Jan 26, 2022 06:30 AM
(This post was last modified: Jan 26, 2022 07:02 AM by C C.)
https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/we-could-...themselves
EXCERPTS: Have you ever wanted to go full “god mode” in an RPG and control everyone and everything? What if you could breathe life into digital characters — and what if they all obeyed you?
RPGs and MMORPGs [...] are swarming with non-player characters (NPCs: entities that are not being played by an actual human behind a computer screen) that may try to help you, kill you, or do nothing at all, depending on your quest. There are actually many more of these entities in a game than there are player characters. Now imagine if you could actually create intelligent, sentient characters that can think and feel with no human intervention.
[...] "We have the rest of eternity to work on it ... Unless it’s computationally impossible to create virtual characters as smart as or smarter than we are, eventually we will do so. If we don’t, then some other species that’s more up for the task will eventually evolve."
For the uninitiated, “god mode” refers to someone taking over everything that happens in an RPG, digital or otherwise, like an unseen deity. It’s against gamer etiquette and definitely not something you should try to pull. On your RPG quest, you need to allow other human-played characters to speak and take action autonomously without giving any direct commands or making implications as to what they should do. [...] Being the creator of sentient beings comes with its own ethical dilemmas.
What is even more unnerving is that there are several ways these living, breathing virtual worlds could overlap with real life. Bartle imagines three scenarios... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Have you ever wanted to go full “god mode” in an RPG and control everyone and everything? What if you could breathe life into digital characters — and what if they all obeyed you?
RPGs and MMORPGs [...] are swarming with non-player characters (NPCs: entities that are not being played by an actual human behind a computer screen) that may try to help you, kill you, or do nothing at all, depending on your quest. There are actually many more of these entities in a game than there are player characters. Now imagine if you could actually create intelligent, sentient characters that can think and feel with no human intervention.
[...] "We have the rest of eternity to work on it ... Unless it’s computationally impossible to create virtual characters as smart as or smarter than we are, eventually we will do so. If we don’t, then some other species that’s more up for the task will eventually evolve."
For the uninitiated, “god mode” refers to someone taking over everything that happens in an RPG, digital or otherwise, like an unseen deity. It’s against gamer etiquette and definitely not something you should try to pull. On your RPG quest, you need to allow other human-played characters to speak and take action autonomously without giving any direct commands or making implications as to what they should do. [...] Being the creator of sentient beings comes with its own ethical dilemmas.
What is even more unnerving is that there are several ways these living, breathing virtual worlds could overlap with real life. Bartle imagines three scenarios... (MORE - missing details)
