After playing the alpha, I've come to a thought that based on the introduction of the AI in the game and killing the AI actually contributes directly toward the score of your team, this could potentially change the video game industry going forward.
Many casual players never step into multiplayer shooter games because they don't have the skillset or they're intimidated by other players, so they just stick to bot matches or single player campaigns. Now that Titanfall has included AI into the mix of real players, casuals will be able to still score points for their team by taking out the AI. The negative effect of this will be that skilled players will exploit this by massing up as many AI kills as they can to increase their score easier versus seeking out human players that will contribute more points per kill, at the end of the day, if you kill more AI that count for less points per kill, you will compensate for it by simply killing more total AI.
If this formula becomes successful, this could potentially change multiplayer shooters in the coming years.
Imagine Titanfall outsells the highest selling FPS, other developers and publishers will take note of the design decision Respawn made to include easy AI in multiplayer pvp.
Battlefield 5 or whatever the next BF game will be could decide to include AI as cannon fodder on the battlefield in addition to the 64 players already playing. In essence you could potentially see a BF game claiming it has over 100 units in the game...where 64 are real players and 36 of them are AI. In this scenario the exploiting would take place, kill as many easy AI as you can to rack up easy points, whether it goes towards unlocks or general ranking up, or even toward eliminating tickets from the other team in a game of conquest.
We already see AI in traditional MOBA games, and if the AI in Titanfall prove to push more copies of games sold because now more casual players are going to want to play Titanfall because of its inclusion of AI, this could change the industry.
Would this be good or bad? I'll reserve my answer until some discussion is had.
Many casual players never step into multiplayer shooter games because they don't have the skillset or they're intimidated by other players, so they just stick to bot matches or single player campaigns. Now that Titanfall has included AI into the mix of real players, casuals will be able to still score points for their team by taking out the AI. The negative effect of this will be that skilled players will exploit this by massing up as many AI kills as they can to increase their score easier versus seeking out human players that will contribute more points per kill, at the end of the day, if you kill more AI that count for less points per kill, you will compensate for it by simply killing more total AI.
If this formula becomes successful, this could potentially change multiplayer shooters in the coming years.
Imagine Titanfall outsells the highest selling FPS, other developers and publishers will take note of the design decision Respawn made to include easy AI in multiplayer pvp.
Battlefield 5 or whatever the next BF game will be could decide to include AI as cannon fodder on the battlefield in addition to the 64 players already playing. In essence you could potentially see a BF game claiming it has over 100 units in the game...where 64 are real players and 36 of them are AI. In this scenario the exploiting would take place, kill as many easy AI as you can to rack up easy points, whether it goes towards unlocks or general ranking up, or even toward eliminating tickets from the other team in a game of conquest.
We already see AI in traditional MOBA games, and if the AI in Titanfall prove to push more copies of games sold because now more casual players are going to want to play Titanfall because of its inclusion of AI, this could change the industry.
Would this be good or bad? I'll reserve my answer until some discussion is had.