Grand Text Auto (GTxtA) is discussing the role of content and its creation in game worlds (Not/Non Feeling Content: The Unfairness of Programming).
At the Game Developers Conference no doubt the "problem of content" will be a rallying cry again this year, as Andrew points out:
There is a serious problem, I believe, that doesn’t get enough attention: by and large, people are not enabled to create dynamic content for interactive experiences. Many people want to do it, I’ve noticed, but most are unable to. And, the path to allowing this to happen is not an easy one.
To recast it more broadly, and in our terms:
- The bottleneck preventing us from realizing more worlds, at least as currently framed in our discussions, is one of content
- We'd have more content if we had more "programmers" engaged (amateur or profressional)
- ...Yet, not everyone can or wants to program.
The GTxtA discussion suggests we throw the machine into the breach - e.g. greater use of Artificial Intelligence (AI, in its many generative flavors, more broadly meant than described here, for example).
Who pwn's the MMO content relationship? Are worlds, as they are commercially conceptualized these days, mostly limited by a "programmer" culture that, say, over-indulges in non-scalable (game) content designs and methods. Or rather, is it that these worlds have become such monuments of over-investment (in category terms) that it leads to a dominant perspective and culture that is blind to other forms of worship?
MMOs blur the lines between the creator and consumer of content. Mostly because I suspect a dream. We all want to believe that if we could just build the right cathederal, players will engage themselves so completely. Perhaps, to such a stage an AI future would be empowering: more experiments, more worlds, and more opportunities to get slapped around a bit, by a better idea.
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