One signal

A Microsoft patent application describes games that use generative AI to reshape quests, characters and in-game assets around how each player behaves. It even suggests using facial expressions and reactions to tune the experience.

Why it matters

The idea would make games reactive rather than merely branching along pre-written paths. Spend more time in one area and the system might add lore, monsters or missions there, while pruning content it thinks is being ignored. CNET reports that the patent is still pending, and Microsoft has not said that any current Xbox game uses the system. So this is a glimpse of a possible design direction, not a product announcement. The intriguing question is whether personalised worlds feel alive, or simply like a very energetic algorithm rummaging through the writers’ cupboard.

Discuss: Would you want a game to rewrite its world around your behaviour, or would that make the experience feel less authored and less worth sharing with other players?

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