Industries have been upended at an alarming rate by the presence of Artificial Intelligence (AI). There are numerous applications of the technology, from art to programming, and even music and voiceovers. As governments and industries scramble to regulate the usage of many of the AI tools that we currently have access to, there is no denying that the advancement of AI isn't stopping anytime soon. We may still be years away from the implementation of some of these tools in games, but AI has the power to shift how we experience games in novel ways that we haven’t seen before. Here are 5 places we may see AI change our MMORPGs in the near future.
Graphics
AI Video is starting to excel at photorealism to a scary degree. Currently, we have some fantastic game engines, such as Unreal Engine 5, but tools like OpenAi’s Sora and video generators like RunwayML are able to take simple prompts and generate some convincing photorealistic videos. There is no accounting for the abilities of trained modelers, animators, and motion capture artists when it comes to creating truly living and breathing worlds.
Graphically speaking, the ability of AI to assemble photorealistic pictures, and even overlay these images in realtime is as frightening as it is intriguing. We may soon see in-game cutscenes that can take your very own character, turn them into a realistic person, and play out a mini movie right before our eyes as the scenes are replicated as if you’ve generated your own live-action actors to play out the most epic moments. If we extrapolate that, we might see entire worlds being generated in the highest quality standards our naked eye can perceive.
In my short video above, I was able to output a photorealistic image of a wizard utilizing Stable Diffusion and animate some basic effects using RunwayML in less than 10 minutes. AI visuals are only going to get better, and I would never want to see them replace actual graphic designers and animators, but as a functional visual enhancement tool, we might just be on the cusp of virtual realms the likes of which we’ve only dreamed of.
Questing
It wasn’t that long ago that I mused that AI would help revolutionize questing. We have even seen some MOGs put chat AI into effect, which was a raucous but expensive undertaking. Now, with Large Language Model (LLM) AI seeing a lot of privatized use, we may start to see uniquely generated quest lines built for your character.
As a writer, I am abundantly aware that there are a lot of great uses for AI, but more often than not, it’s just another tool that requires a lot of babysitting if you ever want to produce something worthwhile. Crafting a unique story, training AI to understand the nuances of your world, and developing a cohesive world-building strategy are all parts of a puzzle that AI can’t—and likely won’t be able to solve for quite some time.
The grizzled MMO vet in me still remembers The Matrix Online and their attempt to revolutionize questing with a system that would generate some questing details to ensure that quests were different every time. In practice, it certainly fell flat, as the quests were still largely rehashed with new NPC names. However, through AI, we could revitalize details, locations, and even entire questlines to better facilitate a unique feeling to these sprawling online worlds we inhabit.
We may still be years away from seeing that kind of generation in games, but we know through the popularity of Aetolia’s experiment and AI Dungeon’s popularity, there’s a large swath of gamers that are looking to create their own stories in worlds that they truly help shape in novel and unexpected ways.
Audio
AI Audio is a hot-button topic as of late, with voice actors striking to protect their jobs. While we stand in solidarity with their cause, given the abundance of AI tools that can get pretty close to mimicking voices, it doesn’t mean that AI audio as a tool can’t be utilized in ways that can benefit the creation and delivery of some MMORPG content. As someone who has used generative audio AI in the past, I know first-hand that there are some harsh limitations to what it can do.
There are, however, some novel uses, such as simple generation of non-descript AI voices that could come in handy to deliver narration and accessibility options for gamers with certain impairments. It can also be used to keep continuity for AI generated quests, so that certain characters don’t need hundreds of thousands of lines read in the off chance a unique AI generated quest delves into never-before-seen territory.
AI Audio also has the potential to create songs and soundscapes. What really intrigues me here is the ability to learn about what’s going on and generate a soundscape based on particular prompts it is receiving. Dynamic and GM run events have been in games for more than two decades, and with games heavily focusing on terraforming worlds and changing biomes, it would be great to see the potential for fluctuating sounds that better reflect the shifting state of the world.
Even if we just consider that AI could be utilized to recognize player usernames and voice them more accurately, it’s a major step ahead, as that’s not something we have seen in any capacity. Hopefully stricter contracts and more generous compensation will be available for voice actors that may participate in these limited forcus projects, but the presence of AI audio generation certainly has immersive applications we have yet to see.
Production
Production has gotten more expensive than ever, at least when it comes to building MMORPGs. We have hundreds of millions of dollars being poured into games, and as many studios in recent years pursue layoffs, we’re finding that the costs are not always paying off. In no way do we want to see developers and games fall to the wayside due to the utilization of AI to cut corners.
On the other hand, AI tools are becoming more proficient in some aspects of game development, such as programming. Having used AI in some programming scenarios in the past, I know that, just because it can often output working code, implementation is often another story entirely. There may come a time where AI-powered development platforms become mainstream and reduce the time it takes for much of the production we’re currently seeing.
My hope here is that AI isn’t replacing developers but allowing current teams to produce content at a much faster rate, and hopefully stave off the content locust MMORPG players that seem to slide to max level in a few days, and then wonder where all the content has gone. It is naïve to think that many studios will remain the same size as they are now, especially with indie MMORPGs with smaller studios eking out their niche with a lean dedicated team; but my hope is everyone will eventually land somewhere fruitful as gaming continues to grow into new mediums.
Companions
Like quests and audio, one of the biggest reasons to play an MMORPG is finding other players in the world to play with. Many MMORPGs do a fine job of building out a world that feels alive, but very few games make the NPCs feel like they are a real part of the world. That’s where AI can come in. Currently, we have AI in games, as strict sets of rules that mobs and companions follow so that they can interact with you. With a better trained AI system, this can become exponentially better.
What comes to mind when I think about companions is Guild Wars 1 and their ability to pick up a complete AI team of characters at player hubs. You can admonish me as much as you like, but there were situations where I didn’t have time to put together a team, and the AI annoyed me through many quests. Extrapolate that to an entire world of potential NPC friends. There’s an opportunity here to see NPC friends and foes out in the world, fleshing out a real-feeling world, and it could exponentially enhance the player experience.
On the other side of the combat coin, we could have enemies that can come up with their own schemes and enact their own attack plans meant to keep MMORPG gamers on their toes. Variety is the spice of life, as they say, and for many years it feels like we’re stuck in an NPC AI rut. There may come a time where AI NPC’s and real players are almost indistinguishable from one another, and the matrix-like immersion of NPCs will not be too far behind.
