My favorite news story of 2023 had nothing to do with AI—or at least I didn't think it did until recently, when I tried two demos from developers that are using parts of Nvidia's "digital human technologies suite" to "bring game characters to life." The story I'm talking about is this one: How deep was Deus Ex's simulation? A literal piece of paper could set off a laser trap. It is about a 24-year-old videogame, and specifically something so obscure and unlikely happening in that videogame that someone had just seen it for the first time, decades later.
By today's standards Deus Ex is crude in many ways: Small environments, chunky graphics, awkward controls. But it's also a triumph of design, with every tiny gear within it crafted to interlock with half a dozen other parts in ways both intentional and unintentional-yet-logical. Were Deus Ex's designers planning for that piece of paper to set off that laser trap and blow someone up? No, but they built a world where even that unlikely interaction plays out in a "realistic" way. The reason we harp on about Deus Ex and other immersive sims is that more than most videogames, they've gone to great lengths to give the question "will this work?" a logical, meaningful, and interesting answer.
