It’s weird, but I care.
I spend a significant part of each day playing computer games. Largely it’s just a waste of time – time that I could be reading – but I do derive a great deal of pleasure from playing them. Normally the games I play revolve around conflict of some kind as most computer games seem to do. Presently I’m playing Battlefield 2 or Company of Heroes either on-line with friends from work or on my own in single-player mode.
Company of Heroes is new to me though I have played many games like it over the years. It’s what’s known as an RTS or Real-Time Strategy game. In this particular game you get to control a fairly substantial military force of either British, American or German troops, tanks and artillery during the later part of World War 2 in Europe.
There are many things I like about this sort of game but I think what really does it for me is the way the game forces you to think tactically as you respond to actions and counter actions of the ‘enemy’ usually played by the computer AI (Artificial Intelligence). Such things are hardly anything special and not something I would normally think of Blogging about but one thing that did strike me again recently was my feelings towards the men under my ‘command’. I care about them.
Some of my gaming buddies find this rather amusing. After all our ‘men’ are just bits of AI software. They’re not alive in any real sense. They have no feelings, no individual personalities and do not ‘care’ if they ‘live’ or ‘die’ because they are not alive to begin with. So it can be seen as inappropriate at best that I care about their ‘well-being’. My good friend Ali_P can be notoriously cavalier with troops under his ‘command’ happily disposing of them in suicide attacks because he no longer requires them. I myself have had troops stay and die against overwhelming odds in order to give me time to regroup my forces elsewhere but such difficult decisions come with any military leadership.
What makes me feel strangely guilty is when I take my eye ‘off the ball’ and troops die because of my negligence or inattention. I am sorry that they ‘died’ because of my incompetence. It’s weird, but I do honestly care about these small bits of AI software. How strange is that?
5 comments:
It's pretty strange. :)
I used to really play a lot of PC games but it's gotten to the point now where my PC just can't keep up with the new titles. Which is a shame because a lot of the new ones look really interesting. Well maybe some day I'll be able to afford to upgrade the PC and get back into it.
scott said: It's pretty strange. :)
Gee... Thanks [grin].
scott said: I used to really play a lot of PC games but it's gotten to the point now where my PC just can't keep up with the new titles.
I know what you mean I had to upgrade my graphics card [about $180 worth] to play Battlefield 2 - which now struggles sometimes with Company of Heroes. I try to resist upgrading the whole machine for about 5 years between each machine but it is normally driven by games software.
I don't play any of the battle games - one on one or big armies - because unlike you I just don't care (and find it all a bit distasteful tbh). It does mean I spend very little time playing computer games, and have a fairly small selection to chose from:-)
I don't really play computer games, unless it's my son making me feel guilty enough to play some old Nintendo game. I do enjoy the sports games on his new Wii system. As for the Heroes game, I've seen commercials and the "men" look real and seem to exhibit personalities and emotions of real soldiers during the combat scenes. I don't find it odd that you'd care about the men in your command. It's akin to caring about a character we see in a movie. I think I'd err on the side of being human and caring than to deliberately destroy the men when they were no longer needed. You never know when that AI will develop a mind of its own and take you out rather than letting the "men" be harmed. ;-) Hey, there's a premise for a sci-fi novel. The AI could take over and start a war with humans after it's learned all the ways humans might respond in battle conditions....
JM said: I don't play any of the battle games - one on one or big armies - because unlike you I just don't care (and find it all a bit distasteful tbh).
I know what you mean about the 'distastful' aspects of these games. Combat and (often graphic) death as entertainment. I concentrate more of the 'puzzle solving' aspects of it - like how to stay alive long enough to win.
V V said: As for the Heroes game, I've seen commercials and the "men" look real and seem to exhibit personalities and emotions of real soldiers during the combat scenes.
The voices certainly help. They come out with some pretty realistic comments - especially when under fire. Quite a lot of swearing too for a computer game though I understand that you can turn that function off.
V V said: The AI could take over and start a war with humans after it's learned all the ways humans might respond in battle conditions....
Strangely I was reading on the BBC website only last week about an idea being proposed that AI's could learn about things faster by interacting with humans in virtual worlds. It wouldn't surprise my at all if some of the online players of various games were in fact AI constructs.
It also wouldn't surprise me very much if in the future we're finished off by our own machines - but that's a whole other Blog discussion.... [grin].
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