You are responsible for all that you do, all that you don't do, and the consequences thereof.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Humans and A.I.

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/anissimov20090109/

I think his complaint is missing something. Mainly that his explanation for how things could go wrong describes something that already happens: We already have intelligent sentient beings with no morals doing their best to make money without concern for how much it costs others. Having an AI take that role won't really make things any worse than they already are.

I expect that the future for most AIs will be fairly safe, because any AI's that prove dangerous will be killed off, and evolution will handle the rest, just like how we domesticated dogs and other animals (yes I realize dogs still kill people now and then, but so do swimming pools).

The real danger is what will be done with by people who wish to do harm to others. Genocide committed by robots. Terrorism committed by robots. Etc... Humanity is it's own worst enemy, and I doubt the invention of better AI's will really change that.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Power Collision

http://www.champions-online.com/node/181

The first question was regarding power collision. While I understand it being impractical to keep track of whether or not projectiles collide with one another, I think it'd be entirely feasible to create a power collision system. Two implementation possibilities that come to mind are: when two characters are targeting each other, any power used during the other characters activation time, will collide with the other character's power. Alternately, there could be an option for powers that are automatically used to counter attacks made against the character by being used in response to and colliding with incoming attacks. My biggest concern would be 1v1 fights turning into stalemates where all attacks are blocked by the other person's attacks.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

200901072315

What are the new things that I see?

Champions online is yet to be released. The ideas I gain from reading about it, provide interesting ruminations about possible game designs. Unfortunately, I fear the game itself will prove far less capable than my mind might dream of. I suppose that's to be expected. My imagination always outpaces reality.

City of Heroes continues to impress me. I find new ideas about what makes a game good, and each time find that elements of my discovery are already implemented. The one thing I feel is missing, is the connection between the player and the world. The whole fiction seems disconnected, needing no player action to proceed. Whatever you do, the story remains the same. I'd rather just read a book.
That makes me wonder, is there a market for small booklets with the stories of CoH? Like, each story arc could be sold as a small booklet, and maybe one page biographies for various characters as well. If it were priced at a dollar or two, it might sell. I suppose it'd have to be a PDF file at that low a price though.

Perhaps the ultimate aim of story based games is to become a form of cooperative story telling with the player and the game as participants.

Testosterone is powerful stuff

http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000402mag-testosterone.html

Wow.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Long recharge times...

While I often dislike powers with long recharge times as a player due to the inconsistency inherent to such abilities (I can't really include it in my evaluations of character effectiveness), I've come to realize that such abilities can be good game design. The reason for this, is the increase in variability of the gameplay. When certain powers are only available some of the time, it creates variability in difficulty and (depending on what sort of power it is) how the fight unfolds.

Examples of these powers in City of Heroes are: Hasten, Accelerate Metabolism, Recovery Aura, Regeneration Aura, and the various teir 9 powers (the last one in a powerset).