The CEO of the large MMO company Nexon provides an interesting insight into how modern artificial intelligence improves the gaming experience. He explains how to use artificial intelligence to quickly provide players in first-person shooters with the perfect match.
This is the situation:
- Owen Mahoney has been the CEO of Nexon since 2014, which is a huge corporation that originally started in Korea. Nexon publishes games like the MMORPG Maple Story, the mega-hit Dungeon Fighter Online, or Vindictus. They also owned the flop “Lawbreakers.”
- Mahoney now explains that Nexon is strategically using new technology like artificial intelligence to analyze players within seconds and provide them with the “perfect match” that keeps them engaged in the game for a long time.
- According to Mahoney, the Corona pandemic has led to a change in mindset among investors: away from films and Hollywood, towards gaming.
The technology comes cheaply from Amazon or Google
This is what Mahoney says about artificial intelligence: In an interview with VentureBeat, Mahoney says that companies like Amazon and Google have now developed powerful tools that can be used cheaply (via venturebeat).
When creating a virtual world, these tools could be applied in exciting ways: If used wisely, they would have a tremendous impact on the performance of the virtual world.
While Nexon got a handful of clever AI experts a few years ago to find their own “artificial intelligence” solutions, they quickly realized: The best tools can simply be bought cheaply “off the shelf.”
Artificial intelligence masters matchmaking better than any human
One area where Nexon relies on artificial intelligence is matchmaking. Matchmaking determines which players play together in a team and a lobby, against and with each other:
“In many online games, matchmaking is very important. Not just in first-person shooters, but let’s take them as an example. When we use our tools, we can look at a game in the intro level or in the training level and within about 17 seconds we know:
– whether you are new to the game
– whether you are new to first-person shooters in general
– what playing style you pursue.
Then we can team you up with players who will keep you engaged in a game for a long time.”
Owen Mahoney
Mahoney says that in the past, people believed: If we throw you together with a group of 15-year-old pros in the game, you wouldn’t find it enjoyable. Or they thought: If you are much better than your teammates, that would frustrate the others, and they would quit quickly, then you would get bored and quit quickly.
But in reality, matchmaking goes much further: it’s about creating a team that functions well together. Some players play cautiously, others are very aggressive.
Artificial intelligence can assemble much better teams than any human.
Because artificial intelligence now takes on such tasks, team members now have time for other, more important tasks. At Nexon, they have seen that artificial intelligence had an immediate impact on the business.
Fundamental change in the entertainment industry towards games
This is what Mahoney says about the development of games: In the interview, Mahoney also states that the landscape for game development is currently changing.
He even believes: We are currently experiencing a fundamental change in the entertainment industry: it is shifting from linear to highly interactive, from offline to online.
“Two years ago, when I spoke with investors about this, they always said: ‘Yeah, but Hollywood is still big.’ Now, after the pandemic, people are questioning this much less than before.”
Owen Mahoney
According to Mahoney, the trend is increasingly moving away from films and towards video games. He should therefore find enough money for technical innovations.
What Mahoney addresses here is something that has long been discussed internally among developers. EA has repeatedly made patents known about how to manipulate matches and matchmaking to keep players in the game longer and encourage them to spend more money in cash shops. This is the dark side of the story that Mahoney presents so positively here:
EA is researching matchmaking that makes you spend more money
