Dracula and Game AI Abstract
One of the most important aspects of an artificial intelligence (AI) in a video game is clear communication with the player. Direct communication of an AI’s actions in games are done using auditory or visual cues, but another important aspect of this is predictability. According to Mark Brown of Game Maker’s Toolkit, predictable actions are important information “that the player can use to understand what the AI is doing — or is about to do — and can plan accordingly” (Brown 3:20–6:45). In other words, AI in games is a set of rules for non-player characters that the player can learn and adapt to. Video games are not the first instance of adaptable rules in a particular medium. Literature may not be interactable, but within the stories that are told characters can react to rules in a similar way to players for games. This is especially apparent in the gothic horror genre, which includes monsters with strict rulesets like the vampires in Dracula. Dracula’s vampires are famous for having strict rules that they must follow, like needing permission to enter someone’s house and that sunlight weakens them. Likewise, monsters like werewolves and the more recent Pennywise from Stephen King’s IT follow similar rules. Though much change has happened in literature since Dracula’s release, game AI is a descendant of the concrete rules that describe classic monsters. Not only that, but rules that result in predictable outcomes are an important staple of storytelling in general so that the reader can engage more with the story despite not directly being a part of it.
Works Cited:
Brown, Mark. “What Makes Good AI? | Game Maker’s Toolkit.” YouTube, uploaded by Game Maker’s Toolkit, 31 May 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bbhJi0NBkk.
Halberstam, Jack. Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters. 1st ed., Duke University Press Books, 1995. Google Books, books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=q10CzrWdwfEC&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=the+rules+of+victorian+monsters&ots=8EHquDmOmP&sig=kS_VYlQPy6JJJbnbsNZhJrS5iaQ#v=onepage&q&f=false.
