So I woke up this morning for some classic PvPing in Guild Wars: Factions. If you haven’t heard me blabber my mouth off about it not too long ago, I mentioned that the PvP aspect of Factions is the most fun for me. The PvE part of the game is pretty fun too, but the true excitement lies in PvP. That being said, I’ve began to wonder about how difficult my AI-controlled level 28 foes are in PvE, compared to my human-controlled level 20 foes I often encounter in PvP. You’d think that with such a big level difference, my PvE foes would be harder to kill. I am really wrong.

A lot of artificial intelligence, as I observe in a lot of games, make decisions based on logic: What is the most logical move? What would be the most efficient? Which move to make is best for my purpose? Such logical, one-sided questions makes AI in Guild Wars quite easy to predict and therefore defeat, if you yourself can follow their logic after numerous hours of playing and observing. For example, throw an AoE (Area of Effect) spell on a group of enemies, and, to your surprise (sarcasm), the first move they will do is scatter out, negating to do anything else which may seem important at first. This is your chance to kill singled-out, scattered targets. Of course, there are more complicated examples than just this, but they’re all pretty easy to guess and therefore counter.

Now players — real people, on the other hand, are different. They have a much more diverse way of thinking. Now I’m not saying this is a good thing — nor a bad thing. As anyone can tell by now in their years of living the human experience, humans can be smart; can be stupid; can be very logical, or can be very chaotic. We’re dumb in all sorts of manners, and as such, are unpredictable in our movements and decisions. Some bother not taking time to do the think-before-you-act precautionary and just do it with the “Shut up and do it” attitude. Some of the most mediocre movements can surprise you, and before you know it, the tide of the battle is turned against you, all because a decision was made which you did not expect to come at all. How should you react to this? My solution would be to adapt, if you can in time. This is the greatest challenge for most of us beyond any challenge of an AI-controlled opponent.

Now I’m not going to be talking about being able to adapt to situations. I ain’t no editorial writer, most especially on Guild Wars, however I just thought I’d point out the ever similarities and ever differences of artificial intelligence and human “intelligence.” We are so unpredictable on many levels; smart on many levels; stupid on many levels, that I can’t help but notice that the development of artificial intelligence, be it within robots or within computer-controlled skanky casters on the screen, still has but a long way to go to fully be able to mimic our chaotic, unpredictable, and universal behavior.

Oh, and by the way, these screenshots are screenshots I took on my quest to explore the entire continent of Tyria. Some pretty nice scenery here if you ask me.

What’s with the random GW pictures you ask? Think of it as shameless advertising!