[Game Character New Weapon AI]② "It's raining, so everyone is playing games".. Parrot 'Extra' has changed

Domestic and International Game Companies Focus on Next-Generation AI NPC Development
Real-Time Customized Conversations with NPCs, Not Repetitive Phrases

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not limited to learning game players. It also trains NPCs (Non-Player Characters) that players cannot control to exhibit various behaviors tailored to the player's tendencies. NPCs help players by assigning missions or acting as merchants to buy and sell items, but traditionally, they performed only fixed roles and repetitive dialogues. However, they are now emerging as important elements that respond in real time and facilitate deep interactions with players.

Nexon, the largest game company in Korea, has been contemplating the organic roles of surrounding characters within games. Although they recorded over 500,000 lines of dialogue through numerous actors for large open-world games like "Red Dead Redemption 2," NPCs still showed fixed routines and repetitive reactions. For example, when players asked the same question, NPCs always gave the same answer, and during quest acceptance, only predetermined lines were provided.

Nexon mobilized about 700 engineers within its Intelligence Labs, established in 2017, to fully utilize AI and deep learning. The goal was to surpass the limitations of existing NPCs and provide an immersive gaming environment. A Nexon representative said, "We are researching the introduction of AI personas for NPCs, bosses, and main characters instead of fixed scripts, enabling communication with users based on the game’s worldview. We are implementing AI NPCs that help users enjoy games more by offering personalized advice according to user patterns and data through customized messages."

Nexon is researching the comprehensive technology of ‘AI chatbots (Active Advisors).’ The policy is to provide necessary information instantly through simple chatting. The development is progressing toward generating various dialogues by learning individual user behavior patterns and data. Once these technologies are implemented, users who enjoy hunting in the game can receive hunting ground recommendations, and users progressing through quests can get advice on problem-solving.

Visible research results are emerging in some fields. Nexon’s AI chatbot learns not only in-game information but also external information such as today’s weather and converts it to fit the in-game situation. For example, an NPC might say to the player, "It’s raining today, so everyone is staying home," or if a user frequently performs a specific quest, the NPC recognizes this and generates dialogue like, "You are quite skilled at this mission." This represents a level where external information is connected inside the game, and NPCs independently judge and attempt user-customized conversations. Voice conversion is also being attempted. NPCs can have various voices and intonations, allowing players to have a more realistic experience.

To implement AI NPC technology more effectively, Nexon also introduced a development solution called ‘GameScale.’ Through a user-customized matching system, it provides a tailored gaming environment that matches player preferences and styles. While existing matching systems mainly based on player skill level or performance, the customized matching algorithm considers not only technical factors but also the player’s preferred gaming style, play frequency, character selection patterns, cooperative tendencies, and aggressive play styles.

An NPC in a game created using NVIDIA ACE. With the application of large language models (LLM), it has become possible to implement specific character backstories and personalities suited to the game world, making interactions with players as natural as conversations with people. Photo by NVIDIA website

Leading the global AI chip market, American company NVIDIA has also jumped into innovating game NPCs. Through the ‘Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE),’ it is revolutionizing NPC interactions in the global gaming market. ACE utilizes AI tools such as Riva (voice and translation AI) and Audio2Face (which creates lip movements matching dialogue) to enable NPCs to generate conversations in real time and interact naturally with players.

Convai, a company providing technology to implement conversational NPCs based on AI, showcased NPCs that naturally converse with players and interact with in-game objects using NVIDIA ACE. Tencent and NetEase have also adopted NVIDIA technology to develop games where NPCs exhibit more human-like reactions and interact with players.

The industry expects that NPCs will evolve beyond simple conversation partners to entities that have a real impact on the game world according to player actions. An industry insider said, "AI NPC technology is rapidly advancing," and predicted, "As the technology matures, NPCs will bring significant changes to game story development and player experiences."