John Riccitiello, former EA CEO and current Unity CEO, suggests the iconic Simlish language used in the dialogue for The Sims games might be replaced by AI in the future.
Big video game publishers are gradually dabbling into incorporating AI into game development and within the games themselves. Blizzard already patented a texture-mapping AI process for their game assets. And just recently, Unity Software (NYSE: U) launched the beta for their new A.I. platforms Unity Muse and Unity Sentis.
Could replacing the signature Simlish spoken by The Sims toons with an AI that actually speaks the players’ language be an improvement? Or does it take away a key part of what makes The Sims games unique? Check out what the former EA boss and current Unity CEO had to say below.
Speaking with the Associated Press for a Q&A, Unity Technologies CEO and chairman John Riccitiello discussed about the role of artificial intelligence in the future of video game development. At one point, the former EA CEO touched on Simlish and why it was developed as the language for The Sims characters:
So, I was involved in launching “The Sims” in 2000, and it was wonderful game. And you know how they used “Simlish”, right? Did you know why? Because there’s so many things you can do in “The Sims”, it’s like a crazy number of interactions you can have because you’re actually creating characters. Those characters interact with each other. No writer could ever write all the appropriate dialogue for that. It would be as big as the Library of Congress when you’re done.
Riccitiello then proceeded to suggest how large language model (LLM) A.I. like ChatGPT could be incorporated into the game to replace Simlish with actual conversations using real-life languages:
In the way that GPT 4 works, you can define the parameters. A player could do this or the game studio could do it. The game studio could allow the player to describe this character or their motivations, in the same way you write in prompts, to get dialogue back. And they could do this for all their characters in advance. And the AI could spawn in any language you want — English, Russian, Japanese, French, doesn’t matter. I think that’s a breakthrough. It is actually really hard to overstate how important that is. It’s alive.
John Riccitiello was the president and CEO of Electronic Arts from 1997 to 2004. He would later return as CEO of EA in 2007 before becoming CEO and Chairman of Unity in 2014.
While AI has grown at a viral pace since late 2022, the use of A.I. technology is also highly controversial. Much of it stems from the fact that companies like OpenAI and Stability AI are using datasets not intended for commercial use.
Moreover, the current technology is actually primitive. The billions of datasets being leveraged by apps like ChatGPT, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Adobe Firefly, and more are effectively faking the functionality of their technology.
Related to this, the commercial use of these datasets that were originally intended for research and non-profit have come under fire in the courtrooms. Multiple legal actions, such as class action lawsuits due to alleged infringement and privacy violations, have arisen from affected parties, including companies such as Getty Images and private individuals (such as artists, writers, programmers, designers, etc.).
Unity, itself, has been the target of scrutiny by players, artists, programmers, and third-party game creators due to its own A.I. initiatives. The announcement of the launch of Unity Muse and Unity Sentis (as well as the addition of third-party A.I. products to the Unity Asset Store) prompted questions about what datasets are being used, particularly with the concern if these datasets are ethically sourced.
Plus, Simlish is deeply associated with The Sims gameplay experience. Fans of the game series have become accustomed to the gibberish originally conceptualized by legendary video game designer Will Wright.
Mixing pidgin words from various languages such as Native American Navajo and Cherokee, Ukrainian, Tagalog, Swahili, and Estonian, Wright introduced Simlish in the game SimCopter (1996). It would later be featured more prominently in the voice work for The Sims (2000). Since then, Simlish has been incorporated in the main The Sims game, as well as SimCity (beginning with 2003’s SimCity 4), Spore (2008), and others.
Incorporating more contemporary languages in The Sims seems like a step down and takes away from the immersion. Hearing the voice acting with the nonsense words of Simlish adds to the escapism players look for in any Sims game. Replacing it with a ChatGPT-like predictive text model may provide more options for conversation with AI NPC Sims, but would also remove part of what makes these games special.
Do you agree with Unity CEO John Riccitiello that Simlish would be better replaced with AI, and drop voice acting in these games in favor of chatbot-like predictive text responses? Would it improve the gameplay experience or diminish the immersion? Would you like to see this happen in Project Rene (aka The Sims 5) currently in development?
In the meantime, players and fans of The Sims games can still check out The Sims 4. The new Horse Ranch Expansion Pack launches on July 20, 2023.
