Post by ChilledGlasses in This game is terrible. [Pt. 2]

Viewing post in This game is terrible. [Pt. 2]

ChilledGlasses10 days ago (1 edit) (+3)(-1)

There's "hating criticism" and then there's "locking a thread because it's just a long essay about how awful everything is because it doesn't suit my particular tastes".

We get it dude, you want to play a manly macho man who wows everyone with how dominant and powerful he is.

That isn't this game though. It's a game where your character understands the world that they're in, and that world isn't going to just bend over for them so you can have your action movie moments.

Your thread wasn't locked because you were critical, people have been critical about aspects of this game since the beginning.

It was locked because you were being unnecessarily rude, and the author can decide whether or not they want to tolerate that on their page.

Hello and welcome to the consequences of your actions.

Lightskinche10 days ago(-4)

Holy edgelord. Relax dude, if the 'consequences of my actions' are getting a thread locked, I think I can stomach it lmao. Also you are just flat out wrong: getting angry about there being zero skill checks is not the same not being able to handle losing. It just means that the attribute point system is pointless since it clearly doesn't impact gameplay (which is why it was so frustrating), so it is absolutely valid criticism on its own Mr. No True Scotsman Fallacy. Finally, if you look at the ratings on my post, you'll see that many people agree, so I can't have been that off the mark. Combined with there being no criticism in the community and the most recent posts being >100 days, this means that this author probably routinely gets rid of the posts of people who complain.

Btw the fact that you had to edit this chilling little response after posting is hilarious. Do I make you nervous?

wocqu6 days ago (1 edit) (+3)

Are we just gonna gloss over the fact you opened with "this game is [...] obviously written by an LLM" and then proceeded to use needlessly crude language. Like, regardless of whatever actual criticism you have, you just stepped heatedly into a creative's space and made an unsubstantiated claim that they used generative AI. And you're surprised they weren't receptive to that? Dude. Come on. You could've cut a huge chunk of what you'd written, put "the (lack of) skill checks can be frustrating sometimes; i feel like the stats are arbitrary, and..." and wow you probably wouldn't have gotten your post locked.

Lightskinche5 days ago (1 edit) (-4)

Yes, I was mean because if a game is written with an LLM (which this one is), I instantly lose all respect for it. If someone had actually put their soul into this and had a genuineness to it, I would not have been so mean. But even the programming is generated by AI. If you can't see it, you don't want to see it. Source: Am a programmer (from before the AI era), writer, and user of AI for 4 years spanning GLM, Kimi, Minimax, etc, I have used all AIs out here. Believe me or don't, you are being scammed if you think this is not AI, I'm sorry to say it.

Edit because I might as well add detail:

1. AIs, when I use them in my personal programming projects, are very susceptible to feature creep and seldom flesh out ideas. You can see this in how, for some reason, you can get a grapple hook in Ep 1 which... you don't use at all in that episode or in the next one, even when it would have been helpful (like if you have to fight the Basilisk). The consumables which I believe you cannot use either (since there isn't even any health in at least the combat encounters in ep 1) follow this trend of 'idea, but not fleshed out and doesn't fit'. AI. [ANOTHER example is the comically detailed 'physical description' segment of character creation that is never used in the actual game]
2. AIs, when tasked to write something creative, ESPECIALLY if you roleplay with them (I am a veteran c.ai user and currently use many front ends to roleplay with AI), WILL railroad you and punish you if you don't something it doesn't want you to do. This can be merely being evil or acting against what it believes the story should be even if the sequence of events that follow your 'blunder' are illogical. You know what this reminds me of? Everything I described in my original post, down to the lack of skill checks. Would a human writer create an elaborate skill system (yet another 'feature' that isn't fleshed out) and almost never use it? No. AI.

3. The UI SCREAMS AI, especially because you can play it in a browser, and most AIs default to wanting to make webapps or HTML + Javascript programs. I am almost 100% that the 'dev' asked their AI of choice how they should make this game and IT recommended hosting it on the web. Who else puts VNs on the web? DDLC didn't say 'Play the interactive game here'; you had to download it (not a great example, I know, but I don't wanna list some obscure VN). The overly large interface that lacks basic human design (for example, it sort of escapes me right now because it's been a while, but the way that elements just vanish if you accidentally click out and just the strange way things are ordered).

4. The VERY NAME of the game also screams AI. Wayfinder sounds like something that an AI would generate if you asked to 'give me a name for a fantasy text game where the user travels far and wide' or something. And speaking of names, 'Crimson Count' is an OBVIOUS AI name because not only the use of 'crimson' but also the alliteration that hampers the intimidating effect! All of the names in the game sound like AI-generated names. If you don't think so, then I can't convince you, but trust me, you can ask others who know their stuff.

Do I need to continue?

Viking4 days ago(+2)

If you'd bothered to do even a basic look at the game, you'd know that the game predates any widespread use of LLMs and GenAI.
Slinging about accusations of LLM use is unacceptable. This work is the result mountains of hard work. "I was mean because the game is written by a LLM" - you are mean because you like being mean. I'm sorry you are living your life like this.

I don't really want to deign an answer to your other points, as I don't think you are arguing in good faith, along with laughable arguments, including not knowing the games name.

I am especially amused about the zero skill checks point though. Maybe try more than one variation of choices before making sweeping accusations?

Lightskinche4 days ago(-1)

It can predate LLMs all it wants, the script is obviously written by a machine. They could've easily rewrote swathes of the game with it recently or expansions by use of it. Do we have access to their actual repository? No, we don't. Also, you are EXTREMELY condescending, and I honestly think you get off to holding power over me more than I 'enjoy' being mean to random people. I'm not into BDSM, bro.

ChilledGlasses4 days ago

So...you do use the grappling hook in episode 1, you just need to do, y'know, the climbing part.

Health isn't used in the traditional sense of an HP bar, but if you take damage then it affects how much you level up after the episode is over.

I'm continually puzzled by you being convinced there's not skill checks in the game. No matter what path you take through episode 1, there's TONS of skill checks, and you get notifications for what you've failed or succeeded at.

In progress interactive fiction games are browser based all the time, just look through the rest of itch.io's library. Using DDLC is indeed a horrible example for this, because you're comparing a game that intentionally is made to look like a traditional visual novel dating sim with an interactive fiction game, which plays much more like a digital choose your own adventure book.

So much of your "this is definitely AI" proof is just "it feels that way" or "trust me bro".

But as someone else said, the development of this game AND the design of it's UI predate the widespread use of AI/LLMs.

If you don't think so, then I can't convince you. But trust me bro.

Do I need to continue?

Lightskinche4 days ago(-1)

I figured there was a part in the game where the grappling hook would be useful, man. My point was that the lack of use outside of that highly specific situation for the player, especially an Agility-based player, is absurd and indicates a lack of forethought that I attribute to AI because I have personally see this happen in my own projects that used AI. [And the fact that I am given no clue as to where I can use the grappling hook I paid for is another point in the AI category, what game does that?]

Second, I'm aware that there is an 'injury' system for the player, they explain it to you in the beginning; what I was talking about is the enemies. There is a startling lack of enemy HP at least the encounters I saw, and combat seems highly scripted... so what do the consumables even do in such a situation?

Third, if I genuinely confused you and made you think I encountered dead zero skill checks, I apologize. There are skill checks occasionally but often for the strangest things... chasing a child through an alleyway gets an Agility skill check, cool, and so does trying to get through a crowd so that someone doesn't ask you an annoying question. But, protecting your companion from being STOMPED by Nova doesn't, avoiding getting strangled by the Crimson Count doesn't, avoiding falling down a trapdoor doesn't, avoiding getting manhandled by heavily armored soldiers who are trying to take you legendary, passed-down-through-generations weapon, doesn't, etc... you see the problem? It's only for things that don't actually matter.

Fourth, yeah DDLC was a bad example.

Fifth, four years ago was 2022. If that's your evidence that it 'predates' AI, you are gravely mistaken, and, like I said to the other guy, predating AI doesn't mean you can't use AI anyway . None of my intuition about this being AI is 'trust me bro' it's damn near certain. Here is a research paper that proves that 'expert' humans who have used AI extensively can almost 100% of the time tell AI-written content from human-written content. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.15654 I am telling you that I have used AI extensively, and if you would grant me that belief, then when I tell you that my brain is SCREAMING that EVERY part of this is created by AI, you should at least give it credence.

Sixth, you can't end off by copying my line 'Do I need to continue' unless you actually demolish me... which you didn't and I suspect you only replied because now there's more people here and that makes you tremble in your boots a little less to write to me. It's okay, man, I don't bite.