Dhruin
SasqWatch
Artificial Idiocy is title of a piece at Next Gen that examines game AI and the uncanny valley - but also the effects on gameplay. The examples come largely from stealth, strategy and racing but it's a good read:
More information.Pandemonium breaks out. Alarm bells sound, red warning lights flash and guards come running to the scene of the crime. Meanwhile, you, the perpetrator, slink unnoticed into some shadowy crevice. Less than a minute later, peace has been restored. Guards return to their patrols – no more aware of you now than they were before you shot one of their colleagues in broad daylight. These guys are idiots. Of course, it is the very fact that they are such short-sighted, amnesiac goons, who don’t think to peer too closely into shadows or perform a systematic sweep of their surroundings that allows the player to overcome the tremendous odds stacked against them. It makes the game possible. It also makes it a game.