- "Starting with only a single user-specified notion that one agent wants to throw a Valentine's Day party," the researchers write, "the agents autonomously spread invitations to the party over the next two days, make new acquaintances, ask each other out on dates to the party, and coordinate to show up for the party together at the right time."
While 12 agents heard about the party through others, only five agents (including Klaus and Maria) attended. Three said they were too busy, and four agents just didn't go. The experience was a fun example of unexpected situations that can emerge from complex social interactions in the virtual world.
It's like uber-botting Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley.
See this fucker? One of the strips you take off from has a little residential neighborhood to the right. You can totally go weapons hot on it and blow it up. If you go weapons hot and blow up enemy targets, they're up and running again the next time you take to the sky. That little residential neighborhood? It persists. It sits there being a bombed-out hovel for weeks. There's nothing else persistent in the game, but Spectrum Holobyte decided that all little boys should recognize that civilians don't have the resources of the USSR to rebuild their houses when some dumb shit kid decides to ignore consequences. Good on 'em. That one little tweak to the game has stuck with me for nigh on 40 years."Imagine killing an NPC and coming back to the city and seeing a funeral for them," joked a Twitter user named Dennis Hansen when replying to a thread about the paper's emergent implications. Judging by this research, that might not be a far-fetched scenario.