Chapter 475: Can Artificial Intelligence Be Applied to the Gaming Field?
Earlier, Chen Mo had been suspicious. The way Origin played games was simply by connecting a data cable to a computer. Wasn't this essentially cheating software?
The principle behind cheating software is to modify certain human operation signals, thereby accomplishing what humans cannot. Clearly, Origin could be seen as a more comprehensive and powerful cheating program.
If part of Origin's functionality were stripped out and turned into an auxiliary feature—such as automatic team fights, automatic recall at low health, automatic minion pulling, and so on—and then given to ordinary players, wouldn't that be the most high-end cheating software available?
Moreover, Origin's disguise skills were excellent. After limiting its APM, its performance could completely fool the vast majority of human players. It was only because Chen Mo had accessed the backend data that he discovered its flaws.
Chen Mo also noticed that when Origin connected to the computer to play *Warcraft III*, it did not trigger any antivirus software or security alerts on the machine.
If this were cheating software, it should also go undetected.
Chen Mo had a conjecture: Could there be some connection between Origin and those cheating programs?
Of course, it was certainly impossible that Seventh Vision Corporation itself had developed cheating software. They were a legitimate high-tech company researching artificial intelligence, with total assets ranking among the top three in the world. Why would they stoop to making money from cheating software?
But was there a possibility?
Had Seventh Vision, in order to allow the AI Origin to smoothly infiltrate various games' ladders, disguise itself as real players, and collect game data, specially created some kind of detection-avoidance program for it?
The reason for saying "various games" was because the Origin project wasn't limited to just *Warcraft III*. In Seventh Vision Corporation's plans, all types of games worldwide, including popular VR games—as long as there was room for AI to perform—were research directions for the Origin project.
According to the Origin project's plan, after conquering *Warcraft III*, they would certainly turn their attention to other projects. This was just the beginning.
Since such a detection-avoidance program existed, could someone secretly use this technology to create cheating software?
Or, even if this technology wasn't leaked by Seventh Vision, if they could research it, other companies should be able to as well, right?
In short, this latest type of cheating software must have benefited from a technological innovation in some field.
Domestically, technology was currently lagging behind, but it would quickly catch up. Just like in Chen Mo's previous life, after Google researched the AI AlphaGo, domestic AIs like Jueyi and Xingtian also appeared.
So, would the large-scale entry of AI into the gaming field herald the arrival of some new era?
Simply imagine it: AI could play too many roles in games.
For example, based on rules designed by the developer, it could automatically change the operational laws of the entire game world, constructing a system akin to "Heaven's Will," making players' adventures more varied and complex.
At that point, the scenes depicted in xianxia novels could be seen in games.
Another example: key NPCs could be controlled by AI, so whether players were playing a single-player or online game, it would feel like they were conversing with real people, rather than NPCs with pre-written dialogue and scripts.
Imagine an NPC with a pre-planned personality and behavioral patterns that could also make various corresponding moves based on its affinity with you. If paired with an extremely high appearance level, many shut-ins might become addicted to the game and unable to extricate themselves, right?
A single character illustration could already drive many people to frantically spend money on gacha draws, let alone a VR game world with an AI little sister who talks to you and responds to you.
AI could even disguise itself as a player, guiding or cooperating with the game's script to give real players a more authentic gaming experience.
In the past, developers had to design very complex and detailed rules for games. If one rule had a flaw, it could cause the entire system to bug out or even crash. Moreover, no matter how complex the design, the system was ultimately static—like a wound-up doll, operating only according to a relatively obvious pattern.
But with the help of AI, many elements within a game could become vivid and lively, making the entire game world more realistic.
For VR games, especially open-world games, this could be a revolutionary advancement.
Of course, from the current perspective, such speculation was still premature. Origin had not yet reached that level, and its cost was too high for widespread adoption anytime soon.
However, given the pace of technological development in this world, who could assert that AI development would stop here?
If it continued to develop at the current rate, it would not be surprising at all if, in the future, an AI capable of simultaneously playing the roles of many real players in a game appeared.
...
The next day, in Chen Mo's own studio.
Chen Mo touched his wristband and opened the virtual screen.
It had been a long time since he last drew a lottery, and Chen Mo's hands were a bit itchy.
Mainly, his current abilities were already sufficient for most purposes. Recently, the things he had done—including hosting the *League of Legends* World Finals and developing *Rate of Land*, *Overwatch*, and so on—had all been within his capability.
Back when cheating software was rampant, Chen Mo had tried to see if he could draw an item to counter it, but after spending several million, he didn't get any new items, so he had to give up.
It could be said that Chen Mo's current abilities were already quite comprehensive, and there was no urgent need to further enhance them.
After all the fuss of the past year, although Chen Mo's income was considerable, it hadn't experienced the explosive growth it had before.
The main reason was Chen Mo's marketing strategy.
*League of Legends* was still in the phase of spending money on promotion. Especially with the previous World Finals, Chen Mo had subsidized part of the cost with the game's revenue.
*Overwatch*, as a VR game, had a huge investment. Chen Mo's astonishing free VR game model had brought in a massive user base, but it would still take some time before it truly started turning a profit.
As for *Outlast* and *Rate of Land*, they could only be considered niche games. While they were very profitable in the eyes of other designers, in Chen Mo's view, they were far from being true "cash cow games."
Of course, saying they earned little was mainly in comparison to his previous life. In the parallel world, Thunderbolt Interactive was already considered one of the three major domestic game companies, alongside Imperial Dynasty Interactive and Zen Interactive, in the minds of many players.
Moreover, its reputation was far better than those two companies.
Chen Mo looked at the virtual screen on his wristband and thought to himself, "Is it time to move to the next stage and create some more classic large-scale games?"