All language subtitles for 2. What is Game AI and Why should You Care

Here we are in 2022 and most of the games are multiplayer only.
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And, of course, a legit question comes: is AI worth it anymore? To learn and to use in your own games. And a spoiler...
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Yes, it is worth it.
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But let's find out why.
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The main issue with all of these multiplayer only games is that they compete on one important resource
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and that is not even money.
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It's actually time.
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And every player has limited time 24 hours a day, seven days a week, like everyone else.
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We haven't found yet the way how we can make much more time.
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But the thing is, once a player gets stuck in a particular game, they might not want to try a different
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one because their friends are all over in that game and already bought a lot of packs and items and
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stuff.
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So the move is really hard for them.
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Only maybe if they get bored or they don't have someone to play with.
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This is called the sunken cost fallacy and it's real.
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And this, of course, makes some winners like Fortnite and Minecraft, but also a lot, a lot of losers
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that you probably won't see because nobody talks about them.
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This is one point that a multiplayer game only might not be exactly what you're looking for.
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Let's say multiplayer game is successful and it actually skyrockets.
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But then you get into other issues like making more servers available, lag mitigation, cheating problem,
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and much, much more.
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So you see, even if the multiplayer game is successful, you have a lot of things on your mind.
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But if you're a single player is successful, then just means that the sales go up and you don't have
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to waste more time in figuring out other types of issues.
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You can push some updates, but that's up to you.
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But the real problem with multiplayer only games that I have actually suffered it myself is called
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Dead on Arrival.
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And that means that when a game is released
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only a bunch of players will play it.
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If they do not meet, their experience will be bad.
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They will leave the game.
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Some other players will join.
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Their experience will also be bad.
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This situation happens a couple of times and you'll end up with a game that's a complete wasteland that
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nobody plays anymore.
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This means your game is dead on arrival, but fear not because this issue can be fixed with AI.
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So how can AI help your game?
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Well, there are actually two cases.
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The first one is, of course, if you are still set on to make a multiplayer only game, then the AI can
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definitely help you by replacing players with agents that simulate real player actions.
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This way, when an actual player joins, they have the feeling that the world is not completely empty
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and they have someone to play with.
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You can have the AI replaced as more and more people join.
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In this way, you won't have your game dead on arrival.
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If you want to make a single player experience
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the AI can help you a lot.
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It can really improve your game, for example:
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Let's take F.E.A.R.
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It's an old game, but its AI was revolutionary.
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Articles were written about it.
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It was praised as being one of the most comprehensive AI possible.
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So if you want to make a special game and set it out apart from the crowd that has basic AI systems,
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then you should definitely look into this.
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Now, let's look at different types that you can find in games.