conference aftermath

[sniggy]

wheee... i've been at the TIDSE2004 which is a conference on interactive storytelling (games, basically) and it's been great. there was a demo by nvidia where they showed off the capabilities of their new products. well- i'd like to see those graphics in kotor3, i can tell ya

 

anyway, people from japan, australia, usa, uk, france, spain, germany, italy and some other nations were all discussing interactive stories and though it wasn't solely game-oriented, it still was a cool experience.

 

i didn't know that game research has become such a hot topic by now. there were some guys working on AI that enables semi-autonomous virtual characters that more or less decide on their own what to do next. a very very simple version of that would be Majestic (the game).

 

there was one idea that a guy from spain introduced which evolved around the game system deciding on what kind of rpg player YOU are. once it figures out your gaming style, it adapts to it. so- if you are a "butt-kicker", it started throwing more random encounters at you and would emphasize hording items and gold. if you were a "conversationalist" the game would minimize combat by reducing the amount of combat situations and by giving you more options to get around combat or talk your way out of it.

 

it was pretty neat- but he just had a demo of a text system at that point of time. he'll be working on his during his PhD (unless he gives up first ;-)

[Cantousent]

That's really interesting stuff. I normally don't like systems that match character levels or styles, but I suspect that it might be the implementation rather than the whole concept. I'm kind of cautious to get excited right now, but I know it's just a matter of time before we see something of this sort.

 

Games are another medium for telling stories, and I see them getting a larger share of the entertainment market over time. I guess a lot of folks have been seeing that way for years! The upshot is that, while the march forward might have a set-back or two, we should see more and more acceptance of software as an artform rather than just an industry.