“Gen AI is like a goldmine surrounded by a minefield.”
Super Evil Megacorp chief business officer Taewon Yun gave this analogy among his many insightful takes on the current applications of generative AI during Dubai GameExpo Summit 2023 powered by PG Connects. (We’ll be returning for the Dubai GameExpo Summit 2024 on May 1st and 2nd, 2024. Register here).
His presentation focused predominantly around AI in fact, alongside Web3, and their potential towards building a living, breathing MMO.
The power of AI
After the struggle to create interesting NPCs in the 90s, and the frustration Yun experienced when gamers cleared content too quickly in the 2000s, he believes generative AI may finally offer real solutions to problems that have lingered on through the decades.
“Players were consuming content so fast,” he said, recalling his time working with Blizzard when over 200 team members would spend two years developing World of Warcraft expansions, only for players to want even more the day after release.
Generative AI has Yun “excited again”, therefore, with its potential to create variations of new content and “provide players a personalised experience” so that they never run out of content to play. The tech also opens the door to new, creative ways of approaching NPCs, potentially solving a “25-year-old problem” by allowing them to live lives and create a history.
However, Yun noted that direct use of generative AI is likely to infringe on other people’s IPs and the products of AI may not be protected. There are also costs in using AI – whether that’s the cost of the technology, or the cost on workers, scaled game servers and more.
Of course, open-source AI is an option for developers who want to avoid paying a lot of licence fees, but they may lack in features available from paid alternatives. Overall, Yun thinks open-source AI is “probably better” despite this, since open source has long had the upper hand when it comes to exploring new technologies.
NFT augmentation
On the Web3 side, Yun’s excitement comes not from the idea of a “decentralised future” but its potential as a solution to monetising free-to-play games.
“I don’t look at Web3 as a solution to create new gameplay. I take a look at it like a tech stack,” said Yun.
“We are still using free-to-play mechanics but those mechanics are augmented by NFT issuance, and also having a meta game that utilises Web3 as a whale-catering monetisation tool.”
The Dubai GameExpo Summit returns on May 1st and 2nd, 2024, with hundreds of attendees once again expected to discuss MENA and global games industry trends. You can register for your ticket here.
