Project Milo

[_ReD_]

Przez jednych wysmiewana, przez innych wychwalana, taka wlasnie jest nowa koncepcja Piotrusia "klamczuszka" Molyneuxa. O ktorej sam mowi ze jesli finalny projekt ujzy swiatlo dzienne, a twierdzi ze tak wlasnie jest i inaczej byc nie moze, bedzie gra z gatunku. UWAGAnowy gatunek gry: Two Words: Super Tamagochi. Mozemy smiac sie z tego ile chcemy, ale faktem jest ze Milo naprawde dziala, i moze nie zachowuje sie narazie rewelacyjnie to i tak robi ogromne wrazenie. Chcialbym wszystkich prosic, zanim przejdziecie do klotni, szydzenia i takdalej to zapoznajcie sie z textem jaki zamieszczam ponizej, w ktorym to redaktor z IGNu, jak i redaktorzy kilku innych  serwisow, mieli okazje spraqwdzic Milo w akcji.

June 3, 2009 - If you caught my impressions of Microsoft's Natal camera earlier this week, then you already know that I walked away impressed with what the technology can do. Unfortunately for me and IGN's readers, a chance to experience Peter Molyneux's show-stopping friend simulation, "Milo," just wasn't possible at the time.

But today I had my chance.

Now before I explain exactly how my experience with Milo worked, let me first direct you to our video of Milo and the Natal camera from Microsoft's Monday press conference. That clip will give you a clear picture of what the interaction with the character is supposed to be like, and help you understand why the validity of the demo has been in question ever since. After all, a game that can recognize the player by sight, call that player by name, and have a true interactive conversation with whoever is using it is quite a stretch of the imagination.



Haven't seen the Milo demo yet? Click the hot blonde and see the demo for yourself.Now that I've experienced the Milo demo firsthand, though, I can say that I'm almost a believer.

I say "almost" because Milo is definitely in the early stages. In his current state, the AI-powered adolescent doesn't yet understand a lot of what you say. Right now, Milo appears to pick up on inflections and tone of voice rather than the context of what's actually being said. Several times during our demo, for example, I kept asking the character questions just as though he was a real person -- but because of the early stage of his development, he just stared at me wondering what the heck I was talking about.

Believe it or not, the fact that he didn't know what I was talking about made for a revealing personality quirk about Milo -- he lost interest in me completely. Because I wasn't saying anything even remotely understandable, he just started to do his own thing; checking out a coin that he had in his pocket or looking around for something more fascinating. Once I spoke to him again and got his attention, though, (by semi-shouting "Hey Milo! Forget about me?") I was back to getting his full attention.

Now let me rewind a bit and talk about how I met Milo in the first place. After walking into a small meeting room to listen to Molyneux speak about the concept of the game and the character for a few minutes, we were off and running with the live demo. After a short walkthrough by a Lionhead rep, fellow IGN'er Tal Blevins stepped up to the TV and was quickly scanned by the Natal camera in a matter of seconds. Once scanned, Molyneux asked Tal to try and peek around the world as if it were real (which was the same familiar country setting that had Milo sitting in a tree swing next to a pond). Sure enough, the onscreen perspective moved in unison with Tal's head turns -- he looked left and then right and then left again, and each time he did, the screen reacted accordingly, giving Tal a better look at the serene locale.

As quickly as it started, the look-around ended Tal's try at Milo, whereby Molyneux called on me to try out the next interaction. Sadly, some dude I didn't recognize walked in front of me first and went for the section himself -- come to think of it, even if I knew who the unidentified guy was, I wouldn't name him because, c'mon, the guy took my turn. In retrospect, I sort of wish that he had a "sensitive man ponytail" so that I could make fun of it, but he didn't so I can't. In fact, he was quite better looking than me, so he was both first at the Milo demo and luckier in life. Anyhow, nameless turn-stealer was walked over to the nearby pond so that he could try out the "water splashing" portion of the game.

That guy's tryout did reveal an early limitation of the demo. While the mystery man's reflection was displayed in the water just as it was in Monday's video bit, he was standing too close to the camera -- keeping his likeness from being displayed correctly. Admittedly, the incorrect reflection was no big deal, but it was noticeable enough to be worthy of jotting down. Watching the stranger's hand movements in the water seemed to work just as it did in the recorded video, though, and it allowed him to create ripples in the water in real-time, but without the fish-skipping bit that they showed earlier this week.

Now it was finally my turn, and luckily I got a chance to experience the best part -- direct speech with Milo. Molyneux asked me to say my name clearly in front of the screen and then take a step back. I did both and then when Peter asked me to take a step forward and I did, Milo immediately recognized me -- "Oh, Hello Jeremy!" Milo said before hopping out of his swing and walking up to greet me. Next he quipped, "I see you're wearing blue today," in reaction to the blue shirt that I had on.

I could hear the sound of impressed acknowledgments from the people standing behind me right afterwards. I then began asking the questions that confused Milo mentioned earlier, but eventually ditched my stubborness and accepted that he's still in the early stages by making statements he would react to. "Say something funny and see how he reacts," Molyneux said, but under the pressure of suddenly saying something witty I choked up and said something about Milo's shirt being nice and that the drawing on it kind of looked like a backwards Yoda. Yeah, I know, not funny at all, but what was cool is that Milo recognized this and had a bit of a grimace on his face before turning his attention elsewhere.

And with that we were out of time. But at the very least, Molyneux proved that the demo shown in the Microsoft press conference video wasn't completely canned. Though none of us got to see the picture-scanning segment or the aforementioned fish-skipping moments from Monday, Milo did react to most of what we did in a believable way when we did it "properly."

Obviously, there's still a long ways to go before Milo graduates out of the "Uber Seaman" that he is now, and I'm also curious to know what level of influence a nearby Lionhead rep had directly over the demo itself -- as attached to the Xbox 360 running Milo, was a laptop with a read-out/ eyes-on view of people using the camera. It was never really clarified what the nearby Lionhead rep was doing to and with the Laptop and the information being sent to it, by the game -- outside of verifying new people entering the camera range and initializing some of the various moments in the demo.

Even so, the potential for this game and how you could ultimately interact with the character is very high, and I'm excited to see where it goes next.

Oh, and one other bit of info before I go -- when asked what sort of game Milo will eventually be once it's out of the testing/demo phase, he said: "Two Words: Super Tamagochi."

E3 09: Milo Tech Demo HD

[billabong]

widziałem i wątpie, że jest to coś rewolucyjnego. Według dziennikarza z Eurogamer'a, rozmowa z chłopcem jest niedokładna - nie odpowiada on na większość prostych pytań, rozróżnia parę prostych słów i intonację, przez to wie czy było pytanie, czy twierdzenie. Przekazywanie obrazków do wirtualnego świata jest już wykorzystywane w EyePet. Podsumowując - nic nadzwyczajnego, ot ciekawostka.

[phenix]

Ja tam widze sporo zastosowan takiego "gadzetu". Gra, w ktorej razem z bohaterem rozwiazuje sie jakas zagadke kryminalna itp. w takiej grze rozmawial bys ze swoim partnerem, takie wspolne sledztwo byloby naprawde ciekawe dzieki Natalowi, a dzieki projektowi takiemu jak Milo mozna by stworzyc takie SI, ktore reagowalo by na emocje gracza itp. calkiem ciekawe - innowacyjne projekty mozna zbudowac bazujac na tej technologii.

[lupinator]

Gra okropnie zdenerwowała mnie podczas konferencji Microsoftu. I to nie tym, co sobą prezentuje, ale tym, że za projekt zabrał się Peter Molyneux. Nie wiem, czy zapłacili mu ludzie z Microsoftu lecz niezmiernie wkurza mnie fakt, iż persona z takim dorobkiem i takimi pomysłami wraz ze swoim świetnym Lionheadem nie zrobi gry dla mnie - dla gracza.

[Castor Krieg]

I say "almost" because Milo is definitely in the early stages. In his current state, the AI-powered adolescent doesn't yet understand a lot of what you say. Right now, Milo appears to pick up on inflections and tone of voice rather than the context of what's actually being said. Several times during our demo, for example, I kept asking the character questions just as though he was a real person -- but because of the early stage of his development, he just stared at me wondering what the heck I was talking about.

I nie zrozumie, to nie wojskowe sieci neuronowe ani superkomputery oparte na nanotechnologii. Wszystko co Milo dostanie to DUŻY zbiór możliwości odpowiedzi na słowa-klucze i tyle. Nie rozumiem jak ludzie mogą się tym ekscytować. Myślałem, że tamagochi przyszły i się skończyły dobre 6-7 lat temu.

I zgadzam się z Lupim - człowiek, który stworzył Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper oraz Populous zabierający się za taką pierdółkę. Molyneux dziwaczeje na starość.

[Solid Snake 1989]

I zgadzam się z Lupim - człowiek, który stworzył Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper oraz Populous zabierający się za taką pierdółkę. Molyneux dziwaczeje na starość.

i Black and White
A co do Milo..to w sumie się zgadzam z Castorem

[Leenk]

Mi się podoba. Nie oczekuję jakiejś rewolucji ale jakieś fajne i efektowne kawałki softu mogą na to być. Przez tego całego Natala gier nie zabraknie. A jak się do tego odpowiednio zabiorą to i dla graczy się coś ciekawego znajdzie. Tak narzekamy na brak innowacyjności i kolejne sequele, a jak pojawia się szansa na naprawdę znaczącą innowacyjność to narzekamy, że sequele są zagrożone.

Peter właśnie stanął na czele Microsoft Game Studios w Europie, tak przy okazji.

[_ReD_]

Nie sadze zeby kto kolwiek oczekiwal po tym jakiejsc rewolucji, ale jesli chlopaki nad tym posiedza, to moze uda im sie stworzyc cos co pozniej pomoze w tworzeniu bardziej ludzkich reakcji w innych grach. Ot na przyklad powiesz marcusowy "co ty pierd@#$sz" a on walnie focha i nie bedzie strzelal

[adriano]

Ostatnio, przy okazji przeglądania starych zapowiedzi gier na PS3 przypomniałem sobie o projekcie, który pokazuje jak może wyglądać wykorzystanie patentów pokazanych przez Microsoft jako wirtualny chłopczyk z którym można pogadać w ciekawy i interesujący sposób.


Rok 2005, 2 czerwca, godzina 20.00
Przy okazji prezentacji PS3 SONY pokazuje Eyedentify.


Prezentacja Mylo może zachęci SONY do powrotu do tego projektu(od czasu E3 2005 nie dostaliśmy żadnego info) - ciekawe, że już 4 lata temu mieli w rękach coś, co dziś Microsoft pokazuje jako rewolucję...

[oscyp]

Podobnie jest z Nintendo i ich pałkami-pilotami. Ciekawe, że już 4 lata temu... Tak działa biznes, od zawsze.