Completely Inconsequential Hot-Takes 2: People Take Too Long to Post New Threads

[Ionathus]

I saw somebody complaining about running out of NPC dialogue in Hades (video game) on Reddit today and I just can't get that out of my head.

For context, Hades has over 20,000 lines of voiced dialogue, much of it intricately contextual: there are lines that a character will only say if you're carrying a certain weapon (out of 6 choices), have a certain keepsake (20+ choices), use a certain special ability, have already purchased a cosmetic upgrade for the lounge...the list is staggering. It's the most "alive" feeling world in any game I've ever played, thanks to how the characters still have fresh banter even after 100 hours played. So few games can boast that.

I can understand the person on Reddit complaining that they feel spoiled now, or making an appreciation post for how vibrant the game's dialogue felt. But their tone definitely felt like legitimate complaining at times, as if Supergiant somehow fell short or "owed" the players more dialogue, which has never been less true in my book. The poster even responded positively to somebody proposing a ChatGPT-esque mod which would use generative AI to add lines to the game. And that really cooked my goose. Generative AI writing has a ton of uses, but trying to apply it to a lovingly crafted story like that feels...wrong.

Imean, real talk for a second, that just means they want someone who, for painfully obvious questions, isnt incompetent, and for totally subjective questions, thinks the way they want.

Yeah, the first part I totally get. I have so much experience with multiple-choice stuff like this (including a rich bar trivia career, a childhood in the American public school system, and a lot of Bioware-style RPGs) that I have a lot of testing instincts that help me make educated guesses or spot the "obvious" choice. And I guess it does its job of filtering for candidates who can't pass a low reading comprehension bar. Tedious, but understandable.

The latter "thinks the way they want" part I still disagree with though. Those subjective questions were so poorly worded that I don't think you can even use a certain response as diagnostic -- it feels so arbitrary as to be random noise. You won't even get the groupthinkers you want.

Back in my day, we used in-person conversations to judge people for their lack of conformity, consarn it!!