If you haven’t slept under a rock, and you’re working in anything tech-related, you’re probably aware of AI (Artificial Intelligence). Even gaming hasn’t been spared by the discussion around the inclusion of AI, and depending on who you ask, it’s either the industry’s next big revolution or its slowest acting poison, especially in regards to creativity.
For years, AI has lingered rather in the background of most development cycles, with it quietly improving pathfinding, creating dynamic difficulty (think Alien: Isolation), or even procedural generation of levels, like in Starfield. These methods were behind the curtain so to speak, so the player might not even have noticed its use – until today.
AI inclusion is no longer just about smarter enemies or the fact that building levels is hard work and AI can do it too – now it’s about generating dialogue, design quests, or even simulating the behavior of actual, human players. The upside is clear, since it will automate a lot of workflows and therefore speed up development.
But what about the downsides? Because, like it or not, AI is already changing gaming in one way or another, but whether that change makes our favorite medium better or emptier, depends entirely on the ruleset – and how developers choose to use it. An opinion.
Smarter Worlds and Faster Development Cycles Thanks to AI
I’ve already touched on this, and there’s no denying that AI has already made game development more efficient. From procedural generation in Starfield, over to No Man’s Sky’s galaxy-spanning algorithmic planets, AI has already set foot in the gaming landscape, and developers are harnessing the power of machine learning to cut down on crucial, but time-consuming, tasks.
The cool thing about generation is that AI can automatically generate textures and even write placeholder dialogue for thousands of NPCs, which would cut down on the busywork of a ton of designers and writers. But therein lies the problem too, since that would effectively cut the worker itself; a prospect so juicy, that we doubt a lot of publishers wouldn’t make use of it, the instant it became more profitable than hiring an actual human being.
It’s a double-edged sword, and for me, especially in hindsight of the debacle that was Starfield, the hand-crafted worlds of previous Bethesda titles always felt more…well, human. And there was a creative touch to it, that I doubt can be duplicated by AI anytime soon, which will destroy creative writing and world-building, at least in the short-term.
Empty Worlds and Empty Words
The other thing is: Efficiency doesn’t equal artistry. The risk with AI-assisted development is that the worlds it builds can start to feel eerily hollow, and we’ve already started to see that in many an open world game, I dare you to say you haven’t felt it. You can also witness this in procedural games that churn out endless landscapes without heart or meaning – spaces that technically exist but lack the human touch that makes exploration feel worthwhile.
A game can have 10,000 planets, but if none of them tell a story, what’s the point? Starfield learned that lesson the hard way, as much as I hate to harp on about that, I’m truly sorry Todd. Its procedural generation created vast, mathematically perfect terrain – but little emotional resonance, no storytelling, no world-building, no darn soul. For me it was the uncanny valley of game design: beautiful, infinite, and utterly lifeless to boot.
In essence, AI lacks the creative curiosity that drives artists to ask, “Why does this place matter?” It can imitate, remix, and repeat, but it cannot feel. That’s a critical gap in a medium that thrives on emotion and immersion. The best games, say The Witcher 3, Disco Elysium, Elden Ring, aren’t great because they’re big. They’re great because they mean something, and you can immediately tell, that a place, a temple or even just a wide open field has meaning behind it, or at least an in-universe reason to be where it is. Can AI duplicate that feeling you get as a player? I highly doubt it, but I have been wrong before. Once or twice.
Writing Without Writing
This one stings the most, but we have to talk about it. Narrative generation – you know what I’m talking about, if you’ve ever used ChatGPT before. Some studios have already begun experimenting with AI-written quests or even entire dialogue branches that adjust dynamically to how the player is behaving – exciting, right?
Well. In practice, it sounds to me like it’s a creative desert just waiting to unfold. Storytelling has always been an art. You craft a world, you do not generate it, and the things your NPCs or even your player character utter will be influenced by the world you created, and even the happenstance your characters find themselves in – their experiences, you know? Like real human beings. This is something that an algorithm with its mathematical precision just can’t capture.
A machine will undoubtedly be able to write a short story or a quest log, but capturing the emotional weight of Geralt’s weary sigh or the bleak humor of Bloodlines’ Malkavians, while he or she is talking to a Stop sign? I doubt it. The fear here isn’t just that AI will make writing jobs obsolete (oh please God, don’t let that happen), It’s that it will flatten the narrative diversity we love games like Kotor and Gothic for.
But you know what? No matter what I say, I can think of at least three publishers on the top of my head that are already foaming at the mouth, thinking how much they can cut costs here. Does it disgust me? Absolutely. Will it still happen? You bet.
I’m Imagining The Future of Gaming – And it Needs a Human Touch
The gaming industry has always been about pushing boundaries – technologically and artistically, and that was part of the reason so many tech-geeks were so thrilled by it as a medium, that fact cannot be denied. For me, AI is just the latest evolution, but the heart of gaming has always been human – maybe even passion, as much as that is lacking in recent years, it feels like.
What makes us connect to a game isn’t how smart its systems are, it’s much more how the game makes us feel, how engulfed and immersed we are, and the fact that it lets us escape into worlds far, far away, while pretending to be someone we’re just not.
The irony is not lost on me here. As AI grows more capable, it reminds us why we value human design in the first place, and the push for AI feels even more ironic saying this. Machines can create worlds, but they can’t care about them. That’s our job – or it should be.
Long story short: Yes, bring on smarter tools, better engines, and dynamic NPCs. But don’t forget the soul behind it all – the people who make games worth playing. Because when everything becomes generated, the only thing left that feels real will be the human creators and their love for their games we lost along the way.
