This was the question that started my twitter #gamedev Q&A series. As of right now we’re just shy of having discussed 100 questions on twitter. Feel free to join in!

#gamedev?

— Mike Acton (@mike_acton) August 21, 2012

The conversation from Twitter:

@mike_acton There are a lot of industry beliefs about “what the player wants” that are limiting a lot of design choices.

Tue Aug 21 13:37:54 +0000 2012

@IADaveMark
Dave Mark

@IADaveMark Hard to enumerate common assumptions, but it’d be interesting to try.

Tue Aug 21 16:24:12 +0000 2012

@mike_acton
Mike Acton

@mike_acton From my own discipline “Players don’t want good AI.” While they don’t want to get *crushed* by AI, that doesn’t indict ALL AI.

Tue Aug 21 16:25:53 +0000 2012

@IADaveMark
Dave Mark

@mike_acton At some point “good AI” got defined as “AI that plays flawlessly” instead of “AI that plays like a human”.

Tue Aug 21 16:46:46 +0000 2012

@CastIrony
Joel Bernstein

@mike_acton if you think players don’t want good AI, your definition of what makes an AI good is flawed.

Tue Aug 21 17:07:11 +0000 2012

@slicedlime
Mikael Hedberg

@mike_acton I assume that wasn’t directed at me but rather at the people whose mentality I was paraphrasing?

Tue Aug 21 19:51:29 +0000 2012

@IADaveMark
Dave Mark

@mike_acton correct

Tue Aug 21 19:53:30 +0000 2012

@slicedlime
Mikael Hedberg

.@IADaveMark to be fair, most players have no clue what AI is, nor what GAME AI is, or is supposed to do (more than one job, etc)?

Tue Aug 21 22:14:00 +0000 2012

@init2
Alex

@init2 however, these are actual designers and producers etc that are making these statements.

Tue Aug 21 22:14:58 +0000 2012

@IADaveMark
Dave Mark

.@IADaveMark everytime s/b utters “dumb AI” (& leaves it at that) I stop listening/reading the review.

Tue Aug 21 22:16:32 +0000 2012

@init2
Alex

@IADaveMark oops! ;)

Tue Aug 21 22:17:11 +0000 2012

@init2
Alex

@mike_acton‘s thread — what mentalities are holding us back in game dev?

Tue Aug 21 22:46:56 +0000 2012

@IADaveMark
Dave Mark