The Relationship Between AI and Virtual Economies in Gaming

Abstract

AI refers to the simulation of human intelligence by machines. There are various formulations within it, like neural networks and reinforcement learning. For gaming, AI can be used for a variety of purposes, such as consultation systems or creating noncompetitive phantom bots. However, the most common application is to create competitive bots. In regards to this paper’s primary focus, AI is a method for development within the realm of gambling or creating economic structures within digital environments, so it is more useful to see this as a utilization of bots within games with virtual economies.First, the broad strokes relationship between AI and virtual economies in gaming will be outlined. AI could be used to create competitive bots to win money from the game for players and as a response devs could create better AI to counter this, creating a form of socio-economic arms race. This economic “war” would be on more than just writing bots as well. Consider two further points: the status that successful bots in games with VMs have taken on as influential in the game’s economy and the potential future regulation of AI within games. As such, the following sequence of arguments will occur: a broad outline of the above relationship, a brief analysis of the influence of the powerful bots in the relationship between AI and economy local to the game they exist in, the source of power—including that games use that effectively create algorithms that could lead to successful botting—and finally, the ways in which games are beginning to regulate (or may in the future) bot use. At the end of the path of this, the rails should have something worth saying about the future of the connected fields.

Keywords AI, virtual economies, gaming, competitive bots, economic structures, socio-economic arms race, regulation, algorithms.