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A Timeline of Video Game Controversies

"Night Trap" Banned; "Mortal Kombat" Scrutinized by Congress
The Sega CD version of Night Trap is removed from store shelves at Toys "R" Us and F.A.O. Schwarz locations in the United States in direct response to a December 9, 1993, joint Senate Judiciary and Government Affairs Committee hearing on video game violence. Night Trap is cited as "shameful", "ultra-violent", "sick", and "disgusting", encouraging an "effort to trap and kill women". In particular, a scene in which the character Lisa is wearing a nightgown while captured by Augers attempting to drain her blood is found to be very offensive, given the circumstances in which she is attacked (scantily clad in a private bathroom). The game's goal is not to trap or kill women but to save them from harm.

Mortal Kombat is the first video game to feature lifelike, realistic violence. Together with Night Trap and Doom it is the focus of the 1993 Congressional Hearings. The formation of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board as a self-regulated entity deflects potential government regulation, and Mortal Kombat stays in stores.

Indianapolis Enacts Ordinance Limiting Minors' Access to Violent Games
The city ordinance would have forbidden any operator of five or more video-game machines in one place from allowing a minor unaccompanied by a parent, guardian, or other custodian to use "an amusement machine that is harmful to minors"; it requires appropriate warning signs, and that such machines be separated by a partition from the other machines in the location and that their viewing areas be concealed from persons who are on the other side of the partition. The ordinance never goes into effect, and is struck down by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals the following year inAmerican Amusement Machine Ass'n v. Kendrick .

Federal Legislation Proposed to Ban Sale of Violent Games to Minors
US Representative Joe Baca (D-Calif.) introduces a bill that would make selling or renting video games to minors a federal crime. The bill is aptly named the Protect Children from Video Game Sex and Violence Act of 2003 . Washington State introduces a similar law, which would fine retailers about $500 for selling violent games to minors.

Federal Court Finds Illinois Video Game Statute Unconstitutional
InEntertainment Software Ass'n v. Blagojevich, the Northern District of Ill. grants a permanent injunction against enforcement of a law that bans the distribution to a minor of any video game with certain violent content, requires such games be labeled as restricted to adults only, and requires retailers to post signs explaining the industry ratings system. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals later affirms this decision.

Michigan and Louisiana Video Game Laws Found Unconstitutional
In Entertainment Software Ass'n v. Granholm and Entertainment Software Ass'n v. Foti, district courts in Mich. and La., respectively, grant injunctions against state laws barring dissemination to minors of video games with certain violent content.

Oklahoma Video Game Law Struck Down
InEntertainment Merchants Ass'n v. Henry, the Western District Court of Oklahoma finds the state's law barring the dissemination to minors of video games with "inappropriate" violent content unconstitutional, and grants a permanent injunction against its enforcement.

Professor Alleges Link Between Video Games and Violence
Psychology professor Craig Anderson and his colleagues, Douglas A. Gentile and Katherine E. Buckley, publish Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy, in which they claim that exposure to violent video games and other forms of media violence constitutes a significant risk factor for later aggressive and violent behavior. They argue that society should begin a more productive debate about whether to reduce the high rates of exposure to media violence, and delineate the public policy options that are likely be most effective. In their introduction the authors also claim: ".... the scientific debate about whether exposure to media violence causes increases in aggressive behavior is over and should have been over 30 years ago." Dr. Anderson's research has been widely criticized for overstating his results and failing to adequately acknowledge alternate views or limitations of the data on media violence.

Minnesota Video Game Ban Enjoined
InEntertainment Software Ass'n v. Swanson, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals strikes down a Minn. law that bars anyone under 17 from buying or renting a video game rated "Mature" or "Adults Only." The same court enjoins a St. Louis County ordinance in 2003 that bars the sale or rental of video games with violent content.

Mental Health Experts Disclaim Link Between Games & Violence
Lawrence Kutner, PhD, and Cheryl K. Olson, ScD, co-founders of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media, write in their book Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games: "It's clear that the 'big fears' bandied about in the press - that violent video games make children significantly more violent in the real world; that children engage in the illegal, immoral, sexist and violent acts they see in some of these games - are not supported by the current research, at least in such a simplistic form. That should make sense to anyone who thinks about it. After all, millions of children and adults play these games, yet the world has not been reduced to chaos and anarchy."

Supreme Court Declares California Law Unconstitutional
In June of 2011, the Supreme Court ruled in a 7-2 opinion inBrown v. Entertainment Merchants Association that the California law restricting the sale and distribution of violent video games to minors was unconstitutional. The majority opinion established video games as protected under the First Amendment, saying that "speech about violence is not obscene" and that they are "as much entitled to the protection of free speech as the best of literature.

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1971 First Arcade Video Game is Released Nutting, an early arcade game manufacturer, produces 1,500 Computer Space machines. The components are packaged with a 13-inch black-and-white TV set in a futuristic-looking cabinet. The first arcade video game is released, but the public finds it too difficult to play.

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MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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This is part 1 of a three-part series examining the effects of robots and automation on employment, based on new research from economist and Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu.
In many parts of the U.S., robots have been replacing workers over the last few decades. But to what extent, really? Some technologists have forecast that automation will lead to a future without work, while other observers have been more skeptical about such scenarios.

Now a study co-authored by an MIT professor puts firm numbers on the trend, finding a very real impact - although one that falls well short of a robot takeover. The study also finds that in the U.S., the impact of robots varies widely by industry and region, and may play a notable role in exacerbating income inequality.

"We find fairly major negative employment effects," MIT economist Daron Acemoglu says, although he notes that the impact of the trend can be overstated.

From 1990 to 2007, the study shows, adding one additional robot per 1,000 workers reduced the national employment-to-population ratio by about 0.2 percent, with some areas of the U.S. affected far more than others.

This means each additional robot added in manufacturing replaced about 3.3 workers nationally, on average.

That increased use of robots in the workplace also lowered wages by roughly 0.4 percent during the same time period.

"We find negative wage effects, that workers are losing in terms of real wages in more affected areas, because robots are pretty good at competing against them," Acemoglu says.

The paper, "Robots and Jobs: Evidence from U.S. Labor Markets," appears in advance online form in the Journal of Political Economy. The authors are Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo PhD '16, an assistant professor of economics at Boston University.
Displaced in Detroit
To conduct the study, Acemoglu and Restrepo used data on 19 industries, compiled by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), a Frankfurt-based industry group that keeps detailed statistics on robot deployments worldwide. The scholars combined that with U.S.-based data on population, employment, business, and wages, from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, among other sources.

The researchers also compared robot deployment in the U.S. to that of other countries, finding it lags behind that of Europe. From 1993 to 2007, U.S. firms actually did introduce almost exactly one new robot per 1,000 workers; in Europe, firms introduced 1.6 new robots per 1,000 workers.

"Even though the U.S. is a technologically very advanced economy, in terms of industrial robots' production and usage and innovation, it's behind many other advanced economies," Acemoglu says.

In the U.S., four manufacturing industries account for 70 percent of robots: automakers (38 percent of robots in use), electronics (15 percent), the plastics and chemical industry (10 percent), and metals manufacturers (7 percent).

Across the U.S., the study analyzed the impact of robots in 722 commuting zones in the continental U.S. - essentially metropolitan areas - and found considerable geographic variation in how intensively robots are utilized.

Given industry trends in robot deployment, the area of the country most affected is the seat of the automobile industry. Michigan has the highest concentration of robots in the workplace, with employment in Detroit, Lansing, and Saginaw affected more than anywhere else in the country.

"Different industries have different footprints in different places in the U.S.," Acemoglu observes. "The place where the robot issue is most apparent is Detroit. Whatever happens to automobile manufacturing has a much greater impact on the Detroit area [than elsewhere]."

In commuting zones where robots were added to the workforce, each robot replaces about 6.6 jobs locally, the researchers found. However, in a subtle twist, adding robots in manufacturing benefits people in other industries and other areas of the country - by lowering the cost of goods, among other things. These national economic benefits are the reason the researchers calculated that adding one robot replaces 3.3 jobs for the country as a whole.
The inequality issue
In conducting the study, Acemoglu and Restrepo went to considerable lengths to see if the employment trends in robot-heavy areas might have been caused by other factors, such as trade policy, but they found no complicating empirical effects.

The study does suggest, however, that robots have a direct influence on income inequality. The manufacturing jobs they replace come from parts of the workforce without many other good employment options; as a result, there is a direct connection between automation in robot-using industries and sagging incomes among blue-collar workers.

"There are major distributional implications," Acemoglu says. When robots are added to manufacturing plants, "The burden falls on the low-skill and especially middle-skill workers. That's really an important part of our overall research [on robots], that automation actually is a much bigger part of the technological factors that have contributed to rising inequality over the last 30 years."

So while claims about machines wiping out human work entirely may be overstated, the research by Acemoglu and Restrepo shows that the robot effect is a very real one in manufacturing, with significant social implications.

"It certainly won't give any support to those who think robots are going to take all of our jobs," Acemoglu says. "But it does imply that automation is a real force to be grappled with."

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This is part 1 of a three-part series examining the effects of robots and automation on employment, based on new research from economist and Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu. In many parts of the U.S., robots have been replacing workers over the last few decades. But to what extent, really?

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The popularity of metaverse as a concept grew substantially in 2022, primarily due to big announcements by tech giants. For example, Facebook rebranded as Meta with a focus on developing its own metaverse. It was one of the notable events which spurred worldwide discussions on possibilities with the metaverse. At the same time, many other tech biggies such as Microsoft, Epic Games, and NVidia are joining the metaverse bandwagon with innovative ventures. As the popularity of the metaverse continues to climb higher, the attention on Metaverse pros & cons has started to gain momentum.

A detailed overview of the advantages and disadvantages associated with the metaverse can help in understanding whether the metaverse concept will be feasible in the long run. The following discussion offers you an outline of metaverse advantages and disadvantages for developing an unbiased impression of the metaverse.

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Understanding Metaverse

The mandatory thing required for understanding the pros and cons of metaverse is the definition of metaverse. An overview of the background of the metaverse can help you set the perfect foundation for discussing its pros and cons. The first origins of the metaverse go back to 1992 when a science fiction novel "Snow Crash" published the term.

The author, Neal Stephenson, imagined the metaverse as a virtual world where humans can interact with each other and digital solutions in the form of their avatars. Interestingly, the vision of Neal Stephenson for the metaverse painted it as the future evolution of the internet on the shoulders of VR technology.

Fast forward to today, and we can find the metaverse as the vision for a persistent, shared virtual world where users can participate as digital avatars. Many people and institutions are eager to capitalize on the metaverse pros of a seamless virtual world. At the same time, the different perceived scenarios for future of the metaverse and supporting technologies for the metaverse also drive new advancements in the metaverse.

Learn the core concepts of Metaverse through Metaverse flashcards to extend your knowledge and get ahead of the crowd!

Working of the Metaverse

Even if this might seem unnecessary, the brief overview of how the metaverse works can provide better insights to identify metaverse cons intuitively. In the simplest sense, metaverse is a massive virtual space powered by technologies such as VR, AR, blockchain, and a creator economy. All these technologies combine together to offer immersive experiences to users in the virtual metaverse worlds.

Users can participate in a wide range of activities such as interacting with other users, working with colleagues, or playing games with friends. In addition, the metaverse platforms have their independent economies with native mediums of exchange, generally addressed through cryptocurrencies.

Some of the notable examples of the metaverse in fiction include films such as Ready Player One and Free Guy. Players can use VR headsets and Extended Reality gadgets to enter virtual worlds with their own independent economies. For example, the OASIS is the virtual world in Ready Player One, and players can access it through advanced XR technologies.

The brief overview of metaverse fundamentals offers the ideal foundation to start discussing metaverse pros & cons in detail.

Must Read: Top 5 Blockchain And Crypto Projects In The Metaverse

Advantages of Metaverse

One of the first questions about the metaverse is "What are the advantages of the metaverse?" as it is a new technology. People want to know the different possible advantages of the metaverse to determine how it can be a valuable technology. Many big tech companies have already started working on developing their unique visions of the metaverse.

Enterprises have identified the possibilities for transforming the future of internet and digital communication into more immersive experiences. Therefore, the metaverse advantages in creating digital solutions for generating value in practical applications are the talk of the town. Here are some of the notable advantages of the metaverse you should take into account.

A raging pandemic grasped the whole world in its clutches in 2020 and taught the importance of remote working. Businesses all over the world started adopting digital technologies or online instruments for communication. Therefore, remote working or work-from-home routines have become quite common for continuing the operations of businesses and the employed individuals.

In addition, educational institutions also recognized the value of remote or distance learning in event of restrictions on face-to-face interactions. The pandemic served as a primary reason for rising popularity of video conferencing platforms such as Google Meet, Zoom video calls, Microsoft Teams, and many others.

The metaverse pros for improving communication can introduce engaging and interactive experiences for all users. With the graphically-rich 3D virtual environments and the immersive experiences, participants could discover opportunities for dynamic and engaging interactions among participants.

Rather than interacting with other participants through a computer screen, microphone and speakers, you can access virtual offices or classrooms. The metaverse will allow users to explore the virtual workspaces or learning spaces in 360-degree view alongside interacting with the life-like digital avatars of other participants.

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Another promising answer for "What are the advantages of the metaverse?" draws attention to the possibilities for using it to support blockchain applications. Blockchain is the foundation behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ether, and many other crypto assets. However, it is important to note that blockchain can serve many other purposes than just creating crypto tokens or coins. As a distributed or decentralized database for storing transaction records, it can facilitate development and distribution of NFTs.

With the help of NFTs, the application of blockchain in the gaming industry can diversify further with new trends. So, where do the metaverse pros come into the picture here? NFTs are suitable instruments for promoting the new model of play-to-earn games, where players can acquire tradable in-game digital assets.

The metaverse can offer a seamless virtual environment for connecting all these games and the associated users. Let us understand it in a simpler way. NFT games have in-game assets in the form of NFTs. You can trade them or use them on other platforms or with game titles. With the metaverse, you don't have to worry about any intermediaries or conversions for trading and managing your in-game assets.

As a virtual shared space, the metaverse can provide the right grounds for innovative advancements in blockchain applications. Think of cryptocurrencies, blockchain games, decentralized finance, NFTs, and tokenization of content.

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The influence of social networking sites and platforms on the media industry is clearly evident. Brands use social media as the primary platform for promoting their offerings and engaging with their target audience. The new platforms for branding and marketing empower the target audience with capabilities for creating content related to the brand.

Furthermore, social media has also opened many prospects for businesses and marketers to carry out promotion of products and services. Social media is also delivering better results in comparison to traditional media, thereby leading to the development of new marketing trends.

The metaverse advantages for expanding social media beyond web 2.0 would play a huge role in establishing their role for marketing. Metaverse would bring the inherent benefits of social media for marketing and branding along with additional benefits. For example, businesses and marketers could capitalize on the value benefits of virtualization through the metaverse.

Brands could create digital versions of the products and solutions in shared virtual worlds and put them on display. Users could gain almost real-time experience of viewing and checking specifications of the product. Furthermore, the metaverse pros might also drive the growth of new avenues for electronic commerce based on precedents of augmented reality.

The notion of virtual economies in the existing digital realm is quite a promising one. As the virtual worlds continue to expand in the metaverse, one of the notable metaverse advantages would focus on creation of a virtual economy. The metaverse economy can serve as the ideal platform for immersive exchanges of digital assets with real economic value. In addition, the metaverse also has the desired capabilities for driving the introduction of new trade activities and jobs in the shared virtual spaces as well as the real world.

Also Check: Is Metaverse The Next Big Thing?

Cons of Metaverse

The outline of Metaverse advantages and disadvantages may remain incomplete without reflecting on the cons. With a broad range of advantages, the metaverse seems to have no disadvantages at all. However, the proposition for a persistent, shared virtual world also raises some unavoidable concerns. Here are some of the notable answers for "What are the cons of metaverse?" to identify the cons.

The first entry among the list of metaverse cons would obviously refer to the requirement of advanced digital technologies. Metaverse brings many new and advanced technologies such as VR headsets, haptics, blockchain, and other requirements. However, every individual on this planet does not have access to advanced technologies.

For example, fast internet connectivity is one of the mandatory requirements for participating in the metaverse. Majority of people worldwide cannot access fast internet and cannot capitalize on the full potential of the metaverse. In addition, the metaverse disadvantages also point towards the need for advanced communication tools and gadgets. Many people cannot afford a high-end VR headset for entering the metaverse.

Also Check: 5 Best Metaverse Games To Play

Many of the digital solutions existing today have been associated with concerns regarding privacy and security. The main agenda for criticism of digital solutions revolves around the fact that they collect data from users. Such data can be used for intrusive online advertisements and identity theft.

Furthermore, companies have not been able to address these concerns completely. So, the metaverse cons might also bring issues pertaining to privacy and security risks. As an online-enabled space, the metaverse can lead to new issues in security and privacy for individuals as well as institutions.

Also Check: Frequently Asked Questions about Metaverse

With the objective of introducing immersive experiences to users, the metaverse blurs the gap between real and virtual worlds. Even if you can consider this as an advantage, addiction to virtual worlds can lead people to withdraw from real-world experiences. The metaverse disadvantages also bring the possibilities of the metaverse influencing the ways in which people perceive real relationships and interactions.

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Final Words

The concluding viewpoint on pros and cons of metaverse provides a definitive impression of the metaverse capabilities. The promise of an immersive online experience with different elements like social media, gaming, content creation, and other advanced technology serves vital advantages for the metaverse.

On the other hand, the concerns of privacy and security alongside requirements of advanced technologies emerge as notable metaverse pitfalls. The observation of metaverse pros & cons gives a balanced idea of what the metaverse is and what it could be. Metaverse enthusiasts and institutions should take note of both sides of the metaverse before passing the final verdict. Learn more about the metaverse and enrich your knowledge about the new technology right now.
*Disclaimer: The article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide any investment advice. Claims made in this article do not constitute investment advice and should not be taken as such. 101 Blockchains shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this article. Do your own research!

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The popularity of metaverse as a concept grew substantially in 2022, primarily due to big announcements by tech giants. For example, Facebook rebranded as Meta with a focus on developing its own metaverse. It was one of the notable events which spurred worldwide discussions on possibilities with the metaverse.

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You watch a movie rich in visual effects and computer graphics. What gets you so involved in the imaginary story world and the characters? The sense of realism they carry; isn’t it? The same applies to three dimensional virtual worlds and metaverse. To get a user totally immersed in the virtual world, they have to be that realistic and believable. And in the world of the metaverse, realism is concerned with a user’s psychological and emotional engagement with the environment. The extent to which a user is transported to the environment and the lucidity of a user’s action to his or her avatar determines the believability of that environment. So let us see how metaverse effectively carry out this task.

Sight – It comes as no surprise that sight is one of the direct links to a metaverse. One should be able to see and relate the environment within a metaverse as something he is used to. In fact, even the earliest visual mediums for virtual worlds were written as plain texts to form images inside the mind’s eye. However, these words and symbols were indirect. They just illustrated the world and left the rest to a user’s imagination. A constructive virtual world eliminates this indirectness and makes the environment as information rich to our eyes as the real world is. This richness is obtained mostly due to the efficient use of real time computer graphics. With the growth in graphics hardware and algorithms, virtual worlds have moved on from flat polygons to smooth shading, texture mapping and programmable shaders.

In the earlier days, methods such as more and smaller polygons, higher resolution textures, interpolation techniques such as anti-aliasing and smooth shading were used to generate quality visual impact. But, with the arrival of programmable shaders and their subsequent growth as a new functional baseline for 3D libraries such as OpenGL, virtual worlds and computer graphics in general began to expand their potential. When programmable shaders became common, many features of 3D models gained an algorithm expression and thus it eliminated the need for larger polygons or textures. At the same time, this also expanded the variety and flexibility with which objects can be rendered or presented.

Thus, with the growth of processing power, display hardware and graphics algorithm, immersion has expanded from pure detail to specific visual elements. This is absolutely quintessential as the modern day 3D and Virtual Reality techniques allow users to interact and even make simulations within a virtual world. 3D and Virtual Reality do have a hindrance that you need glasses and headsets to be completely immersive. Such gadgets are becoming less obstructive day by day and will eventually come to a stage where it is completely unnecessary!

Sound – Speaking and listening is our most common form of verbal communication and virtual worlds and metaverse cannot exist without them. It is that sort of communication that instantly engage us with other residents of the virtual world and it is even more appealing than reading virtual face, posture or movement. But other than such direct verbal sounds, there is another kind of sound that is absolutely important. Imagine you are watching a movie where the protagonist is chasing the baddie across the city. Will you be satisfied with just the panting and screaming sounds of the two main characters? No… You need to get the feel of the city. The sound of the vehicles, shops, the chattering of people.. Everything. All the ambience. This plays a crucial role in Metaverse too. That is, when a user is inside a pub, the environment cannot be numb or else he will exit at the first chance! It is such sounds that give us a feel of placement inside a particular situation.

For the first part of direct verbal communication, we know that there are several high end voice chat technologies that accurately capture the nuances of spoken words. Such sense of hearing plays a pivotal role in conveying the avatar frame of mind as this enables effective interaction. But different virtual worlds call for different kind of interactions. You would want to feel like you blend into the virtual world as you interact. And thus, with the modern voice masking and modulation technologies in virtual worlds, you can even control your voice tone and speak the way you want. So, while communicating, you can actually hint if you like the other person or not!

Ambience sound is a much broader concept and the extremely pleasing news is that today most of us are aware what quality sounds can achieve. From our smartphones to games, P.C and home theaters, most of us demand a sound system that seamlessly involves us. Our longing for “surround sound” is a clear indicator of the desire to be completely immersed within an audio environment. Traditional stereo systems have already given way to 2.1, 5.1, 7.1 and even beyond. Today, Virtual Reality and gaming researchers have dedicated themselves to study about three dimensional spatialized sound to know how to replicate the paths sound takes before reaching our ears. Before a sound reaches our ears, the waves undergo a series of changes depending upon the environment, the position of the sound, the location of the listener and even the shape of the listener’s head. Researchers are already developing algorithms to manoeuvre the sound sources so that these changes will be reflected before they reach the listener. Such 3D sound researchers mostly focus on the shape of the listener’s head to analyse how the sound form itself. This study is mainly carried out using a mathematical model called Head-Related Transfer Function (HRTF) and it is in turn part of a larger field of study known as binaural rendering, that aims at producing a kind of surround sound that not only produces sound from left and right but also from above and below. And just like fingerprint and prescription glasses vary from individual to individual, HRTF also is different for each person. Today, most games and VR deliver generic HRTF, but the problem here is that people whose HRTF is not close to the generic one would not get a proper feel of realism. To counter this, the creative brains are already in the process of developing sound propaganda that would enable an accurate HRTF.

Binaural rendering can be put to best use with headphones as each side represents an ear in the sound simulation setup. The sound will be rendered in speakers too but the listener’s environment outside virtual world will influence how sound reaches the ears and this will spoil the effect. Now, imagine a virtual world where every little interaction of avatars generate unique and believable sound, which is then rendered through sound propagation and binaural rendering to accurately depict spatial relationship with the user avatar. This is where we are headed for.

Touch – From walking to sitting and sleeping, you constantly make use of the sense of touch to control your movements so that you can complete the task you are working on. This is why touch is an empirical aspect of virtual world realism. To completely immerse in a virtual world, you need to get a physical stimuli of the objects inside the environment. The most common technology concerned with touch in virtual worlds is haptic or force feedback. The very idea behind haptic technology is to convert virtual contacts into physical ones. Whereas force feedback is rather a simpler form of haptic that has physical devices push against or resist the user’s body; especially hands or arms.

Haptics are predominantly classified into two; Kinesthetic and Tactile. Kinesthetic consists of things you feel from sensors in your muscles, joints, tendons etc. Imagine you have a mug of coffee in your hand. Kinesthetic feedback will inform your brain the approximate size of the mug, its weight and how you hold it with respect to your body. Tactile haptics is the things you feel on your fingers or on the surface. The tissue in your fingers have variety of sensors implanted in and underneath the skin. This helps your brain to feel vibration, pressure, touch, texture etc.

In the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Microsoft unveiled their ‘Project Natal’ which demonstrated a controller free gaming environment. The project later came to be known as Kinect and it was the first popular “come-as-you-are” motion system. The users didn’t require a controller to regulate the movement of characters or objects inside the game. They could easily fight or drive a car exclusively with their body movements. Such type of controller free haptic feedbacks became common in the following years but it still lacked the quality of being totally immersive. For example, during the collision with objects or firing weapons, most of them had a sensory mismatch which made it hardly more realistic than a beep or icon on the screen. This is why targeted haptic feedback, body sensations that integrated more naturally to the virtual environment become an interesting area of study in the recent past.

Tactai, an American Company introduced a touch controller that could be clipped onto your finger. The device can be worn in any or every finger, but only the index finger is required to feel things. Its applicability depends on what users are doing. For example, shopping in Virtual Reality can be done with one index finger while opening a virtual bottle of water will require a device on each index finger. What if you want to pat a virtual dog or play a virtual keyboard? You can have five devices per hand which would give you a fantastic feel of what you are interacting with. The tactai software regularly reads the position of your finger in a virtual space using headset camera or external measurement system. Every time it receives a new measurement, it determines where your finger is in the virtual space. If it is in a free space, the software instructs the device in the platform to move away from your fingertip so that you won’t feel anything. And if your finger is on a virtual object, the software calculates a Dynamic Tactile Wave which in turn sends a vibration onto your finger that closely matches the feel you will get if you moved around the object in real space.

Lamsaptics, a Los Angeles based startup and Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition team used ultrasound arrays and predictive learning based algorithms to generate touch sensations for VR and AR applications. Their research is mainly on a mobile tool that makes use of ultrasound waves, air pressure fields, high-frequency sound waves and ultrasound transducers to trigger the neurons in your hand, much like how they are used in medicines to create high-resolution images. In other words, it can be thought of as a similar process to how bats echolocate using sound waves or how radars spot planes using electromagnetic waves. Their algorithms are designed to match human experience, that is, how humans perceive shapes, textures etc. Lamsaptics aims to document all human sensations so that they can generate a more enlightened experience for users.

Gestures and Expressions –  The more natural and expressive an avatar gets, the more is the perception of reality in the virtual environment. Customary avatars have already given way to broader cues such as poses, incidental sounds, and facial expressions. Such cues facilitate intricate details such as blinking and even the movement of lips while talking. Anything that makes the avatar look alive contributes significantly to the sense of immersion. Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson, two of the pioneering experts in Virtual Reality describes this feature as a human social agency. They identify the main components as; movement realism- that deals with gestures, expressions, postures etc, anthropometric realism- that deals with recognizable human body parts and photographic realism that deals with closeness to actual human appearance.

MindMaze introduced a VR headset ‘Mask’, that can track a wearer’s expression and transfer them to their Avatar. As a result, a user can use his or her own face to enact in VR that helps in improved personalization and humanization. Mask uses foam electrodes to track a user’s face that detect facial electrical impulses which are then scrutinized by algorithms that generate a neural signature of an individual’s expression. The advanced machine learning and biosignal processing of MindMaze help to decode and translate expressions, tens of milliseconds before they actually arrive on the wearer’s face! This early detection is what makes real time simulation of the expression on the avatar possible.

Veeso is another such VR headset that reads your face and transmits expressions onto a virtual avatar in real time. This smartphone based VR headset is equipped with two infrared cameras to obtain the user’s facial expressions. One of them is located between the eyes to obtain pupil movement, eyebrows, eyelids etc and the other is at the bottom of the unit to read jaw, lips and mouth. The company aims to provide better emotional connections through social games and chat applications.

A locator standard helps in finding places and landmarks across Virtual Worlds. The internet is already familiar with this technology in the form of URLs and the same can be completely adapted for virtual landmarks. Linden Lab already used that for their Second Life locations.

An identity standard gives a user unique credentials that can be used across virtual world boundaries. This could be equivalent to our real life license numbers, social security numbers, passport etc.

A currency standard will define the value of virtual objects and creations, thus enabling their trade and exchange. Different virtual worlds already feature their own unique virtual currency and very soon there will be developments in Open Metaverse Currency that will serve as a universally accepted virtual form of currency.

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How a Metaverse masters Realism in their world of alternate existence

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You watch a movie rich in visual effects and computer graphics. What gets you so involved in the imaginary story world and the characters

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The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is massively transforming the gaming industry and has been for quite some time. For example, back in the 1990s, the Finite State Machine (FSM) algorithm was first implemented within video games in order to bring life to non-player characters (NPCs).

What this essentially meant was that the supporting cast in games, peripheral characters that players couldn't play as, were able to respond to the actions of the protagonist based on pre-programmed behaviors and responses. The effect this had was monumental for the gaming industry: it brought a new dimension of immersion and interaction to console gaming.

In the digital age, it is quite evident that gaming has seen further cutting-edge advancements with AI technology at the forefront of its success. Ultimately, there's no telling just how far AI can go and how it can impact the future of the gaming industry for the better. In the meanwhile, however, let's look at how far we've already come within the gaming industry as a result of AI's involvement.

Source: Pexels

More interactivity

The implementation of AI in game development opens a world of possibilities. One of the main selling points of AI is its potential for increased interactivity both between the software and its players. What's more, with the use of machine learning, there is significant potential for AI systems to advance in their ability to study and learn the playing patterns of gamers individually. This means that AI can then deliver tailored responses, therefore, improving user experience.

In other words, much like players who are learning the rules of the game and are playing against it, the game is also learning how to play against the player. One example of this can be seen in the popular game series The Last of Us. This game is an action-adventure game featured on PlayStation. Interestingly, with the use of AI, every character has two possible behavioral traits , one on the offensive side, and the other on the defensive. The outcome primarily depends on how the players respond to situations involving different characters.

High-level graphics

Much like increased interactivity, another way to improve user experience is through the use of high-level graphics. AI can really seek to push the limits when it comes to adopting better graphics by developing new textures and for very little cost. With enough processing power, AI can take it to the next level by doing it in real-time.

Through the use of AI systems rather than simple scripted code, a player's experience in the digital world could be handled more realistically. For example, lighting and reflections may change in real-time to reflect the player's surroundings.

Customized experience

AI is a fast-growing technological tool in the gaming industry. This is primarily due to its enhanced ability to collect data that is relevant to the different habits of players. This, therefore, provides a more personal approach that caters specifically to a gamer's needs. One industry that has fully embraced the use of new technology in order to deliver a better experience for players is the casino industry.

Many casino sites are open to adopting new technological advancements to enhance user experience. The use of AI would therefore be a great way to improve their services as this technology affects not only the development of the games themselves but also the ways in which businesses gain consumer insights (through methods like social listening).

For example, a US player who frequently searches casino sites for promotional offers like welcome bonuses may receive offers such as a $200 no deposit bonus and other similar no deposit casino offers. This customized approach helps the player find the best offer for them. This also means that AI is able to store this information and suggest more bonuses and incentives that will appeal more to the player's needs in the future.

On the whole, there are many ways in which AI could impact the gaming industry for the better. More interactivity, high-level graphics, and having a customized experience are all significant ways in which AI could benefit the gaming industry in the future. However, with AI still in its early stages, there is no telling just how far it can go.

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Three Ways Artificial Intelligence Could Impact the Future of the Gaming Industry

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The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is massively transforming the gaming industry and has been for quite some time. For example, back in the 1990s, the Finite State Machine (FSM) algorithm was first implemented within video games in order to bring life to non-player characters (NPCs).

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(Image credit: Ubisoft)

An odd thing happened during the development of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. While game director Eric Baptizat was testing a build, he noticed that he was being followed everywhere by two non-player characters. No matter where he went, no matter what he did, these warriors would be there. It seemed that some quirk in Ubisoft's MetaAI system, which gives NPCs persistence and purpose in a game world, had made them zealous disciples. Getting a little frustrated, Baptizat fast travelled to the other side of the country to get rid of them. Ten minutes later, they showed up. They'd hiked across England to reach him – their leader and hero. Nobody designed that to happen, but as an unintended behavior, it tells us a lot about where artificial intelligence in video games is today and how it needs to evolve in the future.

In some ways, video game AI has not evolved greatly over the past decade – at least in terms of the way non-player characters act and react in virtual worlds. Most games use techniques such as behavior trees and finite state machines, which give AI agents a set of specific tasks, states or actions, based on the current situation – kind of like following a flow diagram. These were introduced into games during the 1990s, and they're still working fine, mainly because the action-adventure games of the last generation didn't really require any great advances in behavioral complexity.

Most NPCs simply patrol a specific area until the player interacts with them, at which point they try to become a more challenging target to hit. That's fine in confined spaces, but in big worlds where NPCs have the freedom to roam, it just doesn't scale. More advanced AI techniques such as machine learning – which uses algorithms to study incoming data, interpret it, and decide on a course of action in real-time – give AI agents much more flexibility and freedom. But developing them is time-consuming, computationally expensive, and a risk because it makes NPCs less predictable – hence the Assassin's Creed Valhalla stalking situation.

However, as open-world and narrative-based games become more complex, and as modern PCs and consoles display ever more authentic and detailed environments, the need for more advanced AI techniques is growing. It's going to be weird and alienating to be thrust into an almost photorealistic world filled with intricate systems and narrative possibilities, only to discover that non-player characters still act like soulless robots.

The human city

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

This is something the developers pushing the boundaries of open-world game design understand. Ubisoft, for example, has dedicated AI research teams at its Chengdu, Mumbai, Pune, and Montpelier studios, as well as a Strategic Innovation Lab in Paris and the Montreal studio's La Forge lab, and is working with tech firms and universities on academic AI research topics.

A practical example of all this is Watch Dogs Legion, which has a good claim on being the first truly next-generation open-world adventure. To create an authentic London filled with living, highly individual inhabitants, the studio developed its Census system, which builds detailed biographies and daily routines for any NPCs you interact with, including relationships with other characters in the world – so if you run over a pedestrian one day, their grief-stricken brother or best friend might come after you the next.

"On top of that, we have a group behavior system that generates branching events, like crimes and police ID checks," says Martin Walsh, Watch Dogs Legion's technical director of AI and gameplay. "If you happen to see someone in trouble, you can help them out, and this will also cause them to like you personally and DedSec as a whole. We also cast people you have interacted with before into supporting roles in future missions. The characters in Watch Dogs: Legion have lives beyond what you initially see, and if you choose to intervene in their lives it will have lasting consequences."

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

"The characters in Watch Dogs: Legion have lives beyond what you initially see and if you choose to intervene in their lives it will have lasting consequences"

Martin Walsh

For Ubisoft, this is just the first step in an ongoing process. "The biggest challenge for AI is to mimic what is perhaps the most complex and mysterious capacity of the human brain: Imagination," says Julien Desaulniers, the programming team lead of AI and Gameplay on Assassin's Creed Valhalla. "Having AI generate narrative content is taking this to a whole new level, one that not even all human beings can perform well."

What he and Walsh foresee is a new generation of AI agents that can have more of an active, intelligent role in the game narrative, perhaps generating new missions and side-story elements on the fly. This will require a combination of emerging AI technologies, which developers are only beginning to grapple with. One example is natural language processing (NLP), a type of AI program that simulates written or spoken human communication – in other words, it writes or (in combination with real-time speech synthesis) talks like a person.

The use of NLP in games would allow AIs to build human-like conversational elements and then speak them in a naturalistic way without the need for pre-recorded lines of dialogue performed by an actor. Combine these with AI-assisted character animation, which a lot of studios are now using to augment motion-capture and make characters more naturally responsive to the environment, and you might have NPCs that can think, talk, act, and plan like real people.

Teaching a game to act

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

We're a little way from this just yet, but it's coming. "The capacity of NPCs to say things that were not planned for, not recorded in advance, is one aspect of tech we are still not able to master," says Desaulniers. "While we do have systems working for us that can deliver lines with reasonably convincing performances in terms of virtual acting, we are not quite 'there' yet to do this in real-time while the player interacts with the game-world. Overall, this is a very exciting challenge for us, with tremendous potential for tech developers and storytellers alike." Walsh agrees: "In the near future, voice and animation synthesis will be good enough to allow us to create characters and stories without having to mo-cap and record all of the data. This would allow for much faster content generation, which could really change how we create characters, and what types of stories can be told."

There are companies already working toward this. UK based start-up Sonantic has developed an artificial voice technology, a kind of virtual actor, which can deliver lines of dialogue with convincing emotional depth, adding fear, joy and shock, depending on the situation. The system requires a real voice actor to deliver a couple of hours of voice recordings, but then the AI learns the voice and can perform the role itself. Sonantic is already working with a range of studios, including Splash Damage and Obsidian, and they're mostly using it during the development stages to test in-game dialogue, but in the future, the tech could be used to make in-game dialogue much more contextual and reactive. "Soon voices will be running live, dynamically in the game," says co-founder and CEO Zeena Qureshi. "If your character is out of breath, they will sound out of breath. If you wronged a character in a previous level, they will sound annoyed with you later."

This advancement of AI into the development process isn't about replacing game writers and designers, though – Ubisoft isn't just going to hand over Far Cry 7 to Skynet. But it could lead to huge changes in the way stories play out and the way we interact with NPCs. Perhaps we will finally do away with intrusive non-interactive cutscenes, with intelligent NPCs able to deliver story moments and exposition during the game, at moments where each individual player needs to experience them, depending on what they've already done and seen. We may also see the back of fixed, pre-written dialogue trees in RPGs such as Mass Effect and The Witcher – an AI agent with an NLP component could engage in realistic conversations with players, either via voice or onscreen text, making the prospect of romancing Garrus much more involving.

(Image credit: Obsidian)

"If your character is out of breath, they will sound out of breath. If you wronged a character in a previous level, they will sound annoyed with you later"

Zeena Qureshi

The use of machine learning techniques could also make NPCs more reactive to player actions. Think about those in-game moments where characters are delivering long speeches while we're idly exploring the room, jumping on tables, picking up pot plants, getting really close to the speaker… Until now, that character just keeps talking obliviously, but if they're an AI agent with NLP and AI-assisted animations, they could react. "We will definitely see games where the NPC will say 'why are you putting that bucket on your head?'" says AI researcher Julian Togelius. "This is something you can build-out of a language model and a perception model, and it will really further the perception of life.

"I mean, how do you find out if you're talking to a chatbot or a customer services employee when you're online? Well, you do it by forcing them to acknowledge and respond to something you said or did – this is currently underused in video game design and I think will be used much more in the future, so it comes through that they understand the player in some way. It's the illusion of life."

Togelius, who is working on an unannounced video game project that utilizes these technologies, is excited by the prospect of chatty autonomous agents. "You would be able to use freeform inputs and the outputs would be different every time, which would be much more believable. You could also have a Mass Effect style interface, where the player simply stipulates 'say a threatening thing', and if you asked the same thing too many times in a row, the language model could get really annoyed at you and tell you to leave."

Language lessons

(Image credit: Warner Bros. Interactive)

"The other constant inspiration is tabletop roleplaying; we're basically trying to be great digital Dungeon Masters"

Michael de Plater‏

Several AI coders we spoke to were particularly excited by GTP-3, the highly advanced NLP model developed by San Francisco-based laboratory OpenAI, owned by Elon Musk. GTP-3, which can read enormous amounts of text and then generate its own written content, has already been employed to craft magazine and newspaper articles. So might we see an open-world adventure with GTP-3 equipped NPCs in the future? "You get very good varied results from GTP-3, but there is a control problem, and Open AI is very aware of that and of the potential for PR disasters," says Togelius. In short, what if you get an AI game character who decides to use racist or sexist slurs, for example, or just goes totally wild in the game world?

It's something Monolith Productions, the team behind Middle-earth: Shadow of War, is aware of as it builds on its seminal Nemesis System, which creates real-time rivalries between the player and NPCs. "General technological advances in areas like natural language processing and text generation are fascinating," says Michael de Plater‏, creative VP at the studio. "There's a wonderful blog by Janelle Shane called AI Weirdness with great examples of the insanity AI can generate, which speaks to its strengths but also its limitations."

"Interactive Fiction is constantly fascinating, and Emily Short has a brilliant blog on Interactive Storytelling and AI," de Plater‏ continues. "As far as recent games, the reactivity and relationship building in Hades by Supergiant Games was brilliant. The other constant inspiration is tabletop roleplaying; we're basically trying to be great digital Dungeon Masters."

The answer to rogue AIs may be a tightly controlled vocabulary and a few pre-written prompts. "You could have freeform conversations, but you could also combine this with bits and pieces of scripted text," says Togelius. "I fully expect that within a year someone else will have essentially implemented GTP-3 in a game."

You are being watched

(Image credit: Rockstar)

"Say you want to give the player a fetch quest; you could alter it depending on what you expect that player to do"

Julian Togelius

Another area of AI that's likely to become more important in the future is player modeling, in which player actions within a game are studied and memorized by the AI system. Of course, we've seen many games that feature enemies who learn player tactics and alter their own accordingly – the fighting game genre is full of examples – and we're also used to enemies that call out your position in the game world. But we also love games with characters that simply notice us – like the NPCs who comment on your bloody clothes in Red Dead Redemption 2, or the bartenders in Hitman 3 who ask what the hell you're doing hiding behind the drinks fridge.

Togelius sees much more advanced examples of this in the near future. "If you have a good idea of what a player might do or where they like going in the world, then there are a lot of story patterns that can be instigated as quests in many different ways," he says. "Say you want to give the player a fetch quest, you could alter it depending on what you expect that player to do... if it's the kind of player who will explore far away islands, you can decide that's where to send them. There are a lot of light quests you could re-balance, so there is sneaking here or combat there, based on the player's past experiences. You can still design the main questline, but then how that manifests in the game can be changed based on what you know about the individual player."

We've seen lots of games, like Fable, with simple morality systems where the world treats you differently if you've been good or evil. But modern AI could add greater nuance and complexity, with recognition manifesting in more profound ways than reputation points. "If there's a particular symbol that you always get a blacksmith to engrave on your armor, perhaps other characters will get the same symbol because they've seen it on you. Also, when you're hunting monsters, you may always use the same technique of sneaking up behind them and shooting them with a poison arrow, then you look around and realize NPCs are now doing it the same way. They learn your movement patterns and replicate them. This is the kind of stuff we do need modern machine learning to enable," says Togelius.

Player modeling could also combine with NLP in future open-world adventures, so you could have people in the game world retelling stories to each other about the things you've done. Rumors and gossip will be exchanged between NPCs, as will myths and legends. Imagine arriving in a village in The Witcher 4 to find a minstrel singing songs about your last dragon encounter or the very specific way you dealt with the Bloody Baron.

Movement and mimicry

(Image credit: EA)

Like Ubisoft, Electronic Arts is heavily involved in AI research. The publisher has central teams such as EA Digital Platform and a dedicated research division, SEED, working with advanced AI technologies. Like other developers, one of its major interests is the use of AI to augment asset creation, such as extremely natural and detailed textures, but also more authentic and reactive character animation. The ability to combine mo-cap animations with real-time responses is going to be vital to make sure characters interact in a realistic manner with complex game worlds, rather than running into doors or loping awkwardly up staircases.

"Animation blending and motion matching is now being handled by machine learning," says Tommy Thompson, director of the consultancy, AI and Games, and one of the foremost experts in video game artificial intelligence. "It figures out the best blend points between animations and re-targets those animations based on different contexts. So a character would be able to sit down in 10 different chairs, using the same animation, with the AI engine able to blend the movements seamlessly."

Right now, EA is investigating methods of using deep learning to capture realistic motion and facial likenesses directly from video instead of having to carry out expensive and time-consuming motion capture sessions. "This is something that will have a big impact in my opinion, especially for sports games in the future," says Paul McComas, EA's head of animation. "This motion data will allow us to cover more and more gameplay situations, and it will also appear more natural because we will get animation data from real athletes 'in the wild', if you will, as opposed to the vacuum of a motion capture studio."

"This means more realism, especially for contact sports, as well as more true-to-life signature moves and behaviors from big personalities. Being able to capture new material from video will also make us more reactive, like, for example, quickly introducing a new move from an athlete or even create scenarios based on real-life events, soon after they happened," says McComas.

(Image credit: EA)

The future of gaming

(Image credit: Guerrilla Games)

What will next-gen games deliver in the future? With the PS5 and Xbox Series X finally here, we sit down with Sumo Digital, Bloober Team, Neon Giant, and LKA to learn what players should expect from a new generation of gaming.

The publisher is also looking into using a combination of reinforcement learning (where an AI learns through trial and error), and imitation learning (where it learns by watching and mimicking human actions), to create FIFA and Madden players that accurately behave like their real-life counterparts. But there are wider applications of this. If we can train AIs to behave like real football players, then we can train them to behave like superstar pro gamers and streamers too.

"Think about this in context of Fortnite," says Togelius. "Every player could get the chance to play against a virtual Ninja – there's a whole subset of the game's audience who would kill for that opportunity. You could take the best crew of Sea of Thieves streamers and create an AI team – although that's really difficult because getting four human players to play Sea of Thieves effectively is hard enough, let alone four AIs!"

EA is also interested in using machine learning to enhance user-generated content. "It will make it easier for users to create avatars that look like themselves with just a phone, capture gestures and facial expressions, as well as offering smarter tools to create level and assets intuitively," says Fabio Zinno, senior software engineer at EA. "I also think that Natural Language Processing will help gamers with disabilities, for example, getting text from speech."

The next generation of open-world adventures will react to the player, with missions that skew to your actions and preferences, and with characters who simulate empathy as well as aggression, and who come to know you as an individual. Those two NPCs that Ubisoft's Eric Baptizat encountered, who tracked him across the country, not because the game told them to but because they wanted to, may actually tell us a lot about where games are going. Reactive, observant, a little unpredictable at times. It's kind of ironic that all this incredibly advanced research and development is going into something so seemingly straightforward: the future for games is to become more like us.

Many thanks to Tommy Thompson who provided a huge amount of technical background information on AI for this article. See his excellent YouTube channel, AI and Games, here.

Keith Stuart is an experienced journalist and editor. While Keith's byline can often be found here at GamesRadar+, where he writes about video games and the business that surrounds them, you'll most often find his words on how gaming intersects with technology and digital culture over at The Guardian. He's also the author of best-selling and critically acclaimed books, such as 'A Boy Made of Blocks', 'Days of Wonder', and 'The Frequency of Us'.

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More human than human? How the future of video game AI will change the way that we play

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EA, Ubisoft, Warner Bros, and more explore how artificial intelligence innovations will lead to more believable open worlds and personal adventures within them