Comments on: Multiplayer Brainscans

By: SPLastic the Cynic

SPLastic the Cynic — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 14:27:00 +0000

The problem with AI is that no matter how convincing it is, you will always (whether concious or subconciously) pick up its routines over time. F.E.A.R. is a good example of this – the AI seems incredible when you first experience it, but eventually you know when they’re flanking you.

Of course, a cynic might note that some humans seem to lack the ability to make use of this subconcious learning.

Recognising that people adapt and pick up on what you do, it would be interesting to try to fake-out a player (I’ll use an FPS as an example) by following the same path for several lives, and then all of a sudden completely changing strategies.

By: The Apologist

The Apologist — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 08:23:46 +0000

This is interesting but as others have said, perhaps to be expected given that this is a pretty established idea about how our brains have evolved to work socially.

What is interesting however, is that there has been speculation recently that in online interactions like social networking on Facebook we simply don’t treat our Friends as people – we don’t do the imaginative empathy thing and so may not feel the need to treat them in the same way.

Jonah Lehrer blogs about it here: http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2009/02/facebook_friends.php

I had begun to think that this probably explains all the terrible behaviour in, for example, Xbox live. But if this turns out to be true, then they must just all be horrible teenagers being horrible to each other.

By: Pantsman

Pantsman — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:50:14 +0000

@aoanla
D’oh. Thanks!

By: aoanla

aoanla — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 21:59:40 +0000

@Pantsman:
For a start, you might look at the Wikipedia entry on “Global cooling” ;) I’m basing my particular comment in a discussion I had with a climatologist, though.

By: Pantsman

Pantsman — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:22:03 +0000

@aoanla: Source?

By: Gubbins

Gubbins — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:04:14 +0000

Quite simply, this is why males play better (plus a whole bunch of other things that would cause tears before bedtime).

By: Calabi

Calabi — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:12:18 +0000

This probably why I cant play against AIs in chess games and always end up losing.

By: Heliocentric

Heliocentric — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:44:23 +0000

@somb
Actually you are right i do do that in games where the ai is fairly transparent.

Advance wars for example, in a fog of war game i’ll let them see a plane and hide my tanks. Like clockwork they’ll produce anti air assets. But the company of heroes is on crack and wants to rush we with motorbikes and engineers, even late into the game.

By: Tei

Tei — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:18:12 +0000

Computer brainscan:

while(1){
needInfantry = ( infantry < 100);
needTanks = (tanks < 10);
needHugueTank = (needTanks && money>, 1000);
needSmall = (needTanks && !needHugeTank);

if (needInfantry) {
Build(“infantry”, &money);
} else if (needSmall) {
Build(“smalltank”, &money);
} else if (needHugueTank){
Build(“hugetank”, &money);
} else {
(rand()*100>50)? Build(“smalltank”, &money): Build(“infantry”, &money);
}

toAttack = ( infantry > 200 && tanks > 20);

if (toAttack) {
foreach( tank as t) {
t.setMode(hunt);
}
foreach( infantry as inf) {
inf.setMode(hunt);
}
foreach( bigtank as big){
big.setMode(big);
}
}

if (rand()*100 >99){
tank.random.setMode(big);
infantyr.random.setMode(big);
}

}

By: manintheshack

manintheshack — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:32:06 +0000

I never could figure out what on Earth my brain was doing when I played games. Thanks RPS! If only I could use it to my advantage…

P.S. Scientist snobbery makes me giggle.

By: Rei Onryou

Rei Onryou — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:55:37 +0000

Tomorrow’s Daily Mail headline: Violent Video Game Player’s Brains are Same as Hitlers!!!

These results are interesting and I can see what they’re saying. When I played Enemy Territory there was a point where I just made a breakthrough in my playstyle. I started predicting the opposition accurately, knowing where they’d appear and what they’d do. K/D shot up hugely. I transcended mere human existentialism!!!!

By: Chalkster

Chalkster — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:02:21 +0000

@LukeE It IS kind of big, isn’t it?