Virtual ecology creates game worlds strangely similar to ours

Deer, bison and prunes cross the plains in large flocks … scavengers quickly sniff carrion, sockeye upstream, wolves attack in groups around their prey, geese fly in fixed formations, possums play death, rodents die in trees Grizzlies bluff when threatened and birds of prey soar on heat.

This may sound like a mountain reportage on the Canadian wilderness, but it's actually the way Rockstar recently promoted Red Dead Redemption 2, its critically acclaimed game, which carries players A Wild West sprawling and immersive.

Red Dead Redemption 2 brings together more than 200 animal species in various habitats. Its unprecedented success suggests that authentic natural environments imitating the ecology of the real world will become a pillar of future titles.

Video games have taken on a magnitude and complexity such that such complex virtual ecosystems are now possible, flora and fauna living and behaving in these virtual worlds as in ours.

As of 2018, the global gaming industry was estimated at around £ 100 billion. To put this into perspective, it is 1.5 times larger than the film industry and five times larger than the music industry, with one in three people on the planet being a gambler. Not bad for an industry that is only about 50 years old.

Parallel to the huge financial success of modern games, there is the ever-growing size of "open world games," in which players are free to explore vast and interactive virtual worlds. .

These virtual environments have evolved from simple monoblock representation of landscapes to dynamic and interactive ecosystems. They have plants that can be foraged and a variety of wild animals that demonstrate complex behavior driven by AI, interacting with the player and others.

Virtual Ecosystems

In Red Dead Redemption 2, predators such as alligators hide patiently under the water. any element (including other animals) in the game that ventures too close to the water's edge quickly encounters failure. Deer also react to invisible predators, warning the player that cougars are hiding in the nearby grbad.

Horses, one of the game's most important animals, also react to other animals – catching a bear or a hidden rattlesnake – demonstrating authentic animal intelligence.

Horizon Zero Dawn, the open-world role-playing game from Guerrilla Games, features animals as well as organic "animals". In particular, animal-machines exhibit behaviors that are not based primarily on player interaction. "Corrupt" machines often attack their uncorrupt counterparts, with the player often encountering dead machine bodies, alluding to a dynamic world that does not attract the player's attention.

The bodies of slaughtered animals, as in any real ecosystem, are not lost. If they are not engaged in fighting or roaming territories, "scrappers" (hyena-like machines) and "hawk-rasants" (gigantic vulture-type machines) will consume the animal-machines that they have detected, detected nearby – thus reproducing the decomposition and nutrient cycling.

The game in the open world of Nintendo, Zelda: The breath of nature, uses the "search for virtual food" necessary to progress in the game. However, just like in the real world, players must also pay attention because the fauna and flora can be easily overexploited, forcing the player to wait for stocks to recover.

All this is even more impressive when you consider that it has everything to please. been achieved in a single generation. Video games as a medium are relative newcomers – the industry only emerged in the 1970s. After the same amount of time, the movies were still black and white. One can only wonder which players will play in ten, 20 or even 50 years.

The future of games

Game ecosystems are becoming more dynamic and "inhabited", which opens up the potential of education. Anna Groves, an American ecologist and playwright explained:

A child who loves to light fires in the hyrulien meadows could be pbadionate about the ecology of grbadland restoration when he discovers that it involves d & # 39; Ignite fires in real life.

As Games Increasingly, ecology is at the heart of gaming activities. Its value and relevance as an area will inevitably grow – exposing children to an academic subject in an accessible and enjoyable way.

Video games offer unparalleled creative freedom to explore topics such as ecology. Designers can create environments filled with long-extinct species or pristine ecosystems that restore the appearance of nature before human intervention. Children can "play" with imaginary scenarios of the natural world in an intuitive, immersive and fun way, far surpbading what is possible in traditional educational approaches.

As a result, they can gain a deeper understanding of what natural states are possible through the retention that even a student involved in exhausted ecosystems in the real world

With the advent of virtual ecology, video games are increasingly functioning as "conduits" to other disciplines. Landscape architecture and psychology are increasingly used in the design of contemporary games. In the future, disciplines such as engineering, geology and even medicine could begin to inform the next generation of games.

When designing the worlds in which we play, future game designers could be increasingly educated to the "traditional" elements of landscape design, including ecology and aesthetics. ;architecture. It also opens the door for people from different fields to work together to shape the world of future video games, radically transforming both professions.