Comment by tracker1
6 days ago
Would be kind of a cool experiment for a mud-style interface, where each npc/avatar was backed by a lower-cost LLM... similar rules for the npcs in the game, but a background feed, and history of interactions with other players as background.
Maybe limiting npc's to only a certain number of moves that aren't a response to other users per day...
It could be a lot of fun.
I'm building this exact thing, actually. Intelligence determines which model powers a mob/npc. Getting neat results so far!
A MUD exists as a platform for creative writing - introducing LLMs into one would deprive it of its primary function.
That sounds very different than my memory of MUDs. The ones I remember were much more a text-based version of "World of Warcraft" or other similar MMOs where you navigate through a world, complete quests, etc. You could chat with other players but it was more about teaming up for quests than a creative writing/roleplaying exercise.
Not to say that what you're describing didn't exist, but I don't think it was defining feature of all MUDs.
There was a distinct split between people there for the grind and people there for the RP. I was there for the RP and I was mostly on MUCKs, MUSHes, and the occasional MOOs (multi-user chat kingdoms, multi-user shared hallucinations, and mud (object-oriented) ). They all had a combat system lurking somewhere in their code but those routines rarely got used.
2 replies →
In some cases but coming from someone who played MUDs back in the day on a monochrome display and dial-up I know I would have been very interested in playing one with NPCs powered by an LLM had they been available back then. The NPCs as they existed were generally just furniture and the interesting part was playing with and talking to other people.
Most people played MUDs for the grind. Levels and loot. They care about the story as much as you care about it in Path of Exile.
The people who played MUDs for the grind will, genuinely, have a lot more fun playing PoE or some other modern adventure game. MUDs were the only option for that sort of adventure experience for a while but there are other options now that simply have more tools at their disposal than text based communication offers.
If a MUD is going to survive today it's going to be driven by those RP focused players where the freedom to describe actions in text allows a flexibility that's unrealistic in graphical games.
Even though I didn't play a MUD for the text, it's entirely false to say that the text didn't add a lot. The writing made or broke the game, since it was all text-based.