The online gaming industry has been incorporating Artificial Intelligence into different areas of business in the same way it has been integrating other technologies to improve operations to provide the best gaming experience for its customers. The use of AI has been used in many ways by the public, most obviously via Amazon’s Alexa or chatbots being used in place of customer service representatives to help customers address simple questions. Here we look at AK in the online gaming industry:
AI can be too clever
AI is well established in the video game industry, but the use of AI in the online gaming industry is currently underutilised. One of the key issues is that whilst AI can use pattern recognition in gaming, which it then uses to predict future behaviour, the game characters themselves can learn to anticipate common human errors which can tar a player’s experience. This is because a game, even one as simple as keno which has been created with self-learning software, will become a game that is impossible to win even with the best how to win at keno suggestions. Therefore, the online gaming industry needs to focus on the use of AI algorithms to enhance the user’s game and customise their environment for an overall better online experience.
Ethical AI principles
The online gaming industry needs to abide by ethical AI principles that can ensure that algorithms are explainable, auditable, and transparent so that players know they are playing fair. The ethical AI principles also deal with any in-built bias from the learning algorithms which are created by people, who can never be fully objective. By using ethical AI principles, businesses within the online gaming industry can create an economic and competitive edge. If you don’t know where to start — check out the Bingotastic directory for verified and secure online bingo games to play.
Mobile online gaming
More than half of all gamers play on mobile devices, with the numbers growing daily as the processing power of these devices has grown to allow for more immersive games to be played on smartphones, tablets and consoles. This has led to a growth in marketing strategies around mobile apps since they are now a vital part of the digital environment. However, not all mobile platforms are able to run all current games as several were launched only for desktop and PC play. This will soon change with the use of AI algorithms to build much smarter mobile games equal to PC gaming.
Enhanced graphics
Game developers have used AI in multiple ways. In the early days, pathfinding was used in Pac-Man to find a way for ghosts to get from Point A and Point B. Finite State Machines transformed those same ghosts from chasers to fleers in-game. Since then, these basic principles have seen many more modern uses of AI in the industry.
Deep learning through AI has the capacity to enhance the visual aspects of online gaming. Characters appear more lifelike in how they move and are able to develop more natural speech and emotion, making it difficult to see where the work of hundreds of developers and artists ends, and the virtual world begins. It is now possible to use procedural generation software to scan landscapes and entire cities to use in virtual worlds making it possible to fight aliens in your locality in your favourite video game.
Multiple user play
Whether online or in-person, AI allows multiple users to play the same game at the same time from different locations, which can also be used to customise service to individual players. Without AI this will be almost impossible for operators to do. Operators are able to apply AI to manage bonus costs and promotional values to each customer, increasing a lifetime value up to four times more than actual spending.
Business goals
Whilst the online gaming industry has been collecting data through AI for years, it is shifting AI to advance business goals. For some operators, this has enabled them to reduce the number of employees, with companies with up to 500 employees having the potential to cut their workforce to 70 employees. The efficiencies of scale in a competitive market is one that most cannot afford to ignore. Also, large companies have a lot of data about their customers that someone needs to process, so they are engaged in their own AI development.
Effective targeting of problem gamblers
AI can be an effective behavioral analysis tool to help identify problem gamblers. Customers pass identity checks and open gaming accounts whilst AI tracks how often the customer plays and their winnings, which allows personal gaming limits to be set to prevent problem gambling when AI exposes risky gaming patterns. The analysis tool also provides the customer with feedback explaining the reasoning behind the personal gaming limits, with suggestions for additional support measures.
The future
The future of AI in the online gaming industry will see the data about customers being used to drive the development of new, hyper-personalised gaming and internet betting experiences. The idea of ‘Lifestyle AI’ apps that choose our entertainment (think Netflix), gaming choices as well as our employment and romantic partner could see the tailoring of gaming and betting experiences for each individual, which is not in the realms of science fiction since it has been forecast that by 2030, AI will have infiltrated our lives in the same way that smartphones and the internet already have.
Next-generation betting
With AI, any scenario could turn into a betting opportunity. You can bet on your own life events from whether you meet a friend out on a walk to who your romantic partner should be. AI could see the idea of fantasy sports move to fantasy governments, where teams of politicians could be created and wagers could be based on the balance of hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly media coverage received, with AI collecting input data continuously from social media, official agencies, and media outlets. The algorithm would weight and add up positive and negative comments and then determine the overall balance of sentiment for each politician. Of course, bookmakers are likely to develop a more sophisticated app in response, but this just highlights what is possible with the use of AI in the future.
Fair game
As the online gaming industry moves into Esports, AI can check against match-fixing by analysing match outcomes against historical match data for different team and individual sporting events to confirm the validity of the competition and determine anomalous results that could be the subject of match-fixing. For those who enjoy a flutter on sporting events, services without the input of AI would be a new market for those who want to rely only on human knowledge and experience when placing a bet.
