developers can develop the game and not stop to have conversations to explain what they are doing or how they are accomplishing it. I'm not going to pretend to speak for everyone, but in my personal opinion, I would much rather the developers focus on developing content and working on bug fixes than chatting and explaining why or how they do what they do. I do not pay for TED talks, I pay for content and gameplay.

I'm not sure where things were changed where people feel entitled to call on someone else step out of their job title and cow-tow to them, but it seriously should stop. Developers as a whole are not peopling people, not all of them, just most of them. They prefer working on code and programs than dealing with people, and for good reason. So let them do the job they chose and are paid to do.

And before you diatribe me to death...I have read you previous posts. I know your beliefs on how you feel the company should be transparent because you feel you have a right to know. And how you feel they do not communicate enough and all that. Read the terms of service, all they owe us is a game to play and when we purchase something that we have access to it. We all agreed to it.

As a developer who build a system from pretty much scratch I would say developers working with the end users of the software always ends with better software. I think most major companies deal with this problem but so often we deal with so much BS from back and forth dealing with the product owner, scrum masters, etc whatever you want to call them. There has been multiple times when I spent over 6 months back and forth working on something only to finally talk to the end users who wanted the change and found out what they really wanted only took 1 week to do and publish. All the problems we had was the middle men who didn't understand what the end user really wanted so never could relay it to the devs who had to make the change.

The best software is built with just devs and end users and no administration getting in the way.

Also remember the point of DPG isn't to make software that is fun for the end user to play but it is to make software that makes the most money possible.

Also end users don't always understand what they are asking for so sometimes they may put in a request for one thing but when you talk to them you realize what they really want is something different but they don't understand how everything works so they think they want something different.

There are a lot of us here who are developers of some sort, and we may have differing opinions. I would much rather developer time spent developing and not being clouded by having to explain what they are doing to a user base who always seems to assume they know better about what's going on. Granted, sometimes the player do know better, but it's not their project to run nor is it their decision to make based on the little frontend knowledge they have.

The same people who are spilling tears over Daybreak attempting to be all inclusive by adding Pride mounts and such are the same people who are crying over Daybreak not new-aging themselves by being available to the players whenever they deem them necessary to be available.

Let them do their jobs for crying out loud. Don't try to force them into a job they didn't sign up for, which seems to be community babysitting from all the crying about them not being available enough. Again, my opinion and I'm not trying to speak for anyone other than myself.

Your mistake is in thinking the users need to understand what is going on. The only thing that matters for user is are they enjoying playing the game. Yes sometimes user think one thing will be better but sometimes what they want will make it worst. This is part of the dev's job in figuring out what is causing problems for the users and can we make it better for them, sometimes there is a bug that is only affecting 0.01% of the population so is it worth spending money to fix a minor problem?

You should never just do whatever the end user wants but at the same time they are the ones who are paying to play it so if you run a restaurant and 99.999% of the people who come in to eat hate a certain item on the menu.... do you change that item or do you remove it? You don't just leave it there because noone likes it and it cost money for rotting supplies that you need to stock for the rare case someone orders it.

I would say it is more like a feature in a vehicle that is added in, say for instance a GPS system (analogy for newly implemented items). It is available on all vehicles, but you only use it if it fits your particular needs. It hurts no one being there, and generally affects no one by being there, but people rail against it because it has the option of being there. For changes to in game content, I would say a good analogy would be changing from carburetor to fuel injection. Some people loved the change, others hated it, but the people who run things were the final say in whether or not it would stick around (as it should be, it is their property to change as they see fit).

The people who are calling for the developers to explain things to them are the vocal minority and not the silent majority. Appeasing the 1-2% of a vocal minority at the expense of the silent majority is where the majority of issues lie because they will never be sated with the amount the other party is willing to give and will constantly push for more. This is true in almost everything in life, real and virtual.

I agree the only thing that matters is enjoying the game, however, people need to understand an online game is a living entity. By that, I mean it is ever changing by the choices made by everything from the players themselves, the developers, software updates not of the company, and even hardware changes at times. Adding in certain things deem that other things might need to altered to ensure the system works properly. What one had in 1999 is not going to be anything like what one had in 2004, or 2024. A few who play games would prefer all the shiny newness without the changes to things they are familiar with, which generally cannot be done.

Time spent by developers occasionally engaging with players on the forums is time well spent and makes for better games. This is especially true in a fantasy virtual world where players are emotionally invested into the world for the long haul. I believe you are misrepresenting my statement and straw manning my argument. Nobody is asking for every or any developer at Darkpaw to do a TED talk.

If you are the chef of a restaurant, every now and then it's good to leave the kitchen and converse with your patrons in the dinning room to get their feedback. Building relationships with your customers is vital. Many diners appreciate it when the chef comes out and asks them how the meal was. The end result is both the food and the dining experience is improved.

Today's MMO landscape places a lot of value on community engagement. Customer loyalty is king. Gone are they days when devs can have a take it or leave it attitude. Forums are places created by the studio for players and developers to interact. If not then why do they exist? At least that's how I see it. It's not about entitlement, it's about looking for some occasionally acknolwement that player's opinions, ideas, and feedback are being heard.

My brief comment was that speculation on forums by the players is caused by a lack of knowledge about game mechanics because of a lack of communication by developers. That's a reasonable assumption to make. If you want to rebut that, then fine, go for it. It's just a theory and I shared it. I'm not "demanding" anything.

From my experience, the video game industry has a wide variety of personality types. Of course not every dev has the gift of the gab or would feel comfortable talking to players as a dev or a customer relations person at PAX East panel or on the forum. This is true in production meetings too. Not everyone is extroverted and many (including myself if you can believe it) are introverts at heart. However, it's not a big ask to require a developer to occasionally communicate with players.

If you read most 2024 video game dev job descriptions "excellent communication skills" are usually included in the job requirements. If you can effectively communicate to fellow devs than you can surely communicate to your players once every few months.

You know what? I think most players would love to see more posts by the devs. The Darkpaw panel at PAX East was well attended by EQ fans which bolsters my point. We appreciate the devs for all their hard work because making good video games is not easy.

I realize I'm not everyone's cup of tea. I'm not trying to win a popularity contest. I don't believe my post history is relevant to this conversation. I've made many posts on a variety of different topics and not all of them deal with lack of developer communication. Did you disagree with my take on AI and the fact that it's giving a lot of players a sense of awe and wonder that MMORPGs once had?

I'll leave you with a video by Thor, he's an ex-Blizzard developer. He thinks he knows what players want in a fundamental sense. It's worth watching.

If they want a deep dive as to what goes on under the covers, there are plenty of online (or hey novel idea classes) that will explain things. Here's what I will say tho, one thing will never work the way it's intended without other things supporting it. Explanation - an app will work wonderful all on it's own and be very pretty and awesome amazing, but if it doesn't have a network, servers, databases large enough (yeah those databases don't build and automagically grow themselves), security, permissions, and a whole host of other things, it's just a pretty app.

So what do dev's do ... all that and more ... what goes on under the hood/covers ... alot.