While 'trimming the verge' outside my house the other day [albeit in Skyrim] my buddy and I starting pondering over where TES series will go next, or rather for the next generation of consoles/PC hardware. The cusp of the debate peaked at A.I - While we initially started on about what cool new tech features for an improved graphics engine would yield we ultimately concluded that the most encouraging direction for TES to go in with next-gen consoles would be A.I - as is being tipped by industry enthusiasts anyway, A.I is sighted as being the single most improved aspect of the next gen when it finally arrives.

As it stands now, it's perhaps the most transparent feature to TES games. Graphics can only go so much further really, and in all honestly there isn't much wrong with Skyrim visually as it stands - but anyway, yeah, graphics will improve I guess to the extent of larger draw distances and such but the real meat would definitely lie in an massively overhauled artificial intelligence algorithm. I won't presume to know much of anything about A.I structures but it would seem logical to assume there are separate entities to it. For example, I purchased the Anniversary edition of Halo the other day - and while playing through on the Legendary difficulty it still strikes me as massively impressive when you come up against Elites who work together to flank you and withdraw when they are under duress. It's a fantastic example of engaging A.I that both compliments the developers and the game, as consequentially it becomes much more engaging as a by-product of this 'smart' A.I - although in Halo it's clearly shenanigans on the Elites part.

I guess that would be an example of pro-active A.I - but for the likes of TES games where the vast majority of on-screen A.I is displayed by way of people going about their daily business, and in part conversations had with village denizens and what not. You'd have to say that the A.I here could perhaps improve the most. That's not to say the combat A.I doesn't need looking at though. It's hard to think of an example that would resonate with everyone though, but I think most people can appreciate that as it stands the A.I is generic in nature. As in there aren't 'really' individual personalities floating about. And by individual I mean people don't retain memories of your actions per se. They don't evolve and grow according to your physical presence in the world, at least not in an unscripted nature.

The most ambitiousness example I can think of off the top of my head would be with regards to Kinect. Whereby the A.I can spontaneously react to any given voice or physical command. The real goal would be to allow players to forge real, meaningful relationships with in-game characters and not just follow a scripted path. To have a partner in crime as it were who really does have your back. An A.I that can adapt to your personality, both in terms of play-style and actual moral coding. Good A.I really has the potential to bring games to the next level entirely. To svck the player completely into the world, to totally shatter any borderlines between you and the game world.

Imagine if you could challenge the racist outlook the Stormcloaks have in real time? Debate with the A.I and let it grow as the conversation continued. Learning, adapting and who knows, ultimately maybe changing it's opinion?