Demonic Fate wrote: ↑ June 3rd, 2025, 08:46I think you're mostly right, but there will still be unique value in having an artist create and define the character's personality, before entrusting it to a LLM to handle the reactivity. Whether or not that artist should still be called a "writer" is a linguistic quibble.J1M wrote: ↑ May 28th, 2025, 15:27Nope. "Real" writers do not like writing games. They are attuned to linear narratives where they have full control of the protagonist's thoughts, words, and actions. They do not enjoy thinking about or writing all of the possible reactions a character would have in a situation. AI will quickly eclipse what "real writers", aka people who would rather be penning Hollywood screenplays, are able to do effectively for NPC writing.Nessa wrote: ↑ May 28th, 2025, 15:01
I think the key difference here is actually hiring a writer. Not some blue haired smelly freak that just slapped "writer" on the resume.
Let's say you're making Torment in 2030. If you just tell the AI "the protagonist will meet a Night Hag who granted him immortality", it's going to churn through whatever repositories of folklore and D&D slop it knows of, and will probably write a working but unmemorable character that's very close to old Baba Yaga stories. Ferocious, sadistic, contemptuous.
Now imagine you have access to both Avellone and an AI. You could have Avellone write a detailed profile of Ravel Puzzlewell, with extensive writing samples in the form of Ravel's long, unique, wordplay-heavy monologues...
...and then set the AI to a very high temperature (= low inventiveness) and tell it to act as that character, which is something it is much better at even now. Do use Avellone's own writing if the scene is applicable (tell the AI that the Hag should want to ask questions, so it can use the "do your companions matter to you?" and "what can change the nature of a man?" dialogues verbatim), but if the PC decides to walk in and do something out-of-the-box, let's say summoning a Solar to smite the hag before she has said a word, trust the LLM to react in a sufficiently Ravel-like voice.I know the branchings of this place, the twistings and bendings and burrowings. Though there are no leaves here, one may take their leave when they wish it. Wrap your hands about you like branches, make them encircle your chest like a cage. Step from the edge of the maze into the darkness, and into another cage your body shall go - a simple leaving, but there is NO return when that final step is taken, so TAKE heed and TAKE what you need before you take the step. Which edge, which? One of the edges knows, not I. The remembering of which has failed me, and the edges of the maze have had little to say on the matter. Why stay when one can leave is your question to me? I turn the question upon its head and send it a-scurrying back to you. The answer lies not in the staying or leaving, but in the causes and reasons, my precious half-man. It is *a* want, a once-want, but not a now-want, and more and more a not, naught, knotted-want. What do I need that lies beyond my brambled walls? It is a cruel, jagged world beyond the edges of this maze, and Ravel has pulled *enough* of its shards from her skin.
LLM creative writing is across the board pretty bad, and I doubt it's going to improve much.J1M wrote: ↑ June 3rd, 2025, 13:54Yes, I agree. I assumed this was obvious. With varying levels of hand-crafted personality based on how important the character is. In contrast, each village NPC might just get something like: "wife, mother, likes knitting and ham". (In practice, an LLM would probably be used to generate the personality statement and then get hand-edited for setting consistency.)Demonic Fate wrote: ↑ June 3rd, 2025, 08:46I think you're mostly right, but there will still be unique value in having an artist create and define the character's personality, before entrusting it to a LLM to handle the reactivity. Whether or not that artist should still be called a "writer" is a linguistic quibble.J1M wrote: ↑ May 28th, 2025, 15:27
Nope. "Real" writers do not like writing games. They are attuned to linear narratives where they have full control of the protagonist's thoughts, words, and actions. They do not enjoy thinking about or writing all of the possible reactions a character would have in a situation. AI will quickly eclipse what "real writers", aka people who would rather be penning Hollywood screenplays, are able to do effectively for NPC writing.
Let's say you're making Torment in 2030. If you just tell the AI "the protagonist will meet a Night Hag who granted him immortality", it's going to churn through whatever repositories of folklore and D&D slop it knows of, and will probably write a working but unmemorable character that's very close to old Baba Yaga stories. Ferocious, sadistic, contemptuous.
Now imagine you have access to both Avellone and an AI. You could have Avellone write a detailed profile of Ravel Puzzlewell, with extensive writing samples in the form of Ravel's long, unique, wordplay-heavy monologues...
...and then set the AI to a very high temperature (= low inventiveness) and tell it to act as that character, which is something it is much better at even now. Do use Avellone's own writing if the scene is applicable (tell the AI that the Hag should want to ask questions, so it can use the "do your companions matter to you?" and "what can change the nature of a man?" dialogues verbatim), but if the PC decides to walk in and do something out-of-the-box, let's say summoning a Solar to smite the hag before she has said a word, trust the LLM to react in a sufficiently Ravel-like voice.I know the branchings of this place, the twistings and bendings and burrowings. Though there are no leaves here, one may take their leave when they wish it. Wrap your hands about you like branches, make them encircle your chest like a cage. Step from the edge of the maze into the darkness, and into another cage your body shall go - a simple leaving, but there is NO return when that final step is taken, so TAKE heed and TAKE what you need before you take the step. Which edge, which? One of the edges knows, not I. The remembering of which has failed me, and the edges of the maze have had little to say on the matter. Why stay when one can leave is your question to me? I turn the question upon its head and send it a-scurrying back to you. The answer lies not in the staying or leaving, but in the causes and reasons, my precious half-man. It is *a* want, a once-want, but not a now-want, and more and more a not, naught, knotted-want. What do I need that lies beyond my brambled walls? It is a cruel, jagged world beyond the edges of this maze, and Ravel has pulled *enough* of its shards from her skin.
Wolololo 
Das Ich Soll 
