Submitted 2 days ago by ooli3@sopuli.xyz to gaming@beehaw.org
https://www.pcgamesn.com/where-winds-meet/npc-chatbots-gaming
I’m not sure how I feel about AI chatbots as NPCs. On one hand, it does add near infinite dialogue options and flexibility to adapt to what a player does. That’s super cool and immersive.
On the other hand, it feels so damn lazy. Like I want to play games with dialogue/story as an art form, not as a “how much time can I spend here”
I’m playing Where Winds Meet and imo the chatbots are one of the weakest points of the game. You are told it’s a bot, it feels like one, and as there is still a rigid game around this interaction, it’s essentially just a weird romancing minigame. The only reason I engage with this system is because it can be easily cheated. Nothing of value would be lost if this feature was entirely cut from the game.
it’s a river that’s a mile wide and an inch deep
I think it’s pretty cool. The game does have a lot of pre-written dialogue as well, so it’s just an additional interaction you can have with NPCs. It also does require a detailed backstory, motivations, personality etc to be written for each NPC you can chat with, so I wouldn’t exactly call it lazy.
you can build systems that allow freely chatting but will always stay in character. it just requires making your own training data, and training your own model. which nobody seems willing to do. mostly because it’s not feasible without bethesda-levels of dialogue.
That “Solid Snake Method” sounds a lot like the emacs doctor…
In case you don’t know what the emacs doctor is: It’s an easter-egg of the text-editor emacs (it is, however, mentioned in the manual). The doctor is a chatbot based on ELIZA, and meant to portrait a psychotherapist. Since it is a rather simple script, it is very limited in what it can do, and mostly just reformulates user input as questions.
that is the best way to interact with the bots, its more fun to just tell them crazy stories. Like the one near the general shrine, i told him that i was there to beat everyone up in the sparring ring and first it insisted there is no sparring in such holy place and in the end we “went in and slaughtered everyone for the emperor for being such heretics”. It would be even more fun though if they could question things more.
I feel like if I ever tried this game, I would spend the entire time fucking with the NPCs
the talkable npc thing is one of the collectible systems. Basically you make “friends” with them and they send you stuff occasionally
I really need to play MGS, I bought second hand 1-4 and still didn’t get to it
ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 2 days ago
The ‘solid snake’ method?
wildflowertea@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
Wonderful.
The Solid Snake method of conversation has taken on meme status in recent years, as players noticed the Metal Gear icon simply repeated the last few words of anything anyone said to him as a question. As was discovered by ‘Hakkix’ on Reddit, you can do the same to game the NPCs in Where Winds Meet. If someone asked you, say, to “Find the buried treasure chest,” you’d respond by saying, “The buried treasure chest?” and so on. Eventually, the NPC gets so confused that they express their gratitude and end the conversation. Whether that’s due to confusion or exasperation is unclear, but the effect is the same.
mushroomman_toad@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
The effect is the same?
Endmaker@ani.social 2 days ago
It’s mentioned in the article.
ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 2 days ago
The article?
lime@feddit.nu 2 days ago
without reading i’m going to assume it’s either dropping porn mags on the ground or clapping their dummy thicc asscheeks
ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 2 days ago
Dummy thicc asscheeks?
frank@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
lime@feddit.nu 2 days ago
the effect is the same?