Alternate Reality

Notes from videogaming’s borders

- ADRIAN HON

Would Skyrim be better if it were ten times as long? Over the past few years, multiple modders have hooked Bethesda’s game up to large language models such as ChatGPT so players can have longer and more interactive conversations with NPCs, with lip syncing and voice synthesis adding another layer of realism. Everyone who’s seen these mods admits that the quality of the ‘writing’ and voices leave a lot to be desired. Even so, I’ve seen plenty of people salivating at the idea of generative AI soon creating infinite numbers of quests that could be played forever. This strikes me as utterly misguided, to put it mildly.

A good book doesn’t get twice as good if you double the word count – just ask any Neal Stephenson fan – and it’s hard to imagine how Breaking Bad or Succession could have the same impact if they were a thousand episodes long. True, The Simpsons is close to its 800th episode, but most would agree its best days are far behind it. Making more of a good thing sounds like a no-brainer, but the best human writers know better than to take an idea further than it can go.