Why has no one done self conscious AI in games?

[Epifols]

Inspired by this comic:
http://xkcd.com/117/

It would be so cool to be playing a regular game, where all of a sudden one of the characters realizes that they are in a computer game. (Scripted, of course) Just imagine the gameplay, plot, creativity, immersion, that could ensue.

I could be wrong though, I have not played every single game ever created. Any thoughts?

 

[Lukeje]

There are quite a few examples of games breaking the fourth wall (e.g. World of Goo, Monkey Island), but I can't think of any where it was an integral plot point.
Edit: Fourth wall. I meant fourth wall, of course.

 

[sirfiachraface]

yeah i love in monkey island 2 where you ring the lucasarts helpline in the game also those cartoon moments in teenage mutant ninja turtles and animaniacs where they'd suddenly refer to the fact they're in the cartoon

 

[donmilliken]

Metal Gear Solid 2?

(Note I haven't actually played Metal Gear Solid 2, but I've heard some stuff.)

This sort of thing has been done quite a bit to humorous effect. The premise of the upcoming Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard (I'm crossing my fingers that this one will be good as I love funny games, but I ain't holding my breath.) has the main character aware he's in a video game, but that's right from the beginning I presume.

I can't really see this being done in any sort of serious context, a character just suddenly realizing "Hey, I'm in a video game," and it not being silly.

 

[Railu]

At first I thought you meant about a story in which an AI computer has become self-aware within the story (eg. Skynet). Then I read the comic and laughed.

Funny, but maybe not so funny if people actually thought their computer became alive and formatted their hard drives in a panic.

Actually, that would be HILARIOUS!

 

[ellimist337]

I may be ridiculed for this example, but in Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, characters break the third wall, though I guess they don't flat out "realize" they're in a game.

 

[Spektre41]

The Disgaea series hss absolutely no fourth wall.

 

[Eykal]

Um, Fourth wall, not Third, Fourth

 

[askham]

There was a meta-version of this in Fallout 3 with the computer simulation in the vault - that freaked me out more than most other moments in gaming, because you knew at any time that the guy in charge of it all could do absolutely anything. When the old lady claimed she knew it was a simulation, I shuddered (and it was a nice touch that if you hit the guy (or little girl) you instantly died). Definitely something that could be done tastefully and eerily in a game of its own.

Also, MGS2 freaked me out massively because it was so unexpected. I genuinely thought I was going crazy because, well, why would an MGS game do that? The bits where the colonel's face disappeared were the worst.

 

[Knight Templar]

To answer the question in the title, becasue nobody has done it. What you are asking for is the goal of AI programers, to create AI.

EDIT: Ah I get it now.

Baldr's gate did this a little with the Pantaloons.

 

[sirfiachraface]

it would be like the matrix when they realise they're in the matrix
also if it happened in a game like portal that would be cool

edit :wait I just read the comic lol

 

[Siris]

Metal Gear Solid did it the best

 

[gigastrike]

Game designers add jokes where npcs know that their in a game all the time. The banjo-kazooie series does it constantly, runescape has a few mentions, ratchet and clank probably did it more that once too.

 

[geldonyetich]

Probably because it plays out like this.

AI: "Wait a minute! My life is a video game!"

AI: "..."

AI: "Oh well, business as usual, then."

 

[bad rider]

How funny would it be "keep playing, I don't want to die"

 

[Spektre41]

The Disgaea series hss absolutely no fourth wall.

I've yet to see evidence of it in Disgaea 3. Then again, I'm only up to chapter 3.

Final Boss: "But before that, I'll let you Save, we'll continue this in the next area".

 

[Lukeje]

How funny would it be "keep playing, I don't want to die"

Kind of like this [http://xkcd.com/390/] in game form?

 

[James Cassidy]

Max Payne broke the 4th wall on this one. So did Max Payne 2.

In MP 1. Max was drugged and he knew he was in a computer game.
"The truth was a burning green crack through my brain. Weapon statistics hanging in the air, glimpsed out of the corner of my eye. Endless repetition of the act of shooting, time slowing down to show off my moves. The paranoid feel of someone controlling my every step. I was in a computer game. Funny as Hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of."

In MP2, when he was in the hospital and had a dream he was at the police station you read the board behind his desk and you will see it say "You are in a computer game."