If NPCs Were Sentient

[dessertmonkeyjk]

If that were to happen, the first thing they'll say would be this:

"You-- you just had your head shot off a minute ago but now you say 'I'm fine'?! Wha-- checkpoints? Lives? QUICK SAVES?!!"

 

[nothingspringstomind]

I'm going to ignore the nit-picky difference between sentience (anything with a complex brain has sentience) and sapience (humans).

World of Warcraft. Rally the armies of Azeroth in ways no quest line could and annihilate everything that looks at us funny.

Mass Effect. I don't like playing renegade anyway, and sapience would make it that much more difficult to be an unforgiving jerk-ass.

Any game with squad NPCs (Mass Effect, Half-Life 2 leap to mind) will be easier since my squadmates will hopefully stop derping into the gunfire. Also, losing a comrade, even if they can be brought back with a dose of first-aid kit (or whatever equivalent there may be in a given game) in a minute.

Half-Life 2. Tell Alyx Vance how I feel about her. I mean, it's so blindingly obvious that she wants to get into the HEV suit with Gordon - if memory serves, she says something very much like that in one of the episodes - and it'd satisfy the romantic in me, certainly.


Captcha: (C6H5)2CO gembiic. I looked it up, that first bit is the chemical formula for Benzophenone. Oh well, at least it has yet to ask me to enter calculus symbols or something equally asinine.

I just put sentience for ease. Sapience is my usual go-to word but i thought most people would get what it means.

Just realized this could sound like a bitchy retort. It's not, i promise you, i have this compunction to explain myself it seems.

 

[Coathangerjay]

wait.. does that mean if i turn off the game i'm committing murder?

 

[Jadak]

Doubt it matters what I would do, they'd likely spot the fact that I didn't fit in their world and kill me immediately.

 

[Vuavu]

Haha I think it would be different than most people are saying. I imagine it to be more like Toy Story. The NPCs would know I'm loading up the game and one would yell, "Ok, places everyone! Another rough day ahead, check your stats; this guy's a royal dick. Maybe we're lucky and his little sister's playing today but I doubt it. Oh, and remember to stay in character!!!"

 

[dalek sec]

Haha I think it would be different than most people are saying. I imagine it to be more like Toy Story. The NPCs would know I'm loading up the game and one would yell, "Ok, places everyone! Another rough day ahead, check your stats; this guy's a royal dick. Maybe we're lucky and his little sister's playing today but I doubt it. Oh, and remember to stay in character!!!"

Oh dear lord if it's like that I would be the Sid of whatever game I would be playing. In Vice City I pretty would wipe out whole blocks worth of NCP's on bad days... or when I was stressed out after work... or pretty much when ever I damned well pleased. I was a pretty awful "owner" to those NCP's, so many dead, so many cars stolen and people beaten up for money that wouldn't cover anything I would buy, I just did it because I could. So many news stations would have to broadcast my daily rampages throughout the city with me destroying and stealing lots of police cars to abuse later on.

 

[bakan]

It would change how I play the game and I would even stop playing certain games.

Btw the 'Star Ocean' series used this idea and some players where screwing around with the NPCs while others tried to blend into the game and enjoy another world.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Id probably try and do what flynn tried to do in tron legacy, build a perfect society.

If it was oblivion it would be awesome. Id be the invincible vampire mage who rules all of cyrodiil and executes any evildoers very very quickly.

 

[Nikolaz72]

Play Civilization a whole lot less and the sims a whole lot more.. Its easy to manage a family and make sure nobody dies, at least compared to managing a civilization that you will 'have' to use for war at some point. Unless you could make the people understand this and they would be willing to put down their lives for my great empire . . . But I would trash my old -send soldiers at them till they surrender- tactic. And replace it with -send different combinations of units and retreat wounded units to minimize casualties- tactic.

 

[JesterRaiin]

Imagine different scenario (a little Star-Trekish).

You play your favorite game, then suddenly people all around stop, look around, point at you, wave and scream "Hey, we're alive ! Please, stop killing us, stop looting our abodes, and most importantly, DON'T SWITCH YOUR MACHINE OFF ! We're gonna die when you stop running this 'game' we call reality!"

So, more or less you've become God.

 

[Your once and future Fanboy]

Read Mogworld and you will know!

 

[Slowpool]

Imagine different scenario (a little Star-Trekish).

You play your favorite game, then suddenly people all around stop, look around, point at you, wave and scream "Hey, we're alive ! Please, stop killing us, stop looting our abodes, and most importantly, DON'T SWITCH YOUR MACHINE OFF ! We're gonna die when you stop running this 'game' we call reality!"

So, more or less you've become God.

Me: Weird bug. *Switches off machine*

Meanwhile...

Game's AI Programmer: La dee da... *Keels over in agony*

Programmer's Wife: Oh my God, honey, what's wrong?

Programmer: I felt a disturbance in the Coding... as though millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I feel something terrible has happened.

 

[Ruwrak]

They'd probably either revolt against me (not my character, but ME) since they developed brains.


oh and

Imagine different scenario (a little Star-Trekish).

You play your favorite game, then suddenly people all around stop, look around, point at you, wave and scream "Hey, we're alive ! Please, stop killing us, stop looting our abodes, and most importantly, DON'T SWITCH YOUR MACHINE OFF ! We're gonna die when you stop running this 'game' we call reality!"

So, more or less you've become God.

Me: Weird bug. *Switches off machine*

Meanwhile...

Game's AI Programmer: La dee da... *Keels over in agony*

Programmer's Wife: Oh my God, honey, what's wrong?

Programmer: I felt a disturbance in the Coding... as though millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I feel something terrible has happened.

Nahahaha yes exactly x3

 

[JesterRaiin]

Imagine different scenario (a little Star-Trekish).

You play your favorite game, then suddenly people all around stop, look around, point at you, wave and scream "Hey, we're alive ! Please, stop killing us, stop looting our abodes, and most importantly, DON'T SWITCH YOUR MACHINE OFF ! We're gonna die when you stop running this 'game' we call reality!"

So, more or less you've become God.

Me: Weird bug. *Switches off machine*

Meanwhile...

Game's AI Programmer: La dee da... *Keels over in agony*

Programmer's Wife: Oh my God, honey, what's wrong?

Programmer: I felt a disturbance in the Coding... as though millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I feel something terrible has happened.

AntiGAMEChrist !

 

[krazykidd]

Haha I think it would be different than most people are saying. I imagine it to be more like Toy Story. The NPCs would know I'm loading up the game and one would yell, "Ok, places everyone! Another rough day ahead, check your stats; this guy's a royal dick. Maybe we're lucky and his little sister's playing today but I doubt it. Oh, and remember to stay in character!!!"

No no no! More like reboot . WARNING INCOMING GAME! and try to beat the user ... Us . Seriously , if anyone watched reboot , how many times did the user win? Like 2? I could totally see myself beating the shit out of enzo in the mortal kombat game ... Does no one remember reboot?

 

[Maeta]

Read Mogworld and you will know!

As soon as I saw the title, I thought that, too.

OT: It would make random spree killings a bit harder for the most part, BUT (!) in some games the people you wind up killing are massive bastards, and you kill them as part of the game because they were programmed that way, and you're probably supposed to feel like killing them. If they were sentient and were consciously continuing this way and causing real stress to the now sentient other NPCs, I'd feel more sort of obliged to kill them, as it would be saving the others.

 

[Zeema]

WAIT NCR Troopers actually doing something? never
but it would be funny to have a random Guy come up too me and say 'ill do that qst for you'.

<-----hates the NCR

 

[Rawne1980]

I'd kill them all.

Then if I felt guilty i'd reload to an earlier save and apologise.

 

[Something Amyss]

I was thinking of the fourth wall breaking thing.

Probably piss myself. XD

Seriously, that would be freaky as Hell.

And I would probably change the way I play games.

 

[sephthewind]

Personally since I like to play a thief/assassin type in RPGs and absolutely love stealth games like MGS I'd find the games much more compelling.

No more "You're not supposed to be here!" or "What was that noise?"

Programmed responses would be replaced with actual reasoning, and the gameplay would be built more on deception and actual sneakiness. (Like playing Spy in TF2 for lack of a better example)

Also I wouldn't feel bad about any of it, in the end it doesn't matter after the console is off. Their memories would probably be completely reset by the next reboot, how else would it work?