Programmers tend to argue in favor of procedural generation, artists and designers against it. But the truth is, it benefits everyone, and does not necessarily replace anyone. I hate to break it to anyone, but almost every single game uses procedurally generation, either at runtime or pre-compile time. Did you use a filter in photoshop to produce that texture? Procedural generation. Did you perform a lathe operation on that curve? Procedural generation. Anything that takes a simple user action and produces a new (potentially complex) result via code is procedural generation. The more you empower artists and designers, the more they can do. Even if a game is completely procedurally generated, you need someone to tweak all of the parameters (material colors, building styles, character attributes, etc).
That bit aside, I am still waiting for a game to do more on the AI/plot/puzzle side of things in terms of procedural generation. As I have mentioned a few times before, emergent gameplay is key. Still, there is not one game with strong mechanics that has successfully employed emergent gameplay (aside from very basic puzzle/board games).
That bit aside, I am still waiting for a game to do more on the AI/plot/puzzle side of things in terms of procedural generation. As I have mentioned a few times before, emergent gameplay is key. Still, there is not one game with strong mechanics that has successfully employed emergent gameplay (aside from very basic puzzle/board games).