Posted by SeenNotHeard 7 days ago
It's probably still down there packed up in the cellar ....
Maybe I should dig it out again.
Sorry, but that isn't a verb recognition problem, it's a comprehension problem. I agree with the downvoted poster that LLM integration would significantly improve the end user experience. However the LLM should not be arbiter of game state (as they suggested), but simply the translator that ensures that the players instructions are understood by the game.
I'm not saying having LLMs narrate the entire situation. I'm saying have the LLM sit between gamestate and the player. The LLM is the UI.
Essentially the LLM can see the current game state and possible moves and it's the LLMs job to change the game state and report the current game state to the user (via a well written narrative).
That keeps the world consistent and structured, but the LLM adds enough dynamism to keep it flowing well. You can even make the underlying game state complex as well. Like you can have enemy AI's that actually move through the world too (independent of the LLM).
https://intfiction.org/t/first-full-game-available-on-new-ll...
The biggest issue is attempts to hack the LLM, to get at hidden gamestate. But I feel this can be easily remedied by just not providing the LLM with hidden game state.
That would keep its behavior passive and restricted to simply the current state, since it would retain no memory of previous actions.
NPC's running around were a thing even in the 80's, see The Hobbit. That on a ZX spectrum. 8 bit CPU, 48k of RAM. With if6 and Zmachine games for 16 bit and 32 bit computers in the 90's llm's can't even compete.
From Jigsaw, Anchorhead, Curses, Spider and Web to that anagram word puzzle game for Glulx (a 32 bit zmachine cousin), the array of amateur but professional looking games it's huge, really huge.
An Inform 6 compiler can run under DOS/386 or Linux/BSD for 486 and compile a really large and functional game in seconds. For Inform7, maybe a Pentium II/III and a bunch of seconds too.
An AI to do the same, not even a 'modern' Core Duo with a GL 2.1 adapter (the lowest of the lowest bearable specs for light web browsing and office work) can't even run a consistent world.
There's a reason "Guess the verb" meme exists. There's even a satire game on this concept: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=35arqepm2q92hcqu
Your comment coudn't be more outdated since the Curses! release for the ZMachine in 1993.
The v5 machine release was much better than the v3 one, and the v5-V8 ones allowed semi-complex phrases with indirect object pronouns after a previous entered phrase and much more.
Go play Anchorhead and compare it to a z3 machine game from Infocom, or any game made it with Puny Inform.