Sony has filed a patent for a “video game inventory coach” to help confused or indecisive players decide which inventory items to keep, discard, or use throughout their time with a game. Sony's patented assistant intends to make life a little easier for players with games that stuff menus with a variety of potions, crafting items, weapons, skills, ammo, and all their subcategories and variants.
A large chunk of playtime can be consumed by inventory sorting. It leads to a paralysis that has been memeified online by gamers for years, as players they look at their inventory after finishing a game to find a wide variety of items they could have used to make their experience easier or more efficient. Using a current PlayStation 5 game where this might be useful as an example, Horizon Forbidden West provides players with up to 10 variations on the types of rope-based weapons they can choose from in combat. In the heat of battle, players might feel overwhelmed by their choice between shock ropes, blinding ropes, or plasma ropes, and that’s before the six variations of harpoon weapons are considered. The point of the AI coach in this case would be to suggest an item to use given the combat or puzzle scenario in front of the player to help them navigate all that confusing inventory clutter.
The patent describes an AI mechanic/assistant that might finally bring an end to the phenomenon of players refusing to use items or resources collected during gameplay out of fear of using it at the wrong time, and subsequently finishing the game without having ever used it. It can suggest items a player doesn’t have but might want to find given their play style or what other players have used in similar situations. If the AI coach finds that a player has at least one similar characteristic in common with other players, it will generate a suggestion based on the outcomes of previous player choices. For instance, if the AI notices a lot of players get stuck on an enemy but found that adding an attribute like poison to a weapon helps players get past the enemy, the AI will suggest an item that has or imbues poison.
The AI will also consider player approach to various situations. If a player is given a myriad of options on how to approach an enemy, it will figure out the player’s favorite approach, say stealthily back-stabbing an enemy or maybe using ranged magical attacks, and adjust suggestions accordingly to better suit individual play style. The advantage here would be in encouraging the player to deeply explore their chosen play style rather than tossing out suggestions for alternate play styles that the player might not be interested in.
Whether players will use the AI-generated suggestions or choose to ignore them is another matter. The question then becomes if a player trusts the AI is making a reasonable and convincing argument that overrides their indecisiveness or personal strategy. Players can only hope the AI inventory coach is more of a live strategy guide than a video game version of Microsoft’s Clippy.