Progress now continues on with this game, though it is a bit slower than I wish due to the current circumsances of reduced writing, coding time. While this does continue on, I did want to very briefly pop in to make a few statements on some of the major questions and trends in the forum and the industry at large, as I think it is every creators duty to take a stance on some of these issues. I had considered posting in the threads for these topics, but didn’t really have time to adequetly read or internalize all the back and forth on these topics so I am instead opting for simpler statements on my own game threads just so you all, my players (who I owe all my thanks too for trying my games!) know where I stand.
First, on the issue of the banning of games due to adult content:
I am of course horrified that this is happening and condemn the banning and censorship of games in the strongest possible terms. While it is rare, I would agree that there are a few games that have truly reprehensible, irredeemable content – however, even in those instances, I believe it is a far better thing for the gaming community to analyze, discuss, and in extreme case warn against such games, then having outside far right groups tell us what we are allowed to think, do, or create. I would like to think, as a human being and a creator, that I stand for freedom of thought, and can not condone an outside far right group virtually blackmailing credit card companies to try to supress thoughts and creative content that they do not like. I think in thse harsh times we all need to stand together against the wicked censorship and do what we can to help creators that are at risk right now.
Secondly, on the issue of AI and my own games: Obviously, none of my writing is AI generated. I am appalled and mystified that anyone would think otherwise – I mean, have you seen all the grammar and spelling errors? What AI would ever have these? Indeed, I have forgone editing tools such as Grammarly simply as such tools would lead to my games violating the standards of COG, HS, and HC, as the current rules disallow such AI editing tools, even though such would greatly enhance the enjoyment many would have for my games as the grammar and spelling is the #1 critique point my games get. As for AI images, a few of my games maybe have 1 or 2 AI images that shall be replaced before the game is submitted to HS or elsewhere; however, the majority of the art in my games is my own. Lastly, as the AI thread apparently wanted us to include plotting with AI and other corollary activities to writing – for Sense & Sorcery, I did briefly consult with an AI regarding regency roadways, though ultimately the content it spat out was less than useless so I was not able to use anything in that instnace. I also wanted – and still do want too - make AI bots of some of my characters to have discussions with them, but sadly as the community outcry against my desire to do so was exponentially disproportioned, I have not been able to do so, which is very sad as I think that would be a great tool to better get into the minds of my characters and better figure out what makes them tick. All well – the rules are the rules, so I shall not, at least for any content intended for COG or any of their safelight companies. For All the Way, my Christopher Pike themed work, I did ask AI to sum up some of the major themes of CP’s work, though once more that was all that useful, and my rereading in the last year around a dozen or more of his books has been far more helpful. I did also ask CHATGPT to sum up some of the buz words for the 80’s, although in this instance the only one I ended up using was “FYI” which I would have eventually been able to find elsewhere. I guess if that becomes problematic I could remove the instance where I use that one word in All the Way, though I personally think such a demand would be ludicrous and hope common sense would prevail here. Other than that, I can not think of any instance where AI was used in the thought, function, or forming of my games – that written, I will briefly note that my writing did serve as training material through Microsoft’s AI efforts via a simple click with permssion for them to use that on a drop box prompt one time. I did this as I truly do think AI is one of the great hopes of the future, and despite my detractors, I have total faith and confidence in my writing and would like AI writing to be of a good quality, as probably in the future a lot of what we read shall be AI produced.
These are my statements on those issues. Not really looking for a response on either of these, but I figured it was my duty to post something.
Beyond that, as stated, work continues on despite the rougher circumstnaces, primarily on Sense & Sorcery . . . closing in on 15k words written since a family member had a stroke and is requiring a ton of medical appointments and additional help on day to day living, thus the greatly decreased time to write and code.
Thank you for your time.