Sometime ago (I think a couple of years) I wrote in some thread about the idea and my half-arsed attempt at a MMI game of pong that users could interact with/watch over Twitch. I never followed up on that project.
Moving on from that, I was just in Japan recently for the Tokyo Game Show and the idea of an MMI approach to controlling games came back to the forefront of my mind. So I thought I’d start this new thread to brain storm with whoever here is interested about ideas.
It is said to really develop MMI skills it takes time and practice. And that a feedback loop helps us strengthen our psi “mind muscles”. Sure, we’ve all played with the various graphing tools and apps shared on this forum but there’s a limit to how fun that is. So I’m now thinking along the lines of something that can be a lot more engaging and inviting for newcomers to try out the ideas and concepts we’re all here on this forum for.
So…
This is literally me just brainstorming ideas that came into my head today…
Take some opensource FPS (first person shooter) game like https://libla.st/
Allow participants to join squads/teams in a multiplayer fashion
Their unit (character) can have some number assigned that corresponds to the QRNG that drives whatever algos (specs, To Be Decided) that move the unit around the environment, fire the weapons, make them jump etc. etc.
The “MMI powered team” could be maybe controlled by some queue process
The opposing team could powered by some typical game-industry AI bot
Specators could watch all this live on Twitch / YouTube etc.
Using MMI to drive the movement would be pretty sweet if you could get it going right. An easier approach would be to give “power ups” based on QRNG, like a random walk and the higher the z score → the more damage the weapon can inflict. FPS are very fast paced which could be good or bad for MMI training.
I have tried to steer a maze running game using MMI, it comes out pretty random for me. Although I was trying continuous, maybe focusing on trials for directionality would be better. This leads me to my thought that FPS are very fast paced, and unless you just had a “luck” meter running continuously in the background, or maybe the chance for an MMI power up where you’re about to shoot or something and it taks you to focus.
I’m thinking a turn based RPG battle game is paced better for MMI. Something I have been interested in experimenting with is “tilting” the odds so that a 50.50% distribution of 1s or 0s actually has the effect of more like 70-80%
I think, that if we want to try to use MMI for entertainment, it would be better to introduce MMI amplification algorithms into random functions of game. So, basically, a lot like we constantly affect environment with our mental power, but with amplification.
Games are attractive in general, because they allow us to focus on pleasant tasks, while hinder and downplay unpleasant ones. So, if it’ll be noticeable, that luck could be affected with your mind, it could become something unseen before in world of entertainment.
In lucky case, we don’t even need to write game from scratch. Open source game could be modified. So, usual random source could be switched to QRNG+random bit amplifier.
For a while now I’ve been working at a Japanese game company who specialize in gacha model turn based RPGs. Ever since I first heard of MMI I’ve wondered about plugging in QRNG hardware to use MMI to try and increase the odds of getting good characters/items from the gacha pulls.
On a wider scale as said by Alexey, QRNGs could be plugged int o replace the random elements in the game indeed.
Although the objective I had in mind when starting this thread was to use a fun method for real-time feedback to help train one’s psi skills (mental influence on QRNGs). I think just increased probabilities in getting gachas or other random elements in the game wouldn’t be the instant kind of feedback I’d really want to “feel” when playing/training.
Navigation of a character within a virtual game environment powered by just MMI, however, in all honesty probably wouldn’t be practical with the current state of research. Like Josh mentioned with his maze game, and with the pong game I did a few years back, the movements would be too jerky and random to allow for any kind of fun game play. This is due to the fact it’d be continuous and we’re just not that accurate yet.
Using a user trial approach for each movement is one option, but another idea I just had came from Josh’s “power ups” comment. Every time you hit that space button to fire your weapon, or press whatever button which launches your character’s attack against the enemy could be used as the trigger to read entropy right in that millisecond and add extra attack power (or whatever) to make your attack stronger. That kind of approach might be a good feedback loop.
As far as games we could possibly use, Libla.st like I linked at the top (although the game was really slow on my computer when I tried it out), or maybe some custom mod in Minecraft.
I agree with you. But I didn’t appreciated libla.st. If I’ll find something better, I’ll link it here.
Last time when I used MMI precognition in games is prediction of coin flips in fear and hunger, BTW…
No doubt to use MMI successfully in a game (or other setting) will require the current best hardware (like MED100Kx8) and the best advanced processing methods as I described elsewhere in this forum and on LinkedIn. I am working on even more responsive hardware and processing methods, but they are not quite ready yet.
Output from an MMI generator can be sourced online, which would require both a generator farm and an appropriate online connection. It will be some time before game designers consider MMI generators within a game console – that is, after it has been shown to be a valuable addition to the gaming experience.
You underestimating psi of gamers. I use focused intent and precognition to cheat in games even without linked hardware. Games can catch attention very well. So, it’s more simple to produce effect.
I’ve thought a bit about how to link MMI to some game. And simplest idea, which I came up with is to make speed of mana/health regeneration to be dependent on z-score. Possibly, exponentially.
It’s possible to learn to mentally affect the probabilities of any seemingly random process or outcome. This is what I call Calidetics, or learning how to increase positive luck or good fortune. It’s helpful to have a game or test that gives immediate feedback to help learn to increase good luck in everyday life, eventually without the need for an MMI generator. This is an innate ability that we aren’t taught to use, but I sure would like to see everyone trained from an early age to use this and other natural mental skills.
I think that messing with gacha is both the most viable and the most moral choice here.
Jokes aside, I do think that gacha games are an interesting option together with the FPS. The latter would work similarly to the RNGs that are already being investigated by Rhine, though, wouldn’t it?
The problem with measuring a gacha RNG is that some of these RNGs roll really quick and have their results selected and then they show a cutscene to entartain the player. So when the player is watching the cutscene and trying to manipulate it, the results have already been decided. It’s just something I observed from a few gachas. You would need to have the information of when the roll is done, as well as a surgical precision to influence it quickly