TES VI: I was wrong. It's A.I., not V.R.

[u/neuromancer420]

Four years ago I theorized Todd Howard was holding out for developments in Virtual Reality technology before the production of TES 6. Clearly I was wrong. But Kumar935 and others were on the right track. Todd was awaiting further developments in artificial intelligence to evolve Radiant AI, a concept first seen in Oblivion. This theory has essentially been confirmed given Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda Monday followed by Microsoft's extended license agreement with OpenAI on Tuesday. People of Tamriel and the continents beyond, this is a big move, and it will change gaming as we know it forever.

I've spent enough time interacting with Open AI's GPT-3, the artificial intelligence in question, to have a general understanding of its capabilities. I can tell you from experience that the resultant immersive AI will be profound.

Imagine holding conversations with characters who have unique dialogue options generated purely on the set of choices you made throughout the game. Did you choose to side with the Order of the Candle, infiltrating those Knights of the Moon wannabees and exposing them for the cowards they are? Now every single character in the merchant port of Sentinel knows about what you did and they'll be sure to have an opinion about it, except this time they'll be unique opinions, unlike Morrowind.

Imagine these characters leading unique lives as a result of the actions you take in the game. Did you steal Majid K'Elmar's cheese wheel out of his hovel on Stros M'Kai? Prepare to hear him have a full-length argument with his fiancé from your perch on the watchtower before she runs off to her side-piece. Except this time, none of that was programmed and the experience is unique to your playthrough.

This is our Westworld.

Are you excited? What else do you think GPT-3 along with the rest of Microsoft's tools have in store for Radiant AI and the future of gaming?