AI in Video Games Not Cutting It

An entertaining article about the lacking AI in past and present games was available on Gamasutra. I really do agree with the genetic AI aspect.

Pathfinding AIs tend to fall short in one of two ways: either they are so incredibly effective and efficient that they don’t convey intelligence as much as omniscience, or they are so incredibly inept that human observers can’t help but feel frustration watching them. The first case is exemplified by an agent which ignores locally acceptable paths in favor of the ideal global path, thereby giving away the secret that it has knowledge of the entire map. The second case can be seen in a wide variety of stupid behavior, but my favorite example is the agent which travels along a river to avoid the relatively small penalty of crossing water, only to plow through an enemy camp and ultimately meet its doom. Anyone familiar with real-time-strategy gaming has no doubt met this breed of pathfinder before.

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