Column: 'A Journalistic Bent: The Artificial Person'

In the latest 'A Journalistic Bent' column for Gamasutra, Jim Rossignol takes a look at the concept of the artificial person, particularly referencing Valve's AI work within Half-Life 2 - Episode 1 as "the evolution of our relationships with NPC characters". Rossignol explains of this week's column, part of a continuing series: "The development of Alyx, the female character who guides players through Episode One of Half-Life 2 and much of the original game, suggests to me a trend that could go far within games as we see them at the moment... It's easy to think that these relationships aren't particularly complex because these entities are still so far from being believable creatures in their own right. Their responses are superficially rather simple and their AI a long way from flying any Turing tests. Nevertheless, there are some complex relationships going on, and I think they're only going to get more interesting." You can now read the full Gamasutra column on the subject, including plenty more on the idea of AI that is genuinely emphathetic to the player (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).