Scunkie, Ikeyyana, Dungster and the use of AI

Published by Vlasta yesterday.

AI is a hot topic everywhere and I think it is about time to clarify a couple of things related to it...

Scunkie was introduced long time ago to give the website some flavor. He is a gnome trader of the "button" subspecies, that was just a random thought with no deeper meaning at that time. I have been planning to add another - more shady - character for years, but never got to it until recently. This new character was supposed to handle gaming-related and other "evil" items. For example the suspicious magic bag was supposed to be sold by him - it has a gambling aspect to it and it may make you lose items and therefore is a bit evil. In the end, Scunkie got the bag and Dungster, the new character (not that shady, bummer) will handle just gaming for now. ...maybe some other fun stuff in the future.

Ikeyyana was not planned for long, but with the overhaul of the website skin customization, there needed to be a place for custom wallpapers and Scunkie's shop would become a mess it they were all there. And so, Ikeyyana handles them and she manages the 3 items that are related to profile and group customization.

These characters will occasionally add blog posts. The post content is of course controlled by me. You can subscribe to them to be notified about specific topics:

• Dungster will announce changes to games.
• Ikeyyana will blog about customization/skin changes and possibly post some tutorials on how to best do style customization (when more urgent tasks are finished).
• Scunkie will inform you about general changes to the marketplace and of course about changes to items in his shop.

Fun fact/riddle: The name Scunkie is just random, but the other two character names have a connection to their areas of expertise...

Use of AI in NPC blog posts

When creating blog content for Scunkie, Ikeyyana, and Dungster, I prepare the substance of what needs to be said in the blog post, then let AI generate the blog post, and finally correct it. As a I am not a native English speaker, it is beyond my abilities to write in style of a fairy-tale character, I can barely put together my own blog post without too many errors. The AI speeds up the whole process and maintains the flavor and the specific way of speaking for each character (as defined by me).

Let me repeat that the factual content of each blog post is created by me, you are not and will not be served empty, pointless blog entries that are there just to waste your time and make the internet a worse place.

Use of AI in games

The Memory game took about 3 weeks of work to make. Majority of the time was spent on making sure it integrates well with the website, both visually and functionally (new tag that behaves differently than the others, new workshop item, of course introducing Dungster, and being able to access the Gallery). The game itself was not hard to do as it is a rather simple game.

The purpose of this game is (beside sharpening your visual memory) to allow you to customize it and play with your own images. The default Animal set was made using AI and serves as a placeholder, it is not the core of the game. Dungster (or me?) has a blog post explaining when each set of images is used.

In the future, if a game is added that allows extensive customization, it is likely that AI placeholder art will be used again. That is because I would likely need to spend 3 months designing images comparable in quality to the AI ones and I'd rather spend that time on improving other aspects of the website. Replacing the AI placeholders with proper art is on you, you can do it better than me anyway.

If a game is added that is just a normal game and not a framework to showcase your art, AI will not be used in any substantial way.

Your opinion

You now know how I as the person, who maintains and extends this web, perceive AI. I see it as a potential help that can save me time to deliver a better service to you, but there are of course dangers. What I stated above appears to me as the best way to reap the benefits and avoid the pitfalls. Feel free to leave a comment...