Procedurally generated AI dialogue is a hotly debated topic in the entertainment world, especially its application in scriptwriting and storytelling. A few developers have already come forward to voice their concerns about AI potentially taking over traditional storytelling in gaming. Dragon Age writer David Gaider has also discussed this topic, calling AI-generated content “lacklustre” and “soulless.”
Responding to a recent Guardian article discussing the potential of AI-generated scriptwriting in future video games, Gaider wrote a lengthy Twitter thread talking in some detail about the problematic nature of its applications. The Dragon Age writer remained sceptical about how AI could be used in video games down the line. The Guardian article mostly used a game demo called Smallville as an example, which uses ChatGPT to procedurally generate conversations for 25 NPCs in its sandbox world.
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Gaider talked a bit about his own experiences using the tech. Apparently, BioWare’s teams “collectively believed” that procedurally generated AI conversations and scripting could work, but each time that it was put into practice, the developers found the results “lacklustre” and “soulless.” Gaider elaborated:
“The issue wasn’t the lines. It was that procedural content generation of quests results in something shaped like a quest. It has the beats you need for one, sure, but the end result is no better than your typical ‘bring me 20 beetle heads’ MMO quest.”
Gaider explained that developers who firmly believe and rely on AI generating content for them – specifically deep narratives – are basically doomed to fail. He makes a good point as AI is perfectly capable of generating narratives, stories and dialogue at this stage but it will always lack the touch that an actual human can bring to the creative storytelling process:
“I say such an A.I. will do exactly as we did: it’ll create something *shaped* like a narrative, constructed out of stored pieces it has ready… because that’s what it does. That is, however, not going to stop a lot of dev teams from thinking it can do more. And they will fail.”
Source: David Gaider
