EVE Online rolls out 'AI-powered assistance feature' for new players, promises it 'does not produce game content, create art, or replace creative work'

EVE Online studio CCP Games has rolled out a new player help system called Aura Guidance that it says will make the game more accessible by distilling millions of messages in the game's help channel into a simpler, context-based Q&A model.

"First and foremost, Aura Guidance is not generative AI and does not produce game content, create art, or replace creative work," said executive producer Snorri Árnason, seemingly very eager to ensure everyone knows this isn't the bad kind of AI that everyone hates. "Aura Guidance has been carefully designed by our team and is grounded in existing player support data to supplement Rookie Chat, not supersede it.

"We are building this tool to make EVE Online’s depth and intricacy more welcoming for aspiring capsuleers who want to join our community of passionate players. We remain committed to EVE Forever, and to make that vision a reality, we are dedicated to ensuring our game is approachable to current and future players."

Aura Guidance is trained on more than 5.8 million messages that have been posted in EVE's Rookie Help channel over the past nine months, which creative director Bergur Finnbogason said represents "an impossible amount of content to navigate when you’re trying to answer a single question."

In a separate blog post, CCP said those 5.8 million messages contained 706,000 "genuine questions," but the most frequently asked individual question only appeared 176 times—although it sounds like the studio is being very granular in the way it defines unique questions.

"There is no meaningful 'top 20' list of questions that can be solved with a simple FAQ," CCP explained. "There are certainly top themes, but the questions themselves vary wildly depending on where you are, what ship you’re in, what the situation is, and how long you’ve been playing. Two players can ask about the same topic and need completely different explanations because their situations are different."

Beyond that, CCP said that even when players can find answers to their questions, they sometimes don't fully understand them: Someone tells them about "lowsec," for instance, but they don't know what "lowsec" is so "the confusion just deepens by one layer." The AI, presumably, will help add clarity as required.

Look, I loathe AI as much as the next guy (assuming that guy loathes AI): I think it's intellectually corrupting, staggeringly wasteful, and demonstrably dangerous. But I'll also acknowledge that the term is used to cover a broad range of utility and functionality, and not all of it is inherently awful. You'll never replace pre-2000 GameFAQs in my heart, but would I as a new EVE Online player appreciate a Star Trek-style 'computer, what the hell is going on here?' interface that actually does what it's supposed to? Aura Guidance is text-based so that detracts from the sci-fi coolness factor somewhat but even so, I imagine I would.

EVE's Aura Guidance AI as it exists right now is "an early version," CCP said, and "will have gaps" in how it answers questions. It also won't be immediately available to everyone: New players will be sorted randomly into one of two groups, one with Aura Guidance access and the other offering the existing new player experience; after a time, CCP will compare the two groups to see if the AI system improves player retention. If not, CCP says it will end the program and try something different. The studio also said that players who don't care for the AI system for whatever reason can also opt to shut it down completely on their own: "If you prefer to learn through chat, guides, or trial and error, nothing changes for you."