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I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

joshfonseca.com

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Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#131

Post by bavell »

mgaunard wrote: post #79
beckthompson wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm unsure how useful they'll really be honestly! In many situations its very useful to know when your "done" talking with an NPC when they start repeating lines etc... There could probably be cool uses but I don't think it will be a pure "upgrade" as the repeating dialog is kind of a feature honestly. We'll have to see how it pans out xD

It would require a completely different design to video games. Current video games are designed around streamlining content. As a player, your job is to extract all content from an area before going to the next. That's why most areas are designed as linear corridors so that there is a straightforward progression, and most NPCs interactions are meant to offer something meaningful so as to not waste the player's time.…

> Current video games are designed around streamlining content. As a player, your job is to extract all content from an area before going to the next.

Wrong right from the outset. Some games are designed around content and "extraction". Many are not.

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#132

Post by throw4847285 »

ricardobeat wrote: post #118
smt88 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LLMs are heavily trained on reddit, and "Tom Nook is a capitalist dictator if you think about it" is a reddit meme. Like many LLM reactions, it's less "thought" and more "regurgitating reddit jokes/opinions".

> Like many [ human ] reactions, it's less "thought" and more "regurgitating reddit jokes/opinions"

Thankfully, I am in my 30s, and I don't have to interact with anybody in real life who mostly regurgitates Reddit jokes. Either I'm lucky or I've made some good choices. Probably the former.

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#134

Post by woodrowbarlow »

latexr wrote: post #105
mgaunard wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would require a completely different design to video games. Current video games are designed around streamlining content. As a player, your job is to extract all content from an area before going to the next. That's why most areas are designed as linear corridors so that there is a straightforward progression, and most NPCs interactions are meant to offer something meaningful so as to not waste the player's time.…

> But imagine if interaction with NPCs (…) instead could sometimes be rewarding, sometimes useless, dynamically adjusted in how you interact with the world in non-predictable ways. That’s a slot machine, and the same mechanism which also gets us hooked on social media. Sounds like something which would immediately be exploited by vapid addiction-as-a-feature games à la FarmVille. > The player would just waste their t…

>> There would be no reliable way of ensuring you've extracted all the content.

> Sounds frustrating. Ultimately games should be rewarding and fun.

this seems to assume that the only way to feel rewarded / have fun is by comprehensively extracting content from the game. in order to have fun in an "emergent" generative game of this nature, you'd need to let go of that goal.

i do agree with the risks surrounding engineered engagement.

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#135

Post by mclau157 »

amilios wrote: post #4

There's something about taking old games and injecting new life into them that just seems so fun and exciting! Also very interesting to know that the Animal Crossing codebase has been decompiled into readable C code. Fascinating! So many opportunities to mess with it.

The Ocarina of Time modding scene is growing a lot right now as well if anyone is interested

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#136

Post by RajT88 »

wincy wrote: post #5

That's hilarious that you give the villagers thought and the first thing they want to do is overthrow Tom Nook. If this works in Gamecube on an emulator, surely it'd be possible to make it work on the Switch emulators as well?

I also want to overthrow Tom Nook.

He traps you (and one presumes) all of the rest of the villagers in a vicious cycle of debt, and can only be satiated by millions of bells.

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#137

Post by d_burfoot »

dolebirchwood wrote: post #15

This is awesome. LLM-powered NPCs is one thing I'm most excited about in the future of gaming. Characters repeating the same scripted dialog over and over again is one of the biggest immersion breakers.

> LLM-powered NPCs is one thing I'm most excited about in the future of gaming

Incoming new type of health crisis: video game addiction coupled with LLM-induced psychosis. Dudes spending 12 hours a day farming gold in a MMORPG while flirting with their AI girlfriend sidekick

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#139

Post by [deleted] »

RajT88 wrote: post #136
wincy wrote: post #5

That's hilarious that you give the villagers thought and the first thing they want to do is overthrow Tom Nook. If this works in Gamecube on an emulator, surely it'd be possible to make it work on the Switch emulators as well?

I also want to overthrow Tom Nook. He traps you (and one presumes) all of the rest of the villagers in a vicious cycle of debt, and can only be satiated by millions of bells.

[deleted]

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#140

Post by AkBKukU »

bavell wrote: post #131
mgaunard wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would require a completely different design to video games. Current video games are designed around streamlining content. As a player, your job is to extract all content from an area before going to the next. That's why most areas are designed as linear corridors so that there is a straightforward progression, and most NPCs interactions are meant to offer something meaningful so as to not waste the player's time.…

> Current video games are designed around streamlining content. As a player, your job is to extract all content from an area before going to the next. Wrong right from the outset. Some games are designed around content and "extraction". Many are not.

> Some games are designed around content and "extraction". Many are not.

While I think the parent post leaves a lot of open ended questions, I think they are spot on about the tightness of design in games.

In many open world RPGs, or something like GTA, you cannot open every door in a city. In street fighter you can't take a break to talk to your opponent. In art games like Journey you cannot deviate from the path.

Games are a limited form of entertainment due to technical and resource restrictions, and they always will be. Even something as open ended and basic as minecraft has to have limits to the design, you wouldn't want the player to be able to collect every blade of grass off of a block just because you could add that. You have to find the balance between engaging elements and world building.

Having a LLM backed farmer in an RPG that could go into detail on how their crops didn't grow as well last season because it didn't rain as much seems good on paper for world building. But it is just going to devalue the human curated content around it as the player has to find what does and does not advance their goals in the limited time they have to play. And if you have some reward for talking to random NPCs players will just spam the next button until it's over to optimize their fun. All games have to hold back from adding more so that the important parts stand out.

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