Hoping for artificial intelligence

I get a lot of mail from people asking me to promote their games or websites. You don't see all of them, because I don't grant those requests lightly. I check out the game or website, and then decide whether it is worth writing about. So when I got a mail with a press release on the closed beta of Ultimate Soccer Boss starting today, that being a "free-to-play soccer manager browser game", I was sceptical at first. There are lots of browser games, and most of them aren't very good. But then I visited the companies website, and found this interesting announcement:

Through its patented process that enables digital characters to evolve unique physical, intellectual, and personality traits, Digenetics is redefining the nature of traditional and online games - MMOs, social games, and virtual worlds. Imagine, for example, a world where a Game Boss in an online dungeon learns from its battles and other encounters with players. Each time it interacts with players, it learns and adapts its tactics possibly making it a more challenging fight. Additionally, players could try something novel and the boss might respond in a random manner, like stop attacking and throw a random quest chain, or perhaps even walk away from the fight. The result of this adaptive evolutionary learning is more fun, challenging and enormous replay value. Gameplay will never be the same. Our first project is Ultimate Soccer BossT coming in Spring 2009.

So basically Digenetics is promising better artificial intelligence, with some neural network functionality that makes the game "learn" from playing against you. I think I'll try to get into that beta, or the Free2Play version if I don't get accepted into the beta, and check it out. I'm not quite convinced yet that they actually managed to make a game with good artificial intelligence, but at least it sounds promising.