With Artificial Intelligence (AI) becoming increasingly prevalent in gaming circles, is it reasonable to expect AI will replace the Game Master (GM) in role play games and table top role play games? AI has limitations, but so do humans. As more and more players are wanting to experience the “playing” aspect of games, the decision making and refereeing of games is being turned over to AI through the use of phone and computer applications. What does this mean for the future of gaming and the role of the GM in particular? It is a troubling and disconcerting concept to consider, the ramifications of which are nuanced and hidden.
Being a GM with decades of practice, I have had many players ask me “Why don’t you like to play?”
I feel there is a huge disconnect in that statement. Most players live vicariously through the experiences of their characters. This is true for role playing games as well as table top games with no role playing aspect. Players come to identify with their chosen game avatar, be it the green pawn in a game of Sorry, the wizard in HeroQuest, or a multi-classed thief / priest with a penchant for deceit in Dungeons & Dragons. Their view of “playing the game”, is that of the semi-passive participant. They are involved in the story being told, be it the path to get home or the foiling of the big bad at the end of the quest. For them playing is experiencing the rule system as designed and agreed to by all of the participants. A general roll-dice-and-move game, such as Sorry or Pachisi, has no need for a GM, and an AI works just fine to fill in for the board, dice rolling, and movement, so long as the AI acts within the parameters of the rules. However, no digital dice roll is ever random, but that is tabled for different article.
As most board games do not require a rules arbiter, they can be coded into an AI without issue. Some light role playing games such as Steven Jackson’s Sorcery or Joe Denver’s Lone Wolf come to mind as readily adaptable to AI. A “character’s” player is dependent on the game to provide the difficulty, story, and application of the rules. AI can do that with scripted stories and predetermined outcomes, the Gloomhaven and Baldur’s Gate video games are good examples of this. What then is the GM for, if the AI can do all of these things?
The “Duties” of the Game Master
Keep the game interesting
There are many stories that are not worth telling, slaying 10 rats is one of them. Massive Multi Player Online Games slather on variations of the “kill 10 rats” quests and call it the character building experience. There is no unique method of character building in an AI generated environment. All the ideas are already in place, have been predetermined, and are immune to deviation. Options are non-existent or are inapplicable to the character at hand. The GM however must gauge their player group and keep their interest in the game as it progresses. They adjust the tone of the game, in real time, as players express their level of satisfaction, thereby personalizing a unique experience to each player.
Be a “fair” rule arbiter
There have been occasions, particularly when random chance is being cruel, when a player needs compassion and understanding. These situations may call for a slight bending of the rules, a rules re-interpretation, or an on the spot contrived unlikely event. This is not to say the the player escapes unscathed, just that the situation is less about the whims of chance than the poor decisions of the player. AI is not capable of making the value judgment in this type of situation. The term used for AI that will not allow for flexibility is “railroad”. Games that have only a limited set of options are said to be “on rails” or “railroad players” because there are no open options
Provide a modicum of challenge
As characters develop, the players develop habits. The GM must use these behaviors as the grinding stone to help the players fashion their character. This helps the players think differently and develop along with their characters. As the power level rises, the challenges must change well, to keep interest of the players. In AI driven games this equates to bigger pluses and higher numbers in a mathematical dependable progression. In a GM guided game the challenges may be interpersonal, social, or spiritual, with the results being deeply felt by the player.
Keep the game pace
Many games can bog down with unnecessary minutia, the tiny almost insignificant details. Things like, where the keys to chariot hang when no one really cares, and the detail is not really relevant to the experience. AI driven games are good for this type of minutia. The GM determines the bits to include and the bits to remove to keep the game interesting for most if not all of the players at all times. This “on the fly editing” of the game can only be performed by humans currently.
Be creative
This is were the GM really shines. They provide off the cuff descriptions of items, places, and feelings. Non-player character interactions with each other and with the players give the world a “real” feeling. Emergency adjustments must be performed for unexpected situations such as a player initiating a room by room man hunt in a occupied tenement building. These and many other unscripted situations occur during role playing and light role playing games. There is a saying I live by, “No Adventure, Survives Adventurers!” Except the railroaded experience enforced by an AI.
Error on the side of fun
In cases where the rules are inconsistent, or have conflicting instructions it is the GM that makes the final call. All of the players trust their GM to make the decisions that better the game playing experience. AI currently lacks the ability to make these judgment calls. In fact the AI may understand the rules incorrectly and force the players through the wrong processes without allowing for in game correction. This glitching of the AI must wait for the AI developer to try and fix it.
Allow the players to fail
“Wait a minute, can’t the AI do that?” You say. No it cannot. For AI, the players die when the action undertaken somehow breaks the program, they reach a point in the game were they “randomly” generate a number that results in their death, or last but no less common, the death is written into the game because of the location. Players make all sorts of terrible choices. The results of those choices may lead to some horrible consequences, that don’t kill their character, or may delay the character’s demise. Unscripted deaths by random chance can occur on accident which is no fun for anyone. That is why there is a GM, to make that judgment call. Perhaps they chose poorly and their actions influence the outcome. Did the player initiate the events that lead to their own death? If not, then perhaps they didn’t die.
Physical game maintenance
Games come with a lot of accouterments. Items like miniatures, books, and records are the most common. Yes an AI can maintain records, that is part of the primary function of an AI. But without electrical power, how will the AI provide you with the information on your character sheet? AI is ephemeral and insubstantial. The physical game materials must be maintained or they get lost, broken, stolen, or left in the park when it starts to rain. Often it is the GM that provides this service to a game group, and players maintain only the parts that apply to their character.
I know there is an ever growing contingent of players that wish to “play”, and not “work”, and yet they work hard to eliminate the GM player from the game. Phone and computer applications are a step in this direction. The unfortunate part about that is, without a mind behind the GM player, the game becomes stale, repetitive, and boring, just like any computer game.
Every algorithm that humans can devise, regardless of complexity, suffers from repetitive output and limited referential decision making. That is intrinsic to the design of computers and the way they function. AI algorithms are a useful tool that can help keep the creative process going. However, they are limited to their reference data. Errors in that data lead to errors in the AI. At the top of this article is a banner derived from multiple images, it may look complete, but with studious observation there are error artifacts that show to the practiced eye. AI driven games suffer from this same conceptual flaw, parts cobbled together from disparate reference materials to produce a bland uninspiring result.
So when players say “Don’t you want to play?” I smile and nod. I am playing. I am every hero that they will meet, every challenge that they face, and every villain they encounter. Every stranger that will try to help, harm, or deceive them does so at my whim. The winds blow when and where I tell them, and I do it for the joy of my players. Current AI cannot feel, it cannot actively chose to participate, and it doesn’t care about the experience of the other players in the game.
– Dru
Dru's Den of Ill Repute 