Exploring the viability of Conversational AI for Non-Playable Characters: A comprehensive survey

Following the surge in AI advancements in the gaming industry, there has also been a drastic shift in the very concept of Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) and the roles they play in games. Over the evolution of the gaming sphere, there has a been a shift of focus towards NPCs, primarily in RPG games. Game developers have realized the potential that well scripted NPCs can carry to deliver a much more refined and immersive experience. Despite the aforementioned, NPC interactions are still at their infancy when compared to the strides in development made on their surrounding aspects. Additionally, we also explore conversational AI, the successor to the conventional chatbot as many call it, an emerging domain that has applications stretching to a multitude of different fields. Conversational AI is essentially an extended branch of Machine Learning to develop language-based frameworks that allows users to naturally interact with machines, providing a more enhanced and refined user experience. In this review paper, we glance over evolution, methodologies and uses cases of both NPCs and conversational AI. Towards the latter half we discuss the viability of fusing the two domains to enrich and potentially redefine NPC interactions via the sea of functionalities offered by conversational AI.