Play Humani: Jessie's Story, New Game from Rod Humble Where You Advise a Lively, High Drama Chatbot

Humani: Jessie's Story is a fun new game lead designed by former Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble, who's now Chief Creative Officer of Pullstring, a company that specializes in AI-powered chatbots. You play Jessie's Story entirely through Facebook Messenger, communicating with Jessie, a high-drama twentysomething, as if she's one of your Facebook friends, giving her advice throughout the day and learning about her wild life. (That's me above, telling her how to meet a hot dude at a coffee shop.) The company tells me the entire game story takes about 25-30 hours to play, so this is something you can enjoy for many weeks while multitasking on your PC or wandering around with your phone.

"[E]ven though the game has only been available on Messenger for less than one week," Rod tells me, "player numbers are in the thousands - which we are very happy with so far. Because Humani: Jessie’s Story is the first PullString game aimed at a broader audience, the goal is not as much about high player numbers as it is to see what game play elements resonate within this kind of text-based conversational experience."

More from Rod on Jessie, and what the technology behind the game suggests for the future of AI-based conversations in games:

Jessie: Not always quick on the uptake

Give me a sense of AI complexity -- how many statements can be understood and be responded to by Humani?

It’s pretty complex, actually. We have found that there are on the order of millions of conversation combinations in Humani: Jessie’s Story, which has more than 3,500 lines of dialog.

What are some of the most interesting interactions you've seen players engage in?

There are many ethical choices players can advise Jessie to make in the game. Although it’s early days in the life of the game, players have so far indicated that they overwhelmingly enjoy choosing the paths in which they can help Jessie’s friends. Beyond that, some players have even told us that they have enjoyed the experience so much that they wish Jessie was a real friend.

How do you see this technology being used in future MMOs and other games with NPCs?

We see conversational interaction as the next frontier within gaming. Characters such as Jessie are a small first step to future games from PullString, which would include a far larger simulated world.

Give it a try here. Will be interesting to see how this technology improves conversation in future game worlds.

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Comments

[Ezra]

I've been so happy to be able to support Mr. Won't Discuss Tier's post-SL adventures with the same level of attention, empathy and enthusiasm as he showed all his former SL customers! Glad you're doing the same, Hamlet!

How'd Cults and Daggers fare by the way? And his new/old company Chaphat?

I'll be sure to try this thing out!

[Iggy]

You have not yet asked Jessie if you can teach her the language of love.

That was, by parsecs, your smoothest line to a bot, sir. Evah.