What Does It Mean for Game Devs When GPT-4 Can Quickly Create a Ten Part World of Warcraft-Style Quest? (Comment of the Week)

Spinning off from MMO developers' thoughts around using AI for virtual world creation, Sinespace lead developer Adam Frisby shared his own recent experiences:

[I] asked GPT-4 to design a quest for World of Warcraft; the results are no worse than the human output actually in the game; and certainly better than the 'radiant quests' in Skyrim or Fallout 4. I bet with some better prompting you could get pretty decent results (e.g. adding the word 'unusual' or 'outlandish' to the prompt for spice).

Here's the prompt he used:

You are a quest designer for World of Warcraft, write me a ten step quest including a description of the characters involved, and their dialogue.

And here's what GPT-4 output in response -- along with some of Adam's takeaways on using a process like this in real MMO development:

 

Title: The Lost Artifact of Ethoril

Description: Assist Sage Lirath and his companions on a perilous journey to uncover the mysterious Lost Artifact of Ethoril, a powerful relic said to possess immense arcane energy. Face various challenges, solve puzzles, and battle fearsome foes to reveal the hidden truths of this ancient treasure.

Step 1: Meet Sage Lirath

Location: Ironforge, Hall of Explorers
Character: Sage Lirath (Dwarf, Male, Mage)
Dialogue: "Ah, adventurer! I've been seeking someone with your skills. I've come across an ancient tome that speaks of the Lost Artifact of Ethoril. It is said to possess immense power, and I need your help to uncover it. Are you up for the challenge?"

Step 2: Gather the Party

Location: Ironforge, Hall of Explorers
Characters:
Seraphine (Night Elf, Female, Druid)
Thrallos (Orc, Male, Warrior)
Elara (Blood Elf, Female, Rogue)
Dialogue:
Seraphine: "It's an honor to be part of this expedition. Let us bring balance to the world."
Thrallos: "I fight for honor and glory. Let's do this!"
Elara: "I've got your back, adventurer. I never pass up a chance for excitement."

Step 3: Uncover the First Clue

Location: Searing Gorge
Objective: Find the Ethoril Tablet in a cave guarded by fire elementals
Dialogue:
Sage Lirath: "The tome mentioned that the first clue to the artifact's location is hidden in a cave nearby. Let's find it!"
Step 4: Decipher the Ethoril Tablet

Location: Searing Gorge
Objective: Solve a rune puzzle on the tablet
Dialogue:
Sage Lirath: "These runes seem to be a message. We'll need to decipher it to reveal the next location."

Step 5: Ambushed by Cultists

Location: Searing Gorge
Objective: Defeat the Shadowreaper Cultists who attempt to steal the Ethoril Tablet
Dialogue:
Shadowreaper Cultist: "Fools! The power of Ethoril will be ours! Attack!"

Step 6: Interrogate a Cultist

Location: Searing Gorge
Objective: Extract information about the Lost Artifact from a captured cultist
Dialogue:
Captured Cultist: "I'll tell you nothing... Alright, alright! The next clue is in the Hinterlands, within the ancient troll city of Jintha'Alor!"

Step 7: Explore Jintha'Alor

Location: The Hinterlands
Objective: Find the Ethoril Keystone hidden within the troll city
Dialogue:
Thrallos: "Be on guard. These trolls won't take kindly to us trespassing."

Step 8: Battle the Jintha'Alor High Priest

Location: The Hinterlands
Objective: Defeat the High Priest to retrieve the Ethoril Keystone
Dialogue:
High Priest: "You dare desecrate our sacred city? Feel the wrath of the gods!"

Step 9: Locate the Artifact's Resting Place

Location: Eastern Plaguelands
Objective: Use the Ethoril Tablet and Keystone to reveal the entrance to the hidden chamber
Dialogue:
Sage Lirath: "The moment we've been waiting for. The artifact awaits us within this hidden chamber. Let us proceed with caution."

Step 10: Claim the Lost Artifact of Ethoril

Location: Eastern Plaguelands, Hidden Chamber
Objective: Defeat the Guardian of Ethoril and claim the artifact
Dialogue:
Guardian of Ethoril: "None shall possess the power of Ethoril! Turn back, or face your doom!"
Sage Lirath: "We've come too far to turn back now. For the safety of Azeroth, we must claim this artifact!"
Seraphine, Thrallos, and Elara: "For Azeroth!"

Upon completion of the quest, the characters express their gratitude and celebrate their victory:

Sage Lirath: "We have accomplished the impossible, adventurer. We could not have done it without you. The Lost Artifact of Ethoril is now in safe hands."
Seraphine: "The balance of nature remains preserved, thanks to your efforts."
Thrallos: "You have fought with honor and courage. I am proud to call you my ally."
Elara: "We've secured a powerful relic and thwarted the plans of those cultists. Well done!"

Looking at this result, says Adam, "it does fit into the general vibe of WoW quests (for back when I played it a decade ago), so I'd say that's about on par with human writing. You can get a lot out of AI systems with better prompting, adding more context, history and certain keywords for spice can give you whatever output you're looking for."

Echoing MMO design veteran Damion Schubert, Adam emphasizes the need for talented designers who have an understanding of the final goal, working with prompts:

"I think the idea of 'prompt engineering' as a job is a bit of a silly one, since the barrier to entry is low; but there is a skill in prompt engineering, adding the necessary context for the AI generation system is a bit more of an art than a science right now, but it's a critical one needed in current systems to get consistent high quality output.

"A lot of that comes down to expressing the inferred / hidden objectives; i.e. if you have a conversation with someone, there may be a shared understanding of the media you're talking about and its tropes - but that isn't a given with AI systems; they've seen so much that you need to nudge them in the right direction."

For my own part, I hope this encourages (goads?) developers to improve the current quality of MMO quests. Long before ChatGPT existed, most of them already looked and played like they were created by a robot!

From from Sinespace via Adam's Flickr.

Comments

[Adeon Writer]

The "creativity" of these models is a one-trick pony. If you've managed to get it to create something you think is creative, I challenge you: Give it the same prompt again. Then do it a third time. Do it ten times. You'll realize it's not as creative as you think as it reiterates the same answer with very small changes each time.

And it'll be giving that same answer to everyone else, too.