Idea Info Name: A Voice-ordered Character Index: Primary Category: Other Submitted: 9/18/2002 Written By: From Old Site

Even with intuitive controls, the idea of using a controller to move a character in a platform game has become rather boring. As voice-recognition has advanced, so should its uses. My idea is a game where you tell a character what to do and only use a controller to position the camera and check on other things. When I say that you tell a character what to do, I don't mean that you give voice commands in place of using a controller (i.e. "forward", "back", "turn right", "fire"), I mean you give commands like you were a 'friend' giving advice. Examples of what you might tell the character include: "head over to that door on your right", "there's a guy heading towards you from the canyon", "see if you can hit that yellow sign", "wait a moment, I think that I hear something", and "you will need to hop across those lily pads". A game like this would require a great voice-recognition system and also an amazing A.I. for your character. I mean that the two systems would be so good that you could carry on a conversation with the character as you played. However, the character would also be so smart that if you kept doing things that got it injured/killed, it would remember and maybe not listen to what you say - you might have to do a lot of pleading to get the character to trust you again. A game like this could be really great because while playing this game, you could hold a conversation with the character and learn about it and the character could learn about you - a bit like Seaman. The systems (voice recognition and A.I.) could be so good that many players would start to grow attached to the character.

Overall, this idea could grow itself into a whole new genre. I think that this type of control system would be a fresh look into gaming. Players will end up rethinking their strategies for games since they would never have complete control over the character and will probable get extremely frustrated if the character does something stupid. Another thing about this could be the way that choosing a difficulty could affect the game. The games difficulty could be controlled by how smart the character is - the harder the game, the more stupid the character. The supreme difficulty would be where you have to tell the character everything to do, which would get extremely frustrating.

Oh, by the way, I think that this could also be done with typing in commands, but then there would be lost many joys of the voice. These include such things as screaming at problematic times, cheering the player on, and the speed at which you talk. There is also the little tidbit that people tend to be a little looser about what they say and don't think so much about what words are coming out.

(Transferred from the old Game Discovery website)
Submitted in 2000 by


Fred Olson