ChatGPT is not simply a chatbot — it can imagine entire virtual worlds using the power of its large language model (LLM). Using it, I discovered that I could recreate the experience of early text adventure games and multiuser dungeons.

Note (June 23, 2023): I have a much more advanced version that stemmed from this original work. This is on my Substack, where I’m now writing.

One of the classic genres of computer gaming is the text adventure. Games like the Original Adventure in the Colossal Cave and Zork paved the way for a wide range of roleplaying games around which an entire industry was created, as well as the highly-social experiences that began in multiuser dungeons (MUDs).