This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
God I remember doing a puzzle in Jedi fallen order and about half way through it's like "oh maybe you should do this" and pointed me to the solution... Like if I'm playing on the hardest difficulty why are you throwing hints that ruin the whole thing?
Isn’t this already done with Mario game(s)? I think it was Super Mario Deluxe, where if you die enough times, Luigi shows up and will be doing the entire level for you including the ‘boss’ fight.
On Super Mario Wii U this happens. My daughter used it to see how to get through levels she was having trouble with. It's frustrating to watch, though it showed me I was wrong that levels basically needed the run button to be held to make it across the gaps.
And then you can either accept that the ghost beat the level for you or go back to trying.
But, the thing is it's not very difficult to do this with specific games. You can just record the inputs as they come in and replay those, which is how replays or saved games often work.
Seems like they want to be able to do this for arbitrary games, which requires a much more sophisticated system that can understand what's on the screen, what the goals are, and how to achieve them using just video and audio feedback (and maybe hint documents from the makers).
...fuck off.
Hey Alexa, have fun, so I don't have to!!
There is a small bit of intrigue here, imagine you get to a boss and think, 'this is impossible' but there is an ability to observe a ghost of your character taking the boss on in your gear.
Bare in mind as well that 'AI' has existed as a word in gaming for decades and has nothing to do with LLMs, surely this is achieveable purely with the gaming definition of 'AI' simply coding the PC also as an NPC that reacts to things.
Yeah, it really annoyed me that the author of this piece doesn’t understand the distinction between AI as a concept (always around in computing) and AI as in LLMs and the other stuff.
Remember when Atreus wouldn't shut the fuck up in God of War (you know, a FIRST party Sony game) and would tell you the solution if you got stuck? Tone it down a little and it would be perfect. We don't need AI bullshit.
What is even the point then?
Just watch a movie or read a book.
Shit, listen to an audiobook if you're that lazy!
I'm not sure how I feel about games that are easy enough that AI can play them, and that people might need help with them.
The games we play are that easy though. Dark souls with eyes = hard, dark souls to an entity which has no eyes, but can read RAM states = easy.
Most singleplayer games (so the opponents are clockwork) are easy to enough to play with heuristics, why do we need a whole ass neural network?
But what if with banana?
You’re right. We don’t need a whole ass neural network. I’m throwing mine out right nowwwwwwwwwwjdjfjcmxn;&:@, jsi2@29394
Wow that's depressing. I guess the main solace is that if Sony patents this then we're unlikely to see this practice on other systems.
Still, on the long list of shit we need to fix with America, fixing the patent system is a big one.
Large corps buy them like lotto tickets and try to patent anything and everything they can.
Look how long WB has sat on the Nemisis system because they got a patent a decade ago on it. It wasn't really a unique idea, but thousands of games have been prevented from doing anything similar.
A lot of times companies will patent things that they don't necessarily intend to ever produce. Sometimes to obscure the patents that they actually do want to produce. Sometimes to reserve it in the case that they do want to later. And sometimes so that no one else can.
This. Sony patented the stand up and say something to skip ads.
This was a decade ago, and it’s not a thing, and won’t be a thing.
Also, the OP article is an accessibility thing, sometimes people just can’t physically do stuff, fuck them for their disability I guess is what top level comment is saying.
I love that patent. Whoever made it was really trolling.
As someone who does have a cognitive disability, there is a genuine difference between augmented input/level skip vs. what is effectively an integrated TAS.
Mario Kart 8 is a good example of accessibility that still empowers the player, as the player still needs to hold an input and retains control of the character - it's just that massive errors that would result in loss (IE: falling off the track) are prevented by corrective steering taking control.
An automated TAS gives no empowerment to the player - it's no different that running a lengthy macro script. If I wanted to watch the characters have an adventure without my ability to have influence in the journey, I'd just watch a movie instead.
Does anyone remember where games would respect the autonomy of the player enough that they'd actually let you lock yourself out of an ending, where there was an actual game over state your decisions could lead you to?
I still remember the point where the pile of notes my sibling made for Riven (the Myst sequel) was taller than the 6 CD jewel case it came in.
Remember when the way to beat hard bosses was to either git gud or input a built in cheat code? Pepperidge Farms remembers
MMO veterans might be very interested in this kind of totally never seen before type of play automation
Remember when the way to beat hard bosses was to either ~~git gud~~ hand the controller to an older sibling/cousin/friend or input a built in cheat code?
So... What's the point of playing then?
Games are expected to pose some sort of challenge, of difficulty, to keep the player interested. Even if it boils down to pure frustration at some point, making some turn from it, even learning how to deal with it is useful. Games are some of the oldest teaching tools we stumbled upon.
This another move on human and individual agenda, on learning how to exist, to an extent.
This isn't funny.
it's not about playing, it's about paying. The sooner you finish the game, the sooner you buy another one.
What they gonna watch a movie for me too? Fucka my wife for me? Eat a steak for me? I can see this for games for kids like with that Mario example, but for everyone else seems like it would be a nuisance. At least have it be opt in.
I'm just gonna end up being an old man in my basement, staying warm with the radiant glow from my CRT monitor while playing SNES, Genesis and NES games.
This feels like it's going to incentivise developers to either make bad puzzles, or bad hint systems. Why bother with a good one if the platform has a "complete this for me" feature? It is basically impossible for players to get stuck or struggle, when they're either shown the solution, or the game completes it for them.
And the next patent will be about a controller, not actually being plugged into the console, but merely giving gamers the illusion of affecting the gameplay...
I also made my little brother player 2.
Oh boy, the darksouls community is doing to be very funny to read
Are you kidding me? What's next, entire stories that just play out in front of you?
Next thing you know they'll remove the graphics and make you read the story instead...
Sony invents radical new idea of a passive medium where you just watch the action instead of control it.
Wait a minute...
It could be a good idea! Maybe we should create rooms with big screens for people to watch it together. We could make them pay for it and it would be a great opportunity to sell pop-corns and Coca-Cola!
So much for critical thinking skills...
Just make a fuckin movie!
Sony:
this just in the next generation of video games will play themselves. Due to rising costs though play time for most run-throughs will top out at about 90 minutes.
Reminds me of the Gran Turismo days when an elastic band around the trigger was free money on Test course.
So just a video then without the game
I dont see the issue, I would wait for my cousins to visist to get me past hard points in games as a kid, this wouldve let kid me who was new to using a conttoller finish games that I never touched again and never will.
Watching other ppl play a game start to finish livestreaming or on youtube is somehow social acceptable but this is bad.
Didn't Nintendo do this in the New Super Mario Bros.? If you died enough times, it asked you if you wanted Luigi (or some other character?) to show you how to do the course.
I wonder if this is a step toward them self-purchasing game micro transactions, too. ..
