NPC
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NVIDIA partners with Ubisoft to further develop its AI-driven NPCs
NVIDIA and Ubisoft have teamed up to bring the former’s AI-enhanced NPCs to games. These NEO NPCs are designed to interact in real time with players, the environment and other NPCs.
Generative AI can help bring tomorrow's gaming NPCs to life
Today's non-playable characters are a step above the Ghost Gang of yesteryear but they're still a far cry from human-level fidelity. Generative AI can fix that.
NVIDIA's generative AI lets gamers converse with NPCs
NVIDIA has unveiled technology called Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) that would allow gamers to speak naturally to non-playable characters (NPCs).
The Daily Grind: Do you like having NPCs fight alongside you?
The news that some garrison NPC followers will be able to become your bodyguards and fight alongside you is the first Warlords of Draenor information that's interested me at all. I love such systems in other games, such as companions in Star Wars: The Old Republic and Neverwinter. It's probably the same reason why I like pet classes: Having a combat NPC there makes me feel less alone and more in charge of a team, even if there's only code on the other end and not an actual human face. (Or so I assume.) Although, as in SWTOR, it might be a little awkward in WoW to see dozens of people running around with the same companion you have. Do you like it when a game gives you an NPC to be your bodyguard? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Petition to memorialize Robin Williams in World of Warcraft allegedly gets Blizzard's attention
Everyone is talking today about the passing of the great comedian Robin Williams, and while it certainly is sad for those of us who grew up loving his TV and movie work, we're also celebrating his legacy and learning a lot about his life. For instance, did you know that Williams was an avid video gamer who spent quite a bit of time in World of Warcraft under an anonymous name? One fan did and thought that a great way to remember Williams would be to add him into World of Warcraft as an NPC. Thus he started a Change.org petition earlier today to do just that. With over 10,000 signatures added since then, the movement apparently caught the attention of Blizzard. "An amazing development has just happened," the petition author added in an update. "Celestalon has seen the petition and has been quoted as saying, 'We're taking care of it.'" Robin Williams is being memorialized in other MMOs as well. One player took the above screenshot from APB, noting how a fellow gamer created and uploaded the in-game poster as a tribute to the man. [Update: The official WoW Twitter account just tweeted, ".@robinwilliams Thank you. You gave us so much joy in our lives, and we hope you enjoyed your time in our world. We'll see you in-game."]
Meet The Secret World's Tokyo cast
Tokyo is coming -- no, really! -- to The Secret World later this month, and Funcom is fueling fans' anticipation by introducing to them several of the primary NPCs who will be in the new zone. These characters include Sarah, a Council of Venice occult investigator; Gozen, a samurai leader who protects Japanese leadership from demons; Inbeda, an Oni demon mercenary; Daimon Kiyota, a leader of the Yakuza occult branch; and Kurt 'Buster' Kuszczak, an Orochi tank commander who is having a very bad day. Interestingly enough, players have already met Sarah. She was the character through whom players explored the tutorial; we saw the aftermath of the Tokyo disaster through her eyes. [Thanks to Cotic for the tip!]
Final Fantasy XIV teases human-NPC relationship system
Well it's April 1st already, at least in Japan, and Final Fantasy XIV has something to contribute to this off-beat day: a Favour system for the game. Allegedly, this system will help players curry favor with NPCs and develop relationships with them because that's not creepy at all. To build an NPC's affection, players will have to perform certain tasks, hand out gifts, and even sport a particular look because that's not demeaning at all. As a player rises in affection, he or she will move to later "phases" and have access to new features (such as minigames) and interactions with the NPC. So if you've ever wanted to start a relationship with a cute NPC that will result in an over-possessive, jealous lover who will deny you the ability to group with members of the opposite sex, here you go. Because that's not bizarre at all.
The Daily Grind: What 'famous' NPCs were a thrill to meet?
Some of us who are perhaps more deeply invested in particular game worlds and lore tend to have a strong reaction when meeting the more famous members of the NPC cast. Perhaps it's a big name from another game in the series, a character that was prominently featured on the box art, or even a person who is synonymous with the franchise as a whole. Sometimes it's just a character that all of your friends have talked up and you're only getting to meet now. I've certainly witnessed friends geeking out when they finally got to meet, say, Arthas or Gollum for the first time in a game. When I went back for a super-brief visit to Dungeons and Dragons Online, I felt a little shiver at bumping into Elminster in the newer content. So what famous NPCs were a thrill to meet in the game -- and did you ask for their autograph? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
EVE Evolved: Has colonisation been forgotten?
At last year's EVE Online Fanfest, CCP revealed its ambitious plan to take the game where no sandbox MMO has ever gone before: full deep space colonisation. The plan will be delivered over the next five years and will end with the incredibly exciting vision of players building their own stargates and colonising brand-new solar systems that lie off the grid. Rubicon was intended as the first step toward this glorious plan, and its new focus on deployable sandbox structures certainly seemed to be introducing a more player-directed form of colonisation. I've been cautiously optimistic about the whole endeavour so far, but five years is hell of a long time to wait for that vision to come to fruition. Rubicon's Mobile Depot structure was a great first step toward player-run empires on all scales, but none of the recently announced Rubicon 1.1 deployables has continued along the same theme of colonisation and exploration. The Mobile Micro Jump Drive and Mobile Scan Inhibitor structures I looked at last week provide extra tactical options in PvP, and the three new structures revealed this week are all designed to steal money and resources from nullsec corporations. In this week's EVE Evolved, I ask whether the newly revealed Encounter Surveillance System and alternate Siphon Units are a step in the wrong direction. With games like Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous on the way, CCP may not have five years to deliver the promise of colonisation.
The Daily Grind: What NPC factions are a total joke?
That picture right up there is a perfect summation of the Orochi Group in The Secret World. Pretty much whenever you encounter them, they will have crashed, been blown up, been cut in half, been fried, or otherwise have decorated the landscape with their corpses. It's kind of hard to take the Orochi as anything other than the game's ongoing butt monkeys. But they're not alone, are they? I'm quite fond of mocking the death-prone and general ineffectual nature of Lord of the Rings Online's Grey Company, and I'm sure that there are more. Today, let's poke a bit of fun at NPC factions that are a total joke. Which ones do you like to mock, if only in your head? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
EVE Evolved: Ghost Sites and PvE goals
PvE in most MMOs revolves around killing hordes of NPCs for currency, XP, tokens, or loot, and EVE Online is no exception. Players can hunt for rare pirate ships in nullsec asteroid belts, farm Sansha incursions for ISK and loyalty points, or team up against Sleeper ships in dangerous wormhole space, but most prefer the safe and steady income of mission-running. Missions are essentially repeatable quests that can be spawned on request, providing an endless stream of bad guys to blow up in the comfort of high-security space. Completing a mission will earn you some ISK and a few hundred or thousand loyalty points, but most of the ISK in mission-running comes from the bounties on the NPCs spawned in the mission sites. Similar deadspace sites with better loot are also distributed randomly throughout the galaxy and can be tracked down using scanner probes. But what would happen if the NPCs in these sites were a dangerous and unexpected interference that could get you killed, rather than space piñatas ready to explode in a shower of ISK? This is a question CCP plans to test with the Rubicon expansion's upcoming Ghost Sites feature, which promises to introduce a whole new form of high-risk, high-reward PvE. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at EVE's upcoming ghost sites and explain why I think its goal-oriented approach to PvE should be adopted in other areas of the game.
The Daily Grind: What NPC faction amuses you the most?
As of late I've been getting reacquainted with the crazy fun that is Fallen Earth. One of the things that I love about this game world is its off-kilter citizens who have mentally derailed since the apocalypse. There's a faction called the CoGs that I'm quite fond of, mostly for the fact that they worship old technology. You see, Fallen Earth takes place enough after the end of the world so that people don't really have an idea what the world was like beforehand. So the CoGs have collected cell phones and computers and cars without totally understanding what they all do. But boy do they love them and want to see their "gods" rebuilt to their former glory. So what NPC faction amuses you the most and why? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: Should NPCs change?
One of the aspects that I've loved about the recent books of Lord of the Rings Online's epic story is that it's provided my character with an interesting and persistent NPC fellowship. Traveling with constant companions, even if they're virtual ones, is much preferable to wandering alone, especially if said companions grow and develop over time. I was rooting for the simmering romance between Horn and Nona, if only so that they'd stop acting like high school drama students performing some weird Shakespeare play. Just kiss already, darn it! Today I'd like the Massively class to discuss change in our NPCs. Is it a welcome factor to have one of these characters grow, develop, and have their own virtual lives? Or would that be a bad idea because... reasons? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: Do other players exist in the game?
First things first: Nobody's suggesting that you're hallucinating all of the other players in what is actually a single-player game. While that might make for an interesting albeit quite specific movie, that's not the scenario I'm contemplating today. Instead, I started wondering if, within the context of the game, its NPCs, and its lore, do other players actually exist? Your character is widely acknowledged as existing by every quest-giver out there. You are the hero, after all. Unless the world is full of scam artists, you're the only person who needs to save the princess and escort the prince, and once that's done, the world shouldn't need rescuing more than once. But is there evidence that other players are acknowledged by NPCs? Does anyone notice that there are a million other heroes running around too? Or is the game so focused on making you feel like you're the center of the universe that it engages in a blanket denial that there might be other axe-toting do-gooders out there? Am I going mad? Probably. Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Star Trek Online offers a crash course on Empress Sela
If you plan on playing Star Trek Online, you're going to have to deal with Empress Sela no matter your faction of choice. She is the head and the will of the Romulan Star Empire, mastermind of secret alliances and conspiracies aimed at keeping the Romulans as unapproachable and dangerous as they were before the death of their homeworld. But who is she? If you're not up to date on all the details, the latest lore entry from the official site brings you up to speed on the origins of the Empress and her motivations. The daughter of a Romulan admiral and a time-traveling Enterprise crew member from an alternate reality, Sela tried many times to take power, only to end up in exile before the nova that destroyed Romulus. Undaunted, the loss of her homeworld gave Sela a new means to seize control, ultimately rising to be the new Empress and a staunch enemy of the Romulan Republic. Get the full rundown in the official entry and start getting ready, because all factions -- Klingon, Federation, and Romulan Republic -- will have to deal with her before long.
EVE Evolved: The Battle for Caldari Prime
The empires of EVE Online have long and bloody histories that, until now, have been played out largely through fictional chronicles and in-character news posts. This week saw conflict erupt in-game between two NPC empires in the Battle for Caldari Prime live event. The neutral CONCORD faction has managed to maintain order between the four main empires of New Eden for decades, but that doesn't stop the Gallente and Caldari factions occasionally violating the peace. The Caldari were originally part of the Gallente Federation but gained independence in a war lasting almost a hundred years. Following an attack on a Gallente city, a right-wing faction in the Gallente government seized power and ordered the bombing of the Caldari homeworld. Millions of Caldari citizens were evacuated from the homeworld, a planet that has been under dispute ever since. Caldari Prime resides in the Luminaire system and is officially inside Gallente territory, but recent events have seen the tables turn. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the story behind the recent Battle for Caldari Prime, accusations that the event was staged and scripted, and what the future may hold for live events in EVE.
The Daily Grind: Who is your favorite NPC?
If you asked me who my favorite NPC was and I had to answer on pain of porcupine, then I'd probably say, "Every single character in The Secret World." How do I choose between them all? There's a mobster mummy, a police officer who cries over his dead kittens, and Frankenstein's descendant. And that's just for starters! But if pressed, I'd probably go with Hayden Montag, the headmaster at Innsmouth Academy. Not only is he voiced by horror star Jeffrey Combs, but the guy is just a hoot in and of himself. He's completely without tact, says the most horrible things with a steady voice, and obviously has a really dark past. Plus, those omnipresent blue gloves are an obvious call-out to a certain science-fiction show many of us love... So who is your favorite NPC and why? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Flameseeker Chronicles: Five of the purest joys of Guild Wars 2's PvE
I had a really bright idea to title this post "Five things that don't suck about Guild Wars 2's PvE." However, being a denizen of the Interblags, I paused as I typed out those words. "You know, Elisabeth," I said to myself, "someone somewhere would probably see that as an invitation to troll." "But Elisabeth," myself responded, "isn't everything on the Interblags an invitation to troll?" I had to confess that I made a fair point. I mean, it was probably a silly title anyway. There are a lot of things, I tend to think, that don't suck about Guild Wars 2's PvE, and I don't want to give you the wrong impression. Saying they don't suck is a pretty negative way to frame it, don't you think? I'm glad we agree. Anyway, read on to catch some of the most non-suckiest things in Guild Wars 2's PvE.
Flameseeker Chronicles: My Guild Wars 2 wishlist
Having hit level 80 on one character, finished the personal storyline, delved into dungeons, been handed my backside in PvP, conquered keeps in WvW, and run around like a chipmunk on crack with multiple alts, I feel that I am totally in a position to pass absolute judgment on Guild Wars 2. Well, I've at least had enough time to draw some firm opinions about the game. There are a lot of things I like, but there are also things I wish were different. This is by no means a conclusive list of those things. What are they? You'll never know unless you skip below the jump. Go on. You know you want to.
Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: What would your character do as a WoW NPC?
Each week, Blog Azeroth posts a Shared Topic, and WoW bloggers link to posts on their blogs responding to the topic. This week's topic: If Blizzard added your main as an NPC in WoW, where would they be located and what would be their function? Give us a shot illustrating the fact. Though Roblinator isn't exactly my main and she's only level 62, she is the guild leader of WoW Insider's It came from the Blog, so I'll use her for this topic. Roblinator the Goblinator would hang out across the way from the bar in the Goblin Slums. They have been saving a place for her, complete with libations! Please ignore the laundry. It's the neighbor's.
