We all know how Valve went MIA on Half-Life for a while and now back to set a trademark with single-player mods with Half-Life: Alyx, after years used in building multiplayer mods like Dota 2, Artifact, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. (of which Artifact is currently undergoing some major changes).
Early critics acknowledged the fact that Valve made the right call for Half-Life: Alyx
Furthermore, Valve founder, Gabe Newell—popularly called GabeN by fans— is enthusiastic about the future of single-player games, as he discussed in an interview that columned on the newest EDGE magazine—May 202, issue 344.
Speaking of which, Newell strongly believes in what AI can do to the games currently dominating the multiplayer sector.
In our latest issue, we visit @valvesoftware to discuss all things past, present and future, from Steam to Half-Life – and beyond. Featuring an exclusive and in-depth interview with Gabe Newell, E344 is available for pre-order now: https://t.co/xXaxyyHqwl pic.twitter.com/jOrJGw0XMN
— Edge (@edgeonline) March 19, 2020
Here’s a part of the interview:
If you think of lots and lots of people on the Internet as a way of generating entertainment experiences, there was a point in time where it became easier to connect meat than it was artificial intelligence.
We’re starting to head towards a period where that’s going to reverse again, driven by what’s happening with AI. Right now, the OpenAI bots are better than 99-point-some percent of all the Dota players in the world.
That’s a surprisingly narrow challenge for artificial intelligence. Beating humans is more natural than entertaining humans. But over the next several years – and if you ask me, my little spreadsheet calculation is it’s about nine years – we’ll have artificial general intelligence that can do anything a smart person can do.
It’ll probably initially take something like a billion dollars to build one of these silicon humans. Still, then they’ll keep getting cheaper, and it’ll get cheaper quickly, and eventually reach the point where you have ten or a hundred people living in your computer all the time. And harnessing that will mean single-player games get a lot more interesting.
If you could build a single-player game that just never ended, where I could play 20 hours a week, and it just keeps growing and getting more prosperous, and I’d be having as much fun 400 hours into this experience as I was in the first 20 hours… I think that is a way more likely scenario looking forward five years than it would have been looking ahead five years ago. That’s going to be a tectonic shift in the industry, with AI becoming way more useful, and it shifts the value-optimization inflection point between multiplayer and single-player games.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) isn’t given enough credit in triple-A single-player mods. But we can only be hopeful and believe Mr. Newell on this one, as he’s usually right on the gaming sphere. Would AI (Artificial Intelligence) gain considerable ground in the coming years? We can only wait and find out!
