wemptronics
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User ID: 95
but are you entirely sure that the changes will be improvements as game writing?
Absolutely not. I'm just pretty sure games haven't perfected process and that there is for improvement by using AI during their creation. No game developer should trust the consumer's wisdom. I would recommend they ignore gamers the most.
do you want to let the AI rewrite your game on the fly, like a GM does, not just write things you can review in advance?
If it does it well because it's powered by the 200 million dollar Unreal Storytelling Engine, yeah, I'd try it out. I don't think we need procedurally generated stuff to have more choice and consequence in a game as mentioned. The best practices reasoning ignores all the limitations, constraints, industry standards, general audience, and on and on. Pressures that can be mitigated by an always on, if not always deferred to, modest writer.*
a world where ten characters have deep dialogue trees and are critical to the story while another hundred characters have deep dialogue trees but are still going to be plot dead-ends after those trees are finally exhausted
Can we not provides clues or even tell the player what they can expect from the 100 'non-essential' characters? Don't many games already do this when they choose to include such content in the experience?
I recommend playing the Half Life 2 Episode 1+2 with Director's Commentary
I don't need to they were clearly an innovator if not a pioneer in "show don't tell" for video games. I'm not saying to take creators, artists, and innovators out of the equation or to cede your storytelling role to a robot. Guard rails are good and necessary in many cases. Based on my experience with LLM (prose, given) and my experience with video games: there's already a role for tapping LLMs and it would be an improvement in many games-- including big budget titles. But I appreciated the perspective!
wemptronics
5d ago
Agreed. Hyphenated name felt bad to repeat, but adding in "Eduardo" there was lazy. There were options: X individual, Mexican national (established above), assailant. I consider it improved now.
ultra generic, has no sense of tone or effect, and lacks any of the idiosyncratic spontaneity of even sloppily put together human content... a lack of broader complexity, meaning that any ‘character development’ it’s adding to a given story isn’t corresponding to a grander vision of what that story aspires to be or is about
That's what I think about many video games! Given that RPGs were never my forte, but I have played enough games. I've even played enough of recent-ish titles.
Take any Bethesda game or probably most other open-world titles. They all have mountains of generic filler called content that doesn't get cut despite being generic filler. The content doesn't get cut, because it needs to be there. Players like wandering into an interaction and they like doing the thing. That's the appeal. Developers can reward players with do-the-thing-get-thing reward and writers reward players to do the thing because they've become invested in some story or consequence behind it. A great game rewards a player with a dopamine did-thing-got-thing and it rewards the player with an engaging story. There are not very many great games and there's only so many opportunities for great writing in a given game.
In Starfield, there's a common loop. Player meets character NPC. Player may have up to 4 distinct interactions with the character. Possibly one or two of those interactions have 2 different variations. The player is provided with a few sentences of backstory in some way, then the player is expected to recognize the shape of a familiar story and fill in the blanks. These storytelling opportunities come a few phases translated to video game format:
- Introduction: "Woah, hey there! I'm Sam, the elderly forgotten veteran who runs the goompiunk shop now ever since my wife passed away. I do miss Marla. I'd love tell you a story about the time in the space war, but no one cares about old Sam anymore. Not since those dastardly Space Pirates showed up 150 meters to the North East at Ugorts Bar. They've been coming around every week to extort me. Last time they smashed my favorite picture of Marla here and..."
- Quest complete: "Thanks stranger. You know whispers Old Sam has an old Vorseork Blaster from the Second Grand War in the back of the shop. I don't think Old Sam will be needing it since you've dealt with those Marituzen thugs at Ugorts Bar."
- Repeat process until story is exhausted. Loop the last dialogue option.
There's nothing in there that can't be improved upon by a writer working with an LLM. If nothing else, this results in the player being provided the opportunity to add depth to a bland and boring A-B experience. The generic shape of the story, where the player is expected to recognize it to fill in the blanks, gets more filling.
Starfield is a bad game, but Starfield had so many of these generic fetch quests, generic storylines, generic dialogues that I don't think I got close to finish it. And hey, I know this developer, I expect some level of generic human slop, but boy did it seem bad. On the other side I've also played most of Baldur's Gate 3. BG3 is a much higher quality game. As I understand it's considered a generational class of game. My generation of this genre would be The Witcher 3 which, as I recall, had relatively rich stories and writing in part. There's still plenty of bland, formulaic, or marginal content that wouldn't be harmed by curated robot slop.
Now I could not be aware of the new fangled indie RPGs true gamers play these days, but I have played enough games to know the writers phone it in no more than a good prompt. That may be due to a workload as is typical for the industry or it might be that video game writers write games for a reason other than greatness. In either case I bet there's a use case for this now. Today! Someone could go find banal interaction in a game, feed a few prompts, and get something that enriches that experience. No question in my mind. AI will not single-handedly create a cohesive BG3 story board and 100 hours of dialogue in one go, but even a free model can help a mediocre writer enrich their 15 minute mini-story side quest #121.
That's a shame they're being shamed. One of my takeaways from GPT-4 was that it was good enough to beat a lot of video game text and dialogue. Filler content, conversation with NPC #987, and side quests? AI can jazz up things budget doesn't allow for. It should no longer be cost prohibitive to develop the 120 filler fetch quests into something slightly more meaningful and engaging. Extra flair, storytelling, or character development where there was barebones effort. Someone needs to weather the criticism, raise the bar, and get paid for it.
wemptronics
6d ago
That domestic violence received all that attention for fundraisers, charity, and politicking while also receiving "non-violent" mitigation cover is indeed maddening. It's easy for me to say that a murderer should serve his sentence before we extradite, deport, and pass him along. It's more difficult to say we can't suspend a guy's sentence of a few weeks to get him out of here while we have him. We could even use that space to jail more domestic violent non-violent domestic abusers!
She's been suspended since April, but still is technically a judge.
The "You Know Who is a felon in office" snark writes itself. Maybe the right school will send the right offer to teach law from house arrest and all can be forgiven.
It's not a glamorous beat, but another CW news follow-up.
Last week Judge Hannah Dugan of Milwaukee County Circuit Court was found guilty of felony obstruction by a jury. This was the judge who assisted an immigrant's attempt to evade arrest by ICE. The Wisconsin Examiner published what looks like excellent coverage of the trial and verdict.
Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, Mexican national, was arrested in March of 2025. Milwaukee ICE cross-referenced his fingerprints where they found a match with a previous 2013 deportation by US Border Patrol. Milwaukee ICE conjured up an administrative warrant and gathered a smorgasbord of FBI, CBP, and other federal agents. They planned to apprehend Flores-Ruiz after his appearance. At the courthouse, with the agents presence known, Judge Dugan and a Judge Cervera approached the agents in the hallway. At the end of this interaction, Judge Cervera left with the agents to go to the chief judge's office. According to the agents and Judge Cervera's testimony that was where they were told to go to hash out the legitimacy of their presence, warrant, and the planned apprehension. According to Dugan's defense, that conversation never occurred, though from the reporting alone I do not know what they offered as an alternative except that Dugan did not personally review the warrant.
Judge Dugan returned to her courtroom where she rearranged the docket to move Flores-Ruiz's case to the top. She told him and his attorney their next hearing could be held via Zoom then she "led Flores-Ruiz and his attorney, Mercedes de la Rosa, to a non-public door to exit" the courtroom. Instead of making an escape, Flores-Ruiz and his attorney stumbled into the public hallway which eventually led to his arrest-- an agent had remained behind with eyes on that exit. It's interesting his attorney did not prevent this navigation error despite having knowledge of building. According to the Examiner she was portrayed as a "naive" stooge by the prosecutors. This suggests to me she sensed a measure of impropriety, if not outright criminal potential as this was ongoing. Judge Cervera, who accompanied the agents in the halls, testified at trial and did not run cover for Dugan.
Jurors were played mute security camera video and asked to decide whether they believe Cervera that Dugan told the agents three times that they needed a judicial warrant, something that didn’t appear to happen in the video. “Judge Cervera is wrong,” said Luczak. “I don’t know if she’s lying, but I could think of some reasons why.” Cervera, the attorney argued, was trying to save herself by throwing Dugan under the bus.
It's safe to assume the water cooler talks have become more awkward in Milwaukee County. Other judges and lawyers testified for the defense. Even a former mayor came out to testify as a character witness.
[Judge] Gramling-Perez reviewed emails on the stand that said “the historic protocols are now shifting quickly,” and explaining that although state and local law enforcement have conducted arrests around the court in the past, those activities were always guided by clear policies or practices which were respected by law enforcement... Prosecutors repeatedly attempted to get Gramling-Perez to say that ICE arrests were allowed in public hallways, per the “key takeaways” that she outlined in her email to Dugan and other judges. Gramling-Perez, however, didn’t budge. When prosecutors showed her images of documents they claimed were part of her presentation, she said she’d never seen them before...
That last sentence doesn't sound great, does it? The merry mix-up argument says policy was confused and the law unclear, but for questions of intent this recording couldn't have helped:
to "buttress their argument prosecutors played courtroom audio that captured Dugan talking with court reporter Joan Butz and saying “down the stairs” as well as Dugan saying, “I’ll do it…I’ll take the heat,” and Butz responding, “I’d rather get in trouble.”
The jury's verdict -- guilty on obstruction but not guilty on misdemeanor concealment -- is arguable. Dugan's lead attorney "told reporters that he was disappointed with the ruling and didn’t understand how the jury could have reached a split verdict since the elements of both charges were virtually the same." A compromise verdict does make sense in the jury sense-making sense. Most average joes aren't going to relish sending a judge to prison especially when the former mayor comes out to vouch for her.
During testimony earlier this week, federal agents told jurors they notified court personnel of their plans to arrest Flores-Ruiz. The agents also said they told court personnel they planned to carry out the arrest in the courthouse hallway once Flores-Ruiz’s hearing had concluded. Prosecutors showed jurors an email that Ashley sent to his colleagues on April 4, about two weeks before the incident that led to Dugan’s legal troubles. That email came after two other ICE arrests at the courthouse earlier that spring. In the email, Ashley said he was gathering more information, but suggested that ICE arrests could likely be prohibited within private courtrooms.
I have doubts that Dugan will end up serving a real sentence in prison. She's a 66 year old judge who the mayor testified for. I suspect they'll work something out even without consideration of an appeal. Who did she risk her freedom for?
Eduardo Flores-Ruiz was scheduled to appear for domestic violence and battery charges. Those charges come from a complaint by an unnamed roommate who texted Flores-Ruiz about loud music in their shared apartment. Flores-Ruiz confronted the roommate about this text and began pummeling him. This victim was punched in the face at least "30 times." The roommate's girlfriend made an attempt to intervene which resulted in a second pummeling. All pummeled out the assailant turned his attention back to the male roommate and began choking him. A third individual, a cousin of the girlfriend, appeared on the scene, avoided a pummeling of his own, and ended the altercation.
Flores-Ruiz reportedly uttered something in the realm of this isn't over before the couple went to the hospital to receive treatment. They filed a report which led to the Mexican national's arrest and now, also, his deportation. I believe these two were present in the Dugan's courtroom on the day in question.
Anyone surprised by the verdict? Not surprised? Is this a signal received for #resistance in the justice system? A clear line drawn on what the public and feds will tolerate. Or, is the lesson a more practical? More quiet, sophisticated acts are required to protect democracy with celebration for a new martyr on the right side of history. ICE agents lingering outside courtrooms does step on a predictable boundary. If the autonomy of a judge's courtroom justifiably extends into the hallways, then where should it end?
wemptronics
12d ago
True. For others, Judge Cummings ordered this extension of 100 days as a punitive remedy for the DHS declaring the consent decree as expired before it had expired. Cummings being the same district judge as above whose order to bond the detainees was rejected by the appeals court. It would need to be a different kind of reasoning. I don't know how these work, but I do know consent decrees are meant to be mutually agreed upon. One would hope this limitation is respected, but, yeah, wouldn't surprise me. I imagine the admin would fight that one.
Only a few months ago Operation Midway Blitz commenced, also known as the Trump Invades Chicago story. There are still ongoing legal disputes as fallout from the operation. Most recently, a federal appeals court decided that a district judge's order to release 600 ICE detainees after one stage of the operation was no bueno. Although the court did reaffirm certain due process requirements. The consent decree that supervises that due process expires in February, so Trump admin may just sit and wait till then.
I was more interested in belatedly sharing an update to another happening during the Trump-Chiraq conflict which was discussed here. Marimar Martinez was shot multiple times by an CBP/ICE agent after her and one other allegedly rammed their vehicle into an CBP (ICE) vehicle. According to the government, she was a known activist participating in a "convoy" that sought to track, annoy, or disrupt ICE operations in Chicago. Media at the time reported government claims that the agent saw a pistol on or nearby Martinez while she approached him in her vehicle. Her lawyers said her legal carry pistol remained in her purse during the incident.* The statement from the Justice Department at the time of the shooting:
After striking the agents’ vehicle, the defendants’ vehicles boxed in the agents’ vehicle, the complaint states. The agent was unable to move his vehicle and exited the car, at which point he fired approximately five shots from his service weapon at Martinez, the complaint states.
Martinez drove off but paramedics discovered her and her vehicle at a repair shop about a mile away. Martinez was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where she received treatment for gunshot wounds, the complaint states.
In November, Martinez (and an Anthony Ruiz with her) had all charges dismissed with prejudice. Seemingly, the case fell apart for a few reasons. For one, the CBP took pictures of the vehicle for evidence after the incident, but then released it back to the agent involved in the shooting. He drove the vehicle back home to Maine where the CBP repaired the vehicle. Defense attorney jiu jitsu on a technicality? Maybe, but if you're going to cite car ramming in an attack, then the cars seems like important evidence. Further, after the incident the cop did the cop thing. He pumped five rounds into a person who allegedly attacked him, then told his buddies about his marksmanship on Signal: "I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys. Read it. 5 shots, 7 holes."
Video footage, possibly bodycam footage, was referenced by the defense attorneys in multiple news reports. This footage remains sealed and non-public even after the dismissal. Crass cop shop talk and accusations of inappropriate evidence collection might not alone lead to charges dismissed if there exists footage that substantially supported the government's story. One would expect further litigation if the footage and other evidence was totally exculpatory. Maybe everyone got away with something here and that no one is dead for it seems a consolation prize. Verdict: no movement on federal law enforcement meathead-unprofessional scale because, despite the above average marksmanship, this does seem rather meathead-y and unprofessional.
Most "low information" consumers know production is inauthentic. They are not bothered by this while they enjoy the 31st season of The Bachelor. Another segment of somewhat higher information consumers knows and considers the production (inauthenticity) doesn't end with the 31st season of The Bachelor. Production reaches into their TikTok feeds and their least favorite political party's national convention. It merges with and invades their hobbies, interests, and relationships. It reaches out and touches them when as their crush posts a new cute Instagram story dancing to some music.
"What is real?" used to be understood as an appropriate question for smoke filled dorm rooms and entertainment. It has never ~been felt more appropriate to ask this question than while facing a screen. We happen to do that a lot. The philosophy major with bloodshot eyes might not be able to understand, but for this segment of consumers this an uncomfortable question with uncertain answers. Production -- theatrics, marketing, controversy -- has taken over the commons. This may not be unprecedented experience, but it is probably unprecedented at scale and presence.
Discernment takes a lot of energy and time. Ain't nobody got time for that. An inaccurate, but simple categorization system is more useful than uncertain consideration. The hack the nerds don't want you to know is to develop and tune heuristics. Fine, when and by how much? Who do I trust to tune if not the cool dudes who see what I can see and are like me? What is a heuristic anyway? If we feel mean we might dub this a Midwit Consumer Demographic. We don't feel mean though, so we say the path of least resistance is the most natural thing in the world. Better to be guarded by overzealous "fake" categorization than to feel duped like some jabroni. Even the most normie consumers share this perspective at times, perhaps as they read the latest Instagram story debunking junk that bamboozled unwitting others.
I don't know if the epistemic rot is worse on an individual level than a hundred years ago, but if a person wanted to host an everything is fake brainworm they've never been more able to find vindication. The algorithm, its production and theatrics, is always on The Feed. We should probably be more concerned if this segment of people didn't increase after growing distrust of institutions and the evolution of brainhacks-- institutions that do frequently earn a degraded reputation. They fuck up, spectacularly so, and it's prudent to be suspicious of actors that profit off of a fuck-up.
I'm sufficiently conditioned to tolerate a fake mistake technique or the ol' "accidental" release of a trailer. Leveraging an unplanned mistake is the role of PR, so you can't blame them for that. The same types of people, if not the very same ones, do often enough somehow, someway, end up in yet another racist race swap controversy discourse for the latest Disney publicity campaign. While there is a "look in the mirror" defense of these kinds of tactics I don't find them convincing. It's not conspiracy, it's incentives all the way down-- "accident" or not. I'll still cover my bases: the schizos are always right.
I found the NSS a mixed bag. Some parts I appreciated and agreed with. It's good some of these statements are on the record as considerations of strategy. A great deal of the rest seems incomplete or amateur in typical Trumpian fashion. An intent of simplicity stated up front by necessity, because there's no real plan, no diligence-- certainly no 4D chess.
Western-hemispheric control, a revitalizing of the Monroe Doctrine.
What is the vision here? The US survived for the duration of the Cold War with its home turf contested. Is the idea Europe falls to the wolves and we hope to make Brazil the new Germany of South America? America turn the meme of BRICS into a reality by investing in it? Explaining it as a ratchet in the scare Europe straight toolbox would be neat, but I'm not sure I believe it.
Bullying Venezuela is great and all, but who cares about Venezuela? We're not retreating from the Pacific, we're just focusing on our own hemisphere. Okay, for what? What will our efforts and focus achieve? A thing to do because we decided not to do the other thing.
No it wouldn't come up with that from scratch. That sounds like the magic sauce. The intersection of absurdist yet earnest charming humor, games are meant to be fun mindset, and creative freedom. LLMs can imitate the style. As a rule I try not to share LLM outputs, because it isn't interesting, but try variations of this prompt:
I added a word here or there, including an attempt with "nihilistic" added to iconic. Only one of them was awful-awful. Claude even made me smile with one bit. It may have been a real bit, who knows? You could work on the prompt and continue to pay a comedian to work the material to end up with 5x Lazlow radio segments. Or, consider this recent viral Twitter post on output allegedly spawned from a single prompt. But I'm devolving us down to is AI good which has been done to death.
I suspect LLM's are already quite capable to assist in weak areas (as I see them) of mediocrity in video games that require text. If a human is already doing things at a surface level, like the elderly veteran trope, then AI can provide more styled meat or ideas for the meal.
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