A zero-player game or no-player game is a
simulation
A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...
game that has no
sentient
Sentience is the capacity to experience feelings and sensations. The word was first coined by philosophers in the 1630s for the concept of an ability to feel, derived from Latin '' sentientem'' (a feeling), to distinguish it from the ability to ...
players.
Types
There are various different types of games that can be considered "zero-player".
Determined by initial state
A game that evolves as determined by its initial state, requiring no further input from humans is considered a zero-player game.
Cellular automaton
A cellular automaton (pl. cellular automata, abbrev. CA) is a discrete model of computation studied in automata theory. Cellular automata are also called cellular spaces, tessellation automata, homogeneous structures, cellular structures, tessel ...
games that are determined by initial conditions including
Conway's Game of Life
The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It is a zero-player game, meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial state, requiring no further ...
are examples of this.'
''
Progress Quest
''Progress Quest'' is a video game developed by Eric Fredricksen as a parody of ''EverQuest'' and other massively multiplayer online role-playing games. It is loosely considered a zero-player game, in the sense that once the player has set up thei ...
'' is another example, in the game the player sets up a artificial character, and afterwards the game plays itself with no further input from the player. ''
Godville'' is a similar game that took inspiration from ''Progress Quest'', in the game the player is a god that can communicate with a
non-player character
A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster o ...
hero, however the game can progress with no interaction from the player.
Incremental games
Incremental games, also known as clicker games, clicking games (on PCs) or tap games (in mobile games), are video games whose gameplay consists of the player performing simple actions such as clicking on the screen repeatedly. This " grinding" ea ...
, sometimes called idle games, are games which do require some player intervention near the beginning however may be zero-player at higher levels. As an example, ''
Cookie Clicker
''Cookie Clicker'' is an incremental game created by French programmer Julien "Orteil" Thiennot in 2013. The user initially clicks on a big cookie on the screen, earning a single cookie per click. They can then spend their earned cookies upon pu ...
'' requires that players click cookies manually before purchasing assets to click cookies in the place of the player independently.
AI vs AI games
In computer games, the term refers to programs that use
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
rather than human players,
"Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society"
Rodney P. Carlisle, SAGE Publications
SAGE Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent publishing company founded in 1965 in New York by Sara Miller McCune and now based in Newbury Park, California.
It publishes more than 1,000 journals, more than 800 books ...
. for example some fighting
Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...
and real-time strategy
Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, turn ...
games can be put into zero-player mode where multiple AIs AIS may refer to:
Medicine
* Abbreviated Injury Scale, an anatomical-based coding system to classify and describe the severity of injuries
* Acute ischemic stroke, the thromboembolic type of stroke
* Androgen insensitivity syndrome, an intersex ...
can play against each other. Humans may have a challenge in designing the AI and giving it sufficient skill to play the game well, but the actual evolution of the game has no human intervention.
See also
* :Video games with AI-versus-AI modes
* Single-player game
A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...
* Two-player game A two-player game is a multiplayer game that is played by precisely two players. This is distinct from a solitaire game, which is played by only one player.
Examples
The following are some examples of two-player games. This list is not intended t ...
* Multiplayer video game
A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
* Incremental game
Incremental games, also known as clicker games, clicking games (on PCs) or tap games (in mobile games), are video games whose gameplay consists of the player performing simple actions such as clicking on the screen repeatedly. This "grinding" ear ...
References
{{Reflist
Game theory game classes
Game artificial intelligence