Scunkie, Ikeyyana, Dungster and the use of AI

Published by Vlasta on October 19th.

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...

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The Male Boss on October 19th 0

I do like all the new characters that were added to the market it's kinda like having three stores in the market place well more than three stores if you're gonna include the flea market.
I do like the new game its seems fun and is another way for users to earn buttons the low price of the game means it possible for the item purchase itself after earning five buttons from it.
As for AI There are both positive and negative uses for it as with many things in life.
The use of AI here seems to be relatively positive rather than negative although it not impossible for people on here to use AI in negative ways.

eeveelover64 yesterday 0

if im bein honest, u should've asked on of the hundreds of artists on the website if they wanted to help out on smth like this, rather than just finding a cheap shortcute

Some AI models do cost money. - by The Male Boss yesterday

im aware of that, but still doesn't justify it - by eeveelover64 about 14 hours ago

Animelove_1105 yesterday 0

Thank you for clarifying about this.
I've figured that the stuff written for the shopkeepers was made using AI. The language felt much different than what I know Vlasta would write, but I guess the edits make it better then just plain AI-generated text. I do think that AI is better off as an assistive tool rather than a replacement.
My main complaint with the memory game was the use of AI on the default animals set. This is a graphic-design focused website, and the use of AI "art" on here really does not fit. Thankfully there are easy customization options and the ability to make our own sets, so that kinda makes up for it. It does bother me though.

Again, thanks for clarifying about this. As a suggestion, since the animals set is just a placeholder, maybe remove it once there are enough picture sets for everyone to use?

as explained in Dungster's post, is it not the default for logged-in users anymore - by Vlasta yesterday

nibbler about 12 hours ago 0

I understand the use of AI can be helpful sometimes. There are horrible and evil uses for AI nowadays, but the way you use it is relatively tame. I honestly don't use AI, except for what I need; in my case, I use it to make subtitles for my cartoon archive, then edit them to remove mistakes.

I do appreciate the use for AI for starting something, and it can be improved on by adding your own code, lore, art, or whatever thing you took time to make. In this case, I do think it's great that you went with this approach; some other people are lazy to finish their projects or art pieces if they were to use AI.

At the same time, there are masochists out there who want to blame AI for all of their lives, and they may target you, and replying to them isn't enough if more users keep complaining about it, so pick your poison.

I agree with Animelove_1105's comment, and will let users read that.