Mearls ([info]mearls) wrote,
@ 2009-01-02 01:10:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Left 4 Dead
This is the defining moment of Left 4 Dead.

We're walking along, and I'm covering our rear. Everyone else is... doing something? I have no idea. Really, this game makes it pretty obvious if you are not much of a team player. The Zombie Survival Guide, at least parts of it, is actually pretty useful to keep in mind when you're playing.

Anyway, as we stop, I turn to face the passage to our rear and think to myself, "I wonder if the director will throw a ton of zombies at us, down this passage right now, because I'm sort of positioned as if I expect that to happen."

And it did.

I have a feeling that this is the sort of thing that could completely change the way that digital games work. It's the artificial DM. I want more games like this!

(Post a new comment)


[info]fabio_mp
2009-01-02 10:51 am UTC (link)
interesting!

(Reply to this)


[info]atari_x
2009-01-02 12:30 pm UTC (link)

I have loved this game from the moment that I first played it. And the more I find out about it's internals, the more I love it.

Some other areas where they have an "artificial DM" - the music is set not just according to what is about to happen, but what has been happening, and the overall stress level of the group. Yes, that's right - it tracks a stress level by tracking how many monsters each person has killed, how much time between kills, how much damage they've taken and how much healing they've had to use (and how much they have left).

I dare to say that a new genre' has been born (the moderated cooperative first person shooter).

(Reply to this)


[info]rob_donoghue
2009-01-02 12:48 pm UTC (link)
Tried Fallout 3 yet? It's not quite there, but it gets creepily close in places.

(Reply to this)


[info]rossmills
2009-01-02 01:12 pm UTC (link)
Left 4 Dead D20 mb? :-p

(Reply to this)


[info]brahman_atman
2009-01-02 02:37 pm UTC (link)
So you were playing Live with other people? It seems like it from your post, but want to be sure.

(Reply to this)


[info]dariusk
2009-01-02 03:16 pm UTC (link)
I am skeptical that the director is anything more than a series of horrible, horrible hacks. But that's because, as far as I know, Valve hasn't come out and SAID anything about the director works other than sort of USA-Today-science-reporting-style generalities.

And even if it IS a series, of hacks, it's a beautiful series of hacks, but what I'm mostly skeptical about is its ability to apply to any game other than L4D.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]needsbalance
2009-01-02 06:46 pm UTC (link)
Sadly, most AI is nothing more than a few hacks. Hardly anything truly intelligent, but definitely beautiful.

I have to agree about this game though. The director is definitely an entity unto itself and it does seem to be "human" for the most part. I swear, when you play the game, it's for his amusement, not yours.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]ninjadebugger
2009-01-03 02:04 am UTC (link)
I object! I have yet to see an AI that was actually beautiful inside, and I've even programmed a few. They are, in my experience, invariably an ugly series of hacks strung together by still more hacks.

...kinda like the human brain, actually. Funny, that.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]needsbalance
2009-01-05 05:42 pm UTC (link)
I find a certain elegant air to the hackish way they are made though. :D

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]alecaustin
2009-01-03 01:29 am UTC (link)
Sounds about right to me.

I mean, people drooled over the original Half-Life's squad-based AI. Which essentially consisted of "You have 5 guys. 2 of them can shoot at a time. The others make noises like they're doing something and run around."

Valve is great at using sleight-of-hand to make something relatively unimpressive seem amazing. Which isn't something to be discounted, but everything I've heard about the innards of the director suggest that it's far less clever than one might hope.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]atari_x
2009-01-04 12:29 pm UTC (link)

Oh you guys are all negative piss-heads.

What the hell have you done that's interesting lately?

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]nthdegree256
2009-01-02 08:39 pm UTC (link)
The last session of my 4E Eberron campaign before the holiday break scattered everyone was a blatant Left 4 Dead homage. I dropped the PCs in the middle of a city that had just been overrun by negative energy from Mabar, and they had to run a couple of gauntlets while dealing with:

- zombie rotters
- "shadowhunt" zombies that would make rapid, leaping pounce attacks and knock PCs prone
- "shadowgrip" zombies that would make grab attacks from 6 squares away with shadowy tendrils and pull them off from the rest of the party
- "shadowburst" zombies that would lurch around, hurling gobs of necrotic energy that hindered PCs and drew the attention of more zombie rotters
- and of course, one massively oversized elite zombie that ripped chunks off of nearby buildings and sent PCs flying with every attack.

When we get back together, they'll continue in their quest to reach the top of the gryphon tower, which seems to have been mostly unaffected by the negative energy. :D

(Reply to this)


[info]boymonster
2009-01-02 08:51 pm UTC (link)
You're just out to get rid of human GMs! I know your secret, Mearls! You're one of those GM-hating indie hippy psycho people! You just PRETEND to work for the largest RPG publisher in the world! By night your soul belongs to narrative card-based shared-world dramaturgical synthesis story-games!

And, I can't find Left 4 Dead in Wal-Mart.

(Reply to this)


[info]nightchilde
2009-01-03 01:05 am UTC (link)
I heart Left4Dead. :-)

The stupid Director last night threw a Boomer (which puked on me, BTW) at us, then a Tank immediately afterwards followed up by a hunter at my back. I almost cried. :-)

(Reply to this)


[info]sirurza
2009-01-03 03:24 am UTC (link)
Left 4 Dead is an amazing game. It's so simple yet so defining. Take the time in campaign (be it solo or coop) to explore the maps. There's a lot of writing on the walls and tape recorders people miss to clue you in on what's happening.

(Reply to this)

Create an Account
Forgot your login?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…