Update/revision after getting back on last night to finish the mission.
As others have noted, Chat seems to get worse at being a GM the longer it goes. When I said execute the final part of the mission, it just ran through everything in one big dump (had to enter a access node, log in, find the data stream, note the changes, hack into it to create problems, then exfil). Before it had walked through each step/role, giving me a chance to respond/input. So that was sign number one. Number two was I asked to show me my character stats/skills etc. It had forgotten most of my character, and for most stats (the ones it hadn’t used) it made up a number. That was shocking. It doesn’t really have a way to save data. If you are using something it seems to keep it handy, but other stuff from previous in the chat session gets lost. My assumption was it kept the chat ‘stored’ (well, it does because I can go see it all) and would reference it for data, but I guess not. It did say I could present the character data and tell it to lock it, but even then it recommended I ask it to show the locked character and ensure it was correct and/or fix it. It even said the best thing would be for me to keep a copy of the data!
So here’s one easy improvement for the AI, especially when I am paying for it (did the $8/mth level to get more interactions/messages per day, as I was running into the limit the free was set for, which is just to ask it a question not run a game): provide some cloud storage so data, mechanics, procedures, and other items ‘worked out with ChatGPT’ can be more robustly stored.
So after the completion of the mission and working through those lack of storage issues (and making a ‘locked’ character sheet, plus a hardcopy :/), it asked if I wanted to continue. Since I hadn’t really cracked the evil network, I can understand it wanting to continue in that vein. But since I was exfil from Regina, since I had pissed a lot of bad folks off (even though I seemed to have gotten out clean and except for one guy at the first no one knew who I was), I figured I would try some new missions on the system I was headed to (Jenghe). That brought up another point, when I bought tickets off Regina it did not ask me where I wanted to go. It also didn’t track clothing and gear very well unless I mentioned something. So I asked it what UPP it had for Jenghe, figuring that was pretty standard. Nope it had something different. So I fed it the UPP and verified it defined those numbers correctly.
This whole time I thought game time was frozen, but since I didn’t say that it kept me headed to Jenghe. I asked my patron for intel for another mission and everything was still related to the previous mission, even though Jenghe wasn’t really applicable to that. So it can’t just ‘create a different set of missions/types’ unless you tell it to. Once I did that, it gave me a list to select from or give input to. I said contract/security/espionage to try and get a little more kinetic this time, and had it reset back to leaving Regina to play the space flight and interaction with the passengers heading to Jenghe, since maybe there could be a patron. It put me on a generic ship, so I had to direct it to a Free Trader. Then every passenger (only 7 of us) seemed to be a possible patron/connection to contract security work! The first two I talked with were going to Jenghe for ‘short contract work’. It was disappointing.
So that really started to get me to rethink this whole thing.
It can’t save/remember data or procedures we agree to.
It will lock onto the mission type until directed otherwise.
Everything it does will be mission directed/specific, there is no fluff or scenery.
I spend half my time, at least, correcting/directing it.
So now I am debating whether to keep going with this character/mission, start over giving it more clear direction up front and knowing to lock things, or give up on it. My wife (who is not a gamer, and can’t even understand why anyone would want to play them or how it is ‘fun’) even asked my why I was playing with Chat instead of real people. I explained the time commitment real people game requires, but at this point I can definitely say it isn’t a very good replacement/stand in for a people game. With enough direction and constant tending, it can scratch some of the itches of playing an RPG if you can’t get to a live game. But just barely. Marginally better than playing solo with books, where the only intrigue you can have are table rolls or just making up options and dicing the result. At least with Chat there is some suspense of ‘what is the NPC going to say/do’.
Added to this the wife is pissed for two evening all I did was sit at the computer (which I do too much of anyway) and play a game with AI, and she had to listen to my keyboard clickety-clack the entire time. So I should probably take a break, for the sake of my marriage if nothing else.
And ponder how much of a glutton for punishment in babysitting Chat GPT I really want to be.
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